16 Unique

After Sara had eaten, she and Elijah hung out for a little while longer before Elijah took his leave. He was still in school and still had a curfew that he had to be home by. (Sara had one too, but her parents usually wouldn't notice if she came home late.)

Sara bid him goodbye and walked to her kitchen to grab another bite to eat before getting back into her VR equipment. She hadn't realized that before Elijah had interrupted her, she'd spent almost five hours in the VR Create Space.

Sara was a little surprised at the time she'd spent in VR. It hadn't felt long to her at all, but most of the day had in fact slipped by without her knowledge. She understood why the VR systems of today had safety features in place to keep one from over doing it. She'd read that they would actually remind one to eat and to log off and sleep. Though, she didn't understand why it hadn't reminded her, she wondered if it was because five hours wasn't considered a danger to her health. After all, if she had eaten right before logging in, then she probably wouldn't have felt hungry until five or six hours after logging in anyways.

This was, once again, a loophole that Sara had inadvertently found. The create space function in the VR world was not something that most people spent more than a couple hours in. The system therefore did not have any built in reminders for interacting in the create space. Obviously, there were the reminders of logging off that were built into the set itself, but those only popped up every 24 hours. They weren't actually something that was meant to keep people from logging in unless under the harshest of conditions. Most of the reminders to eat and sleep were installed in the games themselves. You could change your settings to remind you more often through the VR interface, but people rarely did that. As it was, the stock settings were set to the minimal amount of interruptions, thus, 24 hour reminders.

If someone was kicked for not sleeping or eating, A.K.A. continuous game play, the system would kick them and lock them out for an hour, sometimes two if this was a regular occurrence. This influenced and encouraged people to take their time and eat or sleep. If the system noticed peculiarities in the user's vitals, then that person would also be kicked. So, not sleeping and only playing the game would not really give you an edge in game, and could instead hurt you more than help you.

Of course, Sara didn't know any of this because she not only did not read the manual, but she did little research into VR and how it worked. She knew the common knowledge and was even mistaken about a lot of things. But, she wouldn't know this until after she encountered certain situations with her VR set.

Sara returned to her room and sighed as she sat on her bed. She thought about going back into her create space and finishing her castle, but fatigue seemed to come all at once and wash over her. Her eyes were quite heavy so she decided against going back into the create space and lied down in bed.

A man sat with an arm over his chest and the opposite hand clutching his chin as he frowned at the information being displayed before him. There was no screen that he was looking at; in fact, the information seemed to float in front of him, as if the air itself was sending him information and messages.

This was the latest in computer technology. Computers were as big or as small as you wanted them, and most wealthy people, or large companies, were able to enjoy the best of the best.

The words slowly scrolled downward, allowing him to read further and further. Every once in a while, the man would flick his finger, to stop the scrolling, then open a file and a picture and sometimes a video would be displayed. It was different people, many in a room of white, though others in a room of black or even what appeared to be a bedroom or game room. There was one of a man in the wilderness and another of a woman sitting atop a tall building. These people all seemed to be concentrating heavily. For some, their faces were screwed up and scrunched up in concentration, others had their eyes closed while looking constipated, and others still seemed relatively relaxed, but would then sigh out of frustration.

As the images shifted from one person to another, finally the man spoke.

"Show me successful innovations." His voice was deep and husky and suited him. His hair was graying and he was clearly in his forties if not fifties, though he still seemed fit despite his higher age.

The images shifted and slowly, the videos and photos showed more people. There was a man that seemed to be crying tears of joy and frustration as he held a strange rod in his hands.

"Information analysis of innovation, please."

A new crop of information popped up in front of him, displayed with a photo of the rod the man from before was crying over.

The man read the information before him with furrowed brows.

His eyes narrowed as he read.

"Search for overlapping information."

Slowly, more information began to pop up around the analysis of the metal rod.

The man shook his head.

"Dismiss."

The analysis of the rod and the additional information disappeared.

"Randomize, search, completed, nonexistent."

The information came back up before him. He flicked his finger to scroll down again.

"Refine search, within the last five years."

The information seemed to reload, but there was still an enormous amount.

The man sighed, then chose a file at random once again.

This time, another video popped up. This one was a women standing before a large entity with green skin and elephant tusks. The entity was monstrous in stature, well over eight feet tall. Its stomach protruded out with a belly button the size of a man's fist. It wore roughly designed and made hides and furs. Its hair was an inky black and hung loosely down, some of it covering its face. Its hands had three fingers with large black nails that looked particularly sinister.

The women standing before him was just under six foot tall, she was thin with long strawberry blond hair. She stepped forward to touch the tusks protruding from the monstrosity's mouth.

The man watching leaned in to examine the entity and the women. As he did, the woman's interaction with the entity…changed pace.

Seeing where things were headed, the man closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Dismiss."

He sighed before refining the search once again, still rubbing the bridge of his nose in irritation.

"Refine search, exclude any living creations."

The information once again shifted, though the end was not within site even with the search being refined so much.

The man seemed to hesitate before slowly opening his eyes and flicking his finger again to cause the scrolling to speed up. He picked another video at random.

This one featured a girl standing in front of a large bubble.

At first, the man thought there was an error in the system; this was clearly a girl that had created a bubble. Why would it show this to him?

On a whim, the man spoke, his voice betraying his lack of sleep.

"Analyze creation."

What the system then showed him caused his frown and furrowed brows to lessen.

Reading through, the man's eyes darted across the information.

"Search overlapping information."

The man waited for a few seconds, but nothing came forward. He waited a while longer, waiting for the system to finish its search. When it did, the man found himself at a loss.

The words, 'No overlapping information found' caused the man's stomach to do a flip. What did the system being unable to find no overlapping information on this creation mean? It meant it was entirely unique. It meant that no one else had created anything like it before. This was a rarity, something that almost never happened. And it was something that was an incredible find for his company, even if the "item" had no real use outside of merely being unique.

Pushing down his excitement, the man spoke again.

"Save analysis, new folder, Folder name-Unique creations."

The man's expression did not seem to change much as he continued to search through the vast amount of information given to him. Though, if one were to look closely, they would have found the hint of a smile at the corner of his lips.