MMA: Chapter #1 (Patreon)

“Better watch out, Alphonso, McNamara is on the warpath today.”

Hearing the whisper at his shoulder, the young man in the white lab coat blanched and his eyes drifted over to the report he should have already finished before coming back to the two liquids that he was about to combine.

“I… I’m just going to finish this.”

“You’re crazy. He is going to be here in a minute!”

“But I’m so close. I… I found a way to neutralize the side effects of the new cough medicine.”

“That’s what you said last time,” growled a new voice, causing Alphonso to freeze in place, the two mixtures held ready to pour. “And then you started a fire that destroyed half a lab.”

“I’m telling you, I didn’t start the fire!” Alphonso said, spinning around and glaring at the bearded manager who was glowering at him from the doorway. “Someone must have been jealous of my research and started it while I was out at lunch!”

“But you’re still using company equipment and company supplies on your own projects while leaving the reports you were hired to write unfinished,” McNamara said, rubbing his forehead. “I’ve already warned you a dozen times, leave the science to the AI, it knows more and can test it all safely!”

“What I make is safe,” Alphonso said hotly, looking offended that his manager would even suggest otherwise.

“It gave me a rash,” one of the other bespeckled researchers said, raising his hand.

“Shut up, Smith,” McNamara said, not sparing the researcher a glance as he walked over to the table where Alphonso had been working.

Picking up the report, a vein on his forehead bulged when he saw that only the first two lines had been filled out. With a furious look in his eyes, he turned to Alphonso and waved the papers in the air.

“What is this nonsense? You were supposed to be tracking the breakdown of the medicine over a four hour period, testing it every minute. Why do I only see the first two records filled out?”

“I…”

“Where is the solution?”

With a helpless look, Alphonso’s eyes drifted to the mixture he was about to test, causing his boss to goggle at him, speechless.

“You used it for your experiment? Our prototype medicine?  Do you know how much that costs?! Are you insane?!”

Growing in anger with every word until he was practically spitting flames, McNamara threw the unfinished report in Alphonso’s face, roaring with so much force that the young man had to lean back.

“Get out! Get out! You’re fired! Security! Get this idiot out of here!”

In record time, Alphonso found himself whisked off and deposited outside the building’s front door, his glasses askew. Looking down in shock, he realized he was holding all of his personal belongings in a small cardboard box. There were only a few pens, a notebook, and a lively looking potted plant in the box and suddenly, Alphonso had the sense that it perfectly represented his life. Kicking the ground he looked back up at the large building he had just left and then slowly walked away.

“Man, I liked that job,” he muttered under his breath. “And I was supposed to get my bonus tomorrow too.”

Seeing the MagBus stop, his eyes lit up, but a quick glance down at his smartwatch showed him that his choice was between taking the bus back home or eating that evening, so with a grumble he opted to walk. Each time the bus would slide by on its magnetic rails he could feel the twinge of frustration in his chest building, but he managed to contain it until he had walked the thirty blocks back to his apartment. By that point it was nearly midnight, but the city was as safe as ever, so he didn’t care. Besides, it wasn’t like he had anything that anyone could take.

Opening the elevator to go up to his apartment, he juggled the food he had picked up and his box of stuff, trying to hit the elevator button. If he could have afforded it, he really would have loved to stay in one of the new apartment buildings with the automatic elevators, but that was expensive and he was already stretching himself financially to avoid staying in public housing. Feeling the food he had balanced on his box shift as he exited the elevator, he tried to catch it, but in the process his plant tipped over and fell to the ground with a crash.

Staring down at the shards of porcelain and the bruised leaves and stems of his plant, Alphonso groaned. Today just wasn’t going his way.

“Looks like you got a mess on your hands.”

Looking up, Alphonso saw a young brown haired woman looking at him curiously. She was dressed casually, and looked like she had just come out of one of the apartments, but Alphonso had never seen her before. Realizing that he was staring at her, he nodded and put his things down.

“Yeah, today has been a disaster,” he said, picking up his plant carefully and placing it in the box.

“Aw, I’m sorry to hear that,” the young lady said, crouching down next to him.

She made no effort to help him, instead just staring at him curiously as he gathered up the shards of the porcelain pot. Self conscious from her intent stare, Alphonso busied himself with his work, doing his best to scoop the excess dirt into his box.

“Why don’t you just leave it?” she asked. “The cleaning robots will get it.”

“The nutrient fluid in the soil wasn’t completely absorbed,” Alphonso said absently, using a piece of porcelain to scrape the last bit of dirt off the carpet. “No point in wasting it.”

“Isn’t nutrient fluid for plants cheap?”

“Sure, but I don’t have money to spare. Not anymore, at least.”

Standing up, Alphonso thought he was being too vague, and continued to explain.

“I lost my job earlier today. A day short of my one year review and bonus. So money is a bit tight right now.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, Alphonso blinked, unsure why he was suddenly sharing so much information. The young lady nodded like it was the most common thing in the world and produced a card from her jacket.

“In that case, let me give you a bit of good luck. We’re testing a new game right now, and it just so happens to open up to the public in a week. I’ve got a testing position open still if you are interested.”

Shaking his head, Alphonso didn’t take the card.

“I’m sorry, I can’t afford to play a game right now. I need to find another job. Filling my belly comes first.”

“It’s a paid position,” she said, grinning. “You just have to agree to having your play tracked and assessed so we can catch any last minute bugs before we go live next week. I mean, the pay isn’t great, but it would be enough for you to pay for an apartment in this building and get a bit of food. It comes with a virtual helmet if you don’t have one, and you can play while you sleep.”

At her words, Alphonso stepped back, still not taking the card that she was offering, causing her smile to falter for a split second. Though it was quick, he caught the flash of annoyance in her eyes and grew even more wary.

“Look, I can tell your mind is full with everything that is going on right now, so I’ll just leave this card with you. If you want to sign up, you can go to the website and add the code. It will handle everything from there.”

Tucking the card into his box, she flashed a smile at him and walked past him to the elevator. A moment later she was gone, leaving Alphonso standing in the faded hall outside his apartment. Unsure what to make of the situation, he headed for his apartment, opening the door with his smartwatch. Composed of a single room with a raised bed over a deck, a galley kitchen and a small bathroom, his apartment was barely a step up from the public housing unit he had grown up in. Still, it was all he needed since he was alone.

“Let's get you fixed up,” Alphonso said, speaking to his plant.

Going to the window, he opened it up and climbed out onto the fire escape that ran up the side of the building. A relic of a time past, the fire escape led up to the roof of the building where there was a small garden. After rooting around for a while, he found a spare pot and took it back down to his apartment. Putting the plant into it, he poured in the dirt out of the bottom of the box and packed it around the plant’s roots.

Reheating his food, he ate his meal at his desk while reading a paper on how plant traits expressed themselves across generations that he had started the day before. About half way through, he remembered that he no longer had his job and stopped reading with a sigh. He had been studying botany for years now, and keeping up with it was a habit of his, but now that he had been let go, he wasn’t sure if it would be of any use anymore. Leaning back in his chair, he tried to figure out what he was going to do next, but after ten minutes, he still had not come up with anything. There was only one company in the area that dealt with anything related to his area of expertise, and he had just been canned, making it unlikely they would hire him again.

At a complete loss, he was still staring blankly at the ceiling when his wrist vibrated, alerting him that a message had just come through. Glancing down, he saw it was from his previous employer, and with a frown, clicked on it. A virtual screen jumped up above his desk and he saw the face of one of the many administrators who worked for the HR department.

“Hello, Mr. Alphonso Richt. It is with regret that I inform you that you have officially been terminated from your job as Analyst at Horizon Labs. We enjoyed your presence in our company and appreciate the work you did while you were with us. This is a prerecorded message to explain your severance package.”

“Severance? Since when did they offer severance packages to hourly workers?” Alphonso murmured, sitting up and leaning forward.

“Per company policy, your manager has assigned your employee grading and it has been confirmed by our HR department. You have been given an A1 grading. A1 is the top employee category and entitles you to the full severance compensation. This includes two years of platinum level health coverage, a housing allowance of 2,500 UC a month for twenty-four months, and a one time payment of 250,000 UC. The total payment comes to 310,000 universal credits. This amount has been deposited in your bank account.”

In complete shock, Alphonso had to replay the message three more times before he was able to wrap his head around what he had just heard. The idea that his grouchy boss would have applied for A1 status on his behalf, and that it would have been granted, was mind boggling, but seeing the number dancing in his bank account, he realized that it had actually happened.

“What on earth is going on? I could move to a new apartment. I’m getting a twenty-five hundred UC housing allowance. Wait, I’m only playing two hundred UC. Why would I ever move? Come on, Alphonso, think about this properly. That is enough money to go to school again. I could… I could buy a car! But I don’t need a car.”

Pacing around his small room, Alphonso was practically frantic with excitement. A small part of him worried that it might have been a mistake, but mostly he was just elated. It was not just more money than he had ever seen before. It was ten times more money than he had ever seen before. It was so much money that he was at a loss for what to do with himself. As he paced back and forth, he turned and caught sight of something on the table. A wide grin lit up his face and he darted over, picking up the card that the brown haired young woman had given him earlier in the evening.

“Nova Terra. New Earth? Shouldn’t it be Terra Nova?”

Flipping the card over, he saw a website and a code.

“I should do it. If I don’t like it I can always quit since I have a cushion now. Man, it's been ages since I last played a video game.”

Putting in the url, Alphonso came across a simple website that consisted of nothing more than a box to input the code. Typing it in, the page flashed and he saw a new form asking for his address. For a moment he hesitated until he remembered that the young woman had given him the card right outside his apartment. If she wanted to know where he lived, she would be able to figure it out quickly.

Entering his address, he got a thank you and confirmation message, and that was it. Slightly deflated, he began searching for Nova Terra online, but found next to nothing. Strangely, there was no mention of it on any of the gaming forums that he used to visit, and even the web page he had visited didn’t seem to be visible on the search engines. Starting to wonder if he was going crazy, he felt his wrist vibrate again and saw that he had gotten a new message. Like the last message he had gotten, this one was pre-recorded as well, but instead of a person it showed vast and epic fantasy scenes introduced by a voice over.

“Dear Traveler, welcome to the beginning of your adventure. You should receive a state of the art gaming helmet within twenty-four hours. This gaming device will act as your portal to the fantastical world of Nova Terra. Designed by the most brilliant minds in the world and overseen by a revolutionary AI, this game will challenge your conception of what is possible and carry you to a world of endless adventure. Rather than call this a virtual reality game, it would be better to call it an alternate reality that you will enter as you sleep, awakening to your full potential. Nova Terra is a living, breathing world that uses a time dilation ratio of seven to one.”

Pausing, Alphonso squinted at the video, making sure he had heard that correctly.

“Seven to one? Is that even possible? What is this?”

“Enjoy exploring this new world and play your way. This is a world of magic and steel, filled with mercenaries, monsters, merchants, and mages, that will allow for an endless number of playstyles and races. To access the game, simply wait for your gaming device to arrive and then follow the directions provided. Adventure in Nova Terra awaits! Nova Terra, Your Dreams, Your World.”