FB: Chapter 5 – Ordering A Capsule

I confirmed my address on the Exponential website for the capsule delivery and made the half million dollar platinum level purchase. The short of the stock was also hitting at this time. I had placed the initial order for a capsule for $200,000 once the site went live, but once manufacturing delays came out I was sent an e-mail asking if I wanted to upgrade my purchasing tier.

That was what I had just finished handling, upgrading to the platinum tier and was listed as number 2 in the queue at that level. Apparently, there had been one person faster than me upgrading to the platinum tier. It was a good reminder that there was always someone better or faster out there. I just had the advantage of future knowledge and needed to leverage it to the maximum extent possible.

Next, I checked on Exponential stock. It was currently taking a massive nosedive right now. It would soon be time to dump my short position and get all my money back and a sizable profit on top of it. With my work done for the morning, I hopped into my car and had it drive me to my in progress home while I handled my remaining e-mails and financial transactions.

I pulled up to the construction site. The lawn had been ripped apart for the septic system and there was a new trench being dug for the trunk cable that had been laid down the road. The siding on the house was being replaced along with several windows. There were people working everywhere. I waited until the contractor was done talking to two of his men while listening in. It was just a conversation about how various pipes and valves needed to be replaced. Once they left the contractor turned towards me.

“Morning,” the contractor greeted me.

“Good morning. How are things looking?” I asked.

“The anti-vibration pad in your living room is level and is doing its job. Ran some tests myself. Siding will be up in the next couple of days. Replacing a lot of the electrical and piping in the house. No delays on the ordering,” he said.

“Any delays on construction?” I asked.

“Still on schedule for the most part. Helps when nothing has to be custom ordered and you don’t want unique fixtures. The anti-vibration pad took the longest, since the gel and foam needed time to set before we poured the concrete. Right now, we are replacing the windows and calking the sides, making sure they are sealed up. Main concern right now is the rain,” he said while we both glanced up at the overcast sky.

“No problems with the electrical work?” I asked.

“Nope. You can run your heavy duty machine in the living room no problem. Once we are done in the garage, we will put in the batteries. Just waiting on the shelving to arrive with rubber mats for safety,” he said. Another car pulled into the dirt driveway.

It was the contractor’s landscaping friend here to talk about the driveway and landscaping. “Privacy fence and a gate, everything else grass, and a paved driveway. That is going to run you 80,000. We could start the fence now and finish off the driveway and gate once construction is done.”

“How long?” I asked.

“If we start the fencing now, then about five days once they clear out,” the landscaper gestured at his contractor friend. I agreed but wanted to go over small details. Mailbox, type of fencing, lining on the driveway, what the outside of the fence would look like in relation to the road. I wanted a high level of quality and a high fence for privacy.

While I might not see much of it, I didn’t want to live in one of those depressing capsule boxes that I ended up in previously. Living out of a small room with only a capsule was incredibly depressing. Even if there were some shared amenities, it wasn’t like having your own place.

I also wanted my house to be a fortress. I had talked with the contractor, and there were a lot more light and power outlets on the outside of the house, for lights and cameras to be installed. The kind of cameras that could be screwed into a light socket, without having to run wires everywhere.

Once I had sent off payment and signed a contract with the landscaper, I went back to reviewing anything else I should arrange or purchase. An updated wardrobe, beds for all three bedrooms in case I had guests, and stuff for the kitchen and bathroom. Also towels, lots of towels for when I had to exit the capsule. And cleaning supplies. The capsules would get really funky if they weren’t cleaned regularly.

Since everything was going smoothly, I returned home for a day. Money really did make everything easier. I also was going to be paying back Mister Suited Loan Shark tomorrow once my short sell was complete.

Returning home, I made it in time for dinner, which was burgers on the grill. Everyone looked at the pictures on my phone showing the construction progress. “So why are you remodeling so heavily?” my father asked.

“Anti-vibration and other features to isolate the capsule. It is important to not have anything outside the capsule bother you while in VR. Even the slightest external movement can disrupt a connection in one of the capsules for safety reasons or limit your immersion factor. That is why I need a pad constructed for the capsule in the main room for the capsule to rest on. The rest is because the house is over 100 years old and it needs to be updated. And it also means I have a nice place to live.”

“Can’t be cheap, spending your money like that, it won’t last long,” my father said, and I smiled since I had made a lot more money with my short sell.

“Well, you were smart sis, getting out when you did. I checked the stock price has almost dropped by half. Trouble for the company?” my brother asked.

“Manufacturing issues for capsules. That is why I purchased a platinum level capsule.”

“Wait, isn’t that super expensive?” my brother asked, clearly not remembering our earlier conversations about the costs. It was the middle of football season, and he had probably taken a few hits to the head.

“It was expensive, but I am doing a massive short sell on the stock, which will get me a lot more money. Also, the capsule wasn’t the highest tier which is ultra-platinum, but that was a bit too pricey. But the only way I will get a capsule before launch day was to buy at the platinum level,” I replied.

“How much?” my mother asked.

“Just half a million, which includes shipping and installation,” I replied. I had mentioned it before, but apparently, she had forgotten as well. I could appreciate them trying to understand what I was doing, but it was clearly not something they understood or followed closely.

“Couldn’t you have found something cheaper?” my mother asked.

“No. I can’t afford to wait. Exponential is going to take over the world. I have no doubt about that.”

“Any other investment advice?” my brother asked me. I wish I knew, but no one cared about the other companies that much in the future and all I really knew was Exponential, since people talked about that much more in casual conversations.

“No. But I suggest saving up your money to buy a capsule or more Exponential stock since it has bottomed out. The capsule price isn’t going to go down any time soon. Or you can reinvest it back into the company long term since the stock will only go up,” I suggested.

“I just might do that,” my father said, and we looked at him in surprise. “Don’t get me wrong, I think what you are doing is foolish, but the company is clearly onto something. Better get in on the ground floor.”

“Is it safe? I know I watched that anime as a kid, I forget which one, but people got trapped in VR,” my mother said.

“It isn’t like that with the safety features. Also, a big reason why they did a closed alpha to prove the technology is safe with a lot of independent safety checks. The company has two different sets of independent inspectors for each capsule before shipping. Everything is triple checked as well at installation.” In the future there had never been an equipment malfunction. Or at least one not caused by people breaking the manufacturing seals.

Safety was one area where no corners were cut, since peoples’ brains were directly connected to QAI and the VR world. Some poorer people would try to juice things to get a faster connection by removing the safety lockouts and ignoring the warnings. Every case in the past had Exponential post pictures online of the safety seals being broken or tampered with and the horrible results that occurred afterwards.

To even replace components, you had to be certified by the company and a separate quality inspector would check your work to ensure nothing was messed up. They didn’t even try to repair components. The modules were sent back to the manufacturer and were replaced wholesale. And even if there was a component error, which was incredibly rare, there were redundant safety measures.

Some people argued there was too much safety, but it never went anywhere. The company Exponential was taking no risks and planning every possible failure scenario with the capsules. That was one reason there were manufacturing issues. It was like a car, but new technology, so the component infrastructure wasn’t there like the auto industry. Where there were hundreds of suppliers ready to go.

It took time to ramp up all areas of production while ensuring the highest level of quality. Since knockoffs weren’t possible to connect to QAI and the risk of turning into a vegetable was high, there was no other alternative. Everything had to be checked over and over again before and after being shipped, which had a huge impact on the price, especially the initial prices. I wouldn’t go as far as saying the capsules were handmade, but it was close.

As a platinum level customer, I also got a small benefit. Instead of having to pay $10,000 additionally, the surgery would be covered to install the connection port at the back of my head. That was the other reason I had come home. The next day I had the port installed at the local hospital. I then spent the next week recovering while checking up on the progress of construction. I had to go to a clinic for daily checkups and would have a bald patch on the back of my neck around the port where hair was permanently removed, but it was no big deal in my mind. Soon almost everyone would have such a patch on the back of their head and neck.

One requirement to get the surgery for free was careful monitoring and collection of data for the week after the surgery to check for any issues. While names would be redacted, the raw information was posted up online to show that everything was safe and to silence people critical of possible health coverups. There were further monetary incentives for long term monitoring, but I didn’t care for those due to the time commitment, so I didn’t sign up.

There had been issues with pharma companies in the past, but I had forgotten most of that from High School which was why medical procedures had much more transparency surrounding them. I knew more of Exponential’s history than Earth’s history. Ask me about the history of Exponential and I could answer those questions quite easily, since that had been part of my job. Questions on real world laws and history, were much harder to answer without checking online. Now that I was in the past, I couldn’t look things up about Exponential. That was why I had to take advantage of the two changes in Exponential stock while I could.

The construction was proceeding smoothly, and the internet cable had also been installed directly to my property and into the main living room where the capsule would be set up. The contractor I had hired had made things easy for the internet cable people as well.

With time winding down, I made my last online purchases to furnish my home. I also began thinking much more heavily about my starting area. It had been a troublesome issue that I had been going over in my mind for the longest time. I had an idea in mind, and it wasn’t pleasant. But it met all my requirements.

The place was a beginner area of course. It was almost always deserted. The monsters could be lured to an altar, and I knew how to do so. There was good progression in the area for poison type skills. All of that was perfect. There couldn’t be a better set up for my start except for a few important issues.

The problem was everything else about the place. The Murk Swamp was considered one of the three beginner hells and the worst one. There had been a poll done, the Murk Swamp came in at 47% for absolute worst beginner location, followed by the Barren Desert at 26% and then the Jagged Peaks at 12%. This was out of millions of people who voted in the poll. The other locations didn’t even come close to the top three, polling at a couple percentage points each at best.

Even the hard-core gamers and people who wanted a challenge looked at the Murk Swamp and then left after a few days to go to another beginner area. There were some insane people that tried to tough it out, but it was misery incarnate. A common joke was that if you didn’t want to see people while grinding, then just go to the Murk Swamp.

I had been there once before. Everyone checked out the place at least once to see why it was so bad and then never returned ever again. It was like a tourist attraction for how miserable it was. It had left an impression on me that still made me shudder and feel sick. I had even looked up articles about the place just to double-check that it wasn’t just one small location but the entire region and everything reinforced the absolute misery of the place.

It was only six years after the game launch, that a country-based guild from North Korea took over the Murk Swamp and seriously made an effort to really grind there, since no one else was there. They gave up after half a year after the high rate of suicides that took place outside the game which had been rumored to reach as high as 20%. There were several dark memes and morbid jokes about the entire affair. People preferred real life death than going to the Murk Swamp since it was that bad.

That was where I would be going for the best possible progression right at the start and to avoid interference from other players.