Everything in rewriting. (20/07/2016)
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Gustav was comfortably sitting in his chair, gazing through the window. He looked with envy at a group of children coming out of the middle school across the street. He threw a quick glance at the clock. 5 minutes left, he thought.
The english teacher took notice of the time as well and started typing on his computer. A few seconds later, all students received a file on their digital tabletops. Quickly opening it, Gustav discovered a bunch of grammar and style exercises due for the next week. Nothing he couldn't handle in less than half an hour. "Alright class, you're dismissed. See you next Tuesday" said the teacher before leaving the classroom in a hurry. The silent room instantly turned noisy as the students engaged in chatter.
Grabbing his bag, Gustav stood up and approached his childhood friend, a gloomy boy named Bran. Bran was typing furiously on his keyboard, totally absorbed in whatever he was doing. Arriving behind him, Gustav look at the screen. Without surprise, Bran was navigating the HoloWeb, looking for the new VR device launching today. "So, any luck ?" he asked, startling Bran so much that he almost fell off his chair.
"Shit Gus', don't do that ! You scared me to death !" complained the brown-haired boy.
"Stop whining, you're going to miss the headset !" teased Gustav with a smirk while pointing at the screen. Bran immediately turned back, hope glittering in his eyes. It quickly got replaced with disappointment as he saw nothing on the screen. As he was grumbling and cursing Gustav for the bad joke, the latter started working on the English exercises. A few minutes passed in silence until Bran suddenly let out a croaked sound.
"Are you ok ?" asked Gustav, startled by the unusual sound. Bran looked at him with an astonished expression, mouth open. "Gus... I got two ! I GOT TWO HEADSETS !"
Gustav immediately stopped working and got to his friend's side. "For real ???" he asked, looking at the screen. Indeed, he saw there a confirmation email with a delivery order due for this evening at Bran's house. In bold letters were the words RADIANCE VR HEADSET (BUILD 4.0) x2.
"Shit, that's awesome !"
"Julia is going to be happy so happy about this !" said Bran. Gustav pictured the big sister of his friend within a Full Dive VR Game. "Yeah, I kinda feel bad for the other players though..." he said, remembering her slave driving attitude when in a party. Bran snickered upon hearing that and nodded.
"Yeah it's going to be tough. Hopefully she'll be too immersed in the new game to think about that."
"Unless she builds an army of followers."
"Like a cult ?" pondered Bran. "You're right, she might just do that..."
"I'm counting on you to stop that from happening."
"Easier said than done, you know it. Anyways, you have to get a headset too now ! Would be a shame if you don't play Fallen Lands with us."
"I'll try talking to my dad about it, but I can't promise anything." shrugged Gustav. Unlike Bran's family, which seemed to be a functional family straight out of a commercial from the early years of the 21th century, Bran lived alone with his father since the death of his mother, 5 years ago. Although he and his dad had an healthy relationship, his father was not often home due to being in the special forces. Income-wise, his family situation wasn't the best as well, and virtual reality hardware and games wasn't a top priority in their lives.
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Gustav quickly looked around before sighing in relief. The homeroom teacher, Mr. Jurand, wasn’t there yet. 'Never again' he thought. That teacher was the dangerous. A total sadist. No, he probably was the devil himself.
Simply because he wasn't listening in class, that demon had him and others lazy students reorganize the entire library, which contained more than 30 000 books. When they finished the tremendous task, they learned that all the books were to be moved to the other side of the campus. And of course, it was their job. Since then, Gustav had a sixth sense that told him when Mr. Jurand was coming.
Bran kept talking. "Well sorry to disappoint your inner masochist, but class isn’t going to start before at least 10 minutes, so we still have some time to chat. So... do you plan on playing Fallen Lands ? I know it's not going to be available before a few months, but Julia and I are probably going to."
Fallen Lands. The VRMMO that everyone talked about. Supposed to be released this year, it was said to be different from all the VRMMO that were on the market. It also was quite expensive : a stand-alone student like him could not afford it. Bran, who’s father was quite rich, didn't had this problem. Him and his sister Julia already had the capsules to play the game. Since then, Gustav had to listen to Bran speculate about the game all day. It left Gustav really annoyed since he couldn't afford the capsule and pay the monthly subscription fee that would come with the game.
The torture was even bigger as his father already had a capsule and was playing everyday, though it was a classic RPG game. He could have asked him to let him use the capsule, but he knew that Virtual Reality was one of his father childhood dreams. He didn’t felt like taking that away from him.
"Nah, still can’t afford it." Gustav finally answered. "And I'm no masochist. Rather, weren't you the one keeping weird stuff in your room ? I wonder what kind of thing you're playing at during the night..."
Just when Bran was about to answer, the classroom door opened to reveal Mr.Jurand. A silence fell upon the class and the students quickly went back to their sits.
"He gets scarier day by day. Maybe he got dumped by his girlfriend ?" Bran whispered to Gustav. Somehow, the teacher managed to hear this and looked in their direction with piercing eyes. In an instant, Bran was behind his Math textbook. "Mr. Gustav, meet me at the school gate at the end of the day. I have a... task for you."
"Eh ? Hum... Do i really have to ? I have some stuff to take care o-" He shut up after the glare intensified a little. 'I'm going to kill you, Bran' he thought, sending some killing intent toward his friend, who was trying to hold back his laugh. "Now, let's begin the class." said Mr. Jurand like nothing happened.
When the time came, Gustav went to the school gate to find his teacher waiting in front of an expensive black car. "If you’ll be so kind and get in", said Mr. Jurand. Gustav shivered at this. 'You sound like a Yakuza - No, you definitely are one.'
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"Hum... The school knows about it, right ?" he said, reluctant to get in. It felt like he was walking right into a gigantic spider web.
"Yes, don't worry. As for where we are going, everything will be explained in time. If I wanted to kidnap you, it would be dumb to state my plan in front of the all class, wouldn't it ?" Gustav gave up and got in the car, followed by his mischievous teacher.
10 minutes later, the car finally stopped in front of a building. There was nothing special about it, just a common building. "Is there going to be a secret lab or something ?" asked Gustav, curiosity getting the better of him.
"No spoiler for lazy people" was the answer he got. Although he wanted to talk back, Gustav kept his mouth shut. Better stay calm and composed, or this slave driver would use the opportunity to give him more exhausting work. Arriving at the entrance of the building, Mr. Jurand took out an electronic card and opened the door. They went straight to the elevator, which led them to the 4th floor. After walking down a few corridors, they entered a room.
Gustav looked around : it was a room similar to those you would find in a 3 star hotel, not extravagant and yet well furnished. In the right corner of the room he noticed a gaming capsule. Mr. Jurand, noticing him eyeballing around, gave him a wry smile. "Welcome in my little ‘experimentation room’, Mr. Gustav. Want to know what you are supposed to do here ?"
Gustav gulped down in fear. He couldn't say if it was due to the look on his teacher face or the words 'experimentation room'. Maybe a little bit of both. 'This doesn't sound really good...'
"I'm not sure I really want to know, Mr.Jurand..."
"Forget the honorifics, we’re not at school. Call me Cedric." said his teacher.
Taking a step back, Gustav expressed his worries "I don’t know what Bran told you, but i’m not really into that kind of thing… We do joke a lot about it, but you know. Jokes." Cedric looked at him with huge eyes before bursting in laughter.
"I think you got that all wrong, Gustav. Sit down and let me explain the reason you are here." Gustav grabbed a chair and Cedric started his explanation.
"As you may know, a few years ago the Virtual Reality Entertainment System was created by Radiance Corporation. You can found this system in every capsule in the world. This system hold many features, such as a full immersion in the game, but the latest version finally introduced the Time Changing Factor. It is quite simple : one week in real life equals a month in-game. The first VR game that will use this version is Fallen Lands, also created by Radiance Corporation. You probably heard about it, right ?"
Gustav nodded and opened his mouth to ask a question, but he was cut down by Cedric. "Let me finish before asking any questions. One thing that most people are unaware of is the fact that Radiance Corp. have little to no influence on the game itself. Everything is managed and decided by the A.I. that was created for the game. The A.I. is actually expanding the game at every single second, creating new content according to what the NPC and players do, through events, quests or even simple action such as bumping into someone."
'Wow' thought Gustav. Now that was something he didn’t expected. He knew that the A.I. had a huge part in the creation of the game, but total control over it ? That was kinda scary. "Isn’t this a little bit dangerous ? Not having any control on the A.I, I mean."
Cedric nodded before answering. "That type of reaction is exactly why the information wasn’t released to the public. Of course, Radiance Corp. still has the power to shut down the game. They also made the welfare and security of the players the top priority. But I didn't bring you here to talk about the system. Tell me, what do you think is going to be the most important thing For Fallen Lands' players ? Not only for them, but also for all companies related to the game ?"
Gustav was puzzled. If taking only the player’s point of view, that would be an epic adventure. For companies, that would be… Profit ? Technology ? Except for money, he couldn’t see what could be so important to both players and companies. "I don’t know. Money could be the answer, but it seems a bit too simple."
Joining his hand together, Cedric said "You are right on that point, but think a bit more. What makes the difference between two similar companies ? What allows one to take over the other ?"
"Well, that would be a good opportunity, smarter people in one company, mmmhhh.... Information ? If you know about something before your concurrent, player or company, you can take advantage of that."
Cedric looked at him and clapped his hands twice. "Bravo. That’s exactly what this project is about : information. Ever heard about Jareth Inc. ?"
"Isn't it the company that possess The VR Show, one of the huge talking show around Virtual Reality games ?"
"Exactly. I, humble and sweet teacher of yours, happened to work for Jareth Inc. And we are in need of information about Fallen Lands if we want to talk about it when it comes out. Thankfully, Radiance Corp. have offered big medias companies early access for 50 persons each. You will be one of those people."
Gustav eyes widened at the information. "Huh ? But why me ? Wouldn't it be more beneficial for you to take hardcore gamers or people from your company ?"
Cedric waved his hand like the concern was nothing to him. "Well, according to the data we have on you, you participated in quite a few VR games beta, right ?"
Gustav confirmed the information by nodding his head. "Yeah, but I wasn't particularly good or among the top players..."
"It might be true, but you seem to be the one who found the most hidden treasures or achievements each time. We need information, not someone who can reach the top in less than a month. Basically, we want you to play Fallen Lands and give us information on the game. How it works, where you can find things, maybe a map of the world, politics, weapons, classes, dungeons... Everything that is interesting. We are going to ask you reports, but we will also watch all your gameplay footage, so you don't have to report every little details. In exchange, you’ll get a free capsule and we will pay the monthly subscription fee in your stead." finished Cedric before turning back toward him and extending is hand. "So… are you in ?"
Gustav trembled with excitation. Early access to the biggest game possibly ever made, and free with that ? "You bet I'm in !" he said before topping Cedric's hand. "When do I start ?"
Cedric smirked a little bit at his reaction before gesturing toward the capsule in the room. "Well, if possible right now. I made the offer, but you still have to produce some results for the contract to be made. Seeing how excited you are, let's not waste anymore time. Get in."
Gustav laid down in the capsule with febrility. Lights started to pop up on the machine as it came to life. The helmet put itself on his head and Gustav close his eyes.