After that, the rest of my meeting, while interesting, was rather anticlimactic. Dr. Steiner ran us through the immersion tank concept and we got to see a short video of it. The tank was similar to the old total immersion capsules before Neural Links became a thing. However instead of the normal sensor mesh that used to transfer sensations the inside was covered in a blue gel which he told us was a nano solution and would equally nourish the human body perfectly and could even be adjusted to different nutrition profiles as well as take care of all waste material export or processing. 

To be fair being walked through this process seemed to be a highlight for some of the invited people but then there were always a few that got something out of these details. At the same time I heard some muttered comments that included the words ‘Yuck’ and ‘Disgusting’. I had neither reaction as in my time as a police officer and detective I had to deal with my fair share of the above and it was just a matter of fact. He then got to the more interesting part and that was the schedule.

“As you are aware we want to test the long term immersion capabilities of the gel and the capsules. For that we have the following schedule in general: One month of closed beta testing and one week of open beta testing. For your group this time is split as follows: The first immersion of five days followed by two days offline, second immersion of ten days followed by two days offline and finally 16 days of immersion and two days offline. At which point the official release will happen. This gives us enough time to gage your physiological and psychological health between each immersion and allow you to stay grounded in the real world.”

I wondered briefly why there could be psychological consequences or what they would be. And as if on cue the third person, Doctor Maharanov stepped forward. 

“You probably wonder why there would be any psychological effects. As you are probably aware that when long term immersion was tested in the past there were a lot of issues and we want to make sure that none of you are affected by this. As we are, of course, concerned about the wider player base once we release.

“In the past we saw issues where people could no longer distinguish real and game world or had them confused. Which led to severe cases of confusion and not being able to function in a real world environment. We also saw cases of severe PTSD when people got attached to NPCs that were killed or died ingame. So we would like to prevent all of that.”

Yeah, I remembered. And he left out the worst part about the people that could not distinguish between the real and the game world. I was still on the force at that time and caught the case to investigate a digitizer ring. A group of people that promised confused players that they could digitize themselves, basically becoming part of the game world forever. The only thing that the people have to do was to pay exorbitant sums of money to them and then they would ‘help’ them. This case had first landed with White Collar and Cyber Crimes as it seemed to be just a scam. I got involved when it had turned out that the ‘help’ was a mental training regimen followed by a time delayed suicide pill. Over the course of the investigation we found out that 93 people had died before we even became aware of it. Worldwide this ‘movement’ had claimed over ten thousand lives. 

“So why would you be at risk. First and foremost because you will be dealing with a time dilation effect. The time within the game will pass at a different rate than in the outside world. While your physical body will experience five days in your first immersion, your mind will experience twenty days of the game world.”

He let that sink in for a moment and waited for the spontaneous murmur to die down again. “Further we have two different sensation filters in game. One for pleasurable sensations and one for unpleasurable. Both of these filters will be set to 70% of real world experiences for the first immersion. This will allow the learning algorithms to adapt. As you can imagine what is pleasurable for one person might be very unpleasant for another.”

Another mumbling swept the room. I nodded to myself. It made sense. Even though I was not sure if I liked it. Normally sensation filters were not split. And while being able to be regulated to personal preference they were normally capped between 0% realism and 50% realism. The cynical voice in my head immediately asked the question what kind of addiction behavior 0% pain and 100% pleasure would create. 

“Now that you have all the information, it is time for Q&A. Please, if you have a question state your name and then ask your question. We will answer to the best of our ability.”

And with that a storm of questions was unleashed. They covered everything from the game world and more information on classes and races and other ingame topics (which were not answered) to questions about the technology behind the game (which were partially answered) to questions about the new N-Links, immersion technology, safety and security concerns and much more (which were mostly answered). 

Two hours later the presenters bade us goodbye and good night, promised that we will see each other tomorrow and handed us off to the coordinator. He in turn briefed us on the schedule, pinged a map of the open facilities of the Arcology and our living quarters to us as well as a reminder that we will have a busy day tomorrow and the advice to stay in the Arcology. 

* * * * *

After the meeting was over I went to check out the assigned living space. It turned out to be a simple room with a standard food dispenser, shower, dresser and a simple but comfortable looking bed. I also saw my duffle bag sitting on the floor in front of the bed. 

My watch notified me of a call when I stepped out of the shower. The caller was Damian and he asked if I felt like grabbing food together. He suggested a Vietnamese restaurant that was supposed to be good according to the reviews. I told him I would be there in 15 minutes. 

When I walked into, or rather out to the restaurant, as it was on the edge of one of the parks that we had seen on arrival Damian waved me over to a table he had already secured with Nico. The food was great, the company even better and I really enjoyed myself. I asked myself why we didn’t get together more often but immediately had the answer. We simply weren’t on the same schedule in our normal day to day lives.

As the night drew to a close I asked the question that I had avoided so far as I knew it could be charge’y but I was also really curious. “Why are you guys here? You have your income streams and titles. Why a new game? Why a beta test?”

Both looked at me surprised. “Any yourself?” Nico asked right back.

I nodded. If you ask others to talk about their private things you better be prepared to share yours as well and first.

“Honestly, it sounds exciting. I am jonesing for a good MMO and have always been a geek for space games.” Both looked at me skeptically, knowing that this was only half of it. “You know after the last Strike Force fight I need a break. This business gets tougher and tougher as the info leak showed. I am also not getting younger and would love to find something that has some longevity and achievements matter. My agent is on board and we talked about making myself scarce for a while to drive up the price for further matches. And while we never touched on the subject I am pretty sure that he also sees more money for me in a subscriber stream than in competitions that I will no longer win in a few years. So better to take a chance now than try to catch up later. Plus I am not hurting financially at the moment and if I make some good investment choices I will be sorted going forward. So I guess this is a vacation and exploration for me.”

I sighed and smiled sadly. Saying it out loud hurt my pride a little but it was also true. And these guys were people I had known for a while and trusted them quite a bit. The other two nodded. 

“Yeah, similar here,” Damian said in a subdued voice. “My reaction times are down and the competition is 10 - 12 years younger. There is a half life time on competitive gaming. So my motivation is two-fold. Get the new N-Link and improve my performance by having better tech. And also try to find something else. Find something more. My workshop is ready to go their own way and I think if I try to keep a tight grip on it, it will just implode. So I am thinking about selling my shares to the members, which won’t make me rich but will definitely last me a good while. I am looking for something new where it isn’t about me winning anymore. I was thinking about a subscriber stream as well. Or just become rich in game and trade the currency. And I don’t want to play alone anymore. I want company, people I connect with again. You know the workshop was good in the beginning. But the moment we made money there was all kinds of position jogging and politics going on and I am tired of that shit. I’d rather find some friends and chill while making enough to survive.”

I raised my glass of beer to him. “I hear ya man.”

Nico snorted. “Ooooh, didn’t know that you were both already feeling that old.” then she chuckled and became serious. “I just want more. I had a good run, my subscribers are getting pre-produced content that will keep them busy. And I want to join something new on the ground floor. Before it becomes a thing. And the tingling in my lady bits tells me that this WILL be a big thing once release hits. So getting on it. Not sure if I still want to go the adult content route either. I mean it’s fun and all and there is no getting old as a virtual character. But I have done that for the last 9 years and maybe it’s time for something else.”

We sat a moment in silence. “Thanks for sharing guys. Didn’t need to be reminded of Nic’s lady bits but that’s par for the course.”

She punched me in the shoulder. “Shut up. I know both of you enjoyed these lady bits!”

I chuckled. “True enough, they are some fantastic bits.” Damien nodded with an eager expression on his face. Then we all burst out laughing.

“Joking aside, it's good to know I am not the only crazy one,” I said.

With the solemn mood we found ourselves in after these shares we simply finished our drinks, said our good nights and after a round of bro hugs and cheek kisses we each headed to our rooms and to bed. 

* * * * *

The next morning was filled with meetings with a legal representative that walked me through what felt like 150 waivers and NDA additions. He also explained the neural link upgrade and had me sign another 20 waivers. Turns out that while the tech was in its approval stage, it hadn’t gone through yet and was still considered experimental. They also told me that once it was upgraded, there was no longer an option to downgrade. He answered my questions as best as he could and told me to ask the rest to the medical staff when I had my upgrade appointment. 

Short story short: They had developed some form of nanite technology that was still in early stages. I would receive an injection of these buggers along with some serious narcotics that were supposed to knock me out for 6 hours. A program would be plugged into my current neural link and would help the nanites to make the required changes, growing new nerve tissue and connecting parts of my brain that were previously unconnected. 

He explained that even though this was a closed beta there was no need for writing any bug or gaming reports. The link would take care of all this for me and I didn’t need to do anything other than play. 

I also had a tour of the actual testing facility. It looked like a warehouse full of capsules on shelves. They were racked and while I watched I saw how one of them was pulled by a robot arm, put on the floor, a passed out tester was deposited into it, a team of medical and technical personnel made sure that everything was okay. He was greenlit and the robot arm racked his capsule again. 

The process seemed impersonal but then again there would be 500k testers over the next few weeks and I could only imagine the space and energy required by the staff to see us all squared away. I was also shown the control room where everything would be monitored and checked even though I was not allowed to enter. 

Then I had a light lunch, a full suite of medical checks, a psych assessment and finally my upgrade appointment.

The doctor providing the upgrade gave me more information and told me that I would be able to access the neural link within the gameworld in an entirely new way. I was used to receiving information from it during game sessions. He told me that I would be able to actually plug technology within the game directly into the link interface. I had no idea what I would need that for but it sounded cool. He also told me that after the upgrade I will find myself directly in immersion. The company had opted to go that route because the nano gel would actually help the healing process and time was of the essence as the total test time was only scheduled for a month.

After all the formalities were taken care of, he shepherded me back into the elevator and after a short ride we emerged in what looked like the most futuristic medical center I had ever seen. I was guided to a single bed room where a very pretty nurse asked me to take my shirt off and sit on the bed. Okay, I admit, my mind went into the gutter for a moment but she was all professional and started attaching electrodes and sensor pads all over my chest and head. 

As she attached the last sensor to my forehead Dr. Steiner walked back into the room. He placed a small case on the bedside table, opened it almost reverently and took a syringe out of it. He did the typical doctorly thing and flicked it a few times before telling me that I might feel a pinch. Okay, honestly, I am no fan of needles and I felt my body tensing as he came closer to my arm. I closed my eyes. 

An honestly small prick later I opened my eyes again to the doctor’s smiling face. “Welcome to Black Space Mister Wilson.” he said ominously and before I could say anything else the darkness closed in and I passed out.