Chapter 4 - Potential Problems

"Thank you all for attending this meeting; enjoy the rest of TechCon," the presenter said to the continuous applause from the audience as he walked out from the stage.

After that, another presenter wearing the badge of Crimson Industries came on stage.

"All reporters with the official permit should assemble at the special seats preserved at the front of the audience for the press conference with Daizen Einosuke, while the rest of the people present should exit the hall immediately," he said, and it was so.

All the fans got up to leave, except the few journalists who were elected for the press conference. Kazuya and Neji stood up to leave, but they noticed their female friend wasn't coming with them.

"Are you coming or what?" asked Neji, but Erika refused to listen, still pretending like he didn't exist.

"Come on, Erika! "Are you still mad at me for teasing you earlier?" asked Neji, but again, she continued to ignore him. It was childish, yet annoying to Neji.

Then Kazuya asked the same question, and Erika answered in a heartbeat, "I am one of the selected journalists for the press conference," she said, bringing out her special ID for reference.

"Whoa," Kazuya reacted, "how were you able to get your hands on one of those?" I hear one of them is so expensive that it mostly takes an entire news organization to pay for one reporter to represent them due to its heavy pricing. "Now I don't mean to be rudely presumptuous, but how are you able to afford it?"

"I couldn't afford it. "It was given to me," she replied. 

"By who?" asked Kazuya. 

"By the organizers of this event. I won the little raffle last week. "That was the main driving force leading to my being here," she told him. 

"Now that makes a lot more sense to me than the reason you gave earlier." "Now I can see why Neji chose to tease you on this," Kazuya replied, "Thanks for elaborating on that."

Neji widened his eyes, "Wait a minute, are you joking? I ask you two questions and you pretend like I don't exist, then Kazuya repeats the same question and you give him a full explanation?" Neji asked, "You get pissed off on very little things, don't you?"

Erika kept giving him the silent treatment until Neji gave up and said, "Alright, Kazuya." Let's get going. "There are a couple of other events we planned to attend, remember?"

"Okay, Erika. Take care," Kazuya said to her, "and let me know when you're ready to go, alright?"

"What are you, her boyfriend?" Neji asked. "Let's get going."

Then Kazuya turned to leave with Neji, saying, "Alright, man." "Where are we going next?" he asked as they exited the hall along with the rest of those who weren't elected for the special press conference.

Meanwhile, Erika remained in the hall. She stood up to take one of the special seats reserved for the journalists in the front rows.

She realized that every seat had the name of a journalist imprinted on it, and she was impressed by it, even though she shouldn't have been. I mean, that was part of what made the tickets so expensive to begin with.

After almost a minute of searching, she finally found the one seat reserved for her. Seeing her name well imprinted on the fabric of the seat made her so proud that she felt like taking a selfie with it. 

But she did not want to stand out too much, as many of the other journalists, bloggers, and reporters took it as normal, being neither impressed nor disappointed by what they saw.

About three minutes later, all but a select few had sat down, ready for the press conference. There were about thirty people selected for this smaller event, and they were all dressed professionally. 

Of course, Erika did not dress casually, but she wished she had worn something a lot more formal for this so she wouldn't have stood out the way she did. 

Part of her hoped something wouldn't come up that would make her stand up to give a vital question or contribution or that she wouldn't be filmed when making a statement, as the last thing she wanted was to be the odd one out on camera. But deep down, she knew that it was inevitable; it was her job to be important in situations like this; that was how the industry thrived. 

Then, without formal pleasantries from a presenter, the CEO himself walked before them, taking a specially reserved seat before them, ready to give his statement. There was no applause given, nor was any expected from him, as he was aware that there were no fans of the products advertised sitting before him—just reporters, bloggers, and journalists who were after facts and not thrills. 

But Erika was almost thrilled to see the CEO in person. He was well put together and could be the dream of any woman as a soul mate, regardless of the little grey hairs invading the perfect black locks on his head and his clean-cut beards. He was a middle-aged man at his peak. 

Right beside him but slightly behind was the young presenter who started the earlier event, and right in front of him was a transparent glass box containing various cards with secret numbers hidden in them, one for each attendant. 

"Thank you all for attending this meeting. I hope you all will have a great time as I tell you everything I can about the products I have advertised. But keep in mind that I have the right to decline to answer some of your questions, just as I have the right to walk you out if you do not comply with the rules stated on the tickets and the back of your I.D. 

You should all know the rules by now: I will answer 10 questions at random by having my assistant pick up cards contained in this box, after which I will choose to answer a few more questions from those whom I select. 

I will be answering questions based solely on the products advertised and not on other aspects of my company's activities. I hope I have made myself clear on that. So without further ado, let's get started.

Then the younger presenter standing beside him picked up the first card at random out of a transparent box of cards. 

"Number 17," he announced, and the reporter bearing that number stood up promptly. 

"Good morning, I'm Ino Masashi from Nihon News Network. My question is, "Concerning the Scarlett Online virtual game, what sort of technologies would you be utilizing to make it more immersive than any other experience the competition has offered recently?"

"Excellent question, Masashi-san," Daizen replied politely, "though the specifications were slated to be released on our official website later today, I guess I could make an exception by giving the information now."

Then he went further to explain. 

"We will be partnering with the haptic immersion company, Shockwave, to bring the best feeling of a virtual reality game to the homes of our customers." Through the technology, the players will be able to feel every aspect of the game as they play it, from the digital weather to the digital sounds coming from all directions to the textures of digital items. "The player will be able to interact with all digital matter in the game to ensure that they have the most immersive experience the competition would never stand a chance against."

"Thank you," the reporter said as she sat back. 

While the journalist was satisfied with the answer she got, Erika became concerned. She had heard of cases of people who had gotten addicted to the previous games produced by Shockwave Enterprises getting either anemic or mentally retarded due to the continuous usage of their VR machine.

Due to the controversies in these cases, the company stopped producing hardware entirely and focused on producing software alone. But it seemed that after ten years of software production, everybody had forgotten about them, and now that the controversies had sizzled out, they would resume hardware production, but under the guise of Crimson Industries, which was in everyone's good graces due to their customer-friendly electronics and devices. 

Erika was now becoming concerned that Shockwave Enterprises was involved in the hardware production of these VR machines and consoles. She had friends who were enthusiastic about these electronics (Neji and Kazuya), and due to their tendencies to get addicted to the game during their free time, she feared the same tragic and extreme cases she heard of might apply to them. 

She needed factual and viable information on the hardware produced by Shockwave on the machine, so she would know how to warn Neji and Kazuya about it, as she deeply cared about them. 

She hoped she would have the chance to do so, as the number of free chances by raffle was limited, after which the CEO was permitted to either end the meeting immediately or answer only a few questions from selected individuals. 

Then the presenter took out another card at random, and like an answer to her prayers, the presenter announced her number. 

"Number 7," he announced. 

She took a deep breath, glad she was chosen to speak because she had a ton of questions to ask the CEO and felt like the well-being of those close to her depended on it.