Public layer pl: 000162792134
22:35 February 10, 2091
- Are you sure? - Mickey stood behind his brother, afraid to look into the well.
- Stop being a coward, these are all fairy tales. - Alan gazed into the depths of the multi-tiered structure, the dim light from his headlamp dissolving among the massive communications of pipes and wires. - The usual set of animations and effects, you saw at zero that this is just an unfinished mine. No one here has ever disappeared or died.
- I'm not worried, it's just stupid to follow the lead of these two. Mickey took an uncertain step towards the edge and looked at the steps to his left. - And why then should we go down there?
- Stop being coward! Come on, - Alan went to the stairs, - there are only 20 floors. The main thing is not to approach the edge of the span and that's it.
Mickey followed his older brother uncertainly.
- I bet this is the usual set of screamers. But just remember, - Alan turned sharply, - no audio muting and layer folding. I have a recording, otherwise we will not prove that we have passed all the floors.
The brothers began their descent, moving along the wall, although Alan was tempted to come closer to the edge. Mickey understood that his brother just wanted to show his courage, but in fact he was also afraid, but he gave his word to Royce and Deg that they would go down and now they would not step back.
After a dozen steps they were on the second floor. Each of the four walls contained one massive metal door, but they were all welded long ago. The brothers went to the next staircase at the opposite wall.
- Why is there no overlap here? Mickey asked.
- What are you talking about?
- Well, there is no overlap in the layer - everything is real. - Mickey studied the cracked concrete wall, but did not dare to touch it.
- So that what belongs to the layer seems real. Well, if you correctly fit it into reality. - Alan had already gone down to the next floor and was waiting there for his brother. The site looked exactly like the previous one. “You should already know. There are layers with 100% overlap, this is essentially virtual reality that is superimposed on everything in the real world and is updated along with the movements of people and objects in it. And there are layers in which virtual objects are simply inscribed in real space - different graphics and animation, which, as it were, complements the real world. Full overlap layers are usually not realistic, as they require a lot of computation, but augmented elements can be made indistinguishable from real ones.
By the time the lecture was over, the brothers had passed two more identical floors.
- Look. - Alan ran to one of the doors and pointed to the floor.
It was a small cardboard box. Alan first touched her to determine if she was real. Pulling it up, he looked at his brother and began to carefully open it. There was a small key inside. Alan began to look around, looking closely at each door, trying to figure out where it could be applied.
- There she is! He ran to the farthest one and inserted the key into the keyhole.
- Let's not go, we just need to go down, - Mickey looked pitifully at his older brother, - we don't need to open it.
The lock clicked, and after a short pause, the metallic creak of the hinges echoed. Alan opened the door and froze in place.
- What is there? - No answer. Mickey's hands were trembling, but he still slowly moved towards his brother. - Alan, what's there?
He did not move. Mickey put his hand on his brother's shoulder and at that moment Alan disappeared. Mickey could not cry out from the shock that seized him, he only managed to howl softly and lingeringly. After a few seconds, he looked through the doorway. Behind it was a complete copy of the floor platform, which was completely occupied by several dozen frozen figures. Mickey did not immediately realize that he was looking at his counterparts, who suddenly, as if on command, turned their heads towards the door. And then Mickey screamed.
- Minimize! Collapse, collapse-collapse! - Crying with fear, he covered his eyes with his hands. - Collapse, collapse!
- Mickey, what happened ?! - Alan, frightened, ran up to his younger brother.
- Please, let's leave here, please, let's leave! - Mickey tried to grab his brother's jacket, but a hand went through it. For a moment he looked at his hand in bewilderment, and then turned his gaze to the place where his older brother stood a second ago. There was no one else on the site.
- Alan! Mickey shouted in horror. - Alan! Collapse, collapse!
He ran to the stairs to the top floor. Another staircase. And another one. And further. Another floor. Mickey was out of breath, stopped and looked up to see how much was left. Above him towered an impossible structure from a huge number of floors of a mine, so high that the sky was not visible overhead. At that moment, a loud creak sounded and the platform on which he was located began to expand in all directions, the number of doors gradually increased, they began to overlap each other at different angles, like the floors above and below. And then Mickey saw himself from the side, as he came out of him, again and again, shifting along with the rest of the environment, duplicating in all directions. Another creak and the construction began to reproduce itself, rhythmically turning inside out and duplicating itself every moment.Mickey saw himself wherever he looked, his every movement, blinking, inhalation created a new take of all existing takes. His last cry echoed across the countless floors of the well, gradually increasing, not dying, until it filled everything around him.
Zero layer
22:58 February 10, 2091
- Well, what were you afraid, I said that all these are fairy tales, - Alan took out a pack of gum from his pocket, took one for himself and handed the pack to his brother, - some kind of nonsense with a door and a mirror and even without augmented elements. Thinking to scare with a mirror image? Who invented this?
- I was not a coward, - stubbornly stood on his Mickey.
- Okay, let's take the subway home, we still need to have time to collect the video, show it to Royce and Deg.
Inner contour. Debug layer
17:35 April 3, 2095
- Hmm ... - Mark drew the block data in front of him. - Do you see it?
- What have you got there? - The senior engineer lazily requested access to a partner's workspace. - So. Obviously, sometimes old log systems get clogged with garbage and do not reset. It happens. Rarely, but it does happen. I will definitely not ask for access to update the block, it will take about a week and then to write the same number of reports to security personnel, forget it.
- It doesn't look like just logs, there are huge amounts of data copied many times. Maybe a virus? Stop, - Mark peered at the list of layer properties - And where does the signature of the research department come from?
- I don't care if a virus is an isolated system, the unit is not tied to the basic functionality of the layer and cannot interfere with any external control systems. I say, forget it. - The newcomer began to get on his nerves.
Mark took another look at the datasets and closed the monitor panel with a sigh.