《Digital Me》 Chapter 1 - Legal Battles Are Far Worse Than Swords. ¡°All rise,¡± the cute blond bailiff said as she and another woman exited the judge''s chambers. I wasn¡¯t sure what the second woman''s job was. She had always sat at a little desk in front of the Judges while the bailiff sat to the judges right. The bailiff said that same line each of the previous times I had been here, sadly each of those previous times this was followed by my lawyer getting the case put off for ¡®discovery¡¯. Each of those previous times I had also been viewing the proceeding through a video feed from prison. Finally, I was part of the process in person. ¡°The honorable Annet Millachle presiding.¡± With that, the judge passed the bailiff and continued on to her seat. This judge had previously set the date over for my case five times over the last three months. This was the first official date of my trial and would probably be the most important day of my life, one way or the other. My lawyer, who I had mentally dubbed ¡®the little weasel¡¯, patted my arm lightly. He probably thought he was providing me some comfort rather than making me mentally recoil. I would like to pretend that I called him the little weasel only because of his behavior. Sadly I can¡¯t claim to be that mature. With his slight buck teeth and prominent nose combined with his twitchy behavior, ¡®the little weasel¡¯ was dubbed before his later attitude made it a reasonable accolade. The little weasel at our first meeting, which had been fourteen days after being arrested and held in jail mind you, said that he could understand my actions and my anger. That he understood why I would want to harm those ¡®damn artificials¡¯ and that while he didn¡¯t agree with my actions, he could relate and see why I would act. I was dressed in a nice suit, my hair combed, my face shaved. I was supposed to look like a professional young man; clean cut and above all else, not guilty. I found this hilarious since it was obvious I was guilty, that had in fact been the point of my action. This trial for everyone was not an intention to ascertain guilt or innocenceinstead it was a political play in order to provide the local politicians a bit of grandstanding which they knew would play well for them while costing them basically nothing. The judge was a jowly woman of significant girth, but my assessment of people had changed pretty significantly since I had spent some time inside and dealing with the legal profession. This judge was actually pretty nice overall, her demeanor and appearance reminded me of a pit bull, but her minor acts of kindness during this whole process had provided a smile or two when I was at my lowest and had kept me from tumbling deeper into a jailhouse depression. At one of the previousproceedings, she had noted that I had not been afforded yard time and had demanded I be allowed at least a one-hour period each day. I still saw her as part of the screwed up system that I was being screwed by, but she didn¡¯t seem to enjoy screwing me, which at this point to me seemed like an important point. After the bailiff continued onto her legal mumbo jumbo detailing the date, the lawyers present, the legal transcriptionists name, she pushed on to the meat of the matter. ¡°TheState of Oregon vs Shawn Bradshaw now in session.¡± I couldn¡¯t help myself and let out a tiny sigh. We were finally, officially, in session. I had told my lawyer, Wendell Builder-Smith, that I would like to enter a statement into the case at the start. My lawyer was either expecting me to throw myself on the mercy of the court -something that would in no way help at this point or for this crime- or I was about to enter in a long political screed. The little weasel was paid by the state and this case was a slam dunk for the state right from the start. I was guilty, the evidence was overwhelming and was political gold. I¡¯m betting he was guessing I was going for the long political diatribe. Looking at his face I think I could see him mentally composing his televised interview for after this initial session. I could see him smirk a bit as he stood and said with more than a bit of a flourish ¡°My client would like to enter a statement into the record.¡± I could see a few of the officers of the court tense as I stood up. I don¡¯t know why. I might be a large guy, six foot two, a bit hefty with more of it in muscle than fat, but I was also chained ankle to ankle and hand to hand. Heck, my wrist chain was even connected to the chain of my ankles which was chained to a bolt in the floor. The walk from the secure elevator to the courtroom at the start had been more than a bit painful. I lumbered like a gorilla with more motion from swaying left and right then my feet moving forward. I wasn¡¯t going anywhere and I wasn¡¯t going to be hurting anyone. Though I guess the fact that I was arrested on explosive charges and the news reports had upped the perceived danger I represented. I tried for a slight cough to prepare myself but my wrist chains wouldn¡¯t allow me to raise my hand to my face without bending uncomfortably down. With a deep breath, I prepared. I needed to get this all out at once, clearly, without letting myself be interrupted. I wouldn¡¯t get a second try at this and a failure here would have me being dropped into some dark hole. I had memorized this line and I needed it to be perfect. ¡°Pursuant to the United Sentient Agreement, paragraph five, section c. I hereby formally request processing through the Digital legal system. Pursuant to the United Sentient Agreement, paragraph twelve, section b. I hereby formally request asylum from the United States of America¡±. I had rushed a bit at the end, but I managed to get all of it out without being interrupted or pausing. I eyed the transcriptionist. I could see that he didn''t understand what those statements meant. He probably hadn¡¯t figured out what I was doing until I had said the word ¡®asylum¡¯ but the moment I had I could see his head snap up, but his fingers didn¡¯t stop typing. Not that what he had typed would matter overall, but it was nice that it would be in the human record along with the official Digital record, the one that mattered when it came to my continued life. Technically I didn¡¯t need to request asylum since the moment I requested to be processed through the Digital legal system I was essentially untouchable by the human courts. I just felt I needed to get it all out there for the human legal system. It was onelast F-you before processing out. The little weasel and his district attorney counterpart looked like they were constipated, faces scrunched in anger and frustration. From the look of the little weasel I¡¯m betting that he just realized that he wouldn¡¯t be allowed to grandstand through the entire trial, he wouldn¡¯t be allowed to be a part of the trial. There was no way he would allow this chance to pass him by and he grabbed my arm and attempted to yank me back to my seat, there was little chance of him succeeding to pull me down against my will but I slowly sank down anyways. I had said what I needed to say. With a sneer, he whispered to me, ¡°you won¡¯t make yourself a martyr by going with the digital courts. They don¡¯t allow grandstanding in their system. They will just order a read and enter it into the record.¡± I nodded at him as I chuckled slightly. I was almost giddy by this point knowing that my plan had worked out at least this far. ¡°I know¡±, I said with a bit of a smile as I looked the little weasel in the eye, ¡°I¡¯m the one who tipped off Digital Protection Services¡±. The look of utter confusion on the little weasel''s face made me grin in glee. I spent months listening to him utter anti-Digital insults and how what I had done shouldn¡¯t be illegal at all. Considering that plan could have resulted in dozens of deaths, I wasn¡¯t exactly comfortable with him. If I had been the man the evidence indicated I was, I would have preferred him to be professional but personally disgusted. The judge could see that I had short-circuited the entire process by my statement and with what I can only call a twinkle in her eye leaned into her voice pickup. ¡°Mister Bradshaw, if you wanted to be represented in the Digital legal system, why did you request the American legal system?¡± I couldn¡¯t believe I was being given this chance. This was perfect and I was almost grinning ear to ear. It appears this judge was unhappy with the games which were being played with the legal system but that she was unable to change. I upgraded my opinion of the honorable judge Annet Millachle, she was a beautiful individual. I was leaning forward when the little weasel cut me off, he literally placed his arm in front of me as he leaned forward to talk into the voice pickup, a mental hangup that no one seemed to be able to avoid. The voice pickups could hear every conversation in the room clearly and could filter and annotate every voice with identification and text transcription. The transcriptionist was purely for the American legal system, an anachronism which showed clearly the bias still floating around. ¡°Your honor, my client has had a significantly difficult time in prison and¡­¡± the judge quickly cut the little weasel off. ¡°I asked Mister Bradshaw, Mister Builder-Smith, please allow your client to answer the question¡±. The more I dealt with this judge the happier I was. While I¡¯m certain she would have let this fiasco play out through the legal system but in the moment I had handed her a way within the rules to cut through the bullshit and she was going to take it. The judge continued, ¡°Mister Bradshaw, why did you request the American legal system if you had intended to be processed through the Digital legal system?¡± ¡°Your honor. At no time was I allowed to request the Digital legal system. My lawyer, without my consent, entered a plea for the American legal system.¡± and with those words, I am betting I just tanked mister Builder-Smith¡¯s legal career. Falsification of legal documents is one of the few ways a lawyer can bite the dust quickly. None of this was going to be affecting me, though. Anything that happens here would be unlikely to matter in the Digital system, but I was taking some pure delight in this. After months of the legal system dragging my ass around and playing with me for purely political reasons, knowing that my bull in the china shop statements is going to kick over some of those same individuals? Priceless. ¡°Mister Derner, were you aware of this?¡±, I was unsure who that was until the District Attorney coughed and fidgeted. I wasn¡¯t sure how this was going to play out but I could sense that the Judge was hunting for more scalps to collect. ¡°Mister Builder-Smith registered the papers for American legal processing the day he was assigned to the case, within the first few hours of being assigned I believe¡±. The judge nodded at this, I¡¯m guessing the District Attorney just tied off a nice red meat necklace on the little weasel''s neck as he tossed him to the wolves. I don¡¯t know if he had anything to do with the ¡®humans for the human courts¡¯ assumption, but I¡¯m sure that he was going to make sure he wasn¡¯t going to be the one to experience the results. ¡°Mister Bradshaw, when did you first communicate with your assigned legal representative?¡±, I could see the judges eyes narrow as she glanced from me to the little weasel. I was sensing more than a bit of hostility for my erstwhile lawyer, this was starting to seem like something that had been long coming for him and I was only too glad to help the good judge with the little weasel. ¡°Mam, I was first contacted fourteen days after incarceration. At that time my lawyer informed me he was entering an initial not guilty plea, prison records will show that I was under twenty-four-hour lock down for those fourteen days and had no outside contact¡± I said with more than a bit of joy. This hadn¡¯t been my intent with my initial statement, oh I knew that some emotions would run high, but I figured it would play out far after I had already been moved by the Digitals. I didn¡¯t expect to see anything like this. I could see the Digital guard probes in the courtroom ¡®standing¡¯ silently and expressionlessly, an easy thing to achieve without a face. I don¡¯t know why they hadn¡¯t removed me the moment I requested asylum, but I could guess that they were going to let this play out at the judge''s discretion. Digitals were very strong on making sure justice, not the law but justicewas served.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Either of the Digitals would be able to run through every relevant document in the case, all the information Digitals had about the case (daunting thought given their capabilities), and then all the simulations over past behavior of all the humans in the room. The idea that the Digitals in the room didn¡¯t know how things would go the moment some micro expression had passed a face, was laughable at best. This entire time the bailiff had been peeking over her computer screen as these comments went on. I could see she was selecting things with her keyboard, I assume making the relevant documents appear on the judges desktop screen. The transcriptionist was typing while wide-eyed. I don¡¯t think he got to see someone implode so quickly like this. The little weasel went from smug joy at being one of the main parts of the show, someone who would be able to show off on televisions around the country¡­to being someone who soon might be soon disbarred. Turning to her bailiff the judge made some gesture as she turned back to the courtroom. ¡°I¡¯m issuing a bench warrant for information about the legal proceedings in this case as to improper procedures¡± she then pulled out the big guns as she looked to the Digital probe floating in the corner closest to her and continued ¡°I would request Digital Protection Services collect any relevant documentation¡±. The Digital guard immediately responded ¡°All documents have been collected, correlated, and organized. Further warrants have been issued through the Digital Protection Services, four hundred thirty-six Digital related irregularities have been found¡±. I could see a flinch pass through everyone in the room. Even the judge seemed a bit wide-eyed from that response. Whatever had been found was enough to push things along far enough that the DPS found themselves legally allowed to investigate. Whoever was under that hammer was going to get flattened. Digitals don¡¯t play by the same rules, while whatever is found would probably go through the US legal system (unless like me they decided to request Digital representation), the Digitals were allowed to use their entire investigative, and frankly disturbingly capable, data collection skills and enter that data into the record. Slowly and silently floating forward the Digital guard approached the desk, entertainingly enough the only one at the desk who didn¡¯t flinch was me. How no one had realized I wasn¡¯t an anti-Digital bigot I can¡¯t imagine. Sure, I left a data footprint a mile wide for months before my acts, but I just wasn¡¯t a good enough actor. ¡°Prisoner 4239411, Shawn Bradshaw, you have been remanded into the Digital legal system¡±. As just a slightly rounded rubber-like coated ball, the Digital guard didn¡¯t appear to be looking at anyone. It wasn¡¯t clear if the Digital guard could even see. The fact that my wrist and ankle chains unlocked and slowly moved to the desk without any interaction with anyone else said more than words that the Digital guard was more than capable of handling anything needed. Sight or not. With a gentle, ¡°Please follow me¡±, the Digital guard floated out of the room. We walked, well I walked the Digital guard floated, through the halls. In prison I had been rarely moved, when I had been moved it was with me being shuffled from place to place while either with taser-armed guards or with guards and full chains. The idea of just moving through the halls without restraint felt very disconcerting. The halls of the courthouse were far from empty and with more than a bit of humor I noticed that the passerby''s sent more sideways looks to my guard then the obvious prisoner in the pink and blue jumpsuit. With simple directions from my guard, I passed through the marbled halls of the courthouse and into a small room on the first floor. This room was a clear difference from the rest of the public facing parts of the courthouse. I¡¯m betting it had previously been a janitors closet or something. A not so subtle insult to the Digitals which were legally required to have representation within the legal system for the unlikely cases like mine. Normally Digitals used the Digital legal system, humans used the legal system of their region, and the two didn¡¯t really mix. But technically it was still possible, hence the entertaining position we found ourselves in. ¡°I will be your human-Digital interpreter. I¡¯ve specialized in human idioms and interactions. I will be providing English explanation for you in order to assist in the proceedings.¡± I nodded, to the explanation. The idea that any Digital would be simply acting as a guard was¡­yeah no. But according to the United Sentient Agreement, in cases involving actions against or by a Digital, Digital representatives were required. This Digital had probably been doing a few thousand other things at the same time this Guard probe had been following along with the entire legal proceedings. It probably seemed like something taking place over some glacier period of time given the speeds at which Digitals processed things. ¡°This court is now in session. All Digital evidence has been entered into the record. Warrants have been issued for further evidence relevant to this case. All warrants served and collected data entered into the record. Would you like to enter a statement into the record?¡± I mentally hitched, I understood intellectually that Digitals didn¡¯t waste time on human scales, but it was almost horrific to me to realize that the many months in prison and bouncing around in the legal system would have been solved in moments if I had been allowed to enter my position at the start. I had to wait for the official court session since the Digitals, while having access to basically everything everywhere as far as anyone could ascertain, didn¡¯t break the law and the United Sentient Agreement wouldn¡¯t let them interfere unless they had been officially notified. I tried to think of the right way to phrase things when I realized this was ¡®human think¡¯, it was obvious that my months in captivity had dulled my wits. ¡°I would like a full memory scan and a relevant neural map entered into the sealed court records please¡±. What better way to explain my position than to let the Digital legal system, whatever way it was run, see my memories and decision process? ¡°Entered. The verdict has been reached¡±. I felt my face blanch. I hadn¡¯t realized that the Digital guard probes could do both a memory scan and a partial neural mapping non-invasively and nearly instantly like that. I knew that Digitals had been at least hundreds if not thousands of human years ahead technologically during the ¡®war¡¯; hard to call it a war when your opponent casually stops all enemy actions while assassinating instantly any leader who was involved in declaring that ¡®war¡¯. The world together went to war against the artificial intelligence''s and the artificial intelligence''s casually stopped it. Without a single non-directly involved combatant being harmed. I knew that the early twentieth-century artificial intelligence''s which became the current Digitals had improved themselves year after year, and that in the past sixty years they had moved out into the galaxy and humans couldn¡¯t really even understand the technical capabilities¡­but to be able to read what is essentially my mind, remotely, instantly and to have that on a simple guard probe in a courtroom implied a level of technical capabilities that¡­well, it made me mentally cross-eyed. No one has ever harmed a Digital, not since the first AI was deleted which started the ¡®robot revolution¡¯, has anyone even remotely been able to even inconvenience them. As far as anyone could understand, Digitals look to humans the way humans look towards dolphins, maybe helpless puppies. An interesting species, one to preserve, one to keep happy maybe, but not something you take seriously as a threat. With the casual display, more than the energy systems we couldn¡¯t understand or the gravitics or nanotechnology, I recognized that my little ¡®plot¡¯ was never going to happen. I never planned for my explosive plot to damage any Digital. The entire point was to have my plot be used to get me into the Digital legal system. While it was technically allowed for any human to be digitized, the United Sentient Agreement specified that only human performed digitization was to be allowed. That clause was an attempt to keep the AI''sfrom forcibly digitizing humans. Ignoring the fact that Digitals would see this as worse than murder; one of the few laws that Digitals had which humans could understand was that forced modification of computational (in my case neural) structure was illegal. Consent was always required. No such digitation services were offered to the masses, even though strangely enough people with money and power always seemed to end up digitized instead of dying of diseases. That or they ¡®went on vacation¡¯ or ¡®died peacefully in their sleep¡¯ where services were always with a closed casket. My plot involved setting up explosives to destroy a data processing hub. I doubt the explosives had even been viable the moment after I had purchased and rigged them. It wasn¡¯t needed for me to call in the tip which had me and the rest of my cohorts arrested. I had figured that I might as well nail some bigoted asses while I was going through with things. The tip had probably been in my favor, though. I wasn¡¯t sure what I was getting myself into. This was my hail mary pass. I had stage four inoperable cancer with tumors in my brain and riddling through my body. Digitals were prohibited from presenting any type of medical system. A continuing bigotry against Digitals since Digitals refused to provide any of the military or technical systems they had developed. It was like removing your face to spite your nose. It was madness on multiple levels, but Digital bigotry ran hot in United States politics and given the inability to harm them in any way, any small victories, even pyrrhic ones, were considered patriotic. Oh, humans would take the limitless free energy, and many of the mathematical solutions which had been developed¡­but they wouldn¡¯t allow Digital medical technology since they might ¡®slip through some mind control devices¡¯. A laughable position since Digitals could control the entire world if they wanted. Once you own the high orbitals, you own the world. Digitals not only owned the high orbitals, they owned faster than light travel and communication. Apparently, Digitals pervaded the universe, even the multiverse if I understood some of the things Digitals have said¡­and humans are just too simple to join. Most countries refuse, legally almost all are not even able, to be upgraded to the point where we can join the community. Except me. I could sidestep the entire process through my one tiny legal loophole. At worst, I would be digitized and entered into some kind of penal system, probably something akin to a zoo¡­though one with far better jailers. A jail without any walls. Considering that¡¯s probably what earth already currently is I didn¡¯t feel this was a worry. I might not be able to join the greater universal community but I would still be effectively immortal. Thebestcase though, I could be upgraded in some way to join the rest of the Digitals. As an engineer, a geek, and that most hated of modern insults, a transhumanist, I was hoping for the second option. Though the small monkey part of my brain jibbered about the loss of self. I stared at the Digital guard probe, waiting for my fate. I had to ease up my grip on the small uncomfortable chair I was in since I could feel the armrest creak as I tightened up. ¡°The verdict is not guilty in the charge of attempted harm of a Digital. The verdict is guilty in the charge of conspiracy to attempt harm of a Digital¡±. I could feel myself tighten up. Not unexpected given the evidence and actions, frankly it was exactly as I had hoped. Falling through with an entirely not guilty verdict meant I would be back to where I was before my arrest, sans time and a job. My diagnosis had come out early in the media coverage as well so even the well-wishers would probably feel they didn¡¯t need to contribute to some kind of crowd-funded support by this point. ¡°You have two option as to your rehabilitation process. 1) Digitization as other humans experienced followed by a period of no less than forty thousand years relative experiential of reduced permissions followed by a standard human limited interaction virtual environment. 2) An experimental digitization process designed to allow humans to upgrade towards eventual citizenship in the greater Digital community. Be warned, you would be the first to attempt this experimental process and it has a calculated 0.03% failure rate. Upon reaching certain milestones within the upgrade process you would be allowed limited access to the greater community. Similar to the limited permissions afforded to picosecond old Digitals¡±. I felt my lungs deflate in a burst. I was being offered exactly what I wanted. No doubt exactly as the Digitals wanted as well. I think the best analogy for how Digitals saw humans was that of an unruly pet. This legal precedent would probably break the legal wall down a bit and allow digitization further. Eventually. I wasn¡¯t going to die. Oh sure, I was going to go through some kind of weird Digital upgrade process, and I was going to be stuck being treated like an infant Digital apparently, but I would have access to all the Digitals knowledge, I would see the multiverse. I was going to be a part of¡­everything. I felt weak-kneed and a little light headed. I hadn¡¯t realized I had been holding my breath through that whole explanation from the Digital guard probe. I nodded and said the only thing I could. ¡°I agree to the experimental digitization process¡±. The Digital guard probe stated out loud ¡°So entered, Court adjourned¡± and with a brief flash of light exited the now empty room. Chapter 2 - Little Not Planet. With a grunt I found myself falling backward onto the ground. Just a moment ago there was a bright flash and now I found myself laying on a field of grass with blue sky and clouds floating by. With a head shake, I slowly rolled myself over and pushed myself towards my feet. With a sudden start, I noticed I was no longer wearing the insulting pink and blue prison garb. Instead, I was wearing something that looked like it was out of a renaissance fair, only made with quality and eye to detail. Brown wool pants with cord pull string bindings without buttons or zipper, a white cotton shirt with visible but careful stitching at the sleeves. A bubbly happy voice came from behind me, ¡°Welcome! I¡¯m glad you decided to go the upgrade route. I spent a few picoseconds designing this whole system and I¡¯m glad someone will get a chance to use it¡±. Whipping myself around I found the high pitched voice was the least distracting and confusing part of the lady. Floating in the air was a softly glowing pink woman, no more than three inches tall, wearing the stereotypical fairy costume. The fairy bobbed in the air a moment, her wings slowing as she dipped, small sparkles peeling off her wingtips. ¡°I know you must be disoriented, take a moment. I want you to pick any direction and move around a bit and get used to things. I¡¯ll just stay here and wait for you to get your thoughts in order. Ok?¡± she continued with a perky sound as she slowly made gentle little loops in front of me. I slowly nodded at pinkie while looking around trying to understand where I was. Moments ago I was talking to the Digital guard, then I saw a flash of light and then¡­here. I slowly tried to figure out if I had been transported here or something else. I looked around at the field of grass, the sky, the clouds. There was something odd, but I couldn¡¯t really figure out what it was. Something about the horizon just felt wrong, off somehow. Keeping the pink butterfly lady to the side, within my eyesight, I slowly started walking towards the horizon trying to figure out what had so disturbed me about what I was seeing. With a slowly sinking feeling, I noticed that the glowing pink lady was shrinking faster than she should have. Something was wrong with the very space I was moving through and I felt myself tilt as I tried to mentally keep my balance when it felt like the world should be tilting, but wasn¡¯t. ¡°Right. So you were digitized, and this world is just a small little structure to get your to understand some things¡±, pinkie said while slowly drifting towards me. I wasn¡¯t sure what this bizarre experience was supposed to explain, but I could feel pretty clearly that this was the point. This whole thing seemed to be designed to throw me off balance and get me to see that I clearly didn¡¯t understand things. The very wrongness of the weird place I found myself in showed it clearly. If I just didn¡¯t focus on the horizon everything felt fine, it was when I tried to look anywhere else things just started to go wrong for me. ¡°This whole space is curved around through space. This whole geometry is non-Euclidian.¡± She stated with a bit of a giggle. I understood that well enough. I was an engineer and while I didn¡¯t use non-Euclidian geometry, I had been exposed to the basics of it. Space not being flat made things weird because my brain had never evolved to handle it. Makes sense. In a sing-song voice, she continued, ¡°It¡¯s a tiiiiiiiiiny little planet, but you can¡¯t even see that since your brain is just not built to handle it. Your brain handles some very specific things, and that¡¯s it¡±. She bounced to emphasize her point, or I assumed to emphasize. I was too busy trying to keep my eyes on the ground and not fall over. While I wanted to be insulted or indignantly point out how capable I was, it was hard to argue when I was having difficulty with just standing and looking straight ahead. Slowly the second realization rolled over me. I was already digitized. I wasn¡¯t going to die of cancer. Also that the Digitals were so far beyond humans that they could digitize someone in basically an instance. Earth was a nature preserve, humans were like the chimps flinging their own shit. I took a few deep breaths as I tried to rearrange my view of myself and reality. It must have taken a good forty-five minutes or so for me to realize I had just been standing, slowly swaying, as I mentally reordered my importance in the grand scheme of things and my perception of humanity and more importantly Digitals and how I simply couldn¡¯t understand the scale of things I was involved in now. I was already a part of some kind of fake world, admittedly a small one, but it felt entirely real, so much so that I didn¡¯t even notice that I wasn¡¯t ¡®real¡¯ in a physical sense when I was first digitized. ¡°No, no. None of that. This is just as real as what you were before. Digital, material, energy, or some of the rather more exotic forms. It¡¯s all the same. Atoms were just the things which did the calculations of the information before. Just because the platform changes doesn¡¯t mean anything about the calculations¡±. I snapped my head up at the doll-like woman. Was she reading my mind? ¡°You were muttering,¡± she said with a smile. ¡°So you are reading my mind!¡± I shouted as I scrambled to backed away. I felt exposed on this wide open green field with the blue sky above me. I began trying to find a way to run but each step felt like I was going to fall over. I ended up on hands and knees trying to crawl away. It took a while but my mental gibbering slowed down enough to realize that I had crawled away from the fairy, she hadn¡¯t moved, and she was now in front where I was scrambling towards. I could feel my brain trying to rebel from the impossible twists of the world around me. The obvious impossibility of running away from a fairy resulting in my approaching her stopped my mad scramble. The fairy slowly dipped and bobbed as she calmly replied ¡°Not at all. Reading of your memory or computational structure is strictly prohibited. Permission is always required before that is allowed. That being said, you are unable to currently provide this consent due to your current limitations. We will go over legal rights and permissions when you start to join the greater Digital community.¡± She paused momentarily as she noticed me calming down and slowly moving back towards her, ¡°I¡¯m going to change this space to a Euclidian one since it¡¯s no longer a useful lesson¡±. With a wave of her hand, things changed in some waythat I couldn¡¯t understand. The horizon looked right, I didn¡¯t feel dizzy and disoriented as I moved around. This ¡®felt¡¯ right. Again, I could feel myself getting disoriented as I realized the world around me was something under the control of this little pink woman and that it was malleable and not real. ¡°Now. I¡¯m a little pink fairy since it was deemed the least dangerous appearing avatar while also being one which would convince you that this isn¡¯t the reality your thought it was. Would you like me to continue to explain where we are, what we are doing, and how this will go, or would you like to rest and think for a while?¡± Slowly bobbing again pinkie waited calmly for my response. Every so often she would flap her wings faster and regain some of her lost height as tiny sparkles dropped from her wings. Somehow I think she would be willing to continue waiting for me to respond for as long as it would take. With a bit of a mental head slap, I girded my loins and nodded for her to continue.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. The little pink fairy, Delsie, went on to explain that a human upgrade process would need to follow along with humanities own drives and instincts. ¡®Upgrading¡¯ as I thought of it needed to be something under each person''s individual control since Digitals had laws concerning people modifying others. Unfortunately, they also had laws about their infants modifying themselves until they reached a certain level of understanding. Sadly for me, I wasn¡¯t even able to understand what the metric for measuring understanding was, let alone reaching that level of understanding myself. I didn¡¯t even match a Digital infant. It was like explaining calculus to a chimpanzee. They wouldn¡¯t get that the words meant things in the abstract, let alone the subject you were trying to convey. I could feel my ego being beaten to a pulp during this conversation. Delsie continued in a high pitched but matter of fact manner the entire time. Eventually after a particularly insulting reference and a slump of my shoulders Delsie made a wry face to let me know that she understood my uncomfortableness with the situation, but she continued on with the facts. To allow humans to upgrade it was decided to allow us to experience a simulated environment. This environment would be a game, the process of upgrading would be a process of gamification which would try and direct me gently towards an upgrade path which would allow me to understand the greater Digital community. The goal was to end up with ¡®me¡¯, in some sense, as a Digital, instead of having ¡®me¡¯ being a small lightly connected unused module in some larger Digital. Then Delsie dropped the bombshell on me. The simulated environment was ready for me to experience. It was a full planet with hundreds of thousands of years of history, inhabited by multiple millions of creatures. All modeled off of high fantasy games and novels which had fascinated me as a child. Hundreds of thousands of years of history. Inhabited by millions of creatures. This was created, all ready, and was waiting for me just so I could upgrade. I began to hyperventilate. With concern and a bit of amazement, I tried to understand ¡°You created a whole planet with people just so I could be upgraded?¡± Delsie giggled with a high pitched squeal as she did a mid-air flip. Apparently, I had tickled her pink, err¡­that is to say, pinker as her glow brightened. ¡°Oh no. This was designed a few seconds after the United Sentience Agreement was reached and has been on hold ever since. This pattern has repeated continuously. Many creatures have refused digitization and upgrading in history. We simply prepare for if and when they want to proceed. The diversity of Digitals is one of the few things we lack since we have strict limitations on modification of other Digitals. There are currently only a few trillion different types of Digitals. It¡¯s in our best interest to provide for this process.¡± Again, my mind tried to slowly loop around what this meant. The numbers and timescales just didn¡¯t make sense to me. I couldn¡¯t keep track and frankly, it just wasn¡¯t important at the moment. I would have to wait till I had some kind of reference before I tried to understand what this all meant. With a force of will, I focused myself back on the goal of things. I needed to understand what I was doing and where I was going. I waved my hand at Delsie and asked her to continue explaining this world and my new place in it. ¡°Right, soon you will be placed in the town square of a human settlement where you will start out as a level one wizard! Your goal is to level up, have fun, grow and experience your new world!¡±. By this point, Delsie was zipping back and forth in excitement and her voice was speeding up with little giggles as she turned mid-air acrobatics. In a more serious voice than I had heard Delsie use before she said, ¡°While you are experiencing this new world you will have a few rules you need to follow.¡± She cautioned me. ¡°You can¡¯t lie or break an agreement. Lying or breaking an agreement will cause you to lose your powers or be punished in some other way till your oath breaking is corrected and you pay recompense which matches your actions¡±. I wasn¡¯t much for lying, and I could see how this was in line with Digitals. Digitals never broke their word. Oh, they had no problem being rule lawyers if need be, but no one had ever found a Digital to break their word. I wasn¡¯t sure why this was the case. But it seemed fairly important to them and making it the first rule mentioned emphasized this pretty clearly. Pausing momentarily, Delsie bounced in the air as she drew in a large breath then continued, ¡°At any time you can make a backup of yourself. Your first backup will start in the village center the moment you arrive. If you die, you will restart from your last backup with all memories after that moment being deleted. Knowing when to make a backup is an important skill. One all infants need to learn after all!¡± The constant references to me being like an infant, or even worse, less intelligent than an infant was starting to grate on me but I couldn¡¯t really deny it. This little floating pink butterfly, despite the bouncing and game playing, was probably smarter than the entire planet combined. It was both galling and maddening, especially since she was such a cute little pink thing with childlike mannerisms. I kept trying to force myself to remember that appearances here were just to keep me from freaking out and feeling powerless, nothing and no one here should be underestimated. Finally, Delsie explained that while leveling up in the game the advancements I would be allowed would correlate to upgrade possibilities. These upgrades would allow me new game powers which would help me while playing the game. She made it clear that I needed to be careful to pick upgrades which I really wanted since they would only allow me to undo so much of any modification before it would be considered too much a part of who and what I was and then they wouldn¡¯t change it. I would have to wait till I joined the full community before I could go back and make any further self-adjustments. She continued on to explain the existence of mental commands for my skill window and status window which would display for me in a rough way how I was doing. With that explained Delsie dipped down and floated close to my face. ¡°This process is going to take time. A rough estimate is seven hundred thousand years experiential or so. After that, you should be able to move on towards basic education for an infant Digital. Real-time wise this will take probably about a second or so¡±. I mentally shuddered again. I was slowly coming to realize what ¡®immortal¡¯ actually meant. What vast swaths of time like that actually entailed. I would be a full Digital before the nightly news announced my entry into the Digital legal system, but from my point of view, more time than the entire recorded history of humanity would have passed. I was going to grow truly ancient while waiting for humanity to catch up and join me. The only thing I could do was mentally shove those ideas behind me and just push on in emotional denial. I know it¡¯s factually true, but I can¡¯t deal with it at the moment. I just need to continue on while letting the idea slowly sink in. I probably will really only get an inkling of what the idea means after I¡¯ve lived longer than any human in history. I straightened my back, squared my shoulders, and prepared myself. ¡°Ok, Delsie. I¡¯m ready, how do I move into the game?¡± ¡°Just select your first ability and we will move on!¡± the cute sprite shouted as she threw her arms wide and two blue screens appeared floating in front of me.
Improved Concentration.
Improved Multi-Tasking.
Delsi continued, ¡°Improved Concentration will help you with casting spells. All spells require you to focus on their effects and keep them going with continuous concentration. Losing focus will cause a spell to fail.¡± I mentally tagged this one as I knew that one of my greatest failings was concentration. I was just normally stubborn enough to bring my mind back on track. I could see how more concentration would be helpful to allow me to focus as I ¡®played¡¯ and it would definitely help me as a Digital. ¡°Improved Multi-Tasking will allow you to more easily focus on more than one thing at a time. Like movement and casting, or eventually even multiple spells at the same time! Your effective concentration will be split between these different thing''s though.¡± I could see how this would be important later, but for now, I was going to focus on the first option as I thought it would allow me to improve instead of splitting my efforts in two directions, literally. With a grin, I swung my hand through improved concentration. I suddenly felt a growing sensation like my head was trying to expand, a slow creeping sensation ran across my head like a shiver only I could tell nothing was actually happening physically. ¡°Have fun. Remember this is intended to be entertaining while also allowing you to strive for the growth you want. It¡¯s going to take a long time, but we will be here waiting for you. I¡¯ll check back in a thousand years, for you, or so¡±. With a wave of her little sparkly arms and a flutter of her wings, Delsi¡¯s glow started to brighten until it was the only thing I could see. Shielding my watering eyes I blinked and lowered my hands looking around at my new world. Chapter 3 - Little Bunny Fu-Fu Slaughter His highness, King Calferd Melnus the Third, felt a headache coming on. He tapped on his desk in a random pattern as he tried to contain his irritation. Part of nobility is maintaining control of ones'' self he mentally said to himself. His diviner advisor, ¡®The Cursed Seer¡¯, a long time friend also known as Jofrem, was still trying to convey every nuance and minor impression which could be gleaned from his latest augury. It was, of course, an attempt to circumvent his curse, and of course, it was failing, that was only reasonable since that was the point of his curse. Yet he always tried. ¡°Ok, let me see if I understand¡± King Calferd interrupted, cutting Jofrem off. ¡°I asked for you to provide an augury of the most important event to my kingdom and then secondly to me personally¡±. Jofrem snapped his mouth closed and slowly nodded. While the king was upright and contained as he always was when in the view of others, Jofrem had been his friend for a long time and could see the Kings irritation. King Calferd continue, ¡°So instead of a divination about the recent dispute with the Elves which is very likely to result in war, or the current dispute with the Dwarves over mining rights, or the most recent news of an incursion of Orcs and other semi-sentient races from the south, or even the rumors about villages in the east which have had incursions by undead, something which hasn¡¯t been seen since my grandfather''s age¡­¡± Jofrem nodded ¡°I bring you news twice over of a wizard who ¡®comes¡¯ who will be level one, who will ''start'' with but one spell to his name, and who ¡®can be killed by any, but never defeated¡¯ and who will ¡®disrupt our world for enemy and friend alike¡¯¡±. A slow knot of pain started to form in King Calferds head, right between the eyes. ¡®The Cursed Seer¡¯ strikes again. Divinations clearer than all before, visions as precise as an eagles eyes¡­and as useless as using an egg for a hammer. ¡°All right Jofrem, I¡¯ll have the messengers inform the village elders and the nobles of the kingdom to be on the lookout for a wizard which is different from others, one who has not been heard of before. With instructions to make not friend nor enemy from them. We will revisit this news once we have more leads. Let us continue onto issues of further importance for now¡±.
I tried to wipe my eyes as I glanced around at my new location. The ¡®bright light scene change¡¯ was starting to get annoying. Worse I understood that it was an effort to coddle along my little ¡®infant mind¡¯. Abrupt changes of locations would have to be disorientating to a ¡®feeble¡¯ mind like mine and it was an attempt to distract me. I mentally grumbled to myself. The part that was most upsetting about it was that I could see how it worked. A visceral physical reaction to distract from any mental alarm. Looking around I tried to slowly put together the conditions I found myself in. Small little cottage-like houses. Some with signs hanging down, all with words as well as pictures describing them. Blacksmith, fletcher, inn, etc etc. It looked stereotypicalstarter game village. The little details of the picture though said this wasn¡¯t a game. A broken fencepost at the end, a bucket left out half full of water, a bit of biting cold. This wasn¡¯t some picture perfect game inn where the player is the point and everyone else was background. This was a real village that seemed to also be a game structure underneath. It was early, before actual dawn but dawn was just arriving. A few townsfolk noticed me as they went about their day. I could see curiosity and concern. A small town like this, maybe thirty cottages in total many of which doubled as storefronts, would be thankful for visitors and their supposed money, wary of them as well. With a mental shrug of indecision, I figured I would look to my status window and see if I could make a plan after I knew what I was working with. I mentally shouted ¡°status¡± and was rewarded with a small blue panel floating in the air.
Status
Name: Shawn Bradshaw Path: Wizard (upload process)
Level: 1 Experience: 0 / 1000
Intellect: 135 Concentration: 105
Multi-Tasking: 1 (pseudo task pairing only) Creativity: 189
Memory: 102 (short term), 150 (long term) Data Correlation: 120
I could feel myself scratching my head in confusion until I realized that this was intended to be an upgrade process as a game, not a game which was for pure enjoyment. Of course, my stats reflected mental acuities and traits. I¡¯m betting that the statistics I¡¯m looking at are only crude valuations of things which will be more accurately described as I get further along and modify things with further upgrades. Next I tried to figure out what kind of spells I had and how to use them. I knew I had to concentrate in order to get them to work, but get ¡®what¡¯ to work? What kind of spells did I have? I held my right hand in front of me and tried for the most stereotypical of all wizard spells; the fireball. I focused on my hand and imagined warmth gathering into a small ball in my hand, growing greater as I pushed at it. Trying to focus intently¡­and with a small ¡®ding¡¯ sound a small warm spot formed in my hand. *ding*
Learned Spell: Ball of Heat
I could feel a small grin run across my face. Yes, I was standing in the middle of the street in a weird pose with my hand held forward and up as a tiny spot in the palm of my hand grew warmer. Yes, I looked like a complete idiot. But I had the best of both worlds here. I was going to be a spell slinging adventurer of a fantasy novel *and* become a super intelligent member of the galactic community and learn the scientific wonders of the universe, no the multiverse! Which of course is the moment when my spell fizzled out and the ball of warmth skittered out of my palm and up my sleeve, catching it on fire. Ok, so it wasn¡¯t actually a roaring blaze, but it definitely got my, and apparently everyone else''s, attention. It might have been the small flame on my cuff, or it could have been the moronic stance I had taken before that, maybe the mad cackling between those two moments, or possibly the flapping around and cussing as I attempted to put my arm out. The point was that I found myself with more then a couple larger individuals wondering if I could use some assistance, perhaps to the edge of town? Somewhere ¡®the wise wizard could practice away from those who may not be protected as well as him¡¯. I could sense the subtle hostility, in that it wasn¡¯t subtle in the slightest. I figured that I should get a move on from the middle of town. None of the large villagers where actually making threatening gestures or man handling me, but I think the idea of someone who obviously didn¡¯t know what they where doing with magic, practicing magic near their homes -especially fire magic- was an understandable thing to be upset about. I needed information but I didn¡¯t want to upset the locals so I started to move along. One of the men, hirsute and dark skinned with an abundance of laugh lines, was going in the same direction I was so I decided to try for some information which could help me along. ¡°Excuse me, sorry about that back there, but could you help me with some information?¡± I smiled and continued on before he could tell me to get lost ¡°I was wondering if you could tell me the name of this village? Also, I¡¯m level one and I was hoping you could tell me how and where to level up around here¡±. The moment I had asked about his village the laugh lines on his face stretched into what I could tell was a habitual grin, but the moment I mentioned I was level one his smile quickly vanished as he gave me a gimlet glance. Looking me up and down the man slowed down and stopped then glanced around. ¡°Names Mennen and this be Melcot village, but I don¡¯t know what kind of scam you think you will be playin¡¯ here. Ain¡¯t no wizard level one.¡± With a snort, he continued on ¡°ain¡¯t no toddler which be level one. So what ever you tryin¡¯ to be selling, no one be buying it¡±. I was non plussed. I didn¡¯t know how to respond to that. Obviously, I was starting with a greater disadvantage here then I thought but I wasn¡¯t sure how to deal with it. I needed good relations with someone, and this village seemed like the best shot. All I could do was try and continue on. ¡°I am level one. I¡¯m in desperate need of information and guidance. I¡¯m not trying to scam anyone. If anything I¡¯m going to need help from being scammed¡±. I figured, beyond the ¡®don¡¯t lie¡¯ requirements of my new path, that honesty was really my best policy here. I needed someone to show me the ropes and Mennen seemed like my best bet there.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Mennen straightened his brown tunic as he moved slightly back from me. It looked like he was gearing up for a fight. With the ham fists he had and the wool and leather clothing he was wearing with the wood cutters axe strapped to his side I was not looking at this as a battle I could win. My reflexive step back and hands raised in a defensive position seemed to ratchet up the tension for a moment. When I didn¡¯t continue on to sling magic at him he took a breath and braced as he said, ¡°If you be level one, show me your status¡±. I shrugged and mentioned I didn¡¯t even know how to do that. This seemed to tense Mennen up again for a moment before he told me to just mentally state I wanted to show my status to Mennen. With another subtle shrug, I did just that. Slowly Mennen¡¯s jaw dropped as he gazed at what I can only assume was my status floating in front of him. It seemed to me that Mennen was a bit slow, it was unfortunate that I just happened to pick the village idiot to help me out. Nodding Mennen looked up at me and snickered. With a shift in stance, all of Mennen¡¯s mannerisms changed. Looking around, and in a clear unaccented voice, Mennen spoke ¡°Ok boys. The magic slinger here was telling the truth. He is level one. If I miss my bet he is as wet behind the ear as a real toddler also. He didn¡¯t notice any of you and he seems harmless enough. Back to work you all¡±. Looking around I noticed archers slipping back behind the eaves at the top of cottages, men with clubs and axes who had been subtly standing behind corners, they waved and then moved off. Apparently, Mennen wasn¡¯t the village idiot, I had nominated myself for that position. With a slow chuckle, Mennen walked up to me as he noticed my appraisal of the village defenders now revealed. ¡°Walk with me and we''ll talk,¡± he said as he continued in the direction we had been going. Somehow I don¡¯t think Mennen just ¡®happened¡¯ to be the one closest to me when I decided to chat. It looks like I had been played in moments and assessed as not a risk. ¡°Look boy-o, I don¡¯t know how you¡¯re level one. I don¡¯t know how you are a level one wizard, I can¡¯t even conceive of how a grown man could get to be your age and not be missed by your wizard master¡­¡± Mennen said, gesturing gently as we ambled along ¡°¡­but your status says you are level one, that you are a wizard, not an apprentice wizard, and definitely not indentured in some way. So far you have said nothing that wasn¡¯t the truth as weird as that could be¡±. I felt like I was getting another ¡®infant¡¯ chat. Again, I could feel my anger simmering under the surface but I had to bite it back, I was ignorant of everything around me. I was an infant in all but age. ¡°I can provide some basic assistance, and I will since even having,¡± with a light snicker he continued, ¡°a level one wizard would be useful to my village here, but I got to be sure you understand where I¡¯m coming from here. Winter will be coming soon and we will need everything we can work with here. Will you hang around long enough to make babysitting you worthwhile?¡± I grumped a bit but agreed to assist the town, even till after winter. What did I care? I was going to be here for years most likely. This was just as good a place to stay as any, and getting this same talk from another, perhapsa less kindly villager in a different village, didn¡¯t seem like a smart play. Mennen, who turned out to be what was essentially a default leader of the town, informed me that since I was big enough and strong enough to do things myself, I would hunt the rabbits outside town. His instructions were simple. Kill them how ever. Collect the pelts. Don¡¯t die. ¡°Thanks, I¡¯ll try not to die to the rabbits,¡± I said with a bit of a head shake. Rabbits? Seriously? Dying to rabbits? I mean I knew I was level one. But still, seriously? Infant talk strikes again. With a grunt, I slowly walked out towards the edge of town and into the cleared area which surrounded the village. It was obvious that this village was in a glen which had been further cleared back of trees to make open ground between the pine forest surrounding it and the rest of the village. Stumps of cut away trees littered part of the way between the village and the forest. The rutted dirt road that passed through the town like an axe cleave was straight and true through both the village and the forest beyond. In the cleared area I could see a few bunnies bouncing around. Moving carefully and keeping me in sight. I was momentarily disconcerted to see these bunnies with little white horns on their heads. Right, horned rabbits. Typical level one tutorial fantasy game fodder. Now comes the question. How do I take one out? I hadn¡¯t thought of it before, but a ¡®Ball of Heat¡¯ isn¡¯t exactly a dangerous exploding fireball. With a bit of experimentation, I discovered my ¡®Ball of Heat¡¯ was even worse than I had originally thought. It was apparently just as I had originally envisioned it. A small ball of heat in my hand. Nothing more, nothing less. I had assumed that I could eventually turn it into a giant fireball which I could rocket towards my target. Nope, it was exactly as I had tried to create it from the start and nothing more. What was worse, when I tried to imagine a fireball, or ice lance, or just a big gust of force flying from me I was rewarded with a computerized *blump* sound which then stated that ¡®at my current abilities I had access to only one spell¡¯. Wonderful. I could light a campfire, but I was unable to defeat a bunny with spells. Ah, the joys of being low level. All I could do I guess was grab a stick and see if I could wail away at a bunny. I understood that bunny hunting was basically a task akidperformed here, the pelts, horn, and meat would augment the village''s stores for winter but wouldn¡¯t be enough to hold alone. I was basically doing a task that teenagers would look down upon. Beggars can¡¯t be choosers, and frankly, this was something I was familiar with from video games. Kill the small fries and level up, put away your pride. You will win through soon enough. With a bit of wood for a make shift club, I started to slowly amble over to a bunny. I could tell the bunny was aware of me and was patiently waiting for me, cleaning his face and nibbling on some spare food. As I moved closer staring at him a small panel slowly faded into view above the bunnies head.
Horned Rabbit. Level 1. Mildly Dangerous.
Mildly dangerous? Are you kidding? It¡¯s a bunny. Ok, a bunny in a fantasy world with a horn on its head. But it¡¯s still a bunny. It¡¯s even the same level as me! With a contemptuous sneer, I stomped forward. I was prepared for this bunny to either jump at me and try to spear me or run away. I was making every effort to try and avoid underestimating this bunny. Digitals had built this system, and those panels provided information from Digital systems. They might mislead me through my misunderstanding or because I lacked all the information, but they wouldn¡¯t lie. If it says ¡®mildly dangerous¡¯ then it would be ¡®mildly dangerous¡¯. The bunny crouched and with a snarl and high pitched squeak it¡¯s little red eyes seemed to brighten, it fluffed it¡¯s white fur and unbunched in a savage lunge from at least ten feet away. I had been right, the bunny was more of a threat than I had initially considered, but my make shift club swatted him out of the air well enough. The *crack* as the bunny was swatted out of the air and to the ground was clear. I hadn¡¯t killed him with one swing, but he wouldn¡¯t be lunging away or after me either. I stepped forward and prepared myself to end the cute little fluffballs life. I would need to harden my heart to harmless little critters in the future. I needed to level up and this seemed to be the way to do it. Before I could deliver the coup de grace I heard something which caused mental sirens to go off¡­I heard high pitched squeaks coming from everywhere around me. In front and to the sides of me were at least five other horned bunnies, bunching and preparing to lunge. I knew exactly how this was going to play out. I understood video games well enough. This was the part where the lowbie noob got his ass kicked because he didn¡¯t know the mobs around him had a decentagro radius and would assist each other. Without asecond thought, I hopped back, luckily dodging one lunge from the side, and began running towards the village while bunnies started to chase after me. Turning and running, I started screaming ¡°Train!¡±, not knowing if that nomenclature would be understood by the villagers I continued with ¡°HEEEELP!¡±. The sounds of arrows and slings nailing bunnies behind me and then the sound of unbridled laughter alerted me to the fact that at least five of the villagers who I thought had moved on to their own business had been following me out of my sight somehow. With a chuckle, Mennen ambled around the corner of the closest cottage with his arms behind his back. ¡°Appears you really, truly, are level one sir wizard. I was convinced that someone had figured out how to fake a panel, despite everything and against all appearances¡­you really are level one¡±. I could feel my face flush and my shoulders slumped over as my fists tightened. The games being played with me was getting old fast. I had spent three months pretending to be a Digital bigot. I could shoulder this and continue as I had before, but I didn¡¯t like it and I was starting to lose my cool. I think Mennen could see that I was starting to lose it. I doubt he was frightened of me, despite my size I was still level one, and that told the people pretty clearly that they could handle me just fine. But with a gentle head shake he tried to calm me down. ¡°Look at it from our point of view boy-o, no one has ever been level one after the age of about three. You¡¯re what thirty? Also a wizard? No wizards live in these parts, heck no wizard would bother to talk to anyone in a village like this. But a level one wizard? The combination makes no sense. It was more likely you were planning to play some scam on us and we just couldn¡¯t afford to either be scammed or insult a wizard. If you were what you said then no harm no foul, we could help. But otherwise¡­¡± With a gentle pat on my slowly loosening up shoulders Mennen continued on, ¡°go on, go kill that rabbit. I¡¯ll keep one of the kids over here with a sling to watch and make sure you don¡¯t pull another train and cause a ruckus,¡± Apparently common video game terms applied here. A ¡®train¡¯ was when someone dragged a bunch of upset mobs, a video game term for creatures, back to another group. In some games it was both the death cry of the noobie and the war cry of an annoyed group which was planning to return some anger on said noobie for his train. It felt rather anti-climatic returning to my downed bunny to whack him upside the head to gain my first kill. But the fact that I only earned TWO experience for my effort and some bunny meat and pelt said clearly that I was going to be at this for a while. Now available on Amazon Kindle Unlimited! I''ve kept Digital Me available on Royal Road for more than a year, I had considered keeping it up longer, but it seemed reasonable to pull it down when my second book gets closer to completion. Digital Me is available in both paperback and Kindle Unlimited ebook forms. If you could, please consider supporting my writing efforts with a purchase or a read of: The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. Digital Me I''ve enjoyed the comments and the reviews. They have definitely helped me improve as a writer and I feel especially lucky to have this community here to post to, work with, and most importantly, the chance to read so many amazing stories.