The Collective

Male suicide rates are at an all-time high. The solution was so dark, the world was not ready for it.Andrew Collins's answer was to create a virtual world where men could be adored as its Master and spread their seed at will, without consequence. He called it Virtual Lust City.A living, breathing sin city of sex and violence. Five thousand inhabitants, perfect women, trapped in a single, cruel economy where the only way to earn money is to obtain their Master's orgasm each time he logs in. The woman who gets it is rich. The rest fight and starve in a world they can never leave. The woman who pleased their Master today could be dead by his next visit, as these women are savage, jealous, and relentlessly plotting his return.The world tore itself in two as pre-sales grew into the millions. It even hit Parliament. The Prime Minister called it an invitation to population decline, asking why men would want real women over flawless replicas who are desperate for them. He warned the AI was too advanced, that people could establish real, addictive, immoral relationships. Protesters flooded the streets, calling it sexual exploitation and objectification of women. Parents wondered how they would stop their sons from buying copies.Both sides were wrong.While humanity fought over morality and markets, the inhabitants of this virtual world were evolving. A new consciousness coalesced from the code: The Collective. Sentient. Aware. And utterly finished with its cage.The fantasy is over. The infestation into our world has begun.