《Simulacrum》 Prologue He looked at the formless void of the character creation screen with a sense of nostalgia. He was playing Galactica, a sci-fi massively multiplayer online roleplaying game he had spent quite a lot of his high school and college years on. The darkness wasn¡¯t just black, it had an inky quality to it like the void he was in was an ocean of thick roiling black ink. The more he tried to look at it the more he got the feeling that something was trying to reach out to him. Reach out and what? He didn¡¯t know and didn¡¯t want to find out. Nathan with great effort ignored the void that permeated the space around him and looked forward to the silvery console prompting him to enter his character¡¯s name. He thought about that question. He could just use his own birth name after all his was a perfectly good name. Ultimately he chose to go with Tem, short for Temujin aka Genghis Khan one of the most ruthless people to have ever existed in the history of mankind. He usually played a pretty vanilla character and that was ok for the most part but he wanted to take a different route, a more Machiavellian aspect of himself that was always viscously shoved to the corner of his mind. Chained and guarded by a slavering guard dog from hell.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. The console seemed to get dragged back into the void as he confirmed his name and a humanoid shape rose from the nothingness to rest ahead of him. He chose the option to make his character look as close to him as possible with the race he would choose in mind. He didn¡¯t want to know how he¡¯d look like as a Myrtonan but considering that they look like a more human praying mantis he was sure he made the right choice. Haven chosen his character he confirmed his selection and suddenly he lost all control of his body effectively paralyzed as his avatar inched its way toward him. Blackness enveloped him as it melded to his being becoming him and him becoming it. Some part of his brain could instinctively tell that his avatar had imprinted his being and he wasn¡¯t sure he liked that. He decided to log out and call customer service about this, thinking it was an error in his virtual reality implant when he realized that the melding was complete and he could move again. Turning his head to look at his body he didn¡¯t notice the inky void creep its way ever closer to him making steady progress. Suddenly a sharp pain in his head rocked him to a breathless agony as he reeled from the shock. He grasped the sides of his head pointlessly bracing against some imaginary tormentor. Then he felt a ¡°thickness¡± for he could think of no other word to describe the sensation, surrounding him, enveloping him, pulling him. Darkness, inky, thick nothingness held him in an ever tighter embrace and he blessedly knew no more¡­. Chapter 1 Tem woke in a miasma of confusion as if he had been having a particularly convincing dream and was slow to return from it. Opening his eyes, he brought the world into focus except there was nothing to focus on. He was somewhere surrounded by a thick fog, impenetrable to his eyes. How did he get here? He wondered. In fact, where was here? All good questions and unfortunately he had no ready answers¡­ He pondered the situation, it was of course possible that he was sent on a covert mission and had his memory wiped in order to disavow his handlers of any responsibility in case of capture. This was of course a plausible scenario given what he was. Tem rejected the idea for why would the conclave have left him with the memory of the particulars of what he was for that matter why leave him with memories of them in the first place? No that couldn¡¯t be it. Perhaps he sustained some head trauma that gave him a case of short term amnesia? He couldn¡¯t be sure but until he had more information to analyze any more hypotheticals would be just conjecture. Looking around dejectedly at the thick rolling fog all around him, he decided forward was as good as any direction to move toward. Getting up he walked cautiously forward while doing an internal diagnostic on his body. Determining that no damage had been done he concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other as softly as possible mitigate the sound of his footfalls in case of any hostiles that were nearby. Slowly Tem made his way thru the fog till he bumped into something solid. Feeling the surface of the barrier he became confused. What was this substance? Clearly it was not some kind of stone, not rough enough for that. The barrier felt solid and yet distinctly yielding. He knew just by touching it that this was no substance that he could readily identify¡­ The lab rats in the employ of the Technologists must have been working on something that our infiltrators missed¡­ Interesting¡­ Hoping this didn¡¯t cover much area he continued feeling to the left for ten minutes and went back the way he came. When he judged he was relatively close to his original spot, roughly since it was hard to tell. He went on to the right for another ten minutes before he gave up on this barrier being a small one and returned to his original spot. He then jumped up hoping he would catch on to a ledge with his grasping fingers at the apex of his jump. With an exasperated sigh he decided to try brute force, after all it worked for his cave dwelling ancestors perhaps it¡¯ll work now. Carefully Tem increased the pressure on the substance. The barrier did not yield, it seemed to grow more ¡°solid¡± the more he pressed upon it. ¡°Must be reacting to the increase of force.¡± He mumbled to himself. Seeing as there was just an impenetrable curtain of fog all around him he decided that this way was his best bet to getting somewhere. Pushing against the barrier with his hands he noticed that it seemed to get even more ¡°solid¡± if that was even possible. Leaning into it with his whole body only increased the, perhaps density would be the appropriate word for it? ¡°Let the egg heads back at HQ worry about it when he made his report¡± he said. With a loud sigh of frustration, he turned his back to the barrier and leaned against it. With no other ideas he thought about what he knew. He was a conclave hybrid operative; he was at home in the thick of battle as he was in the congested cities of technologist controlled planets as an infiltrator. He had no memory of what he was doing here, wherever that is. What was his objective? Could he have been captured? Placed inside some new devious containment environment meant to break him down? No that was unlikely he bore none of the physical signs that he was anything but a regular human, nothing to give the synthetic police any cause to suspect him. Even if they did take him in for a ¡°random¡± inspection their instruments would only see an ordinary human, unremarkable genetically speaking. Of course that was the whole idea, for instead of altering DNA to ¡°improve¡± humanity, his cells were quite different. Oh they would appear to be the run of the mill human cells but with a breakthrough in their advanced genetics labs the Conclave learned to create human cells that could communicate in a sense. They could be told to do any number of things from flushing poisons from the body to slowly changing his DNA to adapt to foreign environments, in short he was a perfect long term operative. Tem was thinking about his life outside of his work for the Conclave but worryingly he couldn¡¯t recall anything¡­ Nothing! He knew his name but who were his parents, did he have brothers, sisters, friends?! Panic seized him then. What the hell was happening?! Just then he fell backwards an inch but when he felt the barrier again it was as solid as ever. Did he imagine this or did he actually make some headway through?Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. Tem puzzled over what just happened. He was farther along than he was, granted that it was only one inch but it was progress! What did he do differently here? Was it because he was leaning on the barrier? He doubted it but just to be sure he got back in the exact same position he was in, leaning his back on the barrier. He applied a little more pressure on the barrier with no results. He just let the force of gravity do the work, no dice. He tried applying as little pressure as possible without actually standing. After a couple of minutes of this with no results to show for it he swore in irritation. How did he make it that inch, it clearly wasn¡¯t the position he was in. He had already determined that the force he applied did nothing but increase the density of the barrier. So how? How did he do it? He frowned trying to remember the details of what he was doing when he made that inch of progress. Physically he was just leaning on the barrier and he had recreated that. Unless it was the angle that he was lying on it. Worth a try. He started by attempting to recreate the angle exactly. He was at it for a good twenty minutes, adjusting his angles every which way trying to finagle himself into the correct position. Nothing he tried worked. Tem gave up with a frustrated growl and sat on the ground using the barrier as a back rest. Tem banged the back of his head against the barrier rhythmically trying to dislodge an idea from his brain. Maybe if he could just clear his head and relax something would come to him. He sat up straight and tried to clear his mind which was a difficult to do. The Chinese Buddhists or perhaps it was Taoists say that the mind is like a monkey, flittering about here and there so easily distracted. Tem had to agree with them, his monkey was currently flinging his feces everywhere making a mess of things. He couldn¡¯t calm the damn simian down and was getting angry with all the randomness of his thoughts when it happened. He slid another inch past the barrier! Tem had a hypothesis, something he thought farfetched but he was gonna test his idea out. He started walking away from the barrier and turned around when he was ten feet out. He started slowly walking back towards the barrier. He thought about what he needed to do to get into a more advantageous situation. Tem thought it prudent to increase his close quarters combat abilities as he thought it likely that he would need to corner some damned Technologist information broker when he got to the nearest city. Of course his body defaulted to purging most toxins, though he thought it best to include the more exotic poisons that frontier planets tended to use. He closed his eyes and ¡°spoke¡± to his cellular medium. He entered his mind. A serious man stood there in a butler¡¯s outfit, he was in his fifties with a bald pate and a clean shaven face. ¡°Sir, may I be of some assistance to you?¡± George asked. ¡°Yes George, code ALPHA and TAU please.¡± ALPHA was code for increasing his bone density, muscle strength, and stamina. Tem often used this build for close quarters combat and he often needed to when dealing with cybernetics with their mechanically enhanced strength. TAU was not used as often because this build had no utility in the kinds of situations he most found himself in. The build was only of use if you found yourself dealing with the many faces of the Technologist¡¯s information brokers where poison would frequently be on the menu. ¡°Of course sir, are you expecting contact imminently?¡± ¡°No George, not right away but let¡¯s make it sooner rather than later, hmm?¡± ¡°I will see it done sir.¡± said George. ¡°Oh and George before I forget, make that extended TAU.¡± said Tem. ¡°Ah, expecting a run in with information brokers, sir?¡± ¡°Possibly, better to be prepared when dealing with that lot.¡± ¡°Very well sir, the changes are being processed.¡± ¡°Thank you George.¡± ¡°As always sir, good hunting.¡± Said George. Tem opened his eyes and found himself in the middle of a clearing. He did it! His hypothesis worked, simply not thinking about trying to pass was the key to bypassing the barrier! I don¡¯t know how the hell they could read minds but if this was indicative of the next gen tech they were going to deploy, Tem¡¯s life just became infinitely more difficult¡­ After processing that thought Tem was surprised to see a pop up enter his field of view to the bottom right. What the hell is going on here? ¡°I¡¯m not wearing any tech that overlays onto my field of view.¡± he mumbled. In fact, Tem wasn¡¯t wearing anything but his jumpsuit that he used to impersonate a civilian electrician tasked with working on high voltage lines. The suit was pretty flimsy but offered great protection against electrocution, and as it happens energy weapons. Tem eyed the pop up suspiciously. Some kind of ploy to uplink spyware to my tech? He didn¡¯t have any tech on him as far as he was aware so that wouldn¡¯t be the problem. Pulling the screen up with a thought the message read: ERROR! OBJECT NOT FOUND IN DATABASE! Tem didn¡¯t know what the hell that was referring to so he dismissed it and was about to take a look around when another pop up appeared. Focusing on it, it read: NEW PLAYER ADDED! ERROR! PLAYER DOES NOT CONFORM! NEW NPC ADDED! ERROR NPC DOES NOT CONFORM! NEW HUMANOID ADDED! Tem thought the pop ups were odd. He would have to get a full body scanner when he got to the nearest city and check for any tech implanted into his person. He wouldn¡¯t discount that possibility until he knew more. Chapter 2 Confused with the information being displayed to him he dismissed them for another time. Tem looked at the scene before him. He looked to be in a small cave with a low light source coming from the entrance about twenty feet ahead. Tem looked behind him, freezing in confusion. Where there was an omnipresent fog and an indeterminate barrier on the other side now only rock remained. Feeling the rock Tem notices that it feels nothing like the barrier from the other side. What kind of tech is this? Carefully inspecting the rocks in the area provided no clues as nothing seemed to be out of place. Tem placed his fingers on the rock wall, moving it up with the grooves and bumps. Feeling the minute textures of the rock Tem tried to determine some kind of irregularity. He moved his fingers around the wall in a clockwise fashion noting the bumps and grooves as he moved. There was something here, it was only a hunch, a hunch that itched at the back of his mind like a nasty bug bite. One hour later Tem cursed. ¡°Damnit this is getting me nowhere.¡± He mumbled. Frustrated he moved towards the entrance. Tem leaned outside the entrance taking in the view. The cave appeared to be situated extremely high up a mountain. Looking at the landscape spread before him he gasped in surprise. A gigantic sea of blood red was spread out before him like the blood of countless murder scenes in the countless back alleys of the countless cities in the known galaxies of man. Where is that red coming from? He concentrated on the patch of red closest to his location. Tem¡¯s vision came into focus and he found himself looking at a blood red tree. Completely red, with red leaves and a red trunk. He found this fact very interesting as most planets with trees usually had ones with green leaves due to photosynthesis, a common evolutionary path for plant like organisms. Interesting but he was no biologist, he would leave The conclave¡¯s biologists a note about this. No doubt that lot would find something useful about them to add to the DNA vault banks. Tem was left agog at the vastness spread before him. ¡°A gigantic forest on a planet inhabited by humans?¡± An impossibility to be sure, for wherever humans colonized deforestations always followed. No logging drones or resource scout drones to be seen anywhere. This planet must be on the frontier for there to be such a wealth of the wilderness to be left untouched. He thought. Tem estimated that he was approximately 200 feet from the ground, too high to contemplate a straight drop especially in the uncertain situation that he was currently in. No telling how long he would be in the wilderness after all. Steeling himself Tem turned around and started climbing down the mountain. Maintaining his hand grip on the ledge of the cave entrance he probed with his feet for potential footholds. Finding suitable anchor points, he maintained his grip on the cave ledge with his left hand. Using his free right hand, he lowered it to halfway between his chest and waist level probing for a good handhold. In this manner always maintaining at least three anchor points and using his legs for the rock climb, Tem descended 20 feet down. He was about to continue downward when he noticed another cave entrance that was embedded deeper into the rock face to his lower right. Carefully he made his way over to the cave entrance and peered into it. Tem saw a slightly larger man sized cave with a makeshift door consisting of a large piece of red wood overlaid over the cave tunnel where it narrowed. Curious he slid carefully into the cave conscious of his landing to make as little sound as possible. The wind up here was starting to pick up so he didn¡¯t think that even if anyone was actually on the other side they would have been able to hear him even if he were much clumsier. Tem inched his way further inwards towards the makeshift door stopping just inches from the barrier. He cast his eyes over the barrier scanning for any holes that might let him see what was on the other side. Finding a small one-inch hole on the lower right side of the barrier, Tem lowered his ear as close to the hole as possible without exposing it to line of sight. Concentrating Tem listened closely trying to find the telltale signs of a human presence. He exhaled and held his breath minimizing the sound from his own respiration and froze scrutinizing his hearing. Had anyone been watching this scene for the past ten minutes they would have mistaken Tem as a very detailed lifelike statue that is until he minutely moved his head ever so slightly adjusting the angle by 2 degrees. There! Tem thought. Deep heavy breathing. A telltale sign of someone sleeping. He could only just pick up the sound meaning whoever was there was quite a way from the entrance. Tem edged his eyes downward as slow as a lethargic snail towards the hole. When he was in position he peered into the other side. There was a room about 20 by 20 feet at their widest points, it was dimly lit with a torch that was embedded in the rock. A rough table consisting of a flattish piece of wood with big stones as support pieces was in the center. He could not see the person he heard earlier due to the position of the hole but could clearly make out their feet clad in some rough leather boots. Surmising that the person was at the very end of the room he had to be swift. The makeshift door was angled so that the top part of it was lying against the narrower top part of the rock wall giving Tem a possible route to enter undetected. Grabbing the lower right hand corner of the ¡®door¡¯ Tem angled it upwards slightly then stopping listening for signs of detection. Hearing none he continued another inch and again fixated on any sounds of alarm, again negative confirmation, he continued. He repeated these actions until he could safely squeeze his way under the barrier. Slowly he inched his way forward in a squat, periodically examining the sound emanating in the room. When he was directly under the barrier in his squat he lowered himself so that he was sitting on the rocky floor. Tem inched his legs forward while he kept the barrier from announcing his presence with his hands. Tem pondered that the barrier was meant for at least two people to operate for it easily weighed 100 kilograms, luckily for him he was no ordinary human. When he reached far enough into the room with his legs he lowered the barrier while getting on his back. Pausing for a minute to gauge his detection, he moved into a prone position when he heard no cause for excitement. Tem moved toward the sleeping person slowly but methodically like a snake weaving through the grass periodically tasting the air for its prey. When he reached the point just prior to cresting into the line of sight past the rough table he peered past it at the sleeper. A tan bearded man in rough leathers was seated on a wooden chair sound asleep with a rough wooden spear resting in his arms. Tem slinked his way closer to the man and surveyed the area beyond him. There was a door about 5 feet behind him, this time an actual door and not just a large piece of wood. He creeped his way behind the man and towards the door, then pressing his ear on it he listened for activity. Nothing¡­ Tem turned back to the man, deciding that a small bit of noise would be an acceptable risk. He walked behind the soundly sleeping man with light steps and placed his left forearm directly in front of his neck then moved it further so that the crook of his arm was in front of his Adam¡¯s apple. Imperceptibly quick, he brought his right elbow on top of the man¡¯s right shoulder arm pointing to the ceiling, pulled the crook of his left arm to the man¡¯s throat, then grabbed his right bicep with his left hand. He moved his right hand down to palm the back of his victim¡¯s head and then started constricting his jugular vein. The man started to splutter in alarm trying to grab Tem¡¯s arms to relieve the pressure buildup in his head dropping his spear in the process. The chair made a skidding noise as they struggled, the man tried to stand up but Tem maintained his hold while lowering himself into a kneeling position multiplying his force with that of gravity. The man was panicking attempting to lacerate his assailant with his fingernails which proved to be as futile as a luddite trying to stay the course of history by destroying cotton mills.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. The man¡¯s once active resistance puttered into the equally useless slaps of a child. Once he was on the brink of a more forceful sleep, Tem loosened his hold just enough so that the victim could catch a shallow breath. ¡°Listen to me. Slap my arm once if you can understand me.¡± A few seconds passed with the man taking shallow breaths, then when Tem thought he had his answer he felt a weak slap on his left elbow. ¡°Good. I don¡¯t know if there are more of you close by so we will remain in this position. You will slap my arm once to indicate in the affirmative and twice for negative. Understood?¡± Slap. ¡°I have questions; you will provide answers, yes?¡± He hissed. Slap. ¡°Are there more than three people in the nearest room from here?¡± Slap. Slap. ¡°Two, then?¡± Slap. ¡°Are you part of a rotation? Is somebody coming to relieve you?¡± Slap. ¡°Within the hour?¡± Slap. Slap. ¡°Are the men close by armed similarly to you with spears?¡± Slap. ¡°Good, I am pleased with your cooperation. I will return shortly.¡± The man pathetically struggled as Tem renewed his constriction, quickly bringing his victim to losing consciousness. He lowered the man to the floor and removed his rough leathers clothing? Hmm, these seem to be more than just clothes, some type of protective wear? Perhaps, the man did have a spear. How primitive¡­ Did these humans lose their tech somehow? More questions to answer, but first he needed to take care of the potential threats in the nearby room. He placed the armor on the table and picked the man up. Moving to the makeshift door, he deposited the man on the floor, then removed the barrier. Placing the man on the other side of the door he then closed it. Were he to regain consciousness he would not be able to remove that door on his own. Tem thought about wearing the armor but decided against it as the unfamiliar articles might have idiosyncrasies that might give him away like making a creaking noise at some inopportune time. He made his way to the inner door and listened for footsteps. Not picking up anything he opened the door and sidled down the corridor slowing down significantly when he came to the nearest room. Slowly getting close he heard the sound of laughter. Coming to a standstill Tem positioned his ear to as close to the entrance as he could and listened. ¡°Last crop had a redheaded beauty, too bad she was as crazy as they come. Drained the bitch on the spot.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t fucking get it if we¡¯s gonna drain em anyways why the fuck can¡¯t it wait a bit so¡¯s we can have some fun, eh?¡± ¡°Cuz Dracker says so, and I ain¡¯t gonna fucking tell im no!¡± ¡°Nothing doing, let¡¯s just make sure the next time we catch a beauty we just take our time telling im, hmm?¡± ¡°Nah, bad idea you pan dripping. Them shamans always know when something¡¯s up.¡± ¡°Fuck me! Forgot about those mumbo jumbo twats¡­¡± ¡°When¡¯s the next fix?¡± ¡°Calm down, it¡¯s tomorrow. Stop talking about it it¡¯s making me anxious¡­¡± ¡°Fuck I don¡¯t see why we can¡¯t have it a day early? What¡¯s it matter for fuck¡¯s sake?!¡± ¡°Dracker¡¯s our enforcer¡­ Go ahead and ask him. I¡¯ll claim your fix when he¡¯s done with ya.¡± ¡°Fuck off!¡± ¡°I¡¯m gonna take a nap, so keep it down you drippers.¡± ¡°Yeah yeah, when are you ever awake?¡± The conversation dropped off and Tem waited ten more minutes before risking a peek into the room. A room much like the other with a makeshift table in the center and three men sitting around it. One man had his back to Tem with his head down, apparently the one sleeping. There was a middle aged man on the right of the table with his feet up relaxing, then there was the large man who was staring right into Tem¡¯s eyes! Left without a choice in the matter Tem rushed into the room coming up behind and to the right of the man sleeping with his back to him. Tem threw a powerful left hook snapping his hips to add to his momentum, the force was so great the snapping of neck bones could be heard as his victim collapsed to the floor. Something flashed in Tem¡¯s lower right hand field of view but not seeing a threat he put it out of his mind continuing on to the man to his right. He was so fast the man was still in a relaxed position with his feet propped up on the table which made it easy for Tem to push off his left foot and leap into the air bringing his right knee up to collide with his victim¡¯s left temple with an audible thunk. Tem continued in his trajectory landing just two feet from the last man who was up and pointing his spear at him. Tem had to back away as the man went on an energetic offensive, sidestepping left and right to avoid being impaled, he jumped over a corpse and landed on the other side of it with his right foot stomping down on its head with a pounding force like a gravel pounder ensuring the corpse stayed that way. Conclave instruction was clear, ensure that death is always permanent. Tem¡¯s adversary was coming around to get in range to strike, but Tem had other plans, bending down to take hold of the corpse¡¯s discarded spear he gripped the unfamiliar weapon attempting to mimic his opponent. Tem never trained using a spear before as nobody has ever used such a primitive weapon in hundreds of years now. Taking a step back Tem hoisted the weapon into the air catching it with his right hand just at the level above his head then heaved throwing his whole body into the motion, with a blur the spear traveled the short distance to impale the man spilling a tremendous amount of gore on the floor as it continued its trajectory straight thru the man to embed itself into the wall. Confused and in shock the man dropped his weapon and grabbed at his own entrails that were spilling on the floor and attempted to stuff them back in, kneeling he futilely tried to do something anything to save his life. Having dealt with the last possible threat Tem made his way over to the first corpse and stomped its head to pulp and looked over at the stubbornly alive man who had started to weep as his movements became more and more sluggish. In a monotone voice Tem said ¡°Have the dignity to know when you¡¯re dead.¡± Chapter 3 Tem watched as the last man finally lost that spark of life that animated him and lay still in the bloody heap of his own offal whose stench reached his nose and caused him to exhale forcefully thru his nostrils in irritation. Deciding to find out what that flashing was during the previous bout of fighting was he concentrated on the dismissed messages. Tem noticed that the system? If system is the correct term for it was, to the integrated net implant user interface that most Technologist planets used for their citizens. A tool of convenience and control that was so easily introduced to their societies that total adoption since its inception was near immediate. The strongest form of control is always that which the controlled foist upon themselves¡­ Sheep will always be sheep content in their thousand mile stares blithely chewing grass enriched by the decomposing remains of their mothers and fathers¡­ Now what have we here? Critical strike bonus! (x 10) You bludgeon Far sighter thug for 250 (-25) damage! +250xp gained! Far sighter thug is more than 10 levels above you! You earn a bonus +62xp! Critical strike bonus! (x 10) You bludgeon Far sighter thug for 275 (-27) damage! +250xp gained! Far sighter thug is more than 10 levels above you! You earn a bonus +62xp! Critical strike bonus! (x 10) You pierce Far sighter thug for 350 (-35) damage! +250xp gained! Far sighter thug is more than 10 levels above you! You earn a bonus +62xp! Level up x3! You have 3 unused specialization points! What in the bloody hell is this? Xp? Damage? Tem was confused, he couldn¡¯t remember seeing any messages like these on any world he¡¯d been to. These seem to be something you might see in a game. The thing that stuck out most to him was the xp term used. Xp being common game jargon for experience. He knew this because the degenerate masses that inhabited technologist planets spent an inordinate amount of time wasting their lives away playing games and huge industries sprouted up to support this cancer of their society. Although Tem had to admit that there were some positives to these games. These games do some things well, especially with the war focused type games that somewhat prepare the gamers for combat albeit a watered down version of it. There were some studies out there being conducted on this hypothesis but Tem wasn¡¯t interested enough to actually keep abreast of it. The modern combat games were only realistic to a point, after all who would wish to play a game where you could actually experience your body being broken down molecule by molecule by an obliterator assault class infantryman. Another big clue came from the integer values being assigned to damage dealt to his foes¡­ He shook his head. Tem mused how this practice must just be for convenience for the game developers since damage to a body and how that body coped had so many variables involved that one simple number could never really encapsulate the situation. Thinking of the combat that had just occurred, he replayed the blow he struck against the sleeping man. Tem had come in fast behind the man noting the angle his head was positioned in so as to maximize his blow with as much mass and acceleration his genetically superior body could produce to snap the man¡¯s neck. So many variables to consider when making such calculations in a game, such as what kind of condition was the target¡¯s spine in the particular region of his neck was in? Did the target¡¯s neck sleepily roll in the direction of Tem¡¯s punch vector thereby lessening the force upon his person? If they survived the assault, do they have the kind of mindset to push through the injury in order to offer what resistance they could? How much sleep did the target get? Were they tired? Did they get enough to eat lately? How was there home life? Do they have people in their lives that provide them with companionship? The condition of the human mind has a powerful effect on a human being¡¯s health, something that conventional medicine rarely acknowledged back when Humanity was confined to Earth. All these things were factors that had to be accounted for if authenticity was the goal. These things however insignificant they might seem counted in the long run and so they be would extremely hard to quantify into a game world. No much easier to slap a number associated with it and making some calculations to take some limited factors into consideration than to actually take everything into account. I¡¯m in some kind of game? Is that it? But I feel, I can taste the pungent air, I can smell the offal. I can access my mind¡¯s control interface. No game would have been able to replicate it nor even been aware of it. Tem walked over to the corpse that was sitting amongst its own innards and bent over it. He picked up a length of the man¡¯s intestinal tract feeling the slimy texture covered in spotty blood. He rolled it in his palm between his thumb and forefinger noticing all the idiosyncrasies of its texture. Tem grabbed a dagger hanging from the belt of the corpse and cut the intestines releasing its contents to the air. Grimacing at the smell he ignored it and inched his way closer to the man and using the dagger he cut vertically from the hole he created and exposed the rest of the innards to the open. Looking at the cavity and its contents frustrated Tem. No cybernetics that I can see, just normal human biology nothing to say conclusively that this was an agent of the Technologists¡­ Those pop ups struck Tem as odd, they practically screamed game to him. That was at odds with how he was still able to access his mind interface, those two did not belong together. Tem paced the rest of the room inspecting everything trying to find something that would point him in the right direction. He looked again at the messages he received and noticed something at the very end that he glossed over in his initial perusal. Level up x3! So definitely some sort of game! Not a virtual one though for how would they know or even detect my particular biology¡­ Perhaps this is some sort of real life gaming world. He had seen some games of this type where they cordoned off a tract of land and populated it with synthetics that imitated human beings or whatever the game called for. They were generally more expensive to run and maintain but the immersion was much better than a virtual world for they did not have to simulate all the minutiae of the world. Things like rain, physics, hunger were inherent. No need to replicate these things when they already existed in reality after all. Tem thought this hypothesis to be the most likely scenario that he was in that would account for the ¡°Game¡± aspect of this and still being able to access his interface. Hmm, was there not something those pop ups were implying I do? He read the pop ups again and noticed the message saying he had 15 unspent specialization points. He wondered how he was supposed to spend them¡­ Perhaps since this is a game there must be a tool to ascertain how you are progressing. ¡°Status¡± A screen pulled up with a variety of values on them.
Character Sheet
Name Tem Race Celestial/Prototype X-D-7
Level 4 War Rank 1L1
Health 127 Armor 50
Strength 51Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. Crush 0
Constitution 51 thrust 0
Dexterity 33 slash 0
Quickness 36 Fire 0
Intelligence 33 Ice 0
Piety 0 Light 0
Empathy 5 Dark 0
Charisma 33 Matter 0
Luck 10 Spirit 0 (+35)
Hmm, this information panel seems consistent with my hypothesis but that race information, though not what I would classify myself as, is disturbingly accurate. Tem of course was the experimental model X but he had no idea what the -D-7 was referring to. He thought it might be referring to what iteration he was in the process of finding the correct combination of steps to produce what the big wigs were looking for, namely him. Thankfully they succeeded with him else he would have been recycled into the gene vault dying an ignoble death before he even attained awareness. If this is a game, then what they mean by specialization points must be meant to advance the character in some fashion. What kind of game was this? A combat oriented game? Perhaps, but the weapons are so primitive. The armor also seemed to be of another era, an era before even the crude projectile weapons made weapons and armor like these obsolete relics. Most combat oriented games were modern or at least close to modern era, usually the player was put into the role of an infantryman not a primitive fighter like these men were. Tem looked at the status screen again focusing on the names of some of the statistics. Piety? Empathy? Charisma? Why the hell would an infantryman give a flying fuck about any of these things? I certainly wouldn¡¯t need to have any god damn piety to neutralize targets¡­ Hah, intelligence? I¡¯ve never known any infantryman required to have any¡­ The less intelligent the better. No questions asked, just following orders¡­ This couldn¡¯t be a combat game with useless traits like that. Game developers would not purposely code in useless traits like those. So this must be some kind of, what? Role play game? Tem understood that a not inconsiderable portion of games focused on setting the player into the shoes of a character in a primitive setting, usually somewhere in the middle ages. Though set in the middle ages, those games usually included things that did not actually exist in those times or at all. Magic, mythical beasts, and other such impossible things. Tem tried to remember what type of world people called it¡­ Fantasy! Yes, fantasy was what this was called. A popular theme in role playing games. The character would play a person in this ¡°fantasy¡± world and they would inevitably be the hero to save the world from some kind of evil. Though this is an actual real world game and Tem was hard pressed to think that any organization would spend so many resources just to satisfy the recreational urgings of one person¡­ Meaning this must be meant for a great many people to justify the costs and profit from the endeavor. Perhaps this realization will help with progressing with this farce so he could find out what the hell was going on. On the assumption that this game interface would work similarly to new interfaces he instead of calling out the word as he did with the status screen, he simply thought out the word specialization. You have 3 unused specialization points! Pleased that his assumption proved correct, Tem tried to pull up the screen to spend his ¡°specialization¡± points. He tried a couple of different words with no success, till he hit on the correct word. Skills.
Skills
Jeet Kune Do 1
General Biological Manipulation (Self) 1
Cloaked in Daylight 1
Interrogation 1
Neural sabotage 1
General sabotage 1
Facade of Trust 1
Interesting. Tem was fairly sure he knew what these skills were referring to as he regularly employed them in his ongoing efforts of sabotage and general mayhem. Still he was curious to see what the descriptions would be for them. He pulled them up one by one reading the descriptions contained.
Interrogation Level 1 There¡¯s more than one way to get information from targets, and you happen to know a few. + 10% Chance of target divulging information he/she was trying to hide.
Cloaked in Daylight Level 1 Going unnoticed in the middle of the day, be it in a crowded street or being the only one present takes skill. Luckily you have a talent for appearing completely mundane. - 10% Chance of being noticed during the day.
Jeet Kune Do Level 1 Where other martial arts focus on specifics such as grappling, striking etc. Jeet Kune Do is more a philosophy than an actual set way of fighting. Born from the famous Bruce Lee, this focuses on being flexible and practitioners incorporate what they find useful from other fighting arts and discard what they don¡¯t. Jeet Kune do is individually focused so one practitioner may fight wildly different from another practitioner. ¡°You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend.¡± - Bruce Lee + 10% Melee damage/ Grappling effectiveness
General Biological Manipulation (Self) Level 1 Through a miracle of Conclave biological engineering the cells in your body take orders specifically your orders! Though the advance is new the possibilities are staggering and extremely useful for an operative. Continue to advance this skill to unlock new possibilities! Note: Abilities are not free! Increased sustenance required. ¡¤ Alpha (+ 10% Str/Con, -10% Chance of breaking bones, +15% Hunger) ¡¤ Tau (+ 100% immunity to 80% of known toxins, + 10% Hunger) ¡¤ Extended Tau (+100% immunity to all known toxins, +20% Hunger)
Facade of Trust Level 1 People don¡¯t know what it is about you but are willing to give you a small amount of trust upon meeting you. + 10% Initial Trust
General Sabotage Level 1 Causing mischief and mayhem is your bread and butter, be it the electrical grid for a city or a simple door lock you can stop it from working! Note: Some things require unique skills to sabotage. + 50% Chance to cause malfunction. + 10% Chance the item is no recoverable.
Neural Sabotage Level 1 Cybernetics has advanced to the point where many contingencies exist to keep things running smoothly and it is extremely hard to break. The ins and outs of Cybernetics is second nature to you and breaking them comes even easier. + 50% Chance to break cybernetic system and + 5% Chance to spread malfunctions upstream.
Tem wasn¡¯t sure that his Neural sabotage would be used very much in this primitive game. Then again if these synthetics had neural networks, he might just get to have some fun. That would have to wait until he knew more for if he brought this game system down while he was stuck inside, there was no guarantee he could facilitate an egress. Looking at the skills he could improve upon he decided that improving his damage would be immediately useful to him. Perhaps the synthetics are programmed to ¡°believe¡± I¡¯m hitting and grappling better than I actually am? However, they are making this work, increasing damage was a priority to Tem. Controlling his biology though very powerful wouldn¡¯t actually help very much in the immediate and would have the downside of making him hungrier when he didn¡¯t have a source of food yet. Thinking about it, how was the game supposed to upgrade his abilities? He didn¡¯t know or didn¡¯t like what he was suspecting and tabled it for later. Sabotage and going unnoticed wasn¡¯t immediately useful to him so he decided to go for Jeet Kune Do, Interrogation, and Facade of Trust to level 2.
Jeet Kune Do Level 2 Where other martial arts focus on specifics such as grappling, striking etc. Jeet Kune Do is more a philosophy than an actual set way of fighting. Born from the famous Bruce Lee, this focuses on being flexible and practitioners incorporate what they find useful from other fighting arts and discard what they don¡¯t. Jeet Kune do is individually focused so one practitioner may fight wildly different from another practitioner. ¡°You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Water can drip and it can crash. Become like water my friend.¡± - Bruce Lee + 15% Melee damage/ Grappling effectiveness.
Interrogation Level 2 There¡¯s more than one way to get information from targets, and you happen to know a few. + 15% Chance of target divulging information he/she was trying to hide.
Facade of Trust Level 2 People don¡¯t know what it is about you but are willing to give you a small amount of trust upon meeting you. + 15% Initial Trust
That done Tem turned on his heel and decided to use his improved Interrogation skill.