Blogbuster: A Sci-Fi Thriller

by Mars Dorian

  The vloggers raised their eyebrows and whispered to each other. Roman waved Laci over.

  “Mrs. Steem, would you take the pleasure to explain?”

  She nodded and tiptoed forward in her neon-colored high heels.

  “Anything for you, Mr. Stax.”

  She sent him a wink and turned to the eight participants in front of her. She counted down.

  “The show starts in five…four…three…two…one. Let’s go.”

  Her face formed into a trained host expression.

  “Missus and misters, welcome to the Blogbuster show. We have assembled the world’s eight greatest video bloggers, or vloggers, as we call them from now on. They’ll have to prove their passion, their skill, and their relentless desire to win the Blogbuster show. The winner, and there will only be one, is going to become Roman Stax’ Head of Online Content. The starting salary is a whopping one million credits. Needless to say, only the most dedicated go-getter will deserve that prize.”

  Stax nodded next to her.

  “Yeah, exactly. So push yourself till you want to hurt your intestines. Show me that a vlogger of your caliber is willing to turn the world upside down to reach for the Stax stars. Remember, second place is really another term for loser.”

  He grinned and stepped into the background. Laci stretched her legs and put her commandeering tone on.

  “And before we start the first mission, we’re going to do something which you probably didn’t think about.”

  The vloggers looked at each other. Laci smiled.

  “I’m going to split you into two teams.”

  41

  Say what?

  Invisible question marks popped up on all vlogger faces. Violet stepped out of her line with a big frown on her face.

  “Teams? I thought it’s single-player mode only?”

  Laci nodded.

  “Yes, later on, but for now, we want to explore group dynamics and see how well you do.”

  She inspected the vloggers and pointed her index finger towards them.

  “We have chosen members in advance based on your previous interactions with each other. Team number one consists of Violet Gear, the two TwinBuilds and Elli Mental.”

  Violet swapped glances with Elli who stood next to her. Freckleface shot a wink. Violet let it hit the ground. Laci continued.

  “Team two is, well, the rest. Bam, Fitnessy, Trigger and Whizzard.”

  A murmur went through the vlogger round. Bam’s team cranked out the stoney faces. Laci ignored them.

  “Get on it, peeps, you have ten minutes to find your team name before I announce the first challenge.”

  Every vlogger moved to their assigned team. Bam moaned when Whizzard walked up to him. It was bad enough to breathe the same oxygen with this crook, but working together? A new level of personal pain.

  “I guess we have to get along now,” Whizzard said with his trademark jerk smile and reached out his hand. Bam regarded the guy’s hand the same way he’d look at an alien with skin disease. Whizzard must have read his mind, because he pulled his hand back just as fast.

  “Well, your loss. But you better deliver while you’re on our team, or it’s going to turn out real nasty for you.”

  Bam wrinkled his nose and joined the team’s meeting. At least he was united with Trigger and Fitnessy. He could still harness hope.

  “Team name,” Trigger said.

  He brought Fitnessy, Bam and Whizzard into a half-circle.

  “Any ideas?”

  “Boy’s Club,” Fitnessy said with a faint smile.

  Whizzard grinned.

  “Well, seeing the size of your biceps and abs, you got more boy on you than I do.”

  He unzipped his suit and revealed a powder-white stomach with zero discernible muscles. Bam couldn’t help but smile. At least that freak could poke fun at himself, although this didn’t change anything. Trigger said,

  “I think we should go for something less gender-biased. Something that is both impactful and positive.”

  Trigger’s deep voice commanded everyone’s attention. Whizzard whistled.

  “Less gender-biased? Someone wants to be politically correct here.”

  “Let’s just say I want something that puts us in a good spotlight. After all, we’re being monitored 24/7 from now on. The world’s watching us.”

  He pointed at the Vorbs circling above their heads. All vloggers in the team raised their heads.

  “Gotcha,” Whizzard said, “then let’s go ahead and find something…crowd pleasing.”

  Bam pondered as well. Name-finding and branding wasn’t his strength.

  “Five minutes, you guys,” Laci said.

  Bam nodded and rattled his brain cells. Remembered all the Japanese video games he played back in high school. They always came with over-the-top characters that had insane, although memorable names.

  RazerBlazers

  Legend of Hilda

  Drag-on Ballz

  Valgrave and the vloggers

  Mental Gear Solid

  Team Blassreiter

  One Peace

  vloggers on the Verdurous Vlog Vendetta

  Fail. It was good he didn’t mouth any of these abominations publicly. These atrocities were better kept in his mind. Unfortunately, no one in his team fared better. Trigger, Fitnessy and Whizzard each came up with their suggestions, but none of which sounded special or pleasing to the ear.

  “Maybe we should stick to team name Politically Correct,” Whizzard said.

  Everyone ignored him. Trigger waited for Fitnessy’s reaction.

  “What have you got?”

  “Supervloggers,” she said.

  Whizzard snorted.

  “Puts a new definition to lameness. I guess that happens when you train muscles but not your membrane.”

  He flashed Bam with his crooky smile.

  “What about you, Bambi, you’ve gotten awfully quiet all of a sudden.”

  Bam shrugged.

  “Gold Crush.”

  “What?”

  “Our team name — Gold Crush. We’re in for a gold rush, and we want to crush it, right? So Gold Crush.”

  Whizzard sighed. Bam rubbed his chin.

  “Got a better idea?”

  Everyone looked at Whizzard. Except for wrinkling his lips, he couldn’t come up with a better suggestion, or any suggestions at all. Laci raised her index finger.

  “One minute, you guys.”

  Whizzard stared back at Bam, and for second, only they existed. Eye for an eye, vlogger versus vlogger.

  “No,” Whizzard said with a half-hearted smile.

  Trigger nodded.

  “So if there aren’t any objections, let’s go with it.”

  “Team Gold Crush.”

  Fitnessy nodded as well and called Laci.

  “We’re done.”

  She gave her two thumbs up and twisted around in her flower power dress.

  “Marvelous. Let’s see what the others chose.”

  42

  Laci pointed towards the sky. Her Vorb moved closer and captured her gesture in pixelated perfection.

  “Okey dokey, time’s up.”

  She chuckled, lowered her finger and aimed it at the two vlogger teams.

  “Team one, what’s your name?”

  Trigger stepped up.

  “Gold Crush.”

  “Gold Crush? Me likey, it has a cool ring to it.”

  She turned to team two and pointed at Violet.

  “What’s your team name?”

  “V-empire”

  Laci raised her eye brow.

  “As in vampire?”

  “No, as in vlogger empire, abbreviated.”

  Laci nodded.

  “Ooh, wordplay, I get, I get. Mmmm, me likey also, you guys are thinking big already, I double-likey. Good job, you guys. We haven’t even started the first mission and you already allowed your creative cells to go wild. Triple nice. Now onto the actual mission.”

  She stretch
ed out her hand, causing the snowball-shaped Vorb to hover over her head. The glowing crimson lens in its center projected a hologram into the air. The vloggers glanced looked up at it as the projection displayed a black background except for a spark in the middle. A sexy female voiceover faded into existence.

  “Vorb, Vorb, Vorb.”

  Pause.

  “The Vorb is Stax Media’s latest venture to revolutionize how you experience the world.”

  The commercial started. It showed a middle-aged guy fumbling with a traditional camera. He tried to adjust the lens, but lost grip and allowed the bulky device to drop down to the ground breaking into a million pieces.

  “No more fumbling with equipment or dropping it on the ground,” the female voiceover said.

  The scene switched to a teenage girl who used an ancient smartphone to record her friends at a birthday party. She told them to squeeze together so they’d fit into the frame.

  “No more squeezing because of narrow angles,” the voice said, “the Vorb records everything in a glorious 360° scope. Feel free to move around, wherever you like. Go ahead and play. Let the Vorb do the work.”

  The projection faded back to black. Big, bold letters flashed in 3D.

  “Vorb. Capture your life.”

  Laci finished the hologram and turned to address the vloggers. Their gapping mouths still dropped open. Violet was the first to find her voice again.

  “What does this have to do with us?”

  “Oh, everything my dear,” Laci said, “you see, the Vorb is your first mission. And to be more precise, it’s your first task to sell as many as possible.”

  All the vloggers moaned.

  “Selling your Vorbs?” The TwinBuilds said.

  Laci nodded.

  “A vlogger makes his living on monetizing video views. Be it through advertisement, sponsoring and subscription models. It’s natural for you to sell yourself, otherwise you wouldn’t be where you are now.”

  She smiled.

  “That’s why we are testing your negotiation and persuasion skills in the first challenge. We want to see how good you are at selling.”

  She snapped her fingers and made the Vorb pop up a 3D graph.

  “We have five thousand Vorbs in stock for this challenge. All you have to do is get people to place their digital orders. The team with the most sales wins.”

  Laci clapped her hands. A digital timer appeared on the vlogger’s eScrolls.

  “And yeah, you have eight hours, starting from now. You can move around anywhere within the city location. Should you leave the city or misbehave, well, that means ‘no more Blogbuster’ for you. Am I clear?”

  Bedazzled looks washed over the vlogger’s faces. But they nodded in agreement — more or less.

  Laci squinted and put two thumbs up.

  “Very nice. May the better team sell out.”

  43

  The official Blogbuster stream blew up with comments. A few selected ones stood out.

  Bucking_Fastard wrote.

  Salez? WTF? I thought this was like a kick-ass vlogger battle. Lame, lame, lame, I’m gonna watch J-porn instead.

  ChankaDankaBalanka wrote.

  You guys, maybe this is gonna be interrrested. U dont even know how they make money. It can be x-citing.

  Mr.MillionaireMindset wrote.

  Remember guys and gals, ABC. Always Be Closing.

  Mimiko4prezident wrote.

  Yeah sounds strange but its like the 1st mission and it getz harder.

  I wanna sea how it turns out and whos the winner.

  SocialJusticeWanda wrote.

  So, is this another corporate scheme to coerce young, gullible people into buying your BS, Mr. Stax? Is this what you want to teach our youth, to have role models in the form of video bloggers spreading your materialist worldview? Way to go, Mr. Stax. You lose my online view, I rather play Super Marx Brothers than watch your capitalist propaganda program.

  YourMomLastNight wrote.

  Sales mission? I’m sold.

  44

  Team Gold Crush.

  Bam felt a stabbing sensation inside his intestines. Similar to the drone crash, except this time, it was all in his head. He breathed out the disappointment. Marketing was always his least favorable part of his vlogging career. Always was, always will be. He stood frozen on the spot and watched the timer on his eScroll count down. Less than eight hours to go.

  “What’s the matter?” Whizzard said, “you look like your momma just punched you in the face.”

  Here the creep went again, asking for a fist in his crooked face. Bam stepped up, felt the energy flowing into his hand, along the desire to release it into Whizzard’s face with one well-placed punch. A strong grip held him back. It belonged to Trigger. Again.

  “Don’t let him get to you, we have to work together now.”

  Bam nodded, Trigger was unfortunately right. At least his soothing voice calmed him down, somewhat.

  “So, what’s the plan?” Whizzard said. “How are we going to sell those floating snowballs?”

  Everyone pondered, including Bam. Trigger stepped up.

  “We first have to assess the situation. A Vorb is priced at 499 credits. It’s a brand new device that the majority of the population has never heard of. So who’s the target audience?”

  “Idiots with too much money,” Whizzard said.

  “People who like technology,” Bam said.

  “Early tech adopters,” Fitnessy said.

  All the men turned to her.

  “Think about it. Who buys the first generation of electronics? It’s never the mainstream crowd, it’s always technophiles who are willing to spend a premium on technology that hasn’t proven itself yet. They want to be the first.”

  Whizzard smiled.

  “Wow, she’s blond, and she’s got brain. A walking oxymoron.”

  They all ignored him. Trigger gave Fitnessy a thumbs up.

  “That’s a brilliant observation, you’re right.”

  Fitnessy smiled, although she didn’t blush.

  “Technophiles are early adopters, so we’re looking at a very small portion of the overall population. The good thing is they try out new tech and are willing to spend money. Now, where do we find technophiles in the city?”

  Bam wanted to facepalm himself, it was that obvious.

  “TechTown.”

  “TechTown,” Fitnessy said.

  “TechTown?”

  Whizzard frowned.

  The vloggers looked at him.

  “You don’t know ?”

  “I’m a recent transplant, gimme a break. Plus, I don’t hang around with the freak kind.”

  Trigger said,

  “TechTown is the technology district. It’s where all the startups are located. And the early adopters. And the folks with big money.”

  AKA, home of the innovators, the change-makers and the multi-millionaires.

  Whizzard nodded.

  “Fine, what’s the fastest way to get there ?”

  45

  Over at team V-empire, Laci squealed. But not because of them.

  “Oh, looks like team Gold Crush already came up with a plan. That was fast.”

  She approached Elli, Violet and the TwinBuilds.

  “What about you, lads?”

  “Don’t annoy us, we’re on it,” Violet said and went commander-mode, “we better hurry up.”

  “Thanks for the tip,” Beta said.

  He was the male part of TwinBuilds, which made him the only guy in the round. He focused on Elli.

  “I thought you’re the psychological genius in the group. Tell us, what kind of person would buy a Vorb?”

  Elli smiled and brushed her tiny finger across her cheek.

  “A Vorb is an expensive, unproven piece of technology. Since few people know about it, we should sell it based on perception. We should sell it to people who are desperate enough to look cool and want to show off.”

  Violet smirked.

  “C
hildren?”

  Elli smiled.

  “College kids.”

  The TwinBuilds shook their heads in unison.

  “But college kids don’t have a lot of money. They couldn’t afford it.”

  “That’s why we have to aim for an elite uni where kids carry more money than membrane.”

  She turned to Violet.

  “You’ve been living your entire life in this city. Where is the nearest elite uni?”

  Violet didn’t have to think twice. Most average universities died down when the Internet became the number one education tool. Only the elites survived, because of their branded name power. Pure prestige.

  “We can go to Sandfort,” she said.

  It sounded more like a command than a statement, but it did affect her team members.

  “Sandfort?” Elli said.

  “Yes. It’s the number one elite university around and one of the most prestigious ones in the country. Famous online entrepreneurs graduated from there.”

  “Like who?” Alpha said, the female part of the TwinBuilds.

  “Roman Stax,” Violet said.

  The twins and Elli nodded.

  “So Sandfort it will be,” she said.

  She wiped her hands and looked for the nearest street passage to summon a self-driving car.

  “Wait,” the TwinBuilds said in unison, “shouldn’t we check out what the other team is up to? Maybe they have a better idea.”

  Elli closed her eyes, put some spice into her voice.

  “A better idea than mine?”

  The twins slumped their shoulders and avoided Elli’s eye contact. Despite her short stature, she could command dominance by the power of her glance. The voice of the twins retreated to the hush of a mouse.

  “Just saying, I mean, we want to find the best strategy to win, don’t we?”

  Elli snorted.

  “If you want to win, you better listen to me. Persuasion is my core strength. After all, I’m the vlogger with the expert knowledge in psychology.”

  She held her team’s glaze with laser eye contact.

  “Or do you have more objections as well?”

  Violet cleared her throat and nodded.

  “No objections. Let’s go with your plan.”

  Elli lowered her eyebrows and smiled like the little freckle-faced girl she looked like.