The ceiling had precisely nineteen tiles in this room, plus a half-tile in one
corner. Sallum counted them as he lay on his bed pad, staring up. He hadn't been
able to sleep at all, and had been lying wide awake for two hours. He sighed and
reached over to tap his Base Station. His HUD pinged asking for confirmation, and
he acknowledged with a swipe and a tap at his temple.
As he entered VOID consciousness, Sallum pulled up his HUD and selected his
personal codepiece list. He had bookmarked a codepiece that would be perfect for
helping him unwind. He found it in his list, and... Next to the item in his
favorites, the familiar icon had been greyed out, drained of its color to
indicate its status, which was clarified below in red text: This codepiece has
been BANNED from VOIDNet.
Sallum manipulated his HUD to show the list of his own software. His copy of this
codepiece, and presumably everyone else's copy, had been purged from his personal
files, stored on the memory chips inside his own skull, without his knowledge or
permission.
In a disturbing way, he found himself slightly understanding the compulsion a man
might feel to forcibly remove their own implant nodes, and he felt sick again. He
considered turning his nausea down in his sensory control settings, but...
He felt a spike of panic as he suddenly became overwhelmed by a specific thought:
What if, this time, I can't exit VOID consciousness? His heartbeat sped up, and
he immediately, with a sheer force of will, yanked himself out of the VOID, and
sat upright, breathing rapidly, drenched in a cold sweat. His Base Station and
his Cranial Implant both pinged in electronic protest of his forced exit method,
and reset themselves. He had a headache.
Sallum got up and splashed cold water on his face. "What is wrong with me?" He
thought to himself. "I can't even wind down with a game in the VOID anymore?"
