"Who has bailed me out?" asked Lemora as the police officer, Jack, escorted him out of his cell.
"A Mr. Euler," replied the officer. "His chauffeur is waiting for you in the car,"
Lemora frowned; he didn't know anyone with this name. He opened his mouth to ask more about his bailsman but thought better of it. In his line of work, the less you bugged the cops, the better.
Anyway, he was out again. That was all that mattered.
He would see what this Euler wanted later. Lemora might have failed high school twice, but he was not a fool to believe somebody would spend five grand on him for nothing.
At the desk, A plonk gave Lemora some documents to sign.
Lemora didn't read the shit. He didn't care. They wouldn't be able to catch him again anyway. All he wanted was to leave the fucking place as soon as possible. So he scribbled one of his fancy signatures and strode out of the damn place with his empty purse. The scumbags hadn't even spared his lucky coin.
Sure enough! Outside the cop shop, a black SUV was parked nearby. A muscular man in black beckoned him over.
Just in a glance, Lemora knew he was in deep shit. No good ever came from dealing with these ravens. He cursed under his breath and ambled to the car.
"Get in!" said the man in black before Lemora could ask anything. Something in his voice told the thief not to cross the burly fella.
The door opened, and Lemora hopped in. He had to. The thief had no money for a cab. The popo had confiscated his cell phone, so he couldn't call his buddy, Rob. And his den was too far away to walk. Worst of all, he was starving.
After an hour-long non-stop ride, Lemora found himself at the head office of Uvisoft, a famous video game company. And It was the beginning of surprises.
Why the hell was Uvisoft interested in a petty thief like him?
The thief wondered as he waited in a room that reminded him of the interrogation cell.
The recollections rattled the thief. He got up to leave the ominous place right away. But his rationality got the better of him.
Whoever this Mr. Euler was, he couldn't afford to offend him.
Lemora sipped the water from the bottle placed on the table to soothe himself. But it did the opposite.
The cold water set fire to his rumbling tummy. Lemora grimaced with pain.
Just then, the door unlocked, and a middle-aged man with dark blue eyes walked in. He was holding two files.
What caught Lemora's trained eyes was his golden watch.
'O mother of a gun! It was Patek Philippe. The thief cried out to himself.
$11 million! His mind appraised the watch's market price.
The thief hurriedly pulled himself together or he was afraid he might have drooled over there.
"Sorry for keeping you waiting, Mr. Andro," the man said with a light smile. Lemora noticed the Cartier Panthere Glasses sat on his hooked nose.
$159, 000! Again the price flashed in his mind.
The middle-aged man threw the two files on the table and sat down in the chair before the thief, looking at him interestingly.
"I'm Sigmund Euler, CEO of Uvisoft," The man introduced himself, looking straight into Lemora's enlarged eyes.
"Thank you for your kind help, Mr. Euler!" The thief hurriedly put on the sweetest smile that had helped him before in such situations. " I don't know how to repay this kindness!"
"You don't have to. We admire talents at Uvisoft. And you're a gifted man, Mr. Andro ." said Euler, his sharp eyes appraising him.
For some reason, Lemora felt the man's blue eyes could see through him. It made him a little edgy.
Like any other thief, he was not a fan of seers.
Lemora loved enigmas, mysteries, and darkness, where even he couldn't identify himself. He hated light that exposes everything and thus takes all the fun out of the world.
"You are making me blush, Mr. Euler," The thief said. However, the fact was he was sweating.
He didn't know where the man was going, buttering him up like this. No one calls a thief talented or gifted. They are notorious, evil and a stain on humanity.
Anyway, Lemora enjoyed the compliment.
As a thief, you rarely get laurels and honors. Even if you breach their most advanced security system and warn the world, the so-called security agencies have been fleecing their customers in the name of security.
"No! I have gone through your file. Each of your heists was nothing but the testimony of your godly skills,"
Euler's words rendered Lemora speechless. He couldn't help but blush even more. As gearhead as he was, he wasn't thickskinned. Suddenly his ears perked up. He frowned.
"What do you mean by 'my file'?" demanded Lemora.
The thief's fright was rational. Just one month ago, he got arrested for the first time in his ten-year career as a thief.
And after grinding their ass hard, the popo could bring only a single charge against him. Even so when Lemora's traitor friend had ratted him out.
So which file was the CEO talking about?
"Calm down!" said Euler with an evil smile.
"You've misunderstood me, Mr. Andro. I mean no harm. It's just we had been keeping an eye on you so that your work wouldn't go unseen. After all, a seedling needs light to grow,"
The color drained from lemora's face.
What did he say? He had been watching me. For how long?
The thief felt depressed. Yes, it was utter despair, the one you feel when you gamble away your entire savings and lose.
His unsolved robberies were his accomplishments, his drive to live.
Now they had gone.
Lemora could hear Martín de Porres, the patron saint of justice, giggling up in heaven.
"What do you want?" The thief asked, emptying the bottle in one go. Now he got why Tobey Maguire had slapped his fan.
Fans were nothing but a pain in the ass!
"Ah! you don't have to feel so depressed," said Euler. "Believe me. It wasn't an easy task. We had to.. "
"You don't have to console me, Mr. CEO" Lemora waved his hands. He hated fake sympathies.
The thief eyed the files.
A photograph of him swiping the jewelry from a high-security vault was sticking out of the red cover file. It was his tenth robbery in Las Vegas. The one ,of which the popo was clueless even to this day.
Euler continued to stare at him as if mulling over something.
"Have you ever played a VR game, Mr. Andro?" he asked after a long pause.
"Stop calling me, Andro." Lemora hated this surname the only thing his papi left for him.
"Pardon me, Mr.." Euler seemed amused by his reaction.
"Just Lemora! " The theif siad curtly. The name was given to him by his mom. According to her, it meant 'one who sings the glory of god'.
" Okay, Mr. Lemora, have you ever played a VR." the man asked.
"Why? yes!"replied the thief, giving the CEO a puzzled look. He did play a few VR games in his free time. But he was not a gamer if that was what Euler wanted to know.
"Good! It makes our tasks a lot easier," said the CEO. "The thing is, we have developed a VR game, not like the one you see in the market nowadays. Our game is so realistic that the player will feel he has been teleported into another world and is living a second life. We promise 100% immersion that includes emotions and pain too."
Lemora couldn't help but give the CEO a skeptical look. Was it even possible?
Of course, he had read novels where Mc got teleported into a video game and all the craps. But that was in fiction. Science still had a long way to go to get there.
Euler ignored his expressions and went on.
"We want you to play it and assess its difficulty level,"
"Isn't it the job of game testers?" Lemora said. He might be a good thief, but it had nothing to do with his gaming skills. Did Euler seriously bail him out to evaluate a game? What the hell was he thinking?
"Normally it is, but they can't assess our game. Only a gifted person like you who has breached even the advanced security systems can help us,"
"Let me tell you about our game a little frist." Euler clasped his hands as he explained.
"Our game is called Grand Theft online. In this game, the player is teleported into a new world where he must steal treasures to level up.
And as the game is highly realistic, one needs genuine skills to commit the robberies. One mistake, and the game is over. So, no prior gaming skill would help here. "
"Doesn't it have a guide or hint system? " Lemora asked.
"No! As we want to make it life-like, we won't give the player any hint. The player himself has to gather all the relevant information. So you see only a pro player like you can help us, "
The thief still doubted that he was right the person for the job. Once again, he eyed at the file with his name on it.
" What do you say?" Euler looked at him expectantly. "Of course, we will pay you a good salary," he added.
Oliver didn't reply immediately. Instead, he pondered over the bizarre proposal.
"How much will I get?" he asked, after some deliberation. Though the game seemed unrealistic, it was not entirely impossible. Tech companies often went out of bounds to do something new.
"Everything is written in this contract," Euler opened the other file he had brought with him.
"Here, " he pointed to a statement.
Lemora's eyes widened as he looked at the figure.
"$100000"
It was not too much. But the thief's current situation didn't allow him to be a chooser.
The popo had frozen his accounts. Lupin, his partner in crime, had sacked his hidden stash. Moreover, Lemora again glanced at the red cover file; he got fucked.
"What do you say?" Euler asked, satisfied with the thief's reaction.
"When can I start?" he asked, sighing. He had to give himself some time to think of a way out of this new mess. Not to speak, his traitor childhood chum was lurking somewhere out there.
So there was nothing to say. Lemora agreed then and there.
He read the agreement carefully. It said he would be paid level-wise. So if he cleared the first level, he would get $1000.
And after clearing each level, he could choose to leave or move to the next level. It was all up to him.
But, of course, if he wanted $ 100000, he had to clear all the stages first.
Lemora couldn't find any dubious statements even after reading the contract three times. So he signed the papers with a borrowed pen.
Was Lemora happy or angry? He didn't show it on his face.
"Congratulations for being a part of the future!" Euler shook his hand firmly, smiling brightly. Lemora could see twinkling in his ocean blue eyes.
"Let's first have a good lunch. Then I will show our game center," Euler said as they walked out of the room-Euler was beaming while Lemora, the thief who got fucked, was sulking over his first decent paying job.