ALTERNATIVE LIFE EXPERIENCE - part 1

Chapter 1.2

This was it...

I materialized in the middle of a small lane that was plunged in an ashen kind of medieval low light. Across from where I stood, a wrought-iron sign indicated: Restaurant Bagatelle. The frontage didn't really correspond to the traditional style of an old bar. Two large round windows framed an oak door, built into a shadowy entrance. Through each of them, you could clearly distinguish endless rows of bookcases which rose from ground to ceiling and covered the entire surface of the walls.

"Take the staircase behind the red curtain," Eo had written in his last message.

I took two steps forward and noticed that there was no handle on the door. As I touched it, however, it opened smoothly and silently. The interior of the restaurant was warm and bathed in a soft light, with lots of small floating balls varying in size and intensity. Just past the library on the left, a bar stood along the wall, proudly exhibiting suggestions of the day, drinks with intoxicating titles. In his fictitious establishment, the innkeeper proposed mythical cocktails, downloadable via a user account. I wondered whether the characters installed in upholstered leather settees were AIs and/or avatars, the first being artificial intelligences, the latter, digital characters remotely-controlled by human beings. At the back of the room on the right, a heavy red velvet curtain hid the staircase Eo had mentioned. I crossed the room and passed behind it. Not surprisingly, a spiral staircase led down into the ground. There was no other way I could go. I went down about fifteen steps and entered a narrow, dimly-lit corridor. At the end of it, I could see a laser beam virtually barring the passage, like a shining curtain. Instinctively, I stopped.

Suddenly, a feminine voice called out:

"Authenticating, please wait..."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a shadow move. I turned around and found myself facing a huge black guy. Shaved head, high cheekbones and a piercing in the edge of his left eyebrow, his dazzling green eyes were fixed on me. His torso, hardly camouflaged by a long black coat, glittered as if it had been oiled. The guy looked like a stylish armored tank.

He smiled at me, revealing a row of perfect teeth. His simulated breathing was slow and deep. He still hadn't said a word.

"Authentication terminated.

Please step forward."

The laser beam died out. In front of us a metal pipe appeared, resembling a giant ventilation duct. At my feet, two eight-inch plates, each one marked with a footprint, invited me to take position. Level with our waists, a semi-circular tube shaped like a handlebar completed the machine.

I turned around. The stranger nodded in consent. I placed a foot on each square and clutched the handlebar. My 'transporter' advanced three feet, did a quarter turn to the left, then glided along through a collection of metal pipes at a rapid and constant speed. I penetrated silently into this dark labyrinth with the odd neon light here and there that made the whole thing look like a creepy scene in a horror film.

Behind me, the stranger also slid along. Our voyage was short and we both stopped at the same place. To our left, a sliding-door opened.

"I've been waiting for you!" exclaimed Eo cheerfully. "Come in!"

Eo was incarnated by a young man, aged about twenty-five and displaying a shimmering mane of silver white hair. His avatar had permanently-positioned sunglasses on the top of his head, a light-colored T-shirt and military-style camouflage pants. Rambo without the steroids.

We entered a rectangular room of about fifteen square meters with a minimalist interior: four walls, a door and three white broad-backed armchairs placed in a semi-circle. Awesome.

"Hello. Where are we?" I asked in my best English, passing in front of Eo. As a matter of principle and convenience, we all played in the language of Shakespeare on the Net, of course!

"I don't really know," he declared, shrugging his shoulders. "I haven't seen the other teams. I just arrived. By the way, do you two know each other?"

"No," I replied.

The stranger, standing close to the door, laid his piercing eyes on me. He remained quiet a few seconds, slightly shaking his head as if to say no.

"Wave, allow me to introduce The Messenger. The Messenger, this is WaveRider," said Eo quickly.

My new team-mate remained motionless, as if nailed to the spot. I had heard about him here and there, but I'd never had the opportunity of seeing him in action. "Pleased to meet you," he suddenly declared, in a deep voice with a strong American accent.

"Hi," I mumbled, surprised. I hoped that he wasn't going to drawl like that during the entire game. Eo's Germanic accent had long stopped bothering me, but I had never really played with an American before. Luckily, he didn't seem very talkative. However, his avatar looked too good to be true.

"Is it just the three of us?" I asked Eo, surprised by the size by our team.

He nodded and I suddenly felt proud to have been selected. Out of all the gamers that he knew, he had chosen me. My self-esteem rocketed. Unable to wait, I bombarded him with questions. "How many teams are there? What is the quest? And why so much mystery? Come on, c'mon, explain, man!!"

"I can only share what I know. There are about twenty teams, but all identities have remained secret. The test is based on a new interface supposed to 'revolutionize immersion,'" he raved, miming quotation marks in the air, "and the winning team walks away with the grand sum of €300,000."

Quick mental arithmetic: three hundred-thousand divided by three equals a hundred-thousand, a one with five zeros after it. Under my headset, my eyes started to sparkle.

"I don't know any more than that, except that this all remains ultra-confidential. No screwing up here. They know where to find us."

This last sentence was supposed to dampen our enthusiasm, but it only fired it up! I was taking part in a Top Secret program! The idea of discovering something new always excited my curiosity, and the more mysterious, the more I wanted to dive straight in.

Eo installed himself in the middle armchair, I settled to his right, The Messenger to his left. Between us and the back wall, an empty round stage seemed to await an appearance. It didn't take long. As soon as we sat down, a hologram appeared in front of us. Eo sat up straight and leaned forward, his arms flat on the armrests.

"Hello and welcome to the three of you," said the hologram with a cowboy accent. "I am Edgar, Master of the game."