Orange Star.
Ever since waking from that endlessly repeating dream, "White Milk" still had not recovered. Whether her eyes were open or closed, she could remember the agony of being submerged in seawater.
Those vicious marine animals were also nightmares she could not banish from her mind.
Looking haggard, she sat in a chair, simply staring blankly at the horizon.
Ding-dong.
"You have a visitor at the door, Mistress."
Hearing the housekeeping robot's gentle female voice, "White Milk" nodded. "Who?"
"Miss Sweet," the robot replied.
Before long, the two haggard young women sat down on the balcony, letting the sunlight wash over their bodies to bring a little warmth to their hearts.
"You had that dream too?" "White Milk" paused, speaking very slowly. She had never spoken so slowly before, but after that terrifying dream, she was in terrible mental shape and barely had the strength to speak.
"Seawater. Endless seawater. I dreamed I fell into the sea, and every time I died, I came back to life." Sitting across the table, Miss Sweet tried to recall those horrifying memories. Every sentence made her feel terribly nauseated, because it reminded her of what had happened when she died.
When Miss Bai heard that the other woman had experienced the same dream, she suddenly felt a sense of relief, though she did not know why, at knowing she was not alone.
But that relief lasted only a moment before she grew even more pessimistic.
The fact that both of them had experienced the dream meant it was no coincidence, nor a figment of her imagination. It had really happened.
Since it had happened once, it could happen again.
"Why did something so horrible happen to us? All we did was sleep in the game," White Milk said with a frown.
"Trapped at sea without an exit button. It makes me so mad." The more they talked, the more worked up they became, finding common ground in their feelings.
"Let's file a complaint with the game company together. An unlimited-play package can't make up for our emotional distress. We need more compensation!" Miss Sweet was furious. Anyone who experienced something this insane would be angry.
Along with that anger, she also felt terribly afraid.
Why would the game company do something like that? A dream that put people through such torment could never pass an official review.
At that thought, she realized the flaw in her reasoning. The game company would not do this, nor would it dare.
As reason returned, her anger faded. Miss Sweet frowned deeply, realizing there was far more to this incident than met the eye.
A dream like that could never pass a review.
By this point in Orange Star's development, the relevant laws were extremely comprehensive. No organization was permitted to endanger the personal safety of law-abiding citizens.
Powerful artificial intelligence monitored the entire planet at all times. No one could break the law under its watchful eye, much less tamper with something as intelligent as a sleep pod to inflict terrifying dreams. That would be next to impossible.
After talking for a while, the two decided to bypass the game company's official complaint channels and contact the institute's researchers directly.
The researchers were far more useful than the game company's staff, and the two women had just visited the institute in Mech City the day before yesterday, so they had its contact information.
Before long, the two arrived at the institute in person and reported the reincarnation dream. They hoped the researchers would report it to headquarters, investigate exactly what had happened, and give them a reasonable explanation and meaningful compensation.
The researcher in charge of virtual gaming personally received the two young women. As he listened to their complaints in the reception room, he initially thought they were joking.
In such a scientific world, who would dare do something like this?
Virtual games centered on reincarnation did exist, but their companies would certainly provide a way to exit. They would never deliberately trap players and subject them to abuse.
Artificial intelligence was countless times better at monitoring than humans. Online, no one could evade the central AI's oversight.
The two female players sent him the mental health assessment data from their sleep pods. The researcher remained skeptical and still did not fully believe them.
The two assessments only proved that they were suffering from nervous exhaustion and needed quality sleep and rest. They should not be subjected to excessive scares, and horror-themed virtual games were not recommended. At present, the medical AI recommended that they play casual virtual games.
Those mental health assessments, which indicated nothing particularly serious, did not prove much on their own.
This condition resulted from prolonged tension and stress. With plenty of rest, they could return to normal.
However, considering the possible existence of a mutated artificial intelligence recently, the researcher from the Intelligent Machinery Institute thought it might be responsible. For now, he would give their account of the reincarnation dream the benefit of the doubt.
"Let's do this. Tell me everything that happened in your nightmares, and I'll make a record. Then I'll send people into 'World' to see whether they can recreate what you experienced. As for compensation, we'll reassess the amount based on the severity of the incident."
Without thinking much of it, the two young women described what they had been doing before the nightmares and everything they had encountered within them.
The researcher personally listened to their accounts, hearing about the blue ocean, vicious animals lurking beneath its surface, resurrection after death, and terrifying monsters passing through the sky.
The researcher listened with great interest. This reincarnation dream sounded rather grand, but their accounts kept coming back to the same few things. To a virtual game researcher, it actually seemed a little bare-bones.
His preliminary estimate was that the modeled environment was probably small. There was likely only one setting-the ocean-with model assets reused repeatedly.
Modeling underwater animals was not difficult either. There were no giant floating cities or other structures in the sky, just a single sun.
Given Orange Star's level of technology, an entry-level virtual game engineer could handle a design like this. The human would do the designing, while artificial intelligence refined and expanded it.
"Our institute has accepted your complaints. Please wait while we investigate," the researcher replied in a practiced, formal tone.
After venting all their pent-up frustration in one go, the two young women felt much better. They left the institute with lighter steps than before.
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