"This is awesome," Jon said as he sipped his coke. "Let's check out the rest of the house."
"Okay," Karyn agreed as they stepped into the hallway. The lights in Jon's room turned off as they left the room and in the hallway they came on. "Cool..."
"Not so much," Jon said, thinking it paled in comparison to the replicator. "Bill Gates already has the same setup." The living room was quite different, consisting of a collection of unusual chairs, almost like the ones at the dentist's office, aligned in a row. Jon examined one, finding a seat belt installed, although the chair itself didn't appear to be mobile.
"What're these?" Karyn asked.
"Well," Jon muttered as he thought it over, "No TV... Maybe this is some kind of virtual reality device? Yeah, like in the Matrix!"
"Hopefully less depressing," Karyn said as she remembered the movie.
Jon didn't bother responding, his mind was so far off by that point. "Let's fire it up!"
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Karyn asked, eying the seat belts. "What if we can't come out?"
"Oh, we'll be able to come out," Jon scoffed as he sat down and set his coke in a drink holder. "They wouldn't make it into a trap. Besides, my family will come home at some point and get us out if we can't on our own."
"I guess," she admitted, sitting in the chair beside him. "So, what do we do?"
"Uh..." Jon studied the chair. "Well, there are seat belts, so..." he fastened himself in and a control panel grew on the armrest. Must be a safety feature, he thought as Karyn copied his actions.
"Now what?" she asked.
"Uh..." He tapped the large green button and gasped as large black letters appeared in the air: WELCOME TO PARADISE (version 4.3526177) "Hit the green button," he mumbled to Karyn.
The screen changed:
VR-2 RECOGNIZED
JOIN PARTY?
"Yes," he said, realizing it meant Karyn. The machine did not respond, and he instead thought: Yes. The text vanished and a list appeared in its place.
INTERNAL:
JONROOM1
JONROOM2
MIRANDAROOM1
PAULROOM1
FAMILY
EXTERNAL:
GOVANNOUN
EMERGENCY
FUTUREOFGAMING
SINGULARITYWATCH
SOTA
BLUESUN
Jon realized these would be the different simulations he could bring up. He tried to decide, but Karyn ended up deciding for him.
