Chương 17: Kick feature
Sara woke early the next morning. She didn't sleep well, she was too excited it seemed. Even when she was sleeping, she was dreaming about her create space and what to make next. So, she decided to eat a quick breakfast, then hurry to get back into her VR gear.
The first thing she did was finish her castle.
She'd stopped early the day before; she'd barely even begun the construction on it. As she continued to build it with the bubbles that she herself created, she grew better and better at manifesting those bubbles. She found herself able to create a dozen at a time, then the number increased further to two, then three dozen. At first, she was disappointed with the amount she could create, she had been able to create more the day before, but it didn't take long for her to get back into her groove and continue to grow her over all amounts.
Finally, Sara found herself creating hundreds of indestructible bubbles at a time. The process of creating her castle became faster and easier as she created more and more bubbles, she could even make them bigger or smaller, depending on the need and with a single thought, could make them float wherever she wanted and place them in the perfect spot in the castle. Before long, she even began experimenting with their colors. Bubbles with hints of blue and red and orange and green all came together to create an amazing sight. A breathtaking castle surrounded by an endless expanse of white all around.
Sara began creating more intricate designs around and in her castle. A fountain of white marble that spat out foam instead of water. Flowers that were in every color of the rainbow surrounded the fountain and there were benches crafted from white marble with small tables for people to visit and have a meal at.
Sara was so engrossed in her own creative process; she didn't realize that her avatar had not greeted her upon logging in. In fact, at that moment when Sara was finishing up her crafting of the tables and benches and chairs of whimsical twists and turns, Na-Na was watching from behind the wall. Na-Na's face burned red from embarrassment.
She realized after Sara did not pursue her that she had judged Sara wrongly. She didn't want to face her user, not yet. So, Na-Na watched from the side as a magnificent site slowly came into existence.
Na-Na marveled at what Sara was creating. After all, the avatar's had to live in the create space. So, while this castle could technically be called Sara's, Na-Na would be the one to call it home.
Na-Na couldn't help but imagine how other avatar's felt with such glorious create spaces. Of course, Na-Na believed that her situation with Sara was common. In reality, such an intricate create space was not only unusual, but almost unheard of.
Sara finished creating the last of the tables, benches and chairs. Pleased with her work, she sat at one of the tables.
She frowned as she took in the scenery. This was just one place in her castle. Actually, it was a courtyard outside her castle, rather than a room inside of it.
All around her, sat bubbles and white marble and foam. Except for the colors the flowers offered, there wasn't much color in her world.
Sara tapped her foot against the floor. Should she add grass next? Hesitantly, Sara removed her shoes and placed her feet atop the white surface of the ground. As she did, the feeling of grass against her feet filled her mind.
From that point, grass began to sprout. Like a wave, it burst from the ground, luscious and full until it covered the entirety of her little courtyard.
From the outside, her castle resembled the Disney logo. But from within, it resembled something very unique. Obviously, Sara had never been inside the Disney logo, so she used her own imagination to create the inside. There were three courtyards that were surrounded on all sides by the castle itself. This one was the smallest courtyard, a little over 3,500 square feet. It was quite small, but Sara enjoyed how intimate it felt.
After she finished adding her grass in the courtyard, she started to wonder if maybe she should add a path from the main entrance of the courtyard to the fountain and seating area.
Sara added colorful stepping stones of reds and greens, all seeming to be natural colors rather than painted.
When she finished with that task, Sara still felt there was something missing, though she couldn't put her finger on what.
Suddenly, Sara looked to her sky. An endless expanse of white greeted her. Slowly, color began to fill the sky as well.
First, it was a light blue, then, Sara's thoughts drifted to a night sky. The night sky in Sara's world was much bluer than the one in reality. Instead of being black with little stars, Sara made it seem more like a dusk sky instead. Then, she added the stars.
Slowly, Sara created a single star at a time. They were harder than she thought they would be. She had never experienced an actual star before, so she had to create some that were a bit different. She imagined crystals that shone brightly and were able to fly above the world, but would usually stay in one spot. This way, she could have the occasional shooting star.
What Sara didn't realize was that she was again creating something that did not exist in her reality. Stars were not crystals that flew above the sky, they were far off suns. This was one of the reasons she had trouble creating the first few.
Sara was so focused on her creative process that she never bothered to pay attention to the time. It passed without her knowledge once again. Hour after hour passed.
Na-Na, eventually, came to stand beside Sara staring up at the night sky that she had created with wonder.
Na-Na had never seen a sky before. She had never seen a star before, or grass. All of it seemed so incredible to her.
Avatars were given only rudimentary knowledge about the system. They could answer many questions about it, but anything in depth about the software and hardware would leave them speechless. They were not programmed to know about the outside world and the reason this was, was because the designers did not want the avatars to develop any sort of negative feelings toward their users. So, anything the users created would be seen as amazing and incredible by the avatar. Even if the users almost never visited the create space, the avatars wouldn't mind as they had no knowledge about what the spaces true capabilities were. To them, anything the users created was incredible. Monsters were seen as companions and weapons were seen as works of art. If the user attempted to kill or frighten the avatar, that may affect the avatars personality, causing them to be wary and skittish, but they would never think of harming the user. They couldn't. The users couldn't die in the create space and the avatars were entirely created for the users. The user was the reason for them to exist, so how could they think of harming or hating them?
Finally, Sara finished her sky. She looked around at the courtyard that she had created, pleasantly surprised at the skies influence. The stars seemed to reflect in the bubbles and the fountain's foam allowed a relaxing and tranquil atmosphere.
Sara walked around slowly taking in every aspect of her new castle and the world she had begun to create around it.
She sniffed at the flowers, lilies and tulips.
She jumped from one stepping stone to the next, Na-Na right behind her, laughing and copying her.
She and Na-Na spun around and around in circles staring up at the sky above with its few, but magnificent stars. Sara had only created a handful at the moment, but she didn't mind, she decided that once her castle was done and while she was creating it, she would add a star here and there every once in a while.
Finally, Sara walked out of the courtyard. She gave one last glance at her handy work before preparing to log off.
As Sara came out of the system, she felt her body was wet.
Stiffly, she pulled her helmet off.
Looking down, her expression darkened.
Her pants and bed were soaked with pee.
As she tried to sit up, a hunger pain wracked her body.
Damn, how long was she in there for?!?!?
Glancing at her phone, Sara stared blinking for a moment in disbelief.
What the hell, it's been over twenty hours....Wasn't the system supposed to kick her after like six?!?
Sara set her helmet off to the side and climbed to her feet. Her back and legs were stiff from lying in the same position for so long. She felt her joints ache and pop as she moved.
Slowly, Sara made her way out of her room to take a shower. The wetness in her jeans was cold and uncomfortable.
In the shower, Sara scrubbed herself clean with irritation filling her.
Why didn't the system do its job?
It was supposed to have a safety feature that made it impossible to stay in for more than five to six hours at a time.
After her shower, Sara walked into her bedroom with a towel wrapped around her and grabbed her phone. The company had a 24 hour help hotline she could call.
Sara dialed the number as she sat on her bed.
It rag a few times and she had to press 0 almost a dozen times before finally she was put on hold for a representative. Finally, after almost half an hour of waiting, Sara was greeted by a real person.
"Hello, You've reached the help hotline for Modem International, This call will be monitored and reviewed at a later date for your quality assurance and safety. My name is Cathy, how can I help you?"
"Yeah, uh, I have a complaint to file about my VR set."
"Complaints can be given through the interactive interface, I'm sorry, but I think it would be better for you to be forwarded there as I am unable to handle complaints."
"No! No…it's not really something that can just be thrown out into an interface, I think my VR set is malfunctioning, but I'm not sure." Sara said quickly.
"…What is the complaint?" The women on the other end still sounded professional, but her tone took on a reserved air, clearly thinking that Sara was just calling to complain about her VR set.
Sara breathed in to calm herself down. She always felt pressured when dealing with people on customer service lines…
"Ok, so it's supposed to kick you after so many hours, right? But mine didn't, I was in the game for, like, twenty hours or something."
The women seemed to hesitate before speaking. "I…see. Well, that would be a problem with the game itself, not the VR set. Most games have the kick feature built in to them so they won't get sued if a particular VR set's kick feature is not working or if it's able to be turned off, as most actually are."
Sara shook her head, though the woman couldn't see. "No, I wasn't playing a specific game from a company, I was in the create space."
There was a long pause from the other line.
"You were….in the create space for over twenty hours?"
Sara nodded, but didn't say anything.
The woman waited for a response.
Sara waited for a response.
Finally, the woman spoke. "Um, hello? Are you still there?"
Sara realized what she had done and squeezed her eyes shut. "Yeah, sorry, I nodded…."
"I…see. Well, what's the model of the VR set and when did you buy it. I'll check something real quick and see if I can help you with your problem." Sara gave the model and date that she bought it before the line went silent, then music filled Sara's ears.
"Ugh…on hold again." Sara sat, waiting for the woman to return. As she did, she realized that her butt seemed to be sitting on something wet. Confused, Sara turned to find her bed sheets still needed changed.
"Son of a bitch are you kidding me!?!?"
"Yes, miss-" The woman began as Sara's voice screeched out.
Sara, realizing that the woman might misunderstand and flag the call as harassment, hurried to explain.
"No! Sorry, sorry! I wasn't talking to you. I sat in my pee."
Sara's face grew hot at her confession.
There was a long pause before the woman spoke again.
"Okay…miss it seems that the system does have a kick feature, but it is set up initially at twenty-four hours rather than the more common six that is used for actually games. It's more of a safety feature in case of emergency if the games kick feature fails. If you are wanting to change it, you would have to speak with your avatar about changing it and they could take care of that for you…." The line went silent again.
"Okay. Thanks." Sara hurried to hang up the call. She stood in her room with the corner of her smart phone pressing against her forehead in embarrassment.
"God…." She said to the empty space around her.
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