Stepping out of Bards college, Lucia addressed here personal game AI. “Rose, I’d like my character to return to the square outside the Rooster’s Nest Inn, play woodwind and dance for two hours before getting a meal and full-night’s sleep in the Inn. Hopefully I’ll make enough to cover that but same either way. After sleep, if I haven’t returned yet, go to the thieves guild for the morning hours, spilt time between lock picking and trap disarming, lunch at the guild before going back to the square to practice woodwind and dance. I should be back before too much more but if not follow this pattern for the days to come.”

Having your character practice skills when you were offline was a very slow way to raise skills, but it was better than having them do nothing. Several points that she had in traps and lockpicking came from offline practicing because opportunities were limited. She would be an NPC for the time and in most cases, players wouldn’t even see her. The amount she would make playing in the square was based on her skill and a virtual random role of the dice. Bard was going to be skill intensive; she could already see. She would have to either buy several more skills from the Bard College or try to get enough real-world competency to be given the skill.

“Lucia you have a message from a Kyler Dunbar, representative of NoosCorp. He would like to schedule an appointment for as soon as possible.” NoosCorp was the creator of the Seven Realms and one of the ten biggest corporations of Earth now.

“Is Kylar Dunbar an AI who would like to sell me on the advantages of a new state of the art VR helmet or premium tactile suit?”

“No, he is an actual person with a reasonably robust social media presence. He is listed as an assistant to the senior VP for special projects at NoosCorp.”

“Huh. What does he say it’s about?”

“He doesn’t. He has provided five timeframes that work for him in the next two days. The meeting would be virtual in NoosCorp Central Complex, in the Noo Earth Realm.” Noo Earth was the realm that most closely mirrored today’s real world. Unlike the other Realms, there were no dangers or game play here, at least not the overt game play that came with RPG Realms. Instead Noo Earth was populated with Augmented Reality situations where companies rented virtual space for their workers to enter from their own homes. It had the advantage over the real world though of instantaneous travel between any two points you were allowed at. In addition, it was by far the largest university system in the world and had extensive entertainment options that extended from mainstream to very niche. In the last several years, more and more people vacationed on Noo Earth. On the whole, Noo Earth made more profit than the other six realms combined, and the Central Complex was truly the heart of the beast.

“What’s the earliest time tomorrow?”

“8am. The next is at 10am.”

“Let’s go with the 10am then.” Lucia was never at her best for any meeting before 9am. “Also, could you post a pic of me fighting Harcourt and post it to my social media to with caption about me gaining the bard class?”

“Unfortunately, Harcourt is a restricted individual and NoosCorp doesn’t allow images of him to be posted. It suggests instead either a picture of you playing during the testing or of you leading the rats. The second could mention that it was on a supplemental quest to be granted the bard class.”

“Huh.” Lucia had never come across NoosCorps censorship issues before but had heard about it online. It seemed to apply much more toward endgame content but even there it wasn’t exactly common. Everyone wanted to show pics of the monstrosity that their alliance had just taken out and they were almost always obliged. Some theorized that it was done to prevent others from trying to follow an already completed quest chain that had ramifications for the world. Many endgame quests did send ripples through the game, unlike the instanced quests that lower-level players completed to gain skills and EXP. Others pointed out that many censored issues dealt with secret societies, guilds, and factions, which might be the very issue here after Harcourt had mentioned The Balance. Often even mentioning what those groups were was censored as well. “I guess go with a good shot from the test at the Bards College.”

“Very well. Anything else or messages?” asked Rose.

“Send a personal message to each of my regular party members letting them know the news and that we’ll need to plan our sessions more tightly because I’ll be trying to skill and EXP up the new class. Make sure they know I’m not leaving, just that I need to plan more carefully.”

“On its way. Ready for logout?”

“Yes.”

__________

Lucia carefully removed her VR helmet and looked around her small apartment. There was very little in it that showed her personality in this main room and truthfully her bedroom was little better. At least the bedroom had a few pictures on the wall, gifts from a cousin who was a reasonably good painter. It was always a bit of a shock coming from the richness of the game world to baseline reality.

She didn’t come back to baseline reality, however, to hang out in the apartment as she had several things to do with her time here. First was a session with her qigong Sifu, who would also work sword and spear forms with her. Then it was out to the local high school track for high intensity intervals, followed by a push and pull upper body workout in her gym. On top of the movement, she engaged in during that day’s play session, this would produce a lot of strain on the body. If she had anything else left physically, she wanted to log back in for basic dance class somewhere in Noo Earth. Elcatrin seemed to think she might be a natural at this, which meant that she could advance the skill quicker with lessons in the real world with testing than the gradual increase that would come with use in the game.

First, though, came a protein rich meal replacement shake, veggie smoothie and a tuna salad sandwich. Added to this were various supplements that had proven efficacy. Pretty much her boring daily routine. The first hour of qigong wasn’t very intense so everything would have a chance to start digesting well before the intervals on the track.

Lucia was looking forward to seeing Sifu. The woman was one of the few people that she saw in the real world on a consistent basis. It was the way of the world these days.

__________

At precisely 10am the next morning Lucia was ported into the office Kyler Dunbar. She had never been in NoosCorps Central Complex but looking out she could see how high up she was in the giant arcology. The complexes of many of the other great corporations of the world were easy to see out of full glass window, with the series of buildings stretching off to the horizon that had caused the cost of office space in every city in the world plummet in the last decade. She knew that a similar view was in every direction, even if she couldn’t see it.

One rule of Noo Earth was that physics worked like they did in reality. No building hanging in air or having ten times the inner space to the outside. Having said that, many creations that would be impractical from an economic standpoint only required the rental of some ground space, a talented architect and a programmer who could translate that vision into code.

“Hello Ms. Monroe. Do you prefer Lucia?” Kyler Dunbar stood up from behind the desk and looked to have the body of a gymnast in his early twenties. In some short research earlier that morning, she realized that unless he was using filters on everything, including press clippings, that he looked much like his avatar.

“Lucia is fine. What can I do for you?” She looked around and decided to come around and stand in front of the desk. There were two chairs in front of the desk, and it would have likely been fine for her to take one, but she was already feeling that the situation was strange. Sitting might put her in the position of looking too isolated.

Instead of retaking his seat, Kyler went to one of the corners of his desk and took a casual seat on it. “Maybe I should start with what I do here. I work directly under the VP for special projects. The current special project that I’m working on is an expansion of our entertainment offerings based on game play.”

“What like the feeds of the pro gamers?”

“Yes and No. Right now, only about 12% of pro gamers are sponsored directly by NoosCorp. The rest are sponsored by others who produce feeds based on the most interesting play. They mostly engage in endgame content. What I’d like to do is something different. I want to find players of lower levels that through clever play and real skill, exceed the abilities based strictly on their level. I want players that come up with solutions that we would have never expected, who push the AI instead of the AI pushing them. I want to create a new animal in the entertainment world. Feeds that start off from some basics but then evolve as the player’s maneuver. Think of the old-style serial television series and imagine that it changed as the actors reacted to the situations they were in instead of a script writer planning it out for them.”

Lucia was beginning to see where this might be going. “So, it would be more of a collaboration with the payers and the AI responded to each other, almost like a game of chess.”

“Exactly! Look you are skilled well beyond your level, especially with sword, athletics, and acrobatics. In those areas, even level 20 players might not have those skill levels. They’re a testament to how hard you work in baseline reality because all three, and others are based on real testing. Also, whether you realize it or not, numerous times you’ve forced the AI to plan on the fly because you operate outside the normal play styles. You are exactly the type of player I want for my new initiative.” Kyler didn’t conform to Lucia’s view of what an executive in charge of a major project would be like. He seemed genuinely excited.

“What would it mean if I agreed to this?” Lucia never thought an opportunity like this would come her way. Having the aim of being hired to game was kind of like wanting to be an astronaut. Many kids wanted it, but few achieved it.

“First off you would need to move to one of our capsule facilities. We would need you in full immersion. You would also need to accept a pain setting of at least 30%. I know that would be a whole new element for you, but most full immersion players believe it is worth it. Viewers need to know that there is a cost to a screw-up.”

Kyler began to pace behind the desk. “Of course, there is a salary. The base is $120,000 per year but many if not most will double that based on their viewership numbers and inclusions in the episodes we release. A few special ones will make more than ten times that we think.”

Lucia started when she heard the amount. It was about more than four times as much as she made now. That was before any extras. She wouldn’t ever have to appeal to her parents for that little extra when she needed something. She could hold her head high.

“Your housing would be provided in the same building as the capsules, and we have cafeterias that runs twenty-four seven.” Kyler had stopped at the window to look out on the scene that was digitally created but was yet so real. “You would be required to be in game eight hours a day, six days a week. On those six days you would be required to do four additional hours of exercise or skill training. You usually seem to be doing that on your own so not as big an issue for you as others. We realize that this would seem like a lot of hours but within the game you would be allowed to do what you want with just a few restrictions. For instance, you would be required to join The Balance, as Harcourt mentioned, and take on some if not all of the missions they offer.”

This threw Lucia for a bit of a loop. That Kyler knew of an interaction with an NPC in what was at best a mid-range city was surprising but that would have just taken an AI bringing it to his attention. It may have even been the event that brought on this meeting. The fact that he knew about her personal training habits, however, was a whole different animal and showed either that they had breeched her personal AI or had her under some observation. So, the next question she had was, ‘How big a fool is Kyler?’ answered right away with, ‘Not a fool at all.’ Did he think she wouldn’t make the connection? She highly doubted that as well. Therefore, her top probability was that this was meant to throw her slightly off her game. Could she turn this around? Did she want to? “Some of my personal training here is more important to me than the rest.”

“I would guess you’re talking about either your qigong training, your MMA club or both. As to the first, how would you like us to set up your Sifu with topflight tech so that she can train you here in Noo Earth? She could fill out her time, with other remote students and double her earnings. As for MMA, its popular with our pod players. Our analysis is that the median skill level would be above your current club.”

Lucia hated to admit it, but she was being thrown more off as Kyler went along. It was one thing to know intellectually that you lived in a panopticon, it was another to hear that someone had bothered to put so much data about her and her relatively boring life together in a way that they could speak with such knowledge. Many would have demanded to know why Kyler knew so much, but that would display a naivety that Lucia didn’t have. Any expectation of living a life of privacy was very much last century thinking. Today, a multinational like NoosCorp could know more than any governmental intelligence service. While physical borders may still technically exist, they meant less if people spent most of their time in a digital realms that could be crossed quickly by any with the right permissions. True power had long been trending in the direction of multi-national corporations and now it was obvious to anyone who truly looked that nation-states were on the decline.

“It’s a very interesting proposal. I’ve never thought that there would be much of an audience to see me play.” Lucia decided to take the conversation in a different direction, maybe get him off his script.

Kyler smiled, as if he appreciated the move. “I personally think you could already market yourself if you let your AI do most of the work. The only issue I see is that you are inconsistent in the timing of your escapades. If you’re put on this case, you will be doing bespoke content every week, likely some on the majority of days. Then there will be the adventures you self-create with the AI. Even though any player in any of the realms could be going on their own path, many still depend on instanced quest where they can look up a handholding guide on the net to get them through. Then these players get to level 13 and higher where instanced quest disappear, and they can’t cope. You’ve been mostly going your own way from early days and encouraging your main party to do so as well.”

She still wasn’t going to ask about the somewhat creepy level of knowledge that Kyler had about her. “So, give me a rundown. Six of seven days of the week I spend 1/3 of my life in game. Then I spend another four hours on skill training and exercise, giving me about 4 hours to eat and do anything else I want to do, assuming I want to get eight hours of sleep. Do you guys pick my skill training?”

“It’s a combination on the skills. Mostly you will be given a free reign but sometimes we may require up to 2 hours of your time to train in skills that we dictate. I should mention that you that you will likely need much less exercise because in the pods you are getting your muscles stimulate in accordance with what activities you are doing. If you run abound town, your muscles will be required to do that amount of work. If you climb a mountain peak, that effort will be required, and you may find the oxygen much thinner. The pods are a wonder. You can train at the intensity of an Olympian if you want to, with no real risk of injury.”

“But there is pain.” Lucia knew that this was likely one of the primary drawbacks for many people who were offered a pod to play the game in. Several highly ranked gamers had withdrawn from play because of it. She found that she wasn’t entirely against the notion. The treat of a real consequence would likely cause many to make their play style more realistic. It would likely also bottom out the supply of tanks to soak up the punishment.

“Yes but the pain is only 30-50% of what it would be and then only for 5 seconds. The AI will also monitor your physiological metrics so that if it gets to be too much, the pain shuts off. We’ve never had a player suffer any long-term effects from the pain function.”

Lucia knew that was only somewhat true at best. The fact was that the sample size of pod players was still small and that the many other variables besides the pain that could skew evidence. At the same time, she had worked many years to recontextualize pain so that it was a spur to growth. She likely had faced as bad or worse doing MMA. In her mind, it was lingering pain that did more to break down the psychological wellbeing than a pain that came and then went away.

The fact was, Lucia was going to accept this deal, even if not everything lined up in her mind. Things tugged at the back of her mind beyond the detailed life synopsis that Kyler had of her. Still, she’d like a few more clues. “Harcourt said the Balance operated in all seven realms as well as baseline reality.”

Kyler, who looked as if he was about to sit back down, sprang upright. Lucia recognized the glazed, not all there look of someone communing with their AI. “I don’t see anything that Harcourt says about the Balance other than it exist, but you say he claimed that it operated on baseline reality as well?” He was a mix of perturbed and excited.

“Yes.” Lucia knew that because she had been very interested in the claim at the time.

“I believe you. Why isn’t it here though…”Kyler began to settle down again. “The Balance is a secret society that was created as just one of many elements for our new entertainment venture. Think of one of many factions like in the classic Game of Thrones. There are plans to have players operate across realms, so it’s no surprise to me that it has equivalents elsewhere. But in Baseline,…Look this isn’t some grand conspiracy. I’ve been involved with many levels of the planning for this. It’s a game element nothing more.” The last part was delivered as if he was trying to convince himself.

Lucia sat and thought over what was said, and what had not been. Might as well go ahead and go forward with it. “Ok, I accept. What should I do now?”

“I’ll have my AI contact yours and lay it all out for you. Welcome to the team Lucia. Periodically I’ll check in with you as we go along.” Kyler sounded distracted, as that was that as she was ported out of the office in NoosCorps Central Complex and into her own digital space on Noo Earth.