“Give me just a sec!” Kai answered.
He had to hurry. Not only did he risk pissing off Jax if he kept staring at himself in the mirror, but he would also miss his train to work.
Quickly, he grabbed his toothbrush and finished his morning body hygiene routine in less than a minute. Although his dentist recommended he use floss, every time Kai visited his office, he skipped it today. There wasn’t enough time, and he hated flossing anyway. His hair was still moist from the shower, but he would let it air-dry on the way, like every day.
When he opened the door and peeked outside, the big guy was gone. Kai heard him humming in the kitchen and hurried back to his room. The kitchen was too small for two people at once, but Kai didn’t store anything in the antiquated, constantly leaking fridge anyway. Whenever he bought something, it would be gone the next day, so he had given up and ate on the run instead.
“You have twenty minutes to catch your train, Kai,” Alessia’s disembodied voice greeted him once he was back in his room.
That would be a close call, as always, but he would make it.
“Alessia, check emails,” he said while grabbing his jeans and a random t-shirt from his closet.
It didn’t really matter which one he wore, they were all as nerdy as the next one, all displaying superheroes and video game logos.
“No new emails, Kai,” Alessia said.
Sometimes it seemed to him as if there was a hint of snark in her voice, although he knew personal AI shouldn’t be capable of expressing such moods.
Kai pressed his lips together. Hopefully he’d hear from them once he was back home.
He grabbed his bag and left the room.
***
A musty odor welcomed Kai as he left the apartment and locked the door behind him. The lights in the long hall were broken and flickered in an unpleasant, frantic way, and the neon red sign at its end said XIT. Someone had battered the E years ago, and no one had bothered to fix it. The smell always reminded him of a mixture of fried eggs and wet socks. It was anything but pleasant, but he had gotten used to it over time. Although sometimes he wondered where it was coming from. Carol claimed that Mrs. Blunt, the cat lady who lived in the last apartment on the left, had dropped dead one day, and now she and her five or so cats were slowly decomposing behind the door. Kai thought that was a pretty macabre and sad story. Besides, why would a decomposing corpse smell like eggs and wet socks?
He passed the two dozen identical doors at a quick pace before he reached an iron gate at the end of the hall. He fished his ID card from his messenger bag and held it against the sensor next to the gate. It clicked and opened, letting him pass. He sighed in relief. Sometimes the sensor was broken, and it could take hours and dozens of angry phone calls to the community management until someone came and fixed it – provided it wasn’t a weekend.
The gate shut behind him as he approached the elevators. Two identical gates marked the entrances to the two other halls leading away from the staircase and the elevators in the center. Although often broken, the security measure was a blessing for all residents, as break-ins and violent robberies were common in the area.
“You gotta be kidding me!” Kai said as he reached the elevators.
Out of order was blinking on the control panel between the two doors. He swore and began running down the stairs. He had to hurry now if he wanted to catch the train. Better down than up, but still, it was exhausting and took ages to run down the 18 flights of stairs.
The elevators were broken at least once a month, and Kai and his roommates constantly debated if the maintenance guys were total idiots or if the management had them use spare parts of the lowest quality.
Kai was a strict supporter of the first theory, and halfway down he was confronted with proof for that opinion once again. An overweight middle-aged man dressed in a sweaty polo shirt with the housing community’s logo on its back was tinkering with a control panel located a few inches above the floor. The first thing Kai stared into when coming down the stairs was the man’s plumber’s smile.
Kai wrinkled his nose. Why, why in all worlds did guys like this always do that? It was almost like some unwritten law, as indisputable as the law of gravity or the theory of relativity.
He didn’t bother to stop and ask the man if the elevators would be fixed by tonight. Chances were high they wouldn’t be. Ascending the stairs to the 18th floor after a long day of labor was going to be a pain in the ass.
After what felt like an eternity, he finally reached the ground floor and hurried to the exit. Thick beads of sweat had built on his forehead and he was out of breath when he pushed the double door open and stepped outside. Although the air felt moist and smelled slightly sour, it was still much fresher than the stale air inside the staircase. Kai took a deep breath and hurried away.
It was a ten-minute walk to the train station – at a fast pace. Which meant that he would just about make it. The clouds hung deeply between the gray concrete tenements, all of them identical and only distinguishable by the huge numbers on their facades, their various shades of corrosion, and the graffiti decorating each of them.
Kai saw other people leaving the apartment blocks and hurrying to the train station. Some of them wore various kinds of uniforms or clothes displaying corporate identities, others were dressed in business attire. But there were also a lot of people to be seen who didn’t work at all.
Groups of men and women loitered around benches or in doorways, most of them drunk or high at this early hour. Some held beer cans, others vaped or smoked weed. Shady individuals strolled through the pedestrian areas – the whole community complex containing a couple dozen such buildings as the one Kai lived in was a pedestrian area. Whoever had designed it many years ago must have thought it idyllic, but in reality it felt like a prison.
Most people, however, stayed inside. If they didn’t need to go to work, they wouldn’t leave their homes for days and weeks, especially since everything was delivered by drones nowadays. The sight of them flying and buzzing in the sky was so common that no one even noticed it anymore. They were as normal as birds had been in earlier times.
Kai saw two guys high as fuck argue about something and hurried away. The last thing he needed now was to get into trouble and miss work as a result. Although no law enforcement could be seen, the whole area, which was known for its crime, was monitored by extensive CCTV. Some cameras hung openly on street lanterns or house facades, others were integrated into drones that pretended to be just another harmless delivery automaton but instead kept a digital eye on everything and everyone.
Nevertheless, the area was anything but safe, which was why Kai never left his house after dark – no one did.
It’s only temporary, he told himself again and again, and the hope that this was true drove him every day instead of letting him sink into lethargy like most people he knew.
A thick raindrop fell onto his forehead and he looked to the sky. It would start raining at any moment. Luckily he was almost there. He could already see the massive concrete and chrome building with the oversized Plexiglas windows – the station.
He ran and made it just before the stray raindrops could turn into a waterfall and soak him. He shook his head about himself inwardly. Why did he never manage to bring an umbrella, even though Alessia reminded him about it every time?
He didn’t have time to contemplate if he was an absent-minded genius or simply a moron. A digital signal mimicking the traditional gong formerly heard on train stations clang from the speakers, indicating the train was about to enter the station. Kai hurried, taking two steps at once on the escalator, and arrived at the platform just as the train entered the station.
Contrary to the fancy monorails, skytrains and subways in the city, this train was old and almost appeared like a relic from an ancient, bygone era. It still used the traditional two rails and was annoyingly slow. It took forever to get to the city, but for Kai, like for so many others, it was the only way to reach downtown and
his job. Like an ancient colossus, it came to a halt and the doors opened with a loud creak. Kai and the hundreds of others waiting on the platform rushed inside, hoping to find a seat.
Actually, Kai didn’t have much hope of finding one. Most days, the trains were hopelessly overfilled, and he usually stood squeezed in between the other commuters, smelling alcohol, cheap perfume and sweat. But today, he was lucky.
When he boarded, he spotted an empty seat two rows away from him. Quickly, he made his way there and let himself fall onto the musty, worn-out cushion seconds before another guy could claim it. The man shot him an angry glance, and for a moment, Kai was sure he would start an argument about it, but then he turned away, a tired expression of resignation on his gray face.
Kai leaned back and watched the monotonous buildings of the district he lived in rush by as the train reached its top speed. Everything appeared blurry in the heavy rain drumming against the dirty window. No one spoke. People either stared at their mobile devices or gawked at the little screens and displays mounted directly in front of every seat or hanging from the ceiling or in the door frames. The bigger ones showed the news, informing people about the latest, horrifying incidents they were supposed to be scared of, while the smaller individual ones displayed commercials. Each device showed something different, depending on the person sitting in front of it.
The neuro-plants everyone wore connected to the train network automatically when passengers entered the vehicle. Within seconds, the system retrieved all available information about the implanted individual and showed them exactly the kind of ads and commercials that were of greatest interest to them. If someone had been browsing sneakers the day before, they would see advertisements for the latest models the big brands had to offer. Others would see ads for skin cream, romance novels, or the brand-new Italian-style espresso maker. The system would even know when a person had skipped breakfast and torture them with commercials from the biggest fast-food chains for the whole trip.
No one complained though, and people were so used to constantly being bombarded with ads that, most of the time, they didn’t even notice them. When getting a neuro-plant, you had to sign a waiver that would allow the manufacturer to collect data and use it to enhance your experience and make your daily life easier and more pleasant.
Kai was usually too much occupied with his own thoughts and daydreams to even notice what the system was trying to sell him. Today, ads for floss, a water heater and the new Robo-Batman movie ran past him unnoticed while he was daydreaming about how he would celebrate when he finally got the email. Later, the system tried to convince him to sign up for a virtual gym membership. For only 1k bit-bucks extra a month, it would even come with a personal trainer AI that promised to get him into shape in no time.
“Become your dream self,” the commercial promised with a silky female voice that only Kai could hear thanks to his neuro-plant. “Become better than your avatar in The Scrolls of the Ancients.”
The mention of his favorite game made his head jerk up, and Kai realized that he had dozed off. The movement of the train and the gray monotony outside had made him fall asleep. He peeked at his watch and saw that it was only 20 minutes till he reached his destination. If only commuting was always like that. Then it would be more bearable.
Kai assumed that last night’s long gaming session and the sprint to the train station had made him tired. He yawned and stretched himself, but then he straightened up as something he had never seen before caught his attention.
“Kai,” the screen addressed him directly, a friendly but assertive, male voice speaking to his neuro-plant. “Do you wish life could offer you more than it does? Are you made for greatness? Don’t waste your time or time will waste you. Join the Cyber Squad!”
A skillfully edited sequence of well-known video game characters flashed over the screen while a dramatic score reached its crescendo. The colorful Cyber Squad logo appeared, and the voice continued.
“The adventure of your life is waiting for you, Kai! Send us your resume today. Become a hero!”
Kai stared at the screen in surprise. Of course he knew what Cyber Squad was, but he had never seen one of their recruiting ads address him directly.
Outside the window, the scenery began changing drastically as the train left the suburbs behind and approached the city. Majestic skyscrapers soared into the heavens. The closer the train came to the center, the brighter the world became. Usually, Kai loved staring out of the window and watching the city before the train disappeared into a tunnel for the rest of the journey. But not today.
Today he felt distracted by the personalized ad he had just seen.
Cyber Squad was the name of the biggest and most famous company providing quality assurance in the gaming industry. In earlier times, a job in QA was the least glamourous gaming position imaginable. While the coders did the magic and the level designers created worlds, the guys sitting in QAs were mostly losers, nerds dreaming of becoming a game developer one day. They were the lowest of the low in the food chain, looked down upon by the cool guys who actually created the games.
But those times were long gone.
Now, all games were played in VR. And since almost everyone had a neuro-plant, people logged into the virtual worlds using the implants in their brains – like Kai did every day. Although the game developers and hardware manufacturers claimed otherwise, connecting your brain into VR and especially the Net wasn’t without danger.
Glitches and bugs, annoying in earlier decades, could cause brain damage or even death when experienced in neuro-plant-induced VR. Countless horror stories circulated on the web, although it was almost impossible to prove if any of them were true.
Over the last twenty years, VR had become more and more important in people’s lives and now dominated all other entertainment forms. It was the easiest way to escape reality, with countless virtual worlds to explore. People rarely went outside anymore for many reasons. Why would they if the virtual worlds were so much better than the real one? They were worlds in which everyone could be whatever they wished to be and experience everything imaginable without limits. From vast MMORPG[6] worlds to simulations of everyday life – just better –, everything was possible. Some ten years ago, VR had been declared essential by the UN and had to become accessible to everyone, no matter their social status. Governments funded basic versions of neuro-plants and consoles to access the virtual world.
Not surprisingly, as a result of this the gaming and VR industries had become the most lucrative in the world, and even the smaller developers were worth billions on the stock market. It had made their lobby incredibly powerful. And the lobby didn’t like it when reports of people dying horribly because of glitches and malfunctions made it into the news. Which was why most such stories were rumors and nothing more.
Nevertheless, the Cyber Squad was famous. Those guys jumped in when shit hit the fan. In a time when glitches and bugs could turn into deadly traps, quality assurance had become a high-risk job.
It was a job Kai didn’t want to have. Yes, apparently they paid very well, and yes, he was an excellent gamer with an impressive overall Gamerscore.
The Gamerscore was like a virtual fingerprint. The neuro-plant collected data about all activities a gamer performed, what games they played, what achievements they got and much more. All of this was summed up in the player’s Gamerscore on X-Perience, which was the standardized VR entrance platform every player had to use if they wanted to play games online.
Kai loved nothing more than VR games. But at the risk of brain damage or his life like the Cyber Squad guys? Nope.
Besides, he had other plans for his life, and he had been working hard over the last 24 months to achieve them.
The train entered the tunnel, and the magnificent city was replaced by darkness.
Chapter Four
Fifteen minutes later, the train arrived at the underground station of Central Plaza. Kai exited and followed the crowds on the escalators all the wa
y up to the Skytrain station, a hyper-modern building. Made almost completely of glass, it appeared to float high above the streets of southern downtown. Fully automated, the high-tech monorail train arrived right on time, as it always did.
Kai hopped on, ready to enjoy the last five minutes of his daily commute. The Skytrain was a completely different travel experience than the train he used to get into the city.
Much less crowded, it offered a comfortable seat for every passenger. The air was pleasantly conditioned and scented. Most people here wore expensive business attire. This was the heart of the corporate world, and it showed everywhere.
Outside, high-rises of impressive architecture flew by, adorned by oversized billboards. This was a world he only could dream of. Even if his plans worked out, he would never become part of this society that seemed almost like a different world. Or maybe he would? Nothing would be impossible once he made it into the league.
Noiseless, the train reached the next station and Kai’s final destination. It took him almost one and a half hours from his home to his workplace. That sucked, but it was only temporary. And the five-minute Skytrain ride cost him more than the rest of the commute, but it was the only way to reach the place. Well, he could walk for another twenty-five minutes instead, but he only did that when he ran out of money and couldn’t afford the Skytrain.
Moving quickly, he descended the escalator and entered the huge mall he worked at every day.
***
Kai’s job sucked. He hated it.
He hated every day, every hour, every minute. For some reason, it always seemed as if time went by much slower here than in VR. Hell, even the dragging daily commute went by faster than being here. It didn’t matter if it was slow or busy, the days always took forever.
“Is there something exciting in this corner, invisible to me?”
He heard Hana right behind him and flinched.
“No, I’m sorry,” he mumbled, then hurried away. But not fast enough.
Cyber Squad - Level 1: A Gamelit/LitRPG Lite Cyberpunk Adventure Page 3
