The Collective Dream of Shadow

This is a work of fiction - the required lie printed on it all.

NOCTAL was a very ordinary producer of online video games but the definition of that ‘ordinary’ had come to change over the years and now ‘ordinary producer of online video games’ also came with being required to be the Lastelle government’s eyes, ears, and everything in between. In short, like all the others: NOCTAL was a government entity in all but an official title. Their newest game, Abysstellar - a typical sci-fi action-RPG where an anime protagonist fights against interdimensional beings - was set to release in just a month and for that they’d be partnering with Lastelle Security’s Department of Dreams.

Denia was a very ordinary agent of that very Department of Dreams. The department had emerged after research had deemed a demand for it. Though Denia was merely a manager, not a researcher, but still privy to their secrets all the same. She checks her immaculate appearance in a glass window before she enters NOCTAL’s head office. There’s a cool breeze from the air conditioning that fights with the summer heat that rushes in through the open sliding door. The reception area is mostly plain bright white, decorated framed posters and a cardboard standee of a character Denia doesn’t recognize, not being a player of these games.

“Hello, you’re here for the player induction, right? Abysstellar?” The cheerful receptionist hands over a guest lanyard and instructions for the correct conference room.

For this partnership, NOCTAL would recruit several players using a beta test to work on behalf of the Department of Dreams. All players should be between the ages of twenty-five to thirty, otherwise unemployed and not in education, and in good enough health. This data was already held by government agencies but NOCTAL’s own logged player data painted a good enough picture of everyone’s profile by itself. If one could spend all day, everyday online in their games it was safe to say they didn’t have a job.

Denia clears her throat, puts on her all but patented ‘meeting smile’ and heads into the awaiting conference room.

“Good morning.” She greets the room.

She gets no answer from the group.

The group of fifteen players is a mixed bunch, all present after the non-disclosure agreement signing, mostly looking either bored or nervous. They’d all been given the spiel about this being a beta-test for the upcoming game Abysstellar and the ‘play-to-earn opportunity’ they were singing up for. Supposedly choosing a group like this was to help deal with their so-called growing ‘society drop-out’ population.

A little late, the hurried NOCTAL representative enters the room.

“Just in time.” She says, but Denia would disagree. “Ah, Miss Denia, I take it? We’re going with your presentation first as far as I’ve been made aware.”

Denia stifles a sigh and, without complaint, connects her USB pen to the room’s laptop and starts up the presentation she’d spent many nights working on. Small remote in hand, the projector displays the starting screen of ‘Entering The Collective Dream (Abysstellar Collaboration)’. A few amongst the group sit up straighter to attention.

“I’m not sure what you’ve all been told so I’ll just start from the beginning.” Denia states.

For years has there been research into dreams and only a few years ago was a breakthrough made that changed everything, though this knowledge remained of the highest confidentiality. All lives are interconnected. Like rivers to a sea, all dreams during the same timeframe merged into one, to what they’d later call the Collective Dream. Simply put, everyone dreamt the same dream just through different perspectives - a cat to one person might be a dog to another. Through the Collective Dream everyone is, to some degree, what could be described as ‘psychic’ with the dreamers sharing their subconscious with one another, something that lingered in the waking world in ways they’d call intuition or instinct.

Then they’d found a way to enter this Dream through an advanced form of lucid dreaming. Through several trials they’d made it so one perspective was more consistent that others among several dreamers and an inner world came to be, meaning a group could meet inside the dream and see the same thing. It was likened to a virtual game world and it seems the association stuck.

However, the more they observed The Dream the more chaotic it seemed to get. Peaceful dreams turned into nightmares more and more under their watch. The cause had been unclear until they’d had the culprit staring them right in their lucid-dreaming faces until they’d woken up. They’d caught the attention of some sort of dream-bound entity that NOCTAL would themselves be keen to call Viruses, the Department of Dreams acquiesced to agree on that one. Naming them such though implied being able to fight against them like an anti-virus program. So far, the Viruses were known to cause nightmares and bad sleep quality even amongst the unaware but with The Collective Dream seemingly making up such a huge part of the human psyche it was assumed they were doing more damage they just didn’t know about yet and then some higher-up at the Department was eager to accept NOCTAL’s proposal.

Once known, they could not be unknown.

NOCTAL’s idea was that they could and should fight against them.

Denia finishes with the last of her presentation slides. “Any questions?” She asks.

One young man from the back awkwardly raises his hand before speaking. “So, is this Collective Dream like the Abyss or… ?”

Denia looks to the NOCTAL representative.

“Yes, NOCTAL has based the Abyss in-game on the Collective Dream though it is, of course, a fictionalised version of it.” The representative answers.

“Any more questions?”

A girl speaks next. “What do these Viruses look like?”

“As of yet, we cannot photograph or record footage of what the Collective Dream looks like. I’ve been told they look like dark figures, human, animal, or otherwise, that seem to flicker.”

“We’ve also represented these Viruses in the game as the abyssal enemies you might have already seen in the trailers.” The representative adds.

With every additional question, Denia can practically feel the trepidation of the group thick in the room. The NOCTAL representative starts her presentation about NOCTAL’s part of this partnership - the gamified combat against the Viruses. AT the time of the deal between the Department and NOCTAL it was asked of them: ‘what do you know about combat?’ and supposedly their CEO had replied with a smarmy smile: ‘we make video games’. A mediator had declared that the Department were now way in over their heads on this matter and they required the help of another agency, any dissenters were quieted in one way or another.

“You can’t die in the Dream.” is what the representative starts off with. The statement is true. They’d even found themselves that in situations that, in the real world, would have left them critically injured or dead simply have them wake up when in the Dream. Though such experiences repeated take a toll on one’s mind and to say it’s perfectly safe would be a lie. The representative smiles with every lie but Denia is bound to stay quiet.

Denia had briefed herself on the game and as far as she was aware their very real players would take on the role of Abysstellar’s protagonist down to the uniform they’d all be wearing during work. After the required VR training and implants, that one has a few of the group wince, on certain days they’d be thrown into fighting against these Viruses as if it were the game itself. The weapons they were provided with, like the uniform, were manifested in the Dream only and could only be used effectively on Viruses. She wonders when and how they’d managed that but refrains from comment.

The representative makes one last declaration to the group: “If you do not accept these terms you may leave now. Remember, you are still under the NDA so what you have heard today, no matter what, does not leave this room.”

A few nod. No-one leaves.

After another question session the group is led away to another room to start virtual-reality training, Denia in tow though her part of this seems all but finished. There’s an odd sense of dread she has that flutters in the pit of her stomach. This group are all consenting adults but she can’t help but feel like they’re being taken advantage of as if they were children in a candy store anyway - all of them already fans and players of NOCTAL’s other games, of course they’d jump at a chance like this. And the data that NOCTAL held on their players was more extensive than most people knew. It wouldn’t surprise her if they’d personally handpicked these people based on playtime or money spent.

Curious, she tries the VR herself. Not entering the Dream herself, she’d only heard tales of what it was like from those that did. NOCTAL’s recreation is surprisingly bland, being the office building they’re currently in. A few employees mill about, as they had earlier, and she walks around as if it were a self-guided tour. She’d be embarrassed to admit how long it takes her to spot a problem. In the conference room had been a plant in the corner - a fiddle leaf fig, to be exact - and it’s recreated here almost perfectly except…

The shadow.

One moment, it looks as it should, the next it’s as if someone were standing behind it, as if they were in the shadow of a dark room, just barely seen as a figure in the dark. There’s a sense she’s being watched. Denia jumps, rips the VR headset off.

“I take it you saw it then.” The representative says with a laugh.

“Well, I’m glad I’m just a manager.” Denia takes a deep breath out.

The two of them watch over the group as they progress with the day’s activities. The induction would last five days culminating in the players receiving implants on the final day, sealing the deal along with contracts.

Everything goes according to plan.