Rex walked into the conference room, and it was already packed. Teens his age sat row by row in the perfectly symmetrical folding chairs. Some were on their phones, some were talking excitedly to the person in the chair next to them. He wasn't late, but he obviously was not early. He picked out a chair at random and walked to it, slouching down and dropping his bag, sliding it under the chair. Taking a deep sigh, he rotated his head to the left and lingered for a second, his eyes darting around. Then he rotated his head to the right, darting his eyes around again. He recognized nobody around him. The chances of another person from his town being picked were astronomically low. He was still surprised he won in the first place.
About five minutes passed, during which the rest of the teens trickled in through the red metal doors of the conference room until all 100 perfectly spaced folding chairs had been taken up by diverse faces. When the last kid sat down, the audience lingered excitedly, murmurs and laughs echoing through the room, suddenly broken by the lights dimming, the conference room going silent almost immediately.
In the dimmed silent room, echoes of shoes slowly stepping on the linoleum stage reached each kid's ear, cutting through the silence. The moment and reason each person was here today was about to be unveiled and explored by each kid in the conference room. Walking out onto the stage was a 5'10" man with jet-black hair and square glasses, his white suit nearly glowing in the darkness, and his black tie clashing with the white. Each kid watched in anticipation as he arrived at the podium in the center of the stage. He cleared his throat and spoke with a smile, "HELLO CHILDREN," his words echoed. "YOU LUCKY CHILDREN HAVE BEEN GRANTED A ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME EXPERIENCE; YOU LUCKY LUCKY CHILDREN WILL ALL BE PLAYING THE GAME SOON, VERY SOON."
"WHAT I AND MY TEAM, BUT MOSTLY ME, HAVE BEEN WORKING ON WILL SHOCK YOU ALL BEYOND BELIEF. NOW, I'M SURE YOU'VE ALL BEEN BRIEFED ON THE GAME, AND SOME OF YOU MAY ALREADY KNOW TOO MUCH ABOUT IT FROM LEAKS AND WHATNOT, BUT I PROMISE WHATEVER YOU THINK ABOUT THIS GAME, TIMES IT BY TEN AND THEN TIMES THAT BY 40 AND MULTIPLY IT BY 2." His ecstatic energy felt like sunshine, and his enthusiasm echoed throughout the room like lightning.
The man speaking was Gideon Grim, the man most famous for his exponential profit from cryptocurrencies and his wide social media presence, but his true passion was game design. And just recently, he had announced his own self-funded experimental game. Alongside the announcement was a sweepstakes, one that was entered by nearly the entire world, one that for some unknown reason only people under 20 could enter, and only 100 people could win, and sitting in the conference hall were those 100 winners.
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Gideon spoke again, "YOU LUCKY CHILDREN HAVE WON EARLY BETA ACCESS TO MY GAME; MANIA! I DON'T WANT TO SPOIL TOO MUCH FOR YOU MORE ADVENTUROUS KIDS, BUT WHAT IS WAITING IN STORE FOR YOU ALL WILL BLOW. YOUR. MINDS." Rex had already read some leaks about the game online; he expected that everyone else probably had too. From what he read, it was just an RPG but with a twist? The fact that Gideon was getting so excited like he was announcing that everyone was getting a million dollars was so strange?
Rex's train of thought was interrupted by Gideon again. "I HONESTLY KIND OF FEEL LIKE WILLY WONKA RIGHT NOW, SHOWING YOU KIDS A MAGICAL THING NEVER SEEN BEFORE," Gideon chuckled. "I KINDA REGRET SENDING ALL YOU WINNING KIDS EMAILS INSTEAD OF GOLDEN TICKETS TELLING YOU THAT YOU WON." Rex thought as Gideon spoke, why did he fly every kid out to New York? Could he not have just sent us all beta access codes and we can play it on our own PCs?
Was it because every kid might not have a personal computer? No flying every kid from their home country to New York and paying for their hotel rooms is way more expensive than buying them a computer, so why? Why are we all here in this conference hall with not a computer in sight? Rex realized he had zoned out while thinking, and now lines of ten men with briefcases were entering one by one into the hall.
Each line of ten men split off individually into the rows until each kid had one man in a black suit holding a briefcase standing in front of them. Gideon looked down and smirked before whipping his head back up and explaining, "WHAT I HAVE BEEN DEVELOPING IS NOT JUST SOME SILLY NEW GAME, THIS IS NOT JUST ANOTHER CASH GRAB BETA TEST TO BUILD HYPE AROUND A GAME BUILT TO FAIL, THIS IS MY MAGNUM OPUS OF THE GAMING EXPERIENCE."
All the men in black suits opened the briefcases in near unison to reveal a set of what looked like small wireless white earbuds. "THESE MAY LOOK LIKE JUST SOME EARBUDS BUT I PROMISE YOU THESE WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE. THIS IS A NEW TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPED SPECIFICALLY ALONGSIDE MANIA TO ENHANCE YOUR GAMING EXPERIENCE. THIS IS BEYOND VIRTUAL REALITY, ALL SENSATIONS AND VISUALS WILL FEEL AND LOOK REAL.
THESE TINY DEVICES WILL ACCESS YOUR BRAIN AND ALLOW YOU TO ENTER THE GAME AS IF YOU ARE THERE." Gideon preached, and gasps overtook the audience. None of the leaks even mentioned this; it was beyond anything anybody had seen before. No wonder only 100 people were chosen; this technology had never even been thought possible. But did it work? Rex breathed intensely as the man in the black suit motioned him to take the small device out of the case in front of him.