CHAPTER 139: THE VIRTUAL WORLD [1]

Ethan pulled off the cloth from the chair. Well, it didn’t look that much impressive, coming across as just a massage chair pulled straight out of a sci-fi movie.

The arm rests were a bit metallic, with most of its control interface on it. There was a touch screen that controlled half the functions, the power button and most importantly a cup holder.

The actual place where one would sit was made of a material that looked pretty comfy. It felt like you could sink in the moment you say on it.

Again, it didn’t look like much now, apart from the glow at the base, edges of the arm rests and the touch screen, there was nothing on it that screamed genius invention of the decade, but that was kind of the point.

If someone were to walk into this lab right now, they’d think it was just an overpriced recliner for rich people who couldn’t sleep.

But it functions weren’t remotely close....or maybe it was, since when powered on, it allows your body to completely relax while you mind is transported into the virtual world.

....

Anyway, on the left arm rest, where the cupholder was lay a helmet, one that seemed to cover the entire head when put on.

This was the easiest part of this invention....for Ethan anyway. After all, he had successfully created one that copied and uploaded memories directly into the brain.

This was the thing that transported one to his virtual world.

"Please, don’t blow up." Ethan said as he gave it a once over while spinning around it.

{The chances of that happening is around twenty percent, mostly because of the core, but it should be stable enough for a test run, not a very long one though.} Athena responded.

She had come to that conclusion through ONI’s scans, just as Ethan had but still, twenty was a pretty big percentage.

But did that mean he was going to not test it.... Of course not, he was going to run some tests, make sure that it actually worked and refine a couple of things that needed refining.

Ethan crouched to the side of the of the chair where he had previously inserted the core, maybe he should find a better spot for it, since it was completely out in the open right now.

But since this was was for test purposes, that was the best place right now, since he can easily remove it.

Still, there was no denying that it was the most unstable piece of tech in the entire setup.

One miscalculation, and it could either shut down the system or vaporize the entire building and everything within a five-meter radius.

Sounds fun, right?

"Yeah, this thing’s definitely not passing a safety inspection," he muttered as he made sure the core was properly in place. "But then again, I’m not parenting it anytime soon so we should be good."

Standing back up, he let out a sigh and approached the chair.

This was either going to be one of his greatest achievements yet....or a very short obituary waiting to happen.

Well, wouldn’t be the first time he died anyway... Though, he highly doubted his chances of coming back.

"Alright," Ethan murmured, rubbing his palms together before sitting down. "Moment of truth."

The chair’s surface adjusted to his body immediately, the inner mechanisms letting out a soft hum as it aligned with his posture.

It truly was a comfortable chair.

"Athena," he called out, "take over the controls from here."

{Alright,} she responded.

With that, he picked the helmet up and placed the helmet over his head. It sealed with a faint hiss, locking in with perfect alignment.

For a split second, his vision was dark before streams of light began to race across the visor’s interior.

Soon enough, a holographic screen, one that resembled the system’s, popped up before him.

[Would you like to login?]

[Yes] [No]

With a smile, he mentally selected [Yes].

The moment he did, the holographic interface rippled like water, then blasted inwards, dragging his consciousness along with it.

He felt his consciousness traveling in a in a completely black space, only lit up by the by the stream of glowing binary that seemed to be moving in the same direction he was.

He then suddenly stopped moving forward before suddenly, a blinding, pure white light took over the entire dark space.

There was no sound, no floor, no ceiling, there was nothing in this space, one couldn’t even tell where was up or down.

Well... They could judge by their orientation but there was no gravity here either so they could be upside down and they wouldn’t know.

Though, Ethan could tell.

Standing up straight, Ethan looked around the empty space with a smile on his face before he said, "Athena?"

The moment the words left his mouth, a line of binary gathered before him, vaguely forming the shape of a human.

When it dispersed, it took the form of a slightly translucent female figure, which had lines a code flowing within her.

As before, even though she was technically naked, she was anything but exposed as the lines of code covered her up perfectly.

There was no expression on her face as her eyes remained closed and her body slowly became solid.

The translucent skin slowly changed, gaining texture. Her head held a gray short that had clearly formed as her skin became more solid.

The lines of code slowly moved towards other parts of her body, seemingly taking the shape of veins as they faded under her quickly forming skin.

Ethan watched the scene unfold before him. It was pretty different when when he first activated her, but it brought no expression of surprise to his face.

A couple of minutes later, she had completely formed, looking no different than a normal human.

Her skin was a pale porcelain tone, faintly illuminated by the ambient white of the digital void.

Though, her features seemed too perfect for a normal human to possess.

Slowly, she opened her eyes, revealing a pair of gray irises. The moment her gray eyes beheld Ethan’s form, she smiled before saying,

"Hello again, Ethan."

***

Check out the Author’s note.