I’m excited!

I’m excited as hell!

[ - MOM, I GOT IT!]

- What… who’s speaking…

[ - IT’S ME MOM, IT’S JACK!]

- Oh…. What do you want son?

[ - I GOT IT MOM! I GOT A JOB!]

…

She hung up.

Did she think it was a prank call or something?

[- Mom, why did you…]

- I don’t know who you are, but if you think you will screw me, DREAM ON!

…

She hung up again.

Don’t mater. I have to tell her! I have to tell Elicia!

[- BABE, I GOT IT!]

- What… Jack? Where are you ? Your mom didn’t receive your monthly call for cash, so she’s beginning to feel worried..

[- NO, ELICIA, I GOT IT! I GOT A JOB!]

…

She hung up as well.

Hell woman, if you didn’t think I could do it why did you expelled me from home?!

Your home, that is.

***

In the end, mother and Elicia only believed me when I almost rubbed the work contract over their faces.

Then, they became ecstatic and mother started to hyperventilate. Things turned up to the better, no matter what.

So, here I am.

Day 1 at the job.

Must I say, this is one heck of a building…

Squeam Headquarters was the largest entertainment industrial complex in the whole world. With a massive city-sized headquarters in its native city, Z city, its tax revenue alone was responsible for over 30% of the country’s income from taxes.

In fact, no entertainment business in the world went untouched by the Squeam corporation. From independent movies to paintings and games, all had at least a couple of Squeam tentacles messing around.

So, it wasn’t surprising that Jack found himself humbled in front of the 200 store building standing in the center of the thousand square kilometers small city that the compound represented.

- Wow.

Elicia, by his side, was quite surprised as well.

- I didn’t thought they stocked rooms so high.

Sasha, his mother, couldn’t lose the sign of her son going to work at the first time.

Rather, she was there mostly to make sure he wouldn’t run away.

[- Well, of I go. By mom, by babe.]

- By honey.

- Until later Jack. Don’t you dare to come back before your first week is done, okay ?

Aaaah… why do I have this feeling that mother doesn’t care about this as much she should?

But Elicia is still my beloved babe in the end. Not only did she accepted to get back again, she even called her job saying she was sick, just so she can be here as well.

[- Babe, if they give me some extra free time I will come and visit you, how about it?]

- Use all of your time to work hon.

Whaaa… but…

- Seriously now. I won’t have you back on my house until you can pay rent.

The contract did specify I could get a raise in the future if I worked well, but this may take ages!

Aaah….

It’s no use.

Let’s go.

****

- Welcome, you all.

After getting in the city and asking around a bit I figured that I and the other new employees would be living and working in a huge storehouse right next to that huge skyscraper.

This is our first time here, so this huge guy in a loose suit must be this places’ CEO. At least people said he always welcome the first batch of employees in new projects like this. Specially if they are going to be heavily underpaid.

I guess it’s a form of incentive or something?

- My name is Shabe Newell. I am the CEO and founder of Squeam and also your new boss. And I mean it! The New World Project is directly under my supervision, so you guys will be seeing a lot of me!

Whoa, what?

We will be working under the Big Guy himself?

Shabe is a legend in our times. He has been considered the richest and the mightiest human in existence, and some magazines even considered him the sexiest.

I remember when people thought that console gaming was still something worth speaking about. And then Shabe came through, and nothing was ever the same again.

…he’s pretty fat though.

- This day is the first of the new age of humanity! The first towards the better thing to happen to human race since god masturbated to its’ own reflex on the water and jizzed something which resembled itself!

… well, Shabe IS more famous than Jesus, so I guess some leniency is allowed. Not that I believe in god but, to talk like that about a project, is it really…

- But let me elaborate a bit. Samanta, if you may.

A middle-aged woman entered the stage. She wore a formal attire and was quite pretty. Well, not that I care. I do prefer Elicia.

- Yes sir.

The woman called Samanta sat on a notebook near the big screen behind Shabe, and then began to type something there.

The screen lit up, and I felt a tinge of a dark emotion in my heart.

May it be understood. It wasn’t a piece of white cloth with images being projected at it. It was a cinema-like pc screen. It was huge.

Guess some people just have too much money for their own good.

- Now gentlemen, THIS is Project New World.

A login screen lit up, and someone started to log in the game. However, it wasn’t the Samanta woman, since she was quietly sitting by the side.

It was someone which, for our surprise, was dressed like an MMO monster. A ratman to be more precise.

It started going around and picking wooden sticks, and then crafted a little house. Nothing impressive.

Shabe took a mic.

- Say Joe, how are things going on there?

- Everything is fine Boss! I will get over this village making soon!

It seemed like a normal player chat. Then, Shabe turned to us.

- Nothing too much, right?

Yeah….

- Just like any other MMORPG… except, this one has a small feature. And that is the fact that THIS - Shabe pointed to the screen - Isn’t a game.

Uh?

- Ladies and gentlemen, let me present you your new working station!

HOOOLY SHIIIIT

IS THAT A FUCKING CORPSE?!

No, no, he wouldn’t have killed someone and stuck it on a giant glass tube, right?

There were at least a couple hundred people on that room, but no one breathed for a few seconds.

In front of them, to the side of Shabe, stood a chair with a glass tube in it. Then, inside the tube, rested someone’s body.

The weird part though, is that this person was submersed on a weird green-ish liquid, while small wire-like things connected all through its body… and breathing that weird liquid all the time!

Shouldn’t humans breathe only air?

There were medical sensors connected to it as well, so we could see that it was alive, but…

- This is the next step humanity will take. This… is the Another World Project.

I’m confused.

- Well, now, to explain this thing. Another World Project began once we decided to put more into our Virtual Reality projects. It isn’t rare for people to use all-immersive VR tech on our days, but it surely is very expensive.

Yeah, sure it fucking is!

An immersion VR ball is basically a huge rubber-like ball inside a gyroscope. The thing has sensors and wires all around, and it can mimic tact by touching the player’s body with its internal substance.

But it costs a huge clusterfuck of money!

- However, what could we do to go beyond that? To get to next stage? Neural implants are a big no, since they are too risky. Well, neurostimulation tech was the answer, but… What if we went one step further?

Neurostimulation… does he means those weird lights, sounds and wires one puts on their heads so they feel things?

A friend of mine used it to mimic drugs. It was called NeuroDrug or something. It’s pretty expensive as well, though.

Besides, it almost fried his brain after a while…

- So, we went deeper. We went beyond the brain. And the result, gentlemen, is that we found the Mind.

Aaah… what a boring thing…

- You see, the Mind isn’t the brain. It’s something else, and….

Shabe looks very excited, but I’m just bored…

Is there something good on youtube? Maybe on Instagram…

- So, that’s the gist of it. Any questions?

Ah, the explanation is over.

Finally.

- Yes, sir. You said the players will be connecting from a simpler mechanism, so why do we need to use these workstations?

- Well, the players won’t have access to all functionalities you will have, so...

… Hey, why is Elicia liking that Yrene girls’ posts? Didn’t they had a fight on the other day… well, I guess they made up somehow…

- So, that’s it folks. I hope you all have a nice time, and if you ever find yourselves in a pickle, just look for one of our Game Mods. They are aware of anything you need to know.

Righ, right, you are paying us to play a game, right?

Arhh… I wanna sleep.

Oh, he’s going away.

- Now, as I call your name, please go towards the right door. If I don’t call it, please wait a bit, since I have something important to talk to some of you in private.

…

I haven’t been called.