Chapter 3 - The Choice
I opened my eyes and looked at the surroundings; there were nine other masked people in the wide room we arrived at after leaving Claus's office.
I, of course, was wearing a similar mask. After agreeing to join the dangerous beta-testing and signing the contract while confirming there were no loopholes, Claus told me more about the testing event.
"there are ten other candidates who will be joining the testing, your starting points will be different, but the chances of meeting are still there. we will soon meet them, so you have to wear this mask in case one of them has malicious intents towards other 'players', since we won't be restricting your actions involving other players according to the contract. Including the act of killing."
We were supposed to meet a higher-up together before finally entering the game. To me, I was more excited than afraid. After all, this would be be the first time I can move my body.
Soon after, a man with a huge build who was wearing a suit entered the hall, while clapping.
"As expected of our carefully chosen candidates, 10 out of 15 chosen ones embraced the challenge and didn't run away like cowards."
Some of the other masked people wanted to retort, but were stopped by their accompanying staff members who were wearing a similar attire to claus'.
"I know all of you are facing certain difficulties in life, that's the only reason someone would do something this dangerous, if they are in the right mental state. But then again, all of you have something special. which is mostly the reason you were chosen and also what would increase your chances of survival compared to other ordinary people."
A tense atmosphere spread in the hall, as a few other participants stood up. nobody liked their secrets to be exposed after all. Despite that, quite a bit were still calm and composed as I was.
Bang!
The huge guy hit the desk in front of him as he continued to speak.
"you are all driven by a special reason, but that doesn't matter anything now. let's get to the last details so as to send you off as soon as possible"
The guy gestured with his hand to Claus who rapidly moved close to the huge guy.
"as chief just said, I will be briefing you on the last info that you need to know. Firstly, the testing period will last a whole year and your bodies will be maintained to the peak while you are inside the game, but you will instead experience a whole ten years inside."
I was sure I could almost see the shocked faces under the masks, after all, although different time ratio VR games were not that scarce, a 10:1 rate was hardly achievable. I kept my calm as I remembered that this was a game that should be almost another world, was the time conversion rate more shocking than that?
"secondly, unlike normal VR games, you will have different starting points to a certain degree depending on special calculations."
"Last but not least, a game system would still be there, and it can be pretty helpful to some point. That is to say depending on your ability, should you use these points well, you could survive longer."
Everyone seemed to be pondering as they considered the info we just received. But soon, the guy who seemed to be the chief, clapped his hands once.
"That should be all, the staff will soon accompany you to your respective capsules where you will reside for a whole year. as a friendly reminder, if you were to meet somehow with other players co-operating would be better than hostile actions, but you are still free to do what you think is right!"
A kind(?) Smile appeared on his face, but somehow it seemed to hold an ominous feeling.
This is so shady. They won't restrict hostile actions? They want people to survive in the simulation long enough to make a stable connecting system, so it goes against their goals. If they had hidden goals, where instead they would want something else to happen, then they shouldn't mention the fact that the players are allowed to kill each other, as that would tip the players off to the fact that the goal of the game is not what they were told it was. The supposed genius of a main character should be able to catch that quickly. If there really is a cure for him and he is a genius, all he would have to do is come up with something extraordinary, sell the idea to a company or produce the item and sell it, then use the money to get the treatment, instead of signing up with this shady company. The main character could even just sign a contract with a different powerful company if he's so smart. For a supposed genius, he's pretty dumb.
1.I wouldn't say it's completely normal to allow inter-killing, but there might be a certain reason behind that ( mainly tho, they don't really need all the players to survive, they just need at least one, all of them surviving is also the same in one sense)
2. The problem with the cure is that it's one of these 'things that can't be obtained by money' it's like a sort of restricted tech that can only be accessed through special means.
3. Said MC has only one year to live so depending on himself and another company to create that cure surgery may take longer so...
Hope that clears your doubts
@Lightning_Asura
The 2nd and 3rd points are cleared up, but the first still remains. All the other players died off when they joined the game, so it would make sense for the game company to not want to risk losing any of the players. They even put masks on the players to make sure they wouldn't recognize each other in the game. Also, murder is illegal. Unless they had an ulterior motive for saying those things, it would make them look really bad if, say, one of the people killed someone else and the information got out that the game company told him it was okay to murder others.
@HURGMCGURG
Well, honestly, the masks are there to restrict the immediate hostility, but the point of that actually is to give the players total freedom, let's say for example, (one player goes rouge and tries to kill you, would you fight him to death or let him kill you) or ( something that can boost your survivability 10 times but two players found it as well and can kill you for it, since they believe their life is worth more than the company's punishment )
Then again they are just pure examples, and talking from the company's point of view they believe in giving the players complete freedom as restrictions sometimes lead to death (especially when your life is in danger)
Lastly, that's just the company's views (who knows if they have other motives or maybe they encourage competitiveness?)
I find the first few paragraphs to be confusing. 9 other masks + MC = 10 people. Then the man says 10 other people, meaning a total of 11 or 20 depending on who he is speaking to. Finally, we hear it's 10 out of 15, so it's really just 10? Or is there two batches?
the ten other candidates are referring to the 9 other people and (one missing person), who are the ten people who accepted the contract from the 15 (including MC)
There is not such game, where players are told not to kill other players. Rather the point of all shooters and RPGs out there. At most, they give Parental warnings. This game contains torture and splattered brains. Do not play after heavy meals.