Xiong Yin's Immersion

Her slender jade fingers gently grazed over her small curved ear. Her earlobe was empty; Without a sign of the earrings she was familiar with. She pressed the flesh between her fingers. There was no hole nor sign of any piercing at all. Her cherry blossom lips trembled and her eyes glazed over. She didn't allow the whimper at the back of her throat to escape. The feeling at her fingertips told her everything she needed to know--why she was in her childhood home or why her body was impossibly healed. It told her she was alive. It told her she was back to a time before she'd burned to death in the flames.

She even had memories of being a ghost. She remembered her mother's appearance. She remembered the woman's bone-like body desperately shifting through the red-hot cinders. The brokenhearted screeching howls call out her name. An image even more impossible to her than coming back from the dead. It was etched into her memory. It was so new and so strong it was as if she could see it right in front of her. Everything else seemed to fade into the background.

Including her father's twisted smile.

---

Su Ting had lived her life as a rebel. She refused to live in her father's smart home, she did not use electronics and she did not even eat supplements. She hated everything to do with this modern world. All because of her hate for her mother. She refused to enter modern society. She lived alone, like a deranged hermit, all because society was filled with reminders of her mother's betrayal.

Xiong Yin had given birth to Su Ting two years after her marriage. She spent barely half a year with her new family before she abandoned them. That day, her father walked into the hospital with a pep in his step. His precious baby daughter was hanging in the carrier on his arm. He indulgently allowed the newborn to suck his fingers as she slept. Seeing his family all together at the end of the day were his happiest moments in life.

When he arrived at her VIP room it was empty. In a flurry, he rushed to the doctor. The doctor informed him that she had signed up for 'total immersion' a year ago.

Su Caisheng was thunderstruck. While he'd been on cloud nine--dreaming up a future for his family--his wife had been silently scheming against him. She had immersed herself entirely into the game world. She was no longer able to freely open her eyes in reality. She had thrown away reality and everything in it.

Generally, total immersion was for only the old and the sick who had enough riches to afford it. Or nobodies who acted as guinea pigs. It required the user to undergo a medically induced coma and highly invasive surgery. If the surgery succeeded the user was limited in their future actions. They could either live in the game for the rest of eternity or forcefully leave the game and become disabled. In essence, it was an irreversible decision.

Xiong Yin was allowed to put her name on the list after a series of psychological and physical tests. If her mental and physical health results were unsatisfactory--and she would be unlikely to live for another 7 years--she had the chance of being put on the list. Of course, these were just the basic requirements.

Total immersion was currently being researched to see whether it was practical to be used to achieve immortality. If it succeeded, anyone in the world would be able to 'live' forever in VR. However, it was still in the testing stages. Or 'Beta' if you will.

There were many problems with total immersion. Firstly, the surgery was dangerous. It had an unprecedented 60% failure rate and a 30% chance of death. The second point was its irreversibility. Even if the surgery was successful, the biotech implanted into the user's brain would make them incompatible with the majority of daily technology. In a world where just walking through an average citizen's home put you in range of cleaning tech, social tech, life improvement tech, pet tech, entertainment tech, and educational tech it was not just dangerous but deadly for the user. After a successful surgery, they had strict requirements for tech usage and environment so as not to aggravate their already poor condition. Not to mention all the physical side effects that might follow.

The third point was the VR world itself. The current world of gaming has changed drastically since total immersion had its first successful implementation. The major game companies and medical facilities got together to focus on a single project. A previously inconceivable notion. A project that would allow updates without the removal of users and gamers and that could learn and improve itself. On top of this, they changed the surgical procedure itself. It changed from connecting the user directly to the life VR pod to implanting tech into the patient. This allowed the game makers some wiggle room when implementing the newest models and improvements found and created while the user was in total immersion. If this step were not taken then new games would come out one after another and the games the first users used would eventually become inadequate and out of date. Humanity took a huge leap forward in the process of seeking immortality.

However, it is still believed that the current improvements on this front are insufficient.

With these three major issues, the government put bans on users allowed into the total immersion project.

Su Ting's mother, Xiong Yin, signed up for it as soon as she entered the second trimester and determined that she had upheld the requirements put forth by birth families. By either giving birth or giving support to a child for their life was a user able to 'make up for their loss' when entering total immersion. This was one of the other requirements set by the government during the decline of the human population. As she was under 40 years old she had to 'give a life' in order to 'give up her life'. On top of this, her eggs were given up as well.

In fact, Su Caisheng had never wanted a child to begin with. It was only with his beloved wife's earnest insistence did he give in. That day, when he heard the doctor's words, he looked down at the child in the carrier. While his world had fallen apart it was still smiling naively in her dreams. Her soft mouth was lightly gnawing on his fingertips. His heart churned. The heavy weight crashing on his shoulders and the gaping hole in his chest burned. His face distorted into disgust. He set the carrier on the ground and walked back the way he'd come. One of the guards following him picked up the child under the doctor's tense gaze and followed their master back.

This was the start of Su Ting's life of misery.