The next little while was a blur for me. I was filled with such elation and was literally bouncing all over the place. I ended up finding a nice and respectable gentleman named George from Texas to hire as my assistant in my VR place. On a whim, since I was filthy rich now, I decided to create the most amazing and luxurious space yacht that I could imagine as my new place to live in VR. Since I didn’t like the practical looks of NASA’s real space station I ended up imagining an actual yacht… up in space. Yes… it was a little mad but that was the best I could think up at the time.

George had his own level to live and do research on in the yacht as well as Tutor had her own room. They didn’t need them or use them until I kindly asked them to stop simply standing around and at least pretend to have somewhat of a life. If I needed anything I could just speak aloud and they would hear me regardless. This led to Tutor going off to redecorate her room and for George to spend an hour figuring things out and sorting through how he wanted everything to be set up in his lair.

George was such a nice addition to my VR space. It was nice to just have someone new. The system had copied his experiences, mannerisms, and humor exactly. All it took was letting the simulation have the freedom to let my AI express themselves around me. This made everything seem so much more real. The info and stuff that Hxerdinand the 9th had given Tutor transferred over perfectly and it turned him into a perfect Alfred.

I was leaning against the front starboard railing on the deck of the yacht just watching the earth revolve beneath me when I finally calmed down enough to ask all the questions that I had saved up.

I asked George to join me on the deck and he appeared from the leading doorway as if he knew that I would need him ahead of time. It was pretty cool, to say the least. It made me wonder if this feeling was what rich people normally felt, having experienced people on call all the time.

That made me frown for a second. I didn’t want to start looking down on people or losing who I was… but I also knew that this was my VR space and I couldn’t have my AI running around and ignoring me when I needed something. They were created to help me succeed. I put those thoughts away to think about later, now was time to get some answers to as many questions as I could. “Hi George, shall we go down to your floor and do some research?” I asked him as I smiled at the tailored suit he was wearing. Unlike a snooty butler, George had on a kind and grandfatherly smile that spoke of a guy that loved to learn things and tinker until he understood all that he wanted.

“Indeed Master Kevin. Let us go do research.” George responded with a laugh.

I couldn’t help but smile as we headed across the deck together and through the open-concept deck floor and down some wooden steps to the lower level that was his to work on. George had totally changed this floor and made it into his command center. Yes, it all came from my mind, what I thought a cool setup would look like for a secret space yacht to have, mixed in with George and Hxerdinand the 9th’s practicality added in. What it all turned out to be was a sleek metal alien spaceship-looking environment with the entire starboard side just one massive glass window looking out over the planet. The view was stunning. Two command chairs rose from the floor and we both took a seat as George got to work. First I wanted to know what giving someone full access meant and what could have happened.

George looked through my logs and found the moment when I had willed Elaya full access.

“This is interesting.” He said as he displayed video and text files in the air in front of us. “There is a section of time missing right before these individuals arrive. Elaya removed those moments just like she said that she would. That was the first set of actions that she did. After that she looked through, well, everything. She looked up your history, how you came to be a Guest of the Core, where your VR is attached to the Core, your interactions with Tutor, Xa the 3rd, Hxerdinand the 9th…” George mused as he kept going through the records.

“She watched your virtual recreation when you went to Thailand and then started to look into your past. She found your family on Earth and was starting to study them when you interrupted her. She seemed very interested in what family life is like on Earth.” George said as he sat back and looked at me.

“Kevin, you gave a youngling scientist an inside look at what it is like to be human. This has never been done before. Who knows what she will do with it.”

“So… nothing bad then?” I asked as I considered what he told me.

“You need to understand how the families of the Core work…. They don’t exist like you know a family would. Citizens don’t care for their children as they do on earth. Younglings are raised by Tutors. Citizens care about their line succeeding and thriving yes, but each youngling is left to create their own legacy. Powerful parents give the most zealous of children some of their power yes… but it all comes only with the child proving themselves and succeeding in whatever they do. Now, each family is not exactly cookie-cutter like I just explained to you, that is just the standard. It seems that Elaya’s father is the Security head of a Core and wants her to succeed so he gifted her keys of power to achieve her goals. Her father must be old and powerful to be able to do that. He gave her the power to appear as though she led a flawless science team. That is quite an advantage over many other science teams.”

“Ok….can you explain access and keys? Every time someone says it it sounds like they are describing two different things.” I asked as I thought back to Xa buying me Simulation access.

“You know how cr is a physical microrobot? Well, Xa spent 30,000 cr to connect your VR home to Simulation access on the inner surface of the Core. Here let me show you.” He said as the view outside suddenly changed. Outside through the glass, there was now a strange ball object that was dark most of the way around except for huge vent ports that shot objects out into space. “Is that what I think it is? Is that the Core?” I asked in awe.

“Indeed, this is the Core that we live on presently.” He replied as the view started to draw closer and closer to this…. Totally immense structure before us. “There is a star in there? Unbelievable,” I gasped as I realized how insanely huge this thing had to be in front of us.

“Yup, crazy isn’t it? You have to think about it this way first Kevin, size is relative. Ants can create structures much larger than their bodies by working endlessly and with their colony. Minds… don’t need to increase in size to build something this big. It is like surrounding a candle with solar panels. A human could do that easily enough. You shouldn’t let the size of something deter you from understanding that it can be built. Just imagine ants creating this. Well, in this case, trillions of large robotic ants. The same can be done at microscopic levels. Size doesn’t matter.”

He said as we zoomed faster and faster and got closer and closer to the dull metal surface of the outer layer of the core. We flew through the outer layer and a couple more layers until we slowed to a stop on one unremarkable layer dotted with an endless array of little shiny soap bubbles. Well, bubbles made out of metal were attached to the surface of the layer. “This is your VR home right here,” He said as he pointed out one bubble seemingly at random.

“Really? I am living in a bubble?” I said as I looked down at it while he zoomed in.

“Sort of. The bubbles are all solid and full of everything that records and makes up you, this space, Tutor, me, and everything you see around you.” He said as I just stared at it. I was somehow now just existing inside a computer.

“Back on topic, here is what Xa paid for.” He said as he zoomed in and even further in to reveal a tiny little line running into the surface of the layer of metal and connecting to another larger line. “She hooked me up to the internet?” I asked as the realization hit me.

“Yup, that is what Access is. The ability to use the massive computing power of the core for whatever you want. A key is something else entirely.” He said as he zoomed back out and turned to look at me. “A key changes and upgrades the individual rather than the VR room. It is a permanent power.”

“Elaya gave me a Prime Speed Control key,” I said to myself while musing.

“She did what???” George nearly shouted in shock.

“Yeah, and I have no idea how to use it or what it means.”

George looked at me and then started to type on the keyboard in front of him. A display popped up with a description of the Prime Speed Control key.

Prime Speed Control - key

Grants access to personal mental time control. Allows the user to slow down or to speed up the perception of time inside their mind at will.

*Practical uses include gaining more time in a day to think, read, or study data.

“So it doesn’t slow physical time down, just the perception of time?” I asked as I thought about what I could use it for. I could read a page in an instant, jumping in and out of fast time at my leisure. I could even speed up time and watch life pass me by. That last thought didn’t appeal to me at all. Surely there were reasons why someone would want to speed up time I thought as I tapped my chin.

“Indeed. It is a rare key. Some keys can be bought, some are only held by certain individuals of power, and some are nearly unattainable or secret.” He answered as he looked over at me with a smile. “The secret ones are rumored to be only obtainable by the System for doing amazing things for the System. The downside is, they are only rumors because the system usually destroys the key if anyone tries to tell others about getting it. Hence the rumor part since there is never allowed to be any proof except people claiming to have had it.” He smiled as he seemed lost in thought.

“I bet people learned fast not to do that,” I said as I wondered what other keys might be out there.

“Some... “ he said softly in response.