Squeam Headquarters, xxx day of the xxx month of the xxx year. Shabe Newells office.

3 days before the meeting with the employees.

Shabe had prepared himself in advance. The damage incurred to the new employee’s mental health was huge. Even bigger than the first reports suggested.

After two weeks of therapy and psychological evaluation from the VR-Drugs team, dr.Hudderson had a pretty bad expression on his face.

- 68% of the employees have developed some degree of trauma and/or addiction with the game, while 37% of them have developed considerable addiction and/or traumas and have been given regular doses of VR-drugs in order to calm down. Some had to be sent back inside the game. 3% need intense VR-Relaxing therapy in order to not enter psychotic crisis states, 5% need anti-seizure physical medication and around 15% need physical relaxing medication in order to remain functional. Also..

As Hudderson spoke, Shabes’ face became increasingly ugly.

Still, it wasn’t from anger.

It was from sadness.

The reason for such a disastrous first try had been explained ever since the beginning. As soon as dr.Hudderson became aware of how the current employees had been selected for the job, his surprise was immense and he shout in anger, even in front of his boss:

- HOW COULD YOU DO THIS?!

Shabe had forgotten something. Something huge.

He had forgot to take into account that homeless people were especially susceptive to drugs of all kinds. As people who usually would run away from their problems - to the point of living on the streets - their mental health wasn’t that much to begin with, what to say after being exposed to such experiences as Another World Project.

-…

Shabe said nothing, but his face betrayed his feelings. He wanted to apologize. He wanted to say that he was sorry about everything that happened. He wanted to turn back time and undo what had been done.

But he couldn’t.

- So, what can we do about it? How can we undo that?

Shabe cut of Hudderson speech as he had just begun to describe the patients’ mental diseases in order of importance, something totally unnecessary - Shabe wasn’t a psychologist or psychiatrist, and Hudderson knew it. He just felt wronged. Too wronged. His life-work had been used in such an irresponsible manner. Even if the man in front of him was absolutely powerful and capable, he had dared to do such a thing - if it wasn’t for the fact that these peoples’ bigger chance of coming back on their feet depended on both him and Shabe, he would have quit the job already.

Hudderson sighed.

- We can’t force them to do anything. That’s the first step. If we try to force them into therapy, them that will only have the opposite effect, as they will struggle against it and worsen their already-bad state. So, you need to provide a good reason for them to stay.

Shabe already had some plans in mind, and he and Samanta had discussed this previously. They didn’t need to go too far to avoid a PR-incident as Squeam was a forbidden topic amongst most news media on the world - as it would be, being the majoritarian owner of most of them and a big one in all but a very small and few. Even district newspapers had Squeams’ fingers on them, so that wasn’t a problem.

The problem was, truthfully, a heavy conscience.

Shabe wasn’t a vicious businessman. Had he been vicious, cunning and deceived quite a lot of people in the past?

Sure.

That’s how one builds an empire.

Then, there’s a big difference between deceiving corporate owners, other businessman and the stock market or deceive those who were already at the rock-bottom of society, or even those who merely wanted to have enough to live and build a family of their own.

These Newell would forever watch over and protect like a godfather.

- So, if they accept going through treatment, we will need to solve each of their needs separately. Some of them already have a history in drug abuse, so it will be difficult to reach the core of the problem, as conventional treatment just creates neurosis on top of the disorder which makes them crave drugs. For those I suggest starting with psychedelic micro-dosing…

Hudderson talked and talked and talked for hours without end.

Some people needed to be taken away from Another World and them be reintroduced to it little by little, as others needed immersion-shock therapy to go beyond a mental bottleneck that appeared during the first gaming session.

It would cost Squeam millions to do so.

But at least it seemed possible to do something about it.

***

Squeam auditorium, 3 days later.

As Marcus silently cursed Squeam for giving him VR-addiction, Shabe rose to the stage and took the mic from dr.Hudderson.

He was dressed as usual, in his casual clothes and without any make-up of any sorts.

- Hello guys…

The angry shouting, glares and stares would make anyone else afraid, but Shabe didn’t care.

He knew he was protected by the latest tech possible, and, besides, he was willing to take on all of their rage and anger.

These people couldn’t be considered to be normal anymore. The Another World experience had been too much for them, and that may have had less about how intense it was, and more about who they were.

- We screwed up. I’m sorry.

His apology was heartfelt and sincere. It didn’t take long. Only around 15 minutes. But, still, it at least calmed the crowd a bit.

***

A few hours later, as dr.Hudderson prepared his paperwork for the upcoming task, his hands fell on a certain patient profile.

- Just “Jack”, huh.

Our good old Jack had decided to stay put. Rather, neither his mother or his girlfriend would accept him back.

“Well, this is a good thing honey. Now you can have free therapy. Maybe you will get over all of that ‘panic attack when someone tells me to work’ thing” - Jack’s mother.

“That’s right. Besides, you seem well. I think it didn’t affect you so much.” - Jack’s girlfriend.

Even if his right eye was twitching all the time, and even if he sometimes stopped and stared at nothing, in front of him his relatives had given him such answers.

Of course, they were also some of the first ones in line for mr.Shabes’ speech to the families of those affected by Another World Project, and part of the calm and cold faction - the scariest of all, since they had given Shabe a hard-pressed Harm and Damage Compromise Contract.

In the end, they squeezed Squeam so hard that even Hudderson himself thought that maybe they were pushing things a little bit too far. Aftel all, it WAS an accident - and it wouldn’t have been so bad if the employees themselves weren’t such a lost cause in the first place.

- Even though… you are quite the special case, aren’t you?

At first dr.Hudderson thought that living as a Dragon King for twenty hours had destroyed most of Jacks’ personalities and goals in life, such as how to maintain himself and his self-sustain.

But after his family’ reports on him the man seemed to have suffered almost no long-term effects for being on the machine - even if some of the short-term ones where a very intense post-trauma depression and he had to be added to the “severe symptoms” list.

Seeming as his mother said he sometimes would stare at a wall for hours, and as his girlfriend reported he doing this all the time when “he” smoked some… ~special~ things, at most the experience had aggravated something inside him, not truly changed anything.

- So there is hope for this project after all…