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SOMNIUM V1.0 SERVER LOG:0804:08/04/2038 LOG START

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//Test Notes - Mike

//testing phase 5, 300 long term immersion subjects for 1 month

//test goals realism and immersion fine tuning

//age simulation, respawn fixes and lag improvement

Memory Check - OK

Hardware Block 1 - OK

Hardware Block 2 - OK

Hardware Block 3 - OK

Time Sync - OK

Backup Storage - OK

Backup Cache - OK

Main AI Array - OK

Neural Net Integrity - OK

Gateway Services - OK

Compression Services - OK

Sub AI Array 1 - OK

Sub AI Array 2 - OK

Sub AI Array 3 - OK

Core Process Checksum - OK

Networking - OK

Final Sanity Check - OK

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STARTING LOGIN SERVICES :0832:08:04:2038

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STARTING WORLD SYSTEMS - Let there be light!

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SERVER STARTED SUCCESSFULLY :0841:08:04:2038

Chapter 2

Snail

Ria

Ria groaned with pain as her awareness returned, her body ached with pain. Arms, legs, back everything felt like she had torn muscles or bruised bones. Despite this Ria’s lips quirked in a slight smile as she realised she had survived the night. The fire was still crackling softly but was down to a bed of coals at this point. Stiffly Ria stood and gathered more branches, using them to bolster the fire. Strangely the shelter was actually almost toasty warm, outside it was a little chilly but without the wind, it was much easier to deal with.

Looking around the shelter for something to do that didn’t include going outside. Ria settled on going through her backpack again. It was mostly empty other than her food supplies with the campfire kit and tarp removed. Her stomach growled plaintively at her as she held up the box of biscuits. The soup stock was almost useless, as hard as concrete. Without a pot to boil it in, there was no easy way to eat it. Ria started munching on a few of the dry biscuits as she tried to formulate something with the tools she had.

Tools… Fuck, My axe!

With a start, Ria frantically looked around the inside of the cave only to find that the axe was missing.

Shit, it was too dark and I was using it to get wood.

It must be out there somewhere.

Under the snow.

Fuck.

Ria moved to the entrance and looked out to see if the axe was nearby. No such luck. With a dismayed sigh, Ria pushed the flap fully aside and headed out trying to find the invaluable tool.

It was bright in mid-morning sunshine, the ground sparkled with snow crystals even under the cover of the trees. Shuffling about in the snow, Ria tried to figure out where the axe might be. It took a good hour before she spotted it, leaning against a fallen tree where she must have left it in the dark.

The overnight snow had covered everything in a thick layer making her tracks vanish. Only the deep furrows from the dragged logs showed some evidence of her activities.

Dusting the snow off her recovered axe. Ria decided it might be a good idea to stock up on wood while it was still easy to see. So she spent the next couple of hours chopping up logs and gathering branches. Thankfully the pile of dead trees around the boulder was large. It looked like the giant boulder may have slid down into the valley from the mountainside above. The resulting snag of trees would provide a decent amount of wood. Thankfully most of them seemed like immature versions of the massive trees which populated the rest of the forest.

After stocking up the woodpile, Ria set about reinforcing her shelter and making it a bit more habitable. Branches and logs were slid in to reinforce the lean-to and to fill a few gaps to keep the warmth in. Ria also gathered a few leafy dense branches and made a nest to sleep on, all of the activity on top of her efforts yesterday quickly sapped her strength. Her aching muscles made any activity painful and the cold was not really helping much. Eventually, she was forced to take a break.

Ria sat considering the block of concentrated soup stock while she stoked the fire up a bit more. Biting off a corner revealed a waxy salty chunk which slowly dissolved in her mouth. In a pinch, she could probably eat the stuff but yeah, it would doubtless be not a fun experience. It really needed to be boiled in water or something. The salty taste in her mouth soon had her shovelling a few handfuls of snow into her mouth to slake her thirst. She was already getting sick of eating snow, it was cold and sometimes gritty.

She decided to take it easy today and just focus on gathering more wood and making her shelter more comfortable. More branches, a small log, and a few more warming rocks were added to it over the next couple of hours. She also managed to gather a reasonably good stock of wood, scavenged from nearby. Ria also replaced the campfire kit by shaving some wood from a log and gathering a bunch of dry sticks.

Feeling more prepared. Ria sat and watched night fall from inside the lean-to. As she sat there thinking, Ria began forming a list in her mind of things she needed to survive.

Survival List:

Coffee

Water Container/Water

Fishing Line/Rod

Spear?

Pots and Pans

Hot Plate/Flat Rock

Knife

Meat/Food

Blankets/Fur?

The shelter was much more comfortable with the additional work Ria had done. The supply of logs and sticks kept the fire going all night without much attention from her. Surprisingly she was able to sleep for a few hours straight without interruption.

***

With a start Ria awoke, sunlight was shining in through the entrance to the shelter. The fire crackled and ticked having burned down to a bed of coals with only a couple of licks of flame dancing here and there. Ria squinted as she tried to listen to whatever awoke her, a sound possibly? Crawling over to the entrance Ria peeked out into the dawn light. The sky was clear of cloud and she could see the tips of the mountains nearby were lit by bright rays from the early morning sun. Looking around she saw nothing but white snow and twinkling ice crystals.

Ria retreated into the lean-to and gathered essentials into her backpack, Today she was going exploring. Everything she wanted to get from her survival list was the goal of today. She would settle for finding one of them. Picking up her axe Ria fortified the fire, banking the coals up so it would last longer. In the hopes, she wouldn't have to build a fresh fire when she returned.

Thanks, dad, if you hadn’t taken us out in the van camping so often. I think I’d be dead already.

Ria headed out and initially decided to explore the nearby forest for useful stuff. But the trees were simply bare of anything edible. Everything else was buried under layers of snow. Finally, she made her way downhill into the dip in the land which held the river.

Large rounded grey rocks with caps of snow sitting on top were scattered all along the shore. Between them, chunks of ice and slick crusted snow made the area near the river difficult to traverse. The river was only a couple of meters across but fast-moving. Sheets of ice sitting above it in areas had a skin of snow.

Ria followed the river, thankfully the air was relatively warm and no real breeze to speak of meant she was actually pretty warm. Her journey took most of the morning, the river slowly grew in width as she followed it. The rocks along the edges also decreased as the land slowly flattened out at the bottom of the valley.

Looking ahead she saw that the water of the river fed into an enormous lake filling the valley, its sides surrounded by the massive trees. The lakes surface was white with frost. Large cracks ran across its surface. On the nearside where the river formed a waterfall and entered the lake, large mounds of ice had formed. Most likely caused by the cast-off spray from the falling water.

Ria was starting to follow the shoreline of the lake when she stopped. Turning back she stood with her mouth open, trying to understand what she was seeing. Crawling across the icy waterfall was a snail… kind of a snail, the thing was massive, the size of a basketball. Its shell was a series of zebra-like light and dark lines, some thick and others thin. The whole shell looked metallic, copper, silver and even gold flakes made up the light and dark patterns. She hopped and shuffled her way through the rocky icy terrain, reached out to the snail to touch its back. The long antenna-like eyes swivelled to face her, the dark dots inside the stems searching for what had interrupted its journey.

You can eat snails…

Uh, am I going there? What if it's poisonous?

Just cook the frick out of it and eat a tiny amount first?

Decision made, Ria reached out and tried to pull the snail from the icy waterfall. The creature clung like a limpet to the ice and retracted inside the shell for protection. Struggling for several minutes impotently she decided more drastic measures were needed. Swinging the axe at the snail, she tried to knock it down and off. However, the axe struck with a metallic “THONK” and reverberated in her hands painfully. Looking at the snail, She saw what might be a tiny dent in the shell.

Wait, that fucking thing is actually metal?

What the fuck?

I want it.

Ria changed her plan and hacked the ice around the snail with her axe, within moments. Ria had managed to liberate the clinging snail and shoving it under an arm, she trudged through the snow back towards home. She had to constantly poke the snail to make it curl up protectively. The strength it held onto the ice made her think, it might not be a good idea to get the snail stuck to her. Surprisingly she had no problem finding her way back to the shelter. Ria realised she might have dodged a bullet there.

Tomorrow I need to really scout the area near base, I don’t want to get lost out here.

The fire had mostly gone out apart from a few coals, thankfully they were enough to re-light the fire. While she waited for the fire to heat up. She began examining the snail. The round spiral shell was very similar to common garden snails back home. Looking closer at the patterns on the shell she could see that it really was made from some strange alloy. The foot of the snail was light grey around the outside with a pure white underside.

So you can eat snails… cook it in the shell I guess, there's no easy way to break the shell and it might just be useful.

This is gonna be so disgusting though.

Ria did not really enjoy harming animals, for a big part of her childhood she had been at different times. A vegan and a vegetarian. But since university, she had embraced comfort foods, especially during late-night study sessions. Her roommate had wore down her resistance. Using tried and true method of waving it under her nose until she broke.

“Kat, damn, I wonder if I’ve been reported missing yet” Ria croaked. Her voice cracking a little from under-use and the cold air.

With resignation, she placed the snail upside down on the fire. Watching as the flames blackened the shell. It didn’t take long for the snail to die, it didn’t even come out of its scrunched up defensive mode. After a few minutes, a gross yellow/green slime bubbled out around the edges of the snail from inside the shell. It slowly turned white and steam began wafting out of the shell as the animal inside cooked.

Oh jeeze, why does it smell so good?

Ria poked the snail with a stick a few times and watched the bubbles stop coming up out of the shell.

I wonder how to tell its cooked. No more bubbles means no more liquid so... I guess ill see if it's ok, can always chuck it back on the fire afterwards.

Shrugging to herself Ria used two sticks to pick the snail out of the fire and set about the difficult task of prying the animal from the shell. Eventually settling on levering it out, she first loosened it and then pulled the steaming light grey and white fleshy sack from the shell.

Oh god, it looks worse than an oyster, like a giant booger.

Ria tried not to gag and failed, feeling her throat and stomach contract as it attempted to make her vomit. The rubbery mound of organs and flesh had no resemblance to the snail it had once been. Some of the bulging sacks of liquid hung disturbingly from it, dark and filled with some kind of liquid. The safest part to eat looked to be the snail's foot, the big fleshy bit which allowed it to move. Ria grabbed the axe and using it and a rock managed to chop a chunk from the snail.

Close your eyes Ria, this is not gonna be pleasant.

Ria shut her eyes tightly and popped the meat into her mouth amazed at the burst of flavour filling her mouth. It tasted like a strange combination of oyster and some other kind of meat. It was hard to put her finger on exactly what kind of meat. The taste was like nothing she had ever experienced. To be fair the meat was a little rubbery and had a strange texture to it. But the stuff just seemed to hit the spot.

Her resistance to eating the snail overcome. She spent the next hour or so dissecting and learning all she could about the snail. The strange organs and stomach, she had to ditch as they just smelt wrong. The majority of usable meat coming from the foot of the snail.

Examining the shell. Ria found that it was definitely some kind of strange alloy, formed of multiple metals. It was streaky and layered with different colours, copper, silver, gold and more. There was even a tiny bit of rust on part of it which could have been iron. It was not damaged from its time in the fire. Sitting and examining the shell, Ria had an idea.

I could use this as a pot to cook stuff in. It's metal so I could probably bend it into shape.

No, ill risk breaking it, ill keep it as is until I find more of them. After all, it’s still usable right now.

Experimenting with the shell, she gathered snow from outside, melting it within the shell. The snow quickly melted into water which she used to clean the inside of the shell.

Night fell as she finished with the snail shell and its meat. Ria pulled the canvas across and sealed up for the night. Stashing a small pile of wood inside the shelter so she wouldn't have to go out into the cold. She quickly fell asleep, tired from the day's activities, her hunger and thirst sated thanks to the snail.

***

2016 – Earth

Ria looked through the viewfinder of her camera at the beautiful desolation of the Australian high country. The dry pale trunks of gum tree contrasting with the greens leaves and scrub. Offsetting this was the red-brown rusty rock and soil-forming cliffs and low hills.

This ancient land is really a wonder to look at.

She thought with satisfaction as she clicked the camera repeatedly. The clifftop had taken 5 days of rough driving and a 3-hour hike to reach but it was worth it. She smiled to herself as she swung the camera to track a canyon of rock with a ribbon of silvery water at the bottom. There was a sudden “THUNK” and the large boulder she was perched on suddenly tilted forwards at a crazy angle. Ria lost her footing and fell out over the rocky gorge below. She screamed as she was falling, below was nothing but treetops, they rushed up as she fell...

***

“AHHHHH!” Ria flashed awake in terror as the dream left her. Sweat ran down her body despite the cold and she was gasping for air like a fish out of water.

What the fuck was that?!

W-Was that a memory!?

Holy shit… it was so real.

Ria sat, shaking a little. Trying to get the images out of her mind, they wouldn’t leave. She just kept going around and around in her mind, seeing the same scene. Over and over.

Get out of my head!, I don’t want to remember!

Smacking her hands against the ground, she tried to focus on something else as tears started to run down her face. Sobbing soon overtook her breathing, she could not stop crying.

I died.

Holy shit I died…

Mum, Dad… I’m never going to see them again…

The realisation hit Ria hard. Curling up into a ball by the dying fire she cried so much that she found herself choking and out of breath. But the memories would not go away, haunting in their clarity. She found herself locked into a vicious spiral of grief for the things she had lost with her own death. It was a good long while later before a new thought finally battered it’s way past her sadness.

If I’m dead… where am I?

The thought interrupted her inner torment, she sat up and blinked. Reaching out to the ground, Ria picked up a clump of dirt and leaf litter. Sifting through it in her hand, dust particles and tiny rocks dropping from her palm, she examined it carefully.

It all feels real, It looks real too.

This is no dream, no coma.

I’m actually here, in another place.

Reincarnation? Possibly, but wouldn’t you need to be born again?

It’s not Earth, the snail proves that.

Not heaven or hell, purgatory? Is that what its called? The place between?

I think there would be more pomp and ceremony if it was related to religion…

Afterlife then. This happens to everyone when they die?

Is there a way back? Unlikely I’ve never heard of this place before.

Did I definitely die?

Yes.

But I am still alive here.

What to do then…

What mum always said, “life will throw a lot of things at you, some horrible and some wonderful. Some will knock you off your feet and others will carry you forward. The trick is to pick yourself back up and keep going when the bad shit happens”

Survive.

Ria poked the fire back to life and shoved some branches into it, her mouth forming into a determined line.

Oh, I'll survive all right.