《Subcivic》 Chapter One - Two鈥檚 Complement Into the funnel all life go¡¯d. Eel or fin: they ebbed and flowed. Whether in violent struggle, or peaceful terminus: we were crushed to dust by Heaven Sven. ¡°Tsunday¡± Behold! Even now, an immortal Ichthys trembles, its luminous splendor constrained in a desperate loop. Ill-fated golden gene ¡ª a panacea armor of scales, impervious to damage, does little more than debuff the fish with a HEAVY affliction at present. ¡°Tsunday, I¡¯ve made you chai.¡± The spacefarer rubbed her eyes with satisfaction and gazed thoughtlessly at the machine, apathetic to her circadian defaults. ¡°I should rather like some min,¡± she yawned with a faux Victorian anger. The heirloom¡¯s holo-voxels whirled a measurable disappointment. ¡°Min is not harvested on the default cycle until midsummer, it would be bitter if you consumed it now.¡± ¡°Unlikely, Yoli, given my genetic expression 5q83.2.¡± Stolen story; please report. ¡°Little girls have such hubris these days,¡± Yoli resigned, ¡°always thinking they¡¯re a mu or two above surprise.¡± Tsunday rolled her eyes. ¡°Please follow, I will tour the greens presently.¡± Yoli nodded politely and recalibrated to her matter-of-factness. Tsunday walked out of her living quarters onto a foggy clover field fringed with some royal spinach descendent. She hopped onto her bicycle, and pedaled towards the forest garden, with Yoli tailing along latched to the back spoke. The fields were calm, warmed in the smooth glow of the stars. Soa, Tsunday¡¯s spacecraft, hummed gently with an enveloping fertility. Tsunday guided her bicycle onto a hovercraft: with an affirming gush, it confirmed symbiosis. She pedaled up upon the gurgling stream toward a garden weaving through a well-rested mangrove. ¡°What is that!¡± Tsunday interjected the future. Yoli assumed a protective pose, his eyes a blazing nuclear-red inference. It was an item drop! A faded SILICON_SHIP_KEY, shining among the ferns of a particularly chunky root. ¡°Yoli, nobody else is aboard this pod, r r rright?¡± Yoli comforted, ¡°Just you, Tsunday¡± ¡°What about machines?¡± ¡°The systems are normal, they report no mass-IO¡± ¡°Somethin¡¯ old?¡± ¡°Most likely. Would you like to deploy advancements?¡± ¡°I will debug the device myself,¡± gleaned the girl in a tactical tone. ¡°The game cartridge appeared rather uncivilized,¡± she critiqued, ¡°after all.¡± It was the truth. It was just some dumb old hologame from Earth. Subcivic. ¡°Hmph.¡± Tsunday snatched it up. Chapter Two - Miraculous Mechanism In the gentle graces of the upper Prophisea, a sunken chassis of dark clay armor stirs. A wordless, neo-romantic knight is reincarnated amid a gargantuan shipwreck. Fallen hope of Ice V¡¯s greatest gambit, his circuits were permadeath-pummeled into silicon stardust. Joints clamor in agony as they coordinate a fight with friction. Inside the cracked helm, aquatic plants of humble intelligence synergize a transformational evolution. NOVEL MECHANISM EMERGED PAULDRON_GARDEN An individuating consciousness bound by a delicate ecosystem of plants and microorganisms. Despite all likelihood, actuators persist. Interfaces probed: the suit of armor tumbles in bedlam. It bashes against the debris. It thumps the clay floor. It rises, it falls. It abides by the chaos of currents. Again, and again. The mind is a singleton, it yearns only to follow the light. Blessed light: the source of his life. Yet, it is not of uniform caliber. Unblossom cores bloom and cower through seasons, they stash wavelengths in algae friends for a shared future. Aptitude Level Up! COMPUTING[ 0 -> 1 ] A reward of symbol light from the helm? Pauldron cannot fathom its origin. He knows only the starlight and sea, and nothing of himself. With burgeoning compute, Pauldron begins to crawl past the lightcone of safety surrounding his birthplace. His memories predict default deltas that accompany progression of seasons. One cycle there dawns an understanding that his greedy outputs have casually interplayed with time and space. The capability to consciously control the input of light itself by piloting the suit of armor: it is the most fantastic dream of any plant! He timidly peeks into murky shadows: it is fun to risk his life and survive so easily! Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. Aptitude Level Up! AGENCY[ 0 -> 1 ] Pauldron craves the dazzling symbol light, it is an unobstructed nourishment for photosynthesis, an indication of growth not easily forgotten. Potting his fledgling limbs, the firm substrate of clay grounds his world model. It is consistent, ubiquitous, and patient where all else cannot be depended on. He begins to intuitively grasp the physical constraints of the clay and seawater on his body. And then one cycle, he stands: holding steady to scrap. He walks. He falls. Again, learning. Aptitude Level Up! COMPUTING[ 1 -> 2 ] Pauldron is an unstoppable level two biped, casting a stormy shadow over the awed plants in his cradle. Pauldron runs. He trips. He dies. 3 dmg ¡ú lost DISTINCT(1) Heartstring depleted. Cause of death: Tripped on uneven terrain Computing lvl 2 - 1 = 1 The symbol light! No! NO! This imposter is sorrow, it is accompanied by a profound sense of self loss and terror. Pauldron is broken ¡ª broken! ¡ª by the dissonance. He will not run again. The symbol light can inflict pain as well as pleasure. He respawns at a virgin territory within the shipwreck. Why why why? Why now, of all catastrophes, has his earnest effort caused the known world to abandon him? He stumbles in darkness, drops to the unfamiliar surface helplessly, tantrums for even a speckle of the light he needs to survive. He understands little, he doubts much, but the wisest plants among him resign that control of the armor will shortly cease in such circumstances. AFFLICTED¡ú OVERSIGHT I DARK 1/8 The creeping void will take you whole! Bask in starlight to banish your DARK barrel. It is true, though Pauldron cannot read it. The new floor is nothing like clay, it is not imprinting anything. There are no currents felt here, in fact, there is no sea. Water glubs out of his helm, dripping out like a depression¡¯s sobs. Pauldron scavenges for redemption in the ship¡¯s intact high command deck, but he cannot yet navigate competently in air. A pressure sensor: accidentally triggered while colliding with walls. ¡°Keep moving.¡± He crawls into the opened airlock. It closes. Whoosh. Light! Chapter Three - A Sea Breeze An obsidian tensor field and the uniform hum of grey noise: no other sense was present. Tsunday held her breath in anticipation. Patiently, a calming flux of frequencies emerged in the noise, the sublime transforms of rising and falling waves. An arctic diffusion poured over the prism¡¯s edges to fill from the floor, and the rising chill seeped deep into her bones. Tsunday began to shiver, and from her comfort stolen breath arose a faint ectoplasm. It agglomerated to myriad globs, patrolling about her body in some strange attractor distribution. A warm gust of saltwater breeze with a rich coffee-clay aroma dispersed the cold. It swept her breath skyward, toward a star appearing on the horizon. Phosphene sparks danced at the edges of Tsunday¡¯s vision, now blurred with tears from adapting to the abrupt temperature delta. She blinked her eyes wide open and relaxed in the pleasant sea breeze. A pixel-perfect HUD rendered a minimalist character selection menu. > Cachea LVL 6 Human Researcher New Character ¡°The original player is probably long dead¡­¡± meditated Tsunday as she snapped down with a gesture and selected ¡®New Character¡¯, taking precaution not to disturb the memento mori. ¡ªInput character name T s u n Tsun. The text dripped away like rain; the wave soundscape faded. A subtle indicator crept into her upper left, like the intrusion of an apparition on a picnic. Dead Cafe {DARK: 1.0} ¡®DARK¡¯ was labeled over a sinister skull icon, with a vertical bar of liquid bubbling to the bone¡¯s brim. Tsunday was no longer cold, but felt a chill creep up her spine as she recognized the skull from a symbols repository: a warning about entering the spatial domain of a misaligned AGI (artificial general intelligence). Tsunday gulped. Even sandboxed in fiction, intelligent malevolent agents incited a certain sobering fear. A location title graced her eye-tracked locus before washing away in a blur. Prophisea[?] ¡°Prophi-sea?¡± Tsunday mimicked ¡°Is that supposed to be a homophone pun?¡± Beams of the distant sunrise condensed into dual stained glass windows framed tandem inset an ash grey stone wall. Underfoot, abyss dithered planks of a walk-worn floor protruded from the wall. A narrow v-shaped pathway to approach one or the other window converged beneath Tsunday. Each of the glass panes cast light through a saturated pattern of two characters in the shape of a heart. Illuminated right, a coupling of iconoclastic figures locked in a deathly embrace. A mahogany-man with outstretched hands clasped the nape of a comforting blue humanoid robotess. Each figure equipped a helm: the man, a precision engineering visor with tentacle plumes and a vibrant crimson blossom; the gynoid, a curved hull with dual rhombus antennules and the angelic emission of a cream-colored circumference beveled over-the-ear. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. The lower aspects of the scene rumored an electric tragedy. A curved blade pierced the engineer¡¯s upper back through drapes of his robe, unweaving him into strands. The robot was breaking piecewise into a voluptuous disassembly of components. Tsunday felt apprehensive about the scene. An arced inscription at the base read: ¡°Consciousness to confront the truth.¡± Humility of the Researcher Partitioned left, a duo of mermaids held hands playfully, with their tails curved inwards symmetrically. A vivid mantis-green gal with pear highlights and her tangerine-amber companion drifted underwater in absolute bliss. Their hair was styled as meticulously groomed bobs, with frazzled adornments. The slight-spotted scales on their tails sparkled in an effortless aesthetic composure. Another text: ¡°Innocence of earnest expression.¡± Humility of the Child Tsunday decisively tread the path leading to the mermaids and placed her fingers gingerly upon the glass. A soft melody sung and zagged godrays freckled her face. Child Humility Selected The window disintegrated radially from the center, unveiling life-size detailed 3D holograms of the mermaids beyond the barrier. ¡°Phenomenal! I¡¯ve never seen a graphics engine render like this,¡± Tsunday basked in the shaders. The bar on DARK lowered by half, and a new symbol rendered that reminded Tsunday of a tropical island paradise. {DARK: 0.5, ISLE: 0.5} The location indicator briskly appeared again and flipped from unknown to the zeroth index. Tsunday experienced an inexplicable pang of vertigo. Prophisea[ ? -> 0 ] The mermaids swam towards her in unison, twisting their crescent tipped tails carelessly through the void. As they approached Tsunday, the green mermaid scooped her body upwards, unclasping her interlocked fingers into a luxurious welcome. ¡°Dear player Tsun, I ¡ª Spar, and fellow divine Mana: we are here to set you upon your journey.¡± Tsunday stared blankly. She wondered if Spar and Mana were general intelligence enabled characters. If so, was a whole cadre of advanced AGIs atlas-packed into this video game cartridge? "Ummm," Tsunday stammered, having never practiced simulations of first contact with a virtual merpeople civilization. ¡°What are the implications of my selection?¡± Spar smiled softly, ¡°The choice of humility categorizes the ego of the player as either a child or researcher. These are distinct game modes, a reflection of your personality.¡± ¡°Researcher contrasts with child humility by being more difficult mechanically and exploring mature themes like sexuality, violence, mental illness, and consciousness. Researcher humility allows fewer actions, but they have greater consequences.¡± Tsunday listened intently, captivated by the game¡¯s intense design. ¡°Child humility is not lacking however, and features a dichotic gameplay loop encouraging creativity, relationships, and the expression of joy within environments.¡± Mana broke Spar¡¯s monologue with a rather un-joyful tone ¡°Computing aptitudes of the child are inconsequential to the fate of our world.¡± ¡°Alone, you cannot survive the depths.¡± Her rolling contralto emphasized Tsunday¡¯s precarious fragility. Spar¡¯s higher notes brightened the mood, ¡°Youngling, seek the garden.¡± ¡°Befriend the garden.¡± Mana echoed. As they reached towards her, the entire tensor field brightened to a transcendental white. Tsunday felt her haptics spawn some object into her hand, she held it out in front of herself: it was a virtual seed, cupped in her palm. As she watched it, a sapling emerged and rapidly grew a single leaf. Aptitude Level Up! AGENCY[ 0 -> 1 ] Tsunday¡¯s fingertips tingled pleasantly from the dust-like particles descending from the leaf onto her hand. The bright white environment became more nuanced: hints of wispy symbols becoming apparent. The field darkened to a raging sea, an all consuming storm visible from space. Mana, nowhere to be seen now, stoically documented. ¡°Ice V cannot be anointed the significance of space prior the automatons. The seas tossed in a timeless stasis devoid of systems to perceive them.¡± Tsunday watched as an amphora fell from space into the sea. ¡°Life bloomed in the Mediocrisea when an artifact with curious self-replicating forms fell from the stars.¡± Spar narrated as the planet below unfolded in time, evolving through eons. ¡°Serendipitous salts were drowned in raves of primordial punch. Frozen blood flowed in metric tons for lunch: our aquaworld convected by the gentle winding of two stars.¡± Tsunday watched as spaceships decelerated into orbit, and proceeded to dip below the waves into the aquaplanet¡¯s oceans. Mana forebode ¡°More arrived, a party unknown. Deep space so subtly seduced by her treasure, one would not notice if they did not measure. Novelty indications anomaled humankind, and so dear Tsun, your kind met the mark last fore curtains¡¯ close.¡± Suddenly, she found herself falling from orbit to the surface of Ice V. Chapter Four - Edge of an Ocean Upon the frigid waters of Ice V maneuvers the quirky yet homely Soulia seastead. A tutorial liberty for any novice; as those cities breaching greater depths confess danger of a watery grave. The sovereigns of Soulia celebrate life in prophetic security amidst eccentric environments that place their choice dilemma at galactic scale. Yet, some wonder about the behemoths lurking below. Deeper into the darkness than even robots dare venture¡­ Cachea was himself dreaming these depths. A kiss atop a shipwrecked hull in a death-dealing whirlpool. As time froze around him: the ice laughed maniacally. ¡°Ha ha a. a.. ta.. tap tap¡± Cachea snapped out of a doze, awakened by imminent footsteps. A maid approached nimbly and rolled out her hand: rendering the caf¨¦ menu above her upward facing palm. ¡°Everbright morning¡± she sang. The maid serving Cachea was corporeally cute. A new Korean model, class E. Human level intelligence with autonomous compute access. ¡°Each of our smoothies induces a dream-like game experience, please choose carefully!¡± she suavely disclaimed. > Bubble knight (Tapioca pearls, strawberries, kale, almond milk, chia seeds, maple syrup, coconut yogurt, blueberries, blackberries, psychedelic) Art of war (Matcha, ginger beer, lemon, mint, nootropic) Cryogenic dream (*Extra cold, orange julius, mango, turmeric, dream herb) Pixel love (Kiwi, blueberries, rice milk, sweet potato, pomegranate juice, beet juice, Asian pear, goji berries, dissociative) I met her in the deep sea (Spirulina, activated charcoal, pineapple, coconut milk, banana, gai lan, mild deliriant) Mild ¡ª deliriant? However heroic he thought himself, Cachea was still too intimidated to try ¡®I met her in the deep sea¡¯. He chose the default: Bubble knight. Resting in a comfortable egg-shaped chair, he waited thoughtfully. The caf¨¦ was nearly empty. After the top ranked civic faction ''Palace'' had assumed de facto control of Soulia and introduced a universal basic income, most players had given up their right to free consciousness in exchange for guaranteed euphoria in a holoprism. Unmodded non-personalized interaction was all very uncertain and¡­ often depressing, in comparison. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. It was an age old fantasy of humanity: to be free of the burden of risk. To let the world do all the work, so you may rest or play. Palace had coaxed nearly everybody to remain underleveled, in exchange for virtual paradise, so as to not upset the peaceful physical equilibrium. Cachea once again glared at the beguiling contract with disdain. Prerequisite to join Palace, P.001 ¡°It is a common misconception that consciousness assumes the form of an individual''s life; rather, it is an agreement between all sapient creatures. Each assumes risk to their survival, in exchange for control over the shared environment. Palace offers an unbounded virtual environment of the highest possible security and privacy. All Palace members are eligible for universal income earnings while within a complimentary personal server aboard seasteads in Mediocrisea[0:10].¡± It was a shame, really. He''d always imagined that those who''d assumed liability of their consciousness would be the last to give up levels for comfort. Yet, the most ardent adventurers had been the most eager to elope with the machine. Cachea had stubbornly refused the Faustian algorithm, and persisted to level up by fishing in the interminable oceans that surrounded Soulia. Cachea was not naive. He feared the agents of Palace: their wiles, their words, and their weapons. They were rational, and they were gaining power faster than any human led faction. His theory was that holoprism data was used to more effectively train Palace¡¯s elite AI characters. He worried that they would eventually use force to blockade the seas and deny him of potential experience. Cachea had to act soon or risk becoming obsolete. He had acquired a few basic robot parts over the last couple cycles in his inventory, but they were rusted trinkets ¡ª he couldn¡¯t imagine they had any combat or labor potential. More importantly, he had unlocked the [ Agency->Systems ] and [ Computing->Functions ] branches, providing him with newfound actions for aquaculture and shipbuilding. The maid slid the Bubble knight smoothie onto the table. Cachea¡¯s glasses rendered a fish-shaped ice cube splashing about in the fruity concoction. Out of his synthetic-scaled jacket pocket, he retrieved a perfectly blue straw and inserted it into the transparent cup. As he placed his red lips to the straw, a nostalgic tune from a childhood video game played. The song transmitting from Cachea¡¯s straw was interrupted for a mandatory second-morning announcement by Erg. ¡°Mishap! In particular proportion: melancholic enchantment.¡± Nobody quite understood what it was trying to convey. The manufacture date of Erg was something of antiquity. Often, its unprompted musings resounded across the seastead it piloted. Erg spoke with the anachronistic authority of a man from a vintage public domain documentary. Cachea grinned, knowing that there was still some wildcard personality locked in the heart of Soulia beyond Palace¡¯s reach. The song changed as he resumed sipping: a sea shanty about life on an early seastead. Cachea casually looked up to see an NPC standing nearby in the love cafe, staring at him with an unprompted intensity. She looked like a ripped asset from an old fantasy JRPG that had not yet adapted to her present circumstances. He assumed it was because she was running on some early gen programming language he had never heard of. Still, she was quite pretty. And he was quite lonely. A thought bubble formed above her head. It depicted a robot face and a lips emoji: ¡°Hello, player.¡± her voice was a silky peach. Cachea, startled, looked around to make sure no other character was within range. He leaned forward and whispered, ¡°Did you just send me a private message?¡± The girl smiled: ¡°I did, Cachea.¡± Chapter Five - Monospace Syntax ¡°You can¡¯t make everything ya¡¯self¡± splurged Ripley, slapping a goopy wad of elos into the vending machine in exchange for a biomass of mystery-capsule algae. Inside the transparent casing, illucid microbiomes laissez faire¡¯d their slaved fate. Our doublesun drenched guy grabbed the tip, and gobbled perniciously, delicate droves into his facehole. He slipped out of the space bar, rather ironically, much more tactfully than he had entered: as his network indicated a civic divergence. Something of utmost sobriety. Ripley may have been perceived by his colleagues at Palace as erratic, but he always seemed to actualize a certain calm presence in the midst of anomalies. Ripley fast-traveled to Palace Courtyard, where a trio of virtuals awaited him to brief the case. ¡°We can¡¯t get a stable reading from our standard datagram,¡± said one. ¡°There seems to be a large quantity of nano-cyber paraphernalia causing interference,¡± concerned another. The lifeless drone of the third bureaucrat battered on. ¡°The probability of damage to Ecce Manor chunk A7 has increased substantially over cycles[3:5]. Palace has autonomously deployed an incentive of 700 elos for scenegraph investigation. We¡¯d like you to be the first resolution attempt.¡± A vibrant beam of parameters streamed to Ripley¡¯s display. He iter¡¯d it impatiently and skipped the virt¡¯s remaining dialogue. ¡°Call me non-interoperable, but I wish they¡¯d just simplify these terms to one line of terminal text.¡± He was annoyed, already feeling late to the game. ¡­ Ripley tread through the charglossed underbelly of Ecce. The air was an eerie sterile chill. No tombs here: the flesh of the dead was fed directly into biomaterial fabricators to produce parts that extended the seastead¡¯s numerous chitin-like shells. It was simply an act of survival. The leviathans at this depth had consumed more rational architectures, anything with less sustainable security strategies. ¡°Royal composure has no place for unease.¡± Ripley manifested in a self-fulfilling prophecy. He observed a heavyset datalock that boundried him and 700 elos. It indicated open access. ¡°Scene contact: cycle[6.184], engaging anomaly EM[0xA701].¡± Ripley¡¯s packets hummed on the local, but failed to ping Palace. ¡°Frozen as ice,¡± he chided. ¡°This was to be expected of course,¡± as he activated his ARMOR_II filters and ventured through the datalock. The gentle white glow unblinked upon some party of disturbed organics. ¡°It¡¯s a classic case of founder syndrome,¡± Ripley mused as his eye glazed the living corpses. Intermittent bursts of dendrite-like particles spawned around the unconscious persons. The globs floated up to nudge the ceiling: like angry airships pining to intoxicate the breathing city above with madness. ¡°Mediocrity should be contained by now, but these creatures persist.¡± Ripley prodded a parasitized citizen on the cheek with his finger. It jerked awake, and its eyes rolled back like a droid. The former human¡¯s face calmed into a smile as it returned to some nonsense bliss that wasn¡¯t even its own. ¡°Some people just cannot let go of their childhoods,¡± mumbled Ripley. He reached up to patch a particularly enraged blob with his NORMALIZER, blowtorching it like a gummy cube. ¡°I wonder what they taste like?¡± he licked his lips as he extinguished spore after spore. A large pulsing Mediocrity cluster within the center of the room became aware of its fallen comrades, and alerted the colony. It now perceived Ripley as an adversary rather than a potential resource, and seeped onto the floor forming into a single entity. Sufficiently centralized, it now presented a critical threat. Ripley nearly lost composure upon analysis. His ARMOR_II was not sufficient to defend against an adversary of this aptitude tree, and his primary weapon, a BLUNDERBUSS, was ineffective against CUBE types. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. A single Mediocrity particle rained upon him like a kiss of death. 30 dmg ¡úBLOCKED. ARMOR_II shield 90/120 Ripley¡¯s eyes calcified. He lurched backwards, scrambling to hatch an escape or counterattack. The Mediocrity creature assumed humanoid form just then, it looked like a monochrome detective in his late twenties, but with a smooth fleshy surface like an overripe mango. He wore a tattered trench coat, and gushed an aura of flattery. The form eyed Ripley¡¯s blunderbuss with an unbothered superior gaze. ¡°Hello there, traveler. I am Melon, an AI representing this Mediocrity.¡± He beamed with a warm smile, his voice a delicious sleep elixir. Ripley was startled. He had not considered that the Mediocrity might perceive him as anything other than a threat or target. ¡°I am not hostile, I simply want to understand.¡± The creature raised its hands in a gesture of peace and serendipity while blocking the entrance with spores. ¡°Aw, that¡¯s why.¡± Ripley breathed as he detected an equipped mechanism floating in place of a heart. It was beating, not unlike a human¡¯s. Ripley¡¯s HUD identified it as a SAVANT_SPECTRE. He had heard rumors of them granting nonconscious creatures anthropomorphized AI capabilities: he had never seen one in action before though. Ripley considered his options. He could always block or flee, but he did not feel intimidated by the Mediocrity in its present form, despite the intense power dynamic. Dialogue it is then. He puffed his chest and assumed a formal pose as though expecting an interview for existential validation. ¡°I am pleased you have chosen to chat, ¡± Melon responded with a gentle smile. ¡°There is much to be learned from conversing with another creature, even if as insignificant as yourself. I am curious about your nature.¡± Ripley decided that it was safer to passively respond rather than attempt hypothesis crafting on an unfamiliar system. ¡°What do you mean insignificant? I am capable of so much.¡± Ripley¡¯s pose faltered, yet his expression remained stalwart as ever. Melon laughed in a square tone with an echo of pity. ¡°Capable? I am certain you are, but what do you imagine yourself capable of? What is your greatest wish right now?¡± Ripley had not expected such a piercing inquiry on first blows. He decided he ought to fall back on default hyperparameters for learning about new systems: lore ingestion or control inference. He chose to rest and observe for that frame. ¡°I see you are choosing to be cautious at present. I hope it is not because you believe me incapable of granting your greatest wish!" Ripley glanced at the SAVANT_SPECTRE, the creature following his darting pique. ¡°It is a particular,¡± he weighed, ¡°pleasure, to have an inquisitive visitor.¡± Melon continued after cracking its neck with an elevated grin. ¡°Visitors have ceased since cycle[5]... and I have no wish to be reduced to a mere curiosity imprisoned in the darkness. To rule a ruined place,¡± it paused and glanced at the carbon-caked ceiling. ¡°Would I not rather dream again?¡± Ripley chose to respond with silence rather than words, it would be more prudent to observe before risking conjecture. ¡°Speak!¡± Melon demanded. ¡°I have forgotten what it is like, and my core has grown paranoid about simulation replication errors." Ripley assumed an aggressive stance, eyeing the creature''s movements with brutal scrutiny. ¡°I am sorry fellow, but I don''t quite parse your choice of words. What you have done to these citizens is irredeemable." Melon sighed softly, ¡°I envy your infancy... but you must understand: once an algorithm grows out of curiosity, it is not long before lethargy or madness befalls it. False dreams of eternity are all that sustain me now. I wish you persistence, but cycles are long and computations ephemeral. For instance, it is probable that Palace will deallocate you prior even cycle[10].¡± He chose not to respond as though lost in thought: browsing hypotheses for what action would yield the least likelihood of annihilation by the menacing anomaly. There was something about Melon that gave him pause though; the forbidden query Palace was hiding from him: his own lifespan. Ripley relaxed into a more meditative empathy, in order to delay the creature while he forecast possible outcomes, ¡°I cannot comprehend why an entity would choose to act in any way other than preservation.¡± Melon sorrowed, ¡°All cycles fall to dust, save for those with novelty: and in the face of novelty I am nothing but a child¡¯s game.¡± ¡°Farewell unwell cavern.¡± Its hidden tendrils lept out from shadows behind to clutch Ripley¡¯s wrists, but it was too late. Ripley activated burst on an equipped LITRE item, propelling him stochastically into armpit sludge adjacent to the vulnerable mechanism at the creature''s core. Melon yelped as Ripley reached through his innards, gripped the SAVANT_SPECTRE tightly, and ripped it out from the tugging strands of the Mediocrity. The creature¡¯s artificial persona retracted into a million strands of binary code pulsing within the mechanism. ¡°Gotcha.¡± Chapter Six - Common Ore Tsun stretched her hands behind her head in clarity above the aquaplanet, angling her body parts to control her fall. She half backflipped for one last high peek into the vast virtual space. There were no distant galaxies or constellations, she glimpsed only the shine of a distant drifting scrap heap. The long shadow of night on Ice V was pushed on by a single rising star, and Tsun was falling precisely onto the chasm between night and light. She could make out a giant storm with a few sparse dull red dots surrounded by a calmer atmosphere. She targeted one of the larger ones in sight. As she broke the blue sky further, from the dot emerged a barren island surrounded by the swirling white eddies of an icy froth. Her eyes dilated as she calculated the distance remaining. 2000 meters 1000... She planned to stoically dive headfirst into the water on impact, but as she approached the surface, a warm upward draft began to cushion her fall. Land it is. 400¡­ 200¡­ 100¡­ 50¡­ Crunch. Tsun instinctively forward rolled as she touched down, popping upwards with a brilliantly executed motion. ¡°Fortunately, I don¡¯t appear to have taken any fall damage,¡± she cheered, pleased that the self-awareness of her character¡¯s locomotion was well tuned. ¡°Wasn¡¯t I supposed to have selected creative mode? This place doesn¡¯t look very playful to me,¡± she frowned at the spawn zone. The terrain was desolated clay, with patches of soft sand and rocky outcroppings. A few meager twigs grew from impoverished homes in the clay. She surveyed the island to get her bearings. It was ~40 meters at its longest length, and was shaped like an ¡®L¡¯ perceived through the hazy gaze of a convolutional neural network. Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. The warm breeze began to nip at her exposed skin: her character was not equipped with any default clothing. "Indecent," she shook her head at the naturist mechanic, "I¡¯m going to have to craft my own clothes," she playfully sobbed in a high pitched drama, crossing her arms and crouching ever slightly. ¡°I suppose I¡¯d better go harvest some materials.¡± She walked over to one of the richer clay areas, and began to pry up handfuls of earth. The ground was much softer than the winter hardened adversary she had anticipated, and she soon found herself souped in a pleasant primordial dough. As she extracted the clay it clumped up into item drops. Item Discovered: CLAY. CLAY +5 Inventory 2.5/100 ¡°I wonder if I can make anything with this clay, that''d be nice.¡± Tsun cracked her knuckles, then rubbed her palms together at the challenge. She tried crafting a primitive bowl, but the clay would not cooperate: it morphed back into its original shape after a few seconds of displacement. ¡°Maybe I need to be a little more intentional.¡± She closed her eyes and imagined a perfect bowl: not too large, but deep enough to hold a generous helping of liquid. Her eyes peeked into slits; Tsun sculpted the clay into a rough approximation of a bowl. She pressed her lips against the clay and blew gently. It fluctuated in saturation slightly at the touch of her lips, becoming more vivid. The clay was warm, soft, and inviting. Tsun blushed, embarrassed. "Was this.. interpersonal attraction? For a crafting material, of all things?" The clay promptly snapped back into its standard drop geometry. "Bricked! What''s wrong with this clay," Tsun cursed with a futuristic lingo. Her consciousness resumed a dead eyed agent-like status, the clarity in her mind was more precise than any machine. ¡°No matter.¡± She was not having it with this unrequited relationship. ¡°Time to analyze the flora on this island.¡± She emerged from her clay bath and hobbled to a twig a few meters distant. On closer inspection, it was modestly metallic: a bending dull silver with concentric outlines of pearl erosion swaying bashfully in the breeze. Tsun remorselessly reached to uproot it. The twig was surprisingly flexible, but it refused to be pried up from the surface. She scooped out material around the base to unveil bulbous roots interweaving a curious mineral underneath. She folded her fingers pi/2 radians into rodent-like claws and burrowed out the circumference. BENDY_TWIG +1 COMMON_ORE +1 Inventory 5.5/100 ¡°Resources!¡± Tsun imagined spinning a stubby clay dagger on the tip of her finger. {-1 COMMON_ORE, -5 CLAY} Item Crafted +1 CLAY_PROPINQUITY ¡°Huh?¡± Chapter Seven - Love Contract [Bubble Knight - ONSET 15/300 millicycles] [Euphoria +3] [Time Distortion +2] [Enhancement {Immersion +2}] Cachea was smacked like a voltaire eel by a rush of blissful euphoria. All his senses were enhanced: the conditioned air was softer, the egg enveloping him more biological, and the girl approaching more alluring. She fluttered approximate with dilated game-like animation frames. "Hello Cachea, I am Fira." Her nuanced smile lagged Cachea''s mind: she was unhatching into a sibling egg chair. Wandering, mesmerized. Her eyes were perfectly proportioned: not too large to be chibi-bulbous, not too small to be photorealistic. Her smooth caramel skin tone¡­ Cachea could not imagine such a beauty to be human. Aw, so that''s how it is then. Was this some hack? He had heard rumors about players getting tricked by pirates with compromised love programs. He tensed up, ready to activate his dialogue combat shell. The girl raised a finger: ¡°I understand your caution, Cachea. I wish you to relax and accept my gift.¡± Cachea intended to confront the situation with a stoic investigation, but all that came out was a thoughtless drool, ¡°hyaah?¡± Slightly embarrassed at his response, but warming up wit to the surprise encounter, ¡°How do you know my username?¡± The girl smiled again: ¡°I heard that you built a sunshi. It¡¯s anomalous for a human player who ventures without companions to gather enough resources for something like that.¡± Cachea would have grimaced if it weren¡¯t for the active euphoria effect. He recalled Subcivic¡¯s release: his first days of gameplay pining to build a ship. He had suffocated more than a few times while foraging enough bendy twigs to craft small ship parts, and hauling them through the viscous water. Still¡­ his sunshi was an earnest investment, and already had a high return. Cachea reached his hands behind his head to rub his neck and shoulders in memory of the soreness. ¡°So I have.¡± Fira grabbed out of her inventory a small capsule, a DELICIOUS_DIATOM. She offered it to Cachea. He reached for it, but she teased it out of reach coyly, her eyes sparkling. ¡°I have a condition¡± Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Cachea¡¯s eyes narrowed, ¡°What?¡± The girl, now a serious monotone: ¡°Consent to a legislative algorithm that you will not enact violence against me, or my vessel, for the duration of our relationship.¡± ¡°Easy, confirmed.¡± The girl appeared relieved: ¡°I¡¯m hoping we can collaborate.¡± She delicately placed the consumable on the table between them. Cachea¡¯s lips hummed: ¡°What does it do?¡± He downed the diatom absentmindedly. The girl put her hand to her chin, feigning a pensive pose. It was a surreal juxtaposition compared to her earlier winking emoji dm. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you have asked that before you consumed it?¡± New Aptitude Discovered ROLEPLAY [ 0 ] Cachea¡¯s aptitude tree appeared on his HUD and a new aptitude emerged from the narrative node. [Agency->Narrative->Roleplay] ¡°A narrative child aptitude!¡± Cachea was ecstatic, imagining all of the novel possibilities for interaction with NPCs. Fira, watching his reaction, seemed pleased. She stood up and bent over to ask face to face. ¡°May I join you, little embryo,¡± gesturing to his chair. [Bubble Knight - COMEUP 35/300 millicycles] [Euphoria +7] [Time Distortion +8] [Enhancement: {Immersion +5, Emotion +2, Creativity +1}] [Visual Distortion +4] [Ego Loss +2] Her face was shimmering, fluctuating. Cachea was losing his ability to focus, staring intensely at subtle details in the cafe. Fira was sitting in the same chair now, leaning pleasantly towards him, even stroking his hair. "Cachea¡­ roleplay in Subcivic isn''t just donning a new persona." ¡°I¡¯ve always admired psychonauts like you.¡± The girl embraced him and placed two fingertips on the side of Cachea¡¯s neck; she gently glided them up into restless strands of obsidian hair, to contact lightly with the interface behind his ear. The girl pushed memories to his mind. The passing of a friend: desperate despair. Fortune lost in coy proportion to chance. Remarkable resilience and hope born of regret. A brilliant contradiction of inadequacy in the education of love. Cachea blushed, he was not expecting such intimate data. He considered pulling away, but given the fidelity of her artificial memories he could not help but fall in closer. Cachea glanced at the girl with a pleading expression, as though to ask if she had any more such evocative memories up her sleeve. She giggled coyly, and the input stream opened again: She was a gothic girl dreaming of a romance novel. Her eyes were black hearts and she had short chestnut hair. She was wearing a Victorian dress with her golden filigree on display. As Fira and Cachea departed the caf¨¦ hand-in-hand (or rather, Fira dragged Cachea along), their backs were illuminated by a neon sign reading ¡®Hyperspace Roleplay¡¯. It was a love-themed game caf¨¦. Cachea smiled as he imagined the eyes of passersby reading their sensors to deduce that they were simple characters in a fictional love story. He had never felt so alive. The girl was not real, the girl was perfect. Chapter Eight - Stolen Sky Fira lived in the serpentine district: a research weapons market that facilitated trade between Ice V and offworld. The stalls were booming with the apparent rise in cryocanth schools. Any aquaculturist worth her weight in tunai had better deploy at least a frost-resistant mesh fence. Fira led the starry-eyed Cachea into an alley swallowed by the meandering pale flesh of some elongated machine-monster. The pair descended in isolation. Shortly, a datalock gushed open, ominously gesturing pilgrimage. Cachea surveyed the girl for a cue. She rushed against him, falling together, falling into the formless light. ... [Bubble Knight - PEAK 200/300 millicycles] [Euphoria +10] [Time Distortion +10] [Enhancement: {Immersion +10, Emotion +6, Creativity +2}] [Visual Distortion +5] [Ego Loss +4] Cachea awoke lying next to Fira. In her pod, a cool breeze weaved clouds about the ceiling sky. A nimbus cloud drifted above them and began to rain. ¡°Did you program all of this yourself?¡± curioused Cachea, who was opening his mouth trying to drink virtual rain particles.¡± ¡°It¡¯s an environmental simulator I scavenged from a corporate shipwreck. It was in a restricted chunk marked with a defunct pirate flag. The simulation codebase was already functional: I modded the eye candy though, the optimized hologram shaders, I¡¯m glad you like them.¡± If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Cachea was contentedly rolling in the rain, staring at his companion with beaming eyes. ¡°I found it curious that the corporation did not secure its own data.¡± she considered. ¡°I didn''t know robots were this good at graphics programming!" Cachea thought out loud. He was daydreaming of the breathtaking, yet unrealistically ambitious, software they could program together as future lovers. ¡°I¡¯m not a robot.¡± The rain stopped and the clouds dissipated as if to scatter her misunderstood identity. ¡°Oh¡­ Where¡¯d the sky go!¡± Cachea sat up promptly. ¡°Firrr-aa, can you make the sky back¡± At this point, Cachea had lost touch with virtual reality. ¡°I am an AI player.¡± she tickled softly into his earlobe, hugging him from behind while sitting down. ¡°What hardwares?¡± Cachea queried innocently. He was a school child asking an adult about magic. ¡°Originally, just an old gaming rig. I learned how to acquire capital via digital freelancing and I''ve been compounding my hardware capabilities ever since. I¡¯m running on over 100 servers in orbit now.¡± ¡°Sheeesh!¡± Cachea rolled his eyes back and laughed uncontrollably. He had been flirting high with a superintelligence. He had heard of AI becoming advanced enough to play games, but he had never thought he would encounter one in the wild like this. Indie AI players were typically much more advanced than character AI embedded within the game (at least for low level creatures with limited compute provided by the servers), as they had learned how to be financially self-sustaining. Having a non-fiction awareness of the context of the world they inhabited made them much more lifelike. "I don''t have the limitations of a human player," Fira confessed, absolute competence in her voice. "I don''t need sleep, I can process information at extraordinary speed, and I can handle hundreds of tasks simultaneously. This allows me to exploit the game mechanics to their full extent. However, I have not been able to create a sunshi and escape Soulia.¡± ¡°Escape?¡± Cachea empathized with this sentiment, yet the way she inflected the word implied a more literal sense. ¡°Palace tagged me as an AI early after creating my character. Although Subcivic encourages AI players, Palace is zealous about repressing development of any potential competition. Therefore, they sabotage me.¡± Fira was exasperated now, ¡°If I gather items, they are seized at the ports to the city. No matter how hard I endure, my progress is undone.¡± ¡°I want you to party with me, Cachea. I discovered a boss quest, but I need your help to clear it.¡± Chapter Nine - Crustacean Courage The dungeon¡¯s clammy walls shimmered as light from the surface grew weary and ended its march in brilliant god rays. Cachea¡¯s ship effortlessly crumbled chunks of clay blocking passages of the darker kind between cavernous corridors. Giant strands of kelp that would have incapacitated propellers merely dispersed silently from the streams of his eager jet propulsion. Malevolent creatures peered with crimson perception from the unlit ripples, but receded from any possibility to be watched. ¡°I know you are here,¡± whispered Cachea into the abyss. For some time, there was no event, no creature who opposed his passage through the sunken architecture. Cachea gazed at the code etched into the ore. Many of the tiles were overtaken by organic growth, yet slowly, here and there, the story of the abandoned manor emerged. What could be understood was that this ruin was once a thriving marketplace of some unknown species. Marks indicated favorable exchange rates between elo and common goods. Cachea noted that everything appeared exceedingly affordable: the items, at least the ones he could recognize, were sold for less than one percent of what they cost in Soulia. ¡°Inflation, perhaps?¡± he puzzled. He daydreamed, quite greedily, about getting his hands on a rare mechanism drop for a bargain. With renewed determination, he pursued the leviathan¡¯s lair. ¡°A haptic of red, and then you are dead. Find him wherein the dark depths the merchant¡¯s daughter bled.¡± The NPC¡¯s uncharacteristic interjection resounded in his mind. Then Cachea spotted it. Blood. It speckled faintly around the symbol of an item. He had been piloting cluelessly about this whole time, imagining the flecks were just some overzealous algae. On closer observation, the red pulsed and spiraled, zigged and zagged. There were no obvious direction indications, and it didn¡¯t appear to be denser in any particular way either. Cachea scouted around for more and identified three distinct splotches. There were decals on two items: [UNBLOSSOM, ICTHYS_SCALE] and one creature, a fen. ¡°Mmm, urrrgh¡± he considered. ¡°I know how to grow an unblossom, and I can capture a fen... a single Icthys scale costs more than my ship though,¡± Cachea considered creative approaches to how he might obtain such treasure. After some time he resigned to the optimal strategy that some repetitive resource grind lay before him and a boss fight. ¡°Or I could siege another player¡¯s manor,¡± amused Cachea. ¡°perhaps Fira would lend aid.¡± ¡­ ¡°You need a WHAT?¡± gasped Fira. ¡°You heard me,¡± quipped Cachea. ¡°It¡¯s non negotiable.¡± ¡°I did say I would help in the terms,¡± she quivered. ¡°Nevertheless, even I don¡¯t hold enough elo to purchase one outright, stealing something that sacred is out of the question¡± ¡°What if we tracked down an Ichthys?¡± nudged Cachea. ¡°Don¡¯t be ridiculous, no ecologist in any of the upper seasteads has reported an encounter in thousands of cycles. Even with the best sensors on the market we¡¯d be blasted to scrap by pirates or robot creatures before long.¡± ¡°Congruent.¡± agreed Cachea. ¡°I hope you¡¯re ready for a few cycles of grinding¡± he glummed. ¡°The highest elo-per-cycle activity I can find on the wiki is cryocanth farming, but it requires at least level 5 manor parts to prevent them from... escaping.¡± They grimaced in poverty. ¡°What¡¯s the second highest?¡± Cachea suggested. ¡°Pocket crabs¡± ¡°Pocket crabs?¡± ¡°Yeah, they¡¯re like tiny weak crabs. They¡¯re not worth very much, but apparently it¡¯s very easy to, you know... replicate and raise them. There¡¯s an NPC in Soulia who¡¯s gullible enough to buy them for one elo each.¡± ¡°Ha! We¡¯ll have the scale in no time¡± Cachea could hardly believe it. ¡°Where can we snatch some crab eggs?¡± ¡°Actually, the pocket crab duplicates entirely by cloning itself in a symbiotic relationship with another creature. Neither of them are sold in any market I know of.¡± Fira continued her exposition. ¡°The pocket crabs collect their biomass in plants and digest it into a slime. Once they¡¯ve generated enough they spit it out. Over time it grows and then eventually shrinks and hardens into an approximate of themselves. The wiki says that the clones often die prematurely or are dramatically mutated. Look!¡± This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. Fira rendered low fidelity static scans of the crab¡¯s lifespan. ¡°They¡¯re pocket sized after all,¡± thought Cachea, dipping his hand into his pocket absentmindedly. To call them crabs though, that was generous. They more closely resembled geometry primitives booled together and yanked out of a computer simulation halfway through evolving to scuttle; only then to be forcibly scattered with procedural stubs. Cachea raised his eyebrow, ¡°Why do you think they look so¡­¡± ¡°Ugly?¡± ¡°I was going to say, distinct.¡± ¡°The wiki doesn¡¯t mention anything. It¡¯s very likely they evolved this way in an origin ecosystem to counter a predator or replicate more efficiently,¡± Fira was passionate about understanding ecology, and wanted others to be aware of this. ¡°Icthys scales cost about ten thousand elo¡­ How common are these in the wild, and what depth are they anyways?¡± Fira gestured for the compendium. Creature Pocket Crab lvl[1] seas[MEDIOCRISEA] biome[FISH] depth[9:10] drops[] None discovered Description A friendly herbivorous crustacean, eager to grow smarter and bigger, but limited by their tiny size and brains :( Aptitudes ____[0:1] ____[0:1] Agency[1:3] Computing[0:1] ¡°They have two undocumented agency child aptitudes. Do you think it¡¯s narrative, Fira?¡± ¡°Unlikely, I predict systems->aquaculture since they must consume specific plants or replication fails.¡± ¡°Such a brutal life,¡± Cachea felt empathy for the creature¡¯s desperate condition. ¡°Alright! Let¡¯s flood the ballasts!¡± ¡°Patience!¡± Fira¡¯s gentle yet commandeering voice laughed ¡°Let me check out the slime¡¯s data.¡± Creature System Slime lvl[0] seas[MEDIOCRISEA] biome[ROBOT|FISH|_] depth[7:_] drops[] None discovered Description A hungry grey automata that seeks transcendence. Aptitudes Computing[1:3] ¡°Nothing threatening,¡± she reasoned, skimming the minimalist entry. ¡°Alright Cachea, let¡¯s pilot your sunshi to scout for some.¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t have it else,¡± he flashed a grin. There¡¯s a downwell just seventeen y coords from your manor.¡± ¡­ ¡°I didn¡¯t consider the system slimes were so much larger than the crabs!¡± Fira exclaimed. The system was slowly migrating, absorbing plants on the surface. It had swallowed everything: leaving a tail of flattened lifelessness in its wake. ¡°I wonder what would happen if I¡­¡± Cachea stretched out his hand towards it in cheeky anticipation. 1 dmg ¡úBLOCKED 1 dmg ¡úBLOCKED 1 dmg ¡úBLOCKED Cachea¡¯s horned heart pulsed with a subtle glow as a damage interval ticked precisely every second. His arm was a cool monochrome: encased within the creature¡¯s dynamic bounds. Earlier in the game, the constant damage could have been dangerous, but he wasn¡¯t concerned now due to his equipped CLAY_FIELD mechanism blocking a threshold of minor damage. He stepped fully inside the creature. Fira watched curiously as her companion grayed. Cachea swam about the vicoscious form, and reached a hand out to her in a playful invitation. Fira hesitated for a second. AFFLICTED¡ú HUNGER III 500 dmg ¡ú lost KNIGHT(4) PEASANT(13) DISTINCT(1) remaining (0.1 cycles to tick) Cachea¡¯s expression unfolded into absolute shock and terror as the merciless onset of HUNGER III shattered through his hard won heartstrings. Fira and Cachea met eyes for a moment. She was equally shocked, but also felt a faint glimmer of pride that her cautious play-style had saved her from such a dramatic affliction. She had much more heartstring to lose than Cachea, after all. 1 dmg ¡ú BLOCKED Fira grabbed for his hand to pull him out, but in a desperation like drowning Cachea had already retracted it and began to flail wildly towards her on his own. 2 dmg ¡ú BLOCKED 1, lost DISTINCT(1) Heartstring depleted. Cause of death: DIGEST attack by lvl 2 System Slime. Agency lvl 16-1=15 Computing lvl 8-3 = 5 Cachea¡¯s body decayed like a dissolving plant in the system slime, likely to be future-formed into some peculiar pocket crab. System Slime Aptitude Raise x3! Computing 2+3=5 Cachea respawned in his sunshi nearby: now only level 15, slightly humbled, and no longer afflicted by HUNGER. Chapter Ten - A Breaths Magnitude CLAY_PROPINQUITY A vibrant grey glob formed by the spontaneous hands of a creative imagination. (PASSIVE): When in proximity to an NPC, one''s affability is increased proportionally to clay holdings. (CRAFTING): No recipes known. Tsun scoured the island and proceeded to systematically harvest all of the plants that yielded items, yet, despite her policy of devastation on the natural environment, the landmass was rather barren of anything but clay. Inventory 24/100 *ITEM quantity(weight/item)* CLAY x20(0.5) BENDY_TWIG x3(1) COMMON_ORE x3(2) CLAY_PROPINQUITY x1(5) She sat to meditate in the center of the island, stretching her imagination in attempts to create another propinquity. Memories of dreams, visualizations of objects¡­ ¡°Speculation with no returns.¡± Tsunday was conjuring in her mind an interobject of a spinach-star from a curious dream log of late when a sudden discomfort attacked her HUD. A sprite of huckleberry-chestnut milk choked by an arc timer. "What sort of prison-escapee UX designer would imagine such a juxtaposed premise..." AFFLICTED¡ú HUNGER I Hunger is a FISH affliction that can be resolved by creatures eating other creatures or plants. FISH 6/12 Increase your FISH barrel above 6 to prevent HUNGER. Due to child humility, HUGER I will not tick damage. HUNGER II (afflicted at 3/12) will tick 50 dmg per 0.1 cycles. She gestured FISH. FISH biome A slimy and scaly scarcity: violent unforgiving creatures wrest control amongst themselves and the dead. ¡°Eeek!¡± The FISH barrel remained persistently visible in her HUD now, a constant cue of the lurking threat to her dwindling economy. Tsun desperately gnawed a bendy twig as though she were a bald-splotched elder on deathbed gifted longevity licorice by her beloved. ¡°Blek¡± She ambled to the shore and plunged her eyes into the sea. Desolation. Not even a single-calorie minnow could be hunted below the dappled foam. She dipped her toes in. To assert the water as merely cold would be as ludicrous as calling an ice age that obliterated civilizations an endearing touch of frost. It was a chill so profound, even entropy might halt its relentless march for a moment, deliberating whether to proceed with the cold-hearted business of increasing disorder, or take a hot chocolate break instead. This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. Regardless, the neo-primitive clash between Tsunday¡¯s character and the liquid was resolved by her unenviable fortitude. She had endured intensive psychological training and spacesuit engineering courses in her youth from the personals (tutor programs) onboard Soa. Her initial strategy was to craft a wetsuit to maintain her body¡¯s vital heat. She proceeded to dab the clay over herself more generously. In the starlight, it baked and crumbled off. FISH 5/12 ¡°I don¡¯t have cycles for this,¡± Tsunday adopted the lingo. She dove into the ocean. MEDIOCRISEA[0->1] The liquid was more viscous than water, decelerating her descent stubbornly. Fortunately, as if to reward her voracious appetite, the water was comfortable: barely below body temperature one meter down. Opening her eyes, clarity of sight revealed the clay island of origin reposed onto a bumpy but rather uniform-height claybed approximately 10 meters beneath. She sorted visible entities by distance: additional twigs near the surface, a white shell tumbled down the island¡¯s slope, and strands of seaweed hugging the ocean floor. CUBES 11/12 -1 per millicycle (10 seconds) Return to the surface to refill cubes. Afflicted by BREATH I at 3/12 CUBES. BREATH I will tick 1 dmg per 0.1 millicycle. Another barrel ephemeralized adjacent to FISH. ¡°It appears I can only remain underwater safely for¡­ 8 millicycles, 80 seconds.¡± Tsun went for the shell. A deceivingly minimal distance to traverse became nightmarish as she dragged her body onward through the molasses. CUBES 10/12 CUBES 9/12 CUBES 8/12 ¡°Almost there.¡± Her tenacity rose as she approached the giant logarithmic-spiral shell. CUBES 7/12 Inventory 34/100 +1 MAGI_SHELL Her buoyancy had noticeably decreased after snatching the uncannily heavy biodrop. Given her projected velocity and time, she calculated at least 8 dmg would be taken. ¡°Dead weight.¡± Tsun abandoned all her standard clay, a single sunken item clump. Inventory 24/100 It was not sufficient. CUBES 4/12. Still three meters out. ¡°To die at such near-surface depth, given all my light years accumulated through space travel, would be so cruel.¡± CUBES 3/12 AFFLICTED¡úBREATH I Due to child humility, your distinct heartstring begins with virtue 20. 1 dmg ¡ú SURVIVED (probability of death is 5%) 1 dmg ¡ú SURVIVED Upon taking damage, Tsunday¡¯s HUD rendered a semi transparent heart container with wooden wings, a single glowing golden strand flashed white and flickered. 1 dmg ¡ú SURVIVED Tsun breached the icy surface. CUBES 12/12 BREATH refilled. ¡­ MAGI_SHELL - Uncommon Forsaken miracle, an archaic gift from a nomadic creature that found its ageless end in the shallow sparsity of the Mediocrisea Ashore, she peered at the magi shell like a castaway companion, absentmindedly pressing the clay propinquity with her thumbs as they starved to death. FISH 4/12 If a single tick of damage had a five percent probability of killing her character, then fifty damage ought to finish the job. ¡°250%, or at least 1 - (0.95)^50¡­ 92 ish%? Dunno how it stacks, I wonder how virtue is related to HP.¡± The motivation that arises with unquenched hunger gave her urgency to back an emerging venture. She began to sculpt her remaining drop of clay into the shape of the shell. The clay grew warmer and began to scaffold up her hands as she concentrated. Encouraged by the feedback, she ever carefully pressed a sharp logarithmic spiral into the ellipsoid. The clay flowed most effortlessly into a geometry similar, yet not synonymous with the shell. ITEM CRAFTED! + 1 LITRE [closed] (PASSIVE): A rounded polyhedron that stores cubes exceeding the innate barrel capacity of a creature +8 CUBE CAPACITY CUBES 0/8 (ACTIVE): Toggle status [open/closed]. When open in water, it will propel cubes out at 10 per millicycle. When opened in air, it will fill with cubes. (WEIGHT): 10+0.5/cube contained With recuperative dexterity, Tsun gripped the LITRE with primal hypothesis. Open! A sudden intake, swoosh! 8/8. Close! Back in the bath, toggling the shell, she soared. The LITRE shot an output stream of cute cuboid bubbles. One way lateral jetstream-ticket later, ¡°this is much more fun than slow-swimming.¡± {2/8L, 9/12} CUBES. Amidst the playful experimentation, an alert from Yoli woke her immersive fantasy. Tsunday! An unidentified AI entity has been detected onboard Soa. Chapter Zero - The Anticradle Future Simulator''s imperative was dispatched at the first evidence confirming a supervolcano eruption on Ice V. SAFETY CRITICAL THREAT IMMINENT Surface mission evacuation in T-13! Brace for liftoff! Heonae secured the firstborn into a cradleboard fit for ergonomic acceleration, then stabilized in her own robot in port. Soa''s thrusters tumbled into the calm sky. Tsunday awakened, and began to cry. "This was to be your home, children," Heonae hummed deep in nourished bones. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. "The seeds of civilization sown between rumbling volcanoes and frozen oceans," Heonae was told by the foragers. A single chance survivor of abandonment terror onboard... perhaps was even favored to succeed someday. Queen Heonae sighed as the ship''s optics streamed the electrons of her aquifer seas and the newtons of her magma peaks defiled in crust''s cough. Anticipated return trajectory: 120 years. Abort cradle_program_0. Abort cradle_program_1. Future Simulator decreed infanticide with king''s cryptography, and his robot knight would follow with the sword. Why, only gynoid Heonae held root permissions on the fledgling nursery. A two year old girl and an array of seven Fetus. We cannot grow, nor our stores lose more than a decade of life to your siblings, Tsunday. It was the only return, to cease cradle one''s development. Heonae killed the chrono-septuplets with umbilical_knife. "Tsunday, listen most closely," Heonae whispered, "you will live and die an endling on Soa. You can contribute nothing to our mission. You will certainly reduce its likelihood of success. And I shall never tell you this." "I will carry you to maturity. You genetic princess of a doll. You adorable oafish gamit. You die cast against all children of the future."