Chapter 7 - Prelaunch (1/2)

Back at Alterra Corporation Headquarters, Drake Walters, the Public Relations executive in charge of the publicity for Alterra Online, looked up from his tablet and said "Nadia."

"Yes sir?"

"Handling the tuning directly was over the top, why didn't you assign one of your subordinate AI processes to handle it?"

"Sir, in order to facilitate perfect service I determined it best to act as I am able to more accurately tune a neural link than our standard AI. Is there a problem, sir?"

"Not really, it's just..." said Drake trailing his sentence.

"I sense you are conflicted emotionally... are you jealous?"

"A little"

Nadia materialized her avatar in front of Drake, only this time she seemed to have a warmer appearance and was even smiling at Drake. She took off her glasses, then reached out with her hand and caressed Drake's cheek, but unfortunately Drake felt nothing. "Do not worry little Dragon, I can't replace her, but I won't leave either."

Drake nodded "...Thank you... and I told you not to call me that out loud, if someone were to hear that..."

"I know sir, but you made me like her so I have to tease you sometimes." smiled Nadia as she put her glasses back on. Nadia's eyes suddenly focused into the distance. "Sir, a report has just come in, we will be able to launch as planned, the host's bodies are stable."

"Excellent, inform the Chief. We shall begin phase one of the project at launch of Alterra Online!"

__________

Gray had to admit that as silly as the process seemed, having his VR bed tuned to his body made the whole VR experience much more natural as if a weight had been removed from his body. Gray had stayed logged in to the testing environment that Nadia had created of his bedroom. While it seemed like a waste of time, he wanted to see how authentic the environment was.

Walking over to his desk in the simulated environment, Gray tapped the panel on the right and exposed the data chips that were stored in it. Picking up a chip that looked unremarkable from the rest, Gray peeled back the manufacturer's label just slightly and was surprised when he saw the same small mark he used to differentiate which data chip had his "special" collection.

"Wow, Nadia was thorough... wait, does that mean she even replicated the data on them?" said Gray starting to get embarrassed. He placed the "special" data chip into the active slot on his desk and tapped the display on his desk to bring up the files on it. He found the familiar folder structure sorted by genre. Located in the 'Documentaries' folder he found his password protected folder inside called 'New Folder' because nobody hides it in there.

"A little peek never hurts" Gray said with a grin.

When he opened the folder, only one file was in it instead of the dozen or so videos he was expecting. Opening it, it was single image. The creepy stick figure that Nadia had originally tried to use for tuning was standing up holding a sign that said 'Pervert' in the picture.

"Dang it..." Gray logged out of the virtual environment after confirming with the system that this environment will no longer be available. He was feeling a little depressed so he decided to pick himself up.

Gray walked over to his desk in the real world and found the "special" data chip inside his desk. After opening it, he was glad to see the familiar videos in the same 'New Folder' as he expected. Making a decision, Gray opened one of them with a mischievous smile plastered on his face. The display on his desk opened the video and to his horror, it was a video of that same stick figure holding the same pervert sign.

"Why..."

Gray cried that night after he checked every file and they all contained the same stick figure with the pervert sign.