Daily Task:

  Pick up the Trash

  Complete!

  Reward: 100 CP

  Task:

  To Give a Dog A Bone

  Complete!

  Reward: 130CP

  Calculating XP…

  The experience bar started to grow and then doubled its growth once more. “Double XP still in effect,” Ryan muttered. “Wonder how much time I have left. Helios, is there something like a bonus interface, where I can see my current buffs or boons or whatever?”

  New Achievement!

  You have unlocked another hidden interface: Boons and Banes.

  A new icon appeared next to his vitals that looked like two hands clasped together, one pointing its thumb up and the other pointing its thumb down. It began to rotate and then filled his field of view. Currently he only had one Boon, his double XP bonus, which had just under thirty minutes remaining.

  Ryan noted that he didn’t get the completion reward for his additional task of forgiving someone who doesn’t deserve it, he wasn’t too disappointed. It was a cheap ploy anyway. Either the system determined the man really didn’t deserve forgiveness, or (and Ryan felt, more likely) the system somehow knew his apology wasn’t sincere. It baffled him that both options were a possibility. The intuitive nature of the headset extended far beyond its interface. At times he felt that he didn’t even need to verbalize his questions or requests; that the goggles knew what he was going to ask even before he did, but that it was restraining itself for some reason. One of the mysterious things about Sifting, especially their Technologies division, was the proprietary nature of their tech. They manufactured everything themselves, never outsourced, and never experienced any leaks.

  He wasn’t sure why, but he’d always felt there was some connection, however tenuous, between Sifting and the Ministry Paradigm. He’d even found himself going down several rabbit holes while researching his essay, looking for even the tiniest thread to connect them, but they were always dead ends, and he finally gave up due to the approaching deadline. The fact that he had won did nothing to dissuade his hunch that there was something there, however expertly buried or erased.

  Ryan found himself standing in front of the library, an ancient concrete building, over a century old, that was both welcoming and imposing simultaneously. He took a breath and walked in. There was the merest creak of the door as he passed through it, which had the Librarian staring daggers at him over her rimless reading glasses. Ryan raised his hands up in a gesture of surrender, eyes wide and awaiting judgement, but the Librarian couldn’t hold her stern expression for long, and a smile began to break the stern visage, causing a cascade of wrinkles to intensify across her aged face.

  “Good afternoon Mrs. Oak,” Ryan said, stepping up to the front desk.

  “Good morning, Ryan,” she returned. “Haven’t seen you in here since you finished your little writing assignment. Did you get a good grade?”

  “You could say that,” Ryan smiled in return. “I’m actually here for another reading assignment. Was curious if you had any of the books I’m looking for.”

  “Oh,” she said indulgently. “You know, if we don’t, I can get it for you. What’s on your list?” She picked up a pencil and slid a piece of scratch paper in front of her.

  “Wake Induced Lucid Dreaming,” Ryan told her as Mrs. Oak began scribbling. “By Gupta Rama; The Deep Astral by Joshua Neuman; and The True Firmament, by TetraLex.” The scribbling abruptly stopped and Ryan was once more met by that piercing gaze.

  “That’s a very esoteric list, where did you hear about TetraLex?”

  “You know that author?” he asked, surprised.

  “I’m aware of their work,” she said flatly. “This kind of reading can lead one down strange paths, Ryan. You know I would never dissuade anyone from reading, but I would be remiss if I didn’t at least urge caution.” Ryan looked puzzled. “When one begins to learn the ways of inducing a dream state, sometimes those states can start to bleed into reality.” She looked meaningfully at the wall behind him.

  Ryan turned to follow her gaze and saw the poster. “Incursion Event Safety Sheet” the familiar title read. It was a description of what to do and where to go in the event of an Astral Incursion, one of those things from the Crisis that rarely—if ever—happened in the outer districts. He frowned. What did this reading list have to do with the Crisis? He had always assumed that was just a follow-up to the Minerva Down incident, when the Ministry Paradigm tried to reactivate the Minerva Device.

  When Ryan turned, Mrs. Oak caught a glimpse of something that she almost dismissed as a trick of the light mixed with the failing sight of her old age, but then something clicked, and her smile broadened.

  “So, you won your little writing contest after all, eh?” she said. Ryan turned back, attempting and failing miserably to look innocent. She held out her hand. “Come on, let us have a look.”

  Ryan reluctantly slid the goggles off his head, his first time since putting them on that morning. He felt the fresh air hitting his skin, not aware of how he’d been missing it. He made to hand her the PerSpectives but realized they were still in camouflage mode.

  “Helios, disable the camo,” he commanded, and with a shimmer the sleek augmented reality headset became visible once more.

  “Well, isn’t that a marvel of technology,” the Librarian said, taking them gently and turning them over in her hand. “I sure hope they’re worth how much effort you put into that essay. I haven’t seen anyone your age work that hard on a writing project in all my years. If I didn’t know any better, I would think you were in some advanced placement literature class.” She handed the PerSpectives back to Ryan. “Best keep those in that invisibility mode; this neighborhood isn’t as safe as it used to be.”

  “Yes, Mrs. Oak,” Ryan said meekly as he slid the goggles back over his head. “And, believe me, they definitely are worth it.” A red warning message was flashing in his view as he lowered the lenses over his eyes.

  Warning,

  An unauthorized user has handled the device.

  Automatic lockdown has been initiated.

  He almost didn’t have time to read the message before it was replaced by a green one, flashing:

  Biometrics verified.

  Welcome back Aitherios.

  Environment not a designated safe zone.

  Reinitiating PerSpective Camouflage.

  The familiar sound effect fluttered around his head as the goggles once more became all but invisible.

  “Neat trick,” the Librarian said.

  He heard the sound of paper sliding across a surface and turned to see that she had moved her note towards him and turned back to her reading. She was notorious for not telling where books were specifically located. Something to do with not letting the Dewy Decimal System die. He shook his head and took the note. Before he could leave, she said, “Those first two should be on the shelves, but that last one might take some digging. Go ahead and find them and get comfortable, I’ll bring the last one when I find it.”

  “After you finish that last chapter, of course,” Ryan muttered playfully.

  This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

  “Of course,” she said with another half-smile.

  Before Ryan could even glance at the note an indicator began flashing around his task icon in his HUD, indicating the task details were being updated. “Helios, can you add the Reading Assignments task to my visible task list?” Without a word the three reading assignments appeared in a small and unobtrusive font in the upper left side of his view.

  Wake Induced Lucid Dreaming (Gupta Rama) – 154.63

  The Deep Astral (Joshua Neuman) – 133.82

  The True Firmament (TetraLex) – ???

  The library itself was deceptively massive, it had two upper floors and a basement. The ground floor was mostly couches for lounge reading and smart desks for working. The smart desks were basically massive tablets that were set to look like wood until activated. One could write on them and it would transfer the text to a file, which you could access from anywhere with internet access. Ryan wasn’t here to write though; he was here to read.

  “Helios,” he spoke at a library appropriate volume. “I don’t want to come across as lazy, and I can figure this out eventually, but in the spirit of gamification, can’t we have some sort of waypoint system?”

  New Achievement!

  Gamer’s Gonna Gamify.

  You’ve unlocked 3 hidden systems in Perspective Vision in less than a day!

  Reward: 1.5x bonus to CP earned for 24 hours.

  Waypoint system unlocked.

  You may now specify primary points of interest (POI) from your task list, and if enough information is available, the PerSpective Goggles will lay out a path to your objective.

  Please select a primary POI.

  “Uhm, ok,” Ryan faltered, he wasn’t expecting all of that from a simple question. That bonus though, he might need to seriously look into tasks with high CP rewards for the next day. “Let’s just find the first book on my list,” he said, thinking back to the reward for this reading assignment. 1,000 CP per book, that would turn into 1,500 CP, times three would put him at forty-five hundred, not including what he already had. If he could keep up that rate of income, his mother wouldn’t have to work to keep him in school anymore. Could he read that many books in 24 hours? He hoped they were reasonably sized novellas and not some monstrous tomes.

  His HUD threw out a subtle path along the ground, heading up the staircase to the next floor, which he began to follow, finally finding himself inside the Psychology section of the library. He passed by Freud and Jung, eyes lingering briefly on Memories, Dreams, and Reflections, and onto more modern and scientific approaches to the topic, and finally his interface (which had been scanning the bookshelves the entire time) highlighted one book in particular. It wasn’t a tome, not even a novella. It was hardly larger than a pamphlet, the title barely visible along its spine.

  “There you are.” Ryan said, reading the title as he extracted the book. “Wake Induced Lucid Dreaming.” He knew what Lucid Dreaming was. He’d had the experience a handful of times. He’d be in the middle of a dream and realize that things didn’t quite add up, and suddenly he would realize he was not in reality. This usually came with the sensation of being able to have some agency in his dream that he normally wouldn’t. And with an entire world of possibilities at his fingertips he would always end up doing the same thing. Flying.

  So, what did it mean by “Wake Induced” in the title, he wondered. Like causing the lucid dream to happen while awake? Ryan brought the book back downstairs, took up a comfortable spot on one of the couches, and opened it up.

  Wake Induced Lucid Dreaming

  by Gupta Rama

  Introduction:

  The seed that started to grow into this book was planted a long time ago, when I was a young man. I had all sorts of strange experiences when the time for sleep came, from the terror of sleep paralysis, the power of lucid dreams, to the wonder of that, ever elusive, Out of Body Experience (OBE). In those days, one of those three was almost guaranteed to happen to me every night when I would lie down. I remember the first time I had an out of body experience, it happened immediately after the first time I experienced sleep paralysis. I thought I was under demonic attack! I was so scared, feeling myself unable to move, unable to control anything, and feeling a “presence” pressing down on my chest. When it passed, I knew I had to tell my father about what had just happened.

  So, I got up, headed out of my room, down the stairs of my house, past the laundry room, and to the hallway that lead to my parents room. I went to knock on the door, but the moment before I did, I realized something. I said it out loud, in fact. “I’m still in my bed, aren’t I?”

  The next thing I knew I was back in my room. I hadn’t blinked. I hadn’t opened my eyes. I was just there, in the same position as when I’d gotten up to tell my father

  That moment stuck with me—probably will stick with me—for the rest of my life. It inspired me to pursue it, to figure out how to induce it. Lucid dreams had already been an infrequent experience for me by that point, but as my sleep paralysis happened more often, I began to notice a tie between it and the state of sleep I most enjoyed. I had to conquer the fear of that first, however, and it wasn’t until I was able to induce sleep consciously that I was able to finally accomplish it. In this short book I will attempt to share what I have found, so that you will be able to learn from my mistakes, and maybe even take this further than I was ever able to.

  Ryan’s interest was piqued. He continued reading.

  Chapter 1 – Inducing Lucidity

  Generally, Lucid dreams tend to happen by accident. One will be floating along from one episode to the next when something will trigger the conscious mind into realizing it is in a dream. The skilled Oneironaut1, however, will be able to establish triggers preemptively. There are several methods that work. Lean against a wall and you might go through it, flip a switch and the lighting doesn’t change, stare at your hands and try to count your fingers.

  Try to read something. Initially you might get what it is meant to say, but really try to read it. Try to read it more than once. The letters will become all jumbled. This is the method I want you to focus on. Try this as an experiment: write a note that says, “This is NOT a dream.” Fold it in half and stick it into your pocket. Every time you enter a room, pull out the note, unfold it, read it, fold it back up, unfold it again, and read it a second time. Make this a habit, and in a matter of days you may start doing it in your dreams.

  Once you are able to trigger Lucid Dreams on a consistent basis you will want to focus on stabilization. This is key. If not done properly the dream tends to fall apart and you’ll find yourself waking up before the fun can begin. Clap your hands. Spin in a circle. Really focus on your environment. This should help to cement the dreamscape and prevent it from falling away.

  1Oneironaut – a person who explores dream worlds.

  As Ryan turned the page, he fiddled with the note from Mrs. Oak. He flipped it over, took a pen from his pocket, and wrote the phrase:

  This is NOT a dream.

  He then folded it in half and stuck it back into his pocket. He took a look at the clock in the upper right corner of his HUD and noted it was almost half past noon. As if on queue his stomach let out a gurgle of desperation.

  “I should have bought myself a snack when I was at the store,” Ryan mumbled to himself. There was a Bakery just around the corner from the library. A fresh loaf of French bread sounded pretty good. “Maybe I should take a break.”

  Reading progress for [Wake Induced Lucid Dreaming] at 8%.

  eBook version is available for download.

  Would you like to add it to your personal library?

  |Yes | No|

  “eBook? Come on, why didn’t you tell me that earlier?” The message continued to stare at him obstinately, so he sighed and focused his eyes in on “Yes” so it would go away. A download bar appeared briefly in his field of view but was gone before he could even really look at it. A new icon appeared, looking like a thick leather-bound book. Ryan took the physical copy back up the stairs and put it back in its place.

  “Helios, can you get the eBook copy of the other two books on my reading list?”

  eBook rules for Perspective Vision require the physical copy to be in hand before the option to download will become available.

  “That’s an odd rule,” he muttered. He looked up at his task list for the location of the second book. “Helios, could you set The Deep Astral as my primary point of interest?” The familiar lines appeared in his display, this time heading up to the third floor. “Ooo,” he said to himself in a mock scary tone while throwing his fingers up in air quotes, “the ‘occult’ section.” Someone in a booth nearby coughed and threw an accusatory look in his direction. Ryan mouthed “sorry” and made his way up the stairs.

  The book made itself known the same as the previous one, with his HUD highlighting it before he even had a chance to read the title. Ryan extracted it from the shelf. This book was shorter in stature and thicker in binding, but almost to the point that Ryan guessed they had about the same amount of content. He turned the book over in his hands. The front had an image of a person falling, with an umbilical cord stretching out from its abdomen and curling up and off the cover. On the back was the image of a bald man with bushy white eyebrows, a sharp nose, and a thoughtful frown. It had a brief blurb about him.

  Joshua Neuman was one of the foremost researchers on the Deep Astral once the Incursion Events started. He collected firsthand accounts from the Astral Travelers as they returned from the Astral Spaces and used their experiences to develop the best methods for facing the dangers of the Beyond. He is currently living in Inner City and an active consultant for the Ministry of Integrity.

  The mention of the Ministry of Integrity triggered the memory of that black car from earlier, the mysterious stranger he’d met, and the item he’d given Ryan. He found himself rolling the marble around in his fingers, feeling the slight hum of the thing. This was starting to seem a little too coincidental. He thought back to the section on psychology. On Jung. On a concept he called “Synchronicity” and wondered. Eventually he triggered the eBook download and put the physical copy back on the shelf.