Kai drifted through a dark expanse filled with endless starlight, vibrant clouds and graceful dusty swirls.  Everything around him looked beautiful, it reminded him of the movie Contact.  He could not appreciate it fully as his thought process was still disjointed and his body was still immersed with pain.  

He did not know how long he drifted, but after some time he was guided onto a circular plate-like surface filled with various lines, images, and illegible carvings.  Once he landed on the ground he carefully stood up to look around.  His head throbbed and his body trembled, but his vision was oddly clear.   The world seemed slow, but it was likely him since it felt similar to the morning after an ill-advised all night party with his friends.  But why was he here?  How did he get here?

“Welcome to The Game’s inter-dimensional spatial-temporal player processing node.  You have been offered to participate in BETA.  You are the first entity from S3 in quadrant Gx87-A525 managed by Zeeber Eyeree Gamers’ Guild #1192.

Since this is likely your first planar transfer, you may be feeling unwell.  As such, the node has placed some aspects of your irrelevant biological function in temporal stasis until the processing of your registration is complete.”  said a voice.

With his thoughts fleeting Kai responded as best as he could.

“BETA, nice.  Oh yeah, great. Yeah great.  By the way do you have any Advil?”

Then it dawned on him and he triggered.  Kai’s awareness instinctively snapped him back into reality. 

BETA access?  Oh my god.  I made it to BETA!  Did he say first!  I’m the first!

Kai became ecstatic.  This was the moment he lived for.  He had been trying his best to become a professional video game streamer for the past three years.  He currently had thousands of subscribers on his channel which was a result in large part to his participation in ALPHA.  As the first player in BETA, he was sure that his subscriber base would grow tens, maybe even hundreds of times over.  He might even be able to get corporate sponsors!  Finally, he felt his career would be on the right track.  Sometimes it felt good to be lucky, since it was a pure chance that he made it into ALPHA.  He was randomly selected by being in the top 1000 players of AHBR.

He recalled winning his 3,000th match in Arcane Hunters Battle Royale which finally ranked him in the top 1,000 players worldwide.  Arcane Hunters Battle Royale (AHBR) produced by Zi Sensory Gaming was the most popular game in the world and was the precursor to ALPHA.

Kai felt extremely accomplished with himself after he was awarded with a triple digit worldwide ranking.  He was at it for over 3 years, though he was only dedicated full-time for the past six months.  He felt honored that his parents supported his professional gamer streaming ambitions and allowed him to suspend college for the spring semester, giving him the time from spring through summer to prove himself.  He used his world ranking and streaming revenue to gauge his progress.  His ranking increased at a good rate, but the streaming revenue increased at a snail’s pace.  

He was a Computer Engineering major, so the potential salary he could make after graduation emasculated his current streaming revenue.  He felt pressured.  Though the method he used to measure his capabilities was not perfect, it was something tangible.  Once he verified that his streaming revenue did increase overtime it did reassure his choice. He competed with thousands of online streamers, professional streaming sites and even the almost extinct cable sports news channels for viewers.  He knew it would be a difficult profession unless his ranking entered the AHBR top 100 players.

But being the first streaming player in BETA superseded that logic.  He would be the first and that would be an important moniker that could be used to differentiate him from his competitors.  If leveraged properly, it was possible to open doors into product endorsements and commercials.

With the path to his dreams solidified, the reality of the situation finally set in   Glee washed away his pain, disorientation and uneasiness.  He looked around to find the voice and he noticed a large six foot dark silver sphere floating in the air.  It’s surface was covered in colored LED-like lights that moved along the surface.  Carvings of light and repetitive rune like patterns were sporadically spread along it.  The untainted surfaces of the sphere easily reflected the surrounding environment to perfection.  It did not seem to have a face or an orientation.  The discombobulated Kai slowly walked up to it.  He stopped about 10 feet away from it and asked, “Sorry, I missed what you were saying.  Can you say that again?”

The sphere did not respond immediately.  It acted as if it had many other things to do.

“Re-information irrelevant.  Accept Beta EULA?”

Though Kai struggled to focus on his thoughts, the endorphins released during his excitement for the BETA muffled his unease.  His eagerness became unyielding.  Suddenly a semi-transparent information panel appeared in front of him. The information was provided in English.  The first line on the panel displayed the BETA EULA.  He gulped and drew a breath of satisfaction.  

“BETA End User Licensing Agreement”

Like an automated assistant for the hearing impaired, an unknown voice clearly read aloud the words he had read silently in his mind.  It felt strange yet amazing, once again he was impressed with the capabilities of TESS.

He felt tired and was drowsy.  It made him restless and he did not want to read every word in the EULA.  It was quite painful to do both figuratively and literally.  So Kai quickly looked around for the I Agree button and found that it was grayed out, disabled.  

Damn Microsoft!  Why did they create the technology that required the reader to scroll through the EULA before enabling the accept button?

He wasn’t sure if Microsoft was really the one to blame for the technology, but since he first encountered the format after installing a game on Windows 10 he found it easier to blame them.  And right now, it felt good to blame someone.

Begrudgingly he started to scroll through the rest of the information.  It was an odd sensation since the voice would sporadically spout out the words and phrases that his eyes glossed over.  

“Development in BETA is still ongoing.  To protect the state of the art trade secret technology used in BETA, two way communications between the player in BETA and non-administrators shall be disabled…”

So much for Twitter. 

He continued to skim through the document.

“Live-streaming of BETA to the public may be allowed for clearly defined periods of time when granted proper approval...”

Kai grinned as he listened to this key statement since it allowed him to stream his play.

“Your relatives will be told that BETA participation pays the player a salary of $5,000 per month, but requires a period of 12-18 months of isolation from the public.  The salary will be placed in your bank account and a $5,000,000 life insurance policy shall be in effect.  If the policy recipient is unspecified it shall be paid to your next of kin...”

This section made him very happy.  He could not believe he would get paid to join BETA.

 “As to where state and country laws interfere with...”

Now the document felt too long, it had too many words.  It became mentallly painful.   His uncomfortable state became apparent and his patience thinned.  He started to jump ahead in bursts.

Who really reads the stuff in a EULA anyways?   

Next the voice said aloud the words he read, “We are not responsible for any form of death or mental instability as a result of…” 

He quickly became annoyed and skipped to the next paragraph.  “If you die, you can’t sue” was a common phrase found in the EULAs for most sensory games during the alpha and beta testing phases.  And since Kai was very committed to participating in BETA, the statement did little to dissuade him.  For real players, the phrase usually generated excitement.

Once he made it through to the last sentence he became euphoric.  Participation was a click away.  However the voice sounded once again.

“You must repeat clearly the statement ‘I accept all conditions of BETA EULA.’”

Kai readied himself and spoke the words that would change him forever.

“I accept all conditions of BETA EULA.”

Once he said it, his respite of clarity disappeared and the world blurred.  He became disoriented once again and the last thing he heard was, “Proceeding to Onboarding.”