Virtual Reality : Dystopian Tales Online

007.2 | The Real World

Interstellar flights were different from the previously known scheme. Airplanes that could only take flight in the atmosphere are no longer available. Instead, vehicles that are capable of handling space jumps are in use. Direct transportation is still impossible, so space jumps are divided into space stations and checkpoints. 

Frass is a business student having his intern across countries. He is currently on his third company that is found on the other side of the world. Since he is still below the age of second consent, he could only attend to the affairs within the planet Earth. The interplanetary internship is only applicable for students passing fifty years old. 

Thus, just over a few hours after midnight, Frass has to travel across Earth to attend the meeting. Even though it is not a requirement, the business ethics that have been ingrained in him did not allow him to ignore the meeting. As a student practicing professionalism, he must adhere to what is proper and good to the public's eyes. 

The different timezone should never be a problem for VR players. The developers made different sets of dream simulators to follow the sleeping pattern of the player. Frass, who belongs to a different time scheme, somehow followed the schedule of the Aud and Xav, which means that he has to sleep a bit early. Anyways, he is only in this country for a few more weeks, so such a problem is just temporary. 

Still, humans needed to sleep. Frass could not help but doze off during the trip. The moment they arrived in front of the building, his secretary woke him up. Frass dazedly checked his watch. En, there is still time. He is not late yet. 

A couple of black sleek hovercars stopping in front of Foster's building caught the attention of the passersby. Coming from the main car is a handsome young man wearing red-rimmed square glasses. The youth has the air of an aristocrat that is then escorted by several men in black suits. 

The security within the city is high, so it is unusual to see someone have a lot of bodyguards. This interest only lasted for a while and the people spectating the scene left. Frass did not seem to mind the looks as he went over the procedure of his entrance. 

The people receiving the players were polite, but they had become more polite upon meeting Frass. Well, after all, Frass has direct relations to the person owning this building. Or to say, he is also a part-owner of the establishment. 

Frass-02, the top 2 player of the game; his full name is Frassier Foster. He is thirty-two years old, finishing the second phase of his studies. He is only a decade away from crossing the second age of consent. He has a close kin relationship with the game creator.

The staff leads his way towards the meeting room. When the staff opened the door, Frass and his group of guards were surprised. They did not expect to see a dark room. The projector has been turned on, but there are no images, so they only see white. The light was reflected by the whiteboard towards the group that is wearing black robes. 

Frass inhaled a sharp gasp while kneading his temples. He subconsciously blurted, "Oh s**t, have I not sleeping enough time, or it was just I'm seeing a cult rising over here. Are you sure this is the right room?"

He has been sleeping earlier, so he thought that this might be an extension of that dream. Wondering what this pseudo meeting in front of him is, his vision might be playing some trick, or he has finally gone insane.

He is about to leave and look for answers when the lights are lit up again, and Carter emerged from his sight. Seeing the white-robed scientist, he again gave a confused look. Carter is the one responsible for handling the social relations. If he is here, then this is the correct room. But...

"Who are these people?" Frass glanced at the robed party. What kind of feudalistic activity are they doing?

"Um..." Carter could not also explain. "They're just playing... uh, something. Yes, some type of fun."

Frass quickly accepted the reason. He then marked all the players within the room to have peculiar hobbies. Anyways, it isn't wrong to have one. Aries, who reluctantly joined in the fun, shrunk on his chair. He didn't want to be given a weird image, especially towards this person. 

"Then, where should I sit?" Frass looked around and found some chairs empty. He found his in-game name hovering in the second place. The person that should be on the first place seat wasn't here yet. "Clover is not here yet?"

Carter shook his head sideways. Frass narrowed his eyes and fished his phone out. He quickly dialed a number and placed it on his ears. The players watched as this man waited for an answer when the ring was cut off with a vibration.

"He-"

"Where the hell are you, brat? Come here or I will-"

The sound of the door opening caught their attention. They all shifted their eyes to the door. It was faint, but somehow they heard a noise coming from Frass traveling to the door as if the other phone is right just there. The shadow slowly materialized from a distance, fully emerging a man's body in an image of an older man.

Yes, they are now seeing a stoic man with silver hair, wearing a round glass piece on his left eye, both hands covered in gloves, and a phone on his ear. He is wearing a butler suit and has this air of discipline around him. The players remained silent for a while with a bit of shock.

WHO IS THIS OLD MAN?

IS HE CLOVER?

"Master Frassier," the old man bowed before Frass. "The master has a cold. I am here as a substitute."

"Oh, he did say he had a cold the other day," Aries quietly muttered.

This one sentence calmed the players. Yes, yes, Clover is not an older man. He didn't sound like an older man in the game. He is just here as a substitute. However, they were a bit confused by what the older man said. Does Clover have a cold? It has been a long time they heard someone catching colds. 

Surprisingly, colds weren't that usual in this era.

The Cassaianne members did not question it, though. They have been with Clover for so long, and the number of him getting colds and fever is at most once a week. Aries did not know the reason, but he could at least guess that Clover did not have good health. 

Frass closed the call and walked towards his chair. The older man followed though he didn't sit on the chair. Instead, he placed a laptop on the table.

"Hmmm? What is that for?" Damian asked curiously.

The butler opened the laptop and connected it to some video chat. It booted up for a while then an image of a four-leaf clover appeared. This is the sign of Clover. 

"Is it okay for him to attend the meeting?" Alexander asked. He remembered that he once caught a cold before when his immune system acted up. Having a cold is not good. He is dizzy and coughing the whole time.  

"I'm sorry, but I can't attend personally," a coughing voice answered on the other line.

Oh, it's Clover, everyone thought.

Carter clapped his hands in front to call everyone's attention. "Let's just talk about these matters later and start the meeting. Clover, we can set a clear footage if you want. You can just take some rest."

"No problem, I am fine," the laptop answered.

"That's good; then I will formally start the meeting."

Carter motioned the people in the back to turn the light off. He then signaled his assistant handling the projector to start showing the files. A clip that is in pause appeared in front of them. The clips have a vague image of the company logo and the accompanying products sponsoring the game. 

"Before we go into details, I would like to show the accomplishments everyone did within these years. This is also to refresh the memories regarding the goals of the company."

Carter played a video from the first server. Then comes after is a series of videos explaining the expansion that has gone through the years. There are also statistics showing the results of their experiment. The data is favorable and exceeding to what they are expecting. It looks like this game is doing very well. 

After a few minutes, the video ended with awe of satisfaction from the players. Carter opened a new file again, but this time is a power-point presentation. He also took place in the front, ready to explain the details.

"I will explain to you the general details of the data we gathered in ten years."

Carter comprehensively demonstrated the numbers shown in graphs and tables. Even though the players that are part of the top rankings have high IQ, it is only relative. After all, intelligence wasn't measured in a single subject. Some people following the science track could easily grasp the message, but those in the humanities and business section might take time to get it. 

"Your neurological assessments were the highlight of this experiment," Carter showed an image of a brain accompanied with numbers and labels beside it. "This is the most valued data that we carefully watched over."

"As what has been explained before, these neurological assessments are just data explaining the behavior of your brain under many stimulants. Changes on the impulses and the chemical reaction happening within have been recorded and translated to understand the cause of it better."

"Before I went over to the details, I will show you the recent discovery about the brain's function. Here is the part of the brain responsible for..."

The assistant opened a three-dimensional model of the brain to better exhibit activities of the brain. Carter patiently pointed out the important parts that were responsible for memory and movement. After briefly giving the overview, someone raised their hand. 

"This mister said that there are changes with our brain activities within these ten years. Isn't that a normal occurrence?" Alexander asked. 

Carter nodded. "That is true."

"Then, how were you able to determine that this change was caused by the game but not by growth? After all, we were still so young ten years ago. Over time, it is normal for our brain to change the structure."

Alexander and Damian joined the game when they're still fifteen years old. They are still undergoing physical changes due to hormonal development. The brain is also still in the phase of growing during this period. 

"Of course, that is also taken into consideration. If we focus on the physical change of the brain, it would be difficult to distinguish the cause and effect," Carter supplemented the idea.

Then, does it mean that the whole experiment has become useless? 

Roderick leaned unto the table with his hand propping his cheeks. The lights from the three-dimensional model are being reflected in his eyes. There is no doubt on his expression, but instead, there lay a look of understanding.

He casually uttered, "Then, by classifying the data and separate them into categories, the changes can be detected, and the error would be minimum."

"Correct," Carter affirmed. "We only have to determine the change caused by growth and the game. It wasn't an easy thing to do but possible. This is why it took us many years of testing to see if the classification of changes is correct. By the start of the fifth server is also the time we were able to distinguish it completely."

"Actually, there is also an advantage in letting the experiment follow your age group. Just think of it; the growth within this age range is visible. Then, your brain activity will also work the richest. This kind of active change is what we needed."

People experiencing puberty could easily feel the changes in their bodies. For males, their jaws and body muscles would become prominent. There is also the change in their voices and height. For females, they will enter cycles and would grow breasts, or their hips will widen. 

It is then kind of reason that there would also be changes in brain activity.

"All of you are aware of the experiment from the start. Anyone who can still remember the purpose of creating a game inside a game?" Carter asked the crowd. A girl raised her hand.

"Isn't that to create a new kind of game where everything would be possible?"

"Yes, that's the general term. But to name it further, that is to create a "new world" from the world that we are in."

Carter motioned the assistant to present a new brain model. This time, there are tables attached pointing to a certain area of the brain. There are also motion pictures of the changes in the brain in every month period.

"We are focusing on the parts of the brain that mainly responses to logical activities. This includes the area responsible for senses," Carter pointed to a certain part of the image. "this part shows a brain under normal situations. This one on the right is when the person is under the influence of the game."

"As you can see, the brain activity during the game period is very high. This colored area shows which part of the brain has the greatest activity. Over the years, the brain activity of the players in the game calms down almost getting similar to the state of the brain under the controlled environment."

"To take into consideration, most of the players attending the VR set-up belong to the higher spectrum of intelligence. It is because your brain activities are the calmest under situations that ordinary people consider difficult. In situations that require intense thinking is only the time where brain activities can be easily detected."

The model shows a comparative image between two brains. Though humans are smarter in this generation, and at most, will be leveled as geniuses than the contemporary period, there will always be the majority that will align on the average area. This is a margin that can never be eliminated. 

Human intelligence is not necessarily latent, but it is somewhat hereditary. It is a chance of fate to whatever genes could be passed amongst the offspring. Of course, gene technology is adequate in this generation. However, due to some accidents before about test-tube babies, the federation banned the practice unless the patient required it for life support. 

"Though there are some parts that are still unknown as of now, we can say that a domain of your brain is relaxed, especially on subjects you are focused on. We are using this advantage in sending the synapses that the dream simulator is releasing to control the game inside your mind."

"Now, this is the important part."

"There is the factor of comprehension on what is rational and what is not. It has been once asked by our ancestors what is real and what is not. Are we truly existing or just thoughts of someone making us think that we exist? If yes, how will we be able to determine realism?"

"Your perspectives and understanding are based on the fixed law of physics that is related in this world. At least, in this way, we can grasp the concept of existence. We see may not necessarily be true, but we can uphold a standard logic with physics. And this logic is very high amongst you."

Carter gave each player a look. He walked towards the table in front then sat on it. 

"The people that understand the world's logic the most are the ones that could easily detect the false perception. Once you realized that some of these common laws are being disregarded, you will conclude that this is not the real world." 

"The real world that all of you distinguish follows the main laws of physics, and once these laws are violated, you would infer that this is an imagination or the creation of idea and fiction."

"And so, this data showed that your ability to differentiate the world of games and the real world is almost closer to none. Do you understand what this means?"

Carter smiled at them. "Ladies and gentlemen, we were able to find the door of the other world."