6h00
February 21, 2021
The young man jumped when the painful alarm of the sweet morning rang, lazy as always did not have the courage to turn it off with his own hands.
He then waited for a few rings before swinging his skinny arm violently at the device. He looked at the time, it was 6am, he finally decided to open his eyes fully to look at the calendar hanging on the white wall in front of his bed while getting up with difficulty, once done, he jumped up once more, flailing around to exclaim.
Nao Minazuki: "What, it's already February 21st?! Plus, it's 6 o'clock, that's absolutely perfect, it gives me some time to prepare for war haha!"
He left the bed in two or three movements and jumped straight into his rather comfortable office chair colored with a scarlet red and black main fabric.
His computer turned on just as quickly as when he thought, the curtains still closed allowed a weak ray of light to pass through, on the contrary the equipment and the two luminous screens which littered his desk emitted a large quantity of blue light dazzling him barely turned on.
Nao Minazuki: "Oh shit the light ouch it's destroying my eyes there, I think, that's what happens to always waking up during the night and sleeping during the day, well for once waking up early won't hurt me."
He took his mouse to scroll the cursor on the screen, pressing vigorously to accomplish his daily tasks, optimizing the computer, making sure he had not made a mistake about the day or the time, opening one by one all the applications scattered on the home page, starting with his favorite, "Planet C".
Nao Minazuki: "I love Planet C so much, some people enjoy it by meeting strangers, chatting, playing, laughing with them and I am not an exception to this process quite the contrary and I don't think I am so different in saying I have different motivations, I just say that all these applications never have success for their original function, in reality who could be satisfied with yet another simple online chat application?"
He looks at his private messages while looking at the dozen people lodging there. He always had the same contacts for a year now, a best friend in quotes since he only talks to talk about video game news, other game comrades obviously whether they are men or women.
Finally, even if there is only one person in the group who does not belong to the video game framework, a young girl his age that he was able to meet thanks to a Planet C community server, they talk regularly about everything and anything to tell the truth.
He suddenly receives an emoticon from his dear best friend, a character from their video game.
Best Friend (Games):
> "Oh man are you awake?" 6:13
> "Already only 15 minutes before the update and the release of the best waifu in the game!" 6:15
Nao Minazuki: "Just seeing these messages makes me sick of him already, we basically said there was no point getting excited about this kind of thing, I'm 19, not the age of a teenager and neither is he, well I mean he's 18, he needs to calm down."
So he decides to answer briefly with a "Yeah." to get up from his chair to go to the kitchen. He opens the big white refrigerator to take out a carton of milk and some plain cookies to put them on the high kitchen table, the whole house seemed spacious, luxurious and very clean.
Yet Nao lived very alone, his parents were indeed high-ranking civil servants in a large national company but to tell the truth it was not them who allowed him such a large home.
Once his breakfast was prepared, he headed back to his room and before he could even cross the threshold of the door, the doorbell suddenly rang.
Nao Minazuki: "Hmm who could it be? I think I ordered new lights and figurines but I didn't think they would arrive today, maybe Chinese New Year speeds up the deliveries to ensure good ratings on their site?"
He walks to the front door, opens it and sees 2 men dressed in a chic black and white suit, black tinted glasses, straight out of a special agent movie, a blank piece of paper in his hand and a black pen decorated with precious stones all with a touch of gold.
In addition, a wired microphone was attached to their tie and a barely visible earpiece.
Their posture was as stiff as a stone monument, the wind was calm, the blue sky sparsely covered with white clouds.
When suddenly another man appeared behind him with a cardboard box lying around, on the contrary this same man seemed more flexible in his way of moving and acting overall.
Man 1: "Hello, you must be Nao Minazuki, right? We are here to offer you a permanent contract, not in the sense of working for a company or anyone in particular, out of respect I ask you first, but are you ready to listen to us?"
With his hand on the door, Nao seemed somewhat surprised by his words but being curious decided to let them talk to make him learn a little more about all this.
Nao Minazuki: "Yeah, so I guess there's no problem, in those costumes I thought I made a mistake on the internet haha... But besides I don't know your names, can I maybe hear them? Because to tell the truth it makes me uncomfortable to talk about important things I suppose without knowing who I'm dealing with."
The man who spoke seemed to be searching for something in his pocket and took out a badge that looked like a police badge but was clearly different, he was quite tall with black hair, rather hollow cheeks and a square jaw.
Mikaell: "Yes, forgive us for our rudeness, my colleague's name is Valima and I'm Mikaell, no need for last names since our first names are very unusual. Oh yes I forgot but the one behind me is Milo, anyway let me explain clearly."
He took the sheet of paper he was holding at the start in his hand and took the pen from his colleague.
Mikaell: "So here it is, this is a contract and behind it is the reason why you signed this contract so I'll let you take a look at it and make sure you take the time to understand it, if you have any questions we'll be there to answer them."
Nao took the official document where all the descriptions, conditions, viabilities and other things were written, he scrutinized it carefully for a few seconds to analyze it.
Document preview:
GOTC ( Game Of Transmission Cortex )
Director: Tatsuki Sordji
This document is an obligation of the director to transmit to the candidate number entered at the bottom of the sheet, if this is not done then the destruction of this document will be carried out unofficially.
On a non-profit basis, GOTC offers you the opportunity to access our latest high-tech product in order to make a scientific breakthrough, for this the signature must be placed at the bottom of the document. If the author or signatory/candidate of the document requires a breach of contract then the agreement must be simultaneous. The product to be tried will be the Cortex Game, a Fantasy experience in which the candidate will be transported in order to live there, to guarantee security, personnel will be sent directly to the candidate every hour.
Objective for the candidate:
- Achieve survival when teleporting into the game and do not leave under any circumstances although designed to prevent any internal alteration of the project, only staff will be able to stop the game.
- Survive as long as possible in the world, no risk of physical danger, only mental if we talk about the game itself.
- The most important thing is to enjoy the experience.
Candidate number N.17
Signature :
End of contract.
When he finished reading, he looked up at the two men standing in front of him to finally speak to them.
Nao Minazuki: "It's all quite amusing, but a contract isn't something to be taken lightly, I suppose, so I have a question to ask."
Valima, the second man standing next to Mikaell, with a beard, a well-trimmed moustache, impeccable hygiene, spoke for the first time.
Valima: "Yes, I'm listening to you, if we have the knowledge to answer your question then it will be with pleasure."
Nao put his right hand on hir hip and hir hand on hir chin pretending to think about the question to ask in order to be as precise as possible.
At the same time a plane passed over them leaving a long white and opaque trail, carbon polluting the air but nevertheless useful for happiness in some way.
Then breaking the silence, Nao sighed nonchalantly while announcing out loud the question he had finally found.
Nao Minazuki: "So here it is, my parents are on a business trip on the other side of the world for a while, they tend to call me regularly and I set up a system copying my voice in order to fool them, usually I'm the one who activates it so as you want me to accept it's my only condition."
Finally before they could answer he asked his question this time.
Nao Minazuki: "Now that I have your attention, here is my question in several parts. First, I am candidate number 17 but what is the exact concept through this rating system, in short I would like to know everything there is to know about it."
Mikaell and Valima both snickered in unison in a mocking or amused manner?
Nao kept hhis nonchalant posture but suddenly let go of her chin and hip, crossing her arms and almost looking down on the two individuals.
The mood suddenly changed to an abnormally unpleasant pressure when Nao also started laughing, rather sadistically, with tears in his eyes, stopping the laughter of the two men suddenly forcing them to look at her strangely.
Nao stopped, sighed as he calmly caught her breath afterwards and said in a short and clearly monotone voice.
Nao Minazuki: "Thank you, can we continue? You may look like important men by the elegance of your outfit but it doesn't affect me, an anthill sheltering near a gold deposit doesn't make them important or really elegant on the inside does it?"
The faces of his interlocutors tightened drastically after this affront, like rocks.
Milo, the young man behind, stepped forward and pushed past his comrades to confront Nao.
The two looked at each other, the tallest was Nao with her 1m76 against about 1m70 for the smallest, the ascendant even showed a sign of flagrant indifference which annoyed Milo even more.
Milo: "I swear if you act smart like that again I'll kill you."
Nao's gaze darkened.
Nao Minazuki: "Do you want me to call your boss? Here, according to your proposal and the situation, you are no longer the negotiators, you are only the customers of what I propose, my intelligence and my strength is that it?"
Milo was about to throw his fist at him when Valima grabbed him by wrapping her arms around his torso, threw him so that he stopped and yelled at him.
Valima: "What the fuck is your problem?! You're just an intern here so you stay in your place or I swear I'll force you back there, so stop getting upset it's not the first time!"
The 4 characters were gathered in front of the doorstep of Nao's house, all here for the same indirect purpose, forever changing the boring life of Nao Minazuki here present waiting like a judgment to determine his future.
The undisputed beginning of a great story.