Birth Of Cosmos Online

'Here we are, meeting room 309. That's where they told me to go for my scheduled meeting.' Soren thought to himself, as he stood in front of a gray door, before opening it and taking a seat in front of an empty desk. While waiting for the person to arrive, he couldn't help but look around the room for a bit, but aside from the wooden desk, an inactive computer, a few empty chairs and a massive window depicting a rather unimpressive view of Glaxion City's tall skyscrapers and advertisement billboards.

*groan* Upon hearing the creaking of the door, Soren turned his eyes towards the cause of the noise, a short man, at around the height of 135 cm, with short black hair and a tired expression plastered on his face, as he slowly walked towards the desk and sat on the chair.

"So, you must be mister Pascianno... *groan* So, what are your inquiries? Is there something you do not understand about our AionTech helmets or the game itself?"

"Uhmmm... Well, I'm not sure how to explain it, but I think helmet and game are rather buggy in ways that are far more worrying than I would like."

"Such as? I'd like for you to be a bit more specific about this. If possible, maybe try describing the series of events that gave you that impression." The AionTech employee suggested with a faint business-like smile. As Soren went through the series of events about his realism, connection and settings issues, his second naming prompt and its effects, he also kept an eye on both him and his box.

"Hmm... I think I have a good idea of the situation now, but you could you please take you AT helmet as well?" Soren did as the employee asked and took out his AionTech helmet an gave it to the employee to examine it.

"Say... When did you receive this helmet?"

"Around a couple of weeks ago."

"Hmm... And have you messed with the in-game settings at all?"

"No I haven't. I only checked on the settings. I haven't done any changes yet, since I wasn't sure what would happen if I started messing around with the settings, especially with the 'Default Realism Setting'."

"Good then. You would have had major problems, should you have actually changed the in-game realism settings." The employee put the helmet down, as he looked with a far more serious expression, as any sign of sleepiness and fatigue had completely disappeared from his face.

"How so?"

"Tell me. What do you know about our AT helmets?"

"Well... I know pre-ordering and deliveries for them started around eight months ago. I also know that all helmets are supposed to be the same model, but nothing more than that." Soren explained thoughtfully, as he tried to go down his own memory lane to see if there was anything else he could have potentially missed.

"Understood." The employee then picked up the helmet and started his explanation. "You may not realize it but your current AT helmet isn't a commercial one for casual use. What you were using last night was technically a company AT helmet, otherwise known as an AT-0 Testing Helmet."

"An AT-0 what? A company helmet!?" Soren asked with a shocked and fearful expression, as the implications of using such a helmet made his brain go haywire with scenarios that usually led to his demise.

"Relax mister Pascianno. You are not under any trouble. Rest assured." The employee calmly suggested upon seeing Soren's sudden expression change, before continuing his explanation. "Technically, these helmets are supposed to be same as our testing helmets, albeit with less security checks and safety programs, usually used for monitoring the physical and mental state of our testers, during their duration of the testing sessions. Unfortunately, around the time the helmets first were supposed to be delivered, a small mishap happened and the first batch of helmets that were supposed to be delivered, were these AT-0 helmets instead.

At the time, the company swiftly recalled most of the helmets from the storage bays and from the people these helmets were already delivered to. Unfortunately, there were still a few helmets that were hidden away from our eyes and are still occasionally being sold on the black market. Your helmet is probably one of the AT-0s that escaped our eyes, but was meant for personal use by the person who hid it, until it was somehow mistaken for a normal AT helmet and was delivered to you."

"I understand the situation a bit better... But I still don't get exactly how it would have been a major problem."

"Remember how I said that these AT-0 helmets are no different than our testing helmets? The main reason for that, is the 'Default Realism Setting' which is the same as the Realism dial on the outer side of the helmet. So these helmets essentially are commercial AT helmets with two realism dials, instead of one and that's a major problem, especially for your own safety."

"H-How so...?" Soren asked nervously, as the room suddenly felt a lot colder than before.

"AION performs a realism security check on all helmets that try to enter the game and should any of those helmets have a realism setting of over 60%, AION will bar any and all entry attempts on the game. It shouldn't take genius to figure out where the exception to this rule lies on."

"The testing helmets and AT-0s... So theoretically, I could easily set the realism settings to 100% and there would be nothing to stop me from playing the game on those settings."

"And that's where the problem lies. There's a very good reason why only our testing helmets were supposed to have access to the 100% realism settings. Ever heard of the pre-war movie, The Matrix?"

"I don't know much about pre-war stuff. Especially after The Great Deletion, back on 2042. Anything pre-war related is barely remembered by a few people now." Soren stated, as he remembered a major hacking attack that deleted a lot of information and media about the world before the third world war, while causing a major world crisis that nearly destroyed the world at the time.

"I see. Anyways, the point is that the movie's premise takes in a future where the entire world lives in a virtual space and should you die in the virtual world, you die in real life. Now tell me, what's the difference between living in the virtual world and playing the game on 100% realism setting?"

"Uh..."

"None. There's virtually no difference between the two." The employee coldly stated, while turning on the computer and started typing on the keyboard.

"Now I see... Now I get why these things were not meant for commercial use. It takes one wrong action and... Off to la la land, for good..." As Soren commented, he couldn't help but slowly move his chair away from the helmet on the desk.

*brrr* *brrr* "Now that we've taken care of this issue, we have another issue to tackle. Specifically, your double name issue." As the employee as stating that, he suddenly ducked below the desk and brought out a freshly printed sheet of paper, before slamming the sheet of paper on the desk and adding. "Unfortunately, we require you to sign a contract of silence for this issue, since this involves confidential company information. So, what will be your choice, mister Pascianno?"