Name: Ozzy Title: none Mixed race Human 96% Heritage Bonus: +3 STR, +1 CON Class: Contract Worker Specialty: Butcher/Slaughterer Primary Skills: Secondary Skills Tertiary Skills: Contract Worker Sleepless in Seattle Slaughter Tastes like Chicken Hack Flesh Endure VI Chop Bone Haul III Dig II Push Onward

Ozzy stared at his character that he'd be playing for the next five years. It was utterly devoid of adventuring skills and was not a role that promised much enjoyment. Working in a VR slaughterhouse? He wondered if Rolly could show him how you turn off smell in the options.

Vern had mentioned they'd be starting at the bottom and building things up, but he hadn't quite expected things to be this primitive.

Well, he'd started other games in worse positions. At least he had a job. And he'd been able to once again leave the real world behind...

================================================================

Getting ready for the move from their habitat to the workers' dormitory for their new jobs hadn't been difficult. You didn't own much if you were one of the couple billion people living in a Habitat Building Block, (Hab block as everyone called them). Each Hab Block was a mile square building that reached up 50 stories and downwards anothr 100.

The designers claimed that there was space inside for a quarter million people to work, go to school, shop, and enjoy recreation. Maybe the first one had been set up that way, but not the thousands erected around the world after that. Jobs were scarce and if you lived in a Hab Block you probably didn't have one. So fill the office and work space with more people. Schools can be left out too, and just shift every kid to online learning from his home. Room for more people. Eventually each Hab Block held over a million people. You might be born and never leave your Hab.

Ozzy and many of his friends were a bit better off. A job in a VR game was still a job. As long as they had jobs, living in a Hab Block was a bit more bearable. Ozzy's 600 square foot apartment was meant for a family of 3-5. His video hook up worked, and water came out of the tap. He even had his own bathroom.

Ozzy, Suezette, Rolly, and Ben all had rooms on the same floor and section of their Hab. They'd been friends for a couple of decades and watched out for each other. They work 6 floors below in a large warehouse area that housed the MK 2 gaming pods that they used to work online in EOQ3.

Working in VR, and living in a Hab mean't you didn't own much. It was easy to get ready to move to the location ACME wanted them at. Most of their few possessions they sold or gave to neighbors. There was no need to even throw anything out as their tiny living spaces would be swept clean by scavengers within an hour of them walking out the doors.

A moving crate was sent to each of them by their new employer and the sum total of their worldly possessions were packed into two-foot square, plastic cubes and shipped off to storage near their dormitory. Ozwald had a modest kitchen with some pots and spices that he kept. Suzette packed away an assortment of fancy gowns and exotic clothing she had made over the years. Copies of what she wore online.

Benedict impressed the others with his collection of replica, leather-bound Louis L'amour western hardbacks and an extensive library of historical novels stored on several bubble drives. Rolly kept just one item: a wall-mounted moose head; actually real and quite moth eaten. It needed the services of a taxidermist, or possibly an undertaker. The large horns had fallen off the head, which at least made it possible to fit it into his crate. The crates were sealed and stuffed down the pneumatic mail chute. They'd arrive at the dormitory long before them.

Each person had the clothes on their backs and two small bags. They made their way to the local mag-lev station with no problems. Normally they'd have attracted people interested in relieving them of their bags and money. But Ozwald had solved that problem by hiring a half dozen large young men from his habitat to escort them to the station. Better to pay for protection than to risk an unfortunate accident. Fares paid, they joined hundreds of others standing in the mag-lev cars and were whisked away to their future home.

This turned out to be a large collection of buildings surrounded by a high fence topped with barbed wire. Observation towers were spaced along the walls, each bearing the ACME logo. At one time this had been a federal prison. Empty and abandoned since the collapse of most government programs, the ACME corporation had bought the land, moved out the squatters (or hired them) and turned the prison into a center to house its VR workers. The walls and wire that used to keep prisoners inside now functioned to keep anyone but ACME employees outside. The mag-lev station was twenty yards from the front gates of their new home. Officially named the ACME CENTER FOR PROGRESS AND INDUSTRY, it was referred to by all as 'The Jailhouse.'

The obligatory tour of the facilities by a bored employee quickly showed the 625 new arrivals the locations of the dormitories, the medical station, corporate offices, recreation hall, and cafeteria. Each employee had a 'cell' in the dormitories with a bed and a computer workstation on a small desk. The other half of the room was taken up by a shiny, black MK7 pod. Gone were the bars on the front of the cells; they were replaced with a plastic wall and door.

For the people living in the Habitat Blocks these accomodations were actually an upgrade. Few of them had a private bedroom in the Habs. Usually a family of 2-5 got one 600 square foot room. A family of sixor bigger was assigned two rooms. Unless you could pay to get better, you didn't get better.

Instead of a FoodChute bringing food to your room, the jailhouse had an actual cafeteria that boasted several types of synthetic meals. A huge upgrade in living. This one served meals all hours of the day. In the habs you stood by the FoodChute at 6am, noon, and 6pm and hoped food came out.

They arrived at their last stop on the tour. Six hundred and twenty five people took their seats on the hard metal benches and within a minute, two dozen people walked onto the small stage that had been placed at the front of the room.

The first person up was familiar to Ozzy. Billy Horvacs had a winning smile and eyes that said, "Trust me, I'm here to help." This had made him a highly successful recruiter of new employees; and occasionally helped him get three steps towards the door when one of his wives decided she'd rather be an ex-wife - or possibly a widow.

"Welcome friends. Glad to see how many of you made the right decision. It thrills me to see each of you here because you trusted in me, or another ACME manager, and trusted in ACME Corporation." This was actually the truth, since each person here meant a bonus for Billy. He was VERY happy to see all 625 of them.

"For some of you, I'll be staying on here at the Jailhouse as your employee liaison. Other groups will have one of these fine managers you see here on the stage with me. We'll get you settled in tonight, make sure you sync up nicely with your pods, and get you online. I know you're itching to see where you'll be working. And don't worry, we'll be available to you in-game as well. If you have a problem it means we have a problem. We'll get things fixed for you, trust me on that."

"Now let me turn over the podium to one of our supervisors. Mr. Throckmeyer is in charge of all Contract Workers who will represent the ACME Corporation inside of Genesis Engine." A heavy-set man approached the podium. A few people nervously clapped; most simply watched, hoping to get some info about what their online roles would be.

Vernon Throckmeyer adjusted the old fashioned microphone, scowling. Talking to the hired help really wasn't his preference. "Right. Let's get this over with. I'll be honest with you and tell you that I'm not happy. Neither is the ACME Board of Directors. And I doubt you'll be happy either. But we're in this together so let's put aside any complaints until we can get online and fix these little problems."

"We assumed this game would be starting out like the EQO 1-3 did. In those games, Corporations and Guilds could buy virtual land and buildings and be doing business immediately - not the case with Genesis Engine. We don't have access to large cities, and beyond the Empires capitol and the four Ducal strongholds, we're not sure if their even are any.

There's nothing but a small rustic villages in the areas assigned to us. They double as our entry point and a starting area for players. Right now, ACME's head office is a small hut that used to house goats. We put our logo on the door and hired the goats."

"While we hired you for your expertise as entertainers and household staff, we aren't using you in the roles at first. We've got no need for a Castellan if we don't have a castle. We don't need secretaries without offices. And we don't need actors if we don't have a stage. We need hard manual labor - builders, ditch diggers, masons and bakers."

"But there's a silver lining to all of this. The other Corps and Guilds have it just as bad. Worse even, because they don't have the knowledge and drive of ACME Corporation. We'll get ahead and stay ahead, claim the land, and build the cities.

And we won't forget those people who had to work their fingers to the bone to make it happen!"

"So don't worry if your character seems a bit limited in skills. This is because we need you focused on your job and getting better at it. We've moved things around a bit. Pruned some things you could do so we could give you special abilities that even the players don't have. Speaking of which, let's let Billy back up here to tell you about some of those special abilities. I should get back to work sorting out this mess. They're all yours, Billy."

"Thank you, Mr. Throckmeyer, always great to work with you."

"Allright folks, take out your pads and look at your character sheet - top left icon. This is pretty basic, you'll get more detailed information when we get online. I just want to go over the changes and special stuff."

"The game normally lets a character swap some skills for special perks. As part of your contract, which I know you all read, ACME corporation has the authority to make those changes for you. You won't have to mess with your character at all. We've done all the work!

"The first change is we swapped out all of your Primary abilities for Contract Worker. It's a place holder skill that essentially moves some of your Primaries down to Tertiary and swaps others for special abilities. Let's go over those. All contract workers get the following:

"Sleepless in Seattle is a perk that essentially counts each hour of sleep as two. So you should only need about 3 hours of sleep a night - more time to finish your work, or more recreation time to unwind."

"Endure is a stamina buff. Each of you will start with a much larger amount of stamina than a Player. Your base stamina and any bonuses from your stats gets multiplied by a factor of three. You won't be nearly so tired at the end of the day and can work longer hours to make more bucks."

"Push onward is also sort of stamina related. It's a boost to your stamina or other stat that lets you keep going when you run low. Be careful, as it will burn down your health in the place of your stamina if you run out. You'll hurt the next day, but you'll be able to finish the job."

"Dig II and Haul III are pretty explanatory. We need a lot of manual labor done. These skills will enhance your physical ability to pick up and move anything and to dig and shape the landscape."

"Finally, my favorite! Tastes like chicken! The food isn't going to be that great at first. We won't have tasty synthetics - and you can only eat so much boiled grain and vegetables before you'll be going crazy. This skill is awesome. It took a lot to get it designed and implemented, but it's worth it. Basically any food you are eating can be turned into chicken. Isn't that great? Who doesn't like chicken?!

A few grumbles were heard. Ozzy had the foresight to place his hands over Rolly's mouth to muffle his scream. Rolly had never been a big fan of chicken.

As Billy finished with his lecture, Benedict stood up and asked a question. "Mr. Horvacs, perhaps you can fill us in on things. Why are the developers starting things out this way? I'd expect that surely with the clout that many of the corporations have, especially ACME, that the developers would take your advice."

"Ah, Benedict! Loved you in "The Haunting of Halcyon-7," - great show. I'll level with you Benedict, we tried. And I mean tried hard. The biggest 37 corporations in the world brought an immense amount of pressure to bear. We were joined by the top streaming guilds for EQO3.

But the developer is immune to pressure; doesn't want or need our money ; can't be threatened or bribed or talked into any changes. I was part of the team, and trust me, we got nowhere at all. The developer has a vision of what he wants this world to be, and he isn't budging."

"Developer? As in a single person? I don't mean to doubt you, but doesn't that seems unlikely sir."

"Not when you know who it is Ben. And it's not like it's much of a secret anymore."

"The game and the world are totally being created and run by WALLY."