The Pioneer

Lorn sat down a chair, a blonde woman in a lab coat sitting before him. The brightness of the room disturbed him at first, but he got used to it soon enough.

"Name?"

"Lorn Ashin."

"Nationality?"

"Uh, what's your name?"

"Oh, sorry. You can call me Reina."

"Alright."

"Again, what's your nationality?"

"The United States."

"Family members?"

"None- no, a sister, Min Ashin. But no idea where she is."

Probably best to not mention his father. He was still proud that he kept it a secret from Elan.

"A lover?"

"None…?"

"?"

"No, no. Nothing. None."

Reina nodded as she scribbled the answer down.

"How long have you been in the One Country?"

"Eh, a month and a half?"

"Your address here?"

"I'm homeless."

"?"

"Hence, uh, me being here."

"Of course," she nodded. "Any other motives besides money, then?"

'I need you to pay my debt for me,' Lorn replied in his head. 'All of it in one go.'

But he couldn't yet reveal his circumstances. Lorn didn't want to make them too wary. First, he needed to warm up to them. He could make himself more useful to them, then mention his debts. It would be best if he became one of their crucial samples.

If that happened, the One Country wouldn't be stingy purchasing him from Elan.

"No." He replied neutrally. "Though, I am curious about your experiment," he added innocently.

"Oh, I'm sure you'll love it," she said with a smile and really seemed to mean it.

Lorn felt she was lying, but decided to give her the benefit of the doubt.

"Now that we're done with your profile, let's get into the medical questions. I know we've already taken various blood and other samples from you, but bear with me," she sighed. "Any history of severe, or serious illnesses?"

Lorn did not have to think much during this set of questions. He just presented himself as the epitome of perfect health.

"With that out of the way," the researcher stretched at the end of it all. "Let's talk about the research we're doing. First, tell me what you know about what we're trying to do here."

"It's in the document you gave away, no?"

"Which described…?" Reina urged.

Lorn guessed she needed to make sure.

"Copying a person's brain to store, transport, change, or whatever else that's possible with it. You need volunteers for it, but it's a bit dangerous. 80 percent chance of your brain receiving damages. The pay's good, though."

"Guess that about wraps the document up, huh?"

"Mm."

"Well, still, I must ask. Are you okay with the risks? Although there's nothing life-threatening, there are some serious complications on the list, you know? Semi-constant migraines, slight memory loss, changes in mood and personality, balance or coordination problems, difficulty in motor actions… the full list's here if you want to look at it again."

Lorn paused briefly, but with a sigh, he replied. "Yes. I am okay with the risks."

"Perfect," Reina switched back to her happy-go-lucky persona. "In that case, just sign here."

It was a contract describing the experiment and its risks, plus the non-disclosure agreement.

Lorn decided not to think too much about this whole thing, and just signed. Since he was forced into this situation, the best he could do was to learn everything he could learn and have some sort of control over the situation. After that, maybe another chance would present itself.

'No point worrying. Let's just focus on the experiment.'

"Well, now that that's done," Reina smiled, tucking away the contract, "let me reveal some secrets to you." She stood up and beckoned Lorn to follow. "Remember when we said we're trying to copy a person's consciousness? In truth, we've already succeeded that, albeit not perfectly. We even know how to store them safely."

Lorn tilted his head. "What do you mean?"

As he followed her out a door, he saw a long, light-grey corridor in front of him.

"Well, even non-publicly, we can't just come out and say we know how to copy your consciousness. It's the same concept as the Non-Public Lvl.5 #001 and #004. The One Country only published it months after the plan was initiated," she spoke as she walked. "For the #008, this experiment is the 3rd time we're working on the… hmm, how should I call it? The broad subject of consciousness."

"You mean the 3 at the end of #008 – 3, right?" Lorn asked, showing the document.

"Yes, yes. The #008 – 1, was actually when we first succeeded in copying one's consciousness. The #008 – 2, was when we mostly focused on optimization of the process and how you can tamper with a consciousness. What do you think we'll be trying on #008 – 3?"

They entered an elevator and the researcher pressed B4.

"Whatever else you can do with a consciousness?"

"Broadly, yes. But we're going to focus on one thing in particular. The commercialization of this technology. How we can make money with it, basically."

"I feel I should be more surprised, or maybe even disappointed."

"I know, right?" the researcher giggled. "But one of the biggest reasons the One Country exists right now, and is the leading scientific powerhouse in the world, is because the One Leader was, and is, filthy rich. So naturally, the first thing the country will focus on will be the monetization of its new technologies."

"Mm."

"But there is a problem. It's kind of hard to make money off this technology. You can't eat consciousness; you can't sell it, really; and although we really hoped we could transfer it to a machine and achieve digital immortality, there were some problems we've came upon, which made that impossible."

They got out the elevator, and Lorn was met with another corridor, though this one was much livelier. A guard stood idly outside the elevator, who, upon seeing Lorn and Reina, started following them. Lorn could also see other researchers walking around, and practically everyone had a guard attached to them.

"You mentioned something about tampering with it on #008 - 2, right? Does that mean you could change someone's personalities?" Lorn asked, genuinely curious now. "Wait. Are you going to try and erase the experiment subject's bad habits or something?"

"No, no. Nothing so grand," the researcher waved her hand. "We did try tampering with it, and although we achieved some really interesting results, we could never really affect someone's personality."

The two reached a door, and Reina opened it up.

The room was filled with water tanks, which contained a helmet with numerous wires attached to it. Lorn could see some of them already being worn by some people, their hair and clothes floating peacefully.

"See those helmets in the tanks? Just attach one to your head and it'll digitalize your brain in two days."

"Huh…"

"But there is something weird about the process," Reina put a hand to her chin. "For whatever reason, we can't have two copies of a consciousness."

"What do you mean?"

"If you get your consciousness copied and put inside a digital space, you won't be able to just get up and walk away. The body practically becomes a vegetable. The only way for you to turn back to normal is for us to reverse the process. To put back your consciousness inside you again." Reina looked at Lorn's thoughtful frown and chuckled. "Really makes you feel religious all of a sudden, doesn't it?"

"How do you even put a consciousness back into someone?" Lorn asked. "I can understand scanning someone's brain to receive its information somehow, but putting it back in? It's not like brains are machines, right?"

"Ah, we don't actually scan your brain with these things," Reina said. "The machines work as… a sort of second brain. Thoughts, as you know, are electro-chemical reactions. They're tiny electric currents always running through your nerves, keeping the brain active and healthy.

"Using that knowledge, we tried our best to emulate a real brain in the machine, so it would be possible for human brains to think using the machine. But it's impossible to have your 'electric currents' to suddenly use this new machine 'brain'. Which is why we have the water tank. It's actually an extreme sensory deprivation tank, which is used to... how do you say it, make your brain as stale as possible?"

"So the thoughts in the organic brain would be more inclined to use the machine one…" Lorn finished the sentence. "And it works?"

"It does!" Reina nodded. "The process takes a couple days to finish, but after that, your consciousness can fully function inside the machine. And inside the machine, we can challenge that consciousness in so many ways the brain could never be able to do!" Reina's eyes glistened, looking at the machine.

"But there are problems," she continued in a serious tone, but Endra could still see the glint in her gaze. "We thought that after the copying was done, we could simply remove the subjects from the machine, reinvigorate their brain, and thoughts would start appearing in there again… but no such thing happened. The subjects which were abruptly removed from the brain turned into vegetables, their brains showing none of the electro-chemical reactions that we expected.

"We lost many subjects in the #008 – 1. We ended that experiment when we learned to put the conscious thoughts of the subjects back into their brains by slowly turning off the machine brain that they were residing inside. What was truly surprising, though, was our discovery that many of the subject's consciousness did not want to go back in the brain. Parts of the electro-waves stubbornly clung to the machine, so in #008 – 2, we worked on creating a way to force the consciousness out of the machine. That… lead to subjects experiencing varying levels of brain damages."

"80% of them, yeah?"

"Yep."

"But it kinda sounds like I'll have some form of control over it, no? Since it's my consciousness and everything."

"We agree with your thoughts. We conducted background research on the subjects which came out of the digital space without issues, and they were mostly people with large attachments in their lives. Children, parents, lover, pets, even. The 80% that clung to the machine were the less fortunate ones. Huge debts, lonely lives, addictions, meaningless lifestyles, people with physical and mental disabilities, outright insane ones… the list goes on."

"Hmm…" Lorn frowned.

"Seeing yourself on the second list?" Reina asked sheepishly.

"Mmhmm…"

Lorn was definitely worried, considering how he lived for the past three years.

'To be fair, it wasn't so bad…' he thought. 'I didn't go hungry, I rarely was cold, I could have crazy fun some nights, and I kept myself relatively well and healthy…'

"Don't worry about it too much," Reina winked. "The more intelligent subjects were also more likely to come out without too much problem. They seem to have more control over their electro-chemical currents... though I have no idea how that works."

The two approached an empty water tank.

"So, what do I have to do again?"

"Wear these clothes, wire the helmet into your head, get inside the tank, and go to sleep. After two days, you will wake up in a different place. We'll keep your body alive and healthy for you."

"What then?"

"It's a surprise," Reina smiled. "You're smart, so you'll get the gist of our plans in no time."

"Is there anything I should be trying to do inside the digital space?" Lorn asked, not liking the vagueness of it all.

Since it didn't sound like he was just going to let the experimenters do whatever they wanted with him, Lorn was feeling hopeful. He didn't know what the digital world was going to be like, but it sounded like he was going to have some degree of freedom in it.

"If you really want me to say something… Be yourself. Explore. Interact. And enjoy."