+ + +
Kiu's first impression upon opening her eyes was that she didn't recognize this room.
She was in an unfamiliar bed with an unfamiliar pillow.
It had a distinct smell, and Kiu couldn't help but subconsciously process it.
The human nose was a strange thing. The scent was right in her face, and humans couldn't really shut their nostrils from willpower alone. She felt like she was sinking into a pit of hazardous quicksand while smothered in an ensnaring fog of luxurious fluff. The odor was somewhat musky, but it also smelled vaguely of citrus — pomegranates in particular.
...Or perhaps a hint of some herbal shampoo.
Kiu couldn't pinpoint precisely which of the two it was.
The pillow, however, had a nice texture.
She laid there sinking into a metaphorical puddle, floating atop a nice cloud.
She sleepily closed her eyes and almost dozed off again.
+ + +
A little bit later, Kiu eventually stirred back from her residual drowsiness.
Then, the sudden realization hit — that it probably wasn't a good thing to wake up in a stranger's bed.
After all, for all she knew, as a girl...
—Wait.
Was it he or she right now?
+ + +
There was a brief moment of confusion as Kiu's hands groggily fumbled underneath the blanket to ascertain a few facts.
They immediately encountered a pair of soft lumps of flesh.
...The verdict was clearly female.
+ + +
At first, Kiu wasn't sure whether to feel relieved or concerned.
Kiu's brain was still spinning somewhat slowly, and it took a few moments for her to process this information. Clearly, she wasn't entirely awake yet. However, a distant faraway part of her conscience seemed to ring alarm bells that something was deeply wrong about this picture.
It felt vaguely urgent, yet Kiu felt so relaxed and comfortable in her present state. Surely it wasn't a big deal, right?
This was virtual reality.
Virtual reality was extremely safe. Users could disconnect at any moment, so there wasn't any worry of getting involved with dangerous people. Kiu could log off simply by willing it. There were certainly spicier parts of the Internet that existed, but Kiu was under eighteen and the mature features of her account were disabled to begin with. Auto-censorship was a common feature of most virtual reality servers, and it existed to protect minors and ward off unwelcome digital harassment.
In theory, there wasn't any problem waking up like this, but the feeling was still very odd.
Kiu struggled to penetrate the sleepy fog that still clouded over her brain.
She was still slightly troubled by the fact that she didn't remember exactly how she had ended up in this unfamiliar bed...
+ + +
As the black-haired girl pulled herself up to a sitting position, she struggled to recall the last sequence of events in her memories.
Vaguely, she remembered something about going to help @Kurotora2's staff at the 「Historica 1900」 server, as they had been rushing to complete the restoration of the Schloss Leopoldskron mansion by his impending deadline. The Austrian prime minister was visiting the server in a few days, so the server staff was in a frenzy to complete some of the previously unfinished exhibits.
Kiu wasn't entirely sure how she managed to get herself roped into such a troublesome activity that had nothing to do with herself, but it had been more than a week since she first met the odd purple-eyed man in Austria before the scenic backdrop of the snowy Eastern Alps. Of course, she had declined the part-time job, as Kiu had no such need for money, but she had returned once or twice more to the dreary city of Salzburg later in the week. @Kurotora2 had given her a 「Teleport」 pass to use on the server, so Kiu felt it was somewhat obligatory to show up at least a few times to repay the favor.
However, something didn't quite add up with Kiu's present situation.
+ + +
The black-haired girl glanced around the room she was in, and it was plainly adorned — most probably a man's bedroom. Kiu had read enough manga to recognize that it was a Japanese-style arrangement, no larger than 6 tatami mats1In Japanese culture, it was common to measure apartment space by "tatami mats" as opposed to square meters or square feet. A six-mat room is roughly equivalent to 9.18 sqm or 98.8 sqft. in size. There was a small table on the floor, a bookshelf against the wall, and she was currently resting on a thickly padded futon.
She was entirely alone.
The room itself betrayed nothing suspicious.
Kiu concentrated for a few moments, and her brow furrowed into a thick crease.
A few seconds later, she identified the source of her uneasiness.
It was the vividness of the smells and odors.
They were almost so real that she hadn't even realized that it was a virtual simulation, and it had completely thrown her off.
The 「The Earth Project」 servers ran virtual reality engines that were simply too primitive for this. As an open-source and publicly-funded project, the 「Wikimedia Foundation」 favored low-cost servers that could easily scale on their limited budget. They employed technology that was over two hundred years old, but it fulfilled the organization's narrow educational objectives perfectly well.
Random features like highly realistic olfactory simulation didn't exist on the 「Historica 1900」 server. Actually, a majority of virtual reality servers online didn't bother simulating such a superfluous thing. It was a waste of computational power, which incidentally translated into a waste of money.
Rather, this vivid sense of smell was more reminiscent of 「Magnolia」-type technology servers. After all, MagnoliaCorp was previously famous for their mission statement to "make virtual reality indistinguishable from reality" — regardless of the cost. Incidentally, the operating costs for server clusters like 「Magnolia Online」 or 「Q's Server」 were exorbitantly expensive, costing millions every year even though only a relatively small area of virtual space could be simulated.
In either case, Kiu could tell right away that she wasn't on any server from 「The Earth Project」 or elsewhere online.
But... how had she ended up here?
+ + +
"Awake now?" A male voice came from behind her casually.
It gave Kiu a jolt, and she twisted her torso around to face the source.
There was a man — @Kurotora2 — leaning against the entryway of the bedroom. He had apparently come from the adjacent corridor, although she hadn't heard his footsteps at all. The door was positioned exactly 180 degrees behind her, so Kiu spun around in the futon to put herself in a more natural position.
Was it reasonable to assume that he was the cause for all of this?
"Um... it's you," she said.
"Sorry that I moved you without asking. You fell asleep in an awkward crooked position back in the library, and I was afraid you'd wake up with a sore neck." He folded his arms and shifted slightly, a look of concern on his eyes. "Seriously, you like passed out cold. Almost thought you died or something... Also, you look like shit. You shouldn't force yourself to come next time if you're a walking zombie. I mean, I appreciate the thought, but you're basically useless to me like this. It probably isn't healthy to use the VR console so sleep deprived, anyways."
"Um... how is this even possible?"
Kiu ignored Kuro's crude remarks about her sleeping habits.
The purple-eyed man tilted his head for a moment, not comprehending what Kiu was asking.
The black-haired girl was referring to the fact that it should have been impossible for him to move her from the 「Historica 1900」 server to this place. That was a security risk. Only the user themselves could control which servers they visited. Although moderators and admins could kick people from their servers, they couldn't forcibly send them to an entirely new address.
"I mean..." she tried to clarify herself. "How did you move me from the 「Historica 1900」 server?"
Kurotora2 gradually seemed to get the gist of what she was talking about.
"Oh!" His eyes flashed. "Actually, you're still on 「Historica 1900」! There's this interesting hack I came up with."
"H-Huh?"
"Check your address bar. You're still inside the 「Historica 1900」 domain name."
...Indeed, that was truly the case.
+ + +
"But I don't get it. This definitely isn't a server from 「The Earth Project」."
"It's not an official one, but there's a way to tie multiple servers into the same cluster node. Normally it's done for load balancing, but this way you can avoid the cross-origin restrictions, and even run different engines on a single host. In either case, this room is my personal 「MicroMagnolia」 instance. Costs a couple hundred bucks a month for a tiny space the size of a small apartment, but totally worth it when you need an impromptu office, especially now that the 「Wikimedia Foundation」 is paying for it."
"..."
"It's pretty useful, right? When you're pulling an all-nighter and stuff, it's really nice to be able to go next door and crash someplace comfy. I had the idea to lend it as a staff room for the server."
Kiu was still slightly speechless. She hadn't expected this at all.
+ + +
"...How did you even get permission for this?"
"Oh me?" Kurotora looked quizzical again. "I didn't tell you this before? I'm the current vice-president of the 「Wikimedia Foundation」."
Kiu's jaw dropped.
The dark-haired man raised his eyebrows with slight bemusement.
"Don't look so surprised though. It's honestly just a glorified job title for tech support. I actually only work part-time."
"..."
The black-haired girl was completely expressionless.
"You're the vice president the 「Wikimedia Foundation」?" Kiu repeated blankly, still slightly incredulous.
"Yes, that's right."
"Aren't you... like... a homeless nineteen-year-old college dropout who gets an allowance from his parents to pay the phone bills?"
"..."
"..."
"Where the hell did you even get that impression?"
"I thought @Johasia7 said..."
"I'm twenty-three, I have my own apartment, and I did complete my college degree," @Kurotora2 interrupted her with emphatic displeasure.
"Oh, my bad."
"...Fuck."
"What?"
"Nothing... just forget it."
"Oh... sorry..."
"..."
∎
Thanks for the chapter.
Thank you for reading!
So this chapter was a bit odd to write. I started out wanting to do a Halloween release, but somehow it drifted into something else entirely.
This past week I discovered a bunch of otoge, so basically my head is full of smut. Perhaps this chapter suffered because of that — in this sense that maybe I was craving something vaguely promiscuous even though there's absolutely no reason for such a thing in the plot. The product is something definitely wayyyy premature and half-baked, and it has so little impact the way it's presented here.
But now that it's written, I suppose we'll have to roll with it. Darn! What happened to all the theme I was trying develop? I guess this is one of the sad points about being a writer who is too easily influenced by their everyday mood... does anyone else have problems with this? It's so hard for me to maintain a consistent voice!
Chapter releases are slowing down. I need to work harder at my job/school IRL, so I'm not writing every day anymore. Currently my goal is hit two releases per week (once over the weekends and one in the middle of the week).
As always, looking for feedback! Feed ohko feedback! I'll make sure to scratch your back! (...I'm horrible, I know.......)
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