Charlotte (A College Psychology Student)

Charlotte wasn’t paying attention to the professor’s lecture on Zoom. She didn’t need to. She knew she could pass this particular sophomore Psychology class with minimal effort. Instead, she was comfortably lying in bed with her laptop on her stomach. She was texting with her latest catch on tinder. Because she was decently attractive, she didn’t need to put much effort into texting with guys on tinder either. She was above average height for a female, had short black hair, wore stylish black glasses, and had a toned figure from working out. In the past three days she had spoken to roughly six guys on the app. Some conversations fizzled out, while others were going strong. She had met with one gentleman for drinks last night. It had gone well enough, but Charlotte didn’t feel the spark she wanted, so she went home alone afterwards. She wasn’t the kind of girl to automatically put out.

Just when she was about to reply to her latest catch’s text, she received a notification on her phone. “Congratulations! You have been chosen to play the beta version of “Gem Ladies”. Please play your allotted one tutorial round now!”

Charlotte watched in confusion as the Gem Ladies App opened up on it’s own and started a game. “What the heck…” Charlotte mumbled out loud. She thought maybe it was an interactive ad inside Tinder, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t get the game to leave her screen. Charlotte signed in resignation, she figured it was some sort of virus. She thought that maybe playing the stupid tutorial round would get it to close.

“Gem Ladies is a simple Match 3 puzzle game, similar to Candy Crush. Click here to Match 3 Red Gems” The game text read. She continued to follow the instructions of the game for the next two minutes. “Great, that’s all the tutorial you really need! Good luck! Your first real game begins in 5 minutes!”

“What the hell was that?” Charlotte said out loud to herself. She decided to try to turn her phone off and back on again. When she turned her phone back on, she noticed a new icon on her home screen. It was the Gem Ladies App. She tried to uninstall it, but had no luck. She tried to google “Gem Ladies App” on google but wasn’t getting any relevant results. While she was trying to find information on the App, a notification popped up on her phone. “Your first game begins in 1 minute! There will be consequences if you don't play! Good luck and have fun! :) ” The notification from Gem Ladies read. Charlotte wondered what exactly the consequences would be if she didn't play the round. She didn't really want to find out, so she opened the Gem Ladies App.