Our rooms are nice!

Look at this!

High celling, a fluffy bed, a PC for browsing the net, a big TV for seeing stuff, a microwave, a minibar full of stuff, a small pantry and a private bathroom.

I won’t have much time to eat and enjoy stuff, but this is nice!

Also, this room is all mine!

There is a gym and stuff outside, and also, we are allowed to browse much of the facility, even some place with water and trees.

But I don’t care.

This room here?

Love it.

Of course, the only depressing part is…. The big, round-ish, goo-filled tube right next to my bed.

Urgh.

My first day of work begins 4 hours from now. They said the moment I enter the tube my body will start to relax and the next thing I see will be through my avatar’s eyes.

Also, it seems the only reason we will have any 4-hour breaks at all is because the fluid needs to be changed.

Sure enough, there’s a pipe down the glass tube leading to somewhere inside the wall.

Aaaah…. I have only a few hours to laze around… maybe I should take a bath…

Oh, right, my anime!

***

4:35 PM, Squeam Headquarters, Shabe Newells office.

Shabe looked through the window. A small red light began to flash on his desk, and a small bip followed suit.

- It started…

The fat man rotated on his heels and turned on the computer screen in front of him. After pressing a button on the touchscreen, his entire office got illuminated by the light of different rooms, while the window at his back blackened to block the sun.

Shabe watched every room carefully, noticing how all his new employees got the warning and began opening their workstations’ lids.

Right in front of him, a screen showed the game world in detail. Then, as soon as an employee entered the machine and logged on the game, the screen would show his game avatar instead of his room.

- Mr. Jack, please wake up and get into position.

Except for one.

Shabe opened the communication line to Jack’s room and spoke directly to him.

The man was rolled up in his bed, laying naked side by side to a bag of doritos, some cigarettes and hard liquor.

Shabe couldn’t be too picky with his employees this time. Most of them came from the streets or ghettos. People desperate enough to sell 20 hours of their daily lives and become corporate slaves.

Even if their master was complacent.

[- Ah, sorry! I will be there right now boss!]

The man called Jack woke up in a hurry.

- He doesn’t seem to be drunk… so why is he having a hard time with the workstation? Game mod, to Dragon Kings’ room, please.

Soon, a man dressed on an office workers’ attire moved from his desk at the developing room and went to Jacks’ room.

Shabe took some time to look around the other screens, a big smile showing on his face.

Everywhere the surprised faces of his employees could be seen.

They looked at everything, amazed and amused. That was to be expected, after all. This was Another World Project. They could feel the grass, taste the air, smell their own bodily odor, see high-fantasy like structures and hear sounds never before heard by human ears.

Those new bodies weren’t just for show. The employees weren’t in a regular VR experience, limited to how human brains worked!

No.

Their game avatars were like flesh and blood whole new bodies, with brains, nerves and other things which no human could even phantom experience. Until now, that is.

Shabe reclined on his chair, happily appreciating the looks on the many faces around him.

Jack, the Dragon King, seemed to finally have logged in, but that didn’t matter that much.

No matter how undertone and plain his reactions were in face of everyone elses’, Shabe was more than amused.

He pressed a button on his table.

- It seems to be a success.

- That is great, sir. - Samanta’s voice came from the small speaker in front of that button.

- Care to join me for a drink?

The Squeam boss’ office didn’t have a minibar. It was mostly unfurnished besides his desk, fluffy carped and many screens.

But the entire floor was exclusively his, so there were plenty of places he could take Samanta to.

Raising from the million-dollars chair he owned, Shabe put his blazer on his shoulders and walked out of the Office.

Who could guess that a man like him, always wearing loose clothing and a big smile, was the kind to believe on wearing suits even when alone in the office?

But he was.