Militaries from all over the world have been trying for years to develop a true Artificial Intelligence program, a program that can learn and develop on its own, a program that acts, learns, and thinks on its own, just like a human would. For years...
An hour later and he was back at the courtyard, this time on a slightly elevated step instead of on the roof. He was standing at the edge of a small crowd of around fifty others. The courtyard was huge, and there was plenty of extra room. He had been observing everyone else, looking for anything, or anyone, that stood out to him. So far nothing was particularly interesting. There were a few individuals that caught his interest for a moment, but none that could keep it. He shook his head as he overlooked the crowd. The meeting, or whatever was supposed to happen, should have started three minutes ago, but there was only now a scramble to get to the top of the stage that was set up at one edge of the open area. Whoever was running this was sloppy, and that was something he could use to his advantage.
A middle-aged man in a long white coat and a bowler hat stepped up onto the stage. He carried a cane, although he didn't seem to need it. He had long, carrot colored hair that covered one eye, and the visible eye had a long tail of eyeliner. He flicked some slight specks of dirt off his coat and turned to face the small crowd.
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There was an expectant silence as they waited for him to speak.
"Well, since all you wonderful people showed up on time, I presume you all are here for the same reason: to get a head start over everyone else. That being said, if anyone is looking for the ladies knitting club, you're in the wrong place."
The man smirked as he said this, and several people chuckled. Jason remained silent. The man was obviously trying to get them to let down their guards, and who knew what surprises he had planned. The men on the rooftop were proof enough that something was going on.
"Before we get into what you get for being here, let me just go over how this whole game works, in case anyone doesn't know. You are all part of a four-person team, the people you live with.You earn points for your team by completing missions and getting kills. If your team joins a guild, your points start going to the guild. If any of you are wondering what the motivation is for earning points, here it is: your team or guild's ranking is determined by the number of points you have. The higher your ranking, the more bonuses you can get."
A girl in the middle of the crowd called out, "What kind of bonuses?" The man nodded to her, "A very good question. The bonuses can range from gear upgrades, to a higher monthly pay, to access to better furniture, and almost anything anything else you can think of. Does that answer your question?"
The girl nodded.
"Good. To begin with, each person will be given a basic pistol. Low range, tiny ammo capacity, horrible accuracy. Practically worthless. Here's where the advantages of being here begin to appear. Just for showing up you will all be given an upgraded pistol with better, well, everything. You'll also all have a chance to get even better weapons before you leave, but we'll get to that in a moment."
A murmur ran through the crowd at the prospect of getting even better gear. They were gamers, and there are few things gamers love more than gear and upgrades, especially free gear and upgrades.
"Guilds will compete for territory throughout the city. One guild can take over another's territory by occupying it and keeping the original guild out, or by challenging them to a scheduled fight with agreed upon terms."
The man paused and looked around, apparently waiting for questions. There were none. The page with the invitation was buried deep enough that you had to have gotten at least a decent understanding of the game before you found it.
"Well then, let's get on to the fun stuff. To begin with, I'm going to give you all the upgraded pistol, then I'll explain how you can get more free gear. To get your pistol, all you need to do is come forward and scan your communicators here," He used his cane to point at several scanners built into the base of the stage, "and wait for the machine to spit out the gun. The guns are all identical, and there's more than enough for everybody, so there's no need for pushing and shoving."
Surprisingly, there wasn't any arguing over who went first. Most of the people there were streetwise enough to realize that things were going too smoothly to be true. Nobody in their right mind would give out such premium items for free. As a result, a majority of the people were on their guard and were paying too much attention to what was going on to care about who got a gun first.
Once everyone had a gun, the red-haired man continued. "Now then, the setup for getting more free gear is very simple. We are going to have our very own gladiator tournament. Since there's about fifty of you, we'll start with ten groups of around five each. Of these five, two will advance, leaving us with twenty for the next round. The first round will be unarmed combat. Anyone who doesn't wish to participate in the fighting is more than welcome to bow out. And it goes without saying, the higher you get in the fights here, the better the your rewards will be. Oh, and I forgot to mention: the top competitors will earn some rewards for inside the video game as well."
With that the man reached into his coat and pulled out a phone that was identical to Jason's. He tapped it a few times and a buzzing noise filled the courtyard as fifty phones went off at once.
"You all just received your group assignments. You're each in one of ten groups. Group one will go first, then group two, you get the point. Those of you in the first group have ten minutes to stretch, practice, pray, or whatever else it is you do before a fight."
