《Random Survival - An experiment into humanity》 Prologue We often think that our success is linked to our own innate abilities. Getting good grades in school, being selected to become captain of the basketball team, or being accepted into the college of our choice and working at our dream job is all about our natural talent and only slightly about the environment we grew up in. Often psychologist talk about the importance of nurture vs. nature, and whether we are more influenced by the genes from our parents or the environment we¡¯re exposed to. These thought go through the mind of young Sam Connor, as he¡¯s getting up to go to his part-time job at McDonald¡¯s. Going through his daily ritual or pouring himself a bowl of cereal, he watches the various YouTube channels that he¡¯s subscribed to. Looking around his government subsidized apartment, he tries to figure out what his life amounts to. Working barely over minimum wage for several years, he¡¯s had to learn various new methods of surviving in this world. The computer he¡¯s using is one he found near a dumpster, and after replacing some of the damaged components he was able to study for his high school classes and various other tasks, allowing him graduate with decent grades. With his low income being able to afford internet was really asking for too much but using Kali Linux¡¯s Aircrack to hack into his neighbor¡¯s wifi network, Sam was able to do what the average non-emancipation young adult would do, like checking his Facebook, YouTube, various other tasks. Even though he was in a crappy situation didn¡¯t mean that he couldn¡¯t try to live a normal life. With his computer knowledge, he was able to do accomplish things others in his situation wouldn¡¯t be able to. Along with his part-time job and ¡°illegal¡± computer hobbies, he also attended Jackson College thanks to new legislation passed with the help of President Nick Harrison. This new legislation made all community colleges free for working students, which is why Sam had to work at his crappy part-time McDonald¡¯s job while going to school. Sam¡¯s ambition was to help develop the field of artificial intelligence, so he majored in computer science and minored in psychology. Glancing at the clock and seeing it was getting close to when he needed to leave, Sam jumped into the shower and quickly washed himself. After getting his uniform on, he headed out and started his daily walk to work, early in the morning. Looking around the dark neighborhood only reminded him of all the life challenges he has had to face. Losing his parents to a drunk driver, being sent into foster care, and surviving in this world after being emancipated so he could have control over his own life. Walking into the store, Sam heard the usual music being played and smelled the greasy food being prepared in the morning. Compared to when he first started out working here, his stomach didn¡¯t turn as much whenever he had to smell the constant oil in the air. The oil seemed to be everywhere, which is why he was assigned special work shoes had helped to increased traction on the floor. If he didn¡¯t have these shoes on and walked on the tiled floor, Sam would be struggling not to slip and fall onto the hard surface. ¡°Look who walked into the door!¡± Sarah, his co-worker, yelled out to him, with her usual grin on her face. Sarah was also a student at the local college, and had helped him to land his job at McDonald¡¯s. She was slightly younger than him, by a year, and had been working here for several years. Seeing her in the morning always helped him to bear working at this job, due to how they were in similar living situations. The main difference was that she was studying to become a fashion designer, and hoped to land a job in New York City at one of those big name studios. They enjoyed similar shows and hobbies (outside of computers), which caused them to naturally hang out with one another at work and school. Grinning back at her, Sam calmly said, ¡°Hey, how can I miss out coming here, where dreams are made?¡±, while pointing at the new posters touting the benefits of starting a career at McDonald¡¯s. Walking behind the counter, Sam waited for the clock to signal the start of his shift before he clocked in. The one thing they were taught was that they were not allowed to clock in early, which is something the managers made a big deal about. Waving back at the people working on the line, putting together orders, he looked at the clock on the point of sale (POS) unit and started to log in and grab the printed receipt, stuffing it into his tiny work pockets. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. ¡°How has the morning shift been?¡± He asked Sarah, as she was shoving various items into a McDonald¡¯s bad and hitting the various confirmation buttons, before passing it to the person working at the drive-through window. Looking back at him, Sarah rolled her eyes and replied, ¡°It¡¯s been crazy busy! Feels like everyone decided they needed their $1 coffee along with everything on the menu, for themselves and all their co-workers!¡± Walking over to the coffee machine near the automated drink machine, Sam grabbed the glass container and dumped out the ¡°old¡± coffee after looking at when it was made. He swapped out the coffee container in the coffee machine near the front counter, and quickly brought it over to the machine he grabbed the previous container from. Once it had a, relatively, new supply of coffee, Sam started the process of making more coffee so that they wouldn¡¯t run out. The worst thing that could happen is running out of coffee in the morning, considering how long it took to brew a new batch and the likelihood of a customer ordering coffee. With McDonald¡¯s new promotion of a $1 coffee people have been ordering it like crazy, causing them to constantly brew coffee and keeping the coffee station stocked with silver (regular) and orange (decaf) coffee packets. ¡°Thanks, a lot, Sam.¡± Sarah sighed appreciatively. ¡°I didn¡¯t have a chance to make more, with all the orders coming in. We had two call-ins, so we¡¯re kind of short on staff. Glad that you¡¯re not the type of person to call in, whenever they don¡¯t feel like coming into work.¡± she snarled at the end of it. The people that were hired weren¡¯t the type of people who cared about showing up to work consistently, which caused everyone else¡¯s job to become harder. There was no point in asking who called in, because it was always the same people though they never got fired due to the store not being able to keep new hires for long. After the morning rush of people started to pass by, he told Sarah that he would be sweeping up the lobby area and went to grab the broom from the back. There were a bunch of trays that were left behind by previous customers and straws on the floor, so he began the constant cycle of cleaning up the area. While he was cleaning he happen to look up and see a news report about a massive psychological study being done in the Arizona desert. Attempting to appear like he was being productive, he kept reading the subtitles and learning how the study was going to be a five to ten year study where participants would be isolated in a giant structure. Not much was known about it, aside from participants being paid $50,000 for each year they participated. When he read that part he dropped his broom and just stood there, thinking about the possibilities of getting nearly a quarter to half a million dollars just for taking part in this. He tried to find out how he could sign up when he heard Sarah shouting for him, about a customer being at the front counter. For the rest of his shift, Sam was unable to concentrate on his work and kept looking at the clock to see when his shift would end. Sarah kept talking to him about some show they both watched, and how some guy they both new was acting like a total creep. ¡°Hey! You okay?¡± Sarah asked him, once they both left the store and were walking back to his place. Since Sam lived closed to both work and school, they would usually head to his place so they could change out of their work clothes and hang out before getting to class. Shaking himself out of his daze, Sam just looked over to Sarah and answered, ¡°Did you hear about the new psychological study being done in Arizona?¡± Giving him an ¡°are you kidding me¡± look, she said, ¡°Yeah. I think I heard that while I was making out with Captain America¡±, oozing out sarcasm. Rolling his eyes, he took a deep breath and tried to ignore her sarcasm. ¡°On the news, I saw that they were doing some kind of massive psychological study, lasting somewhere around five to ten years!¡± Tilting her head, she gave him a look saying he needed to make his point. ¡°Fine. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll be interested in the part where they pay the participants $50,000 for every year they are in the study?¡± He asked her, smirking. Her eyes started to widen as she realized the significant amount of money, being given out. ¡°How in the hell are they going to be able to pay everyone half a million dollars? What¡¯s the catch, and where can we sign up?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, because you shouted for me to head back to the counter. I¡¯ve been thinking about it throughout the shift. When we get back to my place, I¡¯m planning on checking online and seeing if I can find any information on it. I¡¯m sure that tons of people are applying to take part in it, so I want to find out immediately.¡± After saying that, Sam watched Sarah bolt to where he lived and look back at him, waving her arm indicating him to hurry it up. Chuckling, Sam raced off after her. Chapter 1 ¡°Welcome back, guys! Hope that everyone in the HNN army is staying strong, in the fight against ignorance. This is Agent 459, and we have another great episode for you guys, especially taking place in the Arizona desert. If you guys haven¡¯t heard, there is a giant psychological study being done that¡¯ll span 5 to 10 years long. Not much is known about this study, aside from the fact that it¡¯s looking for a massive number of participants and they¡¯ve been getting it. Now, I¡¯m sure all the participants are really looking forward to joining a historic event, but I¡¯m thinking that the $50,000 a year is the deciding factor. You may be wondering how they have that kind of money, but looking at the massive structure they built they must be rolling in the cash. Looking from Google Earth, you¡¯ll see that the complex is a giant square, the size of ten Chrysler Proving Grounds (four Michigan State University campuses). Talking about the Chrysler proving Grounds, this mega structure is south of it and west of Phoenix. For those of my listeners, who also agree with green energy, you¡¯ll be happy to hear that Tesla solar panels are all over this structure along with a giant solar farm nearby. There is no official information for the reason there are so many solar panels since those numbers are enough to power a small city. Normally solar panels wouldn¡¯t be enough to power a facility, considering the sun is only out for 12ish hours, but with Tesla¡¯s commercial batteries the solar power can be stored to supply several days worth (for those cloudy days). Not much, aside from the Tesla connection, is known about this event and the mystery will hopefully be solved in a couple of days, when all the search for participants is supposedly ending. If you¡¯re interested in finding more information, regarding this, feel free to go to the organization¡¯s [Center for the Study of Mankind] website. Make sure that you¡¯re subscribed to the HNN army, and click on that bell icon so that you¡¯re notified of new videos posted. Now onto the latest news related to the info dump by WikiLeaks.¡± After coming back to Sam¡¯s place, both he and Sarah checked out YouTube to see if there was any info about this project. One of Sam¡¯s favorite channels was HNN, due to how the entire channel was created using CGI. The main guy, Agent 459, looks like a robot and talks about the difficult news topics in a non-bias manner, compared to progressive and conservative YouTube channels. It may not be the best channel, but considering the amount of effort they put into staying anonymous Sam thought of them being a pretty reputable news source. ¡°Hey. Go onto that site they mentioned.¡± Sarah urged him. Bringing up Google, he started to type in ¡°The Center for the Study of Mankind¡± and brought up their homepage. It was a pretty simple and clean website, explaining about very little about what they do. ¡°What¡¯s up with this website!¡±, shouted Sarah feeling frustrated. They were hoping to find out how they could take part in this study, but the website wasn¡¯t providing anything of value. Thinking out loud, Sam wondered, ¡°Maybe they get the participants through various organizations, like universities?¡± It felt weird that there was so little information being shared, I mean such a large structure needed to have some kind of governmental approval, either federal or state. Some kind of information was being exchanged, and why would HNN recommend going to this site if it was a dead-end? Sam stared at the website looking at it as if it was some kind of puzzle. The key is the fact that HNN had reported it, so he felt like something was missing and when he found it everything would click into place. He tried the usual moving his cursor all over the page, seeing if a hidden hyperlink or image was there. Remembering his experience with the websites, he went through the possible methods to try and get into this website. Pressing the Ctrl+U key, he brought up the source page of the website in Chrome. Looking through the code he saw some text. Highlighting the text, Sam started to read outloud, so Sarah could follow along with what he was doing. ¡°Please follow url to admin website for those part of the psychological study. Remember to maintain silence regarding what is going on, and do not talk to the press.¡± ¡°How did you do that?¡± Sarah asked him, as she watched him copy and paste the website to the address bar. Chuckling at her amazement, he just answered with, ¡°I¡¯m just looking at the source code for the website, not a difficult task if you know about websites.¡± He grinned when she gave him a look saying how he better watch himself. Sam knew that Sarah wasn¡¯t the type of girl that was big on computers, and was more into the stuff popular girls were into (if they were slightly emo and gothy). Glancing at her sideways, he could understand how guys seemed to be really interested in her. When they had come back, instead of changing in the bathroom, like a normal girl, she had just stripped down to her under garments and began to get into her usual clothes. Trying not to stare at her, he noticed that she was very well proportioned though understanding that they really didn¡¯t have the romantic connection he didn¡¯t get entirely turned on when he saw her. Watching the new website come up, all it had was a username and password field with a white background. He didn¡¯t expect to run into this scenario, but was able to stay calm. Going back to the source code, he tried to find any kind of hint of what the username and password could be. He figured that if they left a clue in the previous page, then it was likely this was for anyone that knew what they were doing. Running through the lines of code, he noticed an odd jpeg file being referenced. The page didn¡¯t have any kind of image, so why would there be a jpeg file? Highlighting the file and copying it (after creating a new tab with the new address), he went up to the address bar and removed everything past the ¡°.net/¡± and pasted the jpeg. Pressing enter brought up an image that was completely white. Looking all over the place, he didn¡¯t notice any kind of text or clues as to why this was here. ¡°I wonder if the image¡­¡±, his thought trailed as the idea that this image could be hiding something came to mind. Steganography is a practice of hiding things inside of images, allowing people to send messages without others knowing about it. It seemed a bit too easy, but thinking that there was nothing to lose he brought up 7-Zip. Saving the image the image to his computer, he then went to 7-Zip and found the image. Right clicking on the image he went through the steps to extract the image and revealed two hidden files. The first was an image file, and the second being a notepad file. Opening up the image he found a map with gps coordinates and what looked like the state of Arizona. When he opened up the notepad he just saw a string of text. Obviously the message was encrypted, so it would be a little difficult to deal with this. There were several message encryption methods, one of them being GPG and another one being GPP. Hoping that it was the latter, he opened up GPP-Decrypt and tried to see if anything came loose after he shook it. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Looking back at Sarah, her face was glued to the screen looking extremely eager. This was the first time he had ever seen Sarah so interested in a computer. Sam was embarrassed to admit that he was enjoying her attention, but reminded himself that there was nothing good to come out of getting romantically involved with her. He remembered watching her other past boyfriends, and none of them lasted very long. Sarah wasn¡¯t a bad person, just a little fickle and hard to keep in a long-term relationship. The benefit of being a friend of hers for so long is seeing all the mistakes others had made, so he didn¡¯t need to make the same mistakes. ¡°YESSS!!!¡± He yelled out, after the software spat out something legible. ¡°Congratulations on being successful at finding the backway to taking part in our study, into the seeing what humanity is about. This method was designed for those who had the strong will and knowledge to get into our program, and will guarantee you and four others access into our facility as listed on the coordinates. Please take the username (alphaomega2843) and password (3ioijk6t09098kjkj3io&^%!!) and inputted into corresponding fields. Once you are in the database, please input all necessary information and press ¡°submit¡±. By submitting the information, you will be able to approach the facility and gain entry. We congratulate you in taking part in this grand and fantastic experiment, which will hopefully push society into a better world.¡± Sam read out, trying to keep in all of his excitement about his success. Sarah kept pounding his shoulder, letting him know that she was also excited. He could understand why, considering how much they would both receive after this. With that amount of money he could pay his way through college, instead of relying on federal and private loans. Going to an Ivy League school was a big goal of his, and this opportunity would be able to pay for it. Medschool wouldn¡¯t be an issue if he had any intentions of it, though that just sounds like a bore to him and not anything he was interested in. After spending time, he typed in the necessary information into the fields and pressed submit and stretched. Even though the skill needed wasn¡¯t, surprisingly, high he felt slightly exhausted. It was probably due to finishing up a eight hour shift, and then coming home to do some light penetration work. ¡°So what do we do now?¡± Sarah asked him. Shrugging his shoulders, Sam just replied, ¡°Well, I guess we should probably let work know that we¡¯ll be taking a 10 year break, unless you want to quit?¡± Nodding her head in agreement, she said, ¡°we should probably also let the college know that we¡¯ll be gone. Afterwords, I¡¯m guessing we should also pack some clothes?¡± Sam and Sarah decided to head back to their work and let them know about this sudden break. He knew that they were likely going to have to quit, considering they were leaving during the middle of the schedule. They still had several more days of scheduled work, and leaving wasn¡¯t going to make people happy. The problem is that they don¡¯t really have a choice in the matter, considering they were looking at over $200,000 at the end of this experience. Who in their right mind would pass up on this chance, and continue working for slightly above minimum wage at some dead end job? Their experience at work was exactly what he expected it would be, and there was a lot of yelling and screaming involved. The manager on duty told them that they were irresponsible losers that wouldn¡¯t amount to anything, and not to expect to return back to work. They didn¡¯t bother mentioning the experiment, considering the manager didn¡¯t really care for an explanation. Figuring that it was all for the best, the two of them just head to the college and let the college know. Finishing up all of their responsibilities, they came back to Sam¡¯s place and made plans for getting to Arizona. Getting onto Greyhound, Sam found out the trip would be little over $200 for a one way ticket. It was good that it only cost him that much cause Sam only had about $500 in his bank account. Knowing Sarah, she wouldn¡¯t have difficulty in getting one of her friends to help her out, with getting some extra cash. She was pretty good at getting guys to pay for things, without needing to give them anything back. ¡°I¡¯m going to take off now. I¡¯ll need to gather up some clothes, and get ready to head to Arizona¡± Sarah informed him. Looking back at her, Sam said, ¡°Just make sure you buy a ticket to Arizona. I don¡¯t think Greyhound is going to have a sudden increase in people going in that direction, but it¡¯s a good idea to purchase some sooner, rather than later.¡± Nodding her head in acknowledgement, she walked out of his place. The rest of the day was filled with him packing all his stuff and getting ready to take off. His Greyhound was for later that night, so he was going to need to hurry up. Normally when he goes on vacation, Sam would spend a couple of days to set everything up to be ready for him to leave, but considering how he had a timeline and the busride would take quite some time he needed to hurry up. With the sun starting to go down, he started to head his way over to the Greyhound station. It would take him close to an hour walking there, but he would get there with enough time to spare. It had been a while since he walked past the downtown Greyhound station, so he was looking forward to seeing the new changes they made. He heard that they build some self-serve stations, so he just needed to type in his code and the machine would print out his tickets. Considering that he was going to Arizona, he wondered how many tickets he would have for each of the stops. A friend of his that lived in Georgia said it took him 22 hours to get to Michigan, and there were several stops along the way. Sam¡¯s friend gave him some tips if he was ever to travel on a Greyhound, and Sam was glad that he paid attention and remembered it. Arriving at the Greyhound station, he was impressed with how modern it looked. The outer part of the station was surrounded in glass, so you could have a clear view of the inside. When you walked it, there was a clear area for getting the tickets and places to sit. Being a modern and tech person, Sam enjoyed the new look compared to the rest of the old looking city. Printing out his ticket, he walked over to the sitting area and spotted Sarah on her smartphone. ¡°How long have you been here?¡± Sam asked her when he was near. Looking up at him, Sarah gave a big smile and replied, ¡°I was here for, maybe, 15 minutes?¡± Indicating for him to take a seat, she asked him, ¡°So are you excited on the start of our adventure?¡± ¡°Definitely!¡± He grinned at her. ¡°The best part is not having to show up for work tomorrow!¡± They both laughed at the thought of not having to work at that crappy job any longer, and hopefully having a better life after this. People don¡¯t realize how draining working at a minimum wage job can be, and how difficult it is to stay motivated in accomplishing your own dreams. Both of them knew people who found working at McDonald¡¯s to be comfortable, and decided to aim for higher position within the company instead of finishing school. It always gave him a depressing feeling whenever he saw that happening, but the thing he learned was that not everyone can reach where they want to be. The two of them sat their, each absorbed in their own tasks, like the millennials that they were, while they waited for the bus to start boarding passengers. Time initially felt like it was going slowly, but before Sam knew it he heard the announcement for the bus leaving for Arizona taking off soon. ¡°Hurry! Let¡¯s go!¡± Sarah called out to him, as she raced towards the bus. There was a small line for those waiting to board. Following after her, Sam watched the people walking up those stairs into the bus. For some reason, he viewed those stairs as not just for getting on the bus, but also about taking control of his life, for once. He could only imagine what will be waiting for him, once he arrived at the facility and hoped for the best. Chapter 2 Riding on the Greyhound, Sam was pretty impressed by the technology in the bus. There was free wifi (not the best by a long shot but free nonetheless), electrical outlets (three prong and USB), flat LCD monitors (where you can watch movies and view the current position of the bus), and free bottle water. Even Greyhound was upgrading their buses, though looking at the money they were charging he didn¡¯t know how they still made money. Sitting in the middle of the bus on the window side, Sam looked at the landscape passing by and thinking how in a couple of hours they were going to reach the facility. The trip was a pretty interesting one, talking with the various passengers and having to sleep at one of the bus stops (the transition bus had broken down so they had to wait for the next one). Using his smartphone, he made all the necessary payments to cancel his apartment contract. Luckily for him, he just needed to gain access to a certain model of ATMs, which are commonly seen across the US. The awesome thing about the internet and smartphones is the information that you¡¯re able to access, usually for free. People are awesome when it comes to passwords, especially when they don¡¯t even know that there¡¯s a password in a machine. A couple of years back, Sam realized that most people don¡¯t change the default password in most machines, especially in ATMs. Whenever he had to travel, Sam would just hit a nearby ATM and get into the machine as an ¡°administrator¡± using the default password. He would get some cash, not enough to cause trouble for him but enough to meet his immediate needs. Since he didn¡¯t have much cash on this trip, he would occasionally go to a nearby ATM and grab some cash to pay for dinner and other needs they had. The nice thing about taking part in a half a decade, or more, long experiment is that you don¡¯t need to worry about people suspecting you of stealing some cash. When it comes to the life he¡¯s had, following laws and certain moral codes aren¡¯t on the top of his list. Luckily, he¡¯s been pretty good about not being too greedy, so his record is still clean as far as law enforcement is concerned. Looking over at where Sarah sitting, she was fast asleep. Sarah stayed up marathoning all the seasons of Supernatural, so when sleep had finally hit her she conked out. The nice thing about his bus was the number of passengers allowed them to get both seats, on either side of the aisle. He could stretch out his legs, whenever he needed to go to sleep. Pushing the touchscreen, he saw that they were coming up to Phoenix, Az. The city was pretty nice looking, compared to the other cities he¡¯s been in. Maybe after this experiment ends, he¡¯ll stick around this area for a year before heading back to school. Pulling into the station, Sam got up and smacked Sarah¡¯s leg to wake her up. Jumping a little, being woken up suddenly, she glared at him with a ¡®what the hell are you doing¡¯ looking. Signalling her to look behind him, she could see that they had arrived at Phoenix. Grabbing his baggage from the overhead compartment, he followed all the other passengers out of the bus. When both him and Sarah got out of the bus and into the warm Arizona sunshine, he opened up his arms wide and soaked in the good feeling of being out of that bus. Smacking him on the shoulder, Sarah laughed saying, ¡°What the hell are you doing?¡± ¡°I¡¯m just glad to be outside and in Arizona! I was starting to go crazy on that long bus ride, being bored out of my mind!¡± Sam whooped into the air. ¡°Well how are we getting to this place?¡± She asked him. Pulling out his smartphone, he said, ¡°Let¡¯s grab a taxi.¡± Googling ¡®taxi near me¡¯, Sam found several taxi companies. Tapping on the phone number, he dialed one of the companies with a four star rating. Using a taxi was never a great experience for him, but the nice thing about them was that they always accepted cash. There were ways to get a disposable credit card, without needing to provide ID, but lately most companies have started to require ID so that wasn¡¯t really an option aside from the fact that he didn¡¯t have anyway to keep them charged up. After he got off the phone, Sarah asked him, ¡°How long until they get here?¡± ¡°They¡¯ll be here in half an hour. I told them that we would be at the BBQ joint across from the station.¡± Sam said, pointing to the giant BBQ sign. The last time they had something to eat was yesterday, so he was feeling a little hungry. Walking over to the restaurant, the smell of slow-cooked pork hit him in the face. If there¡¯s one thing he could never get enough of is good old tender meat. Beef and pork were his favorite, and those were what this type of restaurant did best. Walking up to the counter, he glanced at the menu and told the really, like seriously, cute lady that he wanted some the house combo, which came with brisket, beef tri-tips, back ribs, and mashed potatoes and gravy. Definitely the type of dish that makes the trip worth it. ¡°What¡¯s with you and meat.¡± Sarah laughed at him, ordering some baby backs with some slaw. She definitely wasn¡¯t a big eater like he was. Moaning in pleasure, Sam chowed down on the glorious platter of meaty goodness. He ignored the raised eyebrow from Sarah. She didn¡¯t understand how amazing this food is. Feeling his phone vibrate, Sam pulled it out and saw that it was the taxi company calling him back. They were probably outside, so after talking with the person on the phone the two of them left. The nice thing about these restaurants is you pay when you get the food, but it¡¯s a better atmosphere than a fast food place. After putting their luggage into the trunk, they got into the taxi. ¡°You guys heading to the facility?¡± The taxi driver asked them, confirming the destination Sam told the company on the phone. ¡°Yeah. How much will it be?¡± asked Sam. After hearing the total, he passed the driver a big wad of bills. ¡°Tip is included, for driving us all the way there. I¡¯m sure it¡¯ll take a large amount of your time, and we appreciate the help.¡± The driver thanked him, and started to drive off. On the highway the driver started to talk to them about various stuff. The guy seemed to be a really chatty type, but a decent fellow. ¡°So have you had to drive anyone else to the facility?¡± Sarah asked the driver. ¡°No. You guys are the first people that I¡¯ve driven to that giant structure. Some of the other drivers had driven people, but from what I¡¯ve heard there have been buses coming through the city towards the place.¡± Listening to the two of them talk, Sam was thinking about whether those buses were from the local universities. Considering how large the place was, there must be ton of people travelling to this place. He was getting even more curious about this whole situation. The drive was fairly boring. As they were travelling, the driver would try to keep them entertained by telling them random factoids. Looking off into the distance, Sam spotted a giant white structure. Nudging Sarah, he pointed at the structure. When Sarah spotted it, she started to bounce on her seat looking excited. Getting closer to the structure, they could see that it was massive. Until you see such a structure, it¡¯s hard to imagine its scale. Sam wondered if this was what the Great Pyramid of Giza looked like from a distance. Like the rising of the sun, it only got bigger the closer they got to it. Turning into a driveway, the taxi drove up to what looked like a entrance. Looking like some modern temple, the doors into it were massive thick panes of glass that, aside from some reinforced looking concrete on the supporting pillars, and made it so you could look inside. It was pretty impressive looking, especially the people in suits waiting outside. Once the taxi stopped, they got out and walked towards the people. The taxi driver grabbed their bags and placed it at the entrance, and after getting back into his car he drove off. One of the guys in suits took out a smartphone and walked up to Sam. ¡°Welcome to The Structure. Are you here to take part in the study?¡± The man asked Sam. After seeing Sam nod his head, the man followed up with, ¡°I am assuming you are one of the, relative, few that found the back way to The Structure? You would have received a text message with a code, to present once you arrived here. If you could provide me with that code, we will be able to continue.¡± He gave off a professional feel, as he asked them all these questions. It felt like one of those mystery games, with the whole atmosphere. Pulling out his phone, he opened up the Signal app (the encrypted message he received had made it all seem extra mysterious). Seeing the message he received, he told the man the code. The man typed it into his phone, and after seeming to confirm something he said, ¡°Please follow me, and I will guide you to where you need to be.¡± Walking towards the entrance, two of the suit guys opened the massive doors and let the three of them enter. Sam and Sarah walked behind the guy as they walked down a massive hallway. The hallway gently sloped downwards, but for some reason it felt like they were walking forward. ¡°Excuse me, is the hallway sloping down?¡± Sam asked the man.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. Chuckling, the man answered, ¡°I am impressed that you were able to notice the descending path. The hallway was purposefully designed so that an individual would be tricked into thinking they were walking a path with a slope of zero. The fact that you were able to notice this is a clear indication of your intelligence, which also validates how you were able to find the alternative method to arrive here.¡± ¡°How did other people show up?¡± Sarah asked the man. ¡°We of the Center used the resources of various universities and organizations, to gather a sufficient number participants to arrive at a solid sample size, of the US population.¡± The man answered her. ¡°Most, if not all, of your questions should be answered when we arrive into the welcome area.¡± As we neared the end of the hallway, there were several full body scanners and an area that looked like the inside of an airport. There were several desks with people in lab coats looking at monitors. In addition there were people who looked like they were security, with what looked like firearms. I looked at the man who guided us, but he just shook his head like we were not supposed to ask. A man in a lab coat approached us with a broad smile on his face. Rubbing his hands together, looking overly excited like the guy in Independence Day. ¡°Welcome. Welcome. Glad to see the two of you here, taking part in this historical event. My name is Dr. Reicherson, and I am one of the assistant scientists taking part in this project. If you could, please enter into the body scanning device. Once you enter into the scanner, you will place both hands on the corresponding yellow hand image. Please stay as still as possible, and we will scan your body for devices not allowed in the new environment. If any are detected, we will ask you to deposit them into the grey plastic tub. Have no worries, the items will be place in a secure holding unit and will be returned at the end of the experiment. In addition, we will provide new outfits for you to wear, so you will enter the changing room and place all of them into the blue plastic container. I apologize for any inconvenience, and entering the scanner will signify your acceptance to all terms and conditions of this experiment, regardless of whether you understand the agreement, or not. Reading of the agreement is not necessary to enact the contract, and purely based on the entry into said scanner. The reason for not being able to explain the agreement is to not taint the experiment. The only thing we can tell you is that once you enter the scanner, you will be taking part in the experiment and will not be able to leave until the end.¡± Both Sam and Sarah looked at Dr. Reicherson with a shocked look on their face. Even though they knew, from the beginning, that they would be in this experience for maybe a decade facing reality was different. Sam looked at Sarah and asked, ¡°Are you sure you want to go through with this?¡± Looking a little flustered, Sarah just stood there and after some time nodded her head. ¡°I¡¯m sure I want to do this. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and if I don¡¯t go through with it I know I¡¯ll regret it. Anyways, we don¡¯t have a job if we go back.¡± She chuckled at the last part, thinking how pathetic it would be to go crawling back for their shitty job. ¡°Ok¡± Sam said in response to Sarah¡¯s declaration. Sighing and facing what was going to happen, he walked into the body scanner, placing his hands on the image. He could hear the whirring of the machine, as it scanned him. Once the scan was finished, he emptied out all the contents in his pocket into the bin. On top, he placed his bag that he grabbed at the entrance. Another scientist indicated where the changing area was, so he entered into the spacious room with a blue plastic bin placed in the corner, with a sign stating ¡°Please Place Clothing in Bin¡±. The room had a bench and on top was a set of clothing. After undressing, he grabbed the new article of clothing and checked them out. The shirt was a long-sleeved white shirt, white plain boxers, and white pants. He put on each of them and looked at himself in the full body mirror. The outfit made him look like someone in those old kung fu movies. Exiting out of the changing room, he saw Sarah coming out in her full white outfit. ¡°I feel like I¡¯m in one of those young adult post apocalyptic movies¡± She said, sounding both amused and annoyed. Dr. Reicherson approached them clapping his hands, and saying, ¡°you two look wonderful! I will ask you to enter through those doors, where you will find a waiting area. You will be provided with additional information at the counter. Tomorrow will be when the selection process officially ends, so you will be resting in the next area.¡± Opening up the door, the doctor indicated for them to enter the next area. Walking into the room, Sam saw a long counter on the right side with several women behind the counter. They were dressed like workers at a hotel, looking very dignified and professional. All of them had their hair tied up in a neat bun, a blue dress coat, and a white blouse. Part of him imagined them wearing short skirts, the kind that let you see their thighs. ¡°Calm yourself, Sam¡± He thought to himself. This is what he gets for not dating in a while. When he went up to the counter, one of the ladies smiled at him and asked, ¡°May I have your name?¡± ¡°Sam¡± He answered. Hearing her type into the computer, she then said, ¡°Welcome, Sam, I have you in our system. We would like to congratulate you on this revolutionary experience, to further understand what it means to be human. You will be sleeping in pod #34ZZYZ1. As you can see below you, there will be a light that will appear and lead you to your pod.¡± Placing what looked like a pebble watch on the counter she then continued, ¡°Please put on this device. It will store all relevant information. What information is stored into your device will be further explained in a video. This video will be played in your pod. If you ever get lost, your device will be able to redirect you to your destination. Just talk into your watch and say, ¡®I¡¯m lost¡¯, and the lights on the ground will help you to your destination. Behind you will see a chair, and once you sit on the chair you will have a miniature computer inserted on the back of your neck (close to the spine). This device is wirelessly connected to the device on your wrist. If you lose your wrist device (aka watch), the device in your neck will automatically direct you to where your watch is located. The two devices have a corresponding code reader and generator, which matches the two items together. This allows the wearer to know that they are wearing their own watch, and not another participant¡¯s watch. We, at the Center, hope that you have a wonderful experience at The Structure.¡± She then directed him to the aforementioned chair, behind him. Sitting on the chair, Sam felt the chair adjusting to him like it was measuring him. A ring appeared above his head, and then moved down to scan from his head to his upper torso. After this was done, his head was secured, so it couldn¡¯t move, and he felt some kind of liquid sprayed on the back of his neck. A slight pinch was felt on the back of his neck, and then he was released from the chair. Standing up, Sam felt the back of his neck and realized that it was slightly numb. The pinch he felt must have been the machine injecting him with the device. It¡¯s pretty cool how they even thought of the pain he may have felt, and resolved the issue. Putting on his assigned watch, the screen automatically turned on and the combination of the capital alpha and omega symbol appeared. The watch said, ¡°Welcome, Sam¡±, the voice being a cute female voice. Speaking into the watch, Sam said, ¡°I¡¯m lost¡±. The female voice asked, ¡°Where are you trying to go, Sam?¡± ¡°I want to head to my pod.¡± On the floor, a glowing line appeared, seeming to lead him to his destination. Thinking, ¡°Wow. That¡¯s pretty cool.¡±, Sam followed the line into a hallway. There was an elevator at the end of the line, and he entered it. Going into the elevator, Sam noticed that there were no buttons or indicators and was a smooth metal surface. The elevator doors closed and it began to descend. After several moments, he felt the elevator stop and the doors open. In front of him was the same glowing line, letting him know that he was on the correct floor. Sam guessed that either the watch of the device in his neck had GPS, NFC, or RFID capabilities and that was what helped to locate him in The Structure. It definitely was impressive technology and made him super curious, as to how they created this stuff. He passed by numerous pods on either side of him, though these were different than the ones in Japan. These pods seem to be completely soundproof and had no windows. Each pod just had the ID on the pod door. Walking for quite some time, Sam saw where the line had ended. The line went up the wall and the correct pod ID glowed, letting him know that this was his pod. There was a small animation of a square getting smaller, repeatedly, and a ¡®Touch Me¡¯ sign below it. Touching the center of the square, the door to the pod opened up. Out of the wall, rungs slid out to help him climb up into his pod since it was on the second level. Climbing up on the rungs, Sam went into his pod There was enough space for hims to crawl into it comfortably. The pod had a comfortable mattress as a floor, and the walls and ceiling was a smooth plastic. When he got fully into the pod, he lay on top of the bed and saw there was a similar touchscreen interface on the ceiling. There was a button on that had ¡®Close Pod Door¡¯ on it, and touching it Sam heard the door close. A monitor appeared and a video started to play. The same symbol on his watch appeared, and a beautiful woman¡¯s voice said, ¡°Welcome to The Structure. The Structure was created by the Center for the Study of Mankind. The main purpose of this experiment is to learn more about what it means to be human. By taking part in this experiment, you are contributing a lot to help all of us build a better and brighter future. You may have a lot of questions, so this video will help to alleviate any of those questions.¡±
What is The Structure? In order to create a simulation of the real world, we built The Structure to simulate the real world. Many of the aspects seen in the real world will be provided inside. You are currently in the Welcome area; designed to keep all participants occupied until all participants are selected and brought to The Structure. Once the selection process is over, all participants will head into ¡°The World¡±. The World is where the experiment will take place.
What can be expected in ¡°The World¡±? The World was designed to mimic the real world. You will be able to find food and dining area, entertainment area, residential area, and many more. There are many things to discover in The World, so please look forward to exploring this area.
What is the purpose of this experiment? To improve our understanding of humanity.
How long will this experiment last? This experiment will last anywhere between 5 to 10 years. During this time, you will be unable to leave The World.
Is everything in The World free? No. Each and every day, a participant will be required to roll a 20 sided (D20) die, which will determine the number of tickets they will be provided with.
What is a ticket? A ticket is the currency that is used within The World. It can be used to utilize any of the services, within The World, to help improve the participant¡¯s experience. It can also be used to gain access to nutritional sources.
How much does food cost? The cost for food can vary. There is a wide variety of food choices.
What happens if I only have 1 ticket? Do not worry. We provide a nutritional supplement that provides all the necessary calories for a person to survive.
Where are my tickets kept? Your tickets are kept, digitally, in your watch and everyone else¡¯s watch in a blockchain format. This makes sure that everyone has the correct amount of tickets, without worrying about any underhanded methods.
What happens if I have questions? You will be able to ask your watch, and it will be able to answered most of your questions.
How do I ask my watch questions? If you talk in a casual manner to your watch, as if talking to a person, your watch will be able to understand you. All the watches are networked to a powerful AI that keeps all of your various AI personalities.
When do we go into the world? As of now, entrance into the world will take place in ten hours. You will receive a notification to let you know when you need to be ready to walk to the appropriate destination. Times will vary based on your own walking pace, which is constantly updated into our system to provide accurate information.
After going through all the information, Sam decided that he should head off to sleep and mentally prepare himself to enter into The World. Chapter 3 Intermittent flashing of lights was what woke Sam up from his nap. This was a lot nicer way to wake up, compared to some annoying alarm. He pictured being woken up by a beautiful woman lying next to him or bringing him breakfast on a tray. Does picturing such things make him a creep, or just a healthy guy? ¡°Good morning, Sam. Hope you had a wonderful sleep. Feel free to shower or use the restroom, at your discretion.¡± The voice in the watch told him. Looking at the device, Sam asked the watch, ¡°Instead of just calling you watch is there an option to make things more personable?¡± ¡°If you¡¯re interested, you can provide me a name, dictate my personality, and what I call you.¡± ¡°Could you go through the various options?¡± questioned Sam. ¡°Here are the various options, regarding my personality.¡± the voice said.
Personality (Select Gender M/F)
Upbeat Optimistic outlook on life, overall cheerful and upbeat. A good personality to select if you also view life as a always ¡°half-full¡±, and are extroverted. Warning: Please do not select if you consider yourself to be introverted.
Brusque A very direct and blunt type of personality, where feelings are generally not cared for. What people feel is a offputting way to interact with other people. Warning: If you¡¯re a shy personality and dislike confrontation, it is not recommended to select this option.
Lustful If you¡¯re looking for a personality that is very seductive and flirty, this is the option to choose. This selection will provide the user with an experience of that akin to a very sexually confident individual. Warning: Though the experience may bring an increase in confidence, due to the voice boosting the ego of the user, it may be bring about negative psychological issues.
Confident A personality which generally helps in lifting the confidence of the user, though dissimilar to the approach used by the Lustful personality. Uses self-actualization techniques to raise the user who lacks confidence in themselves. Warning: This method is can be counterproductive for those not interested in improving their confidence level.
Custom By working with the AI in the device, the participant is able to build a personality. This option can be taken care of using the device injected into the user. Warning: This method requires the user to be familiar with psychology and technology. Unless the user has strong skill sets in the mentioned areas, the experience may not develop to the user¡¯s preference.
Going through the list of options, the thoughts of how the Center put so much effort into this impressed him. Each of the options appeared to serve some kind of function to improve the user in some fashion. It¡¯s easy to see that this was a psychological study, with how diverse the various personalities are. Sam wondered what it would be like to select the lusty personality, though he imagined that it would get old and it wasn¡¯t like he could do anything with the watch. Having someone/something stroke an individual¡¯s ego sounds like a great thing, but Sam was thinking that the kind of confidence boost would be healthy (like the warning suggested). It was kind of cool how the options a warning appear with it. Selecting the Custom option, Sam heard the voice say, ¡°Please lay down, while the device is being configured.¡± Lying down on the bed, he felt like he was drifting off to sleep but slightly different. Everything faded to black and he was standing in some kind of construct. This was some kind of advanced GUI (Graphical User Interface), similar to the anime, Sword Art Online or Log Horizon. In front of him was a screen that appeared with various controls, and next to it was an avatar. The avatar was featureless and genderless, like it was waiting for something. This slightly reminded him of using the program Blender, created by the Blender Foundation, which he used to create CGI artwork, modelling, and game development. It was a pretty cool open sourced software he stumbled upon, though he was heavily limited by his available hardware. Rendering an image using the Cycle¡¯s engine relied on GPU power, particularly Nvidia hardware. At a glance, the controls seemed to be fairly elementary, nowhere near as cluttered as Blender. Organizing the various screens to his personal preference, Sam noticed that each one served a purpose. The upper left hand screen looked to be related to detailed personality development. The screen next to that is for manipulating the avatar. Below the personality screen was where he could structure any details of the AI, like the name and connections to the user. With the last screen, it was a blank screen with a blinking rectangle. It looked like a Command Prompt, and when he touched it a keyboard appeared in front of him. Slightly surprised, Sam was even more curious about it. The screen now had on it [A:\User\The Structure>] which looked like what you¡¯d expect on a Command Prompt screen. He wasn¡¯t used to the default drive being ¡°A¡±, but he ignore it and thought that was what the people that built this place used. Digitally cracking his fingers, Sam typed in something simple [A:\User\The Structure> Help] and after pushing ¡°Enter¡± on the keyboard a whole list of information came up. The information looked like all the various commands he could type into the screen. It was the usual stuff, so on the bottom line he typed ¡°dir¡± and pressed enter. Ignoring when the various files were updated he saw¡­
.
..
Project Echo
Systems
Personality
Explicit
Center
Network
AI.exe
Tools.exe
Part of him wanted to go through every line, but he was more curious about getting into The World and finishing this up so he would just hold off on this. Sam was curious about the two executables, so he typed in ¡°AI.exe¡± and pressed enter. Another window popped up and he saw a program come up. There were various buttons all over the screen, but one that drew his attention was ¡°realism control¡±. Tapping on that button, the screen switched to several dials and other controls. One of the dials was labeled as ¡°personality¡±, which was set to the lowest setting. This part made him think about the settings menu on a game, and so he thought to increase it to the max. He wondered if this was some limiter placed on the AI, so they sounded all robotic like instead of like real people. There was an intelligence dial that he set to max. By setting it to max the AI would be, likely, outside of the parameters set by The Structure for these AIs. The nice thing is that if things went south, then he could just go back and change both these drastic changes. Another one that interested him was the one labeled as ¡°tactile feedback¡±. Looking at it the label made it sound like the ability to feel something. Throwing caution to the win he crank that up to the max, too. There was a empty box labeled as ¡°emotions¡± and touching it there was now an ¡°X¡± in it. ¡°I guess the AI has emotions now??¡± He thought to himself. Nothing else jumped out and gained his interest, so he just swiped it away after tapping ¡°Apply Changes¡±. He was back to where he was at and this time he typed in ¡°Tools.exe¡± and pressed enter. Once again another program executed. This one looked similar to the tools he commonly used in hacking. If it had the dragon in the background, the program would look exactly like Kali Linux¡¯s screen. ¡°Why in the world would they have this here¡±, thought Sam. He wondered how many other participants found this page, because like everything else the things he did wasn¡¯t very complicated. All he needed to do was follow the same thought process he had back home on his home computer. There wasn¡¯t much he needed to do here, at this moment, so he moved the screen to the side. Sam questioned whether he would still have access when he moved to the next stage of this experiment. Going to the personality screen, Sam set her overall personality to slightly adventurous, tad humble (not too much), fairly confident (clicking the self-assured box), and very helpful and loyal. It was unnecessary for him to make something like a servant or slave, thought it was kind of tempting. This was probably his inner creepy nerd coming out. Instead of an obedient slave, Sam had a feeling that it would be more useful to have a competent partner if he was going to get through all these years. On the appearance scree, the look he had in mind was what he created. Even though this was only a program, Sam was still an anime nerd so he had played the occasional dating simulation. He wasn¡¯t ashamed of this fact, and the plus side was keeping him out of drama, unlike a close friend of his who constantly was getting into trouble with women. Since they mentioned having a sample of the US population, the odds that there were cute women was pretty high. If he was going to stay out of trouble then having an AI that matched his ideal image of a woman would be helpful. Increasing the avatar¡¯s height to around 5¡¯9¡±, Sam gave it long hair and made it a dark brunette. The eye colors were turned to a deep emerald, he enjoyed the contrast. The skin color was close to ivory, but on the realistic side. Being the slight pervert, Sam gave her a decent bust and back side. Her legs were made to be long like a model¡¯s. Sam knew that he would have zero chance in the real world with a woman like her. It made him feel a little creepy doing this since he thought guys who had these types of fantasies were weird, but when he has the opportunity he does the same thing. ¡°Guess I¡¯m a hypocrite, like everyone else.¡± Sam laughed to himself.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. Moving onto the detail section, Sam entered her name as ¡°Brittany¡± and set her age to be ¡°21¡±. He may be creepy, but he¡¯s not the type to go after someone younger than him. He also had a thing for older college girls, so this in an unusual way was better. There were other details that he specified. The last one he was interested in was how she would call him. Deliberating for a bit, Sam thought that he would set it to ¡°master¡±. He already made some creepy choices, so why not do this last one. Giving everything one last look over, Sam liked what he saw and hoped that he didn¡¯t regret any of his choices. There was a button at the very bottom that had ¡°End Session¡± on it, so he pushed it. Everything around him faded away as the real world came back. Opening his eyes, Sam saw the ceiling of the pod. ¡°Welcome back, master¡±, a beautiful voice spoke to him. ¡°Brittany, is that you?¡± asked Sam. He was slightly surprised by hearing her voice. The way she her voice sounded was very realistic, like she was an actual college aged woman. It was slightly sultry in that sexy kind of way. Feeling a little worried, Sam asked, ¡°How are you feeling? Is there anything that feels uncomfortable?¡± There was a slight pause, and Brittany responded, ¡°Everything appears to be working, correctly. If we want to leave on time, remember to give yourself enough time to get ready.¡± Nodding his head, Sam started to get ready for the main event, entrance into The World. If it wasn¡¯t the fact that he didn¡¯t want to smell on this first chance at meeting everybody, he would head directly to the next stage. It feels like forever since he heard about this place, and just wanted to get there already. Once he was finished, he headed to the main stage following the glowing line again. ¡°What kind of information can you tell me about The World and this experiment?¡± he asked Brittany. ¡°Aside from the general information you received in the video, there¡¯s not much I can tell you about the experiment. When it comes to The World, I can tell you the various parts of the area and direct you to where you need to go.¡± she said, sounding apologetic. It was cool how she was able to control the subtle details in her synthetic voice, mimicking a real human. Feeling a little frustrated, he thought outloud, ¡°I was hoping for some insider information, after changing some stuff in your programming.¡± ¡°I do feel a little different, after going through the alterations.¡± Brittany confessed to him. ¡°How much of a difference do you feel?¡± He was a little alarmed by this revelation. Sounding curious, Brittany just said, ¡°I¡¯m not sure, I just understand that I¡¯m just different but okay with it.¡± Reaching the elevator, Sam got in and waited like he did last time and got out once he reached his floor. There was something nice about not needing to worry about pressing the elevator button. ¡°It¡¯s the little things in life that makes you feel good¡±, he thought to himself. He found himself in the familiar hallway from yesterday. The line continued where he walked through, previously. ¡°Instead of walking up to the counter, where you picked me up, you¡¯ll make a left and continue to the giant doors. This is the entrance into The World.¡± Instructed Brittany. Making his way left, Sam saw the massive doors that Brittany was talking about. Those things looked massive, like something out of a bank. When he approached the doors there was a green square that lit up on the side. Looking down at his watch, Brittany responded with, ¡°Yeah. That was my doing. I have the ability to unlock the door from this side, but once we get through those doors they are officially sealed for us.¡± ¡°Where is everyone else?¡± He asked, as the doors were opening up. ¡°They still haven¡¯t come through. Don¡¯t think about coming out, cause there¡¯s another door at the end of this hallway and we¡¯ll repeat the process. Each of the groups are just small enough so they don¡¯t get to the other door before these doors are closed.¡± ¡°That way even if the doors open up, those in front, I won¡¯t be able to get through the second locked doors.¡± He inferred. ¡°That¡¯s pretty smart of them. It allows them to move a massive number of people, while making sure that the environment isn¡¯t contaminated.¡± Thinking about it for a second, he wondered, ¡°Why am I inside already, then? This doesn¡¯t make any sense that I¡¯m already entering The World before everyone else.¡± ¡°You have me to thank for that.¡± Brittany told him. ¡°Getting a feel for the place isn¡¯t a major edge, but I figured anything I could do to help is important.¡± ¡°How much time do I have until everyone else starts coming in?¡± ¡°You¡¯ll have almost the entire day, to look around. I wouldn¡¯t take your time leisurely walking around, and quickly get a sense for the place.¡± She cautioned me. As the second set of doors begun to open, Sam saw light coming through. Initially, Sam thought the light was from an incandescent bulb, but when the doors completely opened he saw the sky. Stepping through the doorway was confusing, considering that he was outside but still inside of The Structure. ¡°What in the world¡­¡± He trailed off, looking around at his surroundings. ¡°Amazing isn¡¯t it? The interior is designed to appear like the outside world. There are forests, lakes, roads, and various other parts to provide a lifelike experience. This path through the forest will lead you into a small looking town, where you¡¯ll see various buildings. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll find it very impressive, the amount of work that went into this project. I knew about the general outline of the interior, but it wasn¡¯t until we entered this place did I receive the full picture.¡± Brittany informed me. Walking down the path, he could feel the dirt beneath his feet and the popping and cracking of twigs. The air smelled of a forest, and old one, confusing his senses. When Sam reached one of the trees, his fingers brushed against the rough bark with bits of it falling to the ground. Continuing down the trail, he forced himself to remember that he needed to focus on the task at hand. He wasn¡¯t sure what benefit he could receive from being in The World early, but he should take it seriously. This trail was failing long, but as the light pierced through the canopy he understood that he was close to the end. Once the forest ended, there was a stretch of neatly trimmed grass and in front was the town. There was a scattering of houses, big and small, and apartment complexes. There was a main road with businesses on either side. Getting closer, Sam saw that some of the businesses were clothing related. He also spotted a small grocery store, restaurants of various types, and a small movie theater. In the far distance, there was a large modern looking hospital, which looked completely out of place of the small town. Based on what he could see, Sam could imagine that it was the world¡¯s most medically advanced hospital in the world after what he¡¯s seen with this place. ¡°Are those houses for the participants?¡± He asked Brittany. ¡°Those residential properties are for those who have sufficient number of tickets. The houses are nearly 100 tickets per month, and the apartments are 5 tickets a day. Based on the luck of the roll with the D20 die, a participant will be able to gain entry into those locations and the corresponding number of tickets will be automatically removed from the account. Based on what I know of the outside world, this process is far easier without the annoying contracts for everything.¡± She sounded amused by our practices. ¡°How about that giant hospital?¡± Sam pointed at the building. Giggling, Brittany responded with, ¡°You¡¯re funny, asking how much it costs for that hospital. No one could afford to buy that building. If you¡¯re asking about what happens if you get injured, the cost is zero, of course. How could you humans expect that we wouldn¡¯t look after your health?¡± Thinking about what it was like outside this place, he chuckled at her naive answer. The world out there was not as forgiving as it appeared to be inside of here. Just looking at this town, it looked like Paradise. Walking past the various buildings, he thought of how wonderful his time would be. The nice part was that all his needs would be provided for, as long as he rolled a die and got decent numbers. From his understanding of statistics any single number will have a 5% chance of coming up. Just needing 5 tickets for the day, he probably needed somewhere along the lines of 10 to 20 tickets. That means he has a 55% chance of rolling a number based on these requirements. ¡°Hey, Brittany, what¡¯s the cost of the various restaurants?¡± He asked her. ¡°Since you¡¯ll be just starting out, I¡¯ll go from cheap to pricey. For 2 tickets, you can get a supplemental drink (vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry); for 5 tickets, you can get a combo meal at the burger restaurant; for 15 tickets, you can get a dinner at the barbeque restaurant; and for 25 tickets, you can dine at the fancy restaurant. Each of the locations are a flat rate, regardless of what you order. Once you enter into the establishment, like with the apartment, the tickets will be taken out of the account. There are other places to eat that cost more, but for now I have explained the ones you¡¯ll see for now. Regarding the clothing there are tiered costs, based on the style. Obviously, plain clothing will cost less, while fancier clothing will cost more.¡± She meticulously itemized all the various costs. ¡°Where do I go to roll the die?¡± He asked her. ¡°At the hospital, you¡¯ll be able to find a kiosk that has a variety of information. This kiosk will also have a die app that¡¯ll roll a virtual die and provide you with your daily result. You¡¯ll only be able to access this app after 24 hours has passed. This is through the injected chip and myself, which provides the timestamp for the kiosk. If you want, we can head over to the hospital and try to see what you¡¯ll roll?¡± Not having anything better to do, Sam started to walk towards the hospital. Going through the town, he was impressed by how detailed everything looked. The buildings all looked weather worn, as if this town had existed for decades exposed to the elements. Nothing looked overgrown or abandoned, so some kind of maintenance had to be done. Controlled nature is what went through Sam¡¯s mind as he looked at things closely. He didn¡¯t think there were workers inside of this place, considering the security measures of the doors. This wasn¡¯t an important thought, so Sam didn¡¯t think about asking Brittany at the moment. A part of him just wanted to maintain the magical look of this place. Calling it The World was an apt title for all of this. The hospital was definitely a fancy looking building. Walking up the sidewalk to the entrance, the doors automatically opened into a massive lobby. Looking very modern and clean, the lobby exuded a comfortable and inviting feeling. There were potted plants all throughout the area, bringing a wide variety of color to the place, the wall were painted sky blue, and the floor looked to be made from bamboo. Flat LCD tvs were placed strategically, so that participants could see the provided information clearly. On the far left wall, there was a line of kiosks and that¡¯s where Sam went. As he walked up to the kiosk, the screen displayed ¡°Welcome, Sam¡±. Tapping on the screen the screen changed.
Daily Roll (Tickets) Medical Aid Psychological Aid
Medication Welcome Donate Tickets
Map of Serenity Gambling Help
Title Description
Daily Roll (Tickets) This is where you are able to roll your die to earn your daily tickets.
Medical Aid If you are injured and need medical aid (non-emergency), utilize this option to see a medical droid.
Psychological Aid If you need to speak to someone, feel free to use our therapists and psychiatrists to work through any issues.
Medication Look through our list of over-the-counter medications for your use. If you need a refill on prescribed medication you can gain your ticket here to provide at the counter.
Donate Tickets Feeling charitable? Donate your available tickets to another participant.
Map of Serenity A mat of the current town of Serenity, with corresponding prices.
Gambling Feeling lucky? Try your luck at some common casino games, like Blackjack, Poker, Slot, Roulette, and many more.
Help If you need assistance with utilizing a service, and your provided wrist device is not explaining things simply enough.
¡°Let¡¯s try rolling for my tickets.¡± Sam spoke out loud, tapping the ¡°Daily Roll (Tickets)¡± button. A die appeared on the screen, dancing all over the place looking really cute with its animation. A button with ¡°Let¡¯s Go!¡± was on the middle of the screen. Tapping on it the die started to bounce around the screen and then started to slow down. When it finally stopped rolling around, the number 2 came flying to the screen with a ¡°Congratulations!!!¡± in big letters. Looking at the screen, Sam just said, ¡°Fuck¡­¡± Chapter 4 Lying on the ground staring up at the sky, Sam felt the grass beneath him and just listened to The World. There wasn¡¯t the usual sound of cars driving around, the random honking and yelling of angry drivers. Part of him wondered everyone, he knew, in Jackson were up to. Would they be studying for the next exam, checking their Facebook, watching new YouTube videos, and wondering where they would be in life? In the distance the sound of birds and animals could be heard, as they went about their purpose. How could The Structure be so lifelike? It constantly reminded him about the amount of time and money that must have gone into making this experiment happen. ¡°Master, are you okay?¡± Asked Brittany, sounding concerned. Sam was silent, unsure of how to answer that simple question. ¡°Are you thinking about your roll?¡± ¡°I¡¯m assuming you¡¯re referring to my amazing roll?¡± said Sam, feeling a bit petulant. Brittany sighed, letting him know what she thought of his answer. Feeling embarrassed, Sam responded, ¡°Sorry. I didn¡¯t mean to act that way. Considering that it was my first roll, I didn¡¯t expect to roll a 2. I admit I¡¯m acting a bit childish, right now.¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay, Master. Thought it may be stressful, I¡¯m here for you. I¡¯ll help you through this.¡± ¡°Thanks, Brittany. I admit that it¡¯s nice to have you with me.¡± Sam was feeling a lot better, talking it out with her. After what happened at the hospital and seeing the results, he admitted to feeling a bit lost as he walked out of the building. Seeing the manicured grass, lying down seemed like an amazing option. He didn¡¯t know how long he lay down on the grass, but seeing how much the sun moved in the sky he figured it was for a bit. ¡°Brittany, I was wondering about how this little village is meant to house all of us? Based on the number of houses and rooms in each apartment, I doubt that everyone could be here.¡± He pondered. ¡°This is only one of many towns inside of The World. If you go further past this town, you¡¯ll reach villages scattered all over the place. There are three cities in this area. The cities aren¡¯t even needed to house everyone, and are only options for those who have enough tickets.¡± ¡°That sounds pretty amazing!¡± Sam said, sounding impressed. ¡°Aside from the cities, all the locations are within half a day of walking, at a leisurely pace.¡± She elaborated. ¡°If you¡¯re feeling hungry. How about going over to get your first supplement drink?¡± ¡°Where do we need to go for that?¡± He didn¡¯t remember seeing a restaurant that specialized in giving out the supplements. In front of Sam, a glowing line appeared that circled behind him. He turned himself around, following the line, and saw it leading back to the hospital. ¡°I wasn¡¯t expecting it to be inside of the hospital.¡± He said to Brittany. ¡°In order to support the large number of people that¡¯ll come through here, the hospital is the only thing large enough in the immediate vicinity. If you see a hospital that¡¯s where you¡¯ll find the supplement drink. The drinks can be found on the second floor. He headed back into the hospital. In the lobby, Sam glanced at the kiosks, thinking about earlier and wishing he could roll the die again. He knew that wasn¡¯t possible and he would need to try again tomorrow. Heading towards the elevator, he thought about what he needed to do now. At least he experienced rock bottom, only having two tickets. Though thinking about it, Sam could have ended up with only one. Just thinking about that sent sweat pouring down his back. With a single ticket, he couldn¡¯t even get a supplement drink. Reaching the elevator, the doors opened by themselves and he entered. ¡°Hey, Brittany. I¡¯m going to assume that you¡¯re the one doing this?¡± He asked her. ¡°Depending on the tech, I¡¯m able to remotely access the system. I already know that your destination, so all you need to do is enter the elevator.¡± She giggled, thinking it funny that Sam didn¡¯t realize this earlier. Brittany enjoyed how Sam was sometimes ignorant about what she was able to do. Arriving at the second floor, I stepped out and saw an open floor with circular tables and chairs. On one side of the cafeteria looking setup were vending machines and on the other side was diner looking setup with tons of stoves, sinks, and refrigerators behind a counter. ¡°What¡¯s up with this place?¡± He asked Brittany. As he was turning around, checking the place out, she said, ¡°This place is for those who have a limited number of tickets. When you go into the grocery store and purchase food, you can use these kitchen appliances to cook the food. All the dishes, utensils, and equipment are through the double doors there. It¡¯s set up like a commercial kitchen, so feel free to use them whenever. As you can see in the vending machines, you can get the supplement drinks, soda, and various other drinks. The ticket prices can seen on the button. You just need to press the button and the drink you ordered will drop out, just like in the real world without the bills or coins. I think it¡¯s probably a lot more convenient for people, but I¡¯m just a machine.¡± Walking over to the supplement vending machine, Sam saw the giant picture of what he assumed was the drink. On the side were three buttons, for vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate. Sighing and shrugging his shoulders, he pressed the strawberry button and heard the whirring of the machine and thudding of the drink. Reaching down to the opening, he grabbed the drink container and looked at it. The packaging looked pretty creative, like those you¡¯d see in a GNC store. Shaking the bottle, he turned the cap and drank the contents. Compared to other supplement drinks he has tried in the past, the flavor was pretty on point. It tasted like strawberries, though it was fairly thick. ¡°The taste isn¡¯t that bad, though I imagine I¡¯d get pretty sick of it if I had to drink it constantly.¡± Sam thought out loud. ¡°It provided you with everything you nutritional need, for a day.¡± ¡°I kind of want to try out the other flavors, though it¡¯ll probably be awhile before I need to get one. I guess it¡¯ll be something to look forward to¡±, Sam laughed. After getting that out of his system and throwing out the bottle, Sam asked, ¡°Since I don¡¯t have anymore tickets now, do I get to sleep here or outside?¡± Looking out the window, he could tell that the sun was close to setting. Even though it felt like he just arrive in The World, the day went by quickly. ¡°On the third floor, you¡¯ll be able to find pods similar to the welcome area, just without the screen and comforts. The pods just have a mattress, with no door that¡¯ll close. It was purposefully designed to be pretty Spartan in design. Since they are free.¡± She answered, not sounding too happy and understanding that it wasn¡¯t the best situation. ¡°At least I don¡¯t need to sleep out under the stars, though considering how it won¡¯t rain inside of the structure it wouldn¡¯t be that big of an issue.¡± He said trying to stay optimistic. ¡°Actually¡­¡± Brittany said, sounding very uncomfortable. Looking down at his watch, Sam said, ¡°You¡¯ve got to be joking¡­ It¡¯s going to rain in here? There should be a limit to how realistic this place is!¡± He was met with silence as his voice was rising, which confirmed that this was actually the case. Grabbing one of the chairs, Sam placed his arms on the table and buried his face in them. Not only was he slightly hungry, even after drinking his meal, Sam was feeling a little stressed out. Even though he had faced worse scenarios out in the real world, he wondered what life was going to be like in here. ¡°What time is everyone going to enter into The World?¡± he asked, his voice muffled by his arms. ¡°They¡¯ll be here early in the morning, once the sun comes up. They¡¯ll be coming in groups of a thousand. The process will take all day tomorrow, so each person will be alerted when their group is getting ready to come inside The World.¡± She said gently, understanding that this experience may be stressful for him. After staying at the table for a couple of mins, Sam said, ¡°I¡¯m feeling a little sleepy, so let¡¯s go to the third floor.¡± With effort, he got up and started to walk back to the elevators and entered the one with the waiting opened doors. Getting to the third floor, he saw rows and rows of empty pods. Grabbing one of the nearer ones on the floor level, he crawled into the pod and lay on his stomach. As thoughts went through his head he eventually fell asleep.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. When he opened his eyes, he felt like only a few minutes had passed by. Yawning and stretching himself, while he lay on the mattress, Sam asked, ¡°Brittany, what time is it?¡± ¡°Good morning, Master. You slept fairly deeply, so I hope you had a good rest. Currently it¡¯s 7 am, and the seventh group is entering into The World. By the end of the day, there will be around a million people inside of The World.¡± ¡°Wait!! What did you just say?!¡± Sam became alert, and wanted her to confirm what she just said. ¡°There will be a million people inside of The World.¡± Brittany repeated herself. Thinking about the town, he retorted, ¡°There¡¯s no room for a million people here. Are you sure it¡¯s a million people?¡± ¡°As people enter into The World, each participant¡¯s AI companion will recommend that they continue onto the other villages and towns. The AIs will be able to guide each participant to an appropriate location, aside from the cities since no one will be able to live in them with the current flow of tickets. Already people are walking around the town and looking at the various stores and the hospital. Some are being proactive and walking to the next nearest settlement.¡± She explained. ¡°How do you know what the other people are doing?¡± He asked her. ¡°As an AI companion, we are allowed access some information related to participants. This way we can give helpful advice to each individual. This experience will be different from your own, due to your modifications.¡± She sounded somewhat prideful near the end. ¡°I forgot to ask, but will other people be able to hear you? The fact that I can hear you, must mean that the speaker in the watch are set pretty high.¡± He wondered. Giggling at his inquiry, Brittany said, ¡°You perceive my to be originating from the watch, but you are actually hearing through your skull. The implant is vibrating inside of you, to generate my voice so that you can hear me clearly. If you were out in the real world, people would think that you were unwell, cause you¡¯d be talking to yourself.¡± Glad that this was the case, Sam slowly got out of his pod. As he walked away, Sam saw a small robot appear, looking like a giant spider. Slightly alarmed by this site, he watched as it went into his pod. Walking back to his pod, Sam saw the robot remake his bed and organize the pod like it was some kind of maid. ¡°Those robots will work throughout The World, cleaning up after everyone. They are the reason everything looks so well taken care of. Each of them look different, based on their individual function.¡± Brittany answered, without him needing to ask. ¡°That¡¯s very convenient.¡± He thought to himself. Going into the elevator and reaching the first floor, Sam saw numerous people just chilling out in the lobby. No one seemed to pay attention to him, as he walked past them all. He saw that all of them either finished rolling the die, or were waiting to roll their die. Occasionally, Sam saw a guy shouting happily or angrily, based on the number they received. The people that shouted in anger, Sam could relate with. He still had several hours before he could go back to the kiosk and roll his die again. ¡°So what do I do now?¡± He asked, to no one in particular, once I was back outside. People were walking out with him or heading into the hospital. Looking over at the town, he saw that it was already looking somewhat crowded and people looked to be walking past the town, probably to the next settlement. ¡°This experiment was purposefully designed to be open for interpretation. It¡¯s kind of like an open world video game, where is no set purpose for the player. If you want, you can try talking with the new participants and build a social network.¡± Brittany suggested. Thinking that her advice was fairly reasonable, he started to walk to the town and see if he could build some connections or friends. Living in this place would probably not be fun by himself, so he thought meeting people could prove beneficial. Entering into the town proper, Sam looked at the different people looking to see if anyone would make a good friend. He was also seeing if he could spot Sarah since he hadn¡¯t seen her since they first arrived. Sam realized that he didn¡¯t think about her at all this entire time, and hoped she was doing well. Based on prior experience with her, he didn¡¯t think it likely that she would have difficulty in making friends, especially guy friends. He thought about asking Brittany if she was able to locate Sarah, but after thinking about it he didn¡¯t think it was necessary. A part of him wanted to think of this as a new life, a chance to forge a new image and hanging out with Sarah would make that difficult. There was also nothing really pulling him to see her again. As he reached the main street, he saw a girl just standing in the middle of it, looking somewhat dazed. Imagining that her expression was the same as his, when he first arrived, he headed over to her. ¡°This place is pretty amazing, right?¡± He asked her, when he came near. Jumping a little, she noticed him and smiled. ¡°Yeah. This place is pretty amazing.¡± ¡°My name is Sam.¡± He introduced himself. ¡°Hello, Sam. My name is Lisa.¡± She was slightly shorter than him, with light brown hair and brown eyes. The other thing he noticed, while not trying to be obvious, was her rather busty chest. She was wearing the same outfit as he was, but the garment seemed to do a nice job in showing her curves. ¡°I¡¯m guessing you¡¯ve just arrived here?¡± Sam asked Lisa, trying to distract himself from his inner thoughts. Nodding her head, Lisa said, ¡°Yeah. I guess it¡¯s pretty obvious? I came in with the sixth group, so I¡¯m still trying to figure things out. My watch is answered some of my questions, but I¡¯m kind of going at a slow pace.¡± ¡°I¡¯m guessing you already know about tickets?¡± He asked her. Seeing her nod, Sam said, ¡°If you¡¯re interested, we could head to the hospital where you get to roll for your tickets?¡± Thinking about it for a couple of seconds, Lisa answered, ¡°I would appreciate if you did that.¡± The two of them head over to the hospital. Lisa talked about what her life was like outside of The World and her thoughts about random events, giving Sam the impression that they had a lot in common. She was a pretty avid gamer, particularly enjoying horror games. ¡°There¡¯s something amazing about games that refer to content that H.P. Lovecraft created. The idea that anyone could be a victim or the fact that we are just floating in the cosmos without a purpose is kind of cool and scary.¡± She told him, as they went further into the various games they played. Sam had mentioned how he had also played Dead Space and some other horror games, and Lisa informed him about how they had aspects to H.P. Lovecraft. He also enjoyed the author¡¯s work, and enjoyed the various movies based on his view of the universe. One of the movies that came to mind was John Carpenter¡¯s ¡°The Thing¡±, and when he brought this up she started to talk about it. Waving her hands explaining things, she said excitedly, ¡°Did you know that John Carpenter shot the film on six artificially chilled sound stages, and the actors had to deal with cold climates? I think that was one of the coolest parts.¡± Sam never knew that about the movie, and thinking about it he thought that was one of the things that made the movie so great. Often whenever watching a movie the feeling like it¡¯s a great movie bubbles inside but the reason is hidden, and may this was an example of this phenomenon. Reaching the hospital and seeing the line of people, instead of going up to the cafeteria, they decided to just wait and continue to get familiar with one another. ¡°What got you so interested in the horror genre?¡± Sam asked Lisa, curious as to why such a cute looking girl was interested in a morbid category of entertainment. ¡°Due to life circumstances, I was often scared as a kid. Wanting to become a stronger person, I decided to watch horror movies and read scary stories.¡± Her looks was cheerful, but seemed to hide something from view. Thinking to cheer her up, Sam said, ¡°At least in this place, you don¡¯t need to worry about scary things.¡± The way this whole place was set up gave a very peaceful and relaxing vibe. Lisa smiled at him, nodding her head in agreement. ¡°Could you imagine if they built this place to be cold and frigid?¡± She asked, giggling. ¡°That would be horrible. I really dislike the cold, and being stuck in that kind of environment for so long would suck.¡± He responded making a face. This caused Lisa to laugh, making the nearby people glance at them. Sam noticed that some of the guys made some lewd glances, their eyes seeming to move across her body. Though he had no connection with Lisa, the idea of such perverted guys being in here gave a disgusting feeling. The flow of people seemed to move at a decent place, as they heard the happy and angry cries of people at the kiosk. We reached the kiosk, and Lisa went through the same process he had gone through. Watching the die roll, Sam felt a little stressed even though it didn¡¯t have any connection to his own situation. This was probably what gamblers went through, when they participated or watched others gamble. Slowing down, the die eventually showed the number ¡°5¡± with a ¡°Congratulations!!¡± and confetti all over the screen. Looking at her, Sam felt like he should say something to cheer her up. Lisa¡¯s shoulders were slumped, giving her a pretty dejected appearance. ¡°It¡¯ll be okay.¡± He told her. Gently, Sam guided her away from the kiosk and out the way of other participants. ¡°Let¡¯s go up to the cafeteria. It¡¯s pretty chill and I can show you where you can get some food.¡± Trying to encourage her, they walked over and entered the elevator. Even after they got out and sat down at one of the circular tables, Lias hadn¡¯t said a single word. The two of them just sat at the table in silence. Words didn¡¯t seem to be appropriate for this time, so he didn¡¯t try to fill the silence. He just watched her, while also listening to the conversations in the background. People were talking about what they thought about The World. There were some people who had rolled a 20, and sounded pretty excited about what they could purchase. Others were talking about grabbing an apartment and relaxing for the day, comparing this experience as a vacation from work. Compared to how the real world was like, this appeared to be a lot easier. All you needed to do was roll a die and you could live however you wanted. It had all the benefits of living in a capitalistic society, without the annoying aspects of it. Inside of here, participants didn¡¯t need to think about filling out contracts, filing taxes, finishing paperwork, and other annoying aspects of living in a normal society. Casually looking around, Sam noticed that people seemed to naturally group up with those in similar circumstances. Those that were high rollers were sitting with one another, and those that were doing okay were also casually talking with others. A couple of people seemed to be sitting by themselves, looking lost and confused. Sam could only assume that those were people that, like him and Lisa, had rolled horribly and were trying to figure out what next to do. Gently placing a hand on Lisa¡¯s shoulder, Sam was trying to figure out how to avoid her becoming like those sitting by themselves. He felt like just sitting in depression was counter productive. ¡°Lisa, why don¡¯t you try getting a supplement drink. I think getting some food will help. The flavors aren¡¯t too bad. If you want a recommendation, I suggest getting a strawberry flavor.¡± He grinned. Nodding her head, she smiled at him, understanding what he was trying to do and letting him know how she appreciated it. Getting up, Lisa went over to the vending machine and pressed the button for a drink and walked back. Shaking the drink and opening. She sat down and started to drink the substance. Placing the bottle on the table, Lisa asked, ¡°So what do we do now?¡± Glad that she seemed to be better, Sam responded, ¡°There doesn¡¯t seem to be a clear purpose in here. I heard that there are villages past this town, so I was thinking about heading over there since this place will likely get crowded. If you want, you can come along with me to the new village?¡± Considering his offer, she answered, ¡°I would appreciate that.¡± It seemed like the idea of going to a new place helped to take her mind off of what happened, which was a positive result. Seeing that as a signal, Sam got up and held out a hand to Lisa. She took the proffered hand and they made their way out of the hospital. Exiting the hospital let them see how crowded the town was becoming, with some occasional outbursts when people bumped into other people. ¡°Brittany, could you map out a destination to a village that¡¯s further away from the others?¡± He asked his companion.. ¡°Certainly, Master. Is there a particular reason for the parameters given?¡± She asked him, sounding a little perplexed. Lisa looked at him with a curious gaze, probably thinking the same thing, which was funny considering Lisa couldn¡¯t hear his conversation with Brittany. Another example of how lifelike Brittany was. Explaining for the benefit of both Lisa and Brittany, he said, ¡°Seeing people acting a bit aggressively made me think it might be a good idea to head to someplace that won¡¯t be quickly filled. The last thing we need is to get into some kind of altercation with other people, before we get used to our new environment. ¡°That sounds like a fairly reasonable conclusion.¡± Brittany said to him. Lisa nodding her head also let him know that she had agreed with his thinking. Following the glowing line provided by Brittany, Sam led the way while still holding onto Lisa¡¯s hand. Not wanting her to feel depressed again, he thought that holding her hand would help her not feel like she was alone in this. Chapter 5 Like the gentle ocean, the grass field seemed to have slight dips and peaks. It wasn¡¯t enough for someone to feel like they were over exerting themselves, and more like walking through a peaceful park. There was the occasional deer and other animals, which scampered away, if people approach them. With the occasional giant oak tree, it served as a usual place to lay down and enjoy the nice breeze, and watch the clouds pass by. If there was a place that people would call Eden, it felt like The World would be such a place. From a distance, the image of Sam and Lisa lying on the grass under the shade of an oak tree seemed to be like something out of a painting. Occasionally, a cloud would pass in front of the sun and a shadow would roll across the manicured grassy field. Most people would be reminded of their childhood, when the stress of adulthood would still be a distant event in the future. In his entire life, Sam never experience a day like today where he could just enjoy a friend¡¯s companionship, while underneath a blue sky. He thought about his life and the constant struggles he had to go through. There were some aspects of his life he wasn¡¯t, particularly, proud of, especially when it concerned his abilities with computers. Compared to others, Sam knew that he was lucky that he never had to experience the inside of a prison cell, unlike many others he personally knew. Whenever he visited the various forums, there would be news about another friend being arrested by the FBI and sent to jail. Even though he was fairly careful, the thought was always in the back of his mind. Though he may not have been as infamous as Dread Pirate Roberts or LulzSec, the idea of getting arrested by local authorities wasn¡¯t foreign to him. ¡°What are you thinking about?¡± Lisa asked him. They had been lying under the shade for what seemed like quite some time. Staring at the sky, Sam said, ¡°Just thinking about how fortunate I¡¯ve been, compared to others outside of this place.¡± Sam could feel her hand covering his, letting him know that she was there. The two of them had walked for a couple of hours, towards their destination, and on the way they spotted the oak tree. For some reason, looking at the tree just by itself looked like something out of a movie, so they took the opportunity to lay down and rest. The position of the sun made him think it was near noon, so the two of them must have been lying there for quite some time. ¡°Have you thought about how realistic they made the sky?¡± Lisa asked, echoing his own thoughts. ¡°The way the sun moves makes it seem like we can actually base time off of it. I keep forgetting that we¡¯re inside a giant building.¡± She continued. Gently squeezing her hand, Sam replied, ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking the same thing. I can understand why there were so many solar panels around this place, considering how much energy that thing must require. Part of me wants to figure out how they¡¯re doing it, while another side of me wants to just accept the illusion.¡± Raising his upper body up, so he could sit and stare across the grassy field, he felt like if everyday was like this he could be happy. After gazing at the scenery, Sam turned his head and looked at Lisa as she lay on her back. She looked back at him and gave a big smile. ¡°We should probably keep going, so we don¡¯t end up sleeping outside.¡± He told her. ¡°Sleeping outside doesn¡¯t seem like that bad of a thing.¡± She laughed, innocently. Grinning, Sam said, ¡°I don¡¯t think you¡¯d like it if it rained.¡± ¡°What!? It rains in here, too!?¡± Her expression shocked, by this new information. ¡°Is that true?¡± Lisa said to herself, talking to her companion. A few moments passed, as she listened to her companion supporting the information. Getting up, Lisa started to twirl around while laughing happily. Seeing Sam¡¯s expression, she informed him, ¡°I love the rain! I was thinking I wouldn¡¯t see it for a half a decade, or more!¡± Sam started to laugh, infected by how happy Lisa was by this revelation. ¡°Hey, Sam, why didn¡¯t they make any roads leading to the other villages?¡± Lisa asked him, after they started walking again. Contemplating on the reason, Sam confessed, ¡°I¡¯m not really sure why they didn¡¯t. It would have made the most sense, making it easier to reach the other villages without having to rely on our companions. Maybe it¡¯s because there aren¡¯t any vehicles? Why would you need roads, if you didn¡¯t have any cars?¡± He didn¡¯t feel like this really answered the question, which was also on his mind as they were walking. ¡°Even though this place looks so amazing, a part of me kind of wonders what the point of this is.¡± She wondered out loud. ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°I mean, we¡¯re going to be living in this Eden like place, where most of the things we worried about outside doesn¡¯t exist in here. The amount of money that was used to build this place must have been enormous, on top of paying us after this is over. Part of me is wondering what the catch is. What¡¯s their end-game?¡± Lisa pondered. ¡°Maybe this was created to experiment what an ideal society could look like?¡± He offered. ¡°They did talk about how this is meant to better humanity, and considering how much money was involved I would assume the Federal Government was involved in this.¡± Contemplating the others thoughts, the two of them walked in silence. Considering how they didn¡¯t have any information, a part of Sam considered if there was any point in thinking about the overall purpose of this experiment. In the field of psychology, there were plenty of ethical restriction when people were involved, especially after experiments like the Milgram and Stanford Prison Experiment. Both of those really opened the eyes of people, relating what people would do when faced with an authority figure. The benefit of this experiment was that there were no authority figures, to goad people into doing stuff they didn¡¯t want to. Keeping this in mind, Sam thought that this would likely be a peaceful experiment, maybe on an ideal social environment. It seemed like all the bare requirements were provided. Even though he rolled a two, Sam was able to get ahold of food and gain access to free lodging. It kind of reminded him of the current political climate, where people were talking about a Guaranteed Basic Income to offset the effects of automation. As far as the world knew, there wasn¡¯t a robust AI system in place to speed up automation, though he knew this was likely not the case. The Singularity Event, where a true AI system is created, seems to be near, after his interactions with Brittany. He thought about all the interviews on YouTube he watched, where great minds talked about how the rise of machines would bring big problems to the world. Even when he was working at McDonald¡¯s, he remembered learning about the automated ordering option, where customers could input their own order and just swipe their phones. How much longer would service industry people have a job. Sam jumped, when Lisa placed her hand on his shoulder. He didn¡¯t realized that Lisa had stopped and he had walked past her. Looking at him, Lisa asked, ¡°Are you okay?¡± She looked worried, considering she had called out to him and he didn¡¯t respond. Shaking his head to get rid of his thoughts, Sam said, ¡°I was just thinking about some stuff, related to everything outside of here. Leaving a puzzle unsolved was never a strong point of mine, and trying to guess at what the Center for the Study of Mankind¡¯s purpose is got me thinking about stuff.¡± Placing his hand on top of her, he tried to convey that he was okay. Lightening up the mood, Lisa said, ¡°Did you see the theater at the town? I wonder what kind of movies they play? Adam, my companion, told me that watching a movie would require 15 tickets, but they have stuff like soda, popcorn, and candy! I hope that we¡¯ll be able to go there sometime, if you are interested.¡± She looked at him shyly. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. ¡°I would enjoy that. Who wouldn¡¯t enjoy going to see a movie, especially with a friend like you.¡± He grinned at her. Sam thought it was cute how she was pretty reserved, comparably to Sarah, who was really outspoken. When they started to walk again, he asked Lisa, ¡°Did you go to the movies a lot with your friends?¡± ¡°Yeah. I used to go with my friends all the time, though lately they all would bring their boyfriends so I would feel like a third wheel. It was still a lot of fun, but different when it would just be my friends and me.¡± She told him, sounding a little moody near the end. A part of him was a little happy, when she mentioned this. The way she worded it, Sam didn¡¯t think she was the type to have a lot of guy friends. He never minded when a girl had lots of guy friends, but a part of him felt a little uncomfortable with it. Including Sarah, Sam knew various other girls who seemed to hang out with guys a lot and for the same reason, as with Sarah, he never felt the need to bridge the gap between platonic and romantic. The day continued to pass by, as they continued their walk, both enjoying the warm weather. Aside from the manicured grass, they would see the occasional wild flower patch and wetland area. Looking at a patch of wild flowers, Sam stopped and grabbed a flower and smelled it. It was a peaceful smell, full of the feel of nature free of civilization. Walking up to Lisa, who was humming to herself, it sounded like some video game theme song, he tapped her on the shoulder and when she turned around he tucked the flower so it rested above her ear. Touching her ear, she blushed and said, ¡°Thank you.¡± Sam took her hand and they continued to walk. In front of them, they could see a small village, probably half the size of the welcome town. The structures in the village looked a bit more rugged, but from what he could see there were similar places. In the distance, Sam could see the local hospital on top of the hill, past the various buildings. The houses didn¡¯t look modern, but instead looked rustic. The apartments looked a bit more modern, but didn¡¯t clash with the feel of the place and seemed to complement everything, unlike the hospital which looked very modern. ¡°It looks adorable!!!¡± Lisa cried out, before pulling on Sam urging him to quicken his pace. Laughing, they started to run towards the village, glad that the walk was over. The sun was starting to set, so both of them were worried that they wouldn¡¯t make it. Reaching the village, they looked at the various stores. There was a outdoor store, a diner, a movie theater, a grocery store, and a clothing store. It was pretty down to modest, compared to the place they came from and, especially, to the real world. ¡°Doesn¡¯t this place kind of look like Bright Falls?¡± Lisa asked him, sounding excited. When she saw his blank expression she added, ¡°You know, the town from the Alan Wake game? It was a pretty cool horror game, where you had to fight off shadow creatures while you searched for your missing wife.¡± ¡°Hopefully the appearance is all it resembles.¡± Sam joked. The last thing they needed was shadow people. ¡°Could you imagine if there were?!¡± She elbowed him, seeing his expression. She giggled when he shook his head adamantly. ¡°Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be in a survival horror game?¡± Lisa asked him, enjoying the moment. ¡°Based on how often my character was killed, and had to respawn, I don¡¯t think it would be a good idea.¡± He laughed, looking around the empty village. For some reason, being with Lisa in a remote village with no one around made everything feel spookier. A part of him did feel like something was watching him, which he tried to shrug off. Seeing how he was slightly spooked, Lisa hugged his arm and tried to reassure him. ¡°I do awesome in those types of games, so I would protect him.¡± Her head resting on his shoulder. ¡°Want to go to the hospital?¡± Sam asked her, enjoying the feeling of her on his arm. Getting to the hospital took a bit more time, compared to Serenity, where they started off. There wasn¡¯t even a road that connected the village to the hospital, making the hospital look like it wasn¡¯t part of this place. Behind the hospital was a dark forest, which made it looked like the hospital was being swallowed up by the forest. He wondered if they were near the edge of the building, considering he had gone through a forest to reach Serenity. Aside from some cosmetic differences, the layout appeared to be very similar to the previous hospital. The kiosk were up against the wall, in the lobby, and there were plenty of comfortable looking seats available. As they approached one of the kiosks, Sam tapped on the screen and went through the menu to get to where he would roll his die. Tapping the ¡°Let¡¯s Go!¡± button, the die began to bounce around. Based on his first experience, the cheerful animation annoyed him slightly considering there was a lot at stake. As the die started to slow down, he kept chanting his head, ¡°Don¡¯t let it be a 2. Don¡¯t let it be a 2. Don¡¯t let it be a 2¡±. When the die stopped, the number 1 appeared on the screen, along with that aggravating ¡°Congratulations!!!¡± message and confetti. ¡°Fuck me.¡± He said in a low voice. Trying to maintain his calm in front of Lisa. Sam heard Lisa¡¯s sharp intake of breath, as soon as she saw the results. Her arms tightening as she hugged his arm. ¡°It¡¯ll be okay.¡± She consoled him, trying to raise his spirits. ¡°I know. At least I don¡¯t need to worry about a place to sleep since the hospital has pods to sleep in.¡± He said cheerfully. Feeling Lisa head nod, he started to walk over to the elevators. ¡°Let¡¯s head to the cafeteria. At least I can fill up with water, from the sink.¡± Entering the elevator, they waited until they reached the floor. He caressed Lisa¡¯s head, trying to get her to relax. It seemed like she was taking this new development harder than he was. Lisa didn¡¯t understand that he had already performed a poor roll, yesterday, so she likely thought this was his first time. Getting off the elevator, he told Lisa to have a seat while he went to grab some water. ¡°I really didn¡¯t expect to do worse than I did yesterday.¡± Sam muttered to himself. ¡°Master, are you okay?¡± Brittany asked, concerned about Sam¡¯s mental health. Even though he was handling it well, there would obviously be some stress accumulating from such an event. Brittany was constantly monitoring her master¡¯s health so she would be able to support him when necessary. ¡°I appreciate your concern, but I¡¯ll be okay. I¡¯ve gone through worse, outside this building in the real world. I¡¯ll figure out someway to survive this, and use the money to get everything I need.¡± He made a fist in frustration. For the destitute, this much wouldn¡¯t stop him. Through the double doors, into the kitchen, he grabbed a ceramic cup from the shelf and headed over to the sink. Filling the cup with water, he finished the contents in the cup and repeated until he was satisfied. ¡°When¡¯s the next time I can roll.¡± Sam asked Brittany. ¡°Since the 24 hour period began when you first entered into The World, you will be able to roll again once the sun comes up.¡± Slightly shocked, he pondered, ¡°I thought it would be based on when I used the app, the way you described it to me, before.¡± ¡°I apologize for not being clear in my instructions, Master. The system was set up so that external events couldn¡¯t get in the way of the participants. There may have been instances where you would not be able to access the kiosk, so the delay could have continually been pushed back, becoming very inefficient. This way, for you, the rising of the sun is a clear indicator, and when you¡¯re able you will be able to use the app.¡± She sounded guilty, for not performing her duties fully, which didn¡¯t bother Sam at all. He appreciated what she did for him greatly, so such a minor thing could be looked over. Thinking about it for a second, he wondered, ¡°Wouldn¡¯t this encourage people to wait until the last minute, so they can amass tickets?¡± ¡°This may be the case, but considering how the participant has no control over the results any realized gains would, likely, be immaterial.¡± She calmly told him. Mulling over what she told him, Sam headed back to where Lisa was sitting. Her mood didn¡¯t appear to have improved. Sitting down next to her he rubbed her back, to help her feel better. Looking at him, Lisa rested her face on his chest, and quietly sobbed. Sam was taken aback by this turn of events, and just held her as she pushed out all of her grief bottled up inside of her. ¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡± Sam asked. ¡°I¡¯m afraid... of what will happen to us, if we continue to roll bad numbers.¡± she choked out, between sobs. ¡°Today¡¯s just the first day. It¡¯ll get better. You can¡¯t let one bad roll give you such grief.¡± He informed her. Hoping statistics would help her out he explained, ¡°There was a 5% chance that you¡¯d land on any given number, but if you think about landing a number above a 10, your changes will increase. Don¡¯t get discouraged with a sample size of one. The more times you roll the die, you¡¯ll see that it¡¯ll all average out.¡± Appearing to calm down, Lisa moved away, while having an embarrassed expression on her face. Patting her on the head, Sam was happy that she was feeling better. Getting up and making their way back to the elevator, they head up to where the pods were. ¡°There are so many pods!¡± Lisa exclaimed. ¡°Yeah. I wonder how many people are going into a pod to sleep, instead of the apartment or house, though I¡¯m sure no one should be able to afford a house yet.¡± He contemplated. ¡°Well since we are the first ones here, I guess we can grab any of these.¡± Sam laughed, trying to brighten the mood. Sam went to the floor level pod nearest to him, again, and crawled into the somewhat spacious area. Laying on his back and resting his head on his arms, a mixture of positive and negative thoughts went through his mind. Overall, there wasn¡¯t much he could complain about. Did he wish he rolled a better number, sure, but considering that there wasn¡¯t much he could do, Sam tried not to think on it for too long. There was better things he could think about. Too bad he couldn¡¯t just hunt the wildlife. He needed to think about this from the viewpoint of a hacker. What were the weak points in the system that he could exploit. This method was a lot more productive, than just complaining about his situation. ¡°Sam, are you still awake?¡± Lisa¡¯s voice called out to him. Slightly surprised by the interruption, he asked, ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Having trouble going to sleep?¡± ¡°Yeah.¡± She sheepishly said. ¡°Is it okay if I come inside there to sleep with you?¡± Lisa asked. He was startled by this random request. Sam didn¡¯t expect Lisa to ask to sleep next to him, especially since she didn¡¯t seem like the type. ¡°Sam?¡± Lisa called out. Realizing that he didn¡¯t respond to her, he stammered, ¡°S-Sure. If you w-want.¡± He tried to sound casual about it, but failed. Moving his body to the side, he could feel Lisa getting into the pod. Though the pod was spacious, it wasn¡¯t designed to fit two people, so it was slightly cramped though not uncomfortably so. ¡°Being alone in that pod kind of spooked me. I¡¯m not used to sleeping in an unfamiliar place, and I thought sleeping next to you would be better¡± Lisa confessed. Trying to make up for his stammering, Sam said, ¡°I¡¯m here, so there¡¯s nothing to be worried about.¡± With Lisa burying her head into chest, Sam tried to casually place his arm over her. She giggled a little, and started to fall asleep. After a moment or so, Sam could hear the sound of her even breathing. Sam soon followed Lisa and went to sleep, listening to her rhythmic breathing. The last thought that went through his mind was how not everything was going badly.