The next few days were radio silence. Sasha wasn’t sure, in all honesty, why he believed it would work out. This whole thing had scam likely written all over it, and not in the fun way like in an old DND podcast he found a few years back and binged. No, this was pure vaporware, and he was sure he was duped.
The only thing that kept Sasha going was, well, they didn’t ask for anything from him. He hoped because a scam would have tried to weasel money out of him, right? Or gotten him to install something malicious? There were all sorts of things that could happen, but none did. Just silence, followed by a simple notification in the corner of his screen.
Sasha saw it when he was playing Forestry Online, a mid tier vr game that he’d been playing for a couple years. What was great about it? Well, it was cheap. No subscription service, just a one time payment that he paid for years ago. It was open world, sure, but simple enough at that.
Sasha was in wolf form, wandering the woods of the beautiful rendered park. This was one of the vanity games, really. It was something of a social experiment, allowing players to take a variety of roles in an incredibly realistic park simulator. As a wolf, Sasha had to hunt and kill food to eat, protect himself from poachers, and explore the server. The hunting was a lot of work, but rewarding.
You have received a message from Apogee Softworks: Your interview begins in…
It was cut off by the end of the text box, but that right there was important. With a sigh he ran to find the closest safe spot to log out. He hopped inside a badger den, hoping the badger wouldn’t be back when he returned, and logged out. He was back in his virtual space, the comfortable area that was honestly far more customizable than his real room.
Checking the message he realized he only had a few more minutes. It told him to just be ready in a virtual space, so this wasn’t too hard. It really ended up as two minutes of nervous thumb twiddling while he waited for the call to start. Calls like this were better than being in person, but damn if they weren't still anxiety inducing.
Once it came to time, he heard a ringing in his ears and head. It was so loud it shook the virtual space, but since he didn’t have eardrums to damage it wasn’t too bad. At least physically, mentally Sasha was instantly put into a bad place by his overactive hearing. It was in this mental mess that he walked over to his space’s door, and opened it into what looked like a standard office.
The area was grey, with brown carpets and white walls. There was a receptionist desk with a pretty robot. On the other side there were dozens of cubicles, all of which he could hear keystrokes from. It seemed like this company had some humor… or were just really into the classics.
“Uh, I’m here for the interview?” He asked the robot lady. “I don’t know where to go.”
She glared at him, but in the end she gestured down the hall. “Straight down, it’s literally the only door.” She said snidely, and got back to her work. Walking past he realized her work seemed to just consist of playing solitaire. He supposed good help was hard to find… or she was just really into her role as the disaffected employee.
At the end of the hall there was in fact the office he was looking for. It was labeled 201. Knocking on the door Sasha cleared his throat. “Uh, hello, I’m-”
This time he was cut off by the door being opened on the other side. “Ah. Dear boy, I was just setting out tea, it’s a wonderful time to speak business don’t you think?”
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“I suppose so, I don’t know, I haven't really had an interview in ten or so years.” Sitting down he saw that the table was a small one, and there were a variety of tea snacks with it. Immediately Sasha grabbed a cookie and started to nibble at it.
“Well, I’ve got to say I’m impressed. Well, legally I do. I’m not sure I should say I’m impressed with your work though. It’s just so… so much less than I know you can make.”
“It’s not like that.”
“It really is. You have low self esteem. A little part of you is STILL wondering if this is all some form of scam or mistake. No, this is real, and I’m here to help you make yourself into what we both know you can be if you put your mind to it.”
“And what’s that?”
“A star.” The man’s eyes seemed to glitter. Sasha wondered if he’d gotten a filter for that, it was like something out of an anime. “Look, my name’s Carter. Felix Carter. I’m one of the game’s developers, and I was given the job to help recruit for beta testing.”
“You were? But shouldn't you be, I don’t know, making the game?” Sasha was liking this less and less.
“Right? I don’t know, I think maybe they suppose that being British makes me able to convince people of things they wouldn’t normally do.” Sasha blushed considering this was already working on him. “Look, I just have a couple questions to ask you to see if you’ll be a good fit for the Beta Test closed public phase.” He saw Sasha’s eyes glaze over. “Look, it’s all in the jargon. This is a beta test, we still aren't sure about everything, but we are facing it publicly so that the entire world sees what we are about. We need the hype, because the game is coming out… relatively soon..”
“So what do you need to know?”
“Not much. This is mostly a formality, I’ve already decided I like you and the main criteria is having a thousand users follow you. Nothing said they had to be active, or even that they all had to be on a single account.” Felix winked. “I pushed things along a little. So, what’s it that qualifies you to be a tester? What’s special about you?”
“Well, I don’t know.” Sasha said, shrugging. “I’ve mostly been an average player, nowhere near the munchkins running the huge channels. My followers like it when I dive into game lore. Honestly, I guess most of the other streamers are kind of meat heads. They are either really good at the game, or have huge personalities.”
“Well… I suppose that’s certainly something. Anything else? Any groups you could help advertise to?”
“Well, I used to be in several fandoms. I’m also Autistic and LGBT. I think I might be able to play that for the camera.” Sasha shrugged before biting his lip. “I’m also a furry…” He said, biting into the bait. “I’ll probably pick a non-human race.
“Ah, good. LGBT players will help develop the system to be a little more realistic.” He muttered to himself. “We’re looking for a wide variety of players. What kind of games do you usually play?”
Sasha nodded. “I tend to play games that have both sandbox and RPG elements. I have a fondness for the classic Elder Scrolls and Fallout franchises from when I was a lot younger. I like other games, especially strategy and city building games, but I’m really just bad at them. For the last few years I’ve been playing Forestry Online.”
“Ah, based on the furry thing, I can only assume you learned to play in an animal form? Well, this game may not be to that level, but having different limb structure isn't going to cause you problems.”
“It’s good I have experience.” Sasha said, Felix nodding in response.
“Well, that settles it. You’ll be in the first wave and be allowed in the game tomorrow.”
“Wow!”
“Yeah, I know, kind of short notice. But whatever. Look, just be interesting and everything will be fine.”
“Okay, I guess I’ll go.”
“Here, it’s the game.” The company man handed him what looked like an old Atari game cartridge. “You know what to do.”
Sasha did. “Thank you Mr. Carter.” Sasha said before walking back. When he got back to his Virtual Space he set down the Cartridge and activated it, before logging out. Sure, this could have been malicious too, but it… it just felt real. Besides, his old junk VR set was probably barely worth the effort to hack.
“I could play some flatland games…” Sasha said to himself, looking at his console and phone. But, in the end he just decided to let himself pass out. Sleep was for the weak, and man Sasha was weak.