The meeting

After my response to their email, they did not take more than 5 hours to respond to me. The conditions were easy; they would pay me for a plane ticket for Thursday to Iceland, where their offices seemed to be, and the rest of the work issues would be discussed there. Expenses paid, a trip to Iceland... well, if I wasn't interested in it, in the end it wasn't a bad holiday...

The trip was complicated, accompanied by some clumsiness and a bit of bad luck. I got confused at the boarding gate on the first stop of my trip, Seville. Luckily, another plane to Madrid left shortly after, and I had to pay for a new ticket at a bargain price. To make matters worse, I lost my suitcases upon arrival, and I wasted my time filing the claim.

By the time I got to the gate for my flight to Iceland, it was about to close. The flight was turbulent and made me arrive tired and with a bad body feeling; however, at the airport itself, a driver and a black car were waiting for me. The pick-up was quick, although I was able to see that twenty other people were picked up from my same plane and taken to separate black cars.

A 2-hour drive later through the countryside of Iceland took us to a fenced facility; it was nothing suspicious or military, but rather a private, business premises, you could say, with a 9-story building, wider than it was tall, with a garden. And there was huge parking, with several black cars already parked.

They took me to the lobby, where a receptionist, with a Spanish accent that left a little to be desired, took me to an office on the third floor. A normal office, computers, workers, and a certain freak atmosphere typical of a video game company...

On the other side of the office table there was a woman, a strange beauty, blonde, pale, thin, delicate, a constitution typical of these Nordic countries, but who gave off a strange, palpable cold aura... She was wearing a gray suit, with a thin silk shirt underneath, which showed the white skin of her neck, but without being able to think that it was provocative.

"Mr. Lion, I suppose?" She said, extending a hand politely towards me. She look at me with her blue eyes.

"Call me Robert; Lion is just my online name." I smiled, shaking her hand.

"I'm Nasha Mintsk, recruitment manager for Athair Games & Projects. Nice to meet you, Robert."

Although her Spanish still sounded like a foreigner from the Costa del Sol, I couldn't say it was bad at all.

"I thank you for your presence here and I hope that our deal is fruitful for both parties. So as not to waste your time, I will tell you about our project" Good impression... no, I just had a pretty, Nordic, blonde woman talking to me politely; to say a good first impression would be an understatement.

The conversation lasted almost more than three hours, so I will give you a summary. The company had developed a device to transfer the player's consciousness to an online server, although with limitations. The assimilation rate with the avatar is currently 95%. The device, unlike what appeared in many mangas and comics, was not a helmet, nor did they stick an iron to your brain; the surgical intervention was only to install some electrodes and sensors, some superficial-level pathways, an interface to connect to the sensory deprivation tank, and a small subcutaneous microchip in the temple... All removable with minimal intervention, all secure...

The problem was that once the test started, I couldn't disconnect until it was over or my character died. Meanwhile, I would have intravenous feeding and electrostimulation to avoid the problems of spending 3 months without moving.

This raised a lot of doubts in me, since I didn't see why a game required always being connected. From the explanations she gave me, it seems that the key to why this company was succeeding where others were lost is because instead of trying to make a connection with an awakened mind, which was dangerous, it also generated many problems due to the duplicity of the perceptions.

Furthermore, inducing a state of coma or sleep on a daily basis would be dangerous for the body; this required a specialized medical care team.

The company's business plan seemed more focused on offering "a vacation in a fantasy world" than the traditional business; it was strange, because this would make it exclusive, expensive, and only affordable by people with a lot of money. It was not a conventional business model.

The salary would be 50,000, calculated proportionally to the time spent in the game; however, the participation bonus was another 50,000 just for starting the project as compensation for the small medical interventions, and in the case of finishing the entire period without dying in the game, it would be another 50,000 euros.

The amount was succulent, and in addition, there were several insurances in case something failed (not in the game or with the device, they are sure that will not fail) but in case of any catastrophe occurred in the facilities. We were in Iceland and it was already known that it was an island with recurring problems of volcanic eruptions... We even checked a map to verify that the volcanoes were quite far from the facilities.

The game was a typical magic and sword RPG, although with the characteristic of permanent death, and the fact of not following the scheme of pre-established classes but of skill growth. It had its level and experience system, although no matter how much I insisted, I didn't get many more details; they said it was part of the experience to discover it.

From what they had told me, the time in virtual reality would be in proportion 1/12, so that one month in Real Life would be equivalent to twelve months in the game; the period in the game would be a total of 36 months, not counting the time in which the tutorial would be cleared, since it would not really start until the 2000 participants cleared it...

The idea of living three years in a parallel world without being able to leave was not pleasant either, but it is true that as an adventure, it was unique... I was not stupid, so we went back to review all the medical insurance and all the conditions.

But with all this, why did they need a cheater? I didn't have any skills in combat, neither in real life nor in games; why did they want to hire me? I thought to myself.

"Excuse me, but there is something I don't understand. Why do you need a cheater in a game in which real control is going to be 95%? Isn't it perhaps more my nemesis?" I asked not so much to doubt myself as to try to understand the situation.

"Don't worry, Robert, the entire council of Athair Company asked themselves these same questions; however, if the game has to be as realistic as possible and then normal people are going to play it, isn't real life full of cheaters? Does only merit win? And skills in real life? Or isn't the ability to cheat a skill in itself? Furthermore, what interests us most is your point of view on the game around the corner; we could say that we want to know what possibilities it has for surviving a normal person in that environment." The argument didn't sound improvised, but like a logical answer that she already knew she would have to tell me.

There are times when you have to test the waters to avoid losing opportunities...

"Forgive me, Mrs. Mintsk, but if you want a detailed report, I think..." I know that she understands exactly what I'm trying to say...

"I understand, Robert, that a report has its own value in addition to your time in the game."

"So I thought..." I started...

"Would an additional bonus of another $50,000 solve your doubts?" She interrupted me...

I told you that I'm not a greedy man, simplicity, commodity, or taking things easy. This is my way of life, but this salary can make my family happy and Will make things easier in the future for me.

With so many secrets and so much incongruity, I was curious, and what did I have to lose? And if I lasted the three months, couldn't I buy my mother a beach apartment sooner than I planned? So I signed without thinking much more, and about what I would do in the game, well, I would see how I approached it when I arrived...

And most importantly, the game tutorial would begin in just three days... That was too hasty—one more mystery about this strange project.

"My mother is not going to like this." I said to myself,

"What were you saying, Robert?".