I felt the exact same way when reading the email. To me it sounded like each level is a sizeable/realistic project for which most companies would probably pay people to develop.
You found us out! This is actually an evil scheme we've cooked up to provide YC companies with free trading platform implementations crowdsourced from unwitting Starfighter participants!
By the time Alex leaves for space he is not unwitting, he has accepted that the bad guys that followed the good guy recruiter will try to kill him and his family regardless of the choice he makes.
