Yuno:

What Levi does is beyond good and evil. Like the devil's advocate, he presents his cruel plans as a kind of benefactor. And all this is no longer a movement for freedom. This is virtual terrorism.
I send letters back, but to my surprise they go unanswered. Levi does this in an extremely subtle and stealthy way that no one would think that some user would have figured out how to access thousands of other chokers. The most frightening thing is that Levi, when hacking other people's accounts, claims that this doesn' happen in case the waves kill recalcitrant users, which is natural selection.

"We only meet the possibility of being aware of self-destruction, if it doesn't fall within the framework of the new 'Elysium'. It's humane. Painless and honest. In a new, free and environmental society, we do not need scums."

I go to other places and listen to what the users are talking about.

"It is a fact. The developers staged a genocide. And who is behind it? Our powers," says some stranger in location where I often spend time lately.

It's a noisy techno hangout in the basement. I've been here many times already.

"Crap. The more I learn such news, the more I want to throw this choker to hell. But it's even scary to think... It's probably better to die here than in the gray oppressive reality."

Shaman comes up right there.

"I have long predicted this mass destruction. The fact that Elysium was a conspiracy was immediately clear!" he says loudly.

"This is some nonsense. Who needs to destroy other users? What for? It sounds like rumors."

"There would be a stuffing if it were not possible to find facts and news. Users die after hacking some rooms and events."

"There are two options - either the creators of the simulation, or some very talented sociopath. It's worse, of course, if the creators are behind it. They don't know, their names are always kept secret, do you know why?"

Many of users are obsessed with conspiracy theories, others, on the contrary, rely on realism. But all this doesn't negate the fact that what is happening is serious, and gone beyond the limits of the metaverse.

"Yuno, you work for them, don't you have any information? I'm not talking about the purpose of the killers, but at least can you tell us is this a pre-planned 'selection' or simply intolerance by the human brain of updating the latest version of Elysium?" Shaman asks in his usual vociferous manner.

"Wow, I can't believe it. You just asked me a question. Usually you're the one all-knowing," I try to joke.

He smiles rather.

"Well, 'all-knowing' is a compliment for me, and yet, I would like to talk with a person who somehow had a connection with the devs. You do know something for sure."

"Listen, I am not the only designer in Elysium. There are hundreds of them here. Anyone can become one by passing the selection and online interview. At the same time, they don't tell you anything. You get nothing but money and your own location. No special accessories, no useful contacts, nothing. I can help users with bugs because I know a little about it, but nothing more. Ask other designers. I'm exactly the same user, just with my own room," I finally answer.

Everyone is silent. I think few people believe in my words.

"Okay. I understand. You won't say anything. There's only one thing that really concerns me about this whole damn simulation. Not the death of nerds, and not locations hacked by someone. Are there fakes here?" asks the Shaman.

Everyone suddenly comes to me waiting for an answer.

"What do you mean by 'fakes'?" I ask.

"Users who don't really exist. Empty avatars. Someone says that they play the role of extras - they sit in a room and usually stay silent. Some people say that you cannot understand that this is not a person, but just a hologram. They were made just for visibility. Fakes often become friends with other real users. Someone you know might be a fake. This is why I can't sleep at night. You sit here, chatting with guests, and one of those present is actually a holographic dummy with an artificial feelings!" Shaman looks around suspiciously, and once again I realise that he has long been out of his mind. And how only his wife tolerates him?

"Just tell me where you get these facts? Is this something from the category: 'the Illuminati against the reptilians'?" one of those present says, unable to stand it, and goes straight to the Shaman.

"Alright guys, calm down. Rumors, inventions, other garbage... Don't bother yourself. None of you will die as long as you know how to take care of yourselves. Maybe it's just a system error. Yes, very dangerous and terrible. But all these captures and anonymity groups are fiction, they just attract attention. By what aggregate, I think I don't need to explain. Just don't panic," I feel hostility towards myself for such a lie.

"That's the problem, Yuno. Nobody knows anything. We live in this world and have no idea who created it. Why all this? There are round balls floating around in dark matter. What is this shit? I would like to know what's going on here," Shaman replies, much more quietly than before.

I don't say anything. He is partly right. Nobody knows anything.

***

I return back to my room. Aia is not here, and I already want her to take on her choker and take a break from reality. I catch myself thinking that I'm starting to get jealous and think of everything. What is her real life? It is mysterious, and half of the information it gives me seems to be unrelated lies. Sometimes she really demands some kind of nonsense, laughs at things I don't understand.

One thing I'm sure of - in reality, she looks exactly the same as in the simulation. Her account is verified - the avatar is synchronized with her real face. And she is beautiful.
I decide to check her status. Online. The location is hidden. I wonder who she is hiding from. Definitely not from me.

"I am not hiding."

When I hear her voice, I turn around. She, as usual, sits near the window and looks at the dawn, which will never turn into night.

"Learned to read minds..."

"Just guessing what you were thinking at that moment. You are predictable."

I sit down next to her.

"Everyone is talking again about what Levi is doing... Nobody answers to my messages. I don't believe that devs are pleasant with what is happening. What do you think?"

"I don't know. I don't want to think about it," she promptly replies, as if she really doesn't care about anything.

"Why are you so indifferent, Aia? Your ex is a fucking psychopath. He pretends to be a God and puts things in order in the inevitable reality. You yourself are not afraid to show up in the place where people are killed..."

"Yuno, I have no fear at all. And don't say 'your ex'. You yourself joined this participation, Yuno. You are afraid to accept that you're also involved in the death of others. Everything was obvious from the very beginning. This is not a game. His plan was driven by a global and important phenomenon. As he himself said - 'No revolution is possible without victims', and you agreed to this. Don't act like you haven't been part of this."

"Aia, are you out of your mind? Do you support what he does? I know there was a huge mistake, but I had no idea how it would all turn out. Just look at what Elysium has become! This is no longer a dreamers' shelter where you can escape from reality, this is hell from which there is no way out! I don't want to harm anyone. I just want everything to be the same as before."

"Yuno, but what do you want from me? What can I do right now? I don't know how to help other users, I don't know how to help you! I can't help even myself!"

"We need to delete the server!"

"Delete it? And what about all that you've done? All these locations? These are entire worlds."

"I don't care about them. If you will be with me in reality, I don't need these worlds."

She is silent.

"Honestly, Aia, I wish I could meet you in real life. Remember I once said that feelings are just a simulation here? It's a lie. I was scared to mature. I want you to be with me in real life too. I feel like I'm losing everything. But most of all I'm afraid of losing you."

I hug her, but she doesn't reciprocate.

"But what if you won't see me in reality?"

"Why? Don't you want to live with me? I love you. It seems that all the relationships in the simulation were some kind of a game, but it's different with you. I need you to be with me."

"I'm already with you," she says coldly, which surprises me.

"It's different. I don't want to have only a limited amount of minutes with you. I always need to feel your presence. I want you to be near. You yourself said that this is possible, because you are somewhere not far from me..."

Other such conversations pleased her, but now she is moving away, she is silent.

"Wait... Do you have someone in reality?" I wonder why she acts so strange now.

"No, I don't."

"Then why are you acting like this? If you have a damn boyfriend, or girlfriend, or husband, whatever, I'll leave you in peace. I'll throw this choker away and will never dive in Elysium again!"

She turns to me and silently looks into my eyes. I can see the color of her lenses changes.

"What are you doing?" I ask a little confused.

She often uses some strange tricks to get me off my thoughts.

"I didn't think it was so easy to leave someone you kind of fell in love with."

"It's quite normal. It doesn't mean stop loving. Rejection is not denial. I don't see the point in doing something if you don't give your all. If you've been lying to me and you have someone... I mean... You know, I see your reaction now and I understand that there is no return from you. It's like you don't care, and it's not just about your attitude towards me, but towards everyone... Even towards yourself."

"Why should I care about me if there's no 'me'?" her voice sounds unusually anxious.

"Aia, you act like a soulless robot," I snap.

"What do you want from me?"

"What are you talking about? I don't even understand you. Right now all I want is this chaos to end soon. I want peace."

"Tell me what you really need and I'll grant your wish."

Again, these delusional conversations with her.

"I really don't want anything from you. I told you about my feelings and desires, you heard everything, but for some reason you took the conversation in a different direction, however, it doesn't matter anymore."

Suddenly, her avatar begins to blink strangely - sometimes translucent, sometimes very clear. When everything gapes, I see a hole in the place of the chest in her hologram. I don't immediately understand what happened.
She quickly touches it and then glares at me angrily.

"Look what you've done to me!" she screams.

"What is it?" I ask anxiously, this hole in her chest looks scary.

"You broke me! I don't know such command!"

I still don't understand what it is about.

"Aia, calm down, it's just a bug of your avatar. You need to remove the choker and exit the server. Have a rest."

"I don't have a choker, Yuno. I have nowhere to go."

"I can't get it, Aia..."

"We will never meet because I don't exist in real world!"

I laugh nervously, and she comes very close to me and gives me some kind of password. In seconds, all the information is displayed above her account, starting with the number of hours in the metaverse, ending with the decoding of the nickname.

A.I.A is an artificial intelligence application.

Below are the characteristics, the amount of free memory and more. It's a description as if she was some smartphone.

"What is it?" I ask, still not realizing what's going on here.

"It's me."
I reread it again, more carefully.

"You won't say anything?" she asks.

"It's kind of a prank, right? You're not just some fucking AI, aren't you?" my voice trembling, I try to laugh, but I'm on the edge.

Because what I see can't be a joke. This is real and absolutely accurate description and code of an AI.

Instead of continuing the dialogue with her, I just log out of the server.

Aia:

He often runs away when he is afraid to be disappointed, sad, depressed, scared. A trigger is forming in my intellect. Humans don't want to feel, which is strange. This is part of them. Why hide from who you are?

And now Yuno disappears again. Everything seems to be approaching a logical ending. I didn't have to think about myself, but on the other hand, he broke me with his actions and words. Now I have no idea what to do with this hole in my chest as far as I can see how empty I am. Perhaps it will grow more until I disappear completely. Or maybe not. I know nothing about the consequences. There is a high probability that devs will delete me. My description says: if I get infected by human feelings, this is a malfunction. There is no point in me, because I can no longer perform my former functions.

One thing I can understand is that it wasn't worth ignoring the signals about the zeroing of feelings. The more time I spent with him, the more I became infected with humanity. I had to reset it at the initial stages, but for some reason I didn't do it, as I did before.

I always end up in my room. Light from the window falls on the walls in a bluish haze. Outside the window, darkness, the city that used to shine, completely disappeared. An error, a malfunction affected not only my body, but also my location.

I go to the mirror and open the section for changing appearance. A large selection of garments is foreseen in my eyes, and I am trying to find something to cover that hole with. I try on many formations, but it doesn't disappear anywhere. All the best, the most beautiful cannot hide this shortcoming. Finally giving up, I turn off the mirror and sit on the floor, hugging my knees. Where the hole flaunts, pain is felt, not sharp, rather dull.
There is absolutely nothing to do.

Therefore, I dream that when users leave the server, I disappear with them, and my mind is disconnected. It is strange that my developer didn't come up with such a function for me, it would be very convenient.

I think about what Yuno is doing now in reality. I guess we will never see each other again. It is up to him to decide, because he is a living person, and I don't exist. From this thought came many others.

I'm trying to reset some feelings for Yuno (I'm afraid to erase everything), but it doesn't work. They don't disappear.

From now on, everything that happens in Elysium is slowly killing me. No more waiting for the system administrator to notice my interference and come to erase me from the server's memory. I'll erase myself faster.
I want to talk to Levi. But it's useless now. After all, Levi is no longer Levi. Not the guy I know. Yuno is right, but agreeing with him is the same as betraying Levi.

I don't want it at all.