“Gentlemen, Let me be the first to thank you for attending my
little experiment,” the white haired man stated in an almost fake sounding
German accent. “As some of you may already know, my name is Dr. Hantzle von
Shultenheim. You may refer to me as Dr. S, if it so suits you. You were all
already made aware of some of the details of this trial, and I would like to let
you know that you have the next twenty minutes to decide whether or not you
would like to continue. I will however state that once the trial is started,
there is no way to stop it until the full cycle has passed.” He paused here
with raised eyebrows. Dr. S scrutinized the fifteen candidates seated in front
of him, each in turn. No one made any movements or seemed to have any questions,
so ventured on.
“Due to the nature of exercise, we cannot guarantee that
everyone will be completely safe. In other words, some harm may come to the
participants.” With this news nearly all the members started to get out of
their chairs to leave. Noticing this Dr. S quickly added, “that being said, we
will be offering twice the compensation we originally quoted.” Everyone in the
room froze and pondered the new information.
“Just how much ‘harm’ can come to us doc?” One of the more
burly candidates asked carefully looking at Dr. S.
“Well you know, accidents happen. Anything really, we can’t
guarantee any safety at all, to be profoundly clear.” With this information,
eight of the men stood up and started for the door, leaving the strongest
looking seven behind. “I would like to add,” he hastily said, “that any
successful participants will be receiving a bonus equal to four times the new
payout.”
This new information stopped three more before they got out
the door. With careful consideration on their faces they came back and sat
down.
“Excellent. We will get started in just a moment. First we
must secure the building, but before we do that, I must ask that no one refer
to anyone else here by his real name. If such an infraction happens, you will
be penalized, at the very least by not receiving any compensation. I’m afraid
I’ll have to be very stern on this one as it’s an integral part of the trial.
Under your seat you will find an envelope, inside you will find a name, which
shall be your name for the rest of the trial. Memorize it! It is terribly
important. Feel free to converse and take part in the refreshments,” he said
gesturing towards a table in the corner overflowing with food and drink, “I’ll
be back shortly to get things underway.”
The men pulled out the cards underneath their chairs and
found the names they would be using for the rest of their time here: Dagger,
Bilbo, Dao, Pulwar, Talwar, Krabi, Falx, Aruval, Arit, and finally Patu. All of
them were confused by the names, but started introducing themselves to the
others being sure to use their new monikers. One thing was clear to all of them;
things were probably going to get real interesting very soon.
-V-
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