However, that also implied the existence of "unlimited" environments, where sensory stimuli were not restricted in any way. Those would require a ridiculous amount of processing power to fully stimulate the nerves in response to a user's actions, but if done right, someone would be able to perfectly replicate reality; at least, for one particular individual.
And indeed, that might even be the answer, if not for the fact that she was currently looking at herself biting her lip as she stroked her eyestalks.
Indeed, she had been surprised by her expanded perceptions, but she had also gotten used to it in seconds, so quickly that it had taken her some time to realize how naturally she was pointing her eyestalks around to get a better view of things. It felt as though she had been born with them, and even the worst mutants she had seen on certain urban curiosity sites only had one or three semi-functional eyes, not eleven fully functional ones.
Even if one could perfectly tailor a virtual world to seem like reality, there was still the challenge of not only wiring her brain to accept the input from the eyestalks, but making it all seem natural. She had spent the better part of a year mastering the manual controls for them in YGGDRASIL, and even then, the knowledge that it was an external, unnatural skill was foremost in her mind.
Instead, she was naturally controlling and manipulating her eyestalks while using them to see as though they had been part of her since birth (which might actually be the case?). Such a feat would require someone to essentially take her visual cortex apart and rewire it to accept almost a dozen separate visual inputs while also interfacing with the motor cortex and the cerebellum to govern conscious and unconscious control over her eyestalks and so on.
More importantly, it would require time to become familiar with them; and almost no time had passed for her.
In other words, her brain would need to be physically altered to the point where it would hardly resemble that of a human being's and it would have to be done with her full awareness and consciousness in order to get used to it.
Besides, why would anyone go to all that effort for me, anyway? Hitomi wondered. Not like I'm anyone special…
Her voice trailed off, and she continued her contemplation. She pulled off one of her gloves, exposing the slightly damp flesh to the cool night wind.
She could never have felt this in YGGDRASIL. This was either reality, or something close enough to it that she could not tell the difference.
"No. No, that's just imposs-"
Hitomi's voice cut off halfway, as she traced the curve of her single main eye and the unfamiliar cheekbones of her face.
This felt all too real.
It seemed absurd, but the other alternatives — that this was a hidden part of YGGDRASIL or some hyperrealistic simulation — had already been ruled out. A quote from a certain piece of classic literature came to mind: "If life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me."
Which meant…
"…This is real, and this is me. Which means that this is another world. I've been brought to another world," she muttered. She touched her face again; lips and cheek and nose, cupping her chin in one hand and tracing the curve of her jaw.
Her fingers told her that this was an alien body. The response from her flesh said that it belonged to her.
"Even… even my voice is different. My body's completely changed. And this… this eyesight. It seems I've become Hitomi on just about every level… huh."
Her eyestalks were fully functional. She was airborne and hovering — most likely due to her racial flight ability. If she decided to focus, she could make out distant details with ease, which implied at least some of her class skills were still functioning. It would seem she did not just have the form of Hitomi, but all her powers as well.
Still, a nagging doubt lingered in the back of her mind. This all seemed too far-fetched for her. Then again, perhaps someone else might be able to give her answers to this.
"What about talking to a GM?"
That would be the most conclusive proof of whether or not she were still in YGGDRASIL. However, as she reached out in the practiced motions of summoning up the console —
"It's not there."
The translucent window of options she had expected did not appear. In its place, an instinctive knowledge of those same options sprang up in her mind; an invisible, mental construct that did the same thing, albeit one that was far more easily usable than manually hunting and pecking over a haptic menu.
While contacting a GM was as easy as sending a [Message] to the general GM help channel, actually getting to the spellcasting menu was somewhat more challenging.
In YGGDRASIL, the system console was a tool which magic casters had to master, much like how warrior-types had to know their strike ranges and weapon weights. The process of casting a spell in the game was a laborious process of opening one menu after another and selecting the desired spell before casting it. All this was much slower than just drawing a bowstring or swinging a sword, which was why most warriors tended to have the upper hand against magic casters once they got close enough to ply their deadly art.
Of course, with enough practice, a magic caster could swiftly navigate the maze of menus and select a spell quickly, but that required great focus and a distinct goal — in other words, a clear idea of exactly which spell one wanted to use and the practice and wits needed to select and make full use of it under trying circumstances. Some might decry it as simple button pressing, but just like in real life, knowing which button to press and the right time to press it could make all the difference in the world.
Now, she could feel the same menus popping up under her mental manipulations, but she did so at the speed of thought, and with far greater accuracy and dexterity than having to physically waggle her fingers and limbs.
Still, it was a huge change from the ingrained muscle memory Hitomi had from YGGDRASIL. Her mind had to parse the changes between the old and new ways of menu access and selection.
Thus, it took some time for Hitomi to retrain her reflexes and select the [Message] spell in this new, intuitive interface. Said time was on the order of seconds. It felt as though all the necessary mental steps were the same, waiting to be rediscovered by her. In an earlier age, an applicable analogy might be that it was like riding a bicycle. By the time her [Message] had gone through, the process felt as natural as breathing to her.
While she waited for the [Message] to connect, another thought came to Hitomi: if she could cast that spell, what other powers from YGGDRASIL did she possess?
That was swiftly followed by two more thoughts: Am I the only one from YGGDRASIL who came here like this? and If there's someone else, are they hostile?
That last one made her freeze. She was quite high above the ground, but she was fairly certain that she was still in the range of dedicated sniper characters. While her passive danger-sensing skills had not activated yet, it might be that her opponent was using some other skill to mask their targeting or that the skill itself was not fully functional.
More to the point, being so high up meant that she was an incredibly obvious target to anyone who cared to look.
Think — what should I do?
The old reflexes — hard won over years of simulated combat — came easily to her.
Break contact. Secure a better position. Observe, orient, decide and act.
"[Perfect Unknowable]. [Night]."
A pale golden ring glowed on Hitomi's brow as she faded into the air, and then the ring too, disappeared. She could still see herself, but only as a ghostly image. Most others would not be able to see her at all.