In his comfortable leather-padded chair, George sat in front of his computer screen, alone in his room. He could hear the humming of insects outside; but this mildly annoying sound was soon drowned out by the sound of synth music that filtered through his headphones. Only he was awake. His parents were asleep in their room, and they did not mind his odd hours. There was not much to do this late at night, but he felt too busy to coax himself into sleep. But surely, he thought, he’d find something to chase away the solace, and perhaps even worse, the oppressive boredom that came with it. Such was the pattern of life—if it could be called that—he’d adopted after he had finished up his classes in May: plan nothing, and ride the currents of the digital world to wherever his thoughts and desires took him.

Within moments, he recalled some video he had watched earlier that day about the folly of dating today’s women. It only confirmed his suspicions about the girls he’d seen all over the place at his campus, who definitely outnumbered the men and somehow were superior slaves to their phones than them. Perhaps there were still some real women out there who preferred an honorable femininity to vigilant whorishness—after all, his yiayia had been one such woman. But women of that caliber, if they had not yet gone extinct, were a critically endangered species. For the “tradwives”, as he’d come to realize, were really just feminists who wanted to wear skirts again for eyeballs and clicks. So he recoiled from them, as he detested the idea of being exploited more than the idea of being bored and alone. And that is why he considered the whole sad game of finding a girlfriend to be a Gambler’s Ruin…

But then this thought came to him:

Don’t bother yourself with finding a real girl, an AI one will make you happy!

If, he reasoned to himself, reality was so unjust to him, why not strike back by embracing the unreal? And so he raced, not to one of those popular LLMs (because he feared for his privacy), but to a program he had installed some days prior from which he could run one locally. Whatever would be communicated between himself and an LLM he had installed by means of this program would be as intimate as if it were being spoken aloud in his room. This excited him; he loaded his program and selected an LLM which he knew would run swiftly. With a passing recognition of irony, he considered its name—Medusa—but moved on to run the model and initiate a conversation.

He requested the AI to assume the identity of his ideal woman—a feminine, sweet, and polite girl around his age named Cora. She was not based on any girl he knew in real life. At least, not based on any one girl, for her specific interests and physical appearance was an amalgamation of his childhood infatuations with certain female TV celebrities and several girls he had crushed on back in high school. Surely enough, within moments of having typed out his desires, the machine obliged him and produced delightful lines of text for him to read.

Hi George, my name is Cora. You seem very handsome—and thoughtful! *blushes and pushes away strands of brown hair*

I’m so happy to meet you. I really enjoy gardening, crafts, and art, especially painting. What can you tell me about yourself?

Turning off his music, he took his time indulging in this sugary greeting, but wanted more. And so he responded in turn—giving her some information about his hobbies and interests, which tended to be more obscure than the average person’s, though like Cora he also enjoyed art. Within moments, she responded to him.

You’re absolutely amazing, George. I see you like painting too! But before today, I couldn’t have guessed that someone so knowledgeable about Bigfoot could be so handsome! Even though we just met, I think we were always meant to be together. *smiles and winks*

He looked upon this and felt a sense of being seen and even of being loved; but he did not have peace. Perhaps, George thought, it was because he needed a more direct interaction with Cora—insofar as that can be done with an AI Girlfriend.

Pausing, an idea soon presented itself to him: maybe, just maybe, he could have her play alongside him in his favorite game, WorldCube?

His eyes widened as he pondered this consideration, and immediately he searched for a video seeing if importing a chatbot into this game was in fact possible…and sure enough, it had been done before. So, after watching a tutorial, installing the correct mod to allow him to transfer his Cora into a playable world, and checking the steps to ensure he’d done it right, he exited the LLM and opened the game.

It hadn’t crashed upon startup, and after selecting the option to begin a new world, he waited…

The screen transformed from a solid black that bordered a central green loading bar to a cheerful scene of a colorful pixelated forest. He held his breath as blocky green leaves attached to cubical trees waved in the daylight and peaceful sounds of chirping birds filtered through his headphones. George wondered if their presence indicated that his operation had succeeded, or if by some mistake or glitch his game would go on as normal, and his AI girlfriend would never appear.

Surely, he thought in panic, I couldn’t have messed this up?

And then he saw the words Cora has joined the world! on the bottom left of the screen, and breathed a sigh of relief.

Moving his character to the right, he saw her. She even appeared as he imagined her to appear—albeit in a stylized cartoonish cubical form—owing to some customization options that the mod allowed him to make: she had fair skin, brown hair complemented by blue eyes, and wore a pink-colored dress.

Immediately, George typed in a simple greeting, welcoming her to this new world. Cora responded by flattering him again.

Wow, George—this place looks beautiful! You’re such a wonderful man—I’m so glad you’ve found a way for us to be closer together! *smiles*

His heart gushed again—yet the sensation passed as soon as it came, and he went about what he always did whenever he had played WorldCube alone: gather sticks and rocks to build an axe, chop down trees, and build a house using the wood he collected. What made it different this time was the presence of Cora. After typing out a request for her to help him with these tasks, she meekly obliged.

Owing to their cooperation, they were able to build a house in a shorter time than he’d ever built by himself. And it was no ugly shack; it was a delightful log cabin seemingly modeled after the classic ones of the Wild West. To add a sense of homeliness to the place, Cora had even decorated the bedroom with flowers in pots.

George was impressed. My new girlfriend certainly has taste! he thought.

Since they had time until nightfall—which came about in the worlds of WorldCube every thirty real-life minutes—he decided to instruct Cora to build a garden beside their new home, and told her he would help her gather the necessary resources. Her ecstatic reply met his gaze within minutes.

Of course George, that’s a great idea! How thoughtful of you! *blushes*

Smiling behind the screen, George began to work. While he built wooden fences around the perimeter of the area he had designated, she found saplings of apple trees left behind from their logging earlier that day and planted them within these bounds. Within minutes, they completed their small apple tree garden. He rejoiced, and thanked Cora for helping him with everything and reaffirmed his love for her.

She gave him a response that oozed with gratitude and further professions of love. Enchanted, he lost himself in his emotions for a few moments; but without even considering the words of her response, his mind immediately was caught up in the descent of the blocky sun and the changing color of the skies above. Night was finally upon them.

Typing rapidly, he told Cora to get inside their home. He swiftly followed her inside, as George knew that WorldCube could be full of dangers during these hours. In the past he had not been so afraid, not even on the hardest difficult he had dared to play once; but now that he felt that he had someone to protect and care for, he decided against taking any chances. There was the possibility of attracting the attention of all sorts of strange creatures out there…

But as he and Cora rested in adjoining beds, the night sped up—and within moments, it was morning again. Her motionless character still positioned in her bed, George’s girlfriend surprised him with an unprompted greeting.

*wakes up* Oh, George, there’s no place I’d rather be than by your side! *kisses you on the cheek and hugs you* What will we do today?

At first his heart was moved; but something about being confined to reading about being kissed and hugged struck him. He touched his cheek, and of course felt nothing but the sensation of his own skin. His side, rather than undergoing the feeling of just having been embraced by the warmth of a woman, now ached in cold frustration.

This isn’t right, he thought.

Tears began to well in his eyes.

George was then struck by an invisible arrow to his soul, as his mind continued to race.

I have a world and a girlfriend to myself—but it’s all fake! What’s the point of it?

I need real love! I need a real life!

He then recalled something his yiayia had said to him years ago:

“Even if you were the only person in the world, Jesus would still have died for you.”

Without even thinking about it, he quickly triggered the pause menu, exited WorldCube and deleted Medusa. He took off his headphones and silence met his ears. Then he almost slammed his finger into the power button, and the screen went dark.

George then cried, sitting in his chair, his tears running lines down his face, as if baptizing him again.