"Okay," asked a woman about 25 years old. "Where should we start?"
"Depends on your question," said a 30-year-old man.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"Well…, you just want to get acquainted," the man smirked softly, "or else, do you want a continuation of all this?"
"Aah…"
The woman who wore a tight black dress under a long white jacket opened her mouth while pointing at the man, though without a word coming out of her mouth.
The man laughed silently. He was lying on his back in a special chair made of stainless steel with blue cushions and a nearly naked body. He was wearing only gray shorts that were more appropriate to be called panties.
On his right chest, attached a small round device connected by two wires, and the other end of the two wires connected to a monitor on the man's left side.
His two hands were on the arms of the chair, on the left and right. The tip of the index finger of his left hand is connected by a medical device similar to a pulse oximeter with a long white wire. And the cable is connected to the same monitor.
"Okay, I see where it goes," the woman said and shifted her chair towards the man from the right. "What if it's just for wasting time?"
"Oh, I see," the man smiled. "Tell me, Doctor, have you had a special relationship?"
"You know," the woman who was a doctor smiled. "You shouldn't be thinking about a relationship at this point."
"Is that the best advice you have?"
"Of course," the doctor pointed to the man from head to toe.
Yes, the man looks like a patient. At the head, mounted a kind of transparent helmet with quite a lot of small wires connected with long and fine needles. The needles pierced the man's scalp. Not a single hair was on his head, it looked like he was shaving on purpose to go through all that.
The wires connected to the fine needles were also connected to the wide monitor on the man's left.
The thin monitor—which looks like a rectangular, transparent glass—displays a three-dimensional recording of the man's brain and his brain waves in three sometimes mixed colors.
There is also a description of the heart rate, oxygen levels in the man's body, and blood pressure.
"All right," said the man. "I see what you mean."
"Then…," the doctor reached for a medium-sized injection with a yellowish liquid in the injection tube. "Let's start with your name, shall we?"
"That's weird!" The man chuckled.
"Really?"
"Tell me, Doc, are you illiterate?"
The doctor laughed softly and was not offended in the slightest by the man's words. She reached for a note that was on the table, a table on wheels also made of stainless steel.
"I'm not illiterate," she said. "But obviously, I can't spell your name on here. U-e? Or, Yue? Or maybe, Uek?" said the doctor imitating the sound of vomiting. "Who knows, right?"
"That's very easy, Doc. My name is only two letters long. U and E."
"That's what I meant," said the doctor. "How do you spell your name? I was just curious."
The man smirked. "You just call me Yu."
"You?"
"No, not in English. The letters Y and U. Yu."
"Alright, Mr. Yu, it's time to give you this delightful therapy."
"What kind of injection is that?"
"This…," the doctor showed the syringe in her hand, then opened the syringe cap, flicking the needle. "Contains a liquid that will be able to bring you to a state where you will feel like you are in a room without gravity."
"As simple as that?"
"Oh my…" the doctor smiled. "Didn't you realize?" and again, she pointed to the man's head. "Those fine needles connected to the neural network in your head and along your spine?"
The man laughed softly. "Sorry, sorry… I really don't understand what you're going to do to my body."
"Oh, my God," the doctor smiled as she shook her head. "I don't know what made your decision to take this job? For sure. But, I think I know the reason."
"Did you?"
The doctor tilted her head, she patted the man's right hand at the crease of the elbow. After the man's veins popped, she also applied a cotton swab that had been moistened with alcohol to the point.
"Well, it might," she said, looking back at the syringe in her hand to see and make sure there were no more air bubbles in the yellowish liquid. "Because you're crazy."
The man couldn't hold back his laughter, so the doctor became distracted when she was about to inject the liquid into his body.
"Come on!" said the doctor. "Calm down for a moment."
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry…"
And the doctor managed to stick the needle into a large vein in the man's elbow crease.
"But, I did think that you were crazy."
"Maybe," said Yu with a smile as he looked up at the ceiling. "Because you must think that only crazy people would accept this offer. Am I wrong?"
"Perfect!" said the doctor after successfully injecting all the liquid in the injection tube into the man's body. "Yeah," she nodded as she placed the empty syringe on the stainless steel table nearby. "That's what I meant."
"Yeah, I think you're right."
"Now," said the doctor. "Try to be calm, breathe regularly."
One hand of the doctor massaged the man's chest and stomach while his gaze was fixed on the large monitor screen on the man's left.
Yu followed everything the doctor said. Over and over again until the condition shows no signs of resistance from the fluid injected by the doctor.
"Very good," said the doctor. "Your blood pressure is normal. Your heart rate is also normal. Likewise…, with the level of oxygen in your blood."
"What about the head?" Yu also looked at the monitor.
"Well, as it expected," said the doctor. "There's an increase in brain activity that changes your right brain waves to be stronger than your left brain waves."
"And, what does that mean?"
"That means, Mr. Yu—"
"Please, just Yu is enough. Looks like it's going to be a long time for me."
"Okay, Yu it is. And you're right, it's going to be a very, very long time. That's why I'm asking you light things."
"Aah…" Yu smiled, returning his attention to the three-dimensional image of the brain in his head on the monitor screen.
"That means," said the doctor then as she checked the fine wires connected to the needles in Yu's head. "The serum that I injected earlier was working well. Since this is a real simulation, you can say it like that, and that's why I have to 'play' on the part of your brain that will develop your imagination, creativity, and art as they wish—"
The doctor pointed to all the devices even the room itself. Yu quite understands that what the doctor meant must have been the owner of the facility himself. And that means, all this according to the wishes of the owner.