Recollection 1/5
Welcome to Nu Reality, a cloud based augmented reality software that boasts in its authenticity as a true replica to the real concrete world. This will be your first step to a second chance in a risk-free environment, in which you can choose to live your life differently. Have you wondered what it would be like if you had said yes to that job offer? How about if you did make that trip to the Amazonian rainforest that you were supposed to have taken 2 years ago? How different would you be as a person if you had decided to pursue your dreams as an inventor? A musician? An athlete? Today, our innovative and state of the art software can help you answer those questions.
First, Nu will download zettabytes of your personal memories on to a microchip with your consent. This microchip will then be implanted close to your parietal lobe via a non-invasive procedure in one of our certified clinics. From there, you will pick out two to three defining moments of your life that you deem appropriate. With these selections, we then connect you to our authentic cloud based world environment where you can choose to live out your life differently, risk-free.
We strongly believe that this technology liberates us from one of our most crippling faults as human beings: Doubt. With Nu Reality, you will not be reduced to the endless could-have-been’s that riddles our older generation close to their death today. We strive for a fuller life, to gain access to the complete picture, and to acquire an in-depth revelation of self without having to worry about loss of time or resources.
There is no death in Nu, nor permanent disabilities. Nu is the closest solution our humanity can get to living in a paradise. All you need to do, is to be prepared to have the best sleep of your life for approximately 3 to 5 months. You will wake up refreshed, energized, and with 50 months of life experience and information as to who you really are and what you are capable of. There is absolutely no reason to say no.
Let your mind roam free in an entirely new world with nothing to hold you back. No permanent repercussions, no missed chances, and no missed connections in an environment that our brains perceive to be identical to the real world. So close your eyes and open your heart; and welcome, to your Nu Reality.
-
“…and welcome, to your Nu Reali…” Tiffany turned her TV off while pivoting on her heels to snatch her coffee mug off her kitchen counter. Glancing at the glowing digits hovering over the key hooks near her front door, she took a brisk sip from her mug while trying to get an arm in her jacket. She still had about 5 minutes left before she had to leave for work.
“Yuri, weather report.” Tiffany said out loud while slipping a foot into one of her khaki high heels. The room chirped and then a female voice came alive to reply to her command.
“Good morning, Tiffany. It will be a bit overcast today, so expect a cooler evening after sunset. There is still 12% chance of showers, but an umbrella will not be necessary. A message from your mother came through last night, would you like me to wire it to your cell?”
Tiffany gave herself a quick once-over in her full body mirror by the front door. “That’d be great, thanks.”
“It’s been wired.”
Fluffing up her hair one last time, Tiffany unhooked her car keys from the wall and grabbed her manila clutch from the stand.
“Yuri, lock the door behind me please.”
“Automatic home security system, engaged,” And with that, she was out the front door.
-
Overcast again, Tiffany grumbled to herself underneath her breath while sitting in traffic. She couldn’t remember the last time she saw the shining sun, or felt the warm rays against her skin. If it wasn’t pouring, it was overcast, and clouds that look permanently constipated were killing her vibe.
She tapped her index finger against the steering wheel once, and then twice, before she felt a sudden onset of disturbing unfamiliarity. Her awareness shifted in a way that her train of thought stuck on the topic of the weather- When WAS the last time she had seen the sun? Her eyes glanced at the date display on her vehicle’s main center console. It was mid-July. Her eyes glazed over as she remembered that the last time she saw any form of sunshine was back in March.
Why had she not noticed this before-?
Her car speaker chirped and Yuri’s voice came alive to interject her thoughts.
“Incoming call, Mom. Incoming call, Mom.” Tiffany quickly pressed on the talk button on her center console.
“Hello?”
“Hey, it’s mom. Did you get my message last night?” Tiffany smiled through her guilt at the sound of her mother’s low but sweet voice.
“Sorry! I got in late last night and had my OS wire it to my cell for me to listen to it later. Everything okay?”
“Of course. I just wanted to let you know that there was a slight change of plans for Friday. We switched the reservation from the Spa to that Nu Reality they’ve been advertising so much. Your cousin couldn’t stop raving about it,” Tiffany rolled her eyes, as this wasn’t the first time her cousin was behind a plan that seemed kind of stupid.
“I thought they needed to put you to sleep for like 3 months though?” Tiffany flicked up her turn signal to turn into her office parking lot.
“Oh it’s not for the full treatment. They offer an hour long trial. I know that you don’t think very highly of them- although I have no idea why, but an hour out of your life for your mother can’t be too, too bad. Right?” There was a clear mirth in her mother’s voice. Tiffany loved and resented that tone simultaneously.
“Mom, you could’ve rented a stripper and I’d be down. It’s your birthday, of course I don’t mind.” Her mom let out a jovial laugh at the response, and Tiffany grinned along as she backed in to her parking space.
“I’ll be picking you up at 6 then, we’ll get some dinner after the reserva-” Suddenly, her mother’s voice turned static.
“Mom? Hello?” Tiffany furrowed her brows as garbled noises from her speakers intensified. The static got incrementally louder before the call was abruptly disconnected. Her speakers chirped and Yuri’s voice chimed in.
“The call was dropped. Attempt to reconnect has failed, the recipient’s line is currently off.”
Tiffany let out a short breath before taking her clutch from the passenger seat and getting out of her car. Her mother’s batteries must have died, and she was already running a little late. She could always call her mother back later.
-
Taeyeon’s cell phone vibrated in her back pocket as she climbed the stairs two steps at a time to the third floor. She quickly fished out her phone and saw that it was a text.
‘Near the back, by the windows. I’m the one with the hat, can’t miss me.’
Taeyeon sped up to a light jog and pushed open the glass door to an old looking café. The smell of fresh ground coffee beans and weak spices of brewed tea permeated her senses as she flitted her eyes towards the back corner of the café.
A girl with dark shoulder length hair and a simple navy baseball cap pushed down to her eye brows waved at her. Taeyeon gave a slight wave back and weaved through the tables to plop down across from her company.
The woman extended her hand towards Taeyeon, which she gladly took.
“Thank you so much for meeting me today,” Taeyeon clasped her other hand on top of the other woman’s knuckles. “I really appreciate it. Very few people actually replied back to my classified ad, and the other 29 of them who did, most of them were pranks.”
The woman gave a meek smile. “I can imagine why they wouldn’t reply in the first place. It’s umm…” She moistened her chapped lips quickly before finishing with, “Tricky.”
Taeyeon gave a nod of understanding and took a big gulp out of the glass of ice water already sitting on a coaster in front of her. It felt like it was a thousand degrees outside, and while the air conditioning indoors helped immensely, her original jog to make it to this place, didn’t. But she could fathom what Yoona was talking about, other candidates with fruitful interviews that she’s had, had a difficult time explaining to her what really happened.
“My name is Yoona.”
“Hi Yoona, I’m Taeyeon.”
“I know. Nice to meet you in person though,” Yoona took a sip from her own iced coffee through a straw. “But before we start… Can I ask you why this is important to you?”
She wouldn’t let it show on her face so easily, but Taeyeon began to fidget with her fingers underneath the table and out of Yoona’s line of sight. She wanted to be honest, but she didn’t want to bare all in the process- she wasn’t even sure if Yoona was the real deal yet.
“Someone close to me is stuck in the same situation that you were in,” Taeyeon tightened her fidgeting hands into tight fists as she saw Yoona’s eyes narrow. “I need to help them.”
There was an awkward and pregnant pause between them, and Taeyeon made no further effort to fill the silence. Understanding that she wasn’t going to get more out from Taeyeon, Yoona dropped her eyes back into her coffee and propped up herself with her elbows on the table.
“All right, then,” Yoona relented, and stirred her coffee around with her straw. “Let me start by saying that whatever I tell you, stays between us. When I got out of there, I signed a non-disclosure agreement form, and that means whatever I’m about to do right now, they can sue my ass to hell for. Okay?”
Taeyeon swallowed hard. “Okay.”
“Good. So, I was a Nu member back 3 years ago. The ads are everywhere nowadays, so you know the drill- you go to sleep for like 5 months, tops, and you come out of it a NU,” Yoona accompanied the word with a rather sarcastic action of finger air quotes. “-person. Well, I didn’t wake up. I was out for about a year, that’s almost 10 years, my time, in here,” She tapped her fingers to her temple to emphasize.
“For the first 5 years of Nu-time, it really was paradise. I had a feeling that I should wake up pretty soon after that, and I was a bit weirded out when it didn’t happen for a while. But life was still good in there, and I imagine my family was having a harder time than I was at that stage. I was due to wake up, but I just wasn’t. Now you know the gist of this story up until this point, right?” Yoona asked, and Taeyeon nodded more eager than she would’ve liked. It didn’t seem to faze Yoona.
“The system wasn’t letting me go. It wasn’t letting me wake up. It basically wanted to make my brain its pudding and absorb it,” Taeyeon bit her lip unconsciously at Yoona’s hard declaration. “That’s how the AI keeps you inside. It takes bits and pieces away from you, from your real self, to make you conform to the standard of its existing ‘Sims’ in the program. That’s why I couldn’t come back. I couldn’t remember my real name.”
“What…? I’m.. I’m sorry, I don’t understand. What do you mean, AI? Conform to their what?” Taeyeon’s interruption was weak, and her voice was shaky at this revelation, but she had to be completely sure what she was dealing with. Yoona let out an exasperated sigh.
“There’s an Artificial Intelligence installed on the Nu-World. It only shows up when you call its name. But that’s not really the most important part. The Nu Reality experience is so damn immersive; you really lose a sense of your real self in there. You start to forget another world ever existed, you start to forget who you were before. And that’s when the system glitches to lock you in. It thinks, because you lost your real identity, then you MUST be a part of their programming, and the kill-switch for you to wake up, disappears.”
Taeyeon felt a bead of cold sweat trickling down her back, but her face expression remained stoic and almost defiant. “Is this just your theory of what happened or…?”
Yoona smirked, her face breaking into a positive expression for the first time they sat down together. “No theories. That IS what happened,” She then rummaged inside her jacket pocket for a simple metallic grey business card and presented it to Taeyeon to take. It read, ‘Yoona Im, Front End Developer and Matrix Coordinator, Nu Reality’. Taeyeon snapped her head up to meet Yoona’s smiling eyes and opened her mouth to say something, but no sound came out. Yoona seemed thoroughly bemused.
“I know I’m right, Taeyeon. I coded the damn thing.”
Another large bubble of silence enveloped them both as Taeyeon dropped her gaze to the business card once more. Her ears suddenly felt plugged, and all she could hear were the blood rushing straight to her head.
This could be the first real breakthrough that she needed.
Yoona let her have her moment as she rested her back on her chair as she took a long sip of her watered down coffee. The brim of her cap cast an almost ominous shadow from the blazing sun just outside the window.
“How…” Taeyeon began, and Yoona broke out of her brief introspection. She returned her attention back to her company. “How did you get out? How did you wake up?” Yoona could see a glimmer of something that looked an awful lot like hope in Taeyeon’s eyes.
Yoona rested a beat before responding.
“I died. Traffic accident.”
-
Taeyeon sunk into her sofa in front of her animated television screen. Yoona had to go back into work, but they had exchanged numbers before parting ways.
“Message me. We’ll set up another date to talk, I want to help you.”
That’s what Yoona had said to her. There were still no many questions that was left unanswered, and so many new questions that were raised in the process. It felt like she was back to square one.
Pulling a blanket over her shoulder and bringing her knees in close, Taeyeon mushed herself into the corner of her sofa. She then reached back to undo the elastic that had her ash-blonde hair in a messy bun, before letting her eyes shut to yet again, another Nu Reality commercial on TV. Bright lights flashed behind her closed eyelids, and she could hear the soothing voice-over of the Nu Reality commercial on low volume.
“…There is no death in Nu, nor permanent disabilities. Nu is the closest solution our humanity can get to living in a paradise…”