The hospital room faded away to darkness and I quickly checked my interface. I was in virtual reality right now. Had to be sure, there were embarrassing stories of people who thought they were playing in virtual reality when they were actually in augmented reality.

I glanced around, I was brought to a dimly lit room, the only light was coming off of several computer screens on a desk in the front right corner. A man sat there, from behind I could only see his black hair and green spectacles. This place looked like it might’ve been a neat office once, however, the wall right of me was almost completely covered in pages of messy scribbling. To my left was a cot with thrown back blankets.

On it sat a child.

Blues eyes, pale white skin and long hair, wearing some kind of black dress. Almost definitely a virtual avatar. But something felt off about her.

I heard the chair swing around, “I believe you have many questions you want to ask.” the man said.

I gave the child another look over, before turning to him. Tired was my first impression of him, almost like my dad, his eyes were half-closed with clear bags, his shoulders were noticeably hunched and the blue light from the computers reflected a few grey hairs I didn’t notice before. His face seemed familiar somehow.

“Are you the person who sent me the message?” It was unlikely that he was a custom avatar, most people probably won’t try to go for the overworked office worker look, it was probably what he looked like in real life. “Who are you?”

“Yes and no, I am the cause of the message and the programmer of that program you tried so hard to crack, but I wasn’t the one who sent it,” a programmer was expected, however, he was definitely working with someone else based on his second statement.

He gave me a tired smile, “As for who I am, my name is Giles Cooper.”

Where have I heard that name before? Where? Giles Cooper… An old memory surfaced, a lazy afternoon in history class three or four years ago, about a major development in virtual and augmented reality. “The Gaia Project,” I croaked. “You’re the person who led the creation of Gaia nine years ago.”

His face became somewhat embarrassed, “So you know, I figured most people would’ve forgotten about it by now.”

“Nobody forgot Hawking, Newton or Einstein,” I blurted out. The Gaia project was no joke, to describe it absurdly simply. Gaia was a near-perfect one to one recreation of the world. It was a virtual world created on a scale never seen or attempted before.

My eyes narrowed, focusing on him, “Why and what?” He glanced at me confused. “Why is the world’s greatest programmer here, and what does he want from me?”

“Ah,” he said, “Right, back on track, Eve did say you were that kind of person.”

I raised an eyebrow, “Eve?”

“The girl behind you, but before that, let me tell you why you’re here,” he brushed off, “Let me first answer the what. What I want Declan, and what I have always wanted,” he leaned forward and whispered, “Is to create a living, breathing world.”

He stood up and walked towards me. “Gaia was a step towards that, however, it was incomplete, it only recreated our current world, it wasn’t even a perfect copy. What I wanted was to be able to simulate a world on the scale of our own, but it would have people of their own, who thought their world was real, it could’ve been different, with unique geography, physical laws, races, anything!”

He smiled madly at me, “I wanted to make worlds, and so I started writing a program.” He gestured to the wall on the right. Which I now realised was some language of computer code, “However,” he paused, “I had no idea if it worked since there wasn’t a computer in existence strong enough to run it,” he said with a feeling of deep disappointment and defeat.

He raised his index finger, “Until,”

“Quantum computers,” I finished for him.

“Yes!” He yelled excitedly, “When Maple announced that they had successfully invented the quantum computer and planned on commercialising it, I was overcome with sheer ecstasy!” He threw a fist into the air. “I immediately went to them for a proposal. I would gain access to one of the first Quantum computers made. And they will be the first to use the completed Seed program!” He sprayed his arms above him. “And I was successful! I managed to simulate a fully living, breathing world! Maple was going to debut the first living world in their new game Final World Online! But.”

He paused. “But… But… But…” his eyes went blank before he returned to his desk.

“Unfortunately that’s as far as Giles can go now.” A flat voice said, I turned around to look at the little girl who had stood up.

“What is wrong with him?” I asked. “What is wrong with Giles?” I repeated.

She tilted her head. The action meant to be cute but felt far too natural or smooth to be anything but.

“The man known as Giles Cooper is dead.” She said with a completely even tone and a straight face. “He committed suicide after the Final World Online game was cancelled and shut down, along with the first-ever simulated world made with the completed Seed program. The person you were talking to is a recreation of my father based on my memories of him.”