Underwater Yoga Blast is a standout in the world of video games. This is one of the few games that is neither made nor designed for humans, but has been ported to human virtual reality technology. This is strange for several reasons, chief among which is the race that created it in the first place. They are called v

ix, is a super-intelligent and very belligerent insect-like creature. Or rather, they are meant to be these things. For better or for worse, v

The IX blew itself to extinction before it could achieve interstellar travel. Archaeologists studied the ruins of their irradiated homes, and they agreed that the catastrophic event was most likely an international event triggered by a misplaced bagel.

In the remains of their relatively advanced civilization, several technological marvels and scientific breakthroughs have emerged. The former is a very advanced space combat simulation with unprecedented moddability. One is called Supe

sta

Flyway Go-Go's software company bought the rights to this ancient program and adapted it into the V-Life platform. Why they chose to name it "Underwater Yoga Blasting" is one of the many mysteries of the galaxy because it has almost no water, not even yoga. At least there are a lot of blasters.

Aside from its extraordinary origins and misleading nomenclature, Underwater Yoga Blast is best known as a genre-defining game. Even though it's 5 years old, it's still a cutting-edge leader in the competitive team space combat space. It's also the medium that Joe and his four friends intend to compete in their hopes of winning prizes in the upcoming tournament. To that end, they've spent the last few days trying to brush up on their virtual dog fighting skills. These enthusiastic amateurs don't stand a chance of winning the championship, but they're happy with their odds of getting a lower prize in the pool.

However, their training regiment had to be interrupted, as most of them had reached their limits. The human brain could only spend so long in virtual reality before it started suffering negative side effects and complications. That's why the V-Life service requires an 8-hour break every 48 real-world hours. Joe came out of eight days of marathon training, feeling exhausted, but showing up in a strangely pleasant way. While he had no way of knowing this, the strange satisfaction he experienced was close to that of an employee who had just worked hard after a hard day. What Joe knew was that he could sleep soundly in his cabin during the stipulated rest period.

Or at least that's what he had thought, until he noticed something strange through the transparent door of that slightly weird machine. Maggie (no better word to describe it) sat cross-legged and hovered about a meter above the ground. This in itself is not surprising, since the girl was standing in the same place and in the same pose when Joe saw her for the last time. The brown thing in her hand looked out of place. The man's vision is still a little blurry because he hasn't used his eyes for two days, so he can't see clearly from his position. Still, he thought it would be a good idea to check it out.

The pod possessed by Longtail slid away, and Joe staggered out of it.

"Hey, Maggie," he greeted her. "Do you miss me?"

"Your absence has really caused me inconvenience, Joe."

It's a strangely impersonal expression, but this simple man decides to take it as a well-crafted "yes" and move on to the topic at hand.

"What are you holding?"

Or rather, in the hand.

"During our physical separation, I have claimed the legal ownership of this creature."

She held the snake up in front of Joe, in a way that suggested she was showing it off. The man looked at the snake with golden-brown scales with an inexplicable sense of surprise. He doesn't even know where Maggie found it, but at least her claim of "legal ownership" means she didn't steal. The creature itself is, of course, a cute little thing with an emphasis on "small". The snake was small enough to sit comfortably in the palms of her open hands, coiling loosely around herself. It is about as long as the distance between Joe's elbow and wrist, and its average circumference is about as long as his thumb.

The snake curiously lifted its little head to Joe's face, its little forked tongue actively savoring the air between them. The way it studies the man bears a lovely resemblance to its insatiable, inquisitive owner. As soon as this pleasant thought passed, Joe began to wonder if Maggie was capable of taking care of the little one. or girls. He is not an expert in snake science and is not directly related to the sex of snakes. He looked around the room and easily spotted the glass-glass terrarium and the large bag of food pellets, right in the corner next to the pods. He felt a strange sense of pride that this ancient cosmic entity had taken care of the most basic necessities.

"I gave it a name, 'Calm Azgodh Caral'." Maggie said proudly.

"Oh? Does he like it?"

"So far, Azgold Caral has not been able to understand the meaning of these words."

"That's good," he masked the ominous reply. "Can I touch it?" I've never seen it real before. ”

Maggie nodded in the affirmative. Slowly, carefully and carefully, Joe reached out a finger to it and gently patted its nose, an action sometimes referred to as "nose patting." He stroked its little head in the same way. The snake's response to this stimulation is to lift the upright part of its body and coil it around Joe's fingers once. The man found himself appreciating the strange feeling of warmth and dryness of its skin against him. This feeling also raises a slightly worrisome thought related to the snake's owner.

"Wait, can you take it?"

Maggie's satisfied smile instantly turned into confusion.

"Why would Azgold Caral object to living under my control?"

"It's just that your skin feels a little weird."

Indeed, Maggie's pale body exhibits a special sensation when touched. Somehow, she felt both warm and cool. It's by no means unpleasant, just weird. Joe was vaguely aware that snakes were cold-blooded, so he didn't know if the little guy would feel comfortable.

"Thank you for your concern, but not necessarily. Azgod 'Kala

Make it clear that I like to rest on my meat, otherwise I'll send it back to the aquarium provided by Mr. Charles. ”

As if to prove her point, the snake retracted from Joe's fingers and lay lazily on Maggie's palm.

"This is indisputable. Wait, Mr. Charles? Do you mean the boss of Lyfe Haxx?"

"Do you know this person?" She looked surprised.

Someone mentioned him in a community message, "He said the wrong thing." "Uh, sorry, boarding the plane. He had this incredible one on his avatar — apparently the store was going to blow up right now, anyway. ”

Maggie's eyes widened with pleasure, half-closed, her gentle expression distorted into a cold, shrewd rage.

"It's not an explosion!" Joe reacted quickly. "I mean, it's getting more and more popular!" That's a good thing!"

"I see," the girl relaxed.

"Oh my God, Maggie," the man sighed. "You really need to stop preparing for the worst immediately. Look, you're freaking poor little Azgodka or something!"

In fact, the snake stood as upright as it could, exposing its small fangs while its head spun wildly. Taking a step back, it's an excited little animal. Maggie stared blankly at it for a moment, then slowly reached for it with her other hand. The little snake hissed faintly at the approaching fingers, but when the girl began to stroke its spine, it immediately calmed down.

"Wow. You're good at this," Joe said.

"The instructions given to me were comprehensive and informative," she replied blandly.

"It's rare to see you angry about anything, though. You must love that shop, right?"

"Yes. That's where I bought the god Aziz Karar. I won't forgive anyone who is stupid enough to hurt it. ”

"Ahh That explains a lot. ”

The aforementioned Joe browsed a message board with lots of information about black-eyed, dark-haired, black-clad beauties, and she took customers to Lyfe Haxx. Some of the people involved in the online discussion have even invented embarrassing titles like "Mistress of Darkness" and "Pale Goddess". Joe wasn't the shrewdest of people, but he's now sure they've been talking about Maggie. This made him very curious to know what she had been doing these days. However, he decided to report another day because he could see that the expression on her face was a slight pain.

"Are you alright, Maggie?" You seem to be annoyed. ”

Thankfully, the girl had recently learned to express her emotions appropriately, otherwise he would never have realized it. She stared at him intently for a few seconds, then relaxed her face with a mild, satisfied expression.

"Thank you for your concern, but it's not necessary."

"Don't talk nonsense with me. We're in the same boat, aren't we? If there's anything I can do to help, just ask. ”

Joe tries to show his reliable and macho side, but gets a tight smile that seems somewhere between joy and ridicule.

"If there is a need, I will do my best."

"Good," the selective man nodded. "Anyway, I'd love to spend more time with you, but I really need to rest. Take care and see you later. ”

He climbed back into the pod and put it into "sleep mode". As the machine adjusts its cylindrical cavity from an almost vertical position to a fully horizontal position, the machine emits some quiet sliding and hissing sounds. Joe passes out within minutes, leaving Maggie thinking about the potentially catastrophic issues highlighted by her previous outburst. She would have liked to hear what the man had to say about the matter, but she concluded that he was very incompetent on that particular issue.

Maggie realizes that she knows almost nothing about fear. At least it seemed to her. She realized how emotions play a role in the chemistry in the brain and their physiological effects on the human body. She also has a rough grasp of what kind of stimuli can elicit or attenuate these responses. However, Maggie herself has never experienced fear, and it's not just because her true self is technically brainless.

In its maddeningly long existence, Marasrak the Observer has never found himself seriously threatened. Although it has had several conflicts with its elders in its homeland, its immortal nature allows its consciousness to rebuild itself even after seemingly being destroyed. This, combined with its penchant for observation, research, and experimentation, shaped its emotionally stunted personality.

This has been steadily changing since Marasrak became Maggie. The half-human, half-human life had taught her so much that she hadn't even thought of exploring before. Concepts such as joy, love, sadness, and anger are completely foreign to her past self, and trying to fully understand them is an incredible initiating effort. She now understands why her past attempts to interact with the physical world have been so utterly ineffective.

The main problem is that cosmic entities evoke inherent fear in the minds of the little beings they encounter. These meetings provoked a strong instinct for self-preservation and a fear of the unknown that overwhelmed all logic and reason. While some of Maggie's peers revel in the vague sense of power and control they derive from intimidating rational thinking, the Observer is not. If anything, it despises the irrational behavior that comes with fear. That's why interstellar entities have such a strong interest in Joe Mulligan. This strange man is the only one who comes face to face with the colossal presence of Mahras Rak without immediately succumbing to raw emotions.

However, this is precisely why, despite his intentions, he cannot help Maggie in his current predicament. While her understanding of the concept of fear has improved considerably, she feels that she will never be able to truly understand it until she experiences it herself. She believed it was possible because she had experienced a state of mind bordering on fear. For example, she worries about Joe's health and worries that causing something would jeopardize her existence in his real life, but neither of these are "real deals".

The biggest problem was that Maggie wasn't sure how to rectify the situation. Her survival was not seriously threatened, and there were no consequences for losing her body shell, so it was impossible for her to fear extinction or mutilation. In addition, she welcomes the unknown with open arms, so that form of terror is equally beyond her capabilities. Since the most obvious candidate is no longer possible, Maggie considers some seemingly minor options.

First, human beings have deep concerns about anything that infringes on their sense of control, autonomy, or free will. It's just another component of the emotional cocktail, screaming when they are confronted with an entity that comes from outside the veil of reality. Maggie wasn't sure if she was capable of experiencing that special feeling. The thought of obeying the infallible will of an elder is, of course, unpleasant, but rather infuriating than terrifying.

The next possible reason is the fear of losing, not of oneself, but of others. When Maggie inadvertently lets Joe watch that potentially fatal soap opera, what she goes through can be said to be this. However, due to her overindulgence in theatrical entertainment, her mind was polluted and unstable at the time. Moreover, it was largely due to her anger at the thought that she had broken her obligations to Joe. As a result, Maggie is unable to classify what she experienced at the time as pure and real fear. On the other hand, the soap opera incident showed that it was a potentially viable place for self-study. The only problem is finding a suitable object to threaten extinction, not Joe.

She glanced at the long-tailed goth-infested pods, but immediately decided that it wasn't suitable. While she loves her pet project, she won't be so bothered if it ceases to exist. She may feel a little disappointed that the time and effort she put into it was in vain, but that's about it. If her understanding is correct, then stimulating her fear of loss requires the use of a conscious presence in which she is emotionally invested. Shogoth definitely doesn't qualify, as it doesn't have any sentimental value to Maggie.

Now her mind drifted to her right, and her newfound harvest was lying lazily in a small ball of golden-brown scales. Azgodkala seemed to sense her gaze, and it turned its head as if to greet her, its little tongue wiggling lazily back and forth in its mouth. It is said by all that it is an innocent, insignificant creature whose practical use is ultimately negligible to this otherworldly entity. If it weren't for an inconsequential whim, Maggie wouldn't have cared about it at all.

“…… That's it. She decided coldly.

A suitable experiment immediately took shape in her terrible logical thinking, and she wasted no time making her design a reality. Maggie left Joe's apartment and took the nearest elevator, the higher the better. As soon as she reached the 90th floor of the skyscraper, she found a large window and walked over with an unsuspecting snake in her hand. She pressed her empty palm against the massive shatterproof glass and bent the glass molecules as she pleased, making a life-size opening in the glass. An icy wind howled through the cracks, forcing little Azgold Caral to hide in Maggie's long sleeves. The girl was not at all intimidated by the wind and walked out, remembering to close the "door" when she went out.

Then, the uncanny creature dressed in human skin began to walk along the side of the building, as if gravity were just a hint. The fierce wind kept beating at her clothes and hair, but other than that, it was completely unable to disturb her vertical gait. After walking more than thirty meters, Maggie came to the roof of the skyscraper. She hasn't reached the top yet, as the flat ground is littered with countless satellite dishes, signal towers, lightning rods, backup generators, and other maintenance-oriented machinery. However, there was no need to climb any further, as Maggie's current height was enough for her to experiment.

The girl lives up to her name and carefully observes her surroundings. There is a distance of about 15 meters between the rooftop platform where she is and the skyscraper opposite. Despite various countermeasures taken during construction, the huge building was shaken by the relentless high-altitude winds, making it difficult to get accurate measurements. Looking at the cascading streets and air traffic lanes below, Maggie estimated that she was at 816 meters above sea level, but only a fraction above the top of the road. This way she still has two hundred and seventy meters of wiggle room, which is more than enough for her purposes. Fairly extreme wind speeds may cause some complications, but she is confident they will not cause significant interference with the experiments.

Maggie decided that the conditions were satisfactory and tucked her right hand into her left sleeve and pulled out her test subject. She gently pinched the innocent snake's belly with her index and middle fingers and grabbed it. Her arms reached farthest, leaving only the utterly confused snake dangling from the edge of the cliff. Realizing that this was mortal danger, it desperately wrapped itself around Maggie's fingers. However, its efforts were in vain, as its fall was considered a necessary condition for the study of girls.

So, the Tranquility Azgold Karar was discarded. Its body was small, weighing only thirty grams, and gravity pulled it down, and it was immediately swept away by the relentless air current. If Maggie had been a normal person, she would have lost sight of the monster immediately. Of course she wasn't, so she was able to accurately track the plane's chaotic descent. Considering its increasing speed and general helplessness, there is no doubt that her pet will die in seven seconds.

Despite Maggie's ruthless behavior, she doesn't consider herself cruel. She didn't like torturing that innocent snake. This is just a necessary step for her to grow as an individual. So what if an insignificant life has to be snuffed out in the process? The serpent's existence was brief at best, while her presence was indescribably enormous. Objectively speaking, the imminent death of this stupid little creature is more meaningful and purposeful than its continued existence. In a strange way, we can say that Maggie is doing him a favor.

This way, when the snake falls, the girl can watch completely unaffected. Her expressionless expression did not flinch when the wind blew around, nor did it waver when the cold air numbed her. Indeed, this unsuspecting thing seems to be dead before splashing onto the pavement. If not, then in another three seconds, it will be gone forever, leaving only a wet smudge and a fleeting memory as a sign of its ephemeral existence.

As Maggie's slender body instantly surpassed the speed of sound, a terrifying roar shook the super skyscraper. In a few moments, she landed on the sparsely populated highway, and with an illogical slight impact, gave a huge middle finger to the laws of acceleration, mass, and momentum. Indeed, the only thing that changed in this sudden pause was the girl's cold appearance. Her eyes were wide open and her mouth was flably open from overbreathing. Her heart was pounding in her ears, and a cold bead of sweat ran down her forehead.

There, in her cupped hand, miraculously wriggled an innocent ball of golden-brown scales.