Data Dragon Danika

She did accompany the other trainees out to lunch for one of the days, and Pelle actually did come to eat with her in the cafeteria the day after that, but he seemed to be doing it out of some sort of communal friendliness. It wasn"t just the women either, he tried to make friends with everyone in their group. Danika thought that he"d probably do very well in customer service.

She still couldn"t bring herself to like Sara Thomas very much, despite her small token efforts of occasional niceness. But once she"d stopped complaining, she was actually quite efficient and good at detail work. Danika thought that her irritating personality probably wouldn"t hamper her much in accounting either.

They were being given one day off at the end of the first week, and were told that when they returned they"d be a.s.signed to the departments that they were going to actually be working with. Danika chose the Design Integration department, which resulted in another short interview with Chen Zing when she exited the VR-medi pod on the last evening of the week.

He lead her up a couple more floors to an empty meeting room, where he made a s.p.a.ce for her to pull her chair up to the table, and then seated himself across from it. Danika waited nervously for him to speak.

After awhile he said, "You"re pretty stubborn aren"t you? You"re going to have to work within the constraints given by everyone who"s senior to you if you"re really going to choose design integration."

"Ok," Danika agreed. That seemed logical enough, as not only was she brand new, but Lin Hao had mentioned that adding to the team mid project was very rare.

He steepled his fingers together in front of himself and then admitted, "Your scenario took me by surprise. Most people create interesting scenery, or habitations when they are given those criteria. I"m curious about how many outcomes you actually planned for, and how many were filled in by the system given your setup?"

Danika blinked at him and then said, "Um…" She counted mentally for a moment, "five, but you might have been able to meet the conditions for more than one."

He looked faintly surprised but didn"t tell her how many outcomes he"d found. "Creating events that work within the overall dynamic quest system in "Living Jade Empire" isn"t an easy task, but our users expect such things from a game. The Valentine"s event for example: part of it was laid out in the original world design, the heart moon itself and the worldwide celebrations of that event, and part of it was a one time event, as well as the new repeatable messenger animal quests."

Danika speculated, "The two extra Karma was the one time event?" Chen Zing nodded and she asked, "So the kissing bugs spreading the vampire curse was dynamically generated?"

"Yes," he agreed. "The fact that you can identify both correctly rea.s.sures me that you may actually do well in Design. If you decide later that it was the wrong choice, Miyazaki asks that I invite you to transfer to the third division. She was very impressed by your performance during your first week of training."

Danika brightened until Chen Zing continued, "I would like to add though, that under pressure during your interview, you failed on several points in dealing with your angry customer. You never asked if he had screenshots unlocked, you agreed that the problem might be his fault, and you didn"t ask if he"d like to speak with someone of a higher rank if he was unhappy with your responses."

Danika could only nod. She"d learned enough during the week to have identified all of those errors herself.

Chen Zing finished with, "But, at least you kept your cool and even remembered to thank me at the end of the interview." He nodded and stood. Apparently the interview was over. He waited for her at the door, and then said, "Good luck in the sixth."

He actually smiled at Danika"s surprised expression. "Thanks," she replied quickly.

He walked her back to the elevators, but didn"t take the one going down. Danika made her way out of the building with a feeling of confusion. The whole short interview seemed odd to her. She hadn"t really been asked anything, and Chen Zing had almost seemed like a different person compared to her previous impression of him.

She didn"t go straight back to her room a couple of blocks away, instead she went to the nearest market and bought foods that she could eat without leaving her room, including more fruits and vegetables for her basket for the coming week and a selection of bottled drinks.

Once she reached her room she collected her laundry, and then showered and changed into her "emergency spare" set of clothes that could either be considered pajamas or a light outfit. When she finished she gritted her teeth and called room service to collect her laundry. She"d investigated the laundry room, and it just wasn"t set up feasibly for her to use. She completely expected to have to pay for the service since she"d been warned that extras weren"t included, but it was a lot less trouble than finding transportation and a laundry facility with wheelchair access.

She was finally comfortably settled and starting "Living Jade Empire" when her phone rang, almost startling her into dropping it. She half expected it to be Aishin asking why she was late, but it was Lin Hao. She answered it anyway.

Lin Hao said cheerfully, "Congratulations on making it through the first week. Want to go out to dinner and meet your new boss?"

Danika froze.

"h.e.l.lo? Is the call connected?" Lin Hao asked.

"Yes," she said quickly, "thanks and sorry, but I can"t."

"Why not? What"s wrong?" he asked with concern.

Her cheeks burned with embarra.s.sment as she mumbled, "I just don"t have anything appropriate to wear, I just sent all my clothes to be laundered."

There was a long silence and then Lin Hao offered, "Um, I could find a clean T-shirt and some sweat pants that you could borrow?"

There was an even longer silence before Danika replied questioningly, "What kind of place are you inviting me to go to dinner at?"