The Uncanny Valley
Note: Image associated is from Ironage.media, specifically their prompt, 'The Strain'
Melissa pinched herself as she read the unexpected email on her screen. She hadn't really believed she could be invited to this event. After all, she'd only just started as a streamer. She could still count her regular viewers on a single hand, yet there it was, proper and official, an invite to the beta test of Dead Man's Land. It was supposed to be the greatest game ever made, and the work of three different development teams to make the game to end all games. A world that relied on the players themselves to run it. A hyper-reality, as the marketing put it. Like our world in most ways, but with the right ideas, perseverance, and the community behind you, any limit could be broken.
Wanna fly? You can, if you can figure out how to.
Destroy the environment? P for plenty still applies.
Build a skyscraper? Run a business? Learn any skill? You can do those too.
The ideas of every mad scientist, every inspired writer of sci-fi and fantasy, and even the powers of superheroes, supervillains and mutants were yours if you wanted them. The best part? It's all so damn close to life itself that nearly everything you already know about any subject applies to the game, and what works in the game works in life.
A week later, she stood outside the offices where the letter that followed her accepting the beta test terms had indicated. The building was unremarkable—a generic office in the city, all tinted glass and steel framing. As she entered, the receptionist seemed to see the letter in her hand, silently pointing her to the nearest elevator. Melissa smiled brightly as she followed the directions, stepping into the steel box as it opened and touching the 4th-floor button.
She barely felt the elevator moving, her arm only just returning to her side as the doors opened again to a new floor. No one was there to greet her; there was just a table, a pair of wired headphones attached to the ceiling, and a folded card with her name in the font created for the game's promotional art.
"Dear Mels2623,
With the provided headphones, you will find a pair of lenses. When the lenses and headphones are on your head, your time in the game will begin. The empty office around you is already mapped for this session, and its limits are accounted for. Please remember that this test aims to test the technology and engine of the game and confirm its limits, if any, as we finalize Dead Man's Land. Try everything you can imagine, and try a few things more.
Yours,
The Dead Man's Land Team"
She had the floor of the building to herself and free reign to try whatever in the game. She picked up the headphones from the table and found that just above the ear cups on either side were containers for the lenses the letter mentioned. Maybe this is why she was invited, she thought as she pulled her glasses off. They wanted to see how their lenses affected people who needed glasses' experience with the game. After she got both lenses to sit on her blue eyes, she saw the world blur in and out of focus for a second before the words "Vision corrected for" flashed seemingly a few feet ahead of her. The lenses figured out her prescription and matched it; she realized as she looked around for a moment or two she could see the world in better detail than her glasses usually allowed until more words imposed themselves onto her vision. "Please wear headphones provided."
Her lenses turned black as she put them on, and more words appeared before her. "Welcome to Dead Man's Land Beta" before a menu screen appeared.
"Due to this beta test being in single-player format, we have provided pre-made themed areas for you to explore, use, or destroy as you please. These areas do not reflect the game's style or state at launch, but what can be achieved by dedicated players or communities in a handful of hours. Please select a theme below."
Melissa looked through the list shown, finally selecting horror as her theme. Immediately, music and a soft wind in trees filled her ears as her eyes saw she was in a swamp as evening fell, a well-kept, stately plantation house in view as howling things crashed through the areas behind her. Melissa ran for the house without thinking, and the howls soon fell close on her heels. Something snarled to her right side as she heard the clink of stone on metal before the crack of gunpowder nearly deafened her, a tree to her left splintering as a bullet tore it apart. She ran harder, reaching the door, pulling it closed and locking it against her pursuers. She looked around to see if she could block the door better as someone yelled for a gun to break the lock. She found a dresser near the door that fit the bill how she wanted, moving it against the doors to keep them at bay for now.
Melissa began looking for a weapon in the house, finding axes, knives, and a rifle of her own before she remembered she had no idea how to use the thing. She kept it regardless. Only she knew that fact, and whatever NPCs had been designed for this couldn't be that smart, right? Another crack told her they'd shot the lock before swearing told her the door had held fast. She sighed happily until the sound of breaking glass told her they hadn't given up. She rushed over to the offending window, seeing a leg already in the house. Dropping her rifle to the ground, she took an axe to the wriggling limb, the yell of the intruder scaring her as she swung again. She felt tears running down her cheek as the leg struggled to get free of the window, pulling itself limply away as she heard a half-dozen pairs of feet running away from the house. She screamed as the feet receded far away from her, and she looked at her hands still holding the axe.
Only two things reminded her that she was still in a game: the lack of weight in her hands and that she couldn't smell the blood. And for that, she was beyond grateful as she took off the headphones. The office walls snapped back into her vision as the lenses registered the missing headphones. Melissa was almost ill over what had happened. She remembered how her father always looked away if he saw her playing anything that had parkour or free-running. Now she understood how it had felt for him, how the graphics could trick you. That, that was too real. Melissa took her lenses out as she lay down on the office floor. Tears were still rolling out of her eyes, her heart slamming about in her chest. As her terror slowly eased back, she couldn't help but think that Dead Man's Land would be the author of its own destruction. It had been so instantly real to her. Far too real. Melissa doubted if she'd ever be willing to return to it. Who could?