Atticus was tired of working two full-time minimum wage jobs to make ends meet, tired of applying to jobs in his prospective field, tired of scrapping every creative project he started because he was too exhausted to work on it. Mostly he was tired of his life. When he got the text from the hiring agency he signed up for (in hopes of having an agent might help him find a job) he didn’t immediately call them back. It took a second text from them to get him to call them. It didn’t help (or hurt, he would begrudgingly admit) his aunt was a manager there so he got a family discount.
“Hey Atticus, I found a job for you! I’ve already sent them a resume and they are very interested in hiring you. They wanted to set a time for an interview, do you have a day or morning off this week?”
“Hey aunt Claire, not this week, but I do have Thursday afternoon open. I’m supposed to do a raid with my guild, but I can get one of the others to sub in for me this week if I need it.”
“Perfect, can you do Thursday at 4? Does that give you enough time to get home, change, and get to Burbank?”
“Better make it 5, I’d like that extra hour in case I run into any issues with the metro or any of the buses.”
His first interview for a real job, he was so excited. His boss, in a rare stroke of kindness, allowed him to leave work half an hour early to prepare. As he predicted there was a delay with the orange line. They were doing construction along the route where he was heading. The position was only an entry level game tester position, but it was in the game design field and he wasn’t going to look down his nose at it, even if he had never heard of Allied Realms Interactive.
As with most gaming studios the outside of the building looked like any other corporate office building. But once the elevator doors opened to the top floor Atticus was treated to the lobby of the studio, adorned with VR headsets, monitors showcasing the incredible graphics, and speakers piping in ambient noise of the various landscapes. The man at the security desk waved for him to approach.
“Can I help you, son?” the man asked, fully focused on Atticus.
“I’m here for an interview at five o’clock.”
“Name?”
“Atticus Jones.”
“Have a seat next to the door, someone will come get you.”
Despite being nearly forty minutes early, someone promptly came to greet him, saving him from waiting in boredom as he didn’t want to be seen playing on his phone and he didn’t want to anger the security guard by looking around at all the cool stuff in the lobby. The young woman was wearing a cool comic tee shirt and jeans which made Atticus feel overdressed in his khakis and button-up shirt with a tie, still better to be professional at first and relax down to the standards later. He was lead past a series of low-walled cubicles, light blue and grey in the late summer afternoon light.
“Wait in here and the overseers and interviewer will be here momentarily,” she said as she escorted him into a sterile white room and closed the door behind him. There was a couch and a couple of plastic chairs all arranged facing a lone plastic stool. He took a seat on the stool, almost immediately his back started to protest his upright posture.
His wait wasn’t long, as the door opened and a group of people his age sat in various seats. The interviewer was the only one who wasn’t looking at him like he was a used car. The rest were looking at notes on clipboards and then at Atticus and back again, as if verifying his appearance matched his resume. It was strange and unsettling, because it seemed they weren’t looking at him but at who he was. Something about the way their eyes focused, but before he could say anything the interviewer started speaking.
“Is it alright if I call you Atticus?”
“Sure, may I ask your name?”
“I’m Henry, I’ll be conducting your interview, the group behind me are evaluating my skills as an interviewer and making their own notes on you as a candidate as well, but ignore them unless they ask you a question.”
“Do you play a lot of role playing games Atticus?”
“Sure, table-top to MMOs to ARPGs and Looter Shooters. I’m a big fan of the genre.”
“Excellent, when playing with other players what role do you play; are you a tank, a damage dealer, a healer, or utility player?”
“I like being in the thick of things, you know? I’m never one to back down from a fight and I’ll put myself in harms way to protect or attack.”
“Are you saying you’re a tank then?”
“Sorta, but I like being the kind of tank that can deal damage back at my foes up close and personal. I’m not an evasive tank like you see in some games, nor do I like being slowed down by heavy armor, but I’ll wear it if it doesn’t interfere with my ability to dish out damage.”
“So a hybrid tank melee DPS then?”
“Yeah, I like being crunchy and able to smack people around.”
“Cool, in a group setting are you able to take the lead in a situation, do you prefer to leave strategizing to others and following orders, or are you the kind of player to ignore the strategy in favor of attacking recklessly?”
“I’m good with strategizing or following orders so long as the orders make sense, but if there is too much squabbling about tactics or general bickering I’ll force the issue by just attacking if we’re just wasting time. I prefer to know ahead of time whether I am leading or if I’m following, and if I’m following I need to see all the steps.”
“That very fair. You seem to be holding up alright with the questions so far, but I can switch back to corporate lingo if you feel that would fit the situation better.”
“As long as you’re getting the data you need from these questions I’m fine with however you want to phrase the questions.”
“Alright, let’s say you have two time sensitive quests you need to complete and no other details on them, how do you determine which you handle first?”
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“I would probably ask the quest giver which they wanted done first, but if there were multiple quest givers or the quest giver couldn’t or wouldn’t tell me which to do first I’d look at the details and see which would make sense to complete first. I wouldn’t replant a farmer’s lettuce field before killing the rabbits who eat his crops.”
The interview continued like that, Atticus was enjoying himself and forgot about the people behind the interviewer until one spoke up, “If the king asked you to kill a noble, promising to protect you from repercussions would you kill the noble?”
“Only if I had a signed and sealed contract from the King granting me clemency, or if I were a member of the nobility already and there were rules in place for dueling to the death. Although, honestly, I would be the wrong choice for any sort of assassin work.”
The interview continued on for a while, the others started asking questions more and more frequently with some getting up and leaving after certain questions were answered until finally only two people sat across from him. After a few more questions even the last extra person got up, but instead of leaving she leaned down and whispered into Henry’s ear. Atticus strained to hear what she said, but he would swear she wasn’t making any noise. Henry stood up and offered his hand.
“Atticus, thank you for your time. If you would stick around for a few more moments someone will be with you to discuss what to expect moving forward. Thank you so much for your time here today!”
“It was a pleasure to meet you,” Atticus said out of habit, but was surprised to realize he actually meant it.
The lights in the room dimmed a bit, instead of being a blinding white, it was a softer reddish hue being projected through the room. Atticus moved to the couch, the soft cushions were inviting and the hard stool was killing his back. He waited for about ten minutes, before the last of the overseers to leave came back into the room.
“I’m Emily,” she said as she plopped unceremoniously down next to him on the couch.
“Nice to meet you, Emily. What happens next?”
“Well that depends, we have an offer for you.”
“I’m sensing you want to say ‘but’ don’t you?”
“How astute, you could be an observer!” she laughed. “You’re right of course there is a but involved. The thing is, it isn’t really what you applied for. You applied for the general QA tester, which is fine and we need those. But what we are really looking for right now, and what we feel you fit the mold for is as an in-depth fully immersed tester. It is a lot more involved and a lot higher paid, along with higher benefits and a few restrictions. Chief among them, you’d have to live here on site.”
****
Atticus was in shock, he gave two-weeks notice to his bosses, he paid his portion of the rent for the following month and told his roommates they would need to spend that time finding a replacement. The job he would be doing was next level, no one he knew had ever heard of, outside of novels, the technology to create full sensory immersion technology, not that he could share info either. He was warned that the tech was unstable and could cause medical complications, but they had a staff of highly trained doctors on standby. Still the pay was outrageous and he was offered a signing bonus.
Atticus couldn’t keep the nervous anxiety from showing as he arrived at Allied Realms Interactive. He walked in and went to the top floor again. This time the guard waved at him and just said, “Have a seat, man I’ll send Emily to com get you.”
Emily escorted him back to the elevators and down a floor getting him a badge and a room assignment. “Did you know, you are the very first person to qualify and accept the full immersion tester position? Most people were too wary of the potential issues, which is fair, but not very brave. You don’t seem like the kind to be timid or to let fear dissuade you.”
“It seems like a dream come true, honestly.”
With his employee badge in hand they made their way back to the elevators and down to the underground levels (which if Atticus was being honest with himself, he didn’t notice before). Down on sub-4 were the housing suites for the full immersion testers. He chose a corner room, being the first one to arrive and matched it to his employee badge. The suite he was in was a shared common area with a kitchen and dining room and six rooms along the sides. By a random coincidence the corner room had the largest amount of space in the bedroom, bathroom, and closet. The bed was also a queen, compared to the full sized in the other rooms, though he didn’t get the large bookshelf and desk he had a combination unit that fit well with the rest of the blank decor. He was excited to find out that each room also had a built-in combo washer-dryer so he didn’t have to worry about wasting quarters or arguing over whose turn it was to wash clothes. He looked at his new home for the near future and was excited to see what came next.
Emily escorted him to sub-1 the next level up and set him up with an office to work from, his immersion pod would be delivered later that day so in the meantime he was given a tour of the facilities. Sub-3 had the gym and recreational areas for those inclined to stay in shape, sub-2 was off limits to him because it was where the servers were kept and even Emily didn’t have the key. He asked if he was confined to the premises, but he was assured he was allowed to leave whenever he wanted, so long as he spent the required amount of time “working” each week. The building was within walking distance of downtown Burbank and thus plenty of good food options. According to Emily, there were some delays with getting the equipment into his office so he had the rest of the day off. She would text him when they got everything ready to go.
The next morning around 10:30 he got the text from Emily, “You’re all set head on up to your office, I’ll meet you there.”
His office, once empty, now was cluttered with wires and cords sprawling across the floor like spiderwebs. A path was cleared to the center where a heavily modified dentists chair sat. next to the chair stood Emily and a woman in scrubs and a lab coat. “Atticus, this is Dr. Wi. She will be on hand during the calibration process and to monitor your first day in immersion.”
After exchanging pleasantries, he sat on the chair and was reclined back. He was handed a helmet as his legs were strapped into place. All the while Dr. Wi was talking him through what was happening. “We’re strapping your limbs down because until the helmet is calibrated to you your body may still interpret signals that your mind is sending. Don’t worry this is for your protection, as well as ours and the equipment’s safety.”
After getting the all clear from Dr. Wi, Emily started the calibration process. The darkness from the helmet disappeared and was replaced by blinding white letters “Calibration In Progress…”
Several disorienting minutes later Atticus was dropped into a character creation screen. Unlike a typical RPG setting he was overwhelmed with racial options. From the fantasy tropes like elves, dwarves, and halflings to monster races like werewolves and vampires to avatars of elder gods, there were even options to build your own race. One thing he noticed was that the more powerful the race, the less XP they earned. He ended up being torn between being a dragon and being a wolfkin. Dragons had serious abilities and strengths, but it would take forever to grind between levels, and while the wolfkin were beastial humanoid they didn’t have the insane XP requirements to level up since they were a lesser type of werewolf. He made himself a mana-less variant, cutting himself off from wielding magic but giving a bonus to his physical skills. Once he settled on the race, he gave himself red, black, and silver fur, a giant scar across his muscular torso, smaller scars across his snout and the backs of his hands and arms. Then he got to build his stats up.
He put his strength, endurance, and luck as primary stats, his agility and charm as secondary, leaving his wisdom and intellect as tertiary. In the end his stat block showed :
STR: 18
AGI: 14
END: 16
INT: 10
WIS: 10
CRM: 12
LCK: 14
The next phase of character creation had him choosing a weapon, he was limited to melee weapons and throwing weapons. He was drawn to the wildly impractical for a beginner kursari-gama, a chain with a weighted end on one side and a curved blade on the other. The versatility it offered was something he thought he could use, especially since it extended his already considerable reach. He picked up the weapon to get a feel for it, just to try it out before choosing a more practical weapon for his skill level, like a club or a spear. The system acknowledged his choice and locked his proficiency with the weapon. “Good job, noob. Why not pick the hardest weapon to use in a lifelike virtual reality as your starting weapon,” he told himself.
A pop-up blocked his vision reading “Calibration complete.” The screen faded to black shortly after and he was brought back to the real world. “How are you feeling Mr. Jones,” Dr. Wi asked as she unstrapped him.
“I’m fine, a little disoriented but I expect that is normal for testing new hardware that hijacks my brain’s signals.”
She chuckled and motioned for Emily to come over. “Atticus, bold choice for the weapon. I approve.”
“It was an accident I just wanted to get a feel for it, but since it is my weapon type, I’ll own it. Quick question though. There’s an auto-attack feature right? I don’t have to actually know how to use the weapon out here to be proficient with it in the game?”
“You’ll just have to wait and see,” was all she said in response, “But now that it’s calibrated to you you can dive right in and get started if you want or if you need a break to catch your bearing that’s fine too. You’re only required to spend thirty-two hours in game this week.”
“Well, no time like the present to hop back in.”