Chapter 2 - No Game No Problem (1/2)

Alterra Corporation, 30th floor main headquarters building. A sharply dressed man looked at the display on his tablet, the transparent tablet adding a blue tint to his desk. This man is Drake Walters, the public relations executive of Alterra.

In this age, offices are almost outdated as virtualization and telecommuting have almost completely removed the need to actually show up to an office. Unfortunately hackers and data thieves have also advanced with the times and the only way to ensure that information was not intercepted was to have face to face meetings. Thus, large corporations that are frequently targeted still have office buildings with people instead of just machines.

"Are you sure about this data Nadia?" Drake asked to seemingly nothing

"Yes, myself as well as another AI from the security division were able to disqualify everyone that used an AI or other illicit method to submit multiple entries." An AI voice sounded from what appeared to be light fixture.

Drake nodded to himself "Out of the billions of applications, and only 4 didn't cheat…"

"To be fair, sir, humans never read the fine print"

Drake laughed to himself "Indeed, the irony isn't lost on me when an AI clicks the box that says 'I am not a robot'"

"To be fair sir, I am NOT a robot, I am a partially sentient software with cognitive functions that is purely used for data organization, analytics, management, and an advisor without morals and incorruptible. Robots just do labor."

Drake smiled "…and it seems even AI have a slight superiority complex."

"I disagree sir, I myself am merely stating a fact."

Laughing to himself again, Drake looked at the list again on his desk. At the top in large font, it said "Finalists for Alterra Online Diamond Competition". Below that was a list of three names:

1. Alana Korbet

2. Gray Wilhelm

3. Seymour Butts

4. Dan Gibbons

"Nadia, why didn't you remove the third entry?"

"Sir, this entrant did not cheat and only submitted a single entry"

"Remove the third entry…"

__________

A middle-aged man sat alone in a dark room in front of a computer display, browsing for feeds on Alterra Online, watching the countdown for the results to the Diamond Tier competition.

"Seymour! Your dinner is ready!" an elderly female voice came from the first floor.

"Coming Ma!"

He is Seymour Butts, yes, he hated his name, but his Mother strictly forbid him from changing it due to her late husband's name being Seymour. He was polite and upright and never did anything wrong, graduated with highest honors from Adonis University, but then his Mother married again to Bernard Butts, and thus Seymour Collins became Seymour Butts. Despite his achievements, he was never able to land any job as his resume and applications were always filtered out due to his name.

__________

On Saturday, Gray finally had time off to himself. Of course, he would spend as much of it as possible playing games. He loved multiplayer games especially but it was hard to find people that genuinely enjoyed gaming, winning or losing, as society is very competitive. After his 3rd consecutive loss in Sprocket League, Gray decided to take a break for once.

"I need to go for a walk and clear my head"

Gray put on some regular clothes and grabbed his armlet. The armlets were extremely convenient in today's society; essentially, the armlet is the old wallet, phone, map, assistant, and could help manage your life socially, financially, and even physically. Sadly the social functions of it were almost never used so his little social bubble basic AI gave up a long time ago. The fitness function was also practically a lost cause as most of his exercise was walking from his desk at work to the tram station. On the other hand, his financial basic AI was constantly working, it would make suggestions and give statements constantly as he had to pinch every credit and couldn't spend lavishly as a third of his monthly budget was used on gaming.

Gray headed down to the shopping district, he loved making his way to GameGo as it was his solace. He loved nothing more than nerding it up with other nerds. As usual, when he finally arrived at GameGo, the financial basic AI on his armlet started panicking and informed Gray he needed to not spend over a certain amount of credits or else he would have to skip some meals.