“Dagon, world of infinite possibilities. Built with a revolutionary full dive system, everything your 5 senses and more would not tell the difference once you step into it. Coupled with other companies, highly realistic AI system is set in place, you will not be able to tell that you are not talking to another person. Try now at our nearest outlet to experience this new world with me.”

A lone man stood a the side of the street looking up at the big billboard running this advertisement at prime time slot. His lips couldn’t help but form a bitter smile.

A slight vibration came from his pocket. He pulled out a cellphone to take a look, and on it was his boss, or soon to be ex-boss… or so he thought.

After he picked up, the other side was silent for a moment before finally making a sound; a faint female voice captivating enough to driving any man into the wildest dream could be heard.

“Is this Nash Backwaters?

“Yes.”

“The CEO would like to extend his heartfelt congratulations on gaining the Greatest Manager Award. He would like to invite you to the Dinner and Dance Party organized for the board of...”

“No. I am fine as it is.”

“But Mr Nash, it would bring great honor if you attended the party...”

“Do you know how many people were fired to get me that award?”

“Mr Nash, your actions have brought a great deal of advancement in profits this quarter and improved the efficiency of the company by 20%”

He smiled and stated vaguely, but not because he was intoxicated by her voice.

“Miss Eliza Casey, age 26, top of the class in business degree from harvard. No noticeable talents except the noteworthy ability to delegate a given task to the right people. Personal motto: There is always the right people for the right job. I know everything about you. Do you need me to list anything else?”

“How and what did you know about me?”

“In my 1st draft for the people to fire, you were in it. 2739 people and 30% of the people I chose were in the management level of the company. In my 2nd draft you were still in it. 5345 people and 8% of the the numbers were in the management level.  For every managerial level staff kept I had to fire at least 4 more. You are overpaid and underqualified for your role in the company. The things you do to keep your place in the company, do you need me to say it?”

“I neither deny nor confirm what you have said or accuse me of. My conscience is clear as day. However sir, I highly recommend that you join the party.”

“From where I stand, the sky is as dark as can be and I’ve made up my mind! In fact, while I am at it, I tender my resignation.”

Just as Nash was about to put down the call, a thought came up before him and he lifted up the phone once more.

“Just sweet talk the bosses like you usually do and you should be fine. You have been doing a very good job at it before this. This should not be difficult for you.”

He puts his hand down once again, cuts the call and blocked off the number. He was going to get rid of it soon but for now he still needed a phone. His plans simply slightly moved forward in time.

Somewhere on the other side of the phone, a lady could only panic on hearing those words of resignations.

Sometime later in a packed outlet

A young beautiful lady who looks to be about in her early 20s steps up upon seeing Nash’s entry.

“Hello there, how can I help you?”

“I heard I can try Dagon over here.”

Upon hearing that, a business smile came back upon her.

“Why yes! You can try the game over here. However, as you can see, everyone here is also wanting to do the same, did you make an appointment?”

Nash could not help but frown.

“No I did not make an appointment. I can just join the queue. How long do I need to wait if I were to wait?”

Opening her tablet, she checks the charts she has in her hands, she began scrolling through the pages.

“By current estimate, tomorrow morning would be fastest if you were to make the appointment here and now. We have 15 machines in this outlet and 30 minutes of in game time to each person. You can however, in the meantime do the full body scan so that we can base it off your true self. You may choose to use the basic template but that will give you little to no bonus.”

“Bonus?”

“Yes bonus. An extra incentive for those who adopt an image similar to their true self. The idea of the incentive is there to make sure that there is a bigger variety of people and faces you will see in the game.”

“How much for the wait on that?”

She scrolls her tablet further to check.

“Another 20 minutes before the queue is freed up. I recommend registering now for it.”

“I guess I will do that.”

“Great! If you are happy with my service, would you like to let me be your guide in the game?”

“Ingame guide? not only do you work at the outlet you also work ingame?”

“Why yes! All of us who work here has a chance to be a guide when we are off counter duty. Think of it as a perk for being in the company. The only thing is that we only hold the basic models. The game come with 3 models. Basic, advanced and elite. Each of them have different set of realism. From 50% in the basic model, 70% in the advanced model and 90% in the elite model. I heard there is the 99% realism model as well but as far as the general public is concerned, that model does not exist.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“If it does not exist, why did you tell me that? And how did you know of that model? Are you trying to say that you are able to gain access to that 99% model and I can get it through you?”

Just as Nash was about to continue asking, he realized he had gone back to his old work habit to question everything.

Sigh. Some habits are going to be hard to drop.

“Nevermind those question. Old habits die hard.  My last job made me question everything these recent weeks. It would not be going away anytime soon.”

With that Nash gave a shrug before continuing.

“You want to be my ingame guide? Sure. Where do I sign up? What details do I need to give to do so?”

“It is very simple, take this. This is my scan code. Later when you do your full body scan, take this card and put it on the retina scanner and it will register me as your guide.”

“That's it?”

“That is it. Simple is it not? Even if i am offline, you still can contact me and i will see and hear you from my tablet.”

*Waves the tablet*

“If you have me as your ingame guide, you will be also getting a discount on the different models that we have for sale, me and my other coworkers have different discount on different models and different accessories. We have a full coverage systems that includes basic security, account binding, real world-in game phone connections and various stuff listed in the packages listed in the brochure. Do note that like daily quest, every day, the promotions will be different. For today right now, the best offer for different models is with me, and the best accessories package is with Anna right at the corner with the longest queue. She has all the safety features pre installed in the system as long as you buy from her.”

“Why are you promoting her if you are also selling those stuff?”

Sigh.

“Company policy. Best salesperson of the month makes the entire outlet have extra bonus. Because of that, most of the sales need to be diverted to her. Since her perks for the day is the best, we are directing all sales to her.”

“Corporate Pigs at their best. Competition that benefits their wallets more than the people at the bottom. The numbers looks good and even better when there is more dirty dealings to get better numbers if you get what i mean. Just think about it. Was she even walking straight today? Or even walk? I am pretty sure she has been sitting there the whole day.”

“That… I can’t say. With this many people today, she barely needed to move…”

A brief moment of pause while her face paled a little

“What am I saying and thinking! Let's change topic. Can I interesting you in anything else that is not related to her?”

Nash smiled in amusement.

“Sure, if that is what you want. Tell me about the full dive system and the AI system.”

“That is no problem. I have it here with me.”

She points at her head.

“The full dive system is a system that bridges the gap between your conscious and your subconscious area of thought. By bridging the 2 areas, you are able to relate to thing better. Think of it this way, your conscious thoughts are big gears, they direct where things go. Your subconscious thoughts are the smaller and intricate gears that connects your big thoughts together. You know about 6th sense? It is the ability to take the small cues around you and piece them together to give you what is the critical information to protect you. The full dive system intercepts these pathways in your brain and allow you to touch without touching, see without looking and smell without actually sniffing. You remember fruit loops? What does the purple one taste like?”

“Grapes?”

“The orange one?”

“Orange? Why did you ask that?”

“Actually, they taste the same. Our brain cues the taste based off the colors, giving the illusion of different flavours. Another concept they used is the mirror neurons. When you see another person raising an arm, your mind would create an image of yourself raising your arm. Similarly, you would drool when you see another person eating good food. Just by viewing, your body would react accordingly. The full dive system makes use of these concepts to work around and drop the need of controllers. All you need to do is sit there and sleep. The game would runs in parallel to reality so it is 24 hours here and 24 hours in there too. We spend 8 hours of our day sleeping and now we get to do stuff during these 8 hours.  For those who work in reality, the game has in-game clock and alarm to remind you to wake up.”

Nash crossed his arms in annoyance. He does not need to be reminded of work.

“So tell me about the full dive system.  You only explained the game features to me and make the long story short. I do not need to hear the science of it. Tell it to me in 1 line if possible.”

“But I was just getting to the good… part…...”

She stuttered and stopped as she finally realized that there is a death stare before her.

“Fine. Very long story short, the full dive system takes over all your senses and overrides them with game information so that it will feel real.”

“Very good. Short and concise. Which is what I would prefer. What about the AI system? One sentence as well.”

She stood there for about 15 seconds thinking how to shorten the aspect of the AI system before replying.

“The AI system is the result of putting the reaction of 10000 people of all ages together into various AI templates to suit different needs.”

Nash looked at her with a brow raised.

“I am impressed. I am pretty sure the conversation about the AI system would be much much longer and you managed to summarize it very well. Impressive. Ten points to you.”

“Why, thank you. The notes we were given on the systems were pages long. They understood that the waiting time between each person until they are able to use any of the machines would be long and so they made an extremely long introduction for use to remember.”

“So how did they fill it up? You have gotten me curious about it.”

“Examples, metaphors, ways to go off topic and back and more example. Just like to one about fruit loops, there are 10 more of such examples with me. That is just me, everyone has different examples so that if we run out of stuff we can always direct to others  who can tell a difference type of example.”

“Big effort for a big game like this but a little too excessive i would say.”

“Not really, this game involved scientists, military funding and so on. In fact for what is going on, the back room gossips suggest that the governments have come togethers on this game before it is released. Just think about it, such a big game and simultaneous release all over the world? What kind of gaming company must it have been to work into neural controllers, scientist of various fields and so on.”

Looking at her, Nash paused for over 10 seconds and then a smile crept up his face.

“That was part of the notes that you have right? Conspiracy off topic conversation.”

With a cheeky smile she could not help but nod.

Nash froze for a second, the smile was like a breath of fresh air after a storm.

*Cough*

She realized that Nash seem to have wandered off to his own world. However, the awkward silence left her unsettled. Her job was to engage people and sell the product. In this place full of people, silence is a very very awkward thing to have.

“Ahh… Sorry, my bad. My mind wandered off for a moment.”

Nash scratches his head trying to think of a way to ease the situation. Ironically, his mind seem to have shorted out for the moment.

“Why don’t we…”

“How about we… “

The words of the two clashed and neither could understand each other.

“Ladies first.”

“How about we talk about the different models?”

“Ok that is fine by me. I was thinking along a similar lines.”

“Good. then I shall talk about the 3 models available in the market. The first model is the cheapest of the 3 priced at 5999.00, it is 50% realism. The sensitivity and level of detail ingame is not as high the other 2 models but it allows you access the game without breaking too hard into the bank. The price is a little high for a basic model but if you think about it, an extra 8 hours everyday to have fun and do other stuff. It is a good deal.”

“That i cannot deny. For 5999 you get 8 more hours of life everyday is a fair deal.”

“For the advanced model, it is priced at 9999. At 70% realism, there is more details that is available to view and feel. At 50% when you hold sand, you know you are holding sand but you cannot tell the texture as clearly as 70%. Not only that the device is warmed so that you can rest most comfortably. It is akin to resting after drinking warm milk. Except that warmth stays all the way until you wake up. From 5999 to 9999, you are paying for the comfort. Not only that the number of sensor used on 9999 is much more than 5999. It is more than double of 5999.”

“For 4000 more I get a device that has higher density of sensor and better comfort. however, what am I to know, I am technically asleep when it is all that comfortable. Not only that with the increase in number of sensor and that warmth, the electricity bill will only sky rocket. Is it a good trade off? I am not too sure.”

“Maybe so. If you think about it, if you wake up feeling all comfortable as to waking up to lying on a normal couch chair, which one would you start off the day feeling better?”

“That i cannot deny, but 4000 more might be a little too steep for most to think about. Even me.”

That may be so but i would recommend spending more to get the elite model. Priced at 19999, that is 10000 more than the advanced model but the specs are phenomenal. 8 times the sensor density of the advanced model, not 8 times in amount but 8 times in density. With the increased density, it is close to reality in as many ways as possible.the 90% realism is no joke. Not only that, this model also regulates your body, doing full body maintenance. Based on different body builders and body types, it will help you exercise your body without you needing to move from your seat. literally.”

“Then what about the rumoured 99%?”

“From what I heard, the 99% would not be release because of its high realism. Because it is so real, people would think that reality is the one that is fake. They also fear that people would do things that they do in game in reality thinking that they are in game. There were many realistic games such as GTA V that created those results so there is no denying that such could pose a problem. Later in the future it might come out but who knows, right now 90% is the best that we have. What i just said came from the note that we were given anyway.”

“All those note and how much time to remember them?”

“Enough time. Those that did not pass the exam are still stuck studying the notes.”

Nash could not help but give a slight chuckle.

“Well there is always that.”