“The Blue are… different than anyone else.”

- Index of intelligent species.

***V.C.***

***Antioch***

I open my eyes. It takes a while to orient myself, to comprehend what’s going on. Scanning the area with my eyes, I remember. I am back in the V.C., lying on the same bed in which I already awoke once. Though, a few things are different.

This time, the endless plane around me is made out of grey cobblestone. A few little hills are gently curving up and down, making the horizon less boring.

Inspecting myself, I note that I am still in my demon body, and not in the human one in which I visited this place first. I sigh, having hoped for a more human-like body. But no, I feel my tail wriggling beneath the bedsheets. It will take a while to get used to it.

After getting up, I inspect the grey suit in which I woke up. It’s clearly not one of Silith’s special designs, but looks fine enough.

“And so we meet again!”

Scowling, I turn around and glare at the owner of the voice, Admin. Instead of having a flashy entrance, he simply appeared this time. No light show, no wings. “What do you want,” I ask darkly. “Don’t waste my time, I won’t go through any doors.”

“Wohoo!” Admin raises his hands. He kept his annoyingly perfect, androgynous features. “No harm done! Though, you will understand if am going to try to get you back for shoving that splinter up my nose. I am still a little miffed about that.”

“Just get on with it.” I cross my arms in front of my chest. It would be very satisfying to rip this guy apart, but it probably won't work. “I am not exactly fond of your companionship.”

He raises a finger and waggles it. “That’s what you should reconsider. You see, even if your people keep your Hardware Backup fed and supplied with everything it needs, it will still take two weeks for it to regrow. That’s plenty of time for us to get to know each other. I am sure that, once you get the whole picture, you might even consider taking my offer.”

Admin waves his hand flamboyantly through the air. “Just imagine! I could set you up in a world of your choosing, you can even have Silith and the others at your side.”

“Just leave me alone, asshole. I don’t want to be caught inside your dreamworld. What’s so hard to understand about that?” I shake my head. “Something must have gone wrong when they downloaded you to this place. Is it really that incomprehensible to you that there might be people who have no interest in what you are offering?”

He tilts his head, apparently in self-contemplation. “To be honest, yes, it is. I am offering you pleasure and eternal life without any worries. Why wouldn’t you take it?”

Luckily, I had some time to think of an answer since I last met him. “Because a life like that doesn’t have any meaning. You are just sitting in the sun, hoping that nobody pulls out the seat from under your ass. As far as I am concerned, the V.C. is nothing more than a refuge for people who refuse to fight for their survival.”

“It’s the pinnacle of human inventiveness!”

“And you are using it without understanding it!” I declare. “Or are you one of the Blue? Did you have any part in creating the V.C., other than having your mind uploaded? You are just a child who is playing around with his dad’s admin-account!”

I have no idea what I just said or why it should be offending, but Samuel advised me to do so, and it seems to be working.

Admin gapes at me like a fish who was forced out of his pond. “You have no idea who you are insulting! The last time, I thought about playing nice. I thought it isn't necessary to convince you! Just wait! We have a lot of time on our hands and I made a few adjustments to this space.”

Surprisingly, we get interrupted by a flash of light from above us. The both of us look up in surprise, timely enough to witness a buxom female with straw-coloured hair materialising above Admin.

For a moment, she hangs still in the air, flashing us a perfect glimpse at outrageously thin panties. The leather skirt is too short and the frilly shirt sits a little too tight around her chest. I can’t help myself and gawk at the godly scene.

Slowly, the physics of this world take over and she starts falling, planting her perfect butt in Admin’s face. My chosen archenemy was also a little too busy savouring the moment. His failure in evading the beauty turns him into a softening cushion for her fall as they crumble to the ground.

Sighing, she sits up. “That went better than expected!”

Admin’s screams are muffled beneath her butt as he claws at her, trying to get her off, but for some reason, she seems to be an immovable weight.

His hands are swatted away by the back of her hand without a second thought. She even crosses her legs, trying to get comfortable as she runs a finger through the air, manipulating some invisible controls. “Ah, I see. He managed to offset some of the Buffer Zone’s settings. I logged in just in time. Probably he intended to hurt you, had you not obeyed him.”

She smiles and looks up at me. “I assumed that something like this would happen. He must be desperate to even try. One should never enter an agreement with the Cybers. They pay well but react badly when the terms aren’t met. When you said that he mentioned working for a third party, we had to make plans in case you got yourself killed.”

The fight slowly leaves Admin and he tries to hit the woman. His fists impact her flesh but do no damage and the blonde doesn't even seem inconvenienced. Finally, his hands drop to the ground and he starts twitching.

“He clearly used his connections to gain a few more rights than he should have had. Luckily I kept my rights and overruled him. Changing the settings alone will get him banned, but it’s clear that he also intended to force you into an action you refused to take. That’s restriction of free will and is punishable by re-education. Probably that’s the last we will see of him, but not of his kind.”

G.O.D.: Congratulations! You played a part in a hidden quest, “Clear the Corruption!” G.O.D.: You are rewarded with a new skill of your choosing.

After a while, I got so used to these messages that I started ignoring most of them. The quest must have belonged to the woman. I blink the boxes away and concentrate on the buxom beauty. Admin doesn’t seem to be a problem at this point, as he is a twitching mess beneath her. This virtual reality seems to render the loss of oxygen quite accurately.

“Do I know you?”

She looks down at herself and pats the side of her head. “Oh, silly me. This is my old avatar. Wait for a second!” She closes her eyes and her whole figure starts wobbling, turning insubstantial. Wary of this visual effect, I step back, watching as her body shrinks and loses its womanly features.

Moments later, the woman is replaced with a demon-girl who looks exactly like Minerva. She smiles and waves at me, her tail wagging behind her. “Hi, Dad!”

I cough, feeling like spitting blood. I was checking out my own daughter! “Minerva! What are you doing here!?”

“Saving your butt.” She gets up and straightens her white, one-piece dress. This time, her clothes are modestly covering her whole body. “Sam and I built a V.R.-Chamber. We needed some way to communicate with the rest of the Lifers. The other factions aren’t the only ones who can cheat a little.” She gestures at Admin, and I feel a pang of pity for him.

His eyes are turned up in their sockets, revealing only the white in his eyes. Though, the white froth in front of his mouth seems a little exaggerated. “What a way to go… being smothered to death by a butt.”

Min clears her throat. “Well, at least this gives us the opportunity to show you some of the V.C. while your body regrows.”

I narrow my eyes at her. “How do I know that this isn’t some kind of trick?” I point at Admin. “He could be trying to play mindgames with me.”

“Hum, Hum. Very good! You are getting an idea how this world works.” Min nods appreciatively. “But no worries, we have a way to prove that this is real.” She flicks a finger and Sam appears next to her. Seeing him, she scowls. “Aw! What!? Where is Silith? She was supposed to get into the second pot. You ruined the surprise.”

“Sorry! I just calibrated it. Had to make sure that everything works correctly. We just have four capsules after all.” He disappears.

I turn my attention back to Minerva, raising an eyebrow. “Seriously? You’ve built a way to communicate with the V.C. without telling us? I thought the V.C. is supposed to be a closed off virtual space which doesn’t interfere with reality.”

“Hah!” She crosses her arms in front of her chest. “That’s not what it’s supposed to be. At least not in the beginning.” She points at me. “It was supposed to be a place to have fun. To escape reality, never to replace it. Interaction between the realities was an essential part of the idea behind it.” She snorts. “But the V.C. is hard to explain. That’s another reason for building these capsules. To show you, Silith and Lisandra the V.C.”

She gets interrupted when Silith appears next to her. Upon seeing me, Silith jumps into my arms, wrapping her legs around me and curling her tail around my leg. “You did it! You did it! We got away and you are fine!”

That’s when I remember why I am here in the first place. I have no memories after I went kamikaze on the other ship. The world simply ended as far as I was concerned.

Upon establishing our unique connection, I am sure that it’s her. I hug her back and smile. “I am glad that you and the others are okay.”

I put her down when a third person clears her throat and I notice Lisandra next to Min. Her cheeks are flushed and she twiddles her thumbs, embarrassed. “We could do this later when you had some time for each other.”

“Nonsense! We have just a few days until his Hardware Backup causes him to wake up. Until then we have to show you at least a bit of our world. But before that...” She looks down at admin. “We need to get ourselves a guide and this filth has to be gone.” Her fingers dance through the air as she interacts with something invisible. “I hope she didn’t get bored and left her station. Jill is a little fickle, but one of the most sociable Blue I know.”

Lisandra looks down at Minerva. “A Blue? You said that your colleague will help us. The other admin.”

“Yes, yes. She is a Blue and an admin.”

As if on cue, there is a ripple in space and something floats through. It’s an amorphous humanoid without a defined gender. Her- its features are in constant flux. One moment, the body seems to be a window, showing a scene of countless stars and nebulas. The next, it’s a figure of turquoise glass. Another, it seems to be a human woman with godlike features, then a mist-like cloud.

The voice is equally disconcerting, seemingly produced by a chorus of voices. “Minerva, you are back. That’s good. I was getting a little bored.”

“Hey, Jill! Good to see you too. I am glad that you didn’t find a more interesting occupation while I was gone.” Min offers a hand to the newcomer, and a squid-like tentacle appears out of the cloud to shake it. “Um, could you settle down for one form? Just for a while?”

“No. I am studying human reactions in relation to outside stimuli. This is the perfect chance, having three totally uncontaminated specimen at hand.”

“I hope it isn’t talking about us,” I mumble.

Min looks at me apologetically. “Sorry, but Jill is one of the sanest Blue you can find. I would like to say that she is a Lifer and on our side, but it would be more accurate to say that she is a hired hand.” She returns her attention to Jill. “Would you take care of that?” She points at Admin. “I think you will find the Logs interesting.”

Jill flickers through several forms before she floats over to admin, having chosen the form of a humanoid being made out of fluorescent lights. She touches Admin and with a flash of light, he is simply gone. “It will take a while before his presence muddles our auras again.”

Min claps her hands together and smiles. “Great! Now, how about giving the youngsters a tour? The Lifers will pay.”