“Would you like to listen to the Basic Information for Beginners, this information is also featured on the official Economicalopoly website?” she had a sweet voice that was comforting, it’s really hard to accurately describe, however, I’m not listening to all that information, I’ve read it once before!
“No thank-you.”
“Very well, the tutorial will now begin. Do not be alarmed as the transportation can be disorientating.”
Only now did it occur to me that I have been in a dark void which was eerily quiet, apart from that bliss voice of course. What does she mean by disorientating?
My stomach drops, I feel what can only be described as what I would call warp speed with inertia. It really did feel like I was moving in one direction while being yanked into the other. How I could tell which direction I was moving in was beyond reasoning as I was still in the black void which silences all, even motion itself.
******
Hmm, It seems that this book is about basic servomechanisms, also known as simply ‘servos’. I happen to know a few things about servos. They have a motor and a shaft attached by gears to the motor. The shaft will have a 180 degree or so motion range which can vary. Interestingly enough, servos receive instructions through a 3rd party on how to move the shaft to do interesting things with robotics. The 3rd party uses what’s known as Pulse Coded Modulation. Pulse Coded Modulation is used to explain what direction to move the shaft in, for example, the servo is expecting to receive instructions on where to move every 20 milliseconds, the pulses length explains how to move the shaft; a 1.5 millisecond pulse will move the shaft towards 90 degrees which is also known as neutral. A pulse less than 1.5 milliseconds, for example 1.25 milliseconds, will move the shaft towards 0 degrees whilst a pulse longer than 1.5 milliseconds, such as 1.75 milliseconds will move the shaft towards 180 degrees.
Ah, but how does the servo know what angle the shaft is currently at? I begin searching through the book.
The Potentiometer (Variable Resistor)All servomechanisms have a variable resistor that is
connected to the output shaft of the servomechanism,
the variable resistor monitors the current angle of
the output shaft and if the angle is at the desired angle
and prevents alterations until the angle changes or a
new angle is given, it will then relay the required
instructions to the electrical motor.
I understand now, robotics is all quite simple, really. I’ll need quite a complicated set-up of servos in my robotic arm, won’t I? Although the prosthetic I currently had looked incredibly real, and it was difficult to tell the difference between it and a real arm, it really had no higher function than being visibly pleasing.
******
“Welcome, Charlie.” It was the same female as before, still calming, somehow.
My surroundings had become similar to what you would call an office room. The room had a potted fern in one corner, a desk with a few books loosely sprawled out over the top and another book cabinet in another corner, adjacent to the desk. Did I mention that everything was semen white? However, this isn’t what got my attention. No, no, it was the cute young girl sitting in a chair simply staring at me, looking overly cheerful for some reason.
“Are you alright?” she asks.
I’m utterly confused. She has the same voice as the goddess I have been listening to since I started the game a few moments ago. The lurching sensation returns in my stomach as I remember how I was transported to this room.
“Anyone, home?” She’s visibly smiling now. Oh right, I’m supposed to respond when a ‘Homo sapien’ asks me a question.
“No, I’m in an office.” Shit, I didn’t mean to respond literally to her rhetorical question. My deep rooted trouble with female ‘Homo sapiens’ must even delve into the younger specimens; I never really thought of being a kiddy fiddler anyway.
“Mhmm, my office.”
“Yours?”
“Yes. mine.”
Why did she have to pout like I was trying to steal her office? Her answer even became more simplistic… It was about time and tried to make sense of the situation, “Who might you be?”
“I’m Charlotte!” ‘Charlotte’ seemed to be glad that I had asked her for her name.
“I didn’t really mean it like that. If this is your office, why am I here?”
“To get a resume of course!” Still overly cheerful, her voice not fitting her body, ”Oh, and to create your character!”
“But, I mean, how are YOU supposed to help me with that?” I put as much emphasis on the ‘you’ as the human language would allow.
“I’m an assistant A.I? What do you mean?” I give up at this point. If I’m going to even attempt to play this game I need to give up on all common sense, or so it seems.
“Oh. My bad, apologies.”
“We’ll start with your character,” as she finished the sentence a box appeared in front of my face. Moving my head around I discover it just follows my head wherever I happen to move or tilt it.
“In front of you there will be a character creation screen, simply adjust the sliders on the right to modify your appearance on the left, you can rotate your body inside the box too. Fiddling around with the controls I quickly discover what she had said was true. I mean, I don’t think I’ve ever seen my butt so closely.
My character was a mirror image of me, a boy around 19 with a slender figure, brown hair that was wavy and sitting slightly below eye level, blue eyes, seemingly always sorrowful frown and lastly of average height. Obviously the first thing I do is change my eyes to silver. Staring at my new silver eyes, I remind myself of the full moon on a really dark cloudless night. Other than the eyes I don’t really want to change anything else so I settle on just removing some of my more intruding moles and freckles. Perfect.
Would you like to confirm your new appearance?(If you would like to change it at a later date you must pay a fee of $100)Yes.No.
I obviously pick ‘yes’.
Suddenly light appears around my body and my vision goes cloudy, I hear an odd static noise in the back of my head. My face feels like it’s moving around and my eyes have a slight warm sensation stimulating the nerves around them.
“It’s changing my body, right?” I hope that is what’s happening.
“Yeah. You didn’t change much so it won’t hurt too much, we do it to prevent a player from wanting to drastically change their appearance as they will quite literally feel their bones breaking, shifting and sometimes completely moving.” She for some reason has an incredibly sinister looking smile on her young face, “That and it’s funny watching them squirm around in their chairs trying to put on a brave face!” She’s a fucking sadist or masochist, great. The innocent young look and calm neutral voice all but lost their charm. The warm white light finally fading, Charlotte passes me a hand mirror. Silver goddamn eyes, they look bad-ass. They remind me of Riddick in numerous ways but my vision hasn’t been affected at all.
“Do you like them?” I ask, referring to my eyes.
“You remind me of a brat playing with his new toys.” The roles having become reversed I finally know when to give up.
“It’s time to get yourself a resume,” she begins, “for that you’ll need to do some test to assess the actual level of your education to accurately create a resume. Not the high school diploma they give to half of everyone these days when they might only be at a year 10 level.”
Testing huh? I agree with what she’s saying though. It would be much more accurate than having users submit papers saying they could do something or had passed something.
“So, I do a few tests and I can go out and play the game?” Is it really that simple? It couldn’t be…
“Not really. After the tests you will be put into a group with other new players in a small section of the world. You’ll only be allowed to interact with those players, not anyone else not doing the tutorial as they would then be able to give you a massive boost early on.” So I’ll actually be in the game? Interesting. What is the aim of the tutorial then?
“Charlotte, what is the tutorial?”
“It’s for new players to get use to the game and for the system to calculate the starting balance and connections of players after the tutorial.”
“No, I mean, what do you do in it?”
“Oh, I see. Basically the aim is to earn at least $3700 in a month, in-game. If you earn that much before the end you will be forced to still continue and at this point you should try and earn as much as possible. It’s where the real bonuses kick in.” She pauses for a second before continuing, “You can earn the money in anyway possible; including, getting a job, forming a company with other tutorial members, criminal acts and many, many more different ways. In case you are wondering, no you can’t purchase money off the Official website and you also have properly share money in a business, just because the company has earned $3700 does not mean that everyone has passed.” She never said another player couldn’t get money from receiving it from a friend in-game! “No, Charlie. You cannot receive money for nothing from players. Not in the tutorial at least.” Dammit, I was sure I found a loophole. The tutorial is starting to sound harder and harder as she goes on. I need to get a job and earn $3700 in just a single month, otherwise I’ll have to repeat the entire tutorial?!?!
“Alright, time to send you off to the testing room. Baiiiiii!!!” I hear her now cute voice say good-bye. Before I even have the time to reply the lurching feeling begins again as my world turns into a blur.
******
A desk? Why am I at a desk? Am I taking the test here?
There’s a pencil in front of me and a piece of paper. The paper has in big bold letters at the top ‘Tutorial Test’. I never would have guessed if they hadn’t put the title on it. I guess I should just begin. Won’t I need a rubber though?
*plop*
A rubber had fallen onto my desk. I look around, no one is here. I can wish for anything I want? Alright, a girlfriend.
Error.
Do not ask for the impossible.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
Fuck you, I see how it is. Now that I have all the supplies I need to take the test I begin.
******
This test is incredibly difficult. I’ve literally been doing this damn test for hours. At the beginning I saw no more than 20 pages, neatly stapled together. After about an hour I realised that I should have been done and I noticed that for every page I turn another page miraculously spawns at the back of the test. It wasn’t just that the test seemed to be never ending but it also was incredibly hard. It started of with math where I was testing on many different things like, quadratic functions, matrices, polynomials and even complementary angles. After having completed the math I was tested on English and History. Currently I was being tested on Science and it was quite annoying. Although it was stuff I had learnt in class, it had been a while since I had done it. This meant that I would have to think for quite some time on the majority of questions. Having just answered a question chemical reactions and hydrocarbons, I flip to the next page. ‘Beginner Robotics’. Unable to contain my excitement I basically jizzed in my pants.
******
Is this it? The end? It is!
Charlie had been doing the testing phase of the tutorial for many, many long hours and after the game had tested him on perhaps everything he might know or have an interest in, it seemed satisfied and had granted him the exit from hell.
You have completed the first section of the testing phase and will now move onto the physical section!
Have fun, it hurts like hell!