I kept glancing at the young woman who seemed to stare at me from across the room. Aaron laughed it off and led me up to an empty chair, the dim lights casting eerie shadows around us.
"Alright, Eli," he said, his voice taking on a more serious tone. "You know my glasses, right?"
I nodded. "Yeah, you called it AR?"
"Exactly," Aaron replied. "That's Augmented Reality. It's a layer of digital information over what you see. VR, or Virtual Reality, is a few steps deeper than that. I have AR goggles at home. Deep Dive VR is full emersion and well isn't exactly...common, or allowed in our city." He gave me a conspiratorial wink.
I looked confused as Aaron helped me sit down and positioned a strange hat-like device on my head. "Regular VR, like goggles and gloves, is normal. That actually might have been the better thing to start with. But we are here, and this...this is way deeper. Now lay back and wait for it to map you." He tapped his watch to the display, and my brain felt fuzzy as if I were submerged underwater.
Trying to speak, the words came out garbled, a mess of syllables. My brain felt sluggish, random sensations pulsing through my body. Aaron shook his head. "Wait. Don't talk. It takes a few minutes."
So I obeyed. I closed my eyes, letting the sensations subside. The odd taste that formed in my mouth was almost metallic but sweet at the same time. Something dinged inside my head, and I opened my eyes to see Aaron smiling reassuringly.
"Okay," he said, "I'm going to activate this now. You'll feel weird. Just close your eyes and wait for me. This will take a few seconds for me to catch up to you." He pressed something on the pad, and my head fell back, my vision tunneling into darkness as another strange sensation filled my body. I tried to open my eyes, but all I saw was a strange grid and a pale light.
"Is this normal?" I thought, my heart racing with anticipation and fear.
Panic rose within me as I stared at the blank blobs that were supposed to be my arms. My breathing grew shallow, and I felt a cold sweat break out on my forehead. I think that's my forehead. It doesn't quite feel like mine. This wasn't what I had expected, and it scared me.
Suddenly, a door materialized out of nowhere, accompanied by Aaron's voice. "Okay, buddy, you need to allow a link-up. I'll walk you through." Desperate for some sense of control, I scrambled towards the door, willing it to open with all my might. With a creak, the door gave way, revealing Aaron on the other side, looking just as strange as everything else in this bizarre grid space.
"Oh, I forgot what blank slates looked like," he said, an amused smile playing on his lips. I tried to speak, to ask him what was going on, but my voice failed me once again. Aaron seemed to understand my confusion. "I can't give you a mirror to show you how you look right now. I'll take a snapshot and show you at home."
Determined for guidance, I focused on Aaron as he made shapes with his hands. "For now, let's make a basic avatar to not waste time and money," he said, conjuring a mass of text around me. "Can I give you a basic build on the custom bio method?"
I willed myself to speak, and finally, a sound came out: "Yes." Relief washed over me as Aaron clicked some buttons, and I watched my hands take shape. They looked strange – flat, almost puppet-like. As I examined them, Aaron spoke up. "Good enough. This isn't your personal account, anyway. It's just a guest account. Ready to go?"
I nodded, feeling my head move and not move. "Yes," I said in a voice that didn't quite sound like my own.
Aaron pointed, and another door appeared before us. "Let's do a quick tutorial level," he said. I willed myself forward, my heart pounding in anticipation. Glancing down, I realized my legs were missing. Panic surged through me, but then I noticed that I was still able to move forward without them. As we stepped through the door, I gasped.
Dozens of things surrounded us – objects I couldn't even begin to name. The colors were brighter than any I'd ever seen, the smells intoxicating, and the textures called out for me to touch them. Aaron grinned at my awe. "This is just a taste of what you can experience in the virtual world," he explained. "Try walking up to the table and pick things up."
Somehow, walking was becoming easier. As I approached the table, I saw a gun, a knife, and a board with wheels. Picking them up one by one, each felt real and solid in my hands. The weight and texture of each item left me astounded. Was this truly not reality?
"Great job!" Aaron encouraged me. "Now, follow me to an area where you can use full motion." He led me over a line on the floor, and immediately, he floated into the air, moving effortlessly through suspended loops. Eager to join him, I willed myself to follow. To my amazement, it worked!
I soared through the air, feeling free and unencumbered. This was nothing like the AR glasses Aaron had given me to try on in the truck a few days ago. It felt like my body was truly my own, yet I knew it wasn't. I could hardly wrap my head around it all.
"Ready to explore the world?" Aaron asked, floating beside me. I shrugged, unsure if I could ever be truly ready for something so extraordinary. But he took my shrug as a yes, and we continued onward.
Aaron guided me down to the ground, and with a few hand movements, he conjured another door. "This was the art we made last time," he said, grinning sheepishly. "It didn't rank, but I personally think it's pretty. I'm kinda proud of it."
As Aaron stepped through the door, his body shifted into a different form. Curiosity piqued, I willed my own body through the threshold and gasped at the breathtaking world that unfolded before me.
I found myself standing in an ancient, whispering forest, enveloped by the magic that seemed to radiate from every leaf and flower. The trees, gnarled and wise, stretched their branches skyward, creating archways that beckoned me further into this mystical realm. Beneath my feet, the ground felt soft and inviting, a tapestry of lush moss and luminescent flowers that illuminated my path with a gentle glow.
"Isn't it amazing?" Aaron asked, his voice filled with excitement. I could only nod in agreement, too awestruck by the beauty surrounding us to find the words.
We ventured deeper into the forest, intrigued by the sounds of rustling leaves and distant, alluring melodies. Suddenly, a wolf crossed our path. Startled, I took a step back, but Aaron reassured me. "Don't worry, he's friendly."
Several foxes darted around us, their playful antics drawing an involuntary smile from my lips. Fairies fluttered nearby, delicate wings leaving trails of sparkling light. As we walked, I marveled at the vividness of this virtual realm and how I could feel the softness of the moss beneath my feet and the gentle breeze on my skin.
"Can you believe we made this?" Aaron asked, his voice full of pride. "It's incredible, isn't it? It's too bad we didn't rank with it. But I have a good feeling for the latest art project we did."
I nodded, still struggling to find the words to express the wonder I felt. The beauty of this world was captivating.
The forest thinned, and I found myself standing on the edge of a charming village that looked as if it had been lifted straight from the pages of a storybook. Thatched cottages with cozy plumes of smoke wafting from their chimneys lined the cobblestone streets, and villagers in traditional garb bustled about, their welcoming smiles warming my heart.
"Isn't this something?" Aaron exclaimed, his eyes shining with pride. "Just wait until you meet the villagers. I experimented with large language models for predictive and reactive speech."
As we walked toward the village center, groups of villagers approached us, their faces open and friendly. One woman, her arms covered in flour, beckoned for me to join her at a table where she was kneading dough. "Come, try your hand at baking bread," she said, her voice rich and melodic.
"Go ahead," Aaron urged, grinning. "It's all part of the experience."
I hesitated for a moment, then plunged my hands into the soft dough, feeling the sticky mixture between my fingers. The sensation was so real it was hard to believe I was still in a virtual world.
The woman smiled at me. "You are good at this; do you want to learn more things?"
I glanced at Aaron, who shook his head no. I shook my head and returned to Aaron's side.
"Look!" Aaron pointed toward the horizon, where a mist-enshrouded castle loomed in the distance. Its towering spires cast long, mysterious shadows, and I felt a thrill of anticipation course through me.
We moved through the forest towards the castle. The magical creatures danced around us. As we went further, dusk fell, and the forest transformed before my eyes. The stars above sparkled with an intensity that seemed otherworldly, and the moon's silver light bathed everything in a surreal, dreamlike quality. The clouds completely disappeared as we approached the castle, revealing a valley of haunting beauty ending in what looked like a giant lake at the end.
"Wow," I whispered, mesmerized by the beauty surrounding us.
"Right?" Aaron agreed, his eyes reflecting the starlight. "I told you this place was amazing. Sadly, we didn't have a chance to finish the castle itself, so I guess it was far to not rank since it was unfinished."
Aaron pointed to a field of flower bushes, and we moved there.
"Watch this," Aaron said, grinning mischievously. He waved his hand, and a cascade of vibrant, glowing butterflies erupted from the underbrush, swirling around us like a living kaleidoscope.
"Whoa!" I exclaimed, reaching out to touch one. It fluttered onto my fingertip, its delicate wings pulsing with iridescent light. "This is incredible, Aaron."
It felt like I'd spent a whole day wandering through the ethereal countryside. When we finished the loop, we arrived back at the village. I looked at Aaron, searching for words. "This is amazing," I stammered, my voice not quite my own. "I haven't seen anything this beautiful or gorgeous before. I can't explain how fantastical this feels."
Aaron smiled, his eyes alight with pride. "Well, in general, this is an unfinished world. We only have the procedurally generated world based on our parameters. That was what made us not rank last time. That's why in our latest one, we focused on making a dedicated world for demonstration purposes."
As he spoke, he formed a shape with his hand, and a display appeared before us. "We've been in deep dive VR for about 25 minutes total. We still have some time on the prepaid session. Want to do a scenario? Not in this world, another one?"
"Twenty-five minutes?" My voice rose incredulously. "It felt so much longer than that." The countdown on the display showed we had just over half an hour left. Excitement bubbled within me. "Yes! Show me more!"
"Okay," Aaron grinned. "I'll show you my favorite world. We'll do one of my favorite short scenarios." He made a shape with his hands, and a door materialized in front of us.
"Ready?" His voice was a mixture of excitement and anticipation. I nodded, eager for whatever awaited us on the other side.