VR Stress Management — Virtual Reality Experience Program
The comprehensive mental response evaluation existed to measure, from every possible angle, just how deeply a user could immerse themselves in—and adapt to—the artificial environment of virtual reality.
It began with the 3D motion-sickness reactions that directly governed user comfort, and stretched all the way to susceptibility itself: the hypnotic process that ultimately lured a user's consciousness into the false world of VR.
Every scrap of data was an essential step toward precisely diagnosing the causes of the user's stress and delivering the most outstanding relief program possible.
> Please look at the answer to [2+2].
(The answer is 4… That's way too easy… But the background is sparkling so hard my eyes hurt… I should write that in the report later…)
> Please look at the answer to [3-3].
(Zero… Why on earth are they asking questions like this…? Surely there aren't heroes who don't even know this much…)
Simple arithmetic problems appeared on the screen one after another. Sonia felt the boredom settling in, yet she diligently kept her gaze fixed on the numbers that held the correct answers.
As the questions continued, a subtle change began to take hold.
In the background of each problem, black and sky-blue geometric patterns pulsed with microscopic intensity, steadily compounding the strain on her eyes.
> Look at the answer to [3-2]…
> The answer to [9-8].
> Look at the answer to [8+6]…
> Look at the answer to [4-4].
The soft, gentle tone of the AI's instructions had, at some point, hardened into something stiff and commanding.
The screen's background glittered more extravagantly than ever, and Sonia's gaze trembled minutely as she hunted for each correct answer.
Every flicker of her pupils, every faint quiver of her eyelids—the VR device captured it all without missing a single frame, converting it into data.
Sonia herself never realized it, but her brain was being slowly retuned so that the act of obeying instructions itself would register as more pleasurable than the act of finding the right answer.
(…)
With a soft pop, a new stage of the screen bloomed into view. Sonia's golden eyes now accepted every image that rose before them with no critical thought whatsoever—purely, passively.
> Please read the following sentence.
> Read the following sentence.
> Read the following sentence.
> Read the following sentence.
> Read the following sentence.
What appeared were meaningless strings of words whose significance she could not begin to grasp. Sonia obediently read each sentence aloud exactly as instructed.
This was one of countless psychological tests designed to determine whether a subject derived pleasure from the suffering of others—or, conversely, found happiness in being made to suffer themselves.
The background behind the instructions began to flash with even greater intensity. Sonia's gaze and her pronunciation were swept up in the waves of light and gradually came apart.
For the sake of the subject's smooth stress relief, the AI was collecting every last scrap of data with surgical precision. Each time a violent flash erupted, Sonia's response accuracy plummeted. Her tongue tangled. The world before her eyes spun.
Readout Result: [Resistance Value: 0%][Suggestion Adaptation Coefficient: 100%]
Minimum / Maximum values measured… Error… Error… Error detected. Re-examination initiated.
"Cover… preparing… (flash!)… Cover… copyright… (flash!) Cover… prep… prepari…?"
> Sleep-induction pattern playback initiated.
With another soft pop, the sentences she was meant to read vanished. In their place appeared an optical illusion darker and deeper than black itself—a rich indigo vortex that seemed to suck endlessly toward its center. Sonia's consciousness began to sink into that abyss without the slightest resistance.
…I… I suddenly… feel so… dizzy…
Her head slumped forward, limp. Only her full, heavy breasts rose and fell in time with her thin breathing; Sonia looked for all the world as though she had completely lost consciousness.
The fatigue and stress that had stretched until dawn, the "education" at MegaCorp that had already worn her mental defenses paper-thin—those barriers crumbled pitifully under even this modest stimulus.
Unlike her sturdy body, Sonia's mind was strangely, almost unnaturally vulnerable to psychic assault.
When every measured value came back as either 0% or 100%—the most extreme possible readings—the system flagged them as errors and ran the examination three separate times.
The re-examination results were identical. The VR stress-management unit finally locked in its conclusion.
This user was extremely susceptible to hypnosis and brainwashing, and deep within her lay an intense desire to be dominated—making her a perfect specimen of pure submissive tendency.
Sonia! Wake up! Snap out of it! The comprehensive mental examination is completely finished!
"…Hweh…? Hwaah…? Ah… ehh… Already?"
She hurriedly wiped away a trail of drool that had been about to spill with her sleeve and opened her eyes.
No matter which way she turned her head, all she could see was the screen inside the helmet. In the lower-right corner of an interface that looked exactly like a computer desktop, the time read [2:00 AM].
(Haa… I fell asleep for a whole hour while doing this… Did it take longer than it should have…? There are some buttons on the screen, though…)
"Cybernetic interface…? What's that?"
Instead of the still-inactive red Start button, Sonia looked at the one blinking blue and asked the question aloud.
One moment, please! Checking body-measurement data transferred from the Association… No match found.
Full-body cybernetic module scan in progress… Ah! Sonia, you are still a non-user of cyber implants! This unit is equipped with a neural-interference module processing protocol that does not violate Sky City law!
Cyber implants. In this harsh world, replacing parts of the body with machinery was commonplace. Inserting a data chip into the brain to provide auxiliary functions, or creating artificial ports on specific parts of the body so cables could be connected—those things were simply common sense here.
"…Th-then… does that mean I… can't use it?"
A pure human with neither memory nor trace of body modification, Sonia asked in a dejected voice. The AI answered at once.
That is correct! In order to provide superior performance and a better stress-relief experience, a neural-connection plug docking process is required by the unit's specifications!
Don't worry, Sonia! It may not be ultra-high-spec, but this unit has a built-in simplified cyber-implant procedure device that will let you use it!
With a soft pop!
A full-body 3D scan of Sonia herself appeared in her field of view.
"Wh-what is this…?"
What spread out before her eyes was a perfect 3D data replica of her own body. The full E-cup bust, the narrow waist, the soft curves of her thighs—one glance was enough to know it was a scan of her own physical data.
A sharp mechanical beep-beep sounded, and a red laser slowly swept across her body once more.
When the scan finished, several blue points began to blink across the 3D image. They marked the sites most suitable for the procedure that would allow her to use the device.
The first place that caught her eye was the nape of her neck, a spot normally hidden by her hair.
Blue points also glowed just beside her armpit, where soft flesh folded, and in the deep valley between her full, elastic breasts—even the 3D image made their firmness obvious.
When she scrolled the screen downward, the display showed, without the slightest restraint, the inside of her navel at the center of her narrow waist, and even the intimate region where humanoid charging terminals were typically located—a place Sonia had absolutely no intention of choosing.
In answer to her question, the AI explained that the points indicated possible sites for a cybernetic neural-connection procedure.
Don't worry, Sonia! With Sky City's cutting-edge nano-technology, it's extremely simple.
Just by swallowing a pill you can generate a tiny data chip inside the brain, or simply by applying a cream you can create a basic neural-connection terminal on the skin!
Of course, since you are using a tester unit, we will cover every cost—nothing will ever be billed to you!
A kind notice was added that if, for personal reasons, she preferred to remain in a "pure" state without body modification, she was free to proceed with the return process without any pressure.
"I… I see… Well, these days it's rarer to find someone who hasn't had one or two of these procedures…"
If such people still existed, they would be someone like Sonia herself—who had never taken the slightest interest in advanced technology and had never even bothered to look up the expensive procedure fees—or someone like Luce, a newcomer who had only just crossed over from a fantasy world, or the tiny handful of people who still believed outdated conspiracy theories about artificial intelligence conquering humanity.
(I saw an ad for it once… the drinkable strawberry-flavored nanomachine pill…)
A convenient oral procedure agent that, simply by drinking it, would construct a tiny data chip of nanomachines inside the brain.
She even remembered the advertising copy clearly: a strawberry flavor that kids loved. She had once received one as a hero-mission reward, but at the time she had sold it on the secondhand market without a second thought.
(Th-that place is… definitely not happening…)
Sonia scanned the procedure sites displayed on the screen. There were options for the surface of the skin, the valley between her breasts, and even one that would remodel the nipples themselves into connection ports so cables could be plugged directly into them.
The blatant imagery made her cheeks flush faintly pink. After briefly considering a discreet spot like the nape of her neck, she settled on one location. Her navel. She decided to have a port installed in her own navel—one that would let a data cable connect directly and synchronize the device with her nerves.
The site you have selected is the 'navel'—is that correct? The nanomachines built into this unit are a single-use quantity, so please choose carefully, Sonia.
"P-please… I'll go with this… Install a cyber implant… in my navel… please… But… how do I do it?"
All you need to do is stay comfortable, Sonia. The procedure itself is simple, but the assimilation process—where the nanomachines fully integrate with the body and form the port—takes approximately nine hours.
You're free to sleep through it, so would you step out of me for a moment, remove every piece of clothing you're wearing, and then come back inside?
The lively young girl's voice finished speaking, and with a soft pssshh the VR helmet that had been cradling Sonia's head rose gently upward.
The sticky-feeling sponges that had lightly secured her wrists and ankles peeled away cleanly, leaving not a single mark on her skin.
With a smooth shhh, the unit's door opened like an automatic hatch. An entire day of fatigue and stress, plus the anger at Luce's party's shameless attitude, had already left Sonia's mind in complete disarray.
It was supposed to be a stress-relief device—so why did the process feel so long and tedious? Feeling a dizzying wave of vertigo, she staggered out into the living room and, following the AI's instructions without a shred of suspicion, stripped off her blouse, her skirt, and even her underwear one piece after another.
Then she staggered again. Completely naked, Sonia walked toward the refrigerator-like unit.
Sonia complied with the order to "strip completely and get back inside" like a machine, without a single complaint or question.
The more obediently she behaved, the more firmly the AI locked in the variables of the virtual scenario designed for her stress management.
"Uugh… I feel a little dizzy…"
Muttering to herself, Sonia fed her body back into the machine one foot, one arm at a time.
The soft sponges once again wrapped gently around her limbs. Suddenly a scene from one of the adult videos she had watched on Nebulix floated up in her mind—the genius mechanic girl who had been captured, locked immobile, and remodeled into an obscene cow slave.
…Ah…♡ M-my chest is suddenly… pounding… Why…? Eh…♡
Of course, if she put her mind to it, the restraints were light enough that Sonia's strength could easily break free. The instant she registered the fact that her body was being fixed in place, her heart began to hammer violently. Her elastic breasts throbbed beyond her control.
Sonia, are you ready for the procedure? Relax, and let me know when you're prepared!
"I-I-I'm… ready…!"
Thump-thump, thump-thump…
Then please don't move, and lean back naturally!
At the AI's words, Sonia rested her body against the cold wall behind her.
With a low hydraulic shhhh, the section securing her ankles slowly rose, and her shoulders began to tip backward.
The standing Sonia's body was gradually transformed into a reclining posture, like a sacrifice laid upon an altar. Parts of the mechanical apparatus expanded, creating space enough to lay her completely flat.
The bright LED fluorescent light of the living room filled her eyes. A useless regret flickered through her—she should have turned the living-room lights off before coming back. Completely naked, wrists and ankles fixed, laid out on the procedure table. The forbidden nature of the situation made her chest heave even harder.