“I think I prefer Mixed Reality over Virtual Reality,” Zoe told Bill later that night. The male nurse had the night shift this week.

“Why is that?” Bill asked.

“MR feels more natural, and I can physically move and interact with things,” Zoe answered. “And if it wasn’t so distracting, I could have code strolling through everything just like VR does.”

“What about the speed?” Bill inquired.

“That was nice, but a bit disconcerting,” Zoe answered.

“Was there anything about VR that you did like?”

“I really liked the honeycomb defensive pattern and how my Bastion looked like a little star shaped fortress under my feet everywhere I went,” Zoe replied.

“So, you liked that your ICE was like your own personal walkway or tile?” Bill asked.

“Yep!” Zoe replied happily.

“You know you could probably do that in MR too,” Bill pointed out. “And the honeycomb pattern too.”

“Good point,” Zoe replied after thinking about it. “As I said earlier, MR already lets me see code.”

“Instead of comparing the two modes, go and play with VR some more,” Bill encouraged Zoe. “Give it a chance.”

“Trying to get ride of me?” Zoe asked.

“Not really, but this is a clinic and we do have a couple of real patients staying tonight that I need to check on,” a smiling Bill replied.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll see you in the morning then,” Zoe said.

“Good night,” Bill said.

“Good night,” Zoe replied as she started walking back toward her borrowed room.

*

“Bill does have a good point,” Zoe mused. “I really should give VR a fair chance instead of thinking of it as just a tool for gaming.”

After thinking about things, Zoe activated MR and sliced into one of Manchester United’s biggest fan sites. The host server was in London.

“So much for taking more precautions for now on,” Zoe whispered to herself. She took the site down for a few minutes so she could change the banners from saying Manchester United or the team’s logo to Liverpool and that team’s logo. Zoe reactivated the site, and it was only a matter of minutes before fans started complaining about her changes. She chuckled. “I need to find my amusements where I can. Now, let’s try this in VR.”

Zoe switched to Virtual Reality. The fan site looked like pictures and video of an old English tavern she had seen before in VR with the team’s logo on the doors. She walked around the “building” and decided she wanted to see it from above. A second later, Zoe found herself floating above the site.

“That’s neat,” Zoe said. She grinned. “And these guys must be stereotypical soccer hooligans.”

A moment later, Zoe landed in front of the tavern and entered the site. She spraypainted graffiti on the walls praising Liverpool. In essence, the graffiti was spamming the site and forums with posts or trolling. Zoe laughed as her trolling graffiti caused more outrage. A few minutes later and the site’s admins shut it down. That had been fun.

“Ok. Maybe VR had some good advantages over MR when it comes to cyberspace after all,” a grinning Zoe mused.

*

Zoe spent the next two days testing VR cyberspace against MR cyberspace. Both allowed her to interact with virtual objects and see when ICE and daemons were searching for intruders, such as herself. Virtual Reality’s biggest advantage was the fact that she didn’t have to divide her attention between the real world and cyberspace while MR’s biggest advantage was that it allowed her to be mobile.

“MR will probably just end up a way for people to find quick information or book reservations without having to go into full cyberspace,” Zoe muttered.

“What’s that?” Zane asked from the other side of the lounge they were in.

“Just thinking about the differences between MR and VR,” Zoe replied. “I can definitely see how VR will become the preferred method to just cruise the net once VR sees a wide release while MR will end up just basically being tool tips and the like for people at hotels, out sightseeing, or at restaurants.”

“You mean like reading menus without actually being handed one,” Zane said.

“Exactly.”

“That’s already being done and is what MR has long been used for,” Zane replied. “Not everyone is a slicer, coder, or other professional that will use MR to help them work.”

“I suppose,” Zoe shrugged.

“Are you about ready to go after the church?” Zane asked.

“Yeah. Yeah, I am.”

“Just going to assault them?”

“No. I’m going to do some… what do you military guys call it, recon?” Zoe replied. Zane nodded his head in the affirmative. “I’m going to do some recon in VR cyberspace first. Then I’ll talk things over with you guys before attacking them.”

“Now you know,” Zane said nodding his head again. Zoe gave him a questioning look, which made him laugh. “And knowing is half the battle.”

“Why are you laughing? Is that some sage military advice?” Zoe asked. She was getting more and more confused as Zane started laughing harder.

“No Zoe. That’s from an old cartoon,” Claire answered as she walked into the lounge. She sat beside her husband and patted his knee.

“Huh,” Zoe muttered. She did a quick search for the phrase and quickly found the reference. “Zane, I’m starting not to like you. I’m not a small child.”

The married couple burst into laughter instead of either of them replying.

Claire finally said, “Be glad he’s not quoting The Princess Bride.”

“Do not besmirch that classic film,” Zane warned his wife.

“I don’t think that word means what you think it means,” Claire quipped.

“Claire…”

“As you wish,” Doc replied. Zane laughed and soon Claire joined in.

“What are you two talking about?” a confused Zoe asked.