Unknown Depths

Prologue

Diane, for all she defined herself, was an underachiever. She was never the smartest kid in the room, nor was she the most pleasing one in the box. Life has always been hard for her, so that she is disillusioned with all the fairy tales and dreams of a prince sweeping her off her feet.

She was not sociable in nature and an even less interesting kid than on the block. She has fewer friends who seem to only turn to her when they have no one else to lean on. Nothing just seems to stand out about her that she is so resigned to just meeting the bare minimum of what she needs to live. Because life has never been good to one Diane Grace.

So, when her boss suddenly fired her for a mistake he himself had made, she just knew that her life would not improve as it was in her childhood. As soon as she was told so, she went and packed her things from her station and left.

Outside of the company she used to work for just a little over a year, Diane squinted her eyes at the yellow sun that seemed to be the only thing fair in this world. Shining equally to the mortals beneath the skies, cruel and generous at the same time.

Sighing deeply, she walked on the sidewalk of the clean and spacious road as levitating cars floated about. Overhead, a huge vehicle passed by, briefly shadowing the glowing sun above. If Diane had not been unemployed, this day might have been a normal and peaceful day.

But she just lost her job for some dumb reason. There is no way this day will be normal nor will it be good. Life is just like that.

At the intersection where there are many passersby like her waiting for the signals to allow them to cross the road, a huge electronic billboard was currently showing an interview with the CEO of WIC company.

“...today in this advanced world we are living in, the WIC now launches a technology that will give people a new different way of life than they were already living in.” The smiling man in a suit said as he gave a standard polite smile on the screen. Stunning blue eyes looked down upon the audience like Diane in the public space she was in.

“What is this technology your company is launching?” The host said with no hidden interest. “Was it a new breakthrough in virtual reality? This has been the rage since a decade ago and the whole population is still crazy about them. Is this related to them? Do people no longer have to live on their physical bodies and can now live in the network through this?”

“No.” With a chuckle the CEO said. “That kind of technology is not what we have developed. Although that kind of thing is no doubt a dream come through for many, it is simply impossible with our current level of technology. But we did have some breakthroughs we are more than happy to share with the public.”

“What is the newly developed advancement WIC has made?” The host asked and Diane then selectively heard what was said next by the CEO.

The light has turned green and the people go about to where they are going. Diane was also the same and did not care about the newly launched technology and just left without melancholy. She just wanted to get into her apartment and dump her office supplies there before she went out to buy this month’s groceries. Idly she thinks that she has to save her money as much as she could as she walks to the subway station absent-mindedly. After all, there is no real guarantee she can find a new job fast.

She still has some savings she could scourge for a while, but this cannot last long. It was a great thing that she had paid her rent for a whole year in advance. For now, she has no problem finding where she will live as her unemployment remains. But bills will continue to come and she has her needs, so she definitely needs to tighten her belt as much as she can.

This means no food deliveries nor there will be any luxurious spending on things she does not need. Thankfully, her clothes are new and the summer is just around the corner, so she does not need to spend money on them. She also has some herb and vegetable plants on her windows, so she also does not need to spend much on those. Still, she has to see what she needs for the month before she hits the grocery.

It was also a great thing her home was in district D-3, where prices of things are generally on the lower side than in the bustling district A-1. Her last job in district A-1 was generous enough, but it does not overshadow the fact that most people there are shitty people and the cost of living there is way so enormous that she just decided that waking at a very ungodly hour in the morning was worth the sacrifice just to reduce her spending. It might not be obvious, but she is kind of looking forward to quitting that awful company.

When she finally arrived at her stop, she took in the less crowded district D-3 and taller buildings. There are fewer cars and less traffic here, and most importantly, people here do not care much about others, because there is plenty of space and there is generally no need to bother others unless necessary.

Arriving at her apartment, Diane carelessly placed her things on the side as she went directly to her cupboards to see her current supplies. At the side, the house assistant A.I greeted her and she also responded to her with another greeting. Though she also asked for it to help her with the things she had brought with her.

Listing her needs, she then looked at her refrigerator to see what she had and what she had to buy for dinner as well as her lunch if time permits her to actually cook. Fortunately, there are only a few things that need to be brought by her. She does not need to worry about extra charges for transport.

Diane was the type to buy things in bulk when she goes and buys something. Other than a few things she occasionally indulges in, such as shopping for her hobbies, she gets to control her spending habits and save as much when she still has a stable income.

Just as she was mentally calculating the expenses, her doorbell rang. This made Diane frown as she did not remember anyone would be coming here nor had she ordered something to be delivered to her apartment.

“Rosie, pull out the monitoring please.” Diane asked her house A.I..

The TV on the side suddenly turned on and the scene outside her door was seen. There was a man who was dressed in a delivery man's uniform. Besides him was a robot with a huge compartment for parcels in its stomach. Other than Diane not ordering anything, there is nothing that stands out in this picture.

Still, she went out to see the man. Perhaps he was just lost or the address was wrongly written for her apartment. The former was unlikely, but the latter was very possible. It has happened a few times before and she thinks this time is the same as that time.

Opening the door, the delivery man asked if she was Diane Grace as he said there was a parcel sent to her.

“Are you sure it was indeed my name there?” Diane was skeptical as she asked for confirmation. Everything is so weird and she would rather not accept the parcel when she is not sure of its origin.

The delivery man assures her that he did not make a mistake and it was clearly her name and address placed on the parcel. At that point, he pointed out that there should have been some email in regards to that address to her a few days ago. Which has reminded Diane about some emails she has not opened yet. Maybe the email the guy was saying was part of that bunch.

With no other choice, Diane accepted the box and signed her name on the received digital info. Helpfully, the man helped her place the box inside her home before he left and continued delivering other parcels he had to deliver.

“Rosie, please disinfect and scan this box for anything harmful.” Diane instructed her A.I, as she went to the kitchen to get a knife to open the thick tape the box was tightly bound.

Her A.I did not detect anything harmful from the box and Diane carelessly opened the box. Inside reveals a capsule-like appliance with a pair of goggles for use, a virtual reality gadget that is the rage nowadays. Instructing her A.I. to assemble it using the household robot in her room, Diane found a letter beneath the box addressed to her.

The letter states she was a lucky winner of a raffle from the WIC during its celebration of them launching a new technology. The raffle was made under the cooperation of the country and the whole country's populace was pooled together before she and the others were selected as winners. Besides the letter was a manual and other instructions on how to use and take care of the virtual reality cabin.

“A welfare lottery nationwide?” Diane said as she read the manual to have a preliminary understanding of this cabin. “Rarely were things like this, but anyway, this is no doubt a good thing for me this time around. These are the newest ones yet to be introduced to the market. I’ll have a good pastime waiting for any job confirmation.”

After a few minutes, she now knew how to use it and did not plan to immediately activate the cabin in favor of getting some food. The back part of the letter was addressed to her to activate the gadget as soon as possible, she cannot neglect her stomach in favor of some instruction written by some director she never knew. Besides the cabin was in her room, it could wait. It was not as if it would run away or something.

Her apartment was in a convenient location with plenty of places for her to have access to basic things like a grocery. There was one of them nearby, just a ten minute walk or something. This made her rent so worth it despite the higher price than other rentals there are.

With purpose, she did not make any detour and only went to the sections where what was on her list was. She chose things quickly, purchasing only familiar brands and only buying those she knew of if those she often brought were not available. There was an unexpected number of people at the checkout counter. This made her waste some more time on the line.

Absent-mindedly, Diane browsed on her phone to pass time. Unknowingly, her attention was captured by the talk of those in front of her. It was about WIC again and their newest technology. And people are somewhat excited about it and they are looking forward to it being available to the public.

Due to her encountering the name WIC again and again that day, Diane went and searched for relevant articles about the said technology advancement the enterprise had made. But to her disappointment, there were little to no details about it other than the government singing praises about it vaguely. Considering its significance, it really does not surprise Diane to not get any in depth information about it when the government gets a hold of it first.

Instead, she came across an interesting article about WIC. It was an absurd thing that made her think the author of the article was a conspiracy theorist or simply someone with a rich imagination. Because it was really absurd.

It says that the WIC was deceiving the world about how the newest breakthrough in technology will bring society to its new high. That this new technology was a tool to be used by WIC to gain control of society as a whole and swallow the country under its whims and moods.

In Diane’s opinion, it has some merits, but not so well-grounded due to some facts about WIC.

WIC is a national company. Meaning it is the country who made it and operates it. What country will bring harm to its people? Surely it will not do something as idiotic as that.

Although WIC is indeed a well-known technology company. They create security technologies ranging from home use to national usage. Their range of business does not stop there and is spread in almost all fields. Making sure that prices never get high nor low enough for people to buy.

True, its existence has curbed most business competition because of it being the leading and it being part of the government, but this has stabilized the nation in a way that it does not need to be too reliant on foreign help. The economic lifeline is in the hands of their country, as long as the main brain is functioning well and the national leader that represents the country is rational enough. As there is nothing that can jeopardize the livelihoods of the people.

Paying for her purchases, Diane went back to the nearest fast food restaurant to buy her lunch. It took her longer to get out there, so she cannot cook her lunch now. Ordering some meal for take out, Diane then went home.

“Rosie, I’m home,” Diane said as her A.I greeted her back. The household robot comes to her and gets her bags from her.

Diane gave away most of her bags save for those that contained her lunch. The robot will sort them out later and store them at where they are programmed to be placed. There is no need to wait for the robot to sort her dishes if she just takes care of them herself.

Eating her fried chicken and burgers, she satisfactorily patted her stomach. When was the last time she ate a full lunch ever since she started working? She had almost forgotten the satisfaction of having a full belly without running against time.

After lunch, she went to the bedroom to check out the new virtual reality gadget given to her. Not knowing the moment she activated that gadget, her whole life would forever be changed.