File #13784

Subject: Mark Connor Age: 21

Height: 1.83m Weight: 95 Kg

Nationality: English Prior Occupation: Student Mathematician

Mark threw the letter at the table but missed and it fell to the floor. The sheet of paper showing his exam results was unfortunately what he had expected. Three years of university education had taught him a lot of things but unfortunately his actual course of study was not really one of them. He had scraped through and that wasn’t going to be enough to get a well-paid job with any of the big companies that routinely tried to recruit students from his university. Nor were his grades high enough to easily take a higher degree. In short, he had no idea what he would do with his life now.

Still no worries, he still had a campaign to finish with his friends before he had to move back to his parents’ house. A summer spent with them wasn’t going to be fun, especially as they would be sure to let him know just how disappointed with him but not in one short comment but rather stretched out over the length of his time with them. He could almost picture the joy in his younger brothers face when he too learnt how Mark had done.

Leaving his room, he walked to the café on campus where he knew his friends were all due to get together to finish the year with a massive session. The café owner let them use an upstairs room as most of them had worked for the café over the previous few years. Arriving at the room Mark quickly assessed that all they needed was their DM to make an appearance and they could start. A concluding game of Castles and Caverns was what he needed to forget his worries for a while.

“Anyone seen the dastardly Machiavellian?” Mark asked.

“Nope, no sign of the dopey monster so far.” Came the reply. Continuing the running gag.

Mark found his seat and made sure he had everything he needed, placed in front of him in an exact pattern that was quite at odds with his normal messy nature. He started doodling on a pad that was placed just to the right of his other stuff for exactly that reason.

After another twenty minutes or so, the harassed features of Dan Morris poked round the door.

“The deplorable mongrel finally makes an appearance!”

“Sorry guys. I was stopped on the way here by a couple of guys in suits who were trying to recruit people. Here I’ll give you each one of the pamphlets they were handing out.”

On looking at the sheet Mark read the following:

“ Nerds Wanted

Do you like solving abstruse puzzles?

Do you have lots of time on your hands?

Are you prepared to work away from everyone you know for a substantial length of time?

Snow Storm Entertainments are recruiting testers for a brand new game.

Great rates of pay but complete secrecy is a must. Hence you will be living isolated from all your friends and family for at least 6 months.

Interested partied should contact [email protected]

“Funny thing,” Dan continued, “It felt like the recruiters were particularly interested in recruiting me. I’m sure they let some other students walk past”.

“Well it does seem like the sort of thing that would suit any of us,” Mark replied. “I might go for it, at least if I got in, I wouldn’t have to spend the summer with my parents!”

Before they started the game both Mark and Dan, along with another of their friends Chris, all applied for the position. Within minutes they had appointments for the next day, all on campus and all at the same time.

The game continued well into the night fuelled with beer and pizza until eventually Dan allowed it to reach a dramatic and winning conclusion. Everyone thanked him and packed away, sad that this would be the last game that the group would ever play. The said their goodnights or goodbyes and the three who had appointments agreed to meet up for breakfast the same day.

So it was a bleary Mark who returned to the café around 5 hours later. Dan was already there looking far to awake considering their previous evening. Chris followed Mark in by a couple of minutes.

“How can you look so awake Dark Meme?” Mark asked.

“Plenty of caffeine and a cold shower. Plus I’ve got my second wind after not sleeping at all.” Dan replied.

Chris who looked like Mark felt just grunted. The three of them looked at the menu although as they had all worked there at some point they didn’t really need to.

“I’m going for the Full English,” Mark said. “I feel loke a condemned man so I might as well have a hearty meal!”

The other two agreed and they all ordered. Whilst waiting Dan let them know about the research he’d done since the game had finished.

“The rumour is that Snowstorm are planning on breaking into the VR market in a big way. There isn’t anything concrete out there just a buzz from industry sources but the rumours say that they will be releasing their own VR set and they’ve got some huge D&D type game that they plan to release next year. “

“I can see why they need testers then. Can’t see why they need all the secrecy though.” Chris commented.

“That’s the other rumour, the VR set is going to make the Oculus look like a toy. “ Dan continued. “Industrial espionage would be a real problem if their rivals were ready to compete when they release.”

“Best let our folks know about the blackout clause as soon as we know if we’ve been accepted then.” Mark added.

After finishing the meal, the trio walked across campus to an unremarkable building often used for small conferences and other meetings. There was a line of students starting to form outside the building, which suggested that they weren’t the only people to apply. In fact there were several hundred students and also people who didn’t give off the student vibe, being older or more smartly dressed or in some other way failing to exhibit the aura by which one student knows another.

“I guess they have gamers from near and far applying, “ Chris suggested.

“Let’s hope they are processing them quickly then. I wasn’t expecting a long wait and my phone is under half charged.” Dan replied.

Fortunately the line was moving fairly steadily and in under an hour they had entered the building. A number of young, attractive female assistants were processing the predominantly male queue. They were each handed a few pages of forms to fill in before being handed a chip-equipped badge and being sent to separate rooms.

Mark entered his assigned room and was met with a well-dressed man sat across a desk from him. He was invited to sit down and then the man went through his form with him. It seemed to Mark that he paid particular attention to Mark’s availability and willingness to not communicate with anyone for several months. There were also questions about Mark’s game playing which was generally restricted to D&D style scenarios and board games rather than playing on computers and consoles. Mark expected this to score against him but his interviewer gave nothing away. Finally Mark was instructed to go to another room. He had no idea whether he was doing well or poorly.

In the next room the desks were set up in an exam-style arrangement, which almost caused Mark PTSD type aversion responses. He had thought that exams were over for the rest of his life. He was instructed to sit at any empty desk and work through the paper in front of him. When he was finished he was free to hand in his paper with his badge and leave the building and expect a follow-up email either the same day or the following one.

Mark sat at the desk and read the first question on the paper. Given only medieval equipment, how would you fight a dragon? You have unlimited time, resources and people. Mark’s immediate response was that he wouldn’t unless he knew of some specific weak point with the dragon, like Smaug. He wrote that down and then thought about medieval weaponry and jotted down ideas about using spear launching trebuchet (if that was the correct weapon) and metal nets to constrict the dragon. The problem was that unlike in the games he played he didn’t have access to flight, magic and area of effect spells and dragons were strong, very manoeuvrable and breathed fire. Making them a very dangerous target with few if any vulnerabilities. Mark also suggested in his answer that the best solution would be to find some compromise with the dragon.

The next question asked whether it was better to increase your mana pool as a wizard or the level of your spells. The paper continued with more unreal scenarios and asking how Mark would deal with the increasingly bizarre scenarios. One of the latter questions was how would you feed a salamander chocolate if it kept melting as soon as it got near the salamander. Mark did his best to come up with an answer to each. Sometimes his answer involved some out of the box thinking, like when he suggested sending drones to fire unconsciousness inducing darts at medusae and then surgically fitting them with one-way mirrors over their eyes so petrification was no longer an issue. He had no idea if his answers were what they wanted but he did his best. After about an hour or so he finished up and left the building. Dan was waiting outside.

“How do you think you did?” Dan enquired.

“No idea, you?”

“Again, not a clue. The interviewer gave away nothing and what was the aim of those questions?”

“I’m guessing it’s all related to what they want us to do. I can’t imagine that all those questions were game scenarios though. I mean what game would require you to send out monsters to take out laser wielding spaceships?”

“A fun one! We could be testing the best game ever written.” Dan sounded as excited as he ever got.

“What are the chances they want us? You saw how many people were applying and this can’t be the only place they are recruiting from.”

“Be positive. We’re the best. Just think about how you lot kept messing with my scenarios and I still kept the games running smoothly. I mean remember that time you gave my mimic chest woodworm?”

The two reminisced over past games as they waited for Chris who was not much longer. After a little more talk they eventually went back to their individual rooms as whatever the result of the interview they needed to clear their rooms ready to leave. In fact if they didn’t hear soon they would have to leave the campus anyway and travel back to their parents.

Fortunately for them all they received emails that evening. Mark and Dan had made it through to the next round of interviews but Chris hadn’t. He brushed off his disappointment quickly and wished his two friends the best of luck. Dan and Mark discussed the instructions they had been given.

“You are to pack a bag with clothing assuming you will be staying away for a week. If you are in student accommodations that you will not be returning to, you are to have everything packed by tomorrow morning when a van will collect your belongings and deliver them to your stated address. Whilst you may bring whatever you want, you will not have internet access if you get through the next interview so prepare accordingly. You are to arrive for interview at the same location as yesterday at noon for a medical. If you pass this you will be taken elsewhere.”

“They really aren’t giving out any information are they? “Mark commented.

“You can’t tell what you don’t know.” Dan countered.

“Well, I guess I’ll find out tomorrow. See you around 11am at the café?”

“Sure thing. Sleep well because tomorrow the adventure starts.” Dan used his DM voice for the last sentence, before cutting the Discord connection between the two.