Data Dragon Danika 143 Restrictive Reality

Danika checked to see if Sara had answered yet, and waited while the woman flicked quickly through her own menus. A dialog popped up in front of Danika asking: "Your answer?"

Danika glanced at Miyazaki, but their teacher didn't appear to be paying any attention to her. She quickly typed: "The modifications are only hair and eyes, and the price has to be bugged, because I think it's saying it was 12,000, while I am fairly certain it would cost less than fifty? I see that the eyes were modified three times, but that's not enough to account for the difference."

By the time she finished her answer, Sara announced triumphantly, "You have modified your hair and your eyes, and the total you've spent was 12,000."

Danika submitted it anyway. And Miyazaki asked Sara, "Can you tell me what my complaint is about?"

Sara stared at her blankly. A man named Anton Pelle spoke up, "It has to be a full licensed avatar to cost that much, I've bought tons of mods for my character, and I've only spent a fraction of that."

Miyazaki nodded to Pelle and said with surprising kindness, "Don't worry Miss Thomas you'll learn lots of useful information, even if you won't wind up using every tool every day in the accounting department. If nothing else, you'll learn what you should be directing back to one of the other departments."

Everyone was paying attention as she continued, "In this case, it's an example of an error that happened when customers purchased mods through one of our affiliates advertising campaigns. The customers actually paid a discounted price, but there was a multiplication error when the information was transferred to us. We had a number of customers contacting us about having paid thousands, which they hadn't actually, and wanting refunds."

When they all logged out for lunch, Danika almost stayed in the VR-medi pod, but after a minute she decided that she needed to eat and began disconnecting. She returned to the cafeteria where she'd eaten with Lin Hao, but didn't see any of her fellow trainees there. After a moment of thought she shrugged and took a tray.

When she reached the drink case, she examined the choices within reach and sighed. The person who was next in line asked, "Just pick something?"

Danika cast a slanted look at the man, and reminded herself, like the NPC Ironstone had, "It's ok to ask for help sometimes." She pointed at the soda she liked in the upper shelves and asked, "Would you mind getting that one down for me?"

The man blinked at her and then replied quickly, "Oh, sure, sorry about that."

"Thanks," Danika replied and left as soon as she had the drink settled on her tray.

When she was seated at a table, she finally checked her messages on her phone. Almost everyone on her friend list had sent something encouraging, and Kit had sent: "You're so brave! I'd be terrified to have to travel by plane just to attend a job training. Please let us know that you made it ok?"

Danika quickly replied to all of them, saying that she'd arrived safely, her room was ok, and the training wasn't too difficult so far. She sent a longer reply to Aishin: "Thanks! I'll try. I met Lin Hao, who fixed the egg display before hatching and adjusted the traveling merchant's stats for Kit. The guy who did my interview apparently also works on site here. I still haven't decided if the virtual area in the 'heavens' is actually part of 'Living Jade Empire', like you could fly to it, or not. It looks like we're floating above the actual game map though!"

The table behind her grew loud as their discussion became heated, and Danika couldn't help but overhear. "I'm just saying that we're going about it backwards," a man protested.

A woman complained, "You just don't want to limit the technology, you've gone on about it enough before, just give up already. The first division is demanding it, so it's not like we can refuse."

"If we made it even more realistic, it would automatically limit itself," the man insisted. "If every added layer of complexity increased the precision needed, fewer people would bother crafting new devices."

Another person replied, "No, I get their point, you can't rely on people not making an effort to limit something."

Danika finished the last bite of her food, and commented as she passed the table, "I think it would encourage a few people to make even greater efforts, but reduce the number of people who created complex layers in their devices or spells."

Behind her the man who'd been arguing for increased realism said, "Exactly. We'd get the best of both worlds, better top crafters and fewer in general just like they seem to want. It will ruin the game if it becomes just another hack and slash RPG."

A slender woman darted around her chair just before she reached the exit and demanded, "If you really think that, be sure to sign the petition."

Danika gazed up at her blankly and asked, "Petition? Um, sorry, I'm new here."

The woman quickly explained where to find the petition. After Danika returned to the VR-medi pod, she looked it up. It wasn't limited to employees as she'd assumed, so she forwarded it to Logical Heart, The First Dwarven Smith, and Underground Kingsmith. After a moment of thought she also forwarded it to Justin, since he seemed to do quite a bit of enchanting for a wizard.

The afternoon training was a lot more interesting to Danika, as it included a lot of world building information about how the game was structured. This was supposed to help them pinpoint where to direct confirmed bug reports, since bugs that were happening despite everything seeming to function according to design were different than the bugs that came up because something wasn't working. She decided by the end of the session that Lin Hao probably dealt mostly with the first kind.

Despite technical support being included in the description of the third department, the more they learned about the procedures they'd be following, the more Danika felt that it was almost entirely a customer service division. They would simply act as the concerned humans buffering the players complaints from those who actually supported the system. It wouldn't be a bad job, but more and more she hoped that she'd qualify for the design department.

When she logged out for the night, the person who used the VR-medi pod that she'd been assigned on the night shift was already there and waiting. She apologized for the delay as she transferred to her chair.

The tired looking woman assured her, "No no, you're fine. I'm just early for once." She carried a medical fluid pouch like might be attached to an IV in the hospital, that she loaded into the VR-medi pod.

Danika was curious, but didn't ask. She thought happily that Starcraft Technologies was surprisingly accommodating to employees with special restrictions. Even the existence of the petition and the willingness of the employees to sign such a thing was encouraging. It meant that they weren't afraid for their jobs if the petition failed.

She ate a quick dinner and returned to her room, where she got ready for bed, before logging in to the mobile version of "Living Jade Empire". She didn't get to play very long, but she got to be there when her party finally confronted the Dwarven King who held the snow leopard pelt. It felt like the game had saved the key event for when she could play, and even if it was random chance, that made her happy too.

Chapter end

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