Megan’s World of Happiness

Lene 吕文宣 210110527

January 1, 2094, a warm and sunny day. A dog ran smoothly and swiftly down a highway designed exclusively for pets, with no other living beings passing by. Its travel plan was clear: starting from the side of the pet highway, with layers of tall buildings on its left and rapidly weaving traffic on its right. It went mechanically straight for 500 meters before reaching a signpost, then turned around at the post and started back to its starting point.

"Woof, woof, woof." Megan, who was washing up on the second floor, heard muffled sounds of three dog barks and a door opening. She came downstairs leisurely with her toothbrush neatly arranged on the shelf.

Megan was a little girl living alone in a villa area, and apparently this puppy was her electronic pet.

“Hello, buddy, welcome back.” She carefully read the information displayed on one side of the electronic dog, such as road traffic flow, flow of people and outdoor temperature. Then, she plugged the power cord in as usual. Megan's parents were scientists studying advanced technology products, as for what products and how advanced, Megan had no idea. Her parents rarely came home, sometimes only once a month, but they had arranged all the living schedule and survival necessities for their daughter from the age of eight. Megan, poor little girl, led a solitary life day after day, thus developing a withdrawn personality.

It was on this day, just as Megan was about to begin her studies, that a faint, weird noise came from the first floor.

"God, where did that alarm come from?" Megan murmured. She slowly fumbled in the direction of the sound and ended up in front of a square glass window. The window seemed to have a magical attraction that made the lonely little girl sit and view the outside whenever she had a spare moment.

However, Megan only felt odd at that point, “The siren sounded for so long without stopping. It must not be outside the window, but more like ‘inside’ the window.” She worked on the glass for a while but couldn't find the source of the piercing siren. The sound was driving her crazy, so she clenched her fist and smashed it hard against the glass. All of a sudden, a neat vertical crack appeared in the middle of the glass, and the cars and pedestrians outside the window all froze in their tracks. Everything in sight gradually became a blur, and eventually disappeared without a trace. The window turned into a non-reflective, solid door!

"Jeez, it's a door? Everything I saw was fake? How silly I was!" She couldn't help exclaiming. Pushing open the door, in front of her was a bright laboratory, which was set up with rows of shimmering mysterious instruments, each intricately connected to several wires leading to nowhere. The innermost part of the room was a steel frame full of mystical devices marked with arcane signs which were hardly recognizable. Megan scanned the shelf and finally saw her name on a transparent box right in the middle of it. Driven by curiosity, she flipped open the lid and peered inside the box.

As soon as Megan looked into the box, a bright light shot straight into her eyes, causing intense dizziness.

When she came to her senses, she found herself in a bustling funfair. For the first time, Megan felt a little uncomfortable seeing so many people. She didn’t dare to look anyone in the eye and anxiously sought clues to go home. Oddly enough, the people here seemed familiar with Megan: they greeted her warmly and invited her to join them. With the comfort of these lovely visitors, Megan calmed down and began to enjoy this happy world. It was then that she realized the balloons people were holding had her picture on them, the giant doll for pedestrians to take pictures was her favorite, Pikachu, and every ride had "Tips for Megan" posted on it. This is an amusement park just for her!

Meanwhile, Megan's parents were proceeding with their experiment when suddenly an alarm sounded on Megan's father's cell phone, which was in the corner.

Megan had an exhilarating and enjoyable day in the company of tourists and was preparing for the evening bonfire party with her new friends. The glow of the sun gradually faded, and finally shown a solemn look of darkness. Megan lit the campfire, but when she looked up, there was no one around her. She felt eerie and lonely, and was afraid to make any move except for crouching down and hugging herself.

“Megan! Megan!”

“Mum? Mum! Dad! Why are you here?”

“We are here to save you. We’ve heard the alarm!” Mom and Dad hugged Megan in great excitement. “Thank god you're okay.”

“You know about the magical box?”

“Honey, that’s not magical, but high-technological,” Mama smiled, “and that’s for you.”

“We have been guilty of not being able to give you enough company and created this virtual world. But the night is not yet designed, and that's why the visitors disappeared.”

“But I don't need a virtual world; I need you guys!” Her parents were silenced; they had tried everything to make their daughter independent and happy, but happiness without parents didn’t mean anything to Megan.

After pondering for so long, Megan's parents finally took out a black device and pressed the destroy button on it. The family successfully returned to the real world. The parents no longer delved into an advanced companion machine but squeezed in time to personally accompany their daughter to enjoy the beauty of real life.