Chuck marveled at the White Room surrounding him. He’d watched form outside Jeremy’s pod as they walked him through the acclimation process to their VR system. The system tech’s had apparently picked up a few tricks quickly from that experience and Chuck’s first exposure to the digital world was from standing inside the white construct, complete with exit door along one wall, a regulation exit sign with green lettering the only color in the room.

Chuckling, he started rubbing his hands along his chest, arms, legs and stomach. It was incredible the amount of tactile feedback the haptic suit he wore gave. The suit applied pressure to his hands as the system registered their movement to the other parts of himself. It also worked along whatever part of his body he hands touched. He took one finger and poked as hard as he could into his belly. Surprisingly, the suit mimicked his digital actions exactly and he felt the finger poking his belly.

“What type of pain threshold is there for this suit?” he wondered idly.

“Safety protocols are currently in place and pain levels are at 00.0%” a female voice responded. It was vaguely familiar.

“Who’s that?” Chuck asked in surprise.

“I believe you referred to me as Maxette Headron?” the voice said, with a note of derision in her voice, “But I’ll have you know My name is Lisa H—”

“Yeah, I figured it out. I know who you’re based on.” Chuck said, cutting her off, “So, I get to chat with you while in here?”

“If you’d like, yes.” The voice of the anime receptionist replied.

“So, I gotta figure, if there are tests, and other things that the company wants me to do while in this digital environment, then they expect me to be here for a while. If that’s the case, what options do I have to make this more comfortable?”

“Would you like some color and some furniture?” Lisa asked as the appearance of the White Room begun to pixelate. The effect sped up rapidly and then stopped. The pixilation faded and in the White Room’s place was a 32bit sprite rendition of RMO’s reception area, complete with a monitor along one wall with Lisa gazing out at Chuck from.

“Not quite what I was thinking of, but it’s a good start.” Chuck looked down at himself and saw that the pixilation had adjusted his appearance as well. Instead of the dull white nothingness of a mannequin body, he now looked like himself. Keeping the same sprite motif of the room, but he appeared as how he had when he walked into the building that first day and met Lisa and Mr. King.

“While I love me some old school JRPG’s, is there a particular reason for the sprite style?”

From the monitor, Lisa shook her head, “No. there were a few different varieties to choose from. It was selected at random. Would you like me to adjust it?”

Chuck thought about it a while, “Nah, let’s leave it this style for now. But maybe switch it up from the reception room, to maybe something a little more . . . homey. A den, or a study?”

The pixilation affect started over and when it finished, the room appeared quite cozy. The room appeared to have filled bookshelves along three of the four walls, a break in them only for the exit door along the back wall. There was hardwood floor throughout with a bearskin rug sitting in front of a lit fireplace. A Highbacked chair sat off to the sit, facing the fireplace with a end table sitting next to it. Above the fireplace, on the mantle was a portrait of a Chuck, decked out in Victorian era clothes. The sprite-based aesthetic was maintained throughout and Chuck couldn’t help himself but to laugh.

“To your liking?” Lisa’s voice asked him from behind his back. He turned around to see the back of the room, Chuck noticed along one of the bookshelves there was a sculpture of a woman’s head. It sat along the back wall, on a shelf just above the door knob of the exit door. It looked exactly like the virtual assistant.

“So, what exactly are you?” Chuck asked.

The bust turned it’s head slightly and stated, “I am LiSA. Lifeform interfacing Systems Assistant. While technically I am only a prototype version of the software that is expected to be offered for retail release once testing is finished, I have been programed with a desire to see the tests and trials finished as safely and quickly as possible. My job is to work as a liaison between the individual test subjects,” the bust nodded toward Chuck, “and the over-all system mainframe.”

Chuck walked around the room and sat down in the chair, adjusting it’s placement to let him talk to Lisa. “So explain something to me Lisa. Why does your appearance look like that of an anime character from the eighties? Default setting? Programmed by one of the techs in the company?”

“Yes.” Lisa responded. “I can change my appearance to suit whatever needs you want. My main purpose is to assist your efforts in interacting with the system.”

“What does that entail?” Chuck asked. “I have to say, I’ve never had a chance to try out much in the ways of VR gaming, it’s still rather expensive.”

“Most virtual reality systems come with a White Room like the one you are in now. Consider it a loading bay for any program you would want to run. Typically, once a program is installed into the operating system, a new door will appear in the white room. One would merely need to walk through the door to reach the VR program that had been loaded.”

“So, basically, Mr. King will have different programs loaded up that we will try? Let us try to break and see how we handle digital environment? What works well, what’s buggy, that sort of thing?”

The bust on the wall nodded, “Yes. Something like that.”