Multiple shivers ran down Hallie’s spine as she felt the cold touch of the metal against her skin. The handcuffs which the slimy, puny man in front of her had insisted were merely precautionary, felt much too small.
“Just relax,” his breath tackled Hallie’s left ear with such heat that Hallie became extremely grateful that he hadn’t been directly in front of her.
“Sir, I am trying to relax,” she managed to muffle out from under the mask she was wearing.
“Try harder.”
Before Hallie had been slowly ostracised from her social circle, she had heard a couple of the girls gush over the fun that a pair of handcuffs could bring. Some of the friendship group had rejected the thought, but she hadn’t thought it sounded too bad. But now she was having second thoughts. Maybe it was just the person who had commanded for his underlings to tighten the cuffs around her that was the problem. Such a man did not deserve to lock anyone’s hands up. If he wasn’t in league with the government, he would probably have handcuffs on and be awaiting punishment by a judge by now.
Hallie’s one reprieve came with that although she was also wearing leather boots, she wouldn’t have to do anything else that the girls had mentioned went along with playing with handcuffs.
“Relax, I said. It won’t work if you are not relaxed.”
Hallie tensed up all the more. That was what she was counting on. That version 2.0 wouldn’t work on her, the same way that her body had rejected the first version of this rubbish. What could she say? She was obviously superior in genes to even her brother. Instead of delving into BATTLE LIFE when they had tried to initiate it a year ago, nothing had occurred other than a few harmless side effects. A bad case of the runs for some time after and becoming a little, only a teeny-weeny bit, more apathetic, had never killed anybody.
The puny man in charge of the whole operation was now attacking her right ear with words that Hallie found to be terribly frightening, “pretty please. For me. Please. Can you please just relax? If you relax it will take only two more minutes till you can solve the problem that your brother created for us.”
At this point you might be wondering why someone so opposed to being a lab rat for an A.I. gaming company was doing this.
The answer simpler than you might have imagined. Hallie being strapped unto what seemed to be an operations table much like one that she presumed Frankenstein’s monster was created on, was all part of this thing called having a job.
It had all started with an internship. They say it’s for the experience and yadda yadda yadda. What it really is for, is the ability for companies to get free work done by a willing, enthusiastic, and most importantly, legal, slave.
She had completed her internship and as soon as she had signed away a couple basic human rights on the thing people insisted on calling an employment contract, she was one of the team.
Although jobs were a load of rubbish, if not rich or happy to twirl hair around the index finger looking around coquettishly, a woman would have to make her own way in this world.
She had practically jumped at the chance to work somewhere somewhat familiar, alongside her brother. To be one of the team, part of the family of employees.
That was what Hallie three years ago had thought. Real stupid stuff, her now more rational brain reprimanded itself for the troubling naivete and enthusiasm of its past.
Hallie thrashed around a little.
“STOP. That is unless you want to pay the billion-dollar fees that your brother will owe us if he keeps on holding up the game. I know you can’t afford it… But there a few things that you can do for me instead.” The man had the impudent audacity to run one short stubby finger across Hallie’s stomach.
Part of Hallie’s brain told her that she should be offended, however since she now had this evolved mind, why others didn’t try to become more like her she didn’t know, she couldn’t help but think that it sounded like quite a good deal. Maybe the handcuffs would come in handy after all. She would have to crawl around on her hands and knees anyway, just in some sort of gaming software as a technological alien searching for her brother to unblock a system so the trial run could continue. At least that was what she thought she would be doing. She still didn’t know much about what entailed complete immersion VR games or the lives of the nerdy, partnerless population that usually played them. Such were her brother’s realm of expertise and the reason why she was the only hope for carrying on the family name, she frowned.
“This isn’t working,” one of the puny man’s lackeys standing next to him said.
“I can see that.”
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“She’s relaxed but it’s not working. Are you doing it correctly?”
“I know what I am doing. It is her that is the problem.” Please note, Hallie was clearly privy to everything that was being said in the room not that the man, Mr Skrill was his name, seemed to care. Rude.
“Maybe you’re doing it wrong.”
The room went silent for a second, even the few lab technicians jostling about around the computer who hadn’t stopped tapping away at the keyboard since Hallie had entered the room ceased moving.
“I created this game. I am this game... Wrong is not a word in my vocabulary.”
Hallie had to admit that she was slightly impressed. She hadn’t imagined that Mr Skrill who looked as downtrodden and as wimpish as a red-blooded male could, could be so outspoken. She had heard about him multiple times and his crimes against humanity, but this was the first time that she had the fortune, or lack thereof, of being in a room with the man for over five minutes.
“Sorry sir. I am so sorry. I will keep my thoughts to myself sir. Sorry. I just want this to work. I don’t want it to go wrong- I mean sorry, I am sorry-”
“WRONG,” Mr Skrill chuckled.
The hearty chuckle gave the wrong impression at first of reconciliation between the two parties. The mask covered Hallie’s eyes completely and given that humans rely on vision to make up 80% of an impression, Hallie’s discernment over the situation was lacking slightly. But when some bustling commenced conveying the movement of Mr Skrill’s lackeys, the lab door opened and closed, a loud bang was headr and cries came to a sharp stop, Hallie realised that Mr Skrill wasn’t as forgiving as his chuckling suggested.
The team, the family of employees, and Mr Skrill’s right hand men were all just expendable. Hallie smiled wearily; this was not boding well for her.
Mr Skrill didn’t stop laughing, though it was now noticeably wry. Any mask Mr Skrill was wearing seemed to fall off with his laughing.
“Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Hallie, you better stop resisting or else wrong will become a frequent word I use in my vocabulary. I told you, your brother created a problem, and you my love will have to fix it. Right?”
Hallie nodded her head up and down with a quickness she didn’t know that she could manage. Her mind was clever, it relaxed with clear instruction, especially when said instructor was equipped with a smoking gun, and residue on his hands that he probably wouldn’t mind adding to.
…..
SYSTEM INITIALISING. CODE STARTED. PLEASE DO NOT INTERFERE
If Hallie could interfere, she would have. But seeing as her brain seemed to be moving quickly between lines of endless gibberish and had completely shut itself off from all other stimuli, there was no such luck.
….
INITIATION COMPLETED.
De-ding. Ding. Ding. De-ding. Ding. Ding.
Less than a minute after Hallie had forsaken any integrity she once had and gave in to peer pressure, the familiar BATTLE LIFE jingle pounded aloud in her head. The BATTLE LIFE logo of a greatly built man with a spear pointing to the sky was in front of her but instead of being in its usual 2D state it was now in statue form proudly gold and glinting.
A bright blue box popped up in front of her eyes.
De-ding. Ding. Ding. De-ding. Ding. Ding.
This is BATTLE LIFE. From the start of human history, if you look pass momentary bliss, life has brought nearly every single person nothing but misery. It is now your chance to see if you have the skills to make your life worth the living. ARE YOU READY TO GIVE YOUR ALL AND SEE WHETHER YOU HAVE THE SKILLS TO DOMINATE LIFE THE WAY IT HAS DONE YOU?
Extremely ridiculous, of course not, Hallie thought.
[YES, NO, MAYBE SO?]
Maybe it didn’t understand my adamant refusal as I hadn’t said it out loud. Hallie made up her mind to try again.
“What do you think this is? YES? Do you happen to have a screw loose? Like anyone in their right mind would offer up themselves to an experiment with unknown consequences. These are things that only people with nothing to lose, and no active social life participate in.” Hallie conveniently forgot that she too had no social life.
Unfortunately for Hallie, the system seemed to not be able to pick up sarcasm.
You have chosen [YES].
Aha, a valiant person, methinks. A person ready to push themselves through courage to the brink of mental health in hopes of gaining the skills to live a good life.
Hallie took a second to mentally reject any progression as a human being in her life vehemently. To be courageous sounded slightly insulting. Why would a beautiful girl ever need to summon a thing like courage? That was for peasants. All a pretty girl needed was a prince to do all troubling stuff for her.
Recognising that there was more of a shift in her attitude from the last experiment gone wrong that she initially thought, Hallie shook her head. Where were all her thoughts about women doing it for themselves that she once had?
Ready to push yourself to see whether you are a strong soldier in the fight against life?
[YES] or [NO]?
Thank God for two factor authentication. She was getting out of here.
“No. No. I’m good.”
Hallie waited with bated breath, wondering what she was going to tell Mr Skrill when she was out of the horrid nightmare.
code:01904083036307. Article 27566. CLAUSE 3747, PARAGRAPH 29.
OVERRIDED. THIS IS A TRIAL RUN. ALL PARTICIPANTS HAVE GIVEN AMPLE CHANCE TO BACK OUT. CONTRACTS HAVE BEEN SIGNED.
LIVES HAVE BEEN SOLD.
Hallie felt just a little bit faint. She was sure that she had never met more moronic AI in her life.
NOW THEN, MY GOOD SOILDIER, LET’S BEGIN.