North Valley City, at the university, around noon.

You enter the student union from the east side, coming in from the liberal arts building. As soon as you do, the smells of food and coffee fill your nose and the sound of the other students’ chatter fills your ears. You’d get something to eat for yourself, but you can’t really afford to buy anything from any of the food places there. What’s worse, you didn’t have time to make anything for yourself before going to class. You don’t even have time to head back to make something, since it’s not that long until your next class. Before continuing too far into the building, you stop at the bulletin board to check what’s posted there.

Flyers for clubs, upcoming classes, and events, mostly. The usual stuff. There is one in particular that catches your attention, though.

“MEDICAL STUDY PARTICIPANTS NEEDED”, printed all in large, bold print. “Short on cash or just want to contribute to medical progress? Contact us and see if you qualify to participate! Whether you qualify or not, you will be compensated for your time!”

Below that text is a list of contact information. An email address, phone number, physical address, and QR code. Not wanting to spend much more time in the student union, you pull out your phone to take a pic of the flyer. It sounds a bit sketchy, but you can check on that later. After all, you do need money. Before you can take the picture, though, the camera picks up the QR code and redirects you to the browser.

“The Medical Technologies Company” is written right at the top. MediTech. Maybe it is legit, after all. You check the URL. Yup, it’s definitely the official website. Scrolling down, most of the information is just more detailed versions of what’s written on the flyer. Nothing new there aside from the button to apply. You bookmark the page and head off to class for now, leaving the student union from the south side and heading to one of the southeast buildings.

Your next class comes and goes. Since you’re still hungry, you have a hard time focusing. That’s not even mentioning the thought of that MediTech thing. Thinking about it, maybe participating in it would look good on your resume. After all, you came down here pretty much exclusively to try to get a job there after you graduate. Whatever the case, you head back to your dorm room, getting onto your computer as soon as you do.

You open your browser and look up “meditech study legit”. Luckily, it came up on autocomplete. Even more luckily, one of the first results is a thread on that exact topic.

“i saw a flyer up in the library for some study they’re holding. is it legit?”

“The qr code goes to their website so I think so”

“one of my friends signed up for it. he said they just gave him a physical and told him he didn’t qualify a couple weeks later. still gave him the money tho, so probably legit”

After a few more fairly positive comments like that — people saying they or their friends didn’t qualify, but that they still got paid — a couple negative ones pop up, all with multiple dislikes on them.

“don’t do it! they told my friend he qualified and he hasn’t come back! i think they’re using him for human experiments!”

The first comment attached to that one says, “this isn’t the conspiracy sub”. Another reads “yeah right, like the biggest medical company in texas could get away with that”. The other comments against the study basically have the same kinds of comments attached to them, people saying the people who posted them are spreading fake rumors or that they’re not looking for conspiracies. Overall, you get the idea that the study’s a real thing that MediTech is running.

You head over to the MediTech page and read through it again. “Generally, applications will take two to three weeks to process. We will call you to confirm your availability for a physical, after which we will need another two to three weeks to process whether or not you qualify.” The semester’s nearly over, so that’d be enough time for you to participate and not miss anything. And it’s not like you have a job right now, either. What could the harm be, right?

The application simply asks for your name, contact information, and address. “Any further questions will be asked over the phone or in person.” You put your information and hit "Submit".

Now to wait.