Loaded Secrets (ONC 2023)

Aria is on top of her game. Putting away criminals, closing cases, she is smart, tenacious, and ambitious. As a detective with the NYPD, she is putting in the hours and working diligently towards a promotion. Only instead of a new title, she finds herself transported into the future where death is not the end, but merely a transition into virtual reality. Now in the year 3000, Aria is immersed in a new type of case where the victim of a grisly murder can still provide some clues to help catch the perpetrator through his consciousness. Worse yet, as Aria delves deeper into the investigation, she finds herself falling in love with a mysterious man named Ayden.

Nothing is as it seems in this new world where reality can be augmented and the truth may be hiding in plain sight. As Aria and Ayden grow closer, the looming shadow of the murderer threatens everything they have come to care for. Aria must use her skills of deduction to unravel the truth and bring justice to the victim while saving the man she loves.

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ONC2023
Prompt 82. In a future where humans have the ability to upload their consciousness into virtual reality at the time of their death, a detective must solve a murder case in both the virtual and physical world as the victim's consciousness may still exist in the virtual world and hold the key to solving the crime.