“Hello everyone, I’m here with Octavious Vulcan, creator and owner of the controversial alternate reality: Chronos. I have a few questions that the people want to know: First and foremost, did you engineer the Nanoid Sensory System with torture in mind?”

  “That’s cute, throwing in the word controversial to my introduction, can’t say I’m surprised the way you all have been coming at me. And as for the inquiry of torture being the end goal of our Nanoid Sensory System, no, that’s absolutely absurd, I am not a psychopath. Torture is by far the absolute worst and unintended outcome of my game, and I can assure you, it is rare that it takes place.”

  “But wouldn’t you say that the practice is becoming less rare?”

  “Yes it is becoming more prevalent, but with its prevalence, time must be granted to the reality in order to correct the balance.”

  “And this torture that you’ve just confirmed is becoming more prevalent, without your NSS connected to each of your customers, it would not be possible, correct?”

  “Yes that’s true, but without NSS, gamers wouldn’t be choosing, with their own free will, to play the game in the first place. You must take the bad with the good. Chronos is not a buffet, you get the whole package, all gamers do. Gamers know that it’s both a fulfilling and harsh reality, and that they must protect themselves. It is because of the harshness, that players can find fulfillment and enjoy very real progression.”

  “How can you possibly continue to let this happen? I demand you explain yourself.”

  “Look, nothing is perfect, including Chronos, and every single gamer that experiences my game has signed the terms and conditions. I am not breaking any laws; people should also note that the mechanics of my game do not incentivise or reward the direct act of torture itself for any of the players. While their might be certain personal existential truths that benefit those who choose the practice, I can promise, we are not facilitating any aspects within our control. We do not encourage it and it is a relatively rare phenomenon that occasionally emerges; yes, recently, there has been a spike in the recent real-world weeks, but believe it or not, there is a natural push-back forming against the act itself, and this push-back has begun without my interference of their reality. You’d be surprised as to how many in-game “problems” are solved organically by the minds who dwell inside; there are noble and brave occupants of Chronos that want to foster a good world for all within it.”

  “Yes but torture is illegal in the United States; what you’re doing is illegal.”

  “Ahhhh no no no no, see, you can’t have it both ways. Lawyers have come to the conclusion that the government’s rules do not apply to businesses. Free speech is granted by the constitution for all citizens in the United States, but corporations have gone above the law, using lawyers, and destroyed free speech because they claim that businesses are private and this gives them the right to force users of their communication platform and employees to abide by their own laws, or face consequences through their terms and conditions and contracts, this is the same thing. I’m just playing the system that’s been in place long before my rise, and in a lot of ways these people are ushering people into my game.

  If you want to go and report on all the corporations violating free speech laws and get them to allow free speech throughout the world, then, and only then, will I acknowledge your point. But you won’t because these same people are the ones who own your lying ass.

  This is the world we live in, run by boards of directors behind closed doors that nobody elected who send lawyers and doctors and insurance agents and government agents to do their dirty-work. Don’t pretend I’m the bad guy, I’m giving people a better life, a lot better than the life that the people paying you to perform this smear campaign have given everyone. While they’ve been organizing their hit pieces, using people like you, I’ve been poaching their lawyers, and I pay better, because I’m rich as fuck and I don’t throw crumbs to the people that work for me, they live well. I have the strongest team of lawyers ever assembled and I can promise you that my company operates within all legal boundaries.”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  “Sir you must have gotten your head hit when you were younger because that was just a ton of crazy nonsense.”

  “Oh yeah sure, I got my head hit, I know nothing, I just woke up one day, and was a trillionaire through complete luck; gas-lighting only works on those who aren’t sure, and it’s only used by those who don’t know what they’re talking about and are trying to decisive and manipulate because they’ve already lost the argument.”

  “Whatever, let’s get back to the game itself, you really think that this torture problem is going to fix itself, just from the people in the game?”

  “Because Chronos is made up of real people, most of them good, who want to leave our current corrupt reality behind, and have empathy and care for one another and want good for those around them, yes, I believe in them to correct imbalances and immoralities. Just like in real life, there are also those who seek more selfish desires that often come at the expense of others and they want the world to bow to them instead of living in harmony. Chronos is made up of all types, and those differing types make for a constantly evolving landscape; certain areas seem to garner freedom and growth and differences of opinion, and other areas seem to have stomped that out in favor of selfish concentrated power.

  If at all possible, my role as an arbiter, is to let anomalies within the game be balanced by those who call my game their home, for it would be a massive disservice to both deny the playerbase the opportunities of creating a better world, and to reward inaction. The last thing I want to do, is to remove opportunities and freedom from the players who have trusted me with their time. There is a price to everything, and the price of my game being organically grown from the gamers themselves, apparently, is that occasionally, for many different possible reasons: someone may get tortured. Unfortunately, if I were to restrict this action, too much damage would be caused to the realism of the reality. There must be dangerous aspects of the reality, it adds a layer of immersion that is priceless and I will not part ways with that.”

  “Well it seems like your philosophy of arbitration is to not be an arbiter at all, and there have been thousands of reported cases of torture. Tell yourself whatever you want to, to sleep at night Octavious, you’re profiting off the torture of innocents. You’re evil.”

  “Yeah well we have a billion players, so thousands of reported cases is not very significant, and again, a natural push-back of good and powerful players are aware of the problem, solutions are being actively pursued.

  All of you reporters interact with me the same, always reporting on every little shred of negativity that you can feed off of. Do you plan on reporting the amount of time we’ve given to those who experience our game? Do you plan on reporting about how the NSS has created time dilation for our gamers, we essentially, have prolonged our customers lives, perhaps not physically, but perceptually when they enter into one of our hubs, and can live an entire life inside of a three month investment. Our game may be new to most people, having only heard about Chronos as it has already gained in popularity, but there are some of our original adopters, some alpha and beta testers, who have already lived the equivalent of three lifetimes thanks to our game, and they understand the reality even better than me, its creator, one in particular, I have my eye on and expect greatness.”

  “If it’s so great than why aren’t you playing?”

  “I do play, but I can only for days, maybe weeks at a time, in game, whenever I can spare a few minutes to an hour or two from the real world; I cannot afford to commit to a full run as much as I’d like to, I don’t trust anyone else to make important decisions at the moment, maybe in the future, but experiencing the game in a limited capacity has enhanced my life as whole if you must know. It has given me extra time to think about what to say to people like you for instance.

  I must go now, I have given you enough of my time, and I look forward to never reading your article about the good we do, because you will never write that, because you’re a vulture, paid for by insecure psychopaths, the lot of you are. I’m done here. Good bye.”

  - Interview with Octavious Vulcan, creator of the alternate reality: Chronos. 2090