Milena awakens as fast as she passes out.
The first dive has begun.
A familiarly uncomfortable sensation pummels Milena in her chest. Her eyes bulge as pressure builds up in her head and her torso tightens and squeezes in on itself. She knew that she had 7 seconds to generate an atmosphere before her lungs exploded.
Keeping calm, Milena repeats the actions she has done so many times in training.
Concentrating her energy and blood flow in her torso, Milena braces herself before setting up for a huge breath even though there is no air around her. One…two…three! Milena sucks in as deeply as she can and to her pleasant surprise, the pressure build up in her body frame was released and she felt a humid sticky atmosphere clinging to her skin. She was successful!
Generating an individual atmosphere is the first thing taught at Synthesia Academy's Dive School. Neural space is a hyperspace that exists because of the individual's thoughts and will. As such, altering reality in neural space is predominantly dependent on what the Afferent wills into existence. Of course, certain rules and laws have to be obeyed, but the general principles that atmosphere creation abides by, are the same principles that guide reality manipulation in neural space.
Feeling triumphant with her small victory, Milena gathers herself to survey the reality around her.
She can make out that she is in a large open area filled completely with rubble and ruins. Withered trees are scattered around the area, adding to a sense of overpowering dread.
In the distance, there is a small clearing into an enclave of huts and shoddily constructed buildings.
"Shelter first", Milena runs through her checklist mentally as she hurriedly walks over to the huts.
A dark black sun hangs over the landscape, casting a bright white shadow onto the ground. All this was extremely disorienting to Milena, as she struggled to find her footing amongst the sharp edged rubble that piled and littered the way to the huts.
As Milena clatters over the rubble and climbs upwards, she sees several blackened stone hands in a variety of grotesque poses sticking out from the rubble surface. Taken aback, Milena stumbles and loses her footing, causing an avalanche of rubble to cascade down the rubble mound she was on. The resulting loose rocks seemed to trigger a reflex in the stone hands, as they started grabbing around blindly.
One of the hands nearest to Milena starts reaching out and upwards towards the sky. From underneath the rubble, an entire arm appeared, followed by a torso and a pair of red gleaming eyes mounted on a boar's head.
Milena froze in fear. This is an infested reality. Her chances of survival are now 19%.
In the academy, the trainers have often taught aspiring Afferents that the first reality a trainee lands in during potentiation is not up to their control, and can either be 'serene' or 'infested'. Infested realities are corrupted with chaos, and often have chaos beasts lurking to kill any diver unfortunate enough to land near them.
In these scenarios, divers who have latent combat abilities often try to destroy their foes in an attempt to force stable reality to manifest. Other divers who have latent scout abilities are often encouraged to hide and open new realities, in an attempt to reality hop their way into stability.
Milena's training kicked in. Regaining her balance, she started a furious clamor towards the huts. If she can find shelter, she will be safe. Chaos beasts, while absurdly strong, do not possess human consciousness. As such, they are unable to navigate past obstacles that require fine motor control, like doors. Diver's Manual Section 5, Subsection 3A.
Behind her, the chaos beast frees itself from the rubble pile and stands on its hind legs.
Milena kept moving forward. She had to get to shelter now.
"NYAAAHHHHH!!!!!"
The chaos beast lets out a shrill cry, mocking Milena's futile attempts to escape it. Then, it started running over the rubble towards Milena.
It is now a race for her life and Milena mustered all her strength and stamina in a mad dash for the huts.
Behind her, the chaos beast is gaining ground rapidly, compensating for its slow start.
For the next 8 seconds, the pair kept the distance between them as Milena pushed herself to her maximum capacity. Finally she clears the rubble field with a clumsy leap and grabs onto the handle of one of the huts.
"Please don't be locked"...
The door swivels open gracefully and Milena rushes in and closes the door from the inside. It's not over yet. The door has no lock and needs a barricade.
Scanning her surroundings, Milena spots a large antique dining table and oak furniture scattered around the house. Mustering what is left of her strength, Milena creates a makeshift barricade just as the chaos beast slams into the exterior facade of the house.
Dust falls from the ceiling as Milena collapses on the floor from exhaustion.
"Wonder how the rest are doing… If it's anything like this for them, half our batch should be dead by now…And this is only just the start…" Milena thought to herself.
Outside, the chaos beast continues harassing the exterior facade, unable to find the door. Milena takes a nap hiding under a sofa to regain her energy…
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