Over the next three days, all participants underwent various medical examinations, and the various sensors were implanted. It was neither painful nor bothersome after installation, perhaps a little stinging in some areas.
Although they were kept isolated from each other in their luxurious rooms in the 10 buildings behind the office building, it was inevitable that Lion would run into some of his colleagues in the hallways or when moving between buildings.
He saw some familiar faces from the gaming world, no superstars (which is normal with the fee they paid), but streamers of the game, and a couple of famous professionals in the sector.
They lived in a kind of medicalized luxury resort; the only downside was that meals were brought to the room, so he could not look for other Spanish speakers in the dining room, or share impressions with the other participants; they existed, but as we had been told in the interview, it was necessary for the good of the game that no one met each other until after the tutorial. They wanted to avoid early clans or alliances, or so they said; It was a reason like any other to increase the feeling of secrecy.
All this mystery gave a certain tension to the whole project: it seemed that more than trying out a new video game, as relevant as immersive technology was, they were in some kind of top-secret experiment carried out by mad scientists under the orders of the government.
In three days, he only met three women... he could already imagine the proportion: 30% women and 70% sweaty freaks. Although Ikky did not consider himself in the category of sweaty geek, it was clear that he was no sex symbol.
He was lying on the sofa in the living room of his luxurious apartment when he thought he saw someone coming down from the upper floor to the balcony. He was about to call security when he realized it was a girl...
"Open up, I know you understand me and that you speak Spanish; I heard you talking to your mother on the terrace this morning..." and that was how Ikky met Mariela...
She was a blizzard-year-old Latina; She was tall, pretty to a certain extent, but the most striking thing was her explosive character. She burst in as soon as the door to the terrace opened and lay down on the sofa. She took two beers out of her sweatshirt pocket.
"I'm Mariela, hey, and you tell me your name and shut your mouth, because if you keep going like that, some bug is going to get in."
Ikky didn't know what surprised him more: that a woman had sneaked into the room by jumping from the upper balcony, or that she was a pretty, determined girl who also spoke his same language. It was inevitable that he would remain with his mouth open like a fool.
"I'm Ikky (she told him her name in the game); how did you get here?"
"Coming down from the upper balcony, I couldn't stand being locked up for another minute… Wait… Ikky, the cheater? Shit, I'm with a star; you're famous on the forums, man. I once followed one of your guides, you're really cool."
That girl knew him and, to a certain extent, admired him. That was the climax and push that her low self-esteem needed to start behaving, at least like a normal person and to be able to continue the conversation without seeming like an idiot.
We could say that in the three hours she was in the room, the girl spoke 70% of the time. She was Colombian, a geek of the new generations; she had made a name for herself playing PvP in various games since she was young. He recognized her when she told him her online name, Elsyne.
They exchanged impressions about all the mystery of that game, although the conversation ended with Elsyne's desire to shoot an arrow with her own body... to discover treasures, or to kill monsters... As a cheater, Ikky did not share his passion for combat.
"You have more experience, Ikky; you are older and you know more about these things; what do you recommend?"
"Ha, ha, ha, this is new to me as well, but if you want me to recommend something, I'll tell you that the differences in the games are pointed out many times during the tutorial; what you do there will define your character in the future. Be careful and don't treat it just like a hack and slash game; we don't know what we're dealing with." Because of her character, he knew she wouldn't listen to him for many reasons if he tried to persuade her roughly.
"Also, don't choose a bow as your first weapon, Elsine. You'll be very limited. No matter how good you are, arrows are a finite item, and I don't think it'll be easy to get them back if you want to be really realistic. A spear or something that gives you distance, but that you don't have to replenish, would be a better option." Ikky suggested calmly.
"I'm sorry, but there's no way I wouldn't choose a bow, especially in a game with real control… I'm an Olympic shooter in Colombia, I've even been to the Olympics. I may never win gold, but I assure you that I am very good. Although I can choose some secondary weapon, I assure you that I will try to get one during the tutorial" She said with a smile and showing off, while making the perfect gesture of shooting a bow in slow motion.
They talked about many things, they even agreed that once inside the game they would form a team, it was the easiest thing to do, if they could speak Spanish that would make their lives much easier, many Anglo-Saxons imposed their language without caring if the rest understood them or felt comfortable, they took it for granted that everyone spoke English well, which was not always the case.
No, as much as you can imagine, this meeting did not end in anything romantic or much less spicy; it was entertaining, different, and helped them relax for a while…
Ikky could not say that he would not remember her smile, but she was much younger than him. There was no option. There was no way that something like that would happen in that life, Ikky knew that he could not compete in certain leagues.
At some point in the night, Mariela left just as she had arrived, although this time she needed his help to get up and reach the bars of the balcony on the upper floor to start climbing…
Ikky looked down from the third floor terrace, and just thinking about the fall made him almost dizzy.
He was supposed to help her, but his body was shaking just from leaning over and watching her try to climb suspended in the void was not helping.
To avoid getting dizzy, he looked up while holding the girl's legs. He hadn't thought it through, he just looked to avoid looking like a coward and stop shaking, but Mariela, despite wearing sports tights, they were so tight that everything was visible down there… The intrepid girl looked down and laughed. She had caught him looking where he shouldn't have.
Ikky returned to the room; it had been an especially intense afternoon. The boy fell asleep right away, with a deep and restful sleep.
The next day I would enter for the first time into a completely real fantasy world.