Preface by the author
My name is Dante Guybor. I live in Ecuador, studying virtual reality and video games. This story is about the life of a man living in Russia in the sample of 2100. Moving into the future, you will see the confrontation between the main character and society, which will not be easy at all, given the reality changed by technical means.
Let's go on this journey together. 

Chapter 1: Sleep
I saw her as if in reality: so beautiful, but so excited. It seemed that time had frozen, that life could be put on pause and reminisce about the past for a few more moments. I was caught up in the memories.
I immediately remembered that beach, painted with a maroon sunset. Alas, it was impossible to return there, but I wanted to dream. You get used to the time spent with her quickly, before you know it, she's gone. Despite this, in short moments she managed to live with so many emotions that it is hard to believe. It's hard to say how many tears I've cried since that time. I would have given anything, sacrificed everything, if only that memory would not be the last. Such things are hard to describe, you have to experience them at least once in your life, believe me. But I'll try to explain myself.
The automated mental health system recommended that I keep a diary. It was weird. Still, despite the cost, I was hoping for a living person who would work with me. However, as I have heard, only people from the upper class can afford such a luxury. In principle, I'm not complaining, because the supporting intelligence is very good, knows what to say, recognizes mental problems perfectly, and offers reasonable solutions. I have no doubt about its effectiveness. But I'll be honest with myself: I'd rather communicate with a person who can condemn me than with a robot who doesn't even have his own opinion. No machine can replace the warmth of human communication.
Sometimes I have relapses, I won't deny it. Yes, and the automated system has its own answer and cure for this, but sometimes I just can't stand it like a human being. I always thought I had above average willpower, but this case is a much bigger test than anything that happens to me. I don't even know if I should be upset or seek solace in this, but my diagnosis is very common now. In fact, most of the population suffers from this addiction. There is no exact data, after all, "R.E" (Remember Enterprise), the large company behind the chips, is too influential and will certainly do everything to maintain its power at the level. There was a time when I worked with them. Nothing bothered me then. Yes, sometimes I've seen
cases similar to mine, but I thought it was a matter of people's own responsibility. When this happened to me, I realized the truth - the whole system is designed so that you can't get out.
I first encountered addiction in one of the first months of my work. The control room received a call and, since the artificial intelligence troubleshooting determined that the problem required direct presence on the spot, sent me to the specified address. The place looked terrible: it was an ordinary apartment from the time when all the houses were changed to identical apartments, just with a different numbering. My grandfather told me that houses used to be of different models, they were not designed with an exact interior, sometimes they could be larger, sometimes smaller. I always thought I wanted a house on Mars. I've never been there, the price was too high for such a short trip, but I've heard that rich people have real estate there. And not apartments, but whole houses. Of course, I dreamed of living in such a place.
While I was thinking, I received a notification three times that the client was about to come down, but there was no one. When I was about to leave, the door opened abruptly.
She was a middle-aged woman, but she didn't look like her peers. She looked old. It seemed strange to me. How come she didn't get her rejuvenation surgery for thirty years? This is very rare. Such procedures were almost mandatory for everyone, almost without exception. However, it was safe to say that she did not take her anti-wrinkle pills, perhaps she did not even undergo routine checkups. I looked and thought that this woman would not even live to be a hundred, but I was not there to judge. She let me in and apologized for the delay. She said that the door had stopped scanning the eye, apparently something was wrong with it. I saw her reddened eyes and assumed it wasn't the poor door's fault.
A mess greeted me right from the doorway. Most of the products have gone bad. The ventilation system must have leaked in the building. There were puddles of water everywhere. This puzzled me for a moment.
Since 2045, there has been a campaign against waste, after all, there were not many resources left on the planet. My father survived the great drought of 2067, so it was especially surprising to me that someone would waste water in this way.
I already understood what the problem was, so I didn't hesitate to get to work. Despite the fact that the atmosphere was not entirely pleasant, things were going pretty well. But I am faced with a problem that artificial intelligence has already warned me about. It turns out that the transformer of the collected solar energy burned down.
All that remained was to change it so that the power went into the separation system and recharged the chip.
It wasn't my neighborhood, so I politely asked the client to call the building manager. That's when she got hysterical. While I was working, she was obviously a little nervous, even pacing back and forth, but I never expected such a reaction. She practically begged me to help her fix the transformer, insisted that a commission would arrive in a month to periodically inspect the building, but she could not wait so long that she had no money, but she could well pay me with food rations. Naturally, I refused. How can a person live a month without food? She even explained this to me: there was an error in the system, so she was given a ration for two, although the second person was removed from the system a long time ago. Despite my reservations, I decided to believe her. On the way to the store to get a new chip, I reflected on how lucky I was.
Usually it was the other way around and there wasn't enough food for everyone. Overall, I felt a little awkward because of all these tears, but overall I was happy. This extra portion of food sold well on the black market, which gave me more savings for a trip I had been planning for a long time. Then it occurred to me that maybe that was why she had been out of work for so long, selling an extra portion of food.
When she returned, the woman was shaking and crying. I can't tell you how long I was gone, but I could swear it wasn't for long. I started to feel uncomfortable and just wanted to get out of there. After a while, I changed the part. Fortunately, during our studies, we were taught a little about working with solar energy, since it was the source for the chip to work, and I had a friend who specialized exclusively in such things. So from time to time we would get together and he would teach me something new.
When I was done, I unconsciously wrote down the serial number on my chip, and she hurriedly handed me a ration and connected to the chip without even waiting for me to leave and close the door. If it had been someone else, he could have stolen everything of value, although it wasn't much.
My working day ended, and I arrived at my apartment. Everything went on as usual. Lucy arrived an hour later, as usual. And I already had dinner ready. We sat down at the table. I told her about my day, after which she looked sad and thoughtful. In response to my question, she explained to me that this woman would definitely need medical help, and that it was wrong of me to use her to my advantage. Such thoughts had never occurred to me. Lucy has always been more empathetic, and this wasn't the first time she made me treat people with kindness. I should have returned the ration, but it was already sold on the way home. Besides, it was a surprise for Lucy, so the next day I planned to go to that woman's house, leave my number and offer personal free help at any time.
I couldn't sleep that night, and I didn't want to take the sleeping pills that were included with the ration - it made it harder for me to wake up, sometimes I even had to skip work.
So I got out of bed and, for lack of things to do, decided to go into the chip servers for a while, do a routine check. I didn't do it that day, although it was part of my job that I had to do periodically. When I was sure that everything was going well, a sudden thought came to my mind about today's woman. My curiosity was so great that, without thinking twice, I entered her serial number on the server. To my surprise, she didn't sleep either.
It was a system for children, usually babies were left there all day while their parents worked. I watched her approach a child, a very small one, about eight years old, and he asked why mom had arrived earlier. The woman only replied that an unforeseen situation had happened at her work, which caused everyone to go home, and she was only happy to spend time with him. They logged out, went to the movies, ate synthetic ice cream, because classic was considered a luxury. They spent hours playing in a public space for children, smiling, hugging, and I realized how much she loved her son. Or maybe it touched my heart, because my parents never loved me so much. And now it's like I've entered another world where being a child is really good.
Looking at all this, it seemed to me more and more that I was superfluous here, as if I shouldn't be there, after all, it was someone's life. Right before the blackout, I heard the boy say, "Mom, I can't be with you anymore because I'm being sent on a special mission to Mars?" The woman frowned, and a puzzle formed in my head.
The fact is that young children were often infected with something due to environmental pollution. If the disease could be detected at an early stage, then dangerous consequences could be avoided, it could be contained. If not, well, life can be very harsh sometimes. After that, she hugged him and told him that their dream of traveling to Mars would come true, but for now they should continue to enjoy what was left of their time. She hugged him so tightly that I could feel, thanks to the chip, how he was squeezing, and who knows if this was the last hug she managed to give him. I know for a fact that this is the happiest memory she has, even if its end is bitter.
I disconnected from the network, all this was enough to bring me to tears. Then I lay down and hugged Lucy until I fell asleep. It was an amazing day, the first time I had a dream about a child. Then I tried to find it more than once in the database of all residents of the city, but all I could find was that the double ration error was fixed, and the apartment has remained empty since then.

Chapter 2: The Letter
When we were flying in the rocket, I turned around and looked at her, saying nothing, not thinking about anything except that I love her. She was the one who helped me live my life and endure this damn world. Yes, I was never perfect, but she helped me get better, and her love for people was passed on to me. I would do anything to see her smile.
And here is the beach. It took me forever to raise enough money, but in the end I did it. Now all that remained was to enjoy her and the ride. It was one of the few times I was happy. Turning off the chip, I went to sleep.
The days were hard because of my physical condition. I was given a mandatory leave from work, so I can't voluntarily stop it. I'm just getting rations to survive. I had more time on vacation, which was in stark contrast to my normal life. In this temporary pit, I had to look for different ways to entertain myself. Apparently, I draw well. I have never been interested in learning any art because I have never considered myself a creative person. Maybe it's from my parents.
They fit into the system very well. My father studied to program virtual reality technologies, that is, he managed to get a job in one of the most highly paid professions in recent times. The mother worked in kindergartens because someone had to take care of the children. So our family never needed anything and even had such luxuries as, for example, ornamental plants in my house and even a whole garden. It didn't mean that I was happy. Since childhood, I have been accompanied by loneliness. I quickly got used to seeing my parents only at dinner.
They supported me when I decided to prepare for this job. I probably went there to make them proud of me. That's probably why it was difficult for me to empathize with people, and Lucy had to constantly remind me of simple empathy. My Lucy was a special case. She grew up, like all children, an only child, because of the sterilization law after the first child. She grew up alone in the nursery, like all of us, but there was a special light in her, something that set her apart from others. I still don't understand why, but that's what I fell in love with in the first place.
Lucy always made me send messages to my parents, even though I hadn't seen them since I moved out at the age of twenty to study elsewhere. The messages were dry and the calls were awkward. To this day, I still don't understand whether I was so unlucky with my parents, or whether the system broke us all, and everyone just survived as best they could.
I kept in touch with them thanks to Lucy. Many times I realized that she was the detail that separated me from all the robots I worked with on a daily basis. And the reason why I remember all this at all is the following: I received a message from them, about two days ago, I did not expect this, but somehow they received information that I was being treated for addiction, perhaps it was a warning from the system. Anyway, at first I was thrilled when I realized that maybe they really cared. Anyway, the letter said the following:
"Son, your mom and I are very worried about your health. Despite the fact that our work currently does not allow us to come to your city, we are sending you this message to remind you that we are here for everything you need. We love you, and if life seems sad and gray now, remember that there is always tomorrow, as long as you remember to live in the present, everything will be fine. We love you, your parents."
I felt even worse when I read the letter. I realized that it was written by an artificial intelligence-a text editor. I noticed this because I also used it last year to wish my mom a happy birthday. Such mechanisms sometimes have a mistake with the word mom, he writes it with two "m".

Chapter 3: The Abyss
That evening I returned home with a big surprise. I managed to rent a place on a nearby beach, about three hours away by rocket. Every day for many years now, she has told me that she dreams of going to the beach. Most of them were closed before we were born, because the ultraviolet rays were too strong, and they prevented us from putting up domes that covered us in cities. Only large cities such as Moscow had high-quality domes. Others had to make do with weaker protection. Over time, the regeneration project has helped a lot. It consisted in the removal of pollutants and the release of gases that help restore the ozone layer. As I said, the turning point on the planet came due to the drought of 2067, but since then the rules have become strict. If you polluted the planet or wasted resources, you were facing time. Lucy's grandmother told her what beaches were like, and she's been amazed ever since. Her dream has always been to get to one of them.
They were reopened a few years ago, provided that you use the necessary protection. The problem was how expensive the visit was: the entrance fee and the UV protection suit, plus you could only go at certain times of the day. In short, it is very difficult and expensive. But I saved up a lot for it, because Lucy really deserves it and even more. I do not know how many times I reproduced her worried face when I told her the news. It's one of those memories that I come back to most often when I just can't take the pain anymore. I wish I could see her again, replaying these memories over and over on the chip.
As soon as Lucy left, my whole life fell apart. I didn't sleep, I didn't eat, I just repeated our moments over and over again. At least there I could see her again. I've always regretted what I've done in recent days, I'll never have the opportunity to fix it again. But I think part of the healing is to relive those moments.
After spending the day on the beach, we returned to the hotel. I can't describe the feeling. It was so nice to see her genuinely smiling. Perhaps this is love. And I remember that night fondly, it was the longest and, at the same time, the shortest night that I have ever experienced. The fact that I saw her so happy made me feel like it was all worth it.
When I woke up the next day, Lucy was in a hurry to pack her things for some reason. I was confused. Our trip was planned for five days, and I was very nervous. "My mother, her illness has worsened, we must leave immediately," she told me, trembling with fear. I don't know why, but at that moment I couldn't contain my feelings and said those words that I will regret for the rest of my days: "Lucy, I've been planning this for too many months ahead. I don't think we'll be able to come back after that, and I assure you that we won't be able to get the money back. Do you really want to trade the dream of your whole life for a woman who never even cared about you? When you give and give everything without getting anything in return, you're literally talking to yourself when you call her. Are you going to leave here? Are you really going to leave me for someone who, if not for the fact that she is forced to call herself your mother, would have no relationship at all? And maybe it's not even anyone's fault, maybe this world is not made for family ties." She was silent, confused. I could almost feel the disappointment on my face, and I just said, "And maybe I wasn't made for you." And he left.
My addiction started soon after she was gone. I spent hours rushing from memory to memory. I had never used my chip to play back memories before, except for some family event that I wanted to remember, but nothing happened in my life except Lucy, and since she was with me, I never had that need. It should be mentioned that the chips were available to everyone to make calls, messages, video games, read news, simulations, questions, research, medicine, determine faster routes to get to your destination, indicate the level of fat or sugar in your food, call the hospital when you notice something strange in your vital signs, music playback, in virtual space, and in some cases, it generates answers to disputes, love advice, what to say at a wake, how to do your job or train. Simply put, you could let artificial intelligence on a chip live your life, and many people have done so. He was created for this. The fewer people who made decisions and the more they just got carried away with the algorithm, the more political power the company that developed them had. I know this because I have learned how to correct any anomalies that could theoretically occur. In the future, I planned to take a job creating chips for new generations, and in fact, I was very highly appreciated by the company. They let me see a couple of prototypes, but now that I've been decommissioned for a while, I'm not sure how much they trust me.
The first few days passed unnoticed. Time changes when you are inside your memories. I ate and drank to a minimum. It took up my time with her. I didn't communicate with people. I skipped work and went outside only if I needed something to keep the chip running. It's almost always the same memory: the evening beach, her smile. The tide, the sand. I ran it all thousands of times, but I couldn't change the result. When I paused a memory, the chip recreated it in a virtual environment where everything seemed real and you could feel certain things like a breeze or the warmth of a hug, but nothing you did changed the ending. No matter how much you change your words or actions, the chip records the memory from your point of view and tries to reproduce it as accurately as possible, although it is not perfect. Sometimes I find mistakes in memories or dialogues that I could swear were different.
Anyway, I'm forever stuck in the memory of the beach. I stopped him and looked into her eyes. I looked at her through the maroon prism of the sunset. Her eyes sparkled, the waves that came and went turned blood red, undoubtedly the blood from the brutal death of all my fears when I was with her. And I was thinking that I wouldn't give it away. By that day, I had done what I had planned in the first place. I always wonder what she would say if I had the courage to pull out the ring I was wearing on my jacket and kneel on the same beach waiting for an answer. No matter how much I think about it, only her last phrase is always in my head: "thank you for everything."

Chapter 4: Insanity
The next thing I knew, I was in the hospital. I fainted in my apartment, and I do not know if it was luck or bad luck, but Gleb came to visit me about 5 hours after I lost consciousness, as he was worried that I was not answering calls and messages. I told him afterwards that I had completely silenced the chip, even emergency calls to hospitals, and therefore they did not come when they should have. The hospital stay was strange. Everything was automated. I think I saw one or two people during the whole recovery process. Despite the loneliness, the treatment was short-lived. Even considering the deficiency of almost all possible vitamins and minerals, health has never been a real problem, unless it is an incurable disease that leads to death. Most people are discharged within two to three days, after almost any illness or surgery, with the exception of the elderly. When you are about one hundred and fifty years old, going to the hospital is a warning about your death.
When I came out, I didn't feel very good, but I didn't feel too bad either. It was like when you cry so much that you don't have any more tears, and you're left with just this huge feeling of emptiness. The next few days were boring. It wasn't that long ago. Since I didn't want to use the chip often, all my hobbies like movies or video games tempted me to relapse, so I chose drawing. It was difficult to find synthetic paper because no one else used it. When you have all the tools on the chip, you don't need to look for pencils. Anyway, after almost a day of searching, I got it. In addition, I started keeping a diary, which takes up a lot of my time. Mainly because it is very difficult for me to write texts instead of typing them like everyone else does. Gleb looks in on me from time to time to check on me. Sometimes he brings something from his work with solar energy because he knows I'm interested in it, but I feel like these things don't charge me the way they used to.
Yesterday I came across a ring. I thought I was storing it somewhere else, but that's not the case. It fell next to the sheets of synthetic paper. He was crying. As I said before, despite the fact that I have a lot of willpower, there are days when I'm not myself. When I saw the ring, I realized that I would not be able to restrain the desire to return. I turned on the chip implanted in my head, but now I felt some kind of fear and anxiety at the very thought of reproducing the memory of the beach, so I moved on. I arrived at the hospital a day later because my rocket was delayed. Lucy was sitting across from her mother. She was connected to so many devices that I couldn't count them with the naked eye. Apparently, her body rejected the drug, which reduced her antibiotic resistance. Due to the number of pills we took almost daily, we usually had some resistance, but after treatment it passed. But not in your case. It was very bad, and therefore Lucy didn't look very good either. We didn't say a word to each other, I just sat next to him. She was crying on my shoulder. We went out for a minute while her mother was sleeping. She knew that I was asking for forgiveness through my eyes, and I knew that she had already forgiven me with her own eyes, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't have said it. "Lucy, I'm sorry, sometimes I let my stubbornness speak for me, and I don't realize how callous I am. I'm sorry." It was a short apology, but I swear it was sincere. I was very sorry for what I had done, and, above all, under no circumstances did I want to lose her. "I forgive you," she said, but that was enough. We returned to the living room. I spent the next 4 days in the hospital with her. After that, I had to go back to work. She asked for extra days because of household problems. I worked for an insurance company. The irony of fate
The problem was that a week later, her mother's condition had improved significantly. She returned by magnetic train. There was a failure in magnetism. The temperature exceeded the norm, and the architect did not foresee such a significant increase as on this day. The magnetism was lost for just a microsecond. That was enough to derail the train. Lucy didn't survive. Her mother got all the insurance money. She did not attend the funeral. I turned off the chip and tried to fall asleep, but that day it was exactly six months since the accident, and this thought deprived me of sleep again.
I dropped the diary. Writing so much was exhausting, and I already felt like I needed a break. While I was procrastinating, it occurred to me to look through some working papers. I may have been on vacation, but that didn't stop me from catching up so that when I get back, I won't be so lost. Looking through all the files, I found one that caught my attention: the third beta version of the SOPE project, an abbreviation that I can't recognize. I decided to go there and realized that this is a beta version of artificial intelligence that can generate fictional scenarios by collecting your memories and reproducing people's behavior according to your point of view, what they would say in certain situations or how they would act in certain events. It looks like over-imagination, but in high resolution. I know I shouldn't go back to the memories of the beach, but I don't think I can live without knowing what would have happened if I had just said those words. When I finished installing the version, I didn't hesitate, I just ran the program.
The beach looked beautiful, the way I remembered it. I looked at Lucy, but the app couldn't reproduce her correctly. Apparently, the algorithm does not quite manage to assemble a personality and create its own reality based on this. To correct the mistake, I decided to go back to all our memories that gave out the error.
February 15, 2090
The first time we met, we talked for hours about a video game during a date, thanks to the dating software algorithm. The meeting was held in a virtual format. I fell in love with her voice.
May 24, 2090
It was the first time we met, since I had to train in her city for a while. The training was a kind of personalized training for a specific job. There was no such thing as several vacancies, but I pulled certain “strings” to train there. I saw her and fell in love with her figure.
February 12, 2092
We watched a movie that made her burst out laughing. I fell in love with her smile.
August 30, 2095
We decided to move in together, so I moved to her city, and we rented an apartment for two people. We both knew it was an important decision. I fell in love with her excited face.
March 21, 2099
She threw me a surprise birthday party. I fell in love with her care.
January 5, 2093
She fell asleep in my apartment. I fell in love with her breathing.
September 21, 2097
I just looked into her eyes. I fell in love with her looks.
July 14th, 2092
I fell in love with her hands.
December 31, 2098
I fell in love with her humor.
April 1, 2094
I fell in love with her intelligence.
June 9th, 2097
I fell in love with her anger.
September 19th, 2091
I fell in love with her tears.
October 2
I fell in love with her tenderness.
January 9th
I fell in love with her kindness.
November
I fell in love with her heart.
March
I fell in love with the way she swings on the chair
All these memories that I was in, all the experiences, all our dreams, all our experiences, all the times when I took care of her, all the times when she brought me back to reality, all the times when we slept in each other's arms, all the times when we cried together, all the kisses All the hugs, all the love that we gave each other, and now it's gone, and I feel a tear running down my cheek.
June 25, 1090
We walked around the city. I fell in love with her.
When I looked at all these memories, I felt that something was wrong. I quickly scanned the files. Being a beta version, the system could not accommodate so much information and was overloaded. The consequences can be different, for example, blocking certain memories from the chip, creating missing memories, failure of the learning algorithm, or
replication of other people and, in the worst case, permanent unavailability to reproduce your memories. As I said, the chip emulates the recording, it was like you deleted such a recording that you had nothing left.
On the other hand, the waiting time was coming to an end, and I realized that this might be the last time I would have a chance to find out what she would say. But I also saw how the memories were corrupted. The scripts were distorted, the people around us were just blurred figures. My memories were falling apart, the sky was full of black holes, the floors were turning into nothingness, people and animals were standing still in time. Her random phrases sounded: "You have to help him", "Don't look at me while I'm sleeping", "Be kind to your parents", "I miss you", "I love you", "I'm hungry", "I'm upset", "How's your job?", "Have you eaten yet?", "What were you dreaming about?", "I love you."
Time was over, everything around us was still ruined. — Lucy, I love you, will you marry me? ... —If I want to," she said next to me, "but I'm not real, you have to get out of here before it consumes your life." There are people who love you and need you. You can't stay here. You can't be with me. I left. I'm not her, and it hurts you. Now leave before the system erases everything."
It was her, I don't know how, but she was right in front of my eyes. It's just what she was telling me, and yet deep down I knew it wasn't real.
"Don't worry, Lucy, I'll be fine. I promise I'll let you go. Now tell me, what were you doing at your job today?  I said in a slightly strangled voice.
I thought I knew what I was doing. She always knew about it and eventually said, "Well, not that much. Today Rita was trapped in the bathroom, apparently the retina system was not working. Do you remember when I told you about Timofey and Kristina? Well, today I confirmed my suspicions. I
I'm sure these two are together. Besides, at lunch we laughed so hard at something Olga said that I almost spat out my food. But anyway, it was an ordinary day, and now tell me about yours ..." - disappeared, everything disappeared, there was only a completely empty space and giant letters on which it was written "Memories not found". Chapter 6: New Memories
Over the next six months, I got better. I couldn't reproduce the memories, so I couldn't go back. I didn't feel the need for it. I gave my word and planned to keep it.
I asked to be transferred to another job with new training, and although this is usually not possible, the issue of my illness helped me a lot. I am currently teaching a paper drawing course for people with psychological disorders. It was difficult to get this position because there were practically no vacancies, but thanks to some influential people who took pity on my case, I managed to find it. After a while, my work became very successful. I knew a woman who was addicted to her son's memories. I knew immediately who she was.
I became more sociable and made new friends without neglecting the old ones. Now Gleb and I gather every Saturday not only to play, but also to chat.
Yesterday I went to my hometown Novosibirsk. I visited my parents. They didn't expect it, and I saw it on their faces, but I also think there was some happiness there. Maybe it's a good idea, maybe it's not. We'll see what happens on other days, but I feel like everything can be fixed here. That's all my report for today, Lucy. I would like you to tell me about your day, but I think it will only remain a memory.

The epilogue
Instead of concluding, I can say that this work touches on various aspects of human psychology, such as addiction, grief, parenting and self-improvement. All these topics were touched upon from a futuristic point of view, but at the same time with a realistic meaning in terms of the emotions of each character. This work was difficult to complete due to the fact that I wanted to address several points of view, but in the end I chose one and delved into it, but still I feel that this ending closes the main character's journey very well and gives him a satisfying ending.

The original is in the application

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