Chapter 58: You must take the blue pill before taking the red pill.

Soyul’s eyes widened as if she was flustered by Jina’s sudden suggestion.

“What… what do you mean?”

Not walking.

Suddenly, she’s suggesting to fly.

“Older sister, are you joking right now?”

Jina repeatedly pondered the words that had just flowed from Soyul’s mouth.

‘No matter how realistic it is, it’s virtual…’

She wasn’t wrong.

But… does it have to be real?

Rather.

“It might be difficult in reality in many ways, but…”

If it’s virtual reality.

“It’s a different story here.”

Jina stared intently at Soyul and said.

Her tone was as indifferent as usual.

But her eyes were full of conviction.

“…Don’t tease me. How can a person fly.”

Soyul murmured weakly.

It had been a long time since she had forgotten, let alone flying in the sky, even standing on the ground with both feet.

No, she tried to forget.

Dreams that cannot be achieved.

It’s painful just to dream.

“Of course, it’s impossible in reality. But.”

She said that this is a virtual space.

Jina reached out her hand towards Mina.

She encouraged Soyul, saying that flying is easier than walking and running, than moving her legs.

“…It’s not like everything is possible just because it’s virtual.”

Soyul was looking straight into Jina’s eyes.

Her voice was still trembling.

But in her eyes, which were facing the ground, a faint curiosity could be seen.

She couldn’t believe it, but the reason why she wanted to believe it for some reason was… because of Jina.

“Well, think of it as riding a roller coaster.”

Jina stopped talking for a moment and smiled faintly.

It was a somewhat awkward and shy smile.

This was even more so because Jina was not usually good at explaining and persuading others.

“It’s hard to believe, but anyway, it’s not impossible.”

Jina looked into Soyul’s eyes once again.

Jina’s eyes were more serious than ever.

After disconnecting from VR Chat and returning to her studio apartment, Jina stared blankly at the ceiling.

A narrow room, an old bed, empty energy drink cans.

It’s a reality that’s no different from a sewer whenever she looks at it.

But Jina’s mind was away from reality, stirring up the virtual space.

‘The illusion of flying… the vestibular system… video processing that deceives visual information…’

Proposing to Soyul to ‘fly’ was not an impulsive statement.

After reviewing numerous possibilities and technical problems in her head, she thought it was worth a try, so she suggested it.

‘If you think about VR roller coasters or flight simulations… you can definitely create the illusion of moving with just visual information.’

But that wasn’t enough.

Existing technologies are, at best, amusement park rides.

Jina wanted Soyul to experience flying freely like a bird.

“In the end, the key is the vestibular system…”

The vestibular system is an organ that is responsible for the body’s sense of balance.

This organ must be stimulated with visual information, including images, to create the illusion of moving even if you are not actually moving.

If she had to use something more, it would be the sound of the wind.

“So… how do I trick this guy?”

In short, Jina’s goal was to add a ‘flight mode’ to the Mina model.

The key was not just to play an animation of the character flying in the sky.

But to precisely control the screen displayed to the user through the VR device, creating the illusion that she is actually flying.

First, Jina designed an algorithm to implement various flight patterns.

She built a physics engine so that she could freely roam the sky like a winged bird, ascending rapidly, descending rapidly, turning, and hovering.

“Acceleration, rotation, and altitude change.”

All of this must be expressed with visual information alone.

Jina scribbled complex formulas in her notebook, constantly modifying and refining the code.

As if dancing, Jina’s fingers moved quickly across the keyboard.

“Anyway, all I have to do is trick it well.”

The algorithm that Jina devised.

It was to track the user’s head movement and gaze direction in real time, and to subtly adjust the screen displayed on the VR device accordingly.

For example, if the user raises their head, the screen also moves quickly upwards as if soaring into the sky.

Conversely, if she lowers her head, the screen falls downwards as if diving to the ground.

And if she turns her head left and right, the screen is designed to rotate smoothly as if an airplane is turning.

In other words, Jina was in the process of moving the surrounding scenery entirely while fixing the user in place.

All of this process had to be done very precisely in a very short time, so that the user would not notice. Otherwise, it would cause dizziness or motion sickness.

“I think this is about right…”

Jina murmured to herself and integrated the completed algorithm into the Mina model.

Then, she put on the VR device and conducted a simple test.

Jina’s eyes widened.

She felt a dizziness under her feet and an illusion that her body was soaring into the sky.

It was like riding an endlessly ascending transparent elevator.

In a feeling that her mind was about to fade away, Jina lowered her head.

This time, the world quickly collapsed downwards, as if diving to the ground.

“This… more than I thought…!”

Jina let out a short exclamation without realizing it.

She could feel such vivid movement with just visual information!

Admiring the technology she had designed, Jina carefully moved her body.

“…Not bad.”

A faint smile appeared on Jina’s lips.

The newly designed flight system exceeded Jina’s imagination.

Even this, she got the result right away on the first try.

Just one pull.

She pulled an SSR character of 5 stars with a single ticket.

Feeling a little excited, Jina freely flew around the virtual space for a while, testing new features.

Adding a little more acceleration, she went into rapid ascent, rapid descent, and rapid rotation.

Even with violent movements, she didn’t feel dizziness or motion sickness…

“Woop! Woowoook!!”

…It couldn’t be that way.

Suddenly, she felt nauseous, and Jina immediately threw off the VR device.

“Cough, cough! Woop…!”

Jina dry heaved and fell to the floor.

She seemed to regain her senses a little when her cheek touched the cold floor.

“Damn it… I got too excited.”

Jina covered her forehead with a trembling hand.

“I almost assassinated Soyul.”

The human body was much more sensitive than she had expected.

Even a slight difference between visual information and actual movement was detected by the vestibular system.

“This… adjusting it won’t be as easy as I thought?”

Jina lay on the floor for a while, panting heavily.

Setting aside the fact that it was a much more sensitive task than she thought, her head was spinning at the thought of dry heaving every time she experimented.

“I’ve eaten all my meals today.”

When she calmed down to some extent, Jina sat down in front of the computer again.

“…I’ve only done 1 pull.”

She couldn’t give up here.

Jina began to modify the code with a trembling hand.

She slowed down the rate of change of visual information and smoothly modified the trajectory of movement.

She added an AI-based prediction algorithm here to dramatically improve the image processing speed.

After a few more modifications, tests, dry heaves, and vomiting.

Jina was finally able to get satisfactory results.

“I think this is… okay.”

Jina murmured to herself and took off the VR device.

She has only created the algorithm now. She has to create the content from now on.

“…Before that, let’s eat something.”

Her head was spinning because she had squeezed out everything in her stomach.

A few days later, Jina sent a VR Chat message directly to Soyul.

[Soyul-ah, it’s ready. Shall we see each other for a while if you have time?]

It was the first time she had contacted her directly without going through Hyun, so Jina felt unnecessarily awkward.

But she’s a little closer now.

[Soyul: Yes, older sister! I’ll log in right now!]

Before long, she received a reply from Soyul.

Jina put on the VR device and connected to the VR Chat private channel where she had promised to meet Soyul.

A familiar prairie landscape unfolded before her eyes.

And… far away.

A familiar avatar can be seen.

“Hello, older sister.”

Soyul smiled shyly and approached Jina.

The delicate movement of the Mina model was impressive. Jina chuckled, saying that she had suffered a lot to make that.

“Did you wait long?”

“No. Rather, I thought you contacted me too soon.”

“Well, anyway… I added the function.”

Jina cleared her throat and continued.

“I sent the operating instructions with the new avatar file. It probably won’t be difficult.”

Soyul nodded and operated the controller.

“…Huh?”

The screen seemed to come closer to her eyes.

The surrounding scenery swooped down.

“Kyaaak-“

At that moment, Soyul felt a thrilling and dizzying feeling as if her body was floating.

It was as if gravity had disappeared and her body was soaring upwards.

Soyul closed her eyes tightly without realizing it, then forcibly opened them again.

This was because the instructions said not to close her eyes as much as possible. Soyul is a user who listens well to the creator.

“…Huh?”

Through the blurred vision, an unbelievable sight unfolded.

The ground under her feet was far away, and the blue sky and puffy clouds were filling her eyes.

The space surrounding Soyul moved slowly up and down.

“Waaaa…!”

Soyul exclaimed without realizing it.

The ‘illusion’ of actually flying in the sky.

A feeling that was filled with overwhelming emotion and exhilaration wrapped around Soyul’s whole body.