Chapter 26: Downfall of the Champions.

Mr. Smith falls deep in thoughts while he strokes his chin. A while later he looks again at Jasmine and says, “Jasmine, please bring me the schedule for the first class national tournaments hosted by us.”

“Right away.” Jasmine says and leaves the office once again.

“So…” I say, staring at Mr. Smith. I have no idea what’s going on and what was that about a professional gaming team. I stare at Ana and she is as lost as I am.

“Oh right, right, excuse my impoliteness, let me explain you.” Mr. Smith says, sips the water in front of him and then continues, “There’s a big contest 7 months from now, a contest between VR developers, but the entry event of the contest will be a VR tournament, and for this tournament the chosen game is Shooting Range. Almost all famous gamers have contracts with our competition because we didn’t have policies to make contract with gamers until recently, but we cannot be the laughingstock of the event because Shooting Range is our own game.”

“We successfully formed the first team paying a hefty price because our late start, but the second team needs one more member and it has to be carefully picked, I saw you the Friday and after noticing that you are a natural user I definitely thought that you should be appropriate.”

‘Natural user?’ I scratch my head and think inwardly. “But… Mr. Smith, although what you say sounds very enticing and seems like the dream of every gamer, I’m just average and I’m just a student at Tidem, I just played at that tournament by chance.” I say trying not to be rude. “Also I don’t get what do you refer when you say that I’m a natural user, are you talking about the deep dive mode by any chance?”

“Yes, natural users, deep dive, the same.” Mr. Smith says and then reclines in his chair while stroking his chin and looking at me with amiable eyes, he then leans towards the desk once again and looks directly at my eyes, “Just god knows if I’m making the right decision or not, so tell me frankly, are you interested in being part of BME as a professional gamer?”

The question surprises Ana and me. I think for a while and then I try to answer him, “Well, it would be good but…”

“No buts,” Says Mr. Smith, then he stands up and starts walking around the office, “When I started working at BME I was near your age, and only with and endless determination I could get where I am now. Although maybe I’m being stubborn because I really need that one last person, something tells me that you really fits there.” Obviously that something Mr. Smith is talking about is the fact that thanks to Marcus he won two bets against Mr. Ackerman, so he couldn’t help but feel some appreciation towards Marcus.

“Ok then I’ll gladly accept, if it doesn’t interfere with my studies and it’s profitable for me then I’ll agree.” I say after thinking for a while.

“Good, good, now we are talking about business,” Says Mr. Smith smiling, “But how profitable this will be for you, will depend on how good you are.” Mr. Smith accepts a palm device from Jasmine and then with swift movements he connects it with the huge screen. Ana and I turn to stare and then he continues with his talk, “First than all, to be qualified to even make a contract with us in order to participate in the entry event, you must enter the professional category, and as you maybe know, there are two ways.”

Mr. Smith makes a hand gesture towards Jasmine and she nods, then she walks towards the screen and starts explaining, “To enter a professional category in any 3+ stars rated game, the gaming industries has come to an agreement and set some rules. The first way is to win a first class amateur tournament, which will rank you immediately as professional.” She pauses and takes a deep breath, “The second way is through a point system, by classifying high in different tournaments you will gain some points which will eventually grant you a semiprofessional rank, with this you can enter a professional tournament and if you classify in the top 25%, you will be promoted to professional ranked player.”

“Let me guess,” I say while folding my arms, “Since the event is relatively near, the only suitable method is the first one.”

“Correct, correct!” Says Mr. Smith while sitting back in the chair, “You are indeed brilliant, as you can see there,” Mr. Smith points at the screen where there are a lot of dates and places, “The most suitable amateur tournament will be held in four months in Salty Coast City. That will be your opportunity.”

I nod and look at Ana, she seems quite pleased. I look towards Mr. Smith and I see him grinning, “It can't be this simple, right?” I ask with a bit of suspicion.

“It’s not all, it’s not all, but for the other two requirements, I think you fulfil them. The first one is that you must be either studying or have a degree, in our policies BME players must be acknowledgeable citizens, that’s something you shouldn’t have problem with from you previous words.” Mr. Smith says and then pauses waiting for my answer, after I silently nod he continues, “The last requirement is that you must be a natural user.”

I frown my brows, “This is the second time I hear you talking about natural users but I don’t get it, what’s the big deal?” I ask while trying to come with an answer myself. Although deep dive mode seems awesome and gives you more flexibility, it is extremely tiring and hard to maneuver. To be honest I prefer using the default system controls and I only use deep dive mode when there’s something I need to do that can’t be done with the default system controls.

“Could it be that you don’t know?” Mr. Smith says while stroking his chin, “I remember looking at your profile and seeing that you were away for some time from games, but I thought you at least know the answer to that question.”

Mr. Smith looks at me waiting for an answer. I look towards Ana and she seems lost. I think for a moment and then I say with a sincere tone, “Although the deep dive is helpful, I don’t understand why it is important to a gamer, you can do just fine with the system motions.”

“So you truly don’t know and you are not a natural user,” Mr. Smith says with a disappointed look, he closes his eyes, and thinks for a moment, “However, although in that fight I saw that you have the potential to be one, I sense that you are not fond of using the deep dive too much.” Mr. Smith lets out a sigh and then raises his voice, “Jasmine, could you please cancel my appointments for the next hour?”

Jasmine nods and leaves the office silently.

“Let me tell you a story, I was the lead designer of the first generation of Virtual Reality Drives and one of the main contributors to the design of the first Virtual Reality World simulations.” Mr. Smith says casually.

“!!!” My eyes widen upon hearing this. If what Mr. Smith is saying is truth, then there’s no one more acknowledgeable than him when it comes to Virtual Reality. He is not just a president that takes the decisions, he is a leader who helped to develop the Virtual Reality itself!

“We had some problems with the first generations because for most users it was really hard to use a VRD, it required a lot of concentration and only few people could withstand being there for more than a couple of hours, still we had success because the experience of a virtual reality was too tempting.” Mr. Smith explains calmly, it is obvious that he lived through all of this.

“In the second generation things improved a lot for the general public, after we added friendlier system controls which helped to reduce the mental stress up to 90%, people could play freely with little to no effort. The third and actual generation was just a huge improvement in hardware, allowing more realistic experiences. However…” Mr. Smith says and then changes the tone of his voice, “From a scientific stand point, instead of going forward, we went backwards. The first generation was closer to a real VR experience than the third generation, and you know why?”

I feel like I’m being lectured by a teacher, but since I’m a Virtual Reality Studies student, I feel really comfortable while hearing Mr. Smith, “Because allowing the system to help the user reduces the real user experience.” I answer without thinking too much.

“Correct, correct!” Mr. Smith says and seems quite pleased, “After we found this fatal flaw and we noticed that we would reach a dead end soon if we didn’t do something, five years ago the most important VR developers in the world were invited to a meeting. After this meeting we reintroduced the first generation control system to the third generation drives. That is what you call today the deep dive mode. Those who are proficient with the deep dive mode are called natural users.”

I nod silently and start to comprehend a lot of things, but at the same time I have a lot of doubts, “I get the point of the natural users being so important to the constant development of the VR industries, but from a gaming stand point, it doesn’t makes sense. Being helped by the system, reducing your stress levels, is just too helpful, a system based player has advantages over natural users.”

“Advantage you say?” Mr. Smith grins widely, “What if I tell you that natural users has advantages over normal users?”

I’m surprised a bit by his statement but then I try to prove my point from my experience, “Yes, I know that you can move more freely and all that, but…”

“Freedom of movement is just a byproduct,” Mr. Smith interrupts me, “In order to motivate the people to use deep dive mode, there is a higher upper limit to the speed and accuracy while using this mode.”

I think for a moment what Mr. Smith said. While the maximum speed in Shooting Range is 20 m/s, not everyone can achieve this speed even with the help of the system controls. The same applies for precision weapons, some people can shoot with a 90+% accuracy at a target 1000 meters far, but some people doesn’t have a 50% accuracy with targets at just 300 meters with the same weapon. “How high is that upper limit?” I ask to Mr. Smith.

“Approximately 10%” Mr. Smith says.

“Not enough,” I say while shaking my head, “Under the assumption that someone can achieve perfection in deep dive, he still have to focus hard. Someone that has achieved perfection using the system help, will have a less load of stress and will have the advantage.”

“You are underestimating something Mr. Marcus,” Jasmine says and I turn to look at her, Mr. Smith just grins, “You are not taking into account why natural users are called that way.”

I’m taken aback by Jasmine words, ‘That’s right, that name doesn’t makes sense at describing people that just use deep dive,’ I say mentally. I think for a moment and then I ask her, “Could you explain what you are talking about?”

“Hahaha,” Mr. Smith laughs loudly, “While what you said is partially truth, you are indeed underestimating the perfection. Do you think that if you achieve perfection using the deep dive mode you will be under a lot of pressure?”

“I…” At this point I don’t really know what to say, to be honest I have experienced so little the deep dive that I feel that I was just talking garbage while trying to seem cool.

“Hahaha, no need to make that expression, let me make and analogy. A boxer, in order to dominate a technique, has to repeat it countless times. They have to focus, they have to practice, they have to try it real hard to achieve what they want. After they succeed, that technique is deeply imprinted in his memories, in a real match he doesn’t have to focus, his fists react almost by instinct.” Mr. Smith says with a deep tone.

“A natural user is someone who has dominated deep dive mode and doesn’t need to focus too much to have the same capacities of a system user. Given what you told me and what I saw the Friday, I can tell that while focusing you have 80% of the capacities of a system user, and that is indeed low.” Mr. Smith says and then reclines in the chair.

I scratch my head, “I really had no idea, I just used deep dive because of the freedom… but then there are some problems. If what you say is that I have to train hard in order to be a natural user, then it can’t be done.” I let out a sigh, “Generally speaking, the level of the players at a tournament is way higher than the ones at online matchmakings, I’m not telling that I’m an awesome player, but don’t think I will be forced to use all my capacities there even if I want to, besides…”

“Speak no more,” Says Mr. Smith while interrupting me, “I didn’t think that I would use it, but I actually have the solution for that.” He says and then opens a cabinet in his desk. He produces a Digital Card and gives it to me, “If what you need is something challenging to develop yourself, this will be useful.”

“Mr. Smith, you…” Jasmine mutters while looking at the card.

“Is that really… that?” Ana speaks for the first time with a shocked expression.

“What?” I say and then I examine the card. Upon close inspection, I could see a row of words: Downfall of the Champions, prelaunch event digital card No. 957.

END OF CHAPTER 26.