A man once dreamed.

It was a grand dream. Albeit a little naive.

A naive dream. True but he still did it.

Ironically, his dream was the cause of his greatest regret.

And now he had a simpler dream….

January 1st, Year 5021.

Long golden sands with waves lapping on the shore. Sultry air blowing from the east, sending hairs a flutter, people dancing to the loud blast of music. And like any other summer-filled beach, people swam, played and tanned.

And amidst the wild crowd of party people, stood a lone man in a lab coat that looked to be in his early 20’s. His hair was a deep black, unkempt and ruffled. His eyes, a shade of brown with a keen glare. And his looks could remind you of a very strict science teacher. Needless to say, he stuck out like a sore thumb.

“So this was Florida beach….” Said the man with a deep sigh of regret. He looked around, and the bright cheerful smiles of the people — only served to fill his heart with an even deeper sense of regret.

The man reached for the side of his ear, as though he were taking off his glasses, even though he wasn’t actually wearing one. The moment he pulled on the invisible pair of glasses, it was as if he was flipping through the channels of a TV. The scenery had changed completely. The beach and everything was --gone.

What was supposed to be the majestic blue ocean, was instead a toxic sea of darkness with bubbles constantly foaming and popping. The air was hot. The people partying were nowhere to be found. The only thing that remained the same was the golden sands. Even the clear blue sky of hot summer was nothing but a lie, what the man saw before him was instead like the skies in a sunset, a deep red–but it was morning.

And in his hands, were the supposedly invisible shades. It was a dark cylinder designed to cover the eyes and ears all the way to the back of the head. A compact version of a virtual helmet.

“Haaa-......If only… if only I hadn’t made those weapons, none of this would’ve happened...” The man smiled bitterly at himself.

*Ttititeet titititeeet*

The man looked at his wrist watch, the time was 2:03 P.M. At the sight of the time, his brows creased.

“Not good, I should head back inside before the sandstorm swallows me whole.”

The man turned, and began walking. And after walking for some time, he looked disapprovingly at his destination with brows creased.

A ghost town. It was quiet, where only the sound of the howling winds could be heard. Shrubs grew on the buildings and no road could be seen in the sand filled city. The very definition of a post apocalyptic horror story.

He traveled along the road and stopped in front of a dome shaped building. The man went inside and the door slid close behind him with a soft *sheewp*. And inside was just a box of pure white, with a glass door in front.

A loud sound of a vacuum cleaner went on for a couple of minutes, the man’s hair fluttered from the cold air that blew around. Then the quiet returned.

-= Welcome Doctor Rex Hargreave, radiation cleansing has been completed. =- Said a feminine robotic voice, welcoming the man.

Rex, the scientist, smiled from the bottom of his heart. Though it came from an A.I, a welcome was still a welcome. And it had always warmed his heart.

“Yuna, begin a record log.”

-= Affirmative =-

“Day 3, year 241 since the ‘war of extinction’. Atmospheric conditions have improved…..slightly.”

-= Log recorded, will there be anything else Doctor? =-

“No-... that will be all.”

Having said that, Rex headed inside, passing through the glass doors that opened upon nearing and closed when he was far enough, much like the automatic doors in a mall but faster. He stopped in a certain room, where there was a large chair.

Rex's eyes immediately went to the dark helmet sitting on the chair with a cord attached to it. Then he turned his attention to the object besides the dark helmet.

A T23 plasma glock. It looked like the usual glock but it was white, and had a small black bar on the handle. There, a small bullet-like shape in green outline appeared on the black bar that flickered in and out.

He chuckled then sighed.

Rex felt like there was a void in his stomach. He wanted something-.. yet he himself didn’t know what it was. A yearning he could not fulfill.

He let out a sigh once more before turning his attention to the dark helmet beside the gun.

It was a VR helmet. It was developed in the year 3011 and since then, had progressed so much that full sensual immersion was even possible. It was quite popular back in the day. And Rex himself played several MMORPG’s during his early teens.

A strange sensation warmed his chest.

“Maybe this is better…”

Heaving a sigh, Rex lied on the chair and put on the helmet. He pushed the red button beside the cheek area. Then his vision darkened, his body felt afloat and he lost all his senses.

The world was dark for a moment, before a giant wall of text appeared out of nowhere.

[Play virtual world online?]

Rex gave a mental ‘Yes’ and the text faded into nothingness. With a blink of an eye, everything had changed. The dark room of nothingness, was now a bustling city street in the middle of Tokyo.

Buildings with anime screens, cars honking and thousands of people hurriedly walking along the road to get to their jobs were everywhere.

Rex felt a bump to his shoulder and he saw a guy glaring at him, with a look saying ‘What the hell are you doing just standing around?’

Rex lowered his head,

“Sorry.”

The man in business attire let out a sigh with a shake of his head and continued on his way.

Normally, people would be pissed. But that was how things were in japan. However, Rex was grinning. Not because he was a masochist who delighted in suffering -- rather, it was just because of that human-like interaction.

Indeed, this was how far virtual reality had come that even the AI’s seemed like real people.

Feeling a bit giddy, Rex issued a mental command. A scream suddenly echoed.

“Kyaaaahh!”

It came from a young beautiful woman, she was now curling down on the ground covering her privates. She was buck naked in the middle of the streets.

“P-please don’t look!”

She pleaded to the people, but instead they took out their phones and began recording, some even shook their heads disapprovingly while the majority only spared a glance and continued to walk.

Rex felt a sensation well up inside him, but it was soon extinguished. He had done this far too many times to count. So it didn’t give him the satisfaction it first had. Issuing another mental command, the woman was again fully clothed. The people went about their ways as if nothing had ever happened.

“Haa-....” Rex sighed, he could have more human-like interactions if he’d tax Yuna’s processing capabilities to its utmost limit. However, she was monitoring the environment and running many different things.

And even when he’d done that years ago, he still remembered when he was talking to a bratty high schooler, she continued to act that way even in closed doors. That wasn’t something humans do. They had a mask they wore for society, and another mask at home. A hard worker can sometimes be sloppy at home.

That was the limitations of A.I. and just from that single ‘human-like’ interaction, it nearly took all of Yuna’s processing capabilities.

Feeling a bit meloncholic, Rex continued to walk along the streets just looking at the people longingly.

Rex had once shot someone, stole from a store in broad daylight, and even sucker punched someone just walking by. That was the least of things he’d done. He’d done much more horrible things of course, but it was fine… none of these people were real. They were all NPC’s with an A.I. behind them.

Eventually being a criminal became boring. Then he went on to become the most law-abiding citizen but that too soon became boring. He’d already done everything everyone could ever imagine, both good and bad.

He sighed once more.

Oh how he wished they were real. Even if one of them suddenly just came at him and sucker punched him, he’d happily just laugh it off.

Anything they’d do as long as it wasn’t just parameters in a set of code, he’d be happy it happened. He’d even go as far as to say that if there was anyone real here, anyone who was a real person playing the game, he’d happily give them his life if that’s what they wanted.

Only if there was anyone else who was real…

Rex stopped in front of a small shop. It was a ramen shop. He hadn’t eaten japanese food in a while and he thought he could enjoy it for the time being.

Well, with all of this being virtual and all, of course he wouldn’t get full from it. But nevertheless, the taste was all but real. In this virtual world, sensation was so close to reality, that people would sometimes just live in it for the majority of their life here and experience so many different things.

Be it playing a hero in a fantasy land, just having an orgy all day long, or even just casually exploring the unknowns of the virtual world. Heck, it was even possible to do drugs, get high and none of it would affect your real body. It was all but false sensations injected to the brain via electronic signals.

It wasn’t surprising that new laws were implemented to stop people from spending their entire lifetime in it, and some even dying just because they neglected to eat. But of course, if you were rich that WAS an exception. It wasn’t anything new.

It caused quite the uproar back in the day. But now-... it was nothing more than just a place of solace for Rex. As he pondered these thoughts, a voice brought him back to reality.

“You gonna order or not?”

It was the shopkeeper giving him the stink eye.

Rex smiled bitterly,

“Sorry, sorry-...hmmm well I’d like a bowl of ramen please.”

The shopkeeper nodded.

----------------------------------------------------------

After spending an unknown amount of time in the Virtual World, Rex had enough and logged out.

For a moment, he stared at the plasma gun.

He shook his head.

Rex stood from the chair and began walking along the building, passing through door after door without a care in the world.

Then he stopped inside a room filled with computers. They were displaying a series of numbers and charts, while some of them were displaying desolated landscapes that seemed to stretch out forever. Several other computers were displaying a moving screen, it was something like watching a drone do some scouting. It moved from place to place, inspecting every corner before moving along.

Upon seeing these screens, Rex scratched the back of his head and glanced towards the ceiling.

“How is the scouting, Yuna?”

-= Day 36,532 -- no results =-

Same as always.

Rex turned his attention back to the screens which were displaying some charts and numbers and said.

“It’ll probably be another 231 years before the atmosphere will become habitable again huh-..... Well, that’s it for today I guess.”

Rex stretched his arms, letting out a tired yawn. Just as he was about to leave the room, a strange noise made him furrow his brows.

[*Pi-pi-pi-pi-pi*]

“What the hell?”

Was it some sort of equipment damage?

“Yuna, are there any equipment damages or building breaches anywhere?”

As Rex expected a definite ‘Yes’, he was baffled beyond his wits when his AI answered,

-= Negative =-

How could that be?

Yuna, the AI, was connected to every equipment and had every sensor in each corner of the building. No way could she be wrong. If that’s the case, then was Rex the one going insane and hearing things?

[*Pi-pi-pi-pi-pi*]

He heard it again. It was faint, but Rex was relatively sure it was there.

“That’s strange-....” Rex placed a hand on his chin. Perhaps the AI’s sensors didn’t actually reach as far as he thought or maybe it had been damaged.

“Yuna, I ask again, are you sure that there are no abnormalities?”

- = Affirmative =-

Rex frowned. “Then can you hear that strange sound?”

-= If you are referring to the foreign sound being generated apart from the advanced equipment and yourself, then -- Yes. I am detecting an anomalous sound of unknown origins. =-

Rex felt a surge of excitement and nervousness. This has never happened before. Could it be that someone was trying to break into the building and caused some damage to some equipment, resulting in that strange sound?

If there was the slightest chance that there was someone else apart from himself in this god forsaken world, how awesome would that be?

Rex sprang up and walked with haste towards the door, passing by room after room with a massive grin on his face. His heart throbbed like a drum, his palms began sweating and his body began trembling with delight.

Who could it have been?

Was he finally going to meet a live person after all these years?

The sound grew louder and louder as he went down the stairs. It led down to the basement where there was old space equipment stored, and the moment he arrived at the source, his mood immediately plummeted.

In the corner of the room where several computers with dust gathering on them were aligned in perfect parallel, there was one computer in the farthest right corner flashing a red light. It was the one letting out the beeping noises.

“Haaaaaaaaaaa-...........” He sighed.

Of course it wasn’t a person. And of course Yuna wasn’t able to detect the anomaly.

These equipment were from a Millenia and a half ago, which is to say, they weren’t connected to Yuna.

This room was once used for space operations but was abandoned by the government after it had yielded no results. The power was retained by the computers since electricity cost so little so there was no harm in letting them continue to operate until they broke down or something.

Rex shook his head with great disappointment. Clenching his fist, he headed for the computer, stomping. He was prepared to bash the computer, but the moment he saw what was displaying on the screen, his eyes widened.

“I-I’t can’t be-... what in the world is that..??”

The monitor was displaying something weird.

Beneath the giant red label ‘Unauthorized access’ on the screen showed a young boy with blue eyes and dark hair that looked to be around 8 years old. He wore a blue vest over a white shirt with a red tie, he looked to be well groomed and had blue pants that matched his blue vest.

Rex frowned. Rubbed his eyes and looked at the screen again. The child was still there, this time trying to scan his hand for a second time.

Rex cupped his chin, then looked to the ceiling.

“Yuna, can you see this? Or am I schizophrenic?”

-= Affirmative. I can see the display on the monitor you are seeing through your eyes. It is also very highly unlikely for you to experience schizophrenia due to the nanites and neural chip in your– =-

“Yeah, yeah I get it. What I’m asking is can you see the child I’m seeing?”

-= Affirmative =-

Rex turned to look back to the child on the screen.

“So… that’s a living human being.”

-= Error: Cannot give a definite response as your statement conflicts. =-

“How is it conflicting?”

-= I can determine that the specimen you are seeing is living. However it is not human. =-

“What!? No matter what you say, all I can see is a human child. Why do you think–” Rex paused then frowned, “Wait. Yuna, what are these old computers for?”

-= Verifying access rights to information… =-

Rex rolled his eyes. “Yeaaahh, confirm if the last human being has any access rights to whatever secret that nobody cares about. SuuuUUree.”

-= Access confirmed. These computers are used to monitor the interstellar search for other intelligent beings. =-

“Interstellar…search?” Rex rubbed his chin, he understood Yuna’s words but his mind refused to accept it. Then it clicked, “Wasn’t this the project started in the year 3201 and de-commissioned at 4022?”

-= Affirmative. However, computers were left running to monitor the ships. =-

Rex looked at the top of the screen and it displayed,

[Project I-Finder 203]

“Yuna, how far is I-Finder 203 from earth?”

-= Approximately 321 million light years away =-

So he was watching the screen from a ship millions of light years away. Quantum entanglement was quite the breakthrough in the scientific realm so it was great he could see everything in real time.

This human looking child is no human at all–... but an alien… that looks like a human child.

Rex felt something crawl in his spine and felt goosebumps all over.

He went numb.

“Atuk Vemoru?”

Rex snapped out of it and quickly focused on the child on screen. “Did that child–... I mean, alien speak?”

The child frowned. “Atuk Vemoru?”

It did speak. Just not in any of the 6,500 languages Rex knew.

Rex felt a vortex of emotions whirling within himself. He could not understand it at all.

“Atuk vealus zazim in tatu? Suda alak merei…”

Rex breathing became faster, his eyes growing wider as the child continued to speak. He wanted to speak and yet he felt he might collapse. Even if-...

“Wait… How the hell do I speak to the child!? Does this thing have a mic? Damn!” Rex bolted and tried to look for the manual. He looked at the ceiling. “Yuna!”

-= Yes Doctor Rex Hargreave? =-

“How do I operate this thing? How can I speak to that alien!? Tell me!”

-= Searching-..=-

Rex clutched his hair. “Oh come on!! God freaking dammit! Stop searching and start giving me answers! Faster! Come on!”

-= Searching…. =-

“Yuna, you don’t need to search that long. You have several teraflops of processing power!”

-= Searching…. =-

“Do you want me to pull your plug?”

-= That sounds… naughty. =-

Rex frowned. How was that naughty? Then it clicked.

“You don’t even have a body for that sort of plug! Stop it!”

-= Searching… =-

Rex’ eyes were practically bulging from staring too hard on the ceiling. And everytime he heard the word more red veins appeared in his bulged eyes.

“I swear if I hear it one more tim..-”

-= SEARCHING =-

“Motherfuck–” Rex kicked the computer behind him as hard as he could.

*Cling!* His foot bent in a way it wasn’t supposed to do.

“Arrrghhh!!!” He shot a glare at the ceiling. “You did that on purpose didn’t you!?”

-= No. =-

Rex could feel his head burning. There were still thousands of nuclear arsenals, and at this point, he didn’t mind sparing one for this dumb computer.

But then a thought occurred, when he realized why this A.I. was making fun of him. “Yuna! Execute personality override-.. At least, just for an hour.”

-= Command received. =-

“I ask again, how do I speak to the alien? Is there anything on the ship I can use?”

-= Affirmative. It is not possible to speak directly, however you may deploy the robots on the ship. =-

“Alright, how do I do that?”

-= I can connect your neural chip to the ship’s interface =-

“Then do it!”

-= Connecting…0.1% =-

“What!? Oh come on!” Rex clenched his fist. He wanted to kick something, then noticed his right foot twisted in a way it shouldn’t. He frowned. Grabbed his foot and twisted it back.

*Crrkk*

“Yoaawchhh!!”

It was back to normal. Now then–

He looked at the computer for a moment and decided it wasn’t gonna be the target of his ire as it could fight back.

-’ I mean look what it did to my foot!’-

Then he took a nearby chair, positioned himself and–

*Whap!*

It flew in an arc and landed on the ground.

Satisfied, Rex looked at his hands. They were trembling. He felt a bubbling tingly sensation coming from the pit of his stomach.

-’ After all these years-.. I can finally… I can finally talk to someone alive! ‘-

“Now–” Rex turned to look at the screen. It displayed ‘0.7%’ on the screen. “Fuuucckkk!!”

After kicking a few more chairs, Rex calmed down and just huffed. Crossing his arms like a pouting child. He was staring daggers at the loading bar hoping it would fill-up faster. Of course, it didn’t. But it felt like it was.

A few hours passed by with a couple of cursing and huffing in between.

The scientist looked back to the screen.

He noticed it was already dark where the child was. Then he looked to the bottom of the screen.

98%

-’Just a little more…’-

“Sisatu!!” The child screamed. Rex quickly glanced at the small window and frowned when the child ran. Then he saw that from afar, he saw the silhouette of four legged animals. Rex pressed a green button displayed on the screen, and when the night vision turned on. His eyes widened.

“A pack of wolves…”

-= Interfacing complete =-

Rex closed his eyes and clenched his fist. “I must get to that child first! I’m going to kidnap-.. I mean, save him!”

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In a forest covered in the dark veil of the night. A lone stone stood beside a tree in a wide clearing.

*Sccreeeech* The sound of steel grinding against steel could be heard. The center of the moss covered stone slowly partied. Revealing an interior covered in dust and white, and a silhouette of something big covered in the darkness of the night.

A large metallic foot stepped out. It shook the earth as it landed, producing a tiny tremor.

*Chuk*

Bright beams of light sundered the darkness. The beams of light came from a hulking steel humanoid that stood 3 meters tall with a head that looked like a bedford truck. It’s eyes were a bright red horizontal line that seemed to pulse on and off.

The Z-321 guard bot wheezed as it opened and closed its thick three finger clamp-like hands. It rolled its shoulder blade that contained empty missile launchers before squatting.

Whirring could be heard as the 5 ton guard drone’s back that had four parallel holes began to glow. Then it spat out flames, whirring louder and louder. Small lights began flickering around its body.

The louder the whirring got, the steadier the flames in its back grew, turning blue. Then a feminie monotonic voice announced,

-= Z-321 guard bot, online. Ready for launch. =-

The machine jumped from it’s squatting position and stomped a foot forward. Whirring and wheezing as it walked forward. Then its stride grew wider and wider.

Then it ran, with each stride it seemed to briefly fly into the air as it made its way through the forest.

The ground shook with each stomp from the 5 ton steel humanoid and the large machine eventually made its way to a group of wolves.

The wolves all looked to the hulking steel humanoid, for a moment they were stunned. Some barked and growled, protecting their meal.

*Crkkk-ksst-Crrrk*

There was static, then a voice resounded from loudspeakers,

“Get away from that child! He’s mine! I saw him first!!”

The guard bot bashed its knuckles together making a loud *Clung*. The wolves tensed up. All eyes were on the machine. Then it whirred and charged forward.

The wolves scattered. A few fought back and defended their meal. One was flung to the air as the machine's fist plowed its body with several tons of force.

The nasty sound of bones breaking could be heard as the animal let out a yelp and died on impact.

Another circled around and bit the machine’s leg, it did nothing. The guard drone grabbed the wolf that bit its leg, it yelped, struggled and whined. The machine whirred, it’s clamps closing and mercilessly crushing the moon wolf in its fist.

Another got near and was promptly stomped to death. It’s guts spilling out.

Seeing this, the remaining wolves growled defiantly and ran. They understood they stood no chance.

The machine knelt down to the wolves’ meal. There lied a child, guts spilling out and blood seeping everywhere. Limbs torn apart. Clothes scattered about and torn.

It softly brought its untainted left hand and slowly lifted the child. It brought the child to its face and a green light scanned the body of the child.

-= Specimen deceased =-

The machine's right arm clenched tightly, clearly frustrated.

Then it turned, whirred and took powerful strides, shaking the earth along the way as it held the child carefully in its clamp.

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In a room with a large chair, the small dismembered body of a child with missing limbs lay. Blood dripped from every corner of his body. There were several black suction cups attached to the chest area of the child. In his head, several small metallic tubes were inserted.

A humanoid steel robot could be seen the size of a man just besides the bed where the corpse lay. It had a red and blue design with a small white cross on its head.

“Haa-...” Rex sighed, he looked at his hands that were not covered in skin but instead it looked metallic. This medical bot seemed good enough.

He was controlling it virtually and every move Rex made, the medical bot moved the same. It was as if the medical bot’s body was his.

He took a pair of surgical gloves. Then glanced at the dismembered body.

“Yuna, how long ago since the time of death?”

-= Approximately 5 minutes. =- A feminine monotonic voice resounded in Rex’s head.

“Hmm-... Has his brain activity stopped?”

-= I am still detecting faint signals from his brain. =-

“Then let’s move fast. I need to supply his brain with oxygen first to keep it alive. Then–” Rex glanced at two green glowing syringes on a metal tray besides several scissors and scalpels. “I’m not sure what these military grade nanites will do to this child’s body, but if we want to have any hope of saving his body too, then we have no choice. We can only hope that his biological structure would be close to that of a human’s.”

-= Warning: Injecting military grade nanites to an already dead body will trigger the last breath sequence. Do you still wish to proceed? =-

Rex smiled ruefully. “Yeah-.. Let’s just hope he doesn’t do too much damage to the ship. Still, isn’t it kinda boring to just restore his body just is?”

-= You have something in mind, doctor? =-

“Let’s make it fun and put some cool stuff in there too.” Rex grinned like a maniac.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------