Wretched Dreams.

one would notice and then sneaked out of the village heading towards the area where the sound came from.

…

”His brain activity is rising steadily. This is a good sign. By the end of the day he could have a normal brain activity. ” Hayley explained to Mrs Emilia trying to comfort her. She knew this wasn normal, a man that was in a coma for ten years shouldn be able to recover this fast, at least a month should have passed before he starts to show these brain activities. But she wouldn make the same mistake again and show her that she was worried, she needs to act confident in front of her, especially because she was unable to locate Odd when he entered the world at all. she promised them that she would personally go in there and pick him up, but how would she do this if she can even find him.

”Thats amazing!! When can i see him?! ” Emilia cried and asked for the umpteenth time. Every since she knew that he was inside the game already she haven stopped crying nor asking when she would be able to see him. Her sons condition was declining rapidly for the past year, and some reports said that some of his organs could start failing due to the decline in the brain activity and he may reach the state of no return if this continues.

This contract was their last hope to save whats left of him, she thought it would take years upon years of trial and error to succeed in connecting his consciousness to the virtual reality, getting results this fast both excited her and worried her at the same time, because when something is too good to be true, it usually is.

”Unfortunately not yet mrs Emilia. He is still unreachable, but i can assure you he is safe. ” Hayley had to say these words again and again to the anxious mother, so she thought to divert her mind to something else until she can solve the problem of being unable to locate the patient. ”How about you login to The world and test it out so you can meet him as soon as he is ready?! ” she thought this would calm her down and take her mind off the waiting, and maybe she would stop worrying about his safety if she sees the World for herself, which would allow Hayley to focus on her work to find out what happened when Odd logged in.

she have never seen nor heard of anything like spawning with the maximum level, even the developers needs to login first and then go through the process of claiming their developer status and becoming what the World calls Optimizers. This process would actually test their capabilities and resolve as if they are under judgment from the game they created, some of the main developers didn actually pass the tests and they were denied their Optimizer status, which made them nothing more then another gamer inside their own game.

They didn design nor set any laws in this virtual reality, it was entirely created and managed by the AI that they created, and that AI grew to be something non of them ever anticipated. And Hayley was one of the earlier people working on this project even though she was just an intern when it started.

”Really! Can i do that now?! ”

”Yes but please note that you are going to have to play the game normally until we locate him. ”

”Ok! Can i start right now?! ” Emilia barely contained her excitement knowing that she was going to be in the same game as her son, even though she had no idea what the game was like nor how big that virtual reality was. What ever she knew about the virtual reality technology or this game was either from Hayley herself or by watching videos of people playing the game on the internet to see what she was agreeing to put her son into.

”Of course! I have a helmet here for you, all you need to do is to wear it and follow the instructions of the AI. Its easy don worry. ” Hayley opened a box under her desk and took out a black and white helmet that looked just like what a jet aircraft pilot would wear on their head.

Emilia instantly wore the helmet on her head and turned it on. The screen in front of her eyes showed a change in color for a second and then the binding process started.

This binding process wasn to bind the person to the helmet, it was to identify and map out the persons body measurements and brain wave signature to the online database including their personal account and personal information. After finishing this process, a person could use any VR helmet to login to any kind of VR without ever having to repeat this process.

(Please repeat the following movements.)

The screen in front of her eyes showed a silhouette of a human figure in a T position and then touching his nose with one hand after the other repeatedly. Afterwards the figure started doing various movements from swiping its hands over its legs while in a certain position to plain old acrobatics and fitness training movements, which was extremely exhausting for a woman in her early fifties, and of course she didn succeed in mimicking all the moves, she only did what her body allowed her to do.

After completing this process of identifying body measurements and fitness level, next was the brain wave signature identification.

(Please think about the answer of the following questions.

1+1=…?

1+2=…?

…

What is the color of the sky?

How many days in the week?

What is your name?

…)

Simple questions and mathematic calculations were shown to her one after the other and she answered them without complaining. The entire process took half an hour and then she was asked to insert her Email information or create a new Email. Afterwards she was asked to choose one of two methods to login for this session. The first was the Augmented Reality (AR), this would allow her to move around and control the virtual character with her real body, but it would limit the controls to her real fitness level and ability.

And the second and most common method was the Dive method. This was self explanatory, meaning she would be put in a dream like state induced by certain signals sent to the brain to simulate a state of impaired movement resulting in what could be called a lucid dream.

Mrs Emilia, like 90% of gamers in the world, chose the Dive method to login. The AI instructed her to be in a rested position and then say the word (log in) out loud, or change fast login method from the account settings.

She did as instructed and logged into the virtual reality for the first time in her life.

”Welcome adventurer! To The World, where everything is possible. You can make all your dreams come true in The World. You can become a strong fighter, a skilled crafter, a chef, or whatever it is that your heart desires. You can lead your own army to a magnificent battle, or create an empire of trade and commerce. You can be… what you want to be. ”

Instead of the tiny pixie that appeared to Odd, a floating a half meter tall white balloon person introduced The World to Emilia with cute hand gestures and body movements. This was the character that appeares in events and when someone has a problem and want to report it. It was also the main character that hosts any contest or championship in any field. This character was called Boomy, it looked like an inflated stick man figure with an emoji face.

”Im here to meet my son! Is there a way for me to find him?! ” Emilia couldn help but ask, this is what she was here for after all, she wasn here to fight beasts or to chase some long lost dream, the only dream she had was to see her son well and happy.

”of course we do! This is The World! You can do anything with the right amount of effort. Is this your dream?! ” the balloon man had a mischief look on his face, a cute one at that.

—quest initiated: Find your loved one.

—descriptions: optain a tracking skill to search for your target.

—hint: become an assassin.