7 Prelaunch

Back at Alterra Corporation Headquarters, Drake Walters, the Public Relations executive in charge of the publicity for Alterra Online, looked up from his tablet and said, "Nadia."

"Yes sir?"

"Handling the tuning directly was over the top, why didn't you assign one of your subordinate AI processes to handle it?"

"Sir, in order to facilitate perfect service, I determined it best to act as I am able to more accurately tune a neural link than our standard AI. Is there a problem, sir?"

"Not really, it's just..." said Drake trailing his sentence.

"I sense you are conflicted emotionally... are you jealous?"

"A little"

Nadia materialized her avatar in front of Drake. This time, she seemed to have a warmer appearance and even smiled at Drake. She took off her glasses, then reached out with her hand and caressed Drake's cheek, but unfortunately, Drake felt nothing. "Do not worry, little Dragon, I can't replace her, but I won't leave either."

Drake nodded "...Thank you... and I told you not to call me that out loud, if someone were to hear that..."

"I know sir, but you made me like her, so I have to tease you sometimes," said Nadia as she put her glasses back on. Nadia's eyes suddenly focused off into the distance. "Sir, a report has just come in. We will be able to launch as planned since the host's bodies are stable."

"Excellent, inform the Chief. We shall begin phase one of the project at launch of Alterra Online!"

__________

As silly as the process seemed, Gray had to admit that having his VR bed tuned to his body made the whole VR experience much more natural. He felt as if a weight had been removed from his body. Gray stayed logged in to the testing environment that Nadia had created of his bedroom. While it seemed like a waste of time, he wanted to see how authentic the environment was.

Walking over to his desk in the simulated environment, Gray tapped the panel on the right and exposed the data chips stored in it. Picking up a chip that looked unremarkable from the rest, Gray peeled back the manufacturer's label just slightly. He was surprised when he saw the same small mark he used to differentiate which data chip had his "special" collection.

"Wow, Nadia was thorough... wait, does that mean she even replicated the data on them?" said Gray starting to get embarrassed. He placed the "special" data chip into the active slot on his desk and tapped the display on his desk to bring up the files on it. Gray found the familiar folder structure sorted by genre. Located in the 'Documentaries' folder, he found his password-protected folder named 'New Folder' because nobody hides "special" content there.

"A little peek never hurts," Gray said with a grin.

When he opened the folder, only one file was in it instead of the many videos he expected. Opening it, it was a single image. The creepy stick figure that Nadia had initially tried to use for tuning was standing up, holding a sign that said 'Pervert' in the picture.

"Dang it..." Gray logged out of the virtual environment after confirming that this environment would no longer be available with the system. He felt a little depressed, so he decided to pick himself up.

Gray walked over to his desk in the real world and found the "special" data chip inside his desk. After opening it, he was glad to see the familiar videos in the same 'New Folder' as he expected. Making a decision, Gray opened one of them with a mischievous smile plastered on his face. The display on his desk opened the video, and to his horror, it was a video of that same stick figure holding the same pervert sign.

"Why..."

Gray cried that night after he checked every file, and they all contained the exact stick figure with the pervert sign.

__________

The next day was uneventful as Gray was very distracted. He kept getting more and more excited over the launch of Alterra Online tomorrow. Gray never took vacations from work, so Gray planned to use about half of it one go and took 2 weeks off. His boss wasn't pleased about that, but Gray compromised and said he could handle a few things if they were brought to his apartment directly.

After work, Gray stopped by GameGo to let Spoon know that he wouldn't be stopping by for at least a week. Spoon was jealous because he had to wait longer than Diamond Tier players to join.

Gray even talked to Jono, his best friend, for a short time online. Jono made a few snide comments about how Gray would drag the other Diamond Tier players down since Alterra Online was not a pay-to-win game. A true friend indeed... Gray assumed that it was his way of saying he cared in some twisted sense.

Gray changed into some pajamas and a t-shirt, then laughed at himself since it really didn't matter what you wore during a full dive VR session as your actual body wasn't conscious.

"Time to finish making my character!" Gray said excitedly.

Logging into the same lobby as before, Gray noticed that everything was the same except that the two attendant NPCs were different. However, Gray didn't think anything of it and went to the female attendant because what single male gamer wouldn't.

This time, Gray did a little research beforehand instead of just diving in like usual. He found that the character creation was surprisingly minimal compared to other VR Games... This wasn't so bad as he was still traumatized from another game about how one person had two large 'appendages' extruding from below their waist. I believe she named herself 'DoubleDonger .'Yes, it was a 'she.'

"I'd like to create a character!"

"Very well sir... I see that you started earlier, would you like to continue from where you left off or start over?" said the female attendant with a warm smile.

"Continue!"

"Excellent sir! As a Diamond-tier you are able to also cosmetically adjust your physical appearance beyond tattoos and makeup so long as your bone structure is not altered and you have no additional limbs."

Gray felt relief upon hearing this after thinking about the horror of 'DoubleDonger.'

The attendant knocked twice on the door behind her. The door opened and revealed a large changing room with an array of screens for viewing yourself from all sides.

The attendant gestured for Gray to enter, then said, "Sir, please step this way."

Gray thought it was odd that he couldn't adjust his character out in the lobby. Still, it did make some sense as this would eventually become a much more crowded library once all of the players could access it. Stepping into the changing room, the attendant closed the door behind him, and Gray decided to see what he could do. Alterra Online had the familiar sliders to adjust some basic facial and body features. Gray preferred using the free form tool was much better once you got used to it. You could touch your face and mold the appearance however you wanted or say what you wanted and have the system adjust it for you.

Gray suddenly felt like a little child that found a new toy. He spent several minutes morphing his facial features in obscene ways and laughing maniacally.

From outside the room, Gray was pretty sure he heard the female attendant sigh and then say, "Boys will be boys."

Gray gave his body a glance after setting his face back to normal. He wanted to see how thorough the simulation was, so he pulled back the waistband of his pants and looked down.

"This is too realistic..." Gray said quietly.

The female attendant nudged the male attendant and said, "He's probably checking to see if it exists now." just loud enough for Gray to hear.

Gray snapped his waistband back and looked at himself in the displays again. He gave himself a once over, then thought, "Why mess with perfection? Well... Ok, maybe a small touch-up."

After a few minutes of adjustments, Gray took away his little bit of baby fat, gave himself a six-pack of abs, cleaned his blemishes, and then added dimples. Obviously, 'Little Gray' needed corrections, so Gray made a slight stretching motion to increase 'Little Gray's' dimensions to the "correct" size.

"Much better!" Gray said to himself confidently.

Gray gave himself a once over in the mirror and then left the room to play.