61

Still watching the monitors, seeing endless lines of text scrolling past, you feel something twisting in your guts. With so much code, there's so much that could go wrong. You're not sure how even your grandma has any idea what's happening on all of those screens.

"Fortunately," she adds a moment later, "that's where the testing comes in."

She points to another button near the bottom of the screen—and on it, you read the words: Click to Begin Test.

And it hits you—those were the words that appeared in your dream the night before last. You were in the forest clearing as normal, and then suddenly the place went black except for those words floating in front of you.

So is that what happened? Your grandma's test somehow interrupted your dream? But it was a dream—something happening inside your own head. How is that even possible?

Unless—what if there really is something magical about those dreams?

"Last night, I tested my code for the first time—and I had good results," your grandma carries on, cutting into the whirlwind of your thoughts. "It needed some tweaking, but it was promising. But that was only a test, a simulation of the final effect, without actually putting it into practice. I couldn't know what would really happen until I tried out the code for real—which is what I was doing earlier today. And as you saw—well, it's an imperfect process," she says grimly. "But the testing helped me to adjust the code little by little, and eventually, after the last test I performed—I managed it almost perfectly."

She clicks a couple of times, and a window titled "Results" pops up. Scanning over the data, you catch sight of a line that reads: Extraction Rate: 92%

"It may not be 100%, but I think that's plenty for now," your grandma affirms. "It means the code is finally working well. Well enough that I felt it would be safe to go ahead with the plan if it was necessary."

Although the tone of her voice is still reserved, a satisfied smile comes over your grandma's face. But as she takes in the numbers on the screen, you still can't help but think to yourself that you need to see more, to know more.

And after a short silence, you decide that you will: