Terrasphere Commercial

3:33PM or 3:33AM

No matter what you are watching or what medium you are viewing with. Your screen begins to blur out. At first you may think something is wrong with your device, however you then hear a voice as the picture is completely warped and extremely difficult to make anything out. The voice is muffled at first but gets progressively clearer as it goes on. The voice is chipper and very enthusiastic.

"Heya how's it going viewers!? What's this silly ad interrupting? A sitcom? War movie? Super heroes? Ooooh, maybe murder mystery? Or just the boring old news?"

The screen comes in bright and clear suddenly. On screen is a girl With her face taking up a good deal of the screen However the camera begins to slowly pan out as she continued to talk to the viewer. A song begins to play and it is a little different depending on who is viewing. In fact the girl herself was dressed in different outfits every time the commercial comes on. The speech is the only part of this odd commercial that never changes.

"Have you ever wanted to live a movie? To be a hero? To vent all that stress your boss puts you through? Want to just have a date with a cutie like me and not have to worry about consequences?"

Behind her one would see a different area all the time. Sometimes a beautiful meadow, other times it was up high with the terrain below flying past, and other times a massive war was going on right behind her, with blasts of magic and arrows flying right by her. The most calming one was easily the home though. She stood in a living room with a fire place and a family all holding hands and singing a carol happily. In a very holiday like fashion.

"Welp you're in luck! Exotic locations, lives you only wished you could live, a home away from home! Or maybe just a place to go wild! Write your story however you want it!"

Her arms spread out and she began to twirl as more areas and situations flashed behind her. Then with a slow final spin she waved her hand towards the screen and vanished. The word T E R R A S P H E R E materialized on screen with nothing but space and some sparkling starts in the background. Her voice would be heard again.

"The ultimate virtual reality life and gaming simulator! Come and join us for the time of your NEW life! I'll see you in there kay?"

Her face pops back out of the corner of the screen and waves, head rocking back and forth with her eyes closed and a huge smile. The music fades and the commercial blurs back out. Depending upon how you reacted to the commercial and whether or not you already had access to the game. You may suddenly find yourself with a mysterious glitched email with the game installer shortly after watching....

OOC: All players are allowed one reaction post to this commercial.. All replies must be in (real-life) character. If you have not yet logged into Terrasphere for some reason. You will receive a invite to the game through your email if you became even semi interested.

 

It was rare for Kelly to get to spend time with her family lately, and what better way to babysit your baby brother than watch cartoons? It was just a bit more than half past three in the afternoon when she was staring at the screen, which began to change slowly from a kid cartoon to a strangely familiar voice.

Upon the screen appeared a girl- a girl she swore she'd seen before, but couldn't place. As the girl began to ask questions, Kelly was struggling to keep her little brother from trying to get closer to the screen for a better look at the big eyes that stared back at him. "Frankie, get over here! Sit next to sis!"

It was when her brother opted to take a seat in her lap that she was frozen. Frozen by the realization of what she was seeing. T E R R A S P H E R E. It was blindly obvious on the screen, and as her brother spoke it aloud, she felt her jaw drop onto his head. "Sis?"

"But...I thought..." She was flabbergasted. Since when was TerraSphere okay to talk about in public? Wasn't it a secret to the state? She knew that the time she found out about it, she'd been told it was not to be talked about- not to anyone, even in game (though clearly everyone didn't bother with that). As she sputtered to herself, the show they'd been watching before eventually came back to the screen.

The last thing she heard from her brother before he went into a sweet solidarity of cartoon time was simply this: "Hey, you okay sis? Maybe you should take a nap." A nap? A deep dive would be better...Did that count as rest?

 

冬雪：开始

"Don't forget about the quiz next week!" her professor called over the din of a hundred freshmen students desperately trying to rush out of their seats. Dongxue was among them, eager to get out of the boring hell of a common core course's introductory lecture. Thankfully this was her last class for the day--technically her only class today--so she was free to skip off campus to head wherever she wanted. And that was home. God she just wanted to get back home, quickly finished up her required readings, and log back into Terrasphere for some good old adventuring.

Maybe a little while ago she would've been concerned at just how much she was playing the game. Her self-imposed restriction of 'weekends only' was quickly broken, which didn't really speak well for her self-control. But, it wasn't interfering with the rest of her life yet! And before all she did was browse YouTube videos and fiddle about on her phone, it wasn't like Terrasphere was any worse than that.

Walking down Broadway was as trying an experience as always. It never seemed to get any easier, despite whatever the latest breakthrough innovation in public transport or personal vehicle was. Pedestrian foot traffic remained the worst.

But at long last she reached the station, tapping her card to enter. This was routine, and she barely spared a glance for anything around her as she made her way to the platform. Not the posters on the walls, not the one cracked light right there on the ceiling, and certainly not the three-models-behind TV attached to the ceiling where the day's news droned on and on-

-at least, not until she heard a familiar voice coming from the TV. That was Trinity's voice. Coming from the TV. Trinity. Outside of Terrasphere.

So quickly that she might have given herself whiplash, Dongxue turned around to stare at the advertisement in bewilderment. It looked like she wasn't the only one, as the sound of hundreds of footsteps slowed, and stopped entirely as people looked entranced by the advertisement.

What the hell...? Dongxue's eyes widened as the ad went on and on. She was sort of aware of other people pulling out phones and other devices to record the ad, but she didn't pay attention to any of them. Why was an advertisement for Terrasphere airing on television?

Trinity disappeared and the news flickered back on for the briefest of moments, just enough to show the dumbfounded look on the anchor's face, before being replaced by a standard 'Experiencing Difficulties Please Stand By' screen. Little pings and chirps emanated from people's phones, and the muttering only grew in volume from then on.

"No way this email is real," Dongxue heard from someone beside her, staring at his phone and frowning at it almost like he was afraid of it. If it was possible, her eyes widened even further. That was- holy hell. Were all these people getting invites to the game? Dongxue's gaze darted across the platform, watching people stare at their phones and compare messages, some people agitated and wary, others excited.

Maybe she was being paranoid, but... This didn't sound like good news.

结束

 

She had been lazing around on one of the many couches that littered the common lounge, idly flipping through a book, the words flitting through her head, yet not quite registering, her mind too bored not to have something on hand, but too restless to focus on anything she tried to do. The epitome of unproductivity, and yet Cecile found herself loathe to get started on any of her assignments. Perhaps her recent bout of gaming was sapping her drive to study, but even though she could tell it was a bad influence, she nevertheless was beginning to find it harder and harder to put down, let alone drop it completely. As she listlessly turned another page, her back suddenly shifted, and the friend that she'd been leaning on let out a gasp of surprise, jerking back into the cushions. "What's up?" She yawned, lethargically turning around to peer at the phone grasped in her friend's hand, only to startle into full alertness at the very familiar sight of Terra Sphere's blue pig-tailed mascot. Trinity? What was Trinity doing in the real world?

Cecile quickly reached around and yanked out her friend's earbuds from the phone, letting Trinity's voice blast out from the speaker instead. It seemed almost like an advertisement, except Terra Sphere had never advertised itself before. And in such an illegal manner too, by hijacking people's devices. How did they even manage that? And why now, after months of distributing the app in the shadows, via email alone? A quick glance around the lounge showed that her friend wasn't the only one, and many other people were intensely staring at their phones, tablets, you name it. Even the common television had Trinity's face plastered on it, her peppy voice resounding through the room. It was like those hostile takeovers of the web that were popular in science fiction, except when one reads those, they never truly expect it to happen in real life. What could possibly be going on?

With Trinity's parting words the commercial blurs back out into the drama that someone had been watching, and back to the messenger app that her friend had been chatting on. "What the hell was that?" Her friend asked, bemused, dropping her phone onto the cushion beside her. "It was kind of interesting though. Weird, but cool. Were they generating hype for a new VR game or something?"

"It's the one that's been on the news lately," Cecile replied, but her mind was elsewhere, too busy trying to make head or tails of the advertisement that she had just been a witness to. "The one that experts advise to avoid. I've been playing it though, kind of. It's good." She had never really thought of Terra Sphere as dangerous, despite the numerous warnings — it was just a game to her, after all. But this...this was settling into uneasy territory. It wasn't just a regular commercial — for some reason, it aired on everyone's devices. But just what kind of person could do that?

"It's not like I have time to play anyway, and games aren't my thing," her friend admitted. As she spoke, Cecile caught snippets of conversation from another group across them. "—do you think the game is out? I was looking for another one to buy——" And suddenly, phones began vibrating at once across the whole room, alert sounds ringing out for those not kept on silent. "—an email—?——" the same person exclaimed, and similar comments were made all over the lounge, some people frowning, others enthusiastically comparing screens, and others still eagerly rushing out of the room. Her friend's phone remained silent though, the phone screen as black as when she first closed it. Neither did her own vibrate.

Oh god, she thought with a sudden chill. It was just speculation, but, it can tell who is interested, and who isn't? At the very least, it already knows who has the game. Quickly, she opened her own email, and sure enough, she hadn't received any new ones. Swallowing, Cecile leaned back into the couch, feeling a lot more creeped out than before the advertisement had started.

 

Another day, another series of lectures he given out to his students. Verity sighed as he slumped to the sofa in his apartment, which he wished that he got less paperwork than the other professors. It might make sense since he needed to prepare to give out the test papers for the upcoming mid-term exams and being a history professor, that means that he had to prepare every topic such as the World War I and II, the Gold Rush in Klondike, and the presidential history of the USA.

Unfortunately, focusing on the upcoming exams made him more stressed out than ever as he had to skip the game for researching more about the history through his books all night to search some questions for the exam. Well, it was never easy for him to be a history professor after all. Though, he did decide to take a break for a while by watching some recent news on his flat-screen TV. He would try to log in, but he didn't want to lose his sight for his busy schedule for the upcoming week. Which meant that he would stop thinking about the game for a while until he has a free schedule afterward.

Of course, fate has a way to ruin this mindset as the news program was interrupted by a blue-haired woman. He may not recognize her, but he quickly stopped sipping his tea when he saw that familiar title on his TV screen. "T-Terrasphere?! B-But how?! More importantly, why in the world did they have a commercial like this?!"

It didn't make sense at all. He remembered from his email that he shouldn't share the VRMMO or his experiences with it to the public. But why in the world did this commercial aired in the first place? Did the creators decide to come clean and advertise it? Or did they accidentally release it on air instead of a private forum or streaming channel?

At any case, he had a bad feeling about this commercial. But for now, all he can do was to slap himself and cursed at what he just saw. "I have a feeling that tomorrow's news will be interesting..."

 

​

In one of the homes in the upper-class residential area of New York, there lived a wealthy family of corporate executives and investors, the Smiths. Most of the time during the day, the husband, wife, and eldest child were out for work, the middle one to college, and only the youngest stayed home.

Elleanor Regina Smith, the third and last child of the Smiths, was the only one born with the genetic condition of Albinism. The lack of melanin produced by her body resulted in various issues for the pale girl. Most notably her sensitivity to light and heat, all but confining her indoors except after sunset. It was unfortunate that Ellie was a rather active and spirited girl, an adventurer at heart, she would spend her time playing outside if not for her condition. Alas, she had to be home-schooled and compensate social contact (outside of her family and housemaids) through the Internet.

"Yes, Mom, yes I have done my homework." The young teen was seated on her desk in her bedroom, holding her smartphone beside her ear, "Okay, I love you, bye." With a small beep, the call ended and she continued browsing through her computer. Then, her curved screen suddenly became blurry, "Huh?" Was it broken? She was about to turn it off and on again when a high-pitched adorable voice came from the speakers followed by the screen refocusing to show an animated female character with long teal twintails and matching eyes, she looked like a mascot of some Japanese company. "She looks cute..." Now what was this about?

The young girl listened to what the mascot had to say, living a movie, being a hero, oh, of course she wanted that! Ellie had always wanted to be a Paladin! Like King Arthur and the Round Table Knights! Living the life of chivalry and honor! So this mascot was saying she could do that? How?! "Oooh...!" The albino found her eyes glued to the screen as the mascot revealed the answer, TERRASPHERE, a virtual reality MMORPG. "Waaaah!" Ellie's red eyes were practically sparkling by now. She must get one of these!

Hmmm... how though? Could she ask her parents? ...would they let her? She could already see her mother being worried that'd she slack on her studies if she got addicted to a video game, but... but... often Ellie finished her homework and assignments and then found herself with nothing to do... If only she could go outside! This game was perfect to fill in that free time and she could go 'outside', explore the world, while technically still being indoors. Win-win! She could ask around her online friends! Time t-... oh, she received an email, let's check it out...

And thus, the adventures of Eldhi Arc, Paladin and Faithful of Tyl, began.

 

​

Nicole dropped her backpack on the floor of her room with a sigh. It's not that she hated school, it's that she hated coming home to an empty apartment. Her parents were usually always gone as their jobs took most of their time. And other than a note or text or a wad of cash left for her on the counter that was about all the interaction she got from them. It was lonely and she hated it but what could she do? They weren't bad parents, no, they just were never here. Some kids would love the freedom, but for Nicole it just made her feel empty.

The dark-haired teenager padded softly to her bed with socked-feet and curled up on her bed. She wanted to log onto Terrasphere but with the headache she had and the mood she was in, maybe it wasn't the best idea. Even though it was her escape, she couldn't escape from everything. No matter how much she wanted to. Instead she reached over and grabbed her remote, switching on the flatscreen tv that hung on the wall across from her bed. She lazily flicked through the channels, passing cooking shows, and cartoons, and reality shows. Nothing seemed to interest her at the moment so she just stopped on a random channel and closed her eyes. She liked having the tv going when she napped, the voices and music made her feel like she wasn't alone in the high-rise apartment in the middle of NYC. It made her feel like she had friends and family surrounding her and she smiled as her body grew warm and drowsy.

Just as Nicole was about to slip into slumber she noticed some sound of interference on the TV and blinked her eyes open. It seemed the channel was glitching, but when she tried changing it nothing happened. It was as if she was locked from her own tv and she sat up, confused and just a bit freaked out. It was then she heard the voice, and the face that appeared on her screen as it cleared seemed vaguely familiar. Like she had seen it on a poster or in a magazine or something. She couldn't quite place it. Just as she couldn't quite place why the background looked so familiar too. It was a mountain in the distance, and a vast forest in between. She could feel herself inching closer to the screen and to the point she was sitting right on the end of her bed.

....and then....

Terrasphere flashed on the screen and Nicole almost fell off her bed. She rubbed at her eyes to make sure she wasn't dreaming and when it was still there her jaw dropped. What the hell? Wasn't this supposed to be a secret? Wasn't this supposed to be invite only? Why were they televising it? Wasn't the whole point to hide it from the general public? Part of her felt disappointed because she thought she had been special to be picked, but that wasn't what worried her. This all just felt...wrong. She started feeling nauseous, not sure if it was from this shocking commercial or her pounding headache. Maybe both.

Once the commercial had finished, the original channel popped back in and Nicole almost felt like she had imagined it all. Still weirded out she quickly turned off the tv and crawled back up on her bed, covering herself and pulling the covers over her head. Once this headache went away she'd need to log on to the game. She had to know if anyone else saw this. She needed to know what it all meant. Whatever it was, Nicole felt it wouldn't end well.

 

It was past three in the morning and she still wasn't sleeping, causing her to remember a song she loved. It was an older song now, but when she first heard it, it felt new. It made her want to listen to it, and she attempted to find a music channel that would show it to her.

The clock hit 3:33. To her surprise, the music stopped suddenly, the equilizer on the screen fading and turning into...a girl? "Hey, that face is familiar..." She stared, awe struck, as the girl on the screen began to talk about TerraSphere. This wasn't normal. No, there was no way this was normal! It was a secret according to that email. A s-e-c-r-e-t!

With a soft sigh, the girl turned off the television- or tried. She moved to her computer, then to her tablet. Everything had the same commercial, even when they hadn't been doing anything (well, besides having web pages open for research). "What the..." This wasn't normal. It was a dream, wasn't it? Surely she'd fallen asleep on the couch.

"But if this isn't a dream...What's gonna happen next? I kind of want to see where this goes. Terra sure has a good writer..." Thinking of wanting to meet whoever created the girl on the screen, she her screens return to normal...And finally fell asleep for real.

 

​

Today's one of the rare days when Callum was able to relax at his modest apartment home, free from the worries that would normally haunt him in his day-to-day life. After finishing his creative writing studies in college, the fledgling writer was aware of the arduous path that lay ahead to become a successful novelist. In order to not only build his reputation but to show to his father that he could earn his keep, he had decided to take on several writing jobs as a freelance writer while he sought inspiration for his first literary composition.

For the past few days, he had shut himself in his apartment in an effort to fulfill all the contracts and commissions he received before he even needed to worry about meeting deadlines. He had learned early on that procrastinating was specially detrimental to his health when he caught a flu right after rushing to complete a contract he had accepted almost a week prior in just the span of two sleepless days. Not only did it prevent him from accepting any other work that came his way, it also hindered him from accessing Terra Sphere in such a sickly state.

Fortunately, now that he had finished everything he needed to write, he could spend the entirety of the day relaxing and recovering from the strain he had placed his mind and body these past few days. Even if he wanted to dive into the game right away, the orange-haired writer firmly decided this particular day to be a day of rest for both mind and body. He didn't want to have anything to do with virtual reality today if he could help it.

Of course, fate had other plans in store for him today. Not long after he tuned in to a news program, the display of his television monitor began to display signs of malfunctioning as it began to blur. Panicked, Callum jumped from his seat and investigated the device further but quickly jumped back when a warped voice emanated from the television set. Was this some form of hacking? With TV's given the capability to connect to the internet as well, such an idea wouldn't be absurd even though the motivation for such actions was certainly unfathomable.

With each passing second, the once muffled, mysterious voice that replaced the early morning news was getting progressively audible and clearer. When the female voice finally became capable of transmitting her message completely, the screen began displaying a twintailed, blue haired girl dressed in an outfit akin to a strangely familiar anime character, as if she were cosplaying.

If that wasn't strange enough, the girl basically advertised Terrasphere to the entire nation, possibly to the entire world! Now the once urban legend had become public knowledge to all, and the existence of such an enticing game would push more people into satisfying their curiosity by investigating this rumor even further. One could only imagine the amount of panic the DVRS are in right now, specially if they were to even think of a way to stop this spread of information and contain this situation.

With this advertisement, however, a lot of questions began surfacing in the young writer's mind. How was the game transmitted to the players anyway if the only way to join was to receive that suspicious email as well as the attachment that came with it? Did the sender just sent it to random people, or did he/she possess a means of identifying individuals who possessed even the slightest amount of curiosity towards the game? While most would hope for the former choice as an answer, denying the possibility that someone has a means of identifying individual interests would only be feigning ignorance. In this highly technological day and age, if the government has a means of spying on its citizens then it would only stand to reason that some other party could get their hands on that kind of software as well. Perhaps this software was how Terrasphere's creators picked those they deemed worthy enough to experience their creation... Or so he thought. With this advertisement of a once closely kept secret, it would seem whoever was propagating Terrasphere had now shifted their recruitment strategy to a more aggressive approach.

Undoubtedly, after the advertisement had been broadcasted to millions of households throughout the country, the influx of new players would increase exponentially. It also begged the question how the NPC's would react to this massive exodus. If the "Creators" programmed the NPC's to be highly indistinguishable from the players, it would mean that they were basically no different from any of them, with the exception that NPC's don't get the luxury of Resurrection every time they are killed. For that reason, if they had different and unique personalities like humans do, then surely at the very least, they would begin to feel anxious about a sudden population boom in the world. The worst case scenario, if information that the Players aren't "natural" residents of this world were to become widespread and accepted by the NPC's, then it is entirely possible that there would be a backlash from the "People of the Land" who would feel threatened that these outsiders have come to take away their jobs and their land. That was unless the System would forcibly repress knowledge of the Players hailing from another Earth.

"Still, just how many people are gonna end up signing up for Terrasphere now? Hopefully it doesn't have any adverse effects on the world as a whole."

Suddenly, Callum's phone began ringing seemingly more urgently than usual. He quickly picked it up, only to hear the panicked voice of his father on the other end of the line.

"Hey dad, you okay?" Callum said nervously to his dad.

The way his father sounded so distressed was quite alarming for the ginger-haired young man. Throughout all his life, he had never seen his father out of composure like this before so for him to act this way indicated that the matter was urgent enough.

He could hear a sigh of relief coming from his father, and even the sound of him clearing his throat to regain his composure.

"Oh thank god you're alright! Have you seen that commercial?" His father asked.

"Yeah, it was pretty weird. Must have hacked the broadcasting station as it interrupted the news all of a sudden. Some sort of game advertisement, I think?" Callum replied calmly to assure his father that he truly was okay.

"Yeah, you could be right. Listen, I don't want you to get anywhere near that game, okay? If that game is just gonna lead to another SAO incident, then I don't want you to be any part of it. I already lost your mother when you were young... I wouldn't bear it if I lost you too, specially to something as trivial as a game. " His father pleaded.

"Yeah, of course dad. Heh, I didn't know you're such a worrywart, but I appreciate the thought. Now don't overwork yourself too, you hear me?" Callum replied back to his father.

"Pssh, since when have I overworked?"

"All the time. That's why mom's always upset at you, specially when you get sick because of it."

"Ugeh! Huh, I think you're right. Well then, take care of yourself, Callum. And don't get involved with that game, you hear me?"

"Yes, dad. Bye!"

After his father dropped the call, the amateur writer could only look out the window of his apartment and stare at the traffic down and the bustling crowds below.

"You're wrong dad... I'm already involved in all of this... Terrasphere is just too wonderful. not only could I draw inspiration from it for my story drafts, but I could honestly feel myself living a second life there... That's why i can't possibly give it up, no matter what anyone says...."

 

He thought that his T.V. was malfunctioning. It was odd and certainly strange. Then, a voice came through. He certainly didn’t recognize the voice, and he knew the voice of nearly every voice in town and around. He didn’t lay around listening to the radio and tv for no reason. Not to mention, his favorite mid-day rerun was going when he was kind of shoved into this commercial. Well, shoved into watching it. Well, watching some blurry visage at first. Then, suddenly, lady.

Young lass even. This wasn’t a part of his re-run or any of those news guys. That wasn’t right. He listened, closely to the words, and he groaned.


“If I wanted to be sold the Bahamas, I’d be watching the news, not sitting at my office, waiting until I inevitably whittle away at my sanity because I listen to other people too much!” He spoke, sarcastically. He was being sarcastic because he had seen adds like this everyone. Albeit, not ones that took over his T.V. Just in general, adds were of at least this caliber. However… something was different.


He became interested as it went on. New life? He wasn’t quite angry at his own, current life admittedly. It was sometimes boring, and he did have a lot of energy to burn. That could be a wise investment. As he thought about that, he felt his cellphone ring in his back pocket. He had to admit, it startled him. What in the world? He was less worried when he saw it was an email. Scared him a bit, though. He was too absorbed into the commercial, which he now realized it was over. It was done and that felt odd. Normally, he didn’t want commercials to continue, in fact, it was usually the opposite.


It was usually so much the opposite that this interested him farther. Was he so curious about having a new life and a place to spend his energy that he was willing to take some time and try this? It was likely, admittedly.

 

Okay, that was completely weird. One minute, he was watching a documentary about wildlife. Then the next, he was watching a blue-haired girl in a strange commercial asking if he wanted to live another life as a "hero". What was even stranger was how it appeared. As he can remember, commercial break just ended 1 minute ago, but another just aired during the documentary. He either thought of this as a stupid way to promote something or a bad timing to the station's end.

However, once he saw the title, Kyle's eyes widened at what he heard. "Virtual reality and gaming?! You mean a new VRMMO?! But... that's impossible..." It was almost impossible as the last thing he remembered after learning about the SAO incident, there are VR-related policies and regulations in the US that cause stagnation to the VR market, especially with VRMMOs. Sure, there was Gun Gale Online, but he was not the first-person type of guy. Though, he did want to try out the game. He has enough money to purchase the latest Full-Dive console, but the question was when will this game be released.

His question was quickly answered when his tablet pinged as he checked the latest notification. Much to his surprise, an email was sent to him with the said game! "O-Okay... That was weird. Not to mention a little bit coincidental." He then looked at his TV when he said this, which was now showing the continuation of the wildlife documentary. Looking at the email once more, he began to wonder how did that commercial and this email connected to all of this. He has a lot of questions about this, but...

"It might be suspicious, but if this tested negative on the anti-malware scan, I feel that my Monday nights are going to be interesting." With that, Kyle quickly dressed up and headed over to a nearest computer or game store to pick up a Full-Dive console, which may start his new journey into Terrasphere as the young mage, Jace Vale.

 

"And that's the half time! Corvella will be back after the commercial break!"

Freya went into the kitchen to make some tea after a hour of competitive game streaming, while displaying a sponsored commercial in the stream for the duration of the break. Usually she doesn't watch what commercials her sponsors air in her channel, but she decided to watch them while sipping tea to wait for the second half of the game. Just then something weird happened, the picture blurred and warped out. Seems not to be the part of the commercial. Technical issue?

Few seconds later the picture and the sound becomes clear, revealing a rather familiar person she had seen before in Honeyhome Village. "The mascot girl?" Her eyes widened when the word Terrasphere appeared on the screen. The game wasn't even on the greenlight of the government, how did they manage to air this?

And just like that the commercial ended. Her stream chat exploded with questions and excitement from the audiences. "Corvella do you play it?" "Are you endorsing the game?" "Why haven't I heard this before?" Fortunately, there were not many person that watched the commercial (because most stream watchers went away from keyboard as soon commercial break started anyway) but she imagined this will get viral in a matter of minutes.

"Uh oh."

Freya pretended to not have watched the commercial and resumed her stream. If everyone can find info on Terrasphere and get the game easily, she guess it would be a really big trouble. Especially for her, since she enjoyed her unknown presence in the game. Could she meet the NPC girl again to ask some questions?

Might want to think about that later. Match is getting intense and she is just going to teach those enemies of her to not trash talk.

Not that because her stream is rated PG-13.

 

​

"Ugh..." Another day, another assignment, another groan. Seriously, studying the sophisticated crafting technique that'd shape a Louis-Vuitton exclusive handbag from a sketch to design to the actual physical product was important. She was a Fashion Design student, it was part of the curriculum but damn, the lecturer had no mercy whatsoever, exams, projects, essays, all of them piled up and due next week. In addition to her part-time job as a model, Mai was experiencing in what one may call a 'burnout'. So bad that she couldn't have as much fun hanging out with her friends as before, she needed something... more, something different. Her grades certainly couldn't suffer another hit.

"Haaa..." However, what? Hanging out with friends, partying, shopping, those were all her favorite leisure time yet they didn't quite feel the same anymore. She still loved them of course, she just wanted something entirely revolutionary, was that so hard?! ...Oh yeah, it was. She could try getting into nerdy hobbies, like video games, or table-... tabletop, yeah? But hmm... the last time she tried those kinda games were years ago during middle school, didn't really click with her. She wanted to do something that could satisfy her outgoing preferences, go out, smell the open air. Hiking or skiing maybe? Those could be considered... Ah well, for now, she needed a nice warm bath.

---

Stripping off the last bit of her clothes, the strawberry-blonde college student dipped into her apartment's bathtub then sighed as warmth caressed her skin and tired muscles. "Hmmm..." The girl's long locks, freed from their usual ponytail style, floated on the water as she tilted her head back. "..." She was just starting to close her eyes when her phone buzzed, she picked it up from the counter directly near the tub then checked it out. It wasn't a call, nor a WatUp message, instead, someone sent her an email with a media attached to it. Might be spam, but eh, it wasn't like she could do anything else at the moment.

Opening the email, her phone's screen suddenly died. Oh shit... did it send a virus? She knew she shouldn't have opened it, curiosity killed the gadget. Ah damn it, she must go to the service station now. Then voices began coming out from the speakers, unclear and muffled at first but became progressively crisper. "Huh...?" Something about a silly ad, ad... advertisements? Then bam, a futuristic-looking mascot girl appeared, clad in teal-themed clothes with matching hair and eyes. One of those 'anime' girls... She never knew an advertisement could do this. Was this some kind of new marketing gimmick?

Intrigued, the part-time model kept watching. Live a movie? Be a hero? Oh, venting stress? She was asking the right questions here. About dating here though... sorry, doll, you might be cute but Mai was interested in guys, also, she didn't actually exist, no matter how hard some of those delusional 'otakus' believed these 2D girls to be.

"Hooo..." Meadow, the sky, fantasy battles, was this an offer to play a stage? Someone set up actors and such so you could live out your fantasies. "Terrasphere..." Virtual reality, she saw, aaah... now everything clicked. So this was like that movie, 'The Matrix', but a game instead. "Hmm..." Want or not want? This miiiight just be that different thing she was looking for. She could play around as, let's pick something crazy, a green-haired cat-girl ranger, ha! Could it provide that?

...oh it could alright, that and more.

 

​

‘It had been said that the continuous and parallel developments of both virtual reality devices and the mapping of human brain had led to the accelerated development of artificial intelligence. Even in early examples of media which heavily adopts the virtual reality system, the makings of sophisticated artificial intelligence have already been present. Evidences of ‘Mental Health AI’ had been present in the development notes of Sword Art Online, but after the incident and subsequent shut down of the Virtual Reality Game, traces of those AIs had been lost.’

Sophie looked up from her touchpad and at the projected screen of the smart TV in front of her. She knew that dividing her attention between two parallel medias isn’t the most effective method in comprehending information, but she has pretty much the whole year to finish her thesis. For now, she only need to understand the basic gist about the historic of the development of virtual reality, its neuroscience origins and neurological implications.

It’s a very broad subject, and Sophie knew that. Heck, people around her knew that. Her course advisor even suggested to narrow her research to a few select key words, but for now she didn’t heed his words. In fact, she scoured every media related to the development of virtual reality and its usage, in particularly the infamous SAO incident. This documentary about the development of artificial intelligence is just one of them.

‘Presently, Artificial Intelligence development had reached one of its zenith. While we haven’t been able to truly create fully-human behaviors and decision making from scratch, we can already copy existing human logarithmic functions in order to simulate the person’s characteristics in a limited fashion.’

” Deep diving and virtual ghosts…” Sophie muttered momentarily before peering at her smartphone. The words in the message meant for her formed an address in the city proper: 51 Hartman Street, the last house on the left with a yellow paint. It’s an address that she had known very well. It stretched back to her shameful episode in high school, an address that she hadn’t visited for over 5 years…

The buzzing sound of static coming from her TV set pretty much startled her out of her reminiscence. With a frown, Sophie looked up from her phone screen to a face-to-screen confrontation with the blurry static that now covers the projected screen. There was something wrong.

“There should be twenty minutes of footage left.” Again, Sophie muttered to no one in particular. Perhaps to convince herself that she’s right, and she knew she’s right. In fact, the graphical user interface pretty much confirmed that she’s right.

And yet, she now stands face to face with a familiar-looking green-haired girl. No, she can’t pinpoint where exactly she’d seen the girl in particular, but her face felt familiar somehow. Just what she needed, another nagging feeling that won’t be solved anytime soon.

“Terra…sphere? Virtual reality gaming? But that’s…there’s nothing about it but rumors, isn’t it?”

She unlocked her smartphone from its idle state, only to be greeted by the green-haired girl’s parting message. The message felt increasingly more personal the more Sophie thought about it.

‘See you in there, kay?’

Not long after those words are spoken, the familiar static sound took over once again briefly, before conceding its veritable reign on her TV set back to her academic documentary. The documentary, however, remained paused at the part where it talked about preserving a copy of a human’s behavior, personality, and other simulated information in virtual space. A sort of twisted afterlife where one can stay ‘alive’ even after their physical body’s gone.

By now, Sophie’s natural curiosity had already reached overdrive. To satisfy it, she had tried the method she always did under this circumstances: trying to obtain more information. Before she could do that however, a notification jingle interrupted her actions dead on her track.

She’s got an email. An email titled Terrasphere.

“You’ve got to be kidding me…”

 

Sabine sprawled as best she could across the couch, purposefully taking up as much room as possible to force her father to laugh and give up. He could have the armchair. She was generally quick to return to her small apartment and hole herself away from the world until her next appointment dragged her out, but he'd insisted she come over and try watching a show he had gotten into. He was a bit of a history buff despite working in a field with nothing to do with it. She humored him, Gwyn could wait.

Both hands were held out beseechingly as she whined, waiting for him to pass over the popcorn, before she settled in. It took a fair bit of twisting to lay comfortably without her hip or leg screaming bloody murder. They'd ache horribly afterwards and likely fall asleep halfway through, but it was worth it to see the relief on her father's face. He didn't deserve to suffer along with her. He couldn't help more than he already was offering her rides and helping her out while she was stuck living in the city. He didn't need any more reminding that she'd be sinking further and further into the virtual world to escape the threat of cabin fever driving her mad.

The show played through and Sabine chatted idly back and forth with him as they commented on the alternate historical show's plotline and period details. She didn't know much about it and he was happy to share. As much as they were different, they were very alike. She might have gotten all her stubborn from her military mother, but the refusal to address problems and need to spare others? All him. Neither wanted to admit how lonely they were as they felt like they walked pointless circles in their lives. They kept moving, but getting no where. If her dad could get a bit of the weight off his shoulders carrying on about the economy at the time and how everything should be much more expensive in the show? She didn't mind. Then he started getting into the value of gold and criticizing the decorations on one of the characters. Apparently the set was using fake gold. Something about it being far too heavy.

Before he could get too into his tangent over accuracy, the screen changed suddenly. They had just sat through a commercial break and Sabine scowled at the irritatingly short amount show in between. Until she registered what she was seeing. "Trinity?"

Sabine hauled herself up with a wince, breath momentarily forced from her lungs from the spike of pain, before she focused on the cheery words. Her father was silent where he sat. Neither said a word past her initial namedrop. When it was over and the show popped back on they both watched it blankly for a few minutes. The woman closed her eyes as she heard her father sigh.

"You play that?"

"... yeah."

"That's weird, you know that ri-"

"Yes. Yes, I know that was weird, but-"

"Listen Spitfire, I don't know some of the new tech things you kids do and all, but that- I just. I know things are hard right now and-"

"Papa, please."

"-I know things are going to stay hard for a while, but I don't want you to get into something bad trying to get away from it. I know we don't ever talk about these things, but merde, Sabine!"

"Papa. S'il te plait."

"... I trust you. I trust you to know if something's good for you or not. Just, just promise me you're going to be alright."

She turned the tv off numbly and set her popcorn to the side. When she finally made it home later that night, all she could think about was that he never did get to finish watching the episode. Or telling her how much gold weighed. She'd ask him when they drove to her next physical therapy session. She could text him, help bridge the gap they'd just made, but Gwyn had a quest to get to with ten minutes to spare. Later. There would be time for everything else later.