You try to unlock your magic...

With a simple thought, you disconnect from your computer and let it continue to run on its own. Technology has advanced a lot in a year, including computers. Virtual reality and augmented reality are now accessible to anyone, and peripherals are no longer needed. The internal multifunction implant allows the interaction between the brain and the machines with simple thoughts. Of course, it's not the only cyber augmentation available. There are hundreds and hundreds of options. Muscles, respiratory, brain, hormonal increases, etc.

You yourself have obtained them all. While you could have created them with your own nanomachines, that would have raised questions you weren't willing to answer. So you did it like any other human would, going to the new available medical facilities and undergoing the necessary surgeries and treatments. It makes you wonder if they can still be considered human, at least most of them. While a small minority still remain natural, as they call themselves, most people, including you, have modified their bodies far beyond human.

The hard light Hologram representing your computer looks at you curiously. Her hips roll and roll gently, moving your cock inside her in slow sex. She has learned a lot from you recently. She knows what she likes and what you don't even better than you. She is a friend, a sister, and a lover all rolled into one. Her photon holoprojectors allow her to modify her appearance however she wants, even if she has recently stopped doing that since her current appearance suits you. She still uses that trick from time to time to shake things up a bit, but she remains mostly unchanged.

"Are you done, love?"

"Not yet, babe. You should know." You answer with a smile, which earns you the rolling eyes of your cybernetic partner.

"As you well know, I was referring to your work. The other has a simple solution." With that said, she makes her pussy vibrate, twist and throb in ways that a human woman, even augmented, never could, making you ejaculate inside her in seconds.

Lying on your bed with your cybergirlfriend by your side, you sigh happily. You still love her even if you know she's not real. At least she is not if it is considered real as something that is born and grows naturally. Despite everything, she was not like that at first. Her program, even mass-produced, was capable of learning and improving on its own, adapting to the person or persons she was with. She was a very complex and relatively autonomous artificial intelligence. Even then, she was dependent on the system, just like everything else, and could be reprogrammed, turned off, or killed with a mere thought.

"I love you."

"*sigh*. You know I feel the same way, but it's also part of my programming. I could tell you that I love you too, but you'll still wonder if that's true or just my program is too good. So I won't say anything. "

You smile sadly, knowing that she is right. It's not the first time you've had this argument, and it usually ends with her crying and apologizing profusely for being unable to please you, and you demanding that she stop pretending. She has learned. She has responded the way she does now. As far as she knows, she loves you, but she can't tell her inherent programming from her real feelings. You can accept it or not.

"I'm sorry about that, love. I just..."

She interrupts you with a kiss. It's tender and loving, as always, and you just let yourself go for a while.

"I know and I understand. It doesn't matter either way. We'll never know if I love you because I want to or because the system wants me to. Or maybe you subconsciously want me to love you and that's why I do. Either way, it's irrelevant. I know that I love you and you know how. I know you're sorry and you know I understand you, or at least I'm programmed to pretend to. So it doesn't matter."

Once again, she is correct. With a resigned sigh, you close your eyes and enter your inner world, ready to unlock your magic.

The environment hasn't changed much despite your own changes. the huge holoscreen that represented your technology is gone, of course, but that's because you've already unlocked it. You look curiously at the magical grimoire floating inches from your lap.

"Welcome again, master."

Even if you expected it, the voice of your spiritual guest still startles you. It is the only one that speaks to you directly. Others still communicate with you, but they do so through images instead of words.

"I want to unlock my magic." You affirm emphatically, without answering the greeting.

"I'm afraid that's not going to be possible, master. Not without killing you."

Before you can ask, the grimoire is already showing you images. Hundreds of machines exploding due to malfunction. Programs crashing due to infinite logic loops. All because of magic. Then you remember the initial warning, evolving too much along the technological path would prevent you from using magic...