It turned out that the trip to my new apartment was only a few hundred yards away from the huge building of DT’s headquarters. Like most of the buildings I had seen so far on the grounds, this one was made of dark metal and tinted windows, but in a more basic style when compared to the thirty story tower. Not to say that it was lacking in architectural design, but mostly such things are beyond me anyway and it would have to be an odd design for me to take extra notice of such things.

“Here is the apartment building. Your pers-com will allow you access at the front door and when you select your residence you can key the lock to only respond to your device and those you wish to allow access to.” Alex walked up to the main door and swiped his wrist over a small grey square to the right of the door. A little light flashed green once, then held steadily lit until he pulled the door open. Before we went inside, my friend let the door close once more and the green light went out. “Go ahead and use your pers-com to open it up and make sure the software took.”

“Yeah, probably a good idea. Would hate to have you let me in and get myself all set up only to find myself unable to access anything once you are gone.” I chuckled and moved over to the security lock and waved my wrist over the pad, pleased to find the light flash and hold again as it accepted my credentials. “So far, so good!” I pulled the door open and stepped inside with Alex following behind me.

Immediately inside the main door was a small room with a row of small cubby holes along the left wall. Ten columns of five rows, each column with a number at the top, appeared to be a nice option to put umbrellas and spare shoes among other unimportant things that I wouldn’t want to be dragging into the main building itself. Above each number was another gray pad similar to the one outside the front door which I would assume let the room owner lock the storage somehow. I didn’t try to do anything there, as I hadn’t picked a room for myself yet and assumed nothing good would happen if I tried to access them just yet.

Along the right wall sat a long bench with large potted plants at either end, giving the clean white room a pleasant splash of color. Directly across from the front doors was another door, but this one didn’t seem to have a lock and when I moved over to pull on the handle, it came open without any troubles.

“This place was finished not that long ago, but everything should be up to standards and perfectly livable. A few janitorial staff have access to the main portion of the building as well for cleaning the main areas, but they won’t be able to get into any of the rooms once they are claimed.” Alex walked around me into the hallway that extended farther into the ground floor of the complex. There was a door on either side of the hall, and he motioned to the left one first. “Through here is the gym, which everyone can access, and on the other side is the laundry room with a few sets of washers and dryers. You guys will have to arrange a schedule for doing the laundry on your own, but it shouldn’t be that big of a deal for you all.”

I shrugged, taking a peek into the gym while I spoke. “I am sure it won’t be an issue, especially if there are more than one of each.” The inside of the gym was actually quite spacious. Along the right wall sat a row of treadmills and bikes that all looked to be brand new models and never used. The center of the gym was dominated by a wide array of weight machines with free weights, dumbbells and kettlebells along the far wall. What really drew my attention though was the pair of heavy bags spaced out in the back left corner and the sparring mat in the front left corner. Shelves of padding and gear were available for use as well and the whole set up looked quite pleasing to me.

Curious about the rest of the building, I pulled my head out of the gym and let the door close behind me as Alex walked on down the hall. I followed behind him, taking note of that the gym seemed to take up a good portion of that side of the ground floor. The hallway opened up about thirty feet ahead with the right wall breaking away to a large common room area with couches and single seats in a U shape with a large AR projector centered between them all at one wall and a low table in the middle of the floor. It all seemed comfortable enough, though I doubted that we would be using this area much when it came time for the game to launch.

“This room is mainly going to be used for meetings and such when they come up. We have some plans on gathering you all up once in a while in order to go over things as this project progresses, but nothing set in stone as of yet.” Alex pointed off to an open doorway along the far wall. “Through there is the kitchen and dining room. It will be kept pretty well stocked, but you are all responsible for your own meals and such. Each apartment has a mini fridge for snacks and drinks, but we figured some human interaction would be good so we kept it as a communal area for the bulk of meals.”

A sharp ping seemed loud in the mostly empty room as a message came in over Alex’s pers-com. Holding up his wrist, I watched as my friend flicked through a few screens of messages with a severe frown forming on his face. “Son of a bitch… Sorry Dale, I am going to have to leave you here to finish the tour on your own, something has come up and I need to take care of it.”

“No problem Alex.” I shrugged as I glanced around the common area again before looking down where the hall continued on straight across from where it opened into the room. “I am pretty sure I am going to be just as busy as yourself in another week, so just remember that when I blow you off on the next lunch meeting after the game launches.” I smirked at Alex, letting him see the teasing expression as he lowered his arm once more.

Alex grinned back at me and barked a quick laugh. “Ha! Well I suppose I will just have to force you to get some fresh air once in a while and tag along to those meetings with President Willcot.” He lifted his arm and motioned toward the continuing hall. “Anyway, down there is the elevator going up to the next two floors where the rooms are. The second and third level each have five rooms of mostly the same design, so it isn’t that big of a deal which one you pick. I would suggest either room three or eight however… They are set up slightly different than the rest and I must say, eight in particular has a really great view!”

As he finished speaking, Alex waved at me and quickly made his way back to the entrance to go off wherever he was needed. I returned the gesture, letting my ears take in the heavy silence after he had left and enjoying the sensation as I hadn’t had total quiet in a very long time.

When a sharp yawn overcame me, I realized that I was actually feeling quite tired now. With the crappy sleep I had gotten over the last couple days combined with the excitement of running around today, I felt like I could sleep for a solid day once I picked my room. I could always go back to Janet’s and get my stuff tomorrow or the day after, so I wasn’t too concerned about that part just yet. She may have been a cheating bitch, but I doubted she would do anything to my belongings.

Plans for the next day set in my own head, I turned and walked down the hall towards the elevator. I should probably take Alex up on his advice and grab myself room eight before anything else. Worst case scenario I get stuck in a room only slightly different than any of the others, and that hardly seemed like a tough situation when I would be spending most of my time playing a game anyway.

The elevator doors looked normal enough as I approached and pressed the call button for the car. The smooth steel doors slid open right away to my request, the car already at this floor and awaiting passengers, and I stepped inside. Quite roomy for an elevator, the car had what I was coming to realize was normal for a DT set up with a gray pad above the touchscreen floor selections where I had to swipe my wrist to light up the floors I could access.

There was something odd though that Alex didn’t mention… In addition to the ground, second and third floors were two more selections. B1 and B2 were also displayed, although only the first basement level lit up to my pers-com which had me quite curious. I would have to ask Alex about that when I saw him again, or maybe I could ask Mr. Willcot if I saw him first.

Selecting to go up to the third floor, I noticed yet another camera in the top corner above the doors of the car and chuckled. Getting a strange impulse about the surveillance, I looked right into the camera and waved a hand, speaking out in case they had audio too. “Tell Carl I said ‘hi’ if anybody is watching!”

I chuckled and leaned back against the wall as the car started moving up into the building, then nearly jumped out of my own skin as a crisp flat voice emitted from a hidden speaker. “There is nobody currently watching this feed, Dale Sullivan, although I can pass on your message to Carl Striggan easily enough if you wish.” The male voice sounded older, and more than a little odd without any inflections to his words.

“What the actual fuck?” I was a bit creeped out, if I was being honest, and slid over to a corner opposite the camera with my eyes locked on the device. “Wait, you are watching me right now… How can you say nobody is watching this feed then?” It may have been petty of me to call him out on such a detail, but I was still trying to recover from my shock at actually getting a response to my solitude inflicted temporary insanity of talking to a camera.

“Forgive me, Dale Sullivan, on my use of terms. I say ‘nobody’ because that implies an actual living person to be involved in the act, and I do not fall under such a category. The correct term here would be, ‘something’ is watching however.” I looked all around the elevator quickly, trying to find the voice, or at least the speaker emitting said voice, but to no avail.

“So, if you are a ‘something’ instead of a ‘somebody’, what exactly are you? And how do you know my name already and what is yours?” I had an idea of what was going on now, and was slowly starting to relax as the elevator chimed to signal I had passed the second floor and the third was approaching.

“The answer to your question is easy enough to give. I am the fifth generation AI in charge of this building’s operations and the processing of the occupants’ immersion devices. My actual name is quite long and hard to remember, but my creators have given me the nickname Jensen to be used for most interactions. As to how I know your name, Dale Sullivan, I have been given a full accounting of your file and those of the other residents as they agree to join and sign the documents involved.”

That sounded plausible enough, and the monotonous voice speaking to me certainly didn’t sound human in the least made the story even more believable. It wasn’t quite a mechanical tone, but without any inflections to the words it really didn’t seem like I was talking with a person. “I see… Well Jensen, please just call me Dale if you would. Using both first and last names is kind of annoying.”

“Very well Dale. I shall endeavor to do as you have requested and processing your motives, I believe I will be doing so with the other residents when they arrive as well to try and remove any negative feelings towards me in the future. Thank you for the assistance in my relations programming.”

Yeah, that wasn’t strange or anything… The elevator dinged again, the door sliding open to reveal a hallway with two sets of doors on either side and one more door set directly across from the elevator doors at the end of the hall. “Well Jensen, nice to meet you but I am going to go and settle into my room.” I had another strange thought and spoke up while still half in the elevator. “Uhmm… You can’t hear or see into the rooms, can you?”

“I cannot access anything inside of the private dwellings without being invited to do so by the room owner, Dale. On your pers-com is an application that will allow you to contact me that will enable both a video and audio feed to me with audio recording only during the exchange. Outside of that circumstance however, there is no way for me to see or hear anything within your room except for the immersion device room. Due to the nature of the device, I will have unfettered access to that area and anything that happens in that room is under strict legal doctrines to be recorded for the sake of technical and legal review at any time.”

That seemed fair enough, really. I was getting a damn good paycheck from this on top of free room and board for the duration of the endorsement so I couldn’t truly complain over a small invasion of privacy when it came to the actual game. It was quite a relief that the rest of my room was safe from prying eyes though. “Alright, thank you Jensen. I will have a lot of questions for you soon enough if you are able to speak about the game itself at all.” I stepped fully into the hall, letting the elevator door close and looked at the room numbers. Starting at the first door on my left and proceeding in clockwise order, the rooms were numbered starting at six.

Jensen’s artificial voice followed me into the hall as he spoke up again. “I would be happy to assist you in any way I can, Dale. In whatever room you select will be an AR computer with all the information you could ask for already loaded onto it. I would suggest you start there and read up on the game before bringing many questions on the matter to me though.”

“Fair enough Jensen, thank you.” I found that I quite liked this AI. He was friendly enough and seemed like a decent program once I got past the dull voice. I would have to ask someone to alter his coding to have a more realistic voice though or it might start to get annoying. Shrugging off the thoughts for now I headed down the hallway to the door marked eight and swiped my wrist over the security pad to the right of the doorframe. An AR screen popped up over my pers-com and I pulled my arm up to see the message it revealed.

You have selected apartment room eight as your personal residence within the grounds of Dumadine Technology. If this is indeed your choice, please confirm your selection and add in a secondary number code to be used for entry in case of missing pers-com device.

What the hell, why not just go with it. I confirmed my choice and plugged in a seven digit number combination on the AR screen to complete the process before a beep of confirmation told me the changes were accepted and saved to the room itself. I tried the door and found it was still locked, so I swiped my wrist over the pad once more and a green light flashed once then held just like it did at the main entrance of the building.

Opening the door and stepping inside, I stopped to look around as the soft click of the shutting door sounded behind me. I entered the room from the front left side, which opened up ahead and to my right, taking up quite a large space. More dorm room style than apartment, the room had a large bed in the far right corner beneath a stretch of windows that ran along the length of both the back and right walls. Through the tinted windows I was able to catch a very nice view of the park areas as well as being able to see over the wall surrounding the compound and getting a good view of the rest of the city within sight.

At the foot of the bed sat a comfortable looking couch facing the wall that connected to the front door I had come in from. The section of the wall that the couch faced had an AR projector over it which would be used as a television if I wanted to. To the left of the bed ran a long and low dresser, left of that sat a mini fridge.

The left wall had two doors which lead into other sections of my apartment, but between them sat a desk with the AR computer sitting atop of it. Brand new and top of the line just like everything else in this building, the device had an AR projector that could be taken away to anywhere I wanted and used wifi to stay connected to the actual console itself. Pretty neat technology there and I had been planning on eventually buying one for myself anyway.

I tried to open the door closest to the main entry to the room but found it locked. I didn’t see any security pad to get entry here, and then remembered one of the clauses in the contract I signed stated that I wouldn’t be able to access the immersion device until I had my body scan to get synched with it. That must have been in that room and Jensen was making sure I didn’t break anything before I could even start. Smart AI… I probably wouldn’t be able to resist checking out this new technology extensively even if I wasn’t able to use it quite yet.

There was only one other door in my room that I wanted to check out, so I walked around the desk with my AR computer and opened the door closer to the back wall. That doorway lead into a spacious bathroom with a huge walk in shower that looked to be better than any I have used before. Several sprayer heads were arranged along the top rim and the thing was easily large enough to fit two or three people inside of it comfortably. A frosted glass sliding door beyond the shower itself showed part of a large soaking tub that I would probably never use, but was a nice touch in case I ever had any sore muscles from working out in the gym. The option was never frowned upon even if I only ever used it once or twice a year. The rest of the bathroom was pretty standard with a toilet, sink, medicine cabinet and a tall cabinet to the left of the sink that was stocked full of towels and robes.

All in all the apartment reminded more of a cross between hotel room and dorm room from college. Large enough to suit all of my needs, but not quite the scale of what I was used to when referring to an apartment. If I added in all the rest of the amenities though, it fit the picture well enough that I wasn’t going to complain about free housing in the least. It all came back to the point that I was going to be spending an extremely large amount of time locked up in that one room I didn’t have access to just yet anyway. The rest of this apartment was just there to make sure I was comfortable when not in the game world itself, and to that degree I was more than happy with the accommodations.

Looking around the main room once again, I thought about diving into the AR computer and start researching the game right away. Another yawn from my exhausted body said that would probably be a bad idea though, so I decided to take a nap and see where things stood once I woke up from that. Once I started reading about the game I knew I would probably be up all night, so it came down to priorities, and rest won out over curiosity for the time being.