Erica walked down the office hallway. Motion detection switches slowly bringing the fluorescent lights on in her office as she entered. She sighed, flipping the switch to stay on. She was alone. Last time she forgot to check the lights, she got so scared she had trouble sleeping when she did get home.

“Good evening, chair. Hello, computer.”, she said with a resigned tiredness. Sitting in her task chair, she burped. Not only did she take a lunch break for this job, she’s taken a dinner break.. 

After getting through a few spreadsheets, she decided it was time to tackle her inbox. After deleting some spam, some tricks from IT to try and write people up, she was down to one email. She put it off earlier, since it was a manual her boss forwarded to her for some break time assistant the company had installed onto some computers as a test. They were allowed a couple of fifteen minute breaks a day. She got more because of overtime. Overtime she shouldn’t have if they hired one or two more people. She knew they could. She saw the numbers. The email also said it was mandatory for her to try it. Great.

“Alright, let’s see what’s this about.”, she said to no one in particular. Or her monitor. 

“Happy Space? Blah blah blah. Special isolation… Blah blah blah. Ah screw it! I was never good at reading manuals.” She then launched it from the desktop immediately. Everything went white around her. Erica blacked out.

Erica’s eyes shot open. She was in a white room with a gray grid that stretched as far as she could see. She felt off. She felt slightly better, but that didn’t make sense. It felt like she was on a floor, but the material didn’t feel specific other than solid.

“Whoa hey! Don’t try to move yet!”, said a slightly cartoony voice to her left. “We’re still calibrating the system to you. You’re sure workin late.”

‘Who are you?’, Erica tried to say. Her mouth moved. Air and sound did not.

“Uhhh… I’m your ‘Smile’? You shouldn’t have been able to do that. And you should already know what I am. Did they not link you the webinar?”, the Smile asked worriedly.

“Boss sent me an email with the manual. Couldn’t figure it out. Clicked on it…”, Erica paused for a moment. She could talk now. “I didn’t die or something?”

“Oh my no. The software just activates the hardware that on startup makes it really bright to make it easier to bring you here. Also the manual is useless, it’s just for setup. Your IT should’ve done that. Which they did. And now you’re here. Try standing up!”

Erica stood up, and got to her feet. She was in a very large room. A convention hall shaped place with no pillars, no doors, no lighting despite light being present, and a grid. 

“What the heck?”, She cussed. In the direction of the voice she was talking to earlier was a floating 3D character with a corporate logo of a smiling face. More boring than the Apple Macintosh face, more defined than an emoji.

    “Well, since you weren’t briefed on anything I’ll skip the marketing and PR approved talking. Right now, you’re in your computer. But not really. You’re uhh. Connected to the computer. You’re actually sleeping outside.”

    “Like the Construct? You didn’t recreate The Matrix, did you?”

    “Sadly, more boring than that. Thankfully more boring than that? I’m actually customer support person. We’re anonymized since it is supposed to be A.I. you talk to. I’ve actually watched the movies. There’s no virtual city. Yet. It’s basically Holodeck style. I can’t download skills into your brain. You can change how this looks and control it. I’m here to make sure you’re safe.”

    “Make sure I’m safe? Did… I just hook up my brain to something without checking if it’s good to do so.”

    “...I’m not supposed to say this but… Yup.”

    “What the fuck?”

    “Kinda agree. Your company was supposed to have our techs out to check you.”

    “Techs? I had to take time off and have taken night shifts because I was overworked.”

    “Well, seems like you’re not the only one who was overworked. The main gimmick of our system is time is dilated here, so your breaks are longer. You are forced into a nap. Did I mention we’re not cheap?”

    “This is horrible. They could’ve just hired more people.”

    “Yeah. Oh, and just so you know? I handed in my two weeks notice yesterday. I never signed anything. Sorta. Probably could get sued if I say too much. Not that I actually know something that important.”

    “Oh.”

    “The other feature is that your presence here can be considered an avatar. It’s currently based on some sort of idealized self or self image. Not quite ‘your true self’, but how you feel you want to look can affect things.”, said the Smile. With a wave of a stubby cartoon arm and mitten fidelity hand, a full length mirror appeared before Erica.

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