Pre-Selection

Jake looks over at Sarah who is wincing and gives her a smirk. "The ringing will go away, it's just a precaution because you never know who might be listening in."

Sarah glares at Jake while ringing her finger in her ears. "What the hell Jake, you could have given me a heads up before turning it on. It's not like I don't know you have this program."

Jake shakes his head and laughs, "You know sometimes I feel like you are smart and beautiful and then you make a comment like that, and I wonder if all your brain development went into your chest development instead. If I told you I was turning on a program and people were listening and then it turned to static don't you think that would raise flags?"

"Hey asshole, don't you think if the people who are listening in on you all of the sudden hear static regardless of if I said anything or not, it would raise flags?" Sarah growls in response. "Also, leave the girls out of it."

"Listen I'm not going to argue over the fact that flags may be raised regardless of the people hearing static. All I'm saying is one scenario can be a bug losing connectivity and the other is essentially going to the bug and saying 'Hey, going to have a secret convo really quick so here is some static noise to listen to as we plot away muhaha'. Do you get the difference now? We're getting off track anyway. You want a pre-selection spot in Sanctuary Annihilation?" Jake looks at Sarah with a serious expression on his face.

"You do realize how these FIVR games work right? You're on the board so you must know. If you get selected and play it's not some plug-and-play system where you turn it off when you're bored and want to do something else like eat, go outside, or go to work. You'll be hooked up to the dive system and be hooked up to a life support system and play 24 hours a day. The game isn't over until someone clears the game. Sanctuary Annihilation is going to be one of the longest-running FIVR games in existence. You're on the board of directors for Firestorm. That is not something to take lightly and throw away for a FIVR experience."

Sarah bites her bottom lip while listening to Jake speak. "I know what getting selected for a FIVR game entails. This game feels different. Like you have a dream of developing an all-inclusive A.I., I want to experience what a completely different world would be like. Sanctuary Annihilation is something lore junkies like me can only dream about. I don't want to be on the outside watching in as these new streamers experience this game.

I watched every single streamer's 10-hour beta test. Even though they weren't doing the full dive and were only controlling avatars via mouse and keyboard, the immersion was so realistic. "

Jake is at a loss for words as he listens to Sarah go on about the different player and NPC interactions that she witnessed. As head of the Lore department, it is Sarah's team's responsibility to develop quest ideas and enter them into the game A.I. Once they are entered into the game A.I., the system automatically sets up the flags that trigger a Player receiving a quest. These quests can be typical like gathering herbs, killing a certain number of monsters, delivering items, or as detailed as a main quest chain line.

"Basically, the A.I. for Sanctuary Annihilation is so advanced that we stopped putting in quest ideas into the system and instead of no more quest creation for the beta, the quests continued to be created and developed." Sarah breathes heavily as she finishes explaining her findings to Jake.

"That's why I came to you to ask for a pre-selection spot. I also wanted to thank you for developing such an immersive world. Who would have thought that you did nothing and all of it was served up to you on a silver platter?"

Jake closes his eyes and takes a deep breath before opening them and looking Sarah into her eyes as he says, "That is the main reason why I am seriously asking you if you want to get into this game. I've read too many novels where situations like this happen, and it turns out to be some type of conspiracy that is deep and diabolical and taking advantage of a corporation's greed for money to get the "game" to be developed. Too many events for this game do not add up and I've been hacking into our "fearless leader's" accounts to try to find the missing connection and who this "friend" is."

"Go on, don't leave me in suspense. What did you find out?" Sarah asks.

"Nothing... I couldn't find any trace of this mysterious 'friend'. It's almost like our 'fearless leader' is making the entire persona up. The only reason why I don't believe that is because there is no way he has the capability or the skills to develop anything like Sanctuary Annihilation. All these notes are from me digging with nothing to show for it." Jake leans back in his chair and sighs in defeat.

The room is quiet as Jake and Sarah sit there pondering who could be the creator of the A.I. Suddenly a loud knock on the door causes both to jump. Jake quickly turns off the program and walks over to the door to open it.

As he opens the door, he sees a young man in his early 20's panting with a slip of folded paper in his hand. "Boss! The pre-selection went live, and you won't believe the number of applicants that have applied already. It's only been 15 minutes and it's over 9000!"

Sarah bursts into laughter. "Sean, did you seriously use that quote? Were you even alive when that meme was relevant and know where it originated?"

"The classics are always in style" Sean grins over at Sarah and his eyes slip to her chest as he watches them bounce with Sarah's laughter.

Jake notices the eye slip and facepalms while holding out his hand. "Sean, give me the report. Exactly how bad is it?"

Sean's smile leaves his face and starts to explain the report. "The number of attacks to the pre-selection website is huge. We have all hands on deck combating the waves of would-be hackers. Though with your defenses in place we could not do anything and still be fine. Your code is impenetrable."

"Okay, get back to everyone and let them know I'll be out in a few minutes to oversee everything. I'm finishing up with Ms. Cuthbert now." Jake dismisses Sean and closes the door again.

"The bootlicking skills with that one is pretty good 'Mr. Impenetrable code'," Sarah smirks.

"That's what happens when you're the best in the business. My team loves me. You should be like me more." Jake jokes as he walks back to his computer.

Jake quickly turns the program on again and turns to Sarah. "When the pre-selection phase is at the lottery portion, I can get you a spot. I will be joining Sanctuary Annihilation too so we can work together while inside. The lottery portion is not going to be polling until next month so think carefully about whether you are serious about this and if so, get your affairs in order."

"All of your warnings and you already were planning on getting yourself a spot? Pot meet kettle. I won't be changing my mind, don't worry. I need to get back to my department. I'll come to grab you for dinner to make sure you leave tonight. Those trash hackers won't be able to get in so don't use work as an excuse to stay." Sarah starts to leave the office. "I'll see you later! Bye!" she says in a sing-song voice while waving out the door.

Jake turns the program off on his computer and sits at his desk with his hands steepled. 'I hope I'm being paranoid from reading all these novels and I can figure out these answers and it isn't anything sinister.'.

Jake unfolds the report in his hands to see how bad the situation is with the attacks and chokes. The report is a drawn stick figure with big circles drawn on it for boobs with the words "Thanks for bringing eye candy boss" underneath.

"This guy is a walking HR case" Jake mutters as he walks out of the office to check on his team.