The Alterra Project

Alterra Corporation, 30th floor main headquarters building. A sharply dressed man looked at the display on his tablet, the transparent tablet adding a blue tint to his desk. This man is Drake Walters, the public relations executive of Alterra.

In this age, offices are almost outdated as virtualization and telecommuting have almost completely removed the need to actually show up to an office. Unfortunately hackers and data thieves have also advanced with the times and the only way to ensure that information was not intercepted was to have face to face meetings. Thus, large corporations that are frequently targeted still have office buildings with people instead of just machines.

"Are you sure about this data Nadia?" Drake asked to seemingly nothing

"Yes, myself as well as another AI from the security division were able to disqualify everyone that used an AI or other illicit method to submit multiple entries." An AI voice sounded from what appeared to be light fixture.

Drake nodded to himself "Out of the billions of applications, and only 4 didn't cheat…"

"To be fair, sir, humans never read the fine print"

Drake laughed to himself "Indeed, the irony isn't lost on me when an AI clicks the box that says 'I am not a robot'"

"To be fair sir, I am NOT a robot, I am a partially sentient software with cognitive functions that is purely used for data organization, analytics, management, and an advisor without morals and incorruptible. Robots just do labor."

Drake smiled "…and it seems even AI have a slight superiority complex."

"I disagree sir, I myself am merely stating a fact."

Laughing to himself again, Drake looked at the list again on his desk. At the top in large font, it said "Finalists for Alterra Online Diamond Competition". Below that was a list of three names:

1. Alana Korbet

2. Gray Wilhelm

3. Seymour Butts

4. Dan Gibbons

"Nadia, why didn't you remove the third entry?"

"Sir, this entrant did not cheat and only submitted a single entry"

"Remove the third entry…"

__________

A middle-aged man sat alone in a dark room in front of a computer display, browsing for feeds on Alterra Online, watching the countdown for the results to the Diamond Tier competition.

"Seymour! Your dinner is ready!" an elderly female voice came from the first floor.

"Coming Ma!"

He is Seymour Butts, yes, he hated his name, but his Mother strictly forbid him from changing it due to her late husband's name being Seymour. He was polite and upright and never did anything wrong, graduated with highest honors from Adonis University, but then his Mother married again to Bernard Butts, and thus Seymour Collins became Seymour Butts. Despite his achievements, he was never able to land any job as his resume and applications were always filtered out due to his name.

__________

On Saturday, Gray finally had time off to himself. Of course, he would spend as much of it as possible playing games. He loved multiplayer games especially but it was hard to find people that genuinely enjoyed gaming, winning or losing, as society is very competitive. After his 3rd consecutive loss in Sprocket League, Gray decided to take a break for once.

"I need to go for a walk and clear my head"

Gray put on some regular clothes and grabbed his armlet. The armlets were extremely convenient in today's society; essentially, the armlet is the old wallet, phone, map, assistant, and could help manage your life socially, financially, and even physically. Sadly the social functions of it were almost never used so his little social bubble basic AI gave up a long time ago. The fitness function was also practically a lost cause as most of his exercise was walking from his desk at work to the tram station. On the other hand, his financial basic AI was constantly working, it would make suggestions and give statements constantly as he had to pinch every credit and couldn't spend lavishly as a third of his monthly budget was used on gaming.

Gray headed down to the shopping district, he loved making his way to GameGo as it was his solace. He loved nothing more than nerding it up with other nerds. As usual, when he finally arrived at GameGo, the financial basic AI on his armlet started panicking and informed Gray he needed to not spend over a certain amount of credits or else he would have to skip some meals.

"I know, I'm just here to browse. I'm not going to buy anything."

'That is what you said last time' flashed across the HUD embedded in his glasses.

"I know, I was bad, but I swear-"

Before Gray could finish, the words "and the 18 times before that as well"

"I know I know! REALLY, I promise I won't buy anything. I don't need any or want stuff from here."

A skeptical emoji flashed across the HUD.

"I'm serious! Besides, the Stream Summer Sale starts next week and I can't wait for it!" said Gray excitedly.

A white flag emoji went across his HUD

"Stop it…"

Animations of old fashioned wallets getting exploded were then played on his HUD

"Seriously?"

Finally a video of a wallet getting buried while taps played in the background was sent to his HUD.

"Stop it! Just give me the hard limit and I'll try and keep below it!"

Gray was probably one of the few humans that argued with AIs. Jono once caught him doing this and his friend merely gave him a disappointed look. The kind of disappointed look you get when you reach in to a bowl of Starbursts and pull out a yellow one instead of a pink or red one.

Gray walked in and saw a rotund man in his 30s wearing the traditional black GameGo shirt staring at the display watching a video for Alterra Online. If one looked closely enough, one could see a small amount of drool starting to form at the corner of his mouth. This was Jim Stevens, also known as Spoon. Gray was really interested in how he got the nickname 'Spoon', but Jim never told him and nobody else seemed to know.

"Hey Spoon! You interested in Alterra Online as well?"

Spoon came out of his daze and inhaled sharply to slurp up the drool he realized was about to fall. "Gray! Yeah! I got a shweet shetup all ready for thish!"

Poor Spoon, his jaw became damaged in an accident he said giving him a slight lisp whenever he talks excitedly. Gray couldn't help but think that Spoon really reminded him of and old cartoon character, Eric Cartman from South Park. Still, Spoon would just roll with it and Gray thought that part of Spoon might actually like it as it was unique.

"I'm jealous Spoon, I can't play it since I only have last gen VR, but I don't mind as I can't see myself spending that kind of money."

The word 'LIES' flashed across Gray's HUD from his basic financial AI, which he chose to ignore.

"Shorry to hear that man! Like, thish game ish going to be amazshing!"

Gray had to agree with him on that point, but he honestly enjoyed himself even with his older setup.

After a few minutes of nerding around with Spoon, Gray and Spoon both received a notification that Alterra Online's Diamond Tier contest winner would be announced. Spoon quickly switched back to Alterra Online's live stream. Spoon seemed extremely excited about this.

"I had twenty AI help me shend at leasht a million entry formsh"

"Really Spoon… I did just one" Gray had to admit that as much as Spoon seemed like a goober, he really did know his shtuff! I mean… stuff!

After a few more scenes from Alterra Online were revealed, Gray started to walk out of the store as the winner was about to be announced. Gray reached the door and walked out as it opened for him only to suddenly hear what he thought was the scream of an elementary school girl. He looked back quickly at the source of the noise to see Spoon staring at him in utter shock.

"D… D… DOOD! You won!"

Only one word came to Gray's mind: SHWEET!!! I mean SWEET!