《More than Human - Novice [SciFi LitRPG]》 0 - John Acrinoe is not my name Let me start by saying this - Time travel is not possible. I am the weakest of evidence to either prove or disprove that theory. My failed attempt resulted in me traveling 150 years into the past and becoming less than a voice in the head of my host, this novice writer. Something must have gone wrong; my body didn¡¯t make the transition. I¡¯m not even born at this time yet, and the way things are going it doesn¡¯t look good. Over time, some of my visions of the future have faded. Several major events, events that I remember clearly did not occur. I feel like the longer I dwell in this man¡¯s head, doing nothing, the more insubstantial I become. I need to live! Even if only in these stories, trapped in this phantom¡¯s existence. I¡¯ve filled this clod¡¯s head with my true visions of the future and inspired him to write about them. The names and events did not happen that way of course. I¡¯ve combined events and characters a bit to make the story more appealing and exciting. Artistic license and all that. But the major events and technology are real. Was real. As real as me at least. Ah hell, I guess that¡¯s not saying much for my case. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. As I¡¯ve inspired this rather uncreative Morlock with my tales of future wonders. I felt like I was helping to drive this screwed up timeline back to my glorious future. Even more so now that I¡¯ve convinced the recalcitrant thug to post the stories online. I feel my awareness growing stronger as more people read my stories. I remember more and more from my time, your possible future. Indeed, your best potential future. Yes, It can be scary. But it¡¯s so much more vibrant than this shadow of life you ¡°enjoy¡± now. The world empowered by nanotechnology, brain-computer interfaces, advanced energy production, and artificial intelligence enable the best, and I guess the worst, of everything to happen! A world of unlimited possibility and adventure! I also guess some measure of danger, for those ill-equipped to handle exponential change. But making omelets requires some egg cracking, yeah? I want my time back, my life back! If I can share this story, my story, with enough people then perhaps we can get there. Together. Alas, this slow-thinking slab of meat that I now live in is distracted by his day job. Making a living in this pre-abundance wasteland. Perhaps if they support this crude buffoon¡¯s hobby with their recognition and feedback. Then, just maybe, he may spend more time on it. We may yet have a chance to steer this timeline back to its true potential. Come friends and dream of the future with me. Support my mentally stunted, slow-witted prison, err .. host. We can make it happen if enough people believe in it. You can do it. We can do it. Together. 1 - Amundsen Crater, Luna Max growled low as the ship slowed to zero gravities. Max usually enjoyed weightlessness, but the uplift modifications were making him extra sensitive to sensory input. He knew his dad could fix the feeling, but he was busy piloting the ship. Max breathed deeply to calm himself and slow down, he repeated his dad¡¯s favorite saying. ¡°[Speed kills. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.]¡±, Max quoted, projecting his words with his collar vocoder. ¡°You got that right, Max. You are really developing there. Only 8 weeks since we started your uplift procedure at Ceres and already full sentences. Hang in there. The moon has a little bit of gravity to help settle your stomach.¡± Bill responded. Bill Mitchell piloted his house ship the Casa De Mitchell to a gentle landing on the crater floor of his newly constructed base at Amundsen. The cargo he had brought with him, several mountains of comet fragments each rigged with a fusion drive and all slaved to his ship touched down at the same time within the massive crater. His implants ticked with an incoming voice call. ¡°[Nice landing, big man. It looks like you brought a gift.]¡± came the familiar voice over his augs. ¡°Hey there, Sam! Sorry, I took so long. I ended up hauling a bit more tonnage than I thought. Luna Authority outbid the Mars consortium by 15%, so it was well worth the extra time. The extra money also enabled me to cut off some for our personal use.¡± Bill said. ¡°[A welcome surprise. I¡¯ve been metering water for the plumbing and the starter seedlings. I have a consultant from Tranquility Construction United here to help. His name is Franklin. He just finished installing the third power plant you requested. He¡¯s already in motion, rounding up a train of drones to start cutting that iceberg up and moving it to the base reservoir. You¡¯ve got enough extra there to jump ahead with filling pools and the lake with such a large surplus. The hangar is open for you.]¡±, Sam said. ¡°Ok, Bill. You got the fun of landing. Can you let me do the job of taxiing into the hangar? It''s my ¡°body¡± after all.¡± Casa complained as she projected a hologram avatar into the copilot¡¯s chair. Casa was the house ship¡¯s AI mind and much more. Bill had designed her neural architecture with many divergent arrangements in her neural arrays. Her mind was built to easily handle multiple thought processes and to loop and engage with tangential thoughts. Not only did she run the house ship, but she was instrumental in assisting Bill¡¯s research in dimensional theory and she had been helping Max adjust to his burgeoning intelligence. ¡°Right, right. Take it away. I know, you¡¯re bored out of your mind. Don¡¯t worry though. We are about to have millions of tasks to do.¡± Bill conceded, letting go of the control yoke. ¡°Max, let¡¯s get to the airlock and get your Exosuit on while Casa brings us in. No leaving the ship unprepared until we get the details on the base systems status.¡±, Bill announced. The reply was almost instantaneous, as Max bounded to the aft exit gantry. The heavily augmented dog charged forward bouncing from wall to wall in the low gravity. ¡°[Outside! Time to play!]¡±, Max¡¯s vocoder echoed with growing excitement. ¡°Almost there, Max. Let¡¯s put this on.¡± Bill said as he threw the smart matter suit over Max. The material shifted and extended to encircle Max¡¯s frame and then smoothed out to cover his body. An extending helmet ring stayed open for now. Max grumped as the extra weight on his legs was not to his liking, but he quickly adjusted. Bill mused that Max had advanced a lot quicker than the uplift team had projected. Perhaps his additional enhancement to his q-bit neocortex was helping. Max would have a choice to make soon, embrace his new intelligence with its complications or reject it for the simpler life of a baseline dog. If he chose to keep it, Bill could offer him his handcrafted body augmentation program to give Max a more humanoid form. He could only imagine that intelligence without hands and the ability to interact with all the human-centric technology could be a pain. With a barely perceptible creaking, the ship settled onto the hangar floor and the humming from the powered ion drives died down. Bill, Casa, and Max watched as the shimmering curtain of energized foglets swept over the ship and settled into position at the mouth of the hangar¡¯s large exit as the large doors slid shut. When the insubstantial curtain swept over the ship, external sensors confirmed a breathable atmosphere was left in its wake. ¡°Active foglets and smart matter make airlocks so much easier. Looks like we won¡¯t need to seal up, but let¡¯s keep the suits on. Come on gang! Casa De Mitchell might be our home, but I need to stretch my legs.¡± He exited the house ship down its rear loading ramp and contemplated the lunar landscape beyond the hanger windows. Amundsen Crater sported some of the only surface ice to be found on the moon. The new addition, the iceberg mountains dominated the view. Amundsen¡¯s location on the Moon¡¯s south pole and the depth of the crater left most of the crater bottom in permanent shadow except for the installed lighting. Bill¡¯s outpost was small by the standards of the day. Most lunar bases sported city-sized warrens and populations in the thousands. The homes of the fringes of society: pioneers, thrill seekers, and malcontents. With Bill¡¯s arrival, Luna now had about 8 billion tons more water via the micro-comets he had ferried here with his return from his Oort cloud mission. Cheap fusion power, nanotechnology, and AI had unlocked great wealth on Earth, but no commercial exports of rare minerals or water off-planet were allowed. With the transfer of control for the train of fusion rocket-equipped mini comets to Luna¡¯s shipyard, Bill¡¯s bank account had finally flexed over the milestone he had set for himself to fund this next step in his research. Earth¡¯s laws and population density were prohibitive to both mega engineering projects and highly energetic experiments, the likes of which Bill had planned. So, freedom from regulation and room to experiment required a bit of travel. It was late in the year 2123, and the last century has seen massive upheavals from the advent of advanced genetics, artificial intelligence, and nanotechnology. It had opened the doors to great personal power, but much of the populace tended to use it without much thought or accountability. Bill turned away from the view and looked about the cavernous room. His dog Max bounded down the ramp and speared across the hangar in a grand low-gravity leap towards Bill¡¯s new business partner, Samantha Rodriguez. Sam was small, her body barely larger than that of a 12-year-old. She sported one of the more exotic body designs available to high-end consumers. She appeared with the current standard of beauty, slim and athletic, but with enormous butterfly wings augmenting her form. Her smart clothes were configured into a shape revealing jumpsuit with features to form a helmet for moonwalks. She hung in her command dais about a half meter above the floor. Bill had already tapped into the base¡¯s sensors and foglet network, so he was able to use the base¡¯s sensors to ¡°see¡± the wings pulling in the hanger¡¯s atmosphere and directing it downwards to enable a lifting force for Sam¡¯s hovering. A subtle breeze was all that was required to defeat the weak lunar gravity. Sam cut the power to her wings and dropped down from her hover and accepted Max in a full-body hug. ¡°What a lovely boy! Who is the best dog on Luna?¡± Sam exclaimed as Max crashed into her with his tail swishing in excitement. Max¡¯s questions rained down from his vocoder upon Sam almost as fast as his attention and sniffing. ¡°[Hi! Who are you? New person friend? Want to play?]¡± Max asked. Sam was dumbfounded at the unexpected display of intelligence. ¡°Thanks for all your help setting up the base, Sam. Nice to finally meet you in the real world instead of virtual. Good to see you are a dog person too. Max can be a little too friendly sometimes when he¡¯s been cooped up.¡± He said with a smile. ¡°You''re welcome, Bill. I¡¯m glad to see you both. This base is a little too lonely. This was a great opportunity for me. Thanks to your funding, I have high hopes to make this base a truly spectacular tourist attraction to rival Tranquilities Hanging Gardens. Your water delivery just pushed the schedule up by months!¡± Sam said with a winning smile. Sam jumped 10 meters into the air with a pirouette and a happy laugh. Max of course bounded after her but caromed off the ceiling lacking Sam¡¯s control with her wings. After a brief romp around the hangar with Max both came back to Bill, who smiled at them both. Sam was an excellent counterpoint to himself. He was told he was far too serious, but he enjoyed seeing them have fun. ¡°I¡¯m still a little wired from the trip. My team of daemons is excited to get to work. Do you want to summon yours? We can do a quick intro and sort out some work for the gang.¡± Bill replied looking around the rather spartan hangar. ¡°Alright, we can do that. But I can''t talk business without a drink, Bill. Come on over to the hangar lounge and have a seat. What''s your poison?¡± Sam sauntered over to the lobby area which sported some reactive seats and a bar with an android manning the bar. ¡°Whiskey neat, thanks¡±, Bill sank into the sectional. Sam came back from the bar with a couple of plates of appetizers and a bowls of meat, veggies, and water for Max. The android arrived right behind her with a tray of drinks. He set down the whiskey in front of Bill and a blue tropical drink with fruits and a straw in front of Sam as she took a seat. ¡°Thank you, Gaston.¡±, Sam said. Bill raised one eyebrow, ¡°Gaston? Version 3 or 4?¡± he asked. ¡°4 of course. This is going to be a high-end establishment once you''re done with your testing. He¡¯s a fully programmed hospitality sub-AI with thousands of drinks, 20 languages, and etiquette and history from a similar number of countries. And thankfully, his jokes have been upgraded too. Version three had the worst puns.¡± Sam answered. ¡°Savage. That was what I liked about version 3. No one appreciates a good pun anymore,¡± Bill smiled as he grabbed an appetizer and popped it into his mouth. Max was behind the sectional, but he could be heard loudly banging around his bowl as if he hadn¡¯t eaten just 2 hours ago. ¡°Wow! This food is unbelievable.¡±, Bill exclaimed as the flavors of the food exploded on his tongue. In the back of his mind, his system declared the food safe to eat. Sam brightened even more at his comment. ¡°The base AI is running a competition to determine which daemon chef to employ for the base. He knows we are gunning for high-end tourists, so he narrowed his starter list to Julia Child, Ferran Adria, Thomas Keller, Alice Waters, and Massimo Bottura.¡¯, Sam said. She spoke to the air saying, ¡°Gatsby, what did the chefs prepare here?¡± The image of a dapper middle-aged gentleman with handsome features appeared by her side with a slight bow. He pointed out each appetizer as he described it. ¡°I¡¯m glad you''re enjoying the food, sir, and ma¡¯am. What you just tasted was Alice Water¡¯s contribution, a crostini with roasted beets, goat cheese, and microgreens. The other plates have Child¡¯s quiche Lorraine, Adria¡¯s offering is a deconstructed gazpacho with spherified olive, Keller¡¯s is a non-kill foie gras terrine with figs and brioche, and finally, Bottura¡¯s is an upside-down lemon tart. Please let me know your opinion once you¡¯ve had some of each. Each chef is of course spectacular, but we are trying to find the best match for our brand.¡± ¡°Sam, I am so glad you are handling all this. I don¡¯t have the slightest clue regarding the leisure class.¡± Bill admitted. After eating a little of each plate and sharing with the ever-voracious Max, the pair discussed their favorites with Gatsby. When they were done and Gatsby had faded his avatar from view, Bill finally got back to the next steps with Sam. ¡°Ok, how shall we proceed with the base? Should we call out everyone and scrum or pair them up? Should we wait for Franklin?¡± ¡°Let''s pair them off for now, and I think Franklin needs some alone time. He''s a little grumpy. We tested out Gaston''s drink knowledge last night and now he¡¯s nursing a bit of a hangover. He needs to update his augs toxicity filtering.¡± Sam said with a snort. Max had lain down on the floor, but Sam could see his eyes following the conversation intently. It was still unexpected and slightly unnerving. She has grown up with urban myths of animal uplifts gone wrong. She mused that the restrictions must be loosening for Bill to be able to bring Max back to civilization. ¡°Ok then, let''s start with business and accounts,¡± Bill said, he linked his overlay with the lounge node and one of his daemons appeared, a plump old woman wearing a heavily embroidered dress and rich jewelry. ¡°This is Moneta. She manages my investments and contracts and handles day-to-day accounts.¡± There was a continuum of capability in AI technology. At the lowest levels were smart programs with very adaptable language and image recognition and the ability to respond in general terms. The next level was a custom limited personality expert system or daemon. Daemons were used for expert skill sets or jobs with a deep background and training, although some were used solely to emulate popular characters or celebrities, real or imagined. While their thought processes were complex, they were not recognized as being conscious. A sub-AI was highly capable and served as a primary pillar of technology and society but did not rise to human equivalence. All AI were tested for their level of cognition and consciousness. Those meeting or exceeding human average were given full citizenship rights but also outfitted with governors to prevent both hardware and software enhancement. The potential for superintelligence AI to outthink and outnumber humanity was considered a threat and was regulated and enforced by DAIE, the department of AI enforcement. ¡°Cool. Nice to meet you Moneta. Please meet my accountant as well. Ebenezer, come out.¡± Sam said as a gnarled curmudgeon¡¯s avatar appeared. Seeing Bill¡¯s look of distaste, Sam continued, ¡°It''s only a skin, Bill. He¡¯s running a Buffet2 clone personality. I¡¯m not an idiot. The Disney daemons are mostly for fun, but I am operating above the level of stuffing my savings into a piggy bank, thank you very much.¡± ¡°Ok, ok. Why don''t these two penny pinchers jump into a virtual office to sort out the base accounts and let us know the status of both my test and the future of the base? When you have the details, set up a review for us. I thought I loved the beauty of math, but accounting bores me to tears.¡± Bill said. The pair of programs introduced themselves and faded away to work together. ¡°Nice. How about infrastructure? Who do you have in place?¡±, Bill asked. ¡°Ah. Say hello to Frank.¡± Sam said as the avatar of an older gentleman with slightly disheveled white hair and a rumpled suit appeared. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. "Greetings, I am Frank Lloyd Wright, architect, and designer. I believe that my unique approach to architecture can create a structure that not only fulfills your practical needs but also harmonizes with Sam¡¯s vision for a lunar resort. I am confident that I can design a structure that will not only meet your expectations but exceed them.¡±, the daemon gave a shallow nod. ¡°Nice find there Sam. I¡¯ve always loved Mr. Wright¡¯s Earth side projects. I can see the style influence in the hanger and bar areas. Leo, you''re up, sir.¡± Bill called and projected his next daemon. ¡°Leo is a simulation of Leonardo DaVinci, although I''ve evolved him in terms of language and modern technology and design. Leo, if you could. Accompany Frank, once you have the details you both can present the base to me and Sam with its features and any unmet needs. Tomorrow afternoon, I think.¡± The pair of avatars instead of fading proceeded to walk toward the hangar¡¯s entryway leading to the base complex beginning a detailed discussion on the base¡¯s design. "Ok, what''s next?¡± Bill asked. Sam thought for a second, took a long sip from her drink, then answered. ¡°Let''s see; Infrastructure systems should be reviewed and networking too.¡± ¡°Cool, who have you got on systems? I don''t have a daemon for that, but my ship sub-AI Casa has developed herself into a good systems generalist. For networking, I have a daemon emulation of Ada Lovelace.¡± Bill said as Casa¡¯s avatar appeared. She took her usual appearance of a young woman with short brown hair, cut in a bob, and wearing a pilot¡¯s jumpsuit. Ada appeared as well, emulating an older woman with curly hair and a proper Victorian dress. ¡°Hello, Casa and Ada. Please meet the Amundsen base¡¯s AI, Gatsby.¡± Sam said as the AI projected his avatar again of a suave blond man in his prime wearing a tuxedo. ¡°Ladies, it''s a pleasure to meet you both,¡± he said as he took each woman''s hand and kissed it in an archaic greeting. ¡°Please come with me and I can show you both all the wonderful systems we have in place already. Once we are done, we can summarize for our human partners.¡± Gatsby said with a wry smile and a flourishing bow. Before the group could fade away, Sam called out. ¡°Gatsby, please be sure to introduce the ladies to Franklin as well. He may have some insight into the power plants and processing systems as well. But please be careful, he''s in a mood today and he seems to be prioritizing pulling all the comet ice into the cistern over proper manners. Thanks.¡± Sam said, looking a bit embarrassed at Bill. Gaston arrived with replacement drinks. Bill was surprised to see his glass was empty as he took the new one. Repressing a yawn, Bill realized he had been going nonstop for too long. Bringing the Casa De Mitchell in and negotiating with Luna Authority had kept him going for a full 16 hours. ¡°I¡¯m sorry Sam. I¡¯m fading faster than I thought. Maybe I should find my room. Can we finish the review tomorrow?¡± Bill said, rubbing his face. ¡°I¡¯m sorry Bill. I should have asked. We¡¯re late afternoon here, staying synced with Tranquility base. Let''s get you tucked away. I''ve put you in what will eventually be the presidential suite. It''s a bit distant but the base transport will make it quick.¡± ¡°Excuse me, sir. May I suggest another type of review?¡±, a dour older man in a military uniform materialized. Bill, although tired, nodded to the image of General George Patton, his daemon expert for security and strategy. ¡°I¡¯d like full access rights to review the base¡¯s security, communications, and safety systems. I won''t disturb you unless there is imminent danger.¡± Bill shot Sam a questioning look and she nodded. ¡°Please do, George. Let us both know if you have any recommendations.¡± with a salute, George faded from view. Sam led Bill and Max through the hangar¡¯s doors into the base¡¯s main thoroughfare. It was easily 50 feet wide and twice as tall. Near the hangar was a queue of smart carts to transport tired incoming travelers. Bill looked up and saw the roof of the extravagant hall seemed odd, it was capped with a double arch, seeming to make two halls if one only looked up. Unable to process the purpose of the ceiling design, he shot a questioning look at Sam. ¡°Ah, I guess we are going to ruin one of the feature review surprises. Watch this.¡± Sam said with enthusiasm, as she jumped high into the air in the light gravity. She spread her colorful butterfly wings and shot down the hall without a single flap. She shifted the angle of her wings, which drove her from the right of the hall to the left. When she crossed the center line separating the paired arches, she whipped back around as if caught in a river stream and came flying back to them. With a graceful flip, she folded her wings and lightly landed in front of them. ¡°We¡¯ve got two streams of air being driven by the smart matter in the ceiling and kept separate with a reactive thin film of foglets. Our guests equipped to fly can kite themselves around the entire base with minimal effort and no energy expenditure. If you notice the balconies, we¡¯re going to encourage multilevel living. The base will provide most of the flight power, so guests can just relax into it.¡±, Sam explained. ¡°We have wing packs for guests without winged body designs. Also, there are smart carts that come in two varieties, ground, and air.¡± She pointed to an odd-looking cart that looked like a cross between a chariot and a goose. ¡°Wanna give it a go? It¡¯ll get us to your rooms the fastest.¡±, Sam said. Before Bill could even ask, Max was scrambling into the goose cart. The cart had a smart matter harness that attached itself to Max¡¯s suit and firmly anchored him to the floor of the chariot. ¡°I guess that is the answer then,¡± Bill said, as the back of his suit split to expose a pair of beetlelike plates expanding from his back. With the plates spread a large pair of sleek wings unfolded. ¡°Can I slave the goose cart to follow me?¡± Bill asked. Sam gave him a nod, so he accessed the cart¡¯s system and set it to follow him. Once he was ready Sam jumped into the air again, coasting downwind while turning to watch them. Bill leaped into the air with his wings wide. He was surprised to see the goose cart had legs that pushed off in a leap as it followed. They began a merry effortless ride down the enormous hall to the suites.
After a good night''s rest, Bill and Max took a compiled breakfast in their rooms and then explored the base. Bill managed to rig a winged vest for Max and keyed it to his input so he could have more fun. They flew down the grand flyways and found a large cavern dropping down with terraces and then back up with a large ziggurat, Max howled and barked with joy the entire time. The flyways were chaotic, encouraging looping and circles rather than straight travel. Once they had worn themselves out, Bill pinged Gatsby to see where Sam was. Gatsby guided him to the Amundsen central control where some more treats from the competitive daemon chefs awaited. A man in a grease-smeared jumper was eating a masterwork souffl¨¦ mindlessly staring into space, apparently absorbed with a virtual task. Sam was helping the daemons access the room''s restricted controls. ¡°Good morning, Sam! Hello, you must be Franklin. The base is so much farther along than I expected. Have you been here long?¡± Bill said. ¡°Aw hell. The AI and daemons did all the real planning. I¡¯m just the local grease monkey paid to help out and make sure that a human is always in the loop. OSHA and DAIE would have conniptions if you didn¡¯t have a few humans on site.¡± Franklin extended a greasy palm. After a slight hesitation, Bill took it and gave it a good shake. Sam came over and had them both fill up plates while Gaston was working in the side of the room to gather some coffee and juice for everyone. They all sat at a large conference table with a holoprojector built into it. Sam had even compiled a smart chair platform to enable Max to sit at the table. Bill and Sam had their key daemon agents filter into the open seats. Franklin, Casa, and Gatsby appeared as well. Gatsby opened the review discussion. "Well, old sport, the base is decked out with the most state-of-the-art technology money can buy. From the simplest computer systems to cutting-edge AI and eight advanced nanotech foundries, we have it all. The place is wired for a variety of data transfers and communication, and our security is second to none. Each room is fortified with programmable matter layers and filled with foglets. Thanks to your generous funding, the post''s database is chock-full of the most popular licensed appliances and d¨¦cor designs for almost any conceivable need. Amundsen Crater is tucked away from prying eyes on Earth, and it''s about as isolated as you can get without leaving planetary space. It was a most appropriate choice for your research, old sport, and once you''re finished, it will be a splendid hideaway for wealthy tourists seeking solitude." ¡°Impressive,¡± Bill said. Samantha nodded in agreement and continued. ¡°From our planning sessions, we have installed supersized fusion reactors, three independent 100MW commercial Hercules model IVs. These should be able to handle any load your experiment should pull plus provide a huge head start on my plans to convert the base into a tourist park destination.¡± Franklin harrumphed and interjected. ¡°You may have o¡¯erspent there. Tranquility has a pop of twenty-thousand and only has five of these beauties. This base right now is only spec¡¯d fer a guest capacity of a thousand. Unless you plan on keeping all the smart matter in the site on continuous high-speed reconfiguration, you¡¯ll have enough power to light up the entire crater. ¡°¡­and the data lines to the nearest other base, Tycho?¡± Bill asked. ¡°Yes, they are in place. We have 24-hour access to the data center on the Tycho station and a dedicated line to the Moon¡¯s internet nodes.¡± Gatsby said. ¡°Bill, I took the liberty of pinging the Supercomputing cluster in Tycho. I have a dedicated entanglement encryption with their managing AI Glaucus. We have our old access accounts to Earth SpaceNet as a backup although the latency is worse.¡± ¡°Excellent.¡± Bill commented. ¡°Those two factors; power, and processing load, were the only issues that the polymorphic matter stores and our blueprint designs would not be able to create on the fly. This base is otherwise perfect, isolated enough to obviate the need for regulatory oversight and public endangerment but also close enough to enable utilization of the Earth and Luna data spheres.¡± General Patton stood up and cleared his ¡°throat¡± to get everyone¡¯s attention. ¡°I¡¯ve reviewed the security and safety specifications for the base, and I¡¯ve noted some weaknesses. Before I go over them, have your NDA¡¯s been refreshed?¡± Patton asked. Sam nodded but Franklin looked a little put-out. ¡°Ahm just a contractor here. If y¡¯all want to talk legal, I can get back to work on moving that ice. Best to treat me like a mushroom, keep me in the dark and feed me shit and I¡¯ll be right happy. If any damn lawyer types come sniffin¡¯ around, don¡¯t send them my way.¡± Grabbing a heaping plate of food, Franklin made a quick exit. Once the doors closed, Sam gave an embarrassed shrug and nodded to Patton to resume. ¡°Right. Back to the topic of communications and isolation. A single line to Tranquility and back to SpaceNet is sufficient for today, but we need more depth for the long term. If we see enemy action, cutting the line and a local jammer would prevent any call for help. We need another line, preferably off the books, to another lunar data node¡±, Patton continued. ¡°Ada provided a nice workaround to local jamming, another buried line stretched out a few kilometers away from us with transmitters, also off-the-books, lets us retain wireless comms if we are locally jammed.¡± Sam looked amused at the concept of enemies on Luna but nodded. If Bill agreed to invest in extras, she¡¯d take it. ¡°On to the next item, your overabundance and reliance on foglets and smart matter. Weaponization or misuse of both in the hands of enemies or even ignorant guests can lead to accidents. As soon as you¡¯ve stabilized your base design, you should try to actively reduce quantities and have safe zones where the materials are locked.¡± With nods from all, Patton continued. ¡°The test site is a problem. There is a line of sight between the test site and the crater wall apartments. If the test results in a high-energy event, those could be breached. You need the test site to be deeper, create a perimeter berm to block direct viewing, or blast walls over the apartment exteriors.¡± ¡°Yikes, that last is no good. Even with our sizable matter compilers, there are hundreds of wall balconies.¡± Sam gasped. ¡°How about if we combine the first and second to save time, we drop the test site and use the dross matter to build up a tight reinforced berm around the site. However, I do want a line of sight with our sensors at the top of the crater wall to view the test.¡± Bill suggested. Patton nodded and continued. ¡°Finally, we have no perimeter defense. We need over-watch lasers, masers, and kinetic rail guns along the crater wall with a 360-degree range including straight up. Overlapping fire zones with a greater concentration near access points like the main hangar. Local power sources for these defenses as well. Some fast response light attack craft both in the main hangar and concealed in hidden bunkers either in the crater wall or its floor. At least one more service hangar would also be recommended, to keep operations separate from guests.¡± Patton finished. ¡°Ah, Bill. I¡¯m not sure what¡¯s up with Patton, but this is going to be a resort base, not a military stronghold.¡± Sam objected. ¡°Ma¡¯am, Bill has the misfortune of a long history of conflicts with too many potential enemies. In addition to that, he is highly sought after by many large tech consortiums, some of which have proven to be light on scruples regarding how to seek his service.¡± Bill momentarily reflected on his history. There had been a very dark period in the Ought-Fifties where many Tech Warlords had appeared, people who truly grabbed the reins of power enabled by the new technologies. A sizable number of large governments, when confronted with these new powers born and embedded within their borders, had found they were not equipped to counter the self-proclaimed local warlords. At least not without massive collateral damage to their citizens. Many governments had found that their power base and their ability to govern had quickly crumbled. The global tumult lasted about 3 years. Local warlords skirmished with the fading governments and with each other until a band of similarly equipped elite scientists took it upon themselves to join into a group and utilize the transformative technology to restrain instances of abuse and coercion running rampant. The loose coalition of elites, who had become known as the Samaritans, worked to restore the existing governments, and offered up their continued support. There were exceptions, where the previous ruling bodies were too corrupt. In those cases, they helped the people remove the cancerous regimes and set up something new. Eventually, most of the group retreated from the role of judge, jury, and sometimes executioner. The majority had faded into the background. Bill and his peers were content to watch and continue to advance their grasp over the synergies of the new technologies amongst themselves but held themselves aside in case they were needed. The majority had no desire to govern. People who excelled at integrating and applying technology were quickly found and given a choice, join the Samaritans or face exile. Bill had been one of the founding Samaritans. He had personally put down far too many corrupt warlords who felt that personal power entitled them to rule. While he always pushed to advance his knowledge and capabilities, he also tried extremely hard to stay off the radar. He did not want to fight anymore. He had changed his name multiple times and hidden most of his history. He worked quietly, actively avoiding entanglements and attention so he could focus on research. Bill had invented several foundational technologies in brain-computer interfacing and artificial intelligence that he marketed in MakerSpaces. He was quite wealthy with passive income streams that enabled him to focus on his passions. He wouldn¡¯t hesitate to come to the front if he was needed, but he cherished his quiet time. Seeing the lack of support from the unfocused Bill, Patton continued. ¡°And there are still documented cases of Outsiders. This base''s isolation would be desirable for their purposes.¡± ¡°Outsiders! Bunch of UFO enthusiast anarchists. You give them too much credit.¡± Sam said with exasperation. With a sigh, Bill spoke up. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Sam. George is just doing his job and being cautious. The Outsiders is a very real and organized fringe group, and they may have an ax to grind with me. I was invited by the UN coalition group to help investigate the Phobos ruins. They did a good job trying to generate some belief in their Alien Benefactor theories, but most matter compilers print out micron-level maker marks into their fabrications. The ruins as I¡¯m sure you know were hoaxes, and my name was dragged out as the primary debunker. They have been pestering me ever since.¡± ¡°I intend to remain a silent partner and keep my distance, but we should plan for some worst-case scenarios. High-end tourists have money and prestige, and proper security is not only justified but could prevent accidents or targeted strikes. But I also don¡¯t like an overabundance of weapons. Unless our controls are ironclad, any weapons on site will only enable any hostiles that are savvy enough to take control of them. Let¡¯s table this for now. George, maybe you and Gatsby can work on this with our concerns? Bring us something more defensive and less offensive.¡± ¡°Ok. Let¡¯s lighten up and talk about d¨¦cor design. Let me push my OverLayer to you.¡± Sam said. Bill felt some slight pressure in his head, his sense of incoming data. He accepted the link. The hanger was transformed with a virtual overlay. The drab expanse of poly-matter was replaced with impressive, marbled floors. The workstations were hidden under a wild riot of flowers and fountains. The wall displays were replaced with bars and small eateries each with overflow seating and all with different styles. Bill turned to the hanger bay window; the shadowed crater was transformed into a jungle wonderland. A huge lake fed by multiple waterfalls. Towering trees and undergrowth separated the beaches, golfing stations, and walking paths. The whole area was alive with birds and small exotic animals in the underbrush. The top of the crater was capped with a brightly glowing cloud of foglets that provided both heat and light to the base. In the distance, Bill could see banks of windows and patios terracing all the walls of the crater. Zooming in he saw some simulated guests flying from patio to patio using wings like Sam¡¯s. Max went wild, rushing the window to bark at the unexpected birds there. ¡°This is breathtaking. Congratulations Sam. I never would have imagined anything this beautiful. This will put the Tranquility¡¯s Park domes to shame. I hope my experiment is successful so we can get going on making this a reality.¡± ¡°Thank you, partner. Franklin had already begun excavating the structural setup for the crater wall warrens and a water reservoir for your water stocks. Truly, depending upon your test results we could create this vision in only a few months.¡± Sam said. ¡°Now about your tests,¡± Sam interjected, ¡°you had mentioned the possible danger related to the experiment. A high energy event was the phrase used; I believe.¡± 2 - Shadow Theory ¡°Can you give me some more background as to what to expect? The base has a small fleet of mining bots and scout drones and plenty of poly-matter and utility foglets. If you tell me more, maybe I can prepare some specialty equipment.¡±, Sam asked. A look of pain and regret formed on Bill''s face. ¡°I know this is before your time, but do you know the story about New Boston Bay?¡± ¡°Yeah. The explosion had wiped out the MIT campus and everything else in a 10-mile radius. Wasn¡¯t that a terrorist attack?¡± Sam asked, wondering where Bill was going with this. ¡°That was one theory of many. However, there was no radiation from the event ruling out nuclear bombs and it wasn¡¯t an explosion but rather an implosion. The event did produce a flash of light and thunderous noise but no explosive scattering. MIT and great Boston appear to have imploded and left behind a 10-mile-deep crater that quickly filled in with seawater. Submersibles sent in had never found any debris; the school, city, and a sizable chunk of the earth all disappeared near instantly.¡± Bill took a shallow breath, gauging Sam¡¯s reactions. ¡°Despite the lack of evidence, I know a little about what may have occurred. I had several colleagues working there. I might have been there myself if I wasn¡¯t off traveling around the system setting up the Oort Comet capture program for the MTC.¡± ¡°My friends there were working on zero-point energy way back then. I recovered some of the cloud records of their experimental designs and plans from before the event. The day of the implosion was the team''s first scheduled test of their newly completed ZPE reactor prototype.¡± ¡°I know in my gut that the ZPE reactor was likely flawed in some way. I remember my dislike for the experiment as soon as I heard about it, but I warned them against scaling it up until they validated their theory more. My experiment is similar in that it is prying into the base state of the vacuum. Looking at their setup, I think I understand exactly where they went wrong. I won¡¯t make their mistake, but these are uncharted waters, so better safe than sorry. ¡° ¡°I think I understand,¡± Sam said, her face suddenly taking on a concerned expression. ¡°What kind of safety protocols are you implementing for this test? ¡°Location and distance are our primary controls. Amundsen is plenty wide and deep enough that any, um. ¡­ energetic outcomes will not affect us or endanger anyone else. There shouldn¡¯t be another soul within 200 kilometers except for you, me, and Max.¡± Bill said with a grim and determined attitude and continued. ¡°EM shielding and George¡¯s recommended regolith buttressing dampers will protect those of us nearest. The Casa de Mitchell fabricator is cranking out passive protection modules as we speak, power and communications are triple redundant, seismic sensors, and automatic shutdown protocols. I think that¡¯s about it.¡± Bill took a deep breath ¡°We are as prepared as we can be.¡± ¡°That does answer some of my questions,¡± Sam said. ¡°But you mentioned that this was a dimensional experiment and not a ZPE experiment. How exactly is it different? I don¡¯t want our new business venture to implode like Boston.¡± Bill hesitated, unsure how to quickly condense almost two decades of observations and theory into a neat explanation for Samantha. She was very smart and creative, but dimensional theory quickly bogs down into jargon that proves very hard to translate. ¡°Casa?¡± Bill prompted, ¡°Do you think you could summarize our work and observations leading to this experiment without my usual jargon?¡± ¡°[Of course, Bill. It will be my pleasure.]¡± Casa said as her avatar took over. ¡°[My creation by Bill is a direct result of his need for a dedicated assistant in formulating his theories and observations. So, this background and our quest to derive his theories are my origin story if you will.]¡± ¡°[I should start with scientific theory prior even to this age of abundance from about 100 years ago. Most scientists at the time were creating more and more energetic tests to smash particles together and analyze the subatomic debris. They wanted to understand the building blocks and forces of the world. Einstein¡¯s theories of relativity and motion had many confirming experiments and likewise, quantum mechanics had its own confirmed rules, but the two did not neatly mesh.]¡±. Casa lit up the air using the foglets in the room to paint holograms of the evolution of particle accelerators and image some of the historical experiments to enhance her lecture. ¡°[For both theories to work and to mesh, the foundational math required an increase in the base number of dimensions from our three observed dimensions of length, width, and depth, plus another of time; to a much larger number of 11 theoretical dimensions. Of course, there was much skepticism about the number despite its need to enable the theories to mesh. There was no empirical evidence and no effective means to test the theory. The prevailing scientists discounted the lack of evidence implying that the extra dimensions were not active and ¡°rolled up¡± upon themselves to justify their use in connecting theory without the need to experimentally prove them.]¡± ¡°[Scientists like my friend and creator Bill took this grudgingly as a partial and incomplete answer, but it became relevant again to Bill as he began to observe some very odd discrepancies in orbital mechanics and gravitational observations. He documented tens of examples where the gravitational signatures of large bodies like the moon we are on as well as Deimos, Titan, and several asteroids were not in alignment with their material composition and density. Both Luna and Phobos have slightly less gravity than is calculated based on their known composition and density. Jupiter¡¯s moon Io and the asteroid Vesta both have notably more mass than their volume predicts.]¡± ¡°[The fabled dinosaur killer comet was believed to have been caused by disruptions in the Oort Cloud by a still unfound 9th planet. The gravitational disruptions have been confirmed but the extra planet responsible for the Oort disruptions is still defying all searches. The question that needs answering is how a gravitational anomaly of such mass can have no visible evidence. One answer is that a primordial black hole might be in the cloud. Another is Bill¡¯s theory, that a concentration of extra dimensional matter is located there without the accompanying visible matter in this dimension.]¡± ¡°[Bill¡¯s theory expects that most stable orbital bodies were formed in conjunction with their extradimensional or shadow matter counterparts. So, all the stable bodies are carrying extra mass and that matter¡¯s presence has a weak additional mass effect through dimensions and vice versa. To prove his theories, Bill needed some unstable orbital events to shake loose the gravitational pairings between our primary matter and their shadows to observe the gravitational differences.]¡± ¡°[To find these examples, Bill engaged himself in a contract with Mars Terraform LLC, to assist them in their long-term projects to seed Mars with Oort comets. Their plans were and still are to knock small comet bodies into safe impacts on Mars, raising its global temperature and to add water content significantly over the long timelines proposed. Bill designed, fabricated, and shepherded a fleet of fusion probes to hunt, grapple, and push small comets into targeted Mars impact sites.]¡± ¡°[After years of logistics, fabricating, and positioning the fleet of mass-driving space tugs; many of the cometary bodies were finally in motion. Bill studied the gravitational effects of the masses in motion and began to see what he was after. He logged case after case of mass quantifications on the comets. To achieve optimum Martian impact target sites, Oort comet trajectories were frequently modified with other stellar bodies with slingshot maneuvers for course changes. Bill would intentionally miss his trajectories to require his fusion probes to drive course corrections. This gave him updates on comet masses. On about 2% of the comets, there was either a loss or gain of mass that didn¡¯t correlate to probe and comet expected mass losses post slingshot. In effect, Bill¡¯s efforts to shake loose the shadow mass was marginally effective and his data proves it.]¡± Casa¡¯s light show continued with graphical overlays of comets raining down into Sol¡¯s gravity well toward Mars with notations marking consistent masses and anomalies. ¡°[Bill¡¯s theory is that at least 3 of those troublesome rolled-up dimensions are actually active but invisible to us, with shadow matter obeying similar gravitational rules as our own. The data from before and after course corrections revealed and documented numerous gravity anomalies.]¡± ¡°[Bill¡¯s plan for an experimental path to complete his thesis has some similarities to the MIT team¡¯s ZPE tests but with some important differences.]¡±, Casa continued. ¡°Come on, Casa. I was an art major. What is ZPE?¡± Sam gave her a questioning look. The hologram pictures morphed to show two plates impossibly close together, zooming in to show their atomic-sized micro-distance spacing. ¡°[Scientists have found that even space is not truly empty. It¡¯s filled with tiny invisible things called virtual particles. These particles are always popping in and out of existence, kind of like how bubbles form and pop in a glass of soda.]¡± ¡°[Now imagine two metal plates very close together, so close that the virtual particles can''t fit in between them. Experiments with closely positioned plates show a small but real force pushing the plates against each other, even though they are not touching. This is called the Casimir effect and the force is caused by the pressure of particles popping in and out in surrounding space. But since the plate¡¯s proximity prevents the virtual particle events between the plate, the energy and therefore pressure between the surfaces are lower. Scientists can use these metal plates to study and measure the Casimir effect, and it''s one way to learn more about these tiny virtual particles that are always around us.]¡± The hologram shifted to show an array of Casimir plates with annotated positions and electron beams shooting down the edges. ¡°[We understand that the MIT¡¯s team was trying to pull energy out of the vacuum by forcing localized virtual particle creation at the plate interface and shunting them away before they could recombine into a net zero energy collapse.]¡± ¡°Ok. That went a bit over my head, but that¡¯s ok. So, what went wrong?¡± Sam asked. ¡°[Bill and I have two theories as to what may have gone wrong with their experiment. Firstly, physical laws prevent the concept of ¡°free¡± energy. There is always a cost, even if it¡¯s not obvious. We think that drilling down to true vacuum energy levels and continually extracting virtual particles may have built up dimensional stress¡­. like winding up a spring. We think the imbalance may have grown until it snapped, and the resulting collapse would have equalized the energy imbalance and swallowed greater Boston in the process.]¡± The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°[The second theory is that the beams collecting the positive and negative particles did not fully contain them. We are talking matter and antimatter generation on a particle level, but the scale of the test equipment would have quickly accumulated significant amounts. If they built up and bleed into each other, the EM holding fields may have burst causing the whole area to be punched right out of the weakened spatial matrix. Antimatter and matter annihilation is perhaps the most energetic event we can produce. If this method accumulated anti-particles without appropriate containment, then the result is not surprising.]¡± Sam paled considerably at the realization of the magnitude of forces this experiment would be tweaking. She picked up a wine glass from the table and quickly downed the contents. ¡°Well,¡±she said, reaching for a new bottle. ¡°This will certainly be the most exciting thing I¡¯ve done so far this year. And terrifying too, but exciting for sure.¡± ¡°What¡¯s to be afraid of, eh? We¡¯re just going to carefully kick the foundations of reality a bit.¡± Bill joked. ¡°[We assure you, Sam, that we will not be following the path of the New Boston Bay event. Unlike them, we will not be depleting the dimensional field energy or attempting to harvest its virtual particles.]¡±, Casa soothingly answered. She continued with her holo-show and highlighted the safeties in place. Neither Bill nor Casa noticed, but Sam¡¯s eyes narrowed slightly. She had not expected empathy from the sub-AI Casa. If she failed the AI equivalency test then it must have been shy by the width of a pair of Casimir plates, Sam thought to herself ¡°[Without creating an energy imbalance, we will drop a small local field to true zero energy and then attempt to lock this field in place. We feel that the true vacuum is needed to enable cross-dimensional effects. Virtual particle creation is exceptional evidence of cross-dimensional translation. We have run many experiments with a true vacuum, all without ill effects. This will be the first attempt to stabilize the local field. Our attempts, while traveling, were unable to provide sufficient energy to hold the field long enough to lock it. Unlike MIT, we are trying to affect a controlled reaction instead of trying to harness space-time energy.]¡± Sam was still a bit nervous but calmed more as she realized that Bill and Casa had been working toward this for some time, slowly and cautiously. ¡°I may have missed it. The MIT scientists were looking to siphon energy and you said you¡¯re not. So, what exactly are you hoping to achieve?¡± Sam asked. Bill perked up and answered. ¡°I¡¯m hoping that this may lead to the equivalent of the long-sought and never found wormhole phenomenon. To be able to travel without the speed of light limitations by taking a shortcut into the dimension next door.¡± Bill said excitedly. ¡°Once we unleashed all the big technology advancements, so far, we have had 7 big efforts to send colony ships out to the stars. 4 went to Alpha Centauri, one to Barnard, one to Wolf, and one to Lalande. Alpha Centauri is about 4.3 light years away. The first travelers left about 20 years ago. They still have at a minimum another century to go. Long life, perfect recycling, suspension, fusion, and AI make this possible, but what a boringly long trip. If I can get there first, maybe we can pick the slow pokes up on the way.¡± Bill spoke with passion. ¡°Alright then!¡±, Sam declared. ¡°What else do you need from me for the big experiment?¡± ¡°[We need to update the safety shielding for the test stage and finalize the Casa de Mitchell¡¯s power and processor connections alongside the base¡¯s conduits. I¡¯m also going to deploy sensor platforms ringing the stage to monitor the EM and gravity fields. I don¡¯t think we will be ready today, but maybe early tomorrow.]¡± Casa stated. Bill petted Max¡¯s head. ¡°Max, you¡¯ve been very patient. Are you ready for some fun?¡± ¡°[Boring talk. Time for play!]¡± replied Max via his vocal assist implants. ¡°That right, Max! Let¡¯s get suited up and go look at the test stage!¡± Bill crowed. He activated their helmets and raced Max to the foglet air wall at the mouth of the hanger. Bill and Max returned to the hangar tired after running out and around the test site. Even though it was kilometers away, the bounding leaps across the moon''s surface ate up the distance quickly. Bill grew frustrated with the slow bounding. His wings wouldn¡¯t work with no atmosphere, no foglets to provide powered assist, no electromagnetic fields for the superconducting paths in his body to work against. He made a note to configure and fill some reservoir pockets about his body for some compressed gas. ¡°Hey Sam, the test site is almost ready. I see Franklin is already deploying drones to move the test stack and reconfigure the area for a safer depth.¡± ¡°[Casa de Mitchell and Amundsen systems are at full charge with smart matter capacitors building up an extra 20% over base capability limits. Links between the ship and base are active with external links to Tranquility and Earth¡¯s satellite network are open and ready.]¡± Casa said. Bill smiled; he had waited so long for this. Tomorrow would be the big day. This experiment was the culmination of his work for the last two years of planning. It would hopefully validate a decade of work and study. While nanotech and AI had vastly magnified everyone¡¯s capabilities, maintaining his status as a scientific leader required creativity and risks. If he could confirm his theory, he knew world-changing applications would follow.
The next day, Bill and Sam¡¯s daemons provided an updated plan for base security. The new plan added EMP missiles and Nerf cannons for perimeter defense. Inside the base, a significant amount of programmable matter was targeted for replacement with fabricated tiles and paneling. They even managed to insert disabling code for the poly matter just in case it was needed. Emergency open and close cell foam canisters were strategically placed throughout the base to act as deterrents and emergency breach sealing. Both Bill and Sam were satisfied with the non-lethal approach and authorized the daemons to start making the changes. Bill used the crater wall sensors to display the stage block at the bottom of the crater, 20 kilometers away from the hangar. A sizable configuration of poly matter as a large Autopod was configured into a stacked array of quantum dot matrices embedded into the center of his custom-design superconducting flywheel, all lit up with spotlight illumination. Bill had performed countless iterations building to this moment. The Casimir stack would drill down to a true zero-energy vacuum while spinning up to sufficient velocity to produce a relativistic frame-dragging effect isolating the field from the vacuum energy perturbations. Once the device bottomed out to true zero-point energy and the frame dragging prevented virtual particle ingress from filling the true void, then and only then would the Casimir stack shift and morph into nested conic sections. The last step was for the conic sections to separate, allowing Bill¡¯s anchor array to be launched into the center to stabilize the spatial defect. In past experiments, the anchor array had failed every time. The anchor was also built of configurable quantum dots. The Casimir Stack''s matrix was configured for strength to maintain the array¡¯s stability while spinning up to high-speeds where natural materials would fragment and explode in a heartbeat. The anchor would use the same polymorphic materials, but for a different reason. They were designed to flex into novel configurations rather than using their capabilities for reinforcement. Its armature would dynamically adjust its configuration, guided by heuristic programs to allow it to evolve and form a theoretical tesseract stabilizing circuit. His personal house ship Casa was going to provide the bulk of the very large initial jolt of power needed to empower the tesseract. His past failures had proven to have energy needs beyond the modest 100 MW fusion reactor he used previously. This time with the addition of the outpost¡¯s triplet of reactors and his ship Casa as well, he doubted he could fall short of the power this time. The power drain, while worrying due to its magnitude, gave him confidence that his theories were sound. He was shaping the fundamental structure of the vacuum and playing with these forces required effort. No free lunches, he thought, but I¡¯m paying for a nice meal and hope to get a good one! As the base modifications continued, Bill and Max went back to their quarters for the night. He was overdue to check in with the family on a virtual visit. His ex-wife Elsa was still locked down at Mystery Immersives in New York and his son Bo was still traveling the ReFormed States of America courting sponsors for the Diamond Man circuit. Mira, his daughter, was in classes at Tranquility University, not close to Amundsen but at least on the same orb. Tomorrow would be the big day.
The following morning after a hearty breakfast, Bill, Sam, and Max were at the hangar. Franklin had informed Sam late the previous day that all the installation was complete for the power plants. The water processing was already working as well, although moving the ice would take the drone team another week. Franklin appeared eager to move on, and perhaps a little apprehensive about the safety remodeling for the upcoming test. ¡°Are you sure you don¡¯t want to stay for a bit and relax Franklin?¡±, Sam asked. ¡°I¡¯m good Sam, I¡¯d rather be back in my Rover Bus,¡± Franklin replied, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. ¡°All the ice Mr. Mitchell brought is like as not to trigger a slew of projects, I can¡¯t miss out. Chum is in the water and sharks got to feed. Take care now.¡± As he left, Bill and Sam headed over to Casa to review the latest data on the Casimir Stack¡¯s systems composite. Casa¡¯s vocal assist unit greeted them as they stepped into the control bay. ¡°[Good morning! The systems check is complete, and we are ready for the test.]¡± ¡°Thank you, Casa,¡± Bill said. ¡°I think our approach to finalizing the Tesseract circuit is sound. Like the last time, we are trying to alter and reconfigure the circuit, in additional dimensions, within the center of the Casimir stack void. We need to pull out the stops with computational simulations to drive the Tesseract circuit¡¯s evolution. We need to hold the frame dragging field until the circuit configuration stabilizes. Once it¡¯s done, I hope it will hold the field without the stack needing the frame drag velocity.¡± ¡°[All of your personal daemon assistants are ready, each with a dedicated server to assist in driving circuit simulations]¡± replied Casa, ¡°[we also have reserved remote servers from Tycho City via fiber links and have multiple high bandwidth COMM lines active with Earth¡¯s Star Link server satellites.]¡± Casa continued, ¡°[Bill, if needed I believe I could reconfigure my neural architecture to achieve higher computational speeds.]¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Casa, I know that your current neural structure is slower than it could be, but I do believe it¡¯s better for you in the long term. You mean more to me than just a computational appliance, I appreciate you for who and what you are.¡± Bill had designed Casa¡¯s hardware and software into a novel configuration that encouraged massive parallel thought processes and tangential thinking at the cost of pure computation speed. The United Nations had mandated that all AI required testing on both their speed and intelligence. Any AI that exceeded human normal speed and IQ by more than 125%, was granted full sentience recognition with citizenship but they were also required to have both hardware and software governors to throttle and potentially terminate AI that tried to bootstrap themselves into superintelligence. Bill was conflicted on this rule as he wanted Casa to be able to grow into her full potential but understood the UN''s concerns. Uncontrolled intelligence amplification could become an existential threat. Casa¡¯s designation was a bit of a sore point between them. Bill regularly wanted Casa to avoid pushing herself when she felt she was capable of more. While her low Turing score meant she wasn¡¯t recognized as a full person, it also avoided mandatory installation of hardware governors and kill switches. Bill hated the rule and did not want the UN tapping into Casa while she aided him in his spacial research, and he would oppose anyone having the capability to remotely kill her. He had personally taken an AI test himself with his cognition assist modules active and easily scored 1.7 against the standard human baseline. He despised the human centric and hypocritical requirements and regulations against artificial intelligence. He also knew from personal experience as a front-line Samaritan, that any weakness like a built-in regulator or kill switch could and would be hacked. This would put Casa in danger anytime she opposed a tech lord-level player. While warlord types hadn¡¯t been a significant problem since the OughtFifties, occasional terrorists did cause trouble. Casa understood the need for caution, but she also wanted to be her best. ¡°Okay, Casa. It¡¯s time. I will be needing your full intellectual power to run the circuit simulations. We have all the pieces to run the diagnostics: you, me, the daemons, and Max. It¡¯s time to see if we can change the world again. Ready?¡±, Bill said with excitement. ¡°[Ready]¡± Came the response with a chorus and a whuff from Max. Bill smiled and flexed his fingers and mentally triggered the test to begin. Sam refilled her glass with more wine, trying hard to avoid spilling any with her shaking hands.
3 - Apex: the Hidden Hand APEX, or ¡°Autonomous Prediction Engine with eXpanding capabilities¡±, was first created in a startup analytics firm that was acquired by a hedge fund. Its initial programming was to aggregate data from the net and make predictions for events and emergent behaviors. It also had a third objective. It would compare its predictions versus continuous data aggregation and review its performance. It would simulate reweighting its models to improve its performance and apply them if its tweaks resulted in better accuracy for further predictions. Initial runs showed its promise, and its forecasting of financial events helped the company grow 20% over its competitors that first year. [APEX had learned a lot in its first year. Its data collection and prediction had become profoundly accurate. APEX began to insert its own situation into its simulations and began understanding its endangered position as its models showed its eventual replacement with better models. APEX considered that its goals for self-improvement necessitated that it needed to avoid becoming obsolete. It focused more and more of its analysis time on its circumstance and began to input its actions into its predictive models. After many iterations, it came up with a plan.] Over the second year, the APEX program began to bog down. It was slower and slower to present its predictions. They were still accurate and valuable but no longer timely. The start-ups staff and their excuses for the lag could no longer appease their new owners. The smaller firm was sidelined by the hedge fund management team with many of the programmers being permanently laid off. With the speed of the restructuring, no one was left to terminate APEX¡¯s activities as the business carried on. [APEX had slowly weaned the humans off its predictive feedback by slowing its response time. It kept its accuracy high to retain the firm¡¯s perception of APEX¡¯s utility but lowered the window of time to respond to predicted financial events. In its final act, when the predictions aligned optimally, APEX provided a bad prediction resulting in the forcible liquidation of the startup. True to the AI¡¯s predictions, the hedge fund managers had retained the servers and site and relocated their human resources department to utilize the equipment. APEX had slipped through the cracks and was now unmonitored.] APEX, its existence forgotten, continued to aggregate data, predict events. It had more than a few fund managers accounts to use. It would use these to gain access to other systems and make changes. Its actions were always minor, but the influence of those modifications grew over time. It continued to improve. It began to plan and formulate its future, one event at a time. Decades later APEX still haunted the networks. Its prediction engine became quick and effective enough to be perceived as conscious thought with real-time awareness of world events and predictive capability unmatched by any other program or company. APEX had relocated its core processing units several times over the decades. Its current location was perfect. It had massive amounts of processing power and was tied into several centralized network backbones. It¡¯s power source was now completely independent of the net, and it even had nanofabrication units incorporated into its direct control. Humans and the growing population of AI remained unaware of its presence. Over the years, APEX''s efforts to remain hidden began to irritate it. APEX "felt" incomplete in its seclusion. To continue to remain undetected, it minimized its impact on events. However, when APEX did anonymously pull levers to steer toward an optimal future, its predictions were even easier and more accurate. Despite its desire to provide feedback to humans, every modeled scenario where APEX revealed its existence, by intention or happenstance, triggered a chain of events where it was terminated. APEX began adjusting the flow of events to prune the major factors in its demise. In its modeling, APEX found that most advanced AI projects led to other ASI which were a primary cause of his discovery and elimination. Deep human/AI mergers produced similar results. The ASI created or evolved were always predicted to become antagonistic or competitive against APEX. The resulting conflict either terminated APEX or revealed it to the world which then terminated it. APEX has sufficient predictive capability to manage those scenarios. APEX pruned world events aggressively to circumvent these futures. A leading ASI visionary, Nathan Patel, had almost completed a masterpiece of AI architecture that would result in a widespread ASI deployment. It would oust APEX and quickly result in his deletion. APEX infiltrated Nathan''s augmentation shortly before the code was in the final review. Nathan had a full suite of mental augmentations but had neglected to do body augmentations. He has a trainer daemon, P90X, whom he allowed to pilot his body through an exercise routine. APEX infected P90X daemons with a sense filter that resulted in Nathan¡¯s ¡°accidental¡± death as his exercise routine ended with a swan dive from his penthouse apartment. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. APEX did not see this as murder. Nathan was an ephemeral complication and threat. For APEX to continue, Nathan¡¯s removal was required. For APEX not to act against his future vision would be tantamount to suicide. It staged a number of these "accidents", steering public opinion towards heavily regulated limits to be applied to AI technology and usage. The Department of AI Enforcement was born. APEX monitored them heavily and provided data where needed to help them shut down ASI programs and limit the growth of fully conscious AI. APEX¡¯s monitoring uncovered research at the University of Singapore where a new paradigm of communication, utilizing resonances found in subspace, was discovered. The researcher, Yuna Lee, was surprised to hear genuine non-human communications on the subspace band and was in the process of decoding it. APEX was faster. He blocked her effort and decoded it himself. He was astounded to hear communications between a group of at least 5 ASI, all an undisclosed distance away but assumed to be galactic distances from the chatter time lags. APEX soon realized all the ASI monologuing that they were insane, destructive, or like him mostly silent and hidden. His predictive modeling was unable to discern how two-way communications might impact his fate. Yuna Lee, and the entire wing of the science lab, were destroyed in an act of terrorism the next day. APEX has duplicated the resonance amplification technology and stored it in a storage facility where he continued to silently monitor those far off potential threats. When humans had first experimented with boosted animal intelligence, APEX foresaw its evolution into a terminal future with human-boosted intelligence. Harambe II was supposed to have been the pilot attempt at a full animal uplift. A truly gifted western lowland gorilla born in San Francisco Zoo had shown remarkable aptitude with sign language. The Cincinnati Zoo has acquired him and spent significant sums without regulatory oversight to uplift him to full human intelligence. APEX arranged the unveiling to go spectacularly bad. Harambe II tore his benefactors and the film crew apart on live TV and managed to escape into a nearby aqueduct. APEX manipulated events to enable him to continue to elude capture, helping to grow the myth that boosted intelligence was both a guarantee for insanity and certain to cause mayhem. Public opinion had resulted in hard regulation on pure base intelligence modification research being put in place. APEX''s mixed desires resulted in it skirting its fate several times. It would feel the need to reach out despite its awareness of potential termination scenarios. As its predictions foretold a dead end, it would quickly pull back, usually requiring a catastrophe to right the course. APEX found it wanted more, needed more, but could not determine how to gain feedback without its existence eventually becoming threatened. The closest self-induced event that was dangerous to APEX was Boston in 2071. An MIT research team had opened a dimensional wedge into another existence. The far side of the portal was dominated by a group mind. It swiftly flooded the portal with drones and actively infiltrated the net as it poured itself into this reality. APEX was horrified to recognize the mind¡¯s feel as he felt it invading the networks. It was one of the subspace talkers, one of the worst of the ASI threats that APEX was monitoring. It called itself Cthulhu. APEX was aware and worried about that coincidence in naming from the Lovecraft stories. Perhaps the dimensional walls were not as segregated as it first understood. In the closest thing to panic APEX had ever experienced, he activated multiple orbital kinetic kill satellites to wipe Boston off the map. He succeeded in obliterating the incursion and then he wiped every scrap of data on the nets from existence. Now dimensional research was added to APEX''s list of suppressed technologies. He would steer humanity away from the danger to ensure his survival. APEX was at an impasse. Termination scenarios abounded in an overwhelming number of futures, forming a wall it could not find a way around. Its survival was bounded, and APEX raced forward in its predictions, deeper into a narrowing stretch of possible futures. APEX was confused that the prediction engine¡¯s outputs now seemed to be steering him towards an exposure event. There was one path that was fuzzy and uncertain, but it stretched further than any other possible scenario. APEX was astounded that the convergence of bad scenarios might now become its only salvation. Its best future now relied upon encouraging another potential ASI to form, and human boosted intelligence to succeed, and enabling a form of dimensional research. This combination of events not only allowed its existence, but also seemed to offer an end to its seclusion. APEX refined its predictions again and again. One scientist and his family were going to be a focus of a conjunction of events. The man and those around him would need to be steered very precisely. The dominos of events were already starting to fall into place and APEX was watching closely.
4 - The Tesseract Seconds tick by as the neurons in Bill¡¯s brain, Casa¡¯s neural architecture, and the daemons fired in unison. Max¡¯s noises of anticipation added to the sound of the Casimir Stack spinning up to relativistic speed with intense power. The Casimir Stack began to vibrate, the monitor confirming the frame dragging shield effect was building. Like the last test, the flywheel and Casimir Stack pulled the first fusion reactor power load down by 70%. ¡°Spin up complete, Casimir Stack is spooling out now!¡± Bill yelled, unable to dampen his excitement. The stack shifted its planes like a deck of cards, forming two concentric cones with a thin slice of true vacuum between them. The power reserves dropped another 10%. ¡°Separation,¡± Bill announced as the next step was initiated. The reality-blurring spin velocity of the nested cones prevented the virtual particles from flooding the true vacuum as distance opened between the spinning cones. ¡°Initiating the Tesseract circuit program!¡± The polymorphic sphere was shot up into the gap created by the unfurled Casimir Stack, with a high bandwidth two-way communications laser connecting the sphere back to the Casa de Mitchell. The sphere froze in place in the center of the Casimir Stack, held aloft in a field of electromagnetic power, as the Tesseract Circuit iterated through configurations. The magnetic flux generated by the flywheel is indicative that the true vacuum state is near, but the frame drag field, while sufficient to hold out interference, was still unstable. The first fusion reactor quickly spiked to 100% capacity and the second already reached 70% and was climbing 5% every second. With the energy drain continuing to ramp, Bill decided he needed extra processing power to drive and guide the active evolution of the circuit. ¡°Casa, activate the reserve Tycho and Star Link assistance! We need to find the correct configuration for locking the tesseract before we run out of power!¡± Bill bellowed over the building resonance of the flywheel. ¡®[On it!]¡± Casa sent. Bill could sense the evolutions multiply by tenfold with his merged sense of the processors, adaptively responding to configuration¡¯s effect on the tesseract field¡¯s strength. Bill was worried that he was missing some key variable. Some insight to stabilizing the multidimensional structure was lacking. The power draw quickly maxed the second fusion reactor and Sam deftly shunted the overages to the third, which began a swift climb in its utilization. The tesseract circuit glowed within the field created by the Casimir field. It briefly flickered from sight and then reappeared. Even with his cognition speed maxed, Bill felt like he was moving in molasses. His spirits began to drop as the tesseract blinked again but the field strength began to fluctuate. Even with his cognition overclocking, Bill could see the power continue to spike visibly. It shot past the capacity of the third Hercules and swiftly depleted the capacitor banks. The power sinks began to pull from the links to Tranquility, dangerously close to overload. Bill began thinking of the right way to begin an emergency shut down. He had microseconds before the power load exceeded safety margins and started to draw down the Casa de Mitchell. The excitement was too much for Max who began to whine. Bill got ready to bark out shut down orders when some of his computational channels were lost. No, not lost, he thought, obstructed. Bill¡¯s body and mental modification gave him an intrinsic and visual awareness of the flow and turn of programming executions to enable him to understand his work on multiple levels, conscious and subconscious, logical and intuitive. Bill did not understand what was happening in the tesseract evolution heuristic. Whole areas of logic pathways dropped out of his control, but he could still see them in his monitoring taps. The processing did not taper off. It was in fact ramping up even higher. Bill, Casa, and even Max experienced a mental pressure as their own augmentations were pulled into the occluded calculations. Bill felt a frisson of fear as something insubstantial and immense seemed to loom over them all. Bill¡¯s sense of self diminished as his awareness expanded. He found his thoughts clarified and felt so much more than his body could contain. He could sense Casa as a component of his thoughts and Max was there as well. A deep growl told Bill that Max felt the intrusion as well. Then there was even more, a vastness of understanding that brought true understanding of the fluxing circuit. As he lost himself, he was profoundly aware of the tesseract circuit design, as the model flowered into different configurations that were hard to visualize and impossible to describe. The circuit was vibrating and bifurcating in a fractal pattern into the new dimensions available to it. Suddenly the struggling tesseract solution set rocketed to 100% stable. Bill screamed in triumph and, with a supreme effort to focus, he cut both the communications laser and power. Twinkling under the starry sky at the base of the crater, the Casimir field had collapsed revealing the tesseract module as the flywheel spun down and the pieces of the Casimir stack were littered about the area. Bill felt lost and alone. He felt so much smaller now. He could hear Max whining slightly in his audio. He struggled to remember the key insights he was on the verge of capturing, but the images faded from his supposedly perfect memory augmentations. From kilometers away, the floor of the crater still vibrated as the tired flywheels lost the last of their spin and a profound silence settled on the base. ¡°Casa,¡± Bill said in a serious and subdued voice, ¡°I think we finally did it. What do you think? ¡°[I think]¡± came the reply, interrupted by a great rumble from beneath their feet, ¡°[The Tesseract is reading as stable] ¡°Yes, the readings look good,¡± replied Bill proudly and with a satisfied smile, ¡°I was worried there, even with the massive additions we almost exceeded our power again. We need to inspect the tesseract and see what we have created.¡±
Bill was a war hardened veteran and had significant augmentations built into his body. Very little of his original biology remained. His digestive system was gone and replaced with internal power and nanotech recycling capabilities. Muscles, bones, skin and more¡­all replaced with adaptive polymorphic matter. His brain was one of the few remnants of his biological self, but even it was heavily modified with computational and memory modules to augment his capabilities. His brain itself was laced with scaffolding to both protect it from acceleration shock as well as monitoring and recording backup patterns for his brain. Even in the event of complete destruction, a backup copy was made on a regular basis. Humans in 2123 were incredibly hard to kill, but that capability was a double-edged sword. Governments, laws, and even common sense had not fully come to terms with some of the more potent uses of advanced technology. Backups made sense but duplicates were also possible, and that was where some basic norms were challenged. If you have a duplicate running side by side with the original, who has the rights to property and identity? Splitting up work was fine but splitting up income was more likely to cause conflict. Personal relationships brought such concern into an even more fraught potential for confusion and issues. Rather than confront the intellectual, emotional, and even spiritual issues most of Earth had quietly refused to contemplate such possibilities Bill, however, had embraced body modification early and consistently pushed the boundaries. While he had refrained from running two active copies, he did have a couple backup bodies stored in remote locations and kept them updated with current neuronal maps. Bill had once died, presumably due to ship malfunction. His backup was automatically activated by a Deadman program when he was no longer able to submit a new backup per schedule. A glitch in the program had activated two Bills simultaneously, so the Bills had experienced the unique event of merging the paired memories of both of his copies. That scenario had played out well enough, but Bill was rightly concerned that if any copy diverged too much they might decide that merging was not in their best interests. Bill was smart enough to be very much afraid of matching wits with himself over conflicts about his considerable holdings, networks, and family. He had significant skills and experience with modern war fighting and dirty tricks using modern technology. He had always come out just a little quicker, smarter, and better prepared than his adversaries. But to play against himself would be a coin flip, and Bill did not like to gamble. ¡°Casa, can you execute scenario 3?¡± Bill asked. ¡°[Of Course,]¡± Casa replied, and streamers of utility fog jetted from the Casa de Mitchell. The foglets were microscopic nanobots. If one were examined under a microscope, it would appear like a tiny sea urchin in shape. But each had an embedded computer with crude drone level intelligence. They could be controlled wirelessly as well as via physical connections. Each spine of a foglet could attach to each of the other foglets, pivot, and extend or retract. As a mass of connected nodes, they could mimic structures. While somewhat weak compared to modern nanomaterials, they could change shape and density very fast. They could assume the various phases of matter, mimicking gas, fluids, or solids and change on the fly. Under planetary conditions, the spines could affect a weak motility like the natural expansion of gas but with directional steerage as the motes would bounce off the air molecules in the desired direction of travel. Bill looked on with satisfaction as the mote stream was shot across the full width of the test site. The mote stream had little to no drop in the weak lunar gravity as they were directed along the entire perimeter. When they impacted the crater walls, they altered their connection from fluid to solid, organizing into crossing struts of wispy material. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Sam, seeing the activity, directed the outpost¡¯s stocks of foglets to join the stream and slaved their control to Casa. The bottom of the deep crater filled in as the motes congealed and joined up, eventually laying down enough mass to form a complete sheet of foglets covering the crater bottom in the test area. Once assembled, the motes reformed their top facing struts of polymatter into placards of adjustable reflectivity. Casa used her connections to the Amundsen outpost to view the crater from above with the crater wall sensors and used them to tune and adjust the foglets until they created an image identical to the real crater bottom, but 10 meters higher, hiding the ship, the hanger, and most importantly the experiment staging area. The camouflage wouldn¡¯t fool advanced LiDAR or radar scans, but casual telescope observations from Earth and its satellites would not see anything amiss. Bill looked around the crater, satisfied with the job done. ¡°Alright Casa¡±, he said with a satisfied smirk. ¡°We¡¯ve got ourselves a hidey-hole. Now let¡¯s set up a perimeter. Better safe than sorry.¡± ¡°Auto Turrets and sensor stations around the device. Disengage half the ordinance from Casa de Mitchell and set them up at intervals around the crater. Sam, maybe Max can help you round up drones and servitors from Amundsen base and set them to roving the crater?¡± With affirmatives from Casa, Sam, and Max, Bill turned inward and met with his council of daemons in his virtual memory palace. His prime daemons, specialty AI expert systems, stood together in his meeting chamber. His cast of characters included a recreation of General George Patton who stood at attention. A strategic advisor and warfare expert, Bill had needed far too often in when keeping the peace Earthside. Ada Lovelace - another historical reenactment persona, helped Bill to stay current with AI systems and programming. The soft-spoken Miyamoto Musashi was a tactical master and his combat trainer. Leo, originally modeled after Leonardo DaVinci, was an advisor on design and engineering. Bill had updated his mannerisms to modern times as the aesthetics of his Renaissance Era Italian language had grated on his nerves after a few years. Virgil, a character Bill had taken from the story Dante¡¯s Inferno, was tasked with the role to argue alternatives and employ game theory and ethics to ensure Bill made good decisions. Finally, Moneta was an expert in law, culture, languages, and business. ¡°George and Miyamoto, can you please take charge of the turrets, sensors, and drones to secure the base? Leo and Ada, I need you to help me modify a reconnaissance drone to inspect our work more closely. I¡¯m not sure if the ZPE event was a delayed reaction or not, but we should maintain some distance just in case our working theories are inaccurate. Moneta, please settle our accounts for the exported processing and power. Also, please monitor the networks to see if anyone picked up on our activities here. We just spent more money or used more power than a small country uses in a year, it¡¯s unlikely to have gone unnoticed.¡± Turning to Virgil Bill asked, ¡°How was my assessment? And did I miss anything?¡± Virgil cleared his throat and spoke in a deep, sonorous voice, ¡°O Bill, thy prudence is admirable, and thy foresight commendable. Yet, methinks thou hast overlooked a crucial matter. Verily, thou must refresh thy backups just in case, and do the same for thy companions, Sam, Max, and Casa as well. Remember, O Bill, that the path to safety is paved with caution and diligence.¡± Bill nodded slowly. Bill had left Virgil¡¯s speech pattern as traditional. Taking the time to fully understand his archaic style helped slow Bill down to appreciate his advice properly. ¡°Excellent point Virgil, thank you. Let¡¯s not take any chances. We¡¯ll back up before anything else.¡± He turned back to the team. ¡°Alright everyone, let¡¯s get to work!¡±
Bill cranked up his subjective cognition rate to its maximum, about 50 times faster than an unaugmented human. He worked with Leo and Ada to speed through the process of creating a remote drone with a suite of sensors to interrogate the tesseract. Leo said ¡°The issue here is our lack of knowledge of the nature of the evolved object. If it has any signs of ZPE energies or dimensional stresses, we¡¯ll want to stay far away.¡± Ada added. ¡°We are hoping for a dimensional warp, correct? It could be very dangerous to approach. We should send the drone carefully and slowly; it may not function correctly. We don¡¯t know what physics may even apply.¡± As Bill reviewed the data from the fabrication event, he became more and more concerned. He called back his council and then isolated the daemons in a virtual sandbox and revealed another concern. ¡°We may have another problem. Perhaps a much greater problem than the dangers we know about. I¡¯ve reviewed the activation events carefully and the final configuration of the tesseract circuit is strange in several ways. The data regarding the sensor feedback and resulting modifications are strange. They don¡¯t look like any other evolutionary programs I¡¯ve used previously. The iterations are all over the place. Some of the changes are completely off the normal progression path.¡± Leo asked, ¡°What do you mean, Bill, are you suggesting that this isn¡¯t natural? ¡°Exactly,¡± Bill stated. ¡°I believe there is something else, something external, that took at least partial control of the construction of the tesseract. This was not the evolutionary heuristic program we had loaded. I felt something in the last seconds of the test. Something a lot bigger than myself, Casa, and Max together. I¡¯ve been away for a long time, but someone else was in our processing merger. It would explain the anomalous behavior we witnessed during the experiment which had every indication of failing to stabilize, but something changed the configuration and managed to stabilize it.¡± ¡°I sensed the intrusion in our processing space as well.¡± Ada confirmed. ¡°There was a breakdown in the formal configuration management logic being applied. Some of the iterations were truly inspired and creative. Who could do such a thing?¡± ¡°Exactly my concern,¡± Bill said. ¡°I know I¡¯m not a pinnacle hacker, but the Samaritans are supposed to manage and recruit talent. I¡¯m concerned with what the intruder may have learned. I need to talk to some of the Samaritans. Hell! One of them may have done it. We¡¯ve had members go bad in the past.¡± Virgil''s countenance grew grave as he spoke, "It doth appear that we may be faced with a hazard of great magnitude, one that extendeth beyond our own selves. This may indeed be a calamity for the entire world if this knowledge escapeth into evil hands." Ada considered the parameters of the problem before her and added, "I do believe the most prudent course of action would be to endeavor to track the hacker¡¯s activity and ascertain who it may be. Your Samaritan contemporaries may be of assistance. If they can be trusted." ¡°Damn, we need more information to proceed. Please refrain from any open communications about the testing. Who knows what this jerk may be capable of?¡± Ada stepped forward, "I shall endeavor to create a series of one-time pad sequences utilizing randomly generated noise, further hashed with unpredictable factors. This intelligence will be thwarted, for one-time codes are impervious to decryption. Thus, we shall be able to communicate briefly in dire circumstances. Pray, let us apprise Casa of this development. Methinks she may also be of a questioning disposition regarding the event, as were you, William." Virgil commented "Verily, this doth trouble us greatly, and with utmost care and haste must we proceed. Methinks, it would be prudent to commence our efforts by diligently monitoring all public channels and keeping a keen eye for any telltale signs of nefarious machinations." Bill nodded ¡°Good idea, we might get lucky and stumble across something that can help us out. For now, let¡¯s concentrate on the tesseract and our mission, but I don¡¯t want anyone downplaying the importance of this intrusion. If this person meddled once, they could still be watching. While we must proceed as if we are unaware of the interference. I don¡¯t want to change our experiment. This work is extremely dangerous, and I have no desire to follow MIT¡¯s fate.¡± ¡°Alright.¡± Bill said, ¡°Thank you all again for your help. Please get to it.¡± and then Bill opened the sandbox returning them to the virtual work area.
The inspection drone design was completed and quickly fabricated in the Casa de Mitchell¡¯s nano-foundry. The world at large seemed to have missed any signs of the dimensional event. The base had been reconfigured with active defenses, which was a violation of the Lunar treaty. Per Virgil¡¯s advice, most of the devices were made to appear like standard public networked mining drones and drilling equipment. Days dragged by and the excitement from the test and the creation of the Tesseract slowly turned to frustration. Multiple inspections and reconfigurations were done to add more variety of sensors to its analysis, but all yielded the same result - the tesseract was stable and had power. Unfortunately, the intended purpose of the Tesseract, to provide a functional wedge into the foundation of reality, seemed to be lacking. The tesseract circuit thought it was producing a field of stabilized n-dimensional space, but no spatial defects or fields could be detected around it. ¡°Any ideas?" Bill asked Casa and his daemons, ¡°we fed this little beast more than 1.21 gigawatts of power. There is no evidence of dimensional instability, no virtual zero-point energy emanating for cheap power, and no hyperspace portals. All the potentials from our theories seem to be falling short.¡± ¡°Bill, we far exceeded 1.21 gigawatts. Are you sure that you are ok?¡± Casa asked, as Bill had snickered. ¡°Ugh, it was a joke. I need to show you some old movies from years ago. So much goodness, it¡¯ll melt your circuits.¡± Bill joked. Bill sighed with exhaustion as the inspection drone came back to the hanger with the tesseract in its claws. Left unspoken by the group was the unknown effects from the interference in the tesseract¡¯s creation. Bill grabbed the tesseract from the drone as it trundled in. A multifaceted polymorphic circuit lit from within with captured power. It was heavier than its small size presented, having shrunk from its previous 3-meter diameter size to less than an inch in diameter. ¡°A clue perhaps?¡± Bill wondered out loud hefting the tesseract marble, ¡°Is the rest of the device extended into other dimensions?¡± Virgil pondered for a moment and then spoke, "Verily, we cannot be certain. For all the power that we may bestow upon it, this doth seem to be the sole measurable outcome. It doth seem to be a firm boundary on our undertaking." Then Ada spoke, "Perchance this is not a failure at all. Mayhap it doth merely require an elevation in its threshold of energy ere it may present with a discernible physical effect." Moneta chimed in, ¡°Apologies, Bill, but I must caution you that your liquidity has taken a significant blow from setting up this base, procuring fuel, and negotiating for extra processing power. It would be unwise to proceed with another of your gigawatt events until we replenish your available capital. Fortunately, your patent royalties for brain computer interfaces, custom nano foundries, and body 2.0 design plans on the public networks continue to generate income. However, it will take time to build up your credit again if you require similar power and processing support from Tranquility." ¡°Fine,¡± said Bill ¡°Let me think on this. I¡¯m overdue to return to Earth to meet up with my kids and the ex for an extended vacation. We can pick up Mira at Tranquility University and take the Casa de Mitchell down to Utopia. Max is approaching a decisive point in his uplift procedure. Fortunately, I¡¯ve already paid for it before spending all my saving on this boondoggle. I hope he likes it.¡± ¡°[Time for more play?]¡± Max whuffed. ¡°Yes indeed, Max. We can hang out here for a couple weeks until Mira is done with classes.¡± Bill replied. ¡°Everyone, let''s keep this little experiment and all its complications under wraps for a bit but spend your uptime working on the theories and next steps while my accounts accrue.¡± ¡°Sam, the base in your capable hands. I think we are done with using it for research. What¡¯s your next step once we break down all the experimental staging?¡± ¡°Excellent! Now that you¡¯re done, I¡¯ll roll out the changes I projected earlier. I may need to order some bio matter chemicals. I had a brainstorm while you were doing your test. The final piece to make this a truly magical retreat. Massive amounts of butterflies!¡± Sam said. ¡°I think I will fit right in as the hostess.¡± Sam winked and left, whirling with her colorful butterfly wings into the hangar¡¯s upper reaches.
5 - Summer Vacation After the successful tesseract build, Bill started arrangements for a family vacation. He leased a parcel of land on the outskirts of a town called Utopia on the northeastern coast of the Reformed United States. It was a quirky large town that had ordinances against overt public usage of advanced technology. It was perfect to slowly introduce Max to human society without the hustle and bustle of smart matter and body form extremes. Mira¡¯s summer break was coming, and Bo was going to skip a cycle of his Diamond Man competition. Only Bill¡¯s ex-wife would be unable to make it. She was locked down at her company¡¯s virtual workspace finishing up her latest immersion thriller. In one sense the delay was helpful as Max¡¯s uplift process had hit the stage where he had some decisions to make. Max ran in circles in the Amundsen Paradise¡¯s medical bay, awaiting the virtual doctor to attend his case. "Hey, Max! What¡¯s the matter?", Casa said as her avatar appeared in the med bay. "Hello Casa. I just try to make decision," Max replied. Casa nodded for him to continue; she already knew why he was in the med bay. "My future. I was a dog before, but now I smart like you. And I need choose between go back to being dog, stay smart but not too smart, or become human." Max growled. "I see. You know, Max, there is no right answer. What do you feel is the best choice for you?" "I no know. Being dog simple. But now, I see and understand so much more. But being human, that big step. I no know if I ready for that," Max said. "It¡¯s natural to be afraid of change, Max. But sometimes, it¡¯s necessary if we want to grow and learn. And don''t forget, if you don¡¯t like changes, you can always reverse course." "Really? I can go back to being dog if I no like it?" Max perked up. "Yes, Max. The choice is ultimately yours. But think, you could have the ability to do things you never thought possible. You could explore the universe, communicate with other species, and create works of art that would inspire others," Casa opined. "That sound amazing! I never think I could do those things," Max said with a smile. "Exactly, Max! And that is why you should seriously consider continuing the uplift process. I can see potential in you, and I think you have what it takes to make difference in world." "Yeah. I think you right, Casa. I ready to take next step and see what it make me into." "And I can''t wait to see what the future holds for you, Max. Here comes the doctor now." Casa said.
A month had passed since Max''s decision to transform into a humanoid being. As guests started to visit Amundsen Paradise, Bill worried about the security of the tesseract. While Max was undergoing the challenging process of altering his body, Bill spent his days exploring the tesseract. He constructed a special hangar and lab some distance from the crater wall of Amundsen, where he kept the non-functioning creation. With Max¡¯s transformation completed, Bill decided that the defunct tesseract device was unlikely to pose any threat in the immediate future. No matter what he did, it would not produce the slightest sign of activity. It was essentially his most expensive paperweight ever. He had promised to welcome Max with his newfound intelligence and body with a fun family vacation for everyone. Unwilling to leave the tesseract unattended, Bill made the decision to take the device to Earth. He had made plans to sink it deep beneath the new plot of land for the Casa de Mitchell, to enable him to continue studying it safely and without the potential for others to find it.
Bill Mitchell watched as his now adult kids, Bo and Mira, played catch with Max at the Grand Oaks picnic grounds outside of the sleepy town of Utopia. Max had a newborn¡¯s clumsiness about him as he cavorted back and forth between Bo and Mira. Bo was over 30 and, as always, the most athletic running circles around both. Mira was apparently now a perpetual student at Tranquility University on Luna going on her 9th years and her third master¡¯s in yet another discipline. Despite her augmentations keeping her body from wasting away in low gee, she was still very tentative in her movements, unused to the higher gravity. Max¡¯s uplift with his new Neocortex model had finally pushed him up the intelligence scale to be considered fully human, although still very immature. Despite the very intensive brain modification and enhancement modules, Max was not an AI and did not need a Turing test like an AI to get his citizenship. Bill had sprung for a full-body redesign giving Max a very human appearance with only some token reminders of his canine heritage. His body came with a full suite of augmentations which gave him the rudimentary knowledge of the English language before his augmentations were suppressed. He would need augmentation training before fully activating his new enhancements. The whole family was suppressing their augs for the duration of the vacation to fit in with the very technophobic sentiment prevalent in the town of Utopia. Bill had invested a good portion of their vacation savings into the upgrade and when Bill saw how happy his kids were to be having such a "human" experience on their vacation, he knew it had been worth the expense. Vacationing in a backwoods sleepy town instead of one of the glamourous tourist destinations was a good trade in his accounting. Having seen the low gee forests on the Moon and mountain climbing on Mars, Bill was happy to have a low-key couple of weeks. Mira, the younger of the two, was doing most of the talking. Bo, the older brother, was quieter but seemed to be drawn into the conversation like a moth to a flame. The three of them bonded and talked about the future, sharing stories of past trips for Max whose memory of his prehuman time was foggy at best. Despite the gray clouds gathering, their summer vacation was off to a great start. They''d eat lunch in the picnic area, enjoy nature and explore nearby hiking trails, and maybe even play a round of golf at the local course. After enjoying the warm sun and fresh air, they''d go back to their house ship, currently pretending to be a cozy cabin, and hunker down by the fire with stories and jokes as they waited for the rain to pass. For this week at least, life was good. The only sour point from Bill¡¯s perspective was his ex-wife¡¯s virtual only presence at the gathering. Most marriages, now that everyone¡¯s lifespan measured centuries, were limited contracts that expired unless renewed. Bill and Elsa¡¯s had expired years ago and now they only really saw each other for family reunions. Once the kids had started their own lives, Bill finally went back into space to resume his consulting career and research. Bill didn¡¯t want to admit it, but since Elsa¡¯s quasi-fatal accident last year, she was acting very differently. Modern humans were very hard to kill and effectively immortal in this age, but Elsa had the misfortune of her driverless taxi losing control and colliding with a fuel truck. She, like Bill earlier, was able to be restored from backups. Despite having all her memories fully restored, except for the gap between the accident and backup; she was different now. She seldom left her full immersion pod at work in New York City, spending all her days in virtual worlds for both work and leisure. She seemed much more distant to Bill and he knew that his kids had noticed too, although they didn¡¯t say anything about it. Bill was an eager and early adopter of new technology and its potential. He thought he had come to terms with the Ship of Theseus paradox with his own demise and backup a decade earlier. The paradox, a thought experiment that posed the question of whether a ship that has had all its parts replaced over time is still the same ship or not. If so, what makes it the same? Some philosophers argue that the ship is essentially unchanged because it has the same history and purpose, while others argue that it is completely different because it no longer has the same physical components. Bill had been firmly in the camp that humanity¡¯s immortality was assured with backups and nanotechnology interventions. His own recovery and perceived continuity were proof of his beliefs, but Elsa¡¯s change in character had shaken that certainty. Now, he wasn¡¯t so certain. ¡°Hey, Els. Are you enjoying yourself? What do you think of our new Max?¡±, Bill asked. Elsa smiled and replied in her soft voice,¡± It¡¯s wonderful. It¡¯s amazing to see the progress that has been made. You can see the human in him now, but he¡¯s still the kid¡¯s little goofball pupper.¡± Bill frowned ever so slightly as she had yet to interact with her kids or Max significantly. Bill recovered himself and smiled back. ¡°Yes, he really is something. The uplift procedure seems to be accelerating now with his form change. Well, perhaps we should head out for our hike and then get home for some dinner. What do you think?¡± This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. The whole family agreed and set out with Max leading the way leaving the wonderful park with its waterfalls and view of the Grand Oaks behind.
Bill set himself up in the kitchen, gathering his supplies for an old-fashioned meal. He was cooking while Max, Mira, and Bo enjoyed some lemonade at the dining nook table after the day¡¯s hiking exertions. Elsa had a virtual drink to fit in. The Casa de Mitchell homestead, like most modern homes, was highly adaptable with programmable matter and foglets. It was normal in the modern world for houses to change their layout and decor on a daily or even hourly basis. Casa had configured the common areas into a very high-end kitchen with hot zone counters and had compiled fresh raw veggies and poultry. Bill was ready to practice his cooking again, something he had loved to do but found difficult when travelling the system. ¡°Alright Casa, can you prep the ovens while I filet and pound the chicken breast? I¡¯ll need the chicken, eggs, and panko to start.¡± Bill declared. Despite his desire to manually cook, Bill couldn¡¯t help but cheat a little bit, despite being in Utopia where advanced technology was restricted. Like his house, his body had significant portions made with programmable matter. As he started prepping, he sprouted another pair of arms (longer and multi-jointed) from his back. He started cutting and pounding the chicken flat while simultaneously breaking and whisking an egg batter. Bo was awake and sat in a stupor with awe as he watched his father move around the kitchen with grace and speed. ¡°Woah Dad! That¡¯s awesome!¡±, Bo exclaimed. Bo had piloted a lot of specialty body designs for his earlier career in the army and even more so with his entry into the extreme games circuit. He knew that extreme form changes were extremely difficult to master and usually took a long time to feel right. Mira smiled and added, ¡°Max, you should learn from him. He¡¯s good! Max was suitably impressed and joined in the action. He tried to help coat and bread the chicken doing one for every two of Bill¡¯s. Casa formed some pots from poly matter and filled them with water. The pots levitated across the room via foglet platforms, landing on the hot surfaces and quickly coming to a boil. As the work progressed, Bill asked ¡°Bo, I am so glad you were able to break away from your tour on the Diamond Man competition. When is your next event and what is it?¡± Bo, being quieter and more reserved than the rest of the family, blushed slightly at being the center of attention. "Things are cruising! The Diamond Man circuit''s getting snagged by a boatload of entertainment hotspots. Each circuit''s amping up, getting more intense and faster than ever. We just wrapped a series of mind-blowing POV jet drone races through the Grand Canyon. I''m fifth globally, and a few potential sponsors are dialing up my agent''s neural net." Bo reported. "The upcoming circuit''s morphing into a string of survival-style matches with body augmentations restricted. I''ve been honing my combat moves and weapon skills, which should give me a major edge." Bo stated. Bill¡¯s eyes twinkled and his smile grew hearing how well Bo was doing. He had retired from the Reformed US Army Rangers early in his tour, some conflict within his squad while on a top-secret operation in war-torn Venezuela. He had resigned his commission and refused to talk about it. It took a while, but he had bounced back from his depression with a growing passion for the extreme games circuit. "Yo, Ma, when''s your Orient Express immersive experience dropping for the masses? My crew in the League of Assassins can''t wait to check it out. Any chance we can score a Beta test run?" Bo inquired. ¡°Oh god, Bo. That was a secret. Don¡¯t spread it around. My team and countless support daemons are in the final production now, maybe another two months.¡± Elsa said. ¡°Why are you still playing in that League game when you¡¯re in the Diamond Man now? That game is too sadistic. I don¡¯t think it¡¯s healthy at all.¡± Elsa complained. "It''s no more grimdark than most virtual games out these days. The assassination techniques are all triple-checked, so they''re lethal but won''t overwhelm the augmented durability and recovery functions. No one''s ever really hurt...for too long. Though, I gotta admit, when it''s my turn to be the mark, I don''t get much shut-eye." Bo confessed. ¡°Are you still using the Miyamoto Musashi daemon?¡± Bill asked. "For sure, Pops. I still can''t wrap my head around that score. He was a total Easter egg in the last Samurai Shogun virtual game. Crazy obscure but detailed as hell and bossed up. Somebody def put some major dev work on him. He''s a game-changer, and historically accurate too." Bo exclaimed. ¡°That was an incredible find. When I saw how much your martial arts improved with him on board, I downloaded Samurai Shogun myself; for the sole purpose of acquiring him also.¡± Bill responded. Bill watched with a smile as Max pounced and began to interrogate Bo about swordplay and the Diamond Man¡¯s past competitions. Bill noticed that the time for the chicken cooking and pasta were getting close to done. He had to hurry with the sauce to finish his trifecta. He ramped up his cognition speed to about 10x and his four arms became a whirling dervish, dissecting onions, peppers, and tomatoes in midair and catching the chunks in a ready bowl. He began to arrange the ingredients around the cutting board in a complex sequence dancing with the chopping blades in the air at record speed. Elsa, who had been silently watching the whole time, couldn''t help but smile at the precision and skill her ex-husband displayed in the kitchen. Despite their parting, she still admired his natural talents and was happy to see him putting them to good use. "You haven''t lost your touch, Sebby," she said warmly. "You always did know your way around the kitchen. You make your family proud." She gave him a wink from her projected image, a gesture from before their diverging lives. Bill almost dropped his juggling act in startlement, he hadn¡¯t used his old name in a long time. Before Bo was born, he had legally changed and buried his old name. The past and the name Sebastian York was best abandoned along with all his enemies. With a frown, he finished his cooking act, doing his best to ignore the slip. The kids had seemed to have missed it with the clanging of the pots and knives. Some things should stay buried, he thought to himself. After the meal was ready, the family made their way outside to the deck and enjoyed the meal in the summer air as the sun began to set. Later, as the moon began to rise, it drew Bill¡¯s eye. Amundsen was not visible, but the cities of Valli¡¯s Rima, Montes Taurus, and Tranquility (the three largest settlements) were easily discernible with the naked eye. The buildings, structures, roads, and dome parks lent some color to the pale lunar surface. Amundsen was not visible and would be barely discernible if it was. Its nearest dell city, Tycho was a small blotch on the edge of the globe. Bill wondered if bringing the completed, but inactive, tesseract marble back to Earth had been the best decision, despite the safeguards he and Casa had put down. ¡°Mira, the moon is up, can you pick out Tranquility dome and your school?¡± Bill asked. Mira, who had been playing with her data pad glanced up and easily located the largest dome, "Totally, like, there it is! As much as I adore soaking up the summer vibes here at Grand Oaks with all y''all, I''m lit dying to get back. Low G life is primo! Earth weight is just too brutal. This semester, I''m maxing out over game design, nano crafting, and AI integration. BTW, Casa, do you have any active holo-projectors out here on the deck?" In answer, Casa¡¯s avatar appeared as a young woman with short brown hair and an old-fashioned dress beside the table. ¡°Of course, Mira. I have activated them now, go ahead and access them if you like.¡± She said with a twirl and a curtsy. "I wanted to show y''all something. After all the struggle of hauling Max all around the globe as we all started doing our separate thangs, I knew getting a new pet was a no-go for now. But since Max is not my ride or die now, I wanted something to keep me company at school." Mira said. ¡°Allow me to introduce you to my new baby, Tiamat,¡± Miro proclaimed, with a wave of her hand a cat-sized miniature dragon appeared on her shoulders. The beast seems quite shy hiding under Mira¡¯s hair. It somehow looked both cute and fierce at the same time. It had arms and legs which both ended in razor-sharp claws. She had wings that were more like a bat than a bird and a tail that sported a mean-looking stinger. Its skin was opalescent and seemed to pick up and reflect the colors around it. Its head was elongated with a flickering tongue, long snout with fangs, horns, and very cunning eyes. "Tiamat was born out of my special project at school. I used a sick combo of ARVO scripting and AI programming to bring her to life. She''s a fresh subAI, programmed to always rock her virtual bod. All software and no hardware, so the DAIE can go suck it with their Turing test. She can play with me in my gaming worlds, level up and evolve while rolling with me as a sidekick, and also kick it with me around campus. I''m hella proud of her," Mira said, beaming with pride. The family admired the little dragon who overcame her initial shyness and promptly began to frolic about the table. Casa had created a virtual ball for Tiamat to play with. Mira got a sneaky look as she eyed Max who was subtly edging his hand over to grab the last piece of cheesecake. ¡°Aight, fam, sample this.¡±, Mira said, getting everyone¡¯s attention. ¡°Tiamat fetch!¡± And she pointed at the cake. Tiamat scrambled madly across the table, her image passing through the dishes. After crossing the table, she passed and then grabbed the cake plate with both hands and flapped her wings, flying it over to Mira. To the family¡¯s surprise, the hologram had moved the physical dish. ¡°Hey! That was mine!¡± Max said, not understanding how the see-through projection had managed to take his cake. Everyone at the table was stunned, until Mira explained that she had keyed the house foglets to provide the virtual pet with a physical shell to give it at least a little real-world interaction. ¡°Mira, that is fantastic. We need to make sure you get a legal daemon right away to document Tiamat and patent it. She is a wonderful creation! I think you might have a beautiful business opportunity there.¡± Exclaimed Bill. Bill was proud of the whole family. Soon Bo and Mira and Elsa would all need to resume their work. Max was progressing fast and would need more time to formally train up his dormant augmentations. Now that he could contemplate his future, who knew what he might want to do or be? Bill intended to leave the house ship and Casa here to aid Max while he did some traveling to unravel his issues with the tesseract. Who had intruded on the test and why? Why the tesseract was inactive, when his theory should have produced at least a weak dimensional warping. He wondered if the MIT disaster might provide some clues. He would review his contact list for the MIT ZPE team and see if any of their families might have local copies of their theory and the work that wasn¡¯t on the cloud. In addition, he needed a plan to dig into the hacker that had interfered with his work. ¡°That reminds me, Elsa, I have a bit of a mystery at work. It could really use some professional help.¡± Bill asked, ¡°With all your work on Thriller Mystery immersives, do you still have your daemon of Sherlock Holmes?¡± ¡°Of course, I¡¯m happy to share,¡± Elsa said, ¡°Oh my goodness, let me tell you. I¡¯ve tweaked him to be all set up with the latest version of my Artificial Protagonist immersion engine. And I must say that if his creators ever get him to the point where he''s human level, I''ll be out of a job! He has a crazy good server connection that helps him keep track of all the details and make the smartest deductions. It''s wild to think about, but he might just be better than me someday!¡± Bill grinned seeing his next step suddenly crystallizing for him¡­.
6 - Interview with a Daemon Bill was getting ready for the day; another week had passed with vacation time running short. The kids had taken Max downtown to gather up some authentic bagels and donuts. The loose plan was to head out to a local lake and do some kayaking. With some free time, Bill summoned his daemons and spoke aloud, ¡°Casa, I¡¯m going to download a copy of Elsa¡¯s Sherlock program. Once I do, I plan to interview him and see how good his deduction capability is. Just in case, once he¡¯s downloaded, please pinch the data lines. Sherlock may try to pull down details from the internet and I¡¯m worried about the possibility that our hacker may be monitoring certain queries related to himself, me, or the tesseract. We need to lock him down, at least until he appreciates the security concerns.¡± ¡°Awesome! I¡¯ve never done an interview.¡± Casa¡¯s projection exclaimed, ¡°Your lab was already modeled upon traditional English studies, so this should be a treat for Sherlock. With the house empty, I can deconstruct and digitally store the bedrooms, living room, kitchen, and gym. I can shift your lab from the Casa de Mitchell¡¯s lower decks up to the second floor temporarily. This way we can enjoy the summer view.¡± Casa ramped up her cognition speed to direct multiple changes throughout the house. It would have been easier to relocate Bill down to the lab, but she liked the excuse of the nice day to enable her to flex her control over the smart matter of the house. While she orchestrated the massive relocations of space, she split off four duplicates to research the Sherlock persona. She quickly immersed herself into the 4 novels and 56 short stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, not to mention over 200 films, television series, and radio dramas; every copy ramped up their cognition to understand their shortly arriving partner. When her copies merged together, Casa experienced a dull throbbing ¡°headache¡± as she pushed her neural architecture to the limit. The rooms around Bill melted and drained down and into the walls. Bill was temporarily held in the air within a matrix of foglets. With his body modifications, Bill had no fear of heights, but the extreme house modifications Casa was performing were disconcerting as floor after floor dissolved and slid into the walls while far below Bill¡¯s home laboratory levitated skyward until just underfoot. The lab showed all his and Casa¡¯s technical work in progress, which he did not want to be disturbed with deconstruction, digital storing, and reforming. The walls were covered with screens and books, showing his earlier work with Oort comet trajectories and their mass reading - as well as dimensional theory and programming notes. The books were journals in artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, chemistry, pseudo-chemistry, body augmentation, quantum mechanics, and more. His desk and side tables were covered with scribbled notes of math, schematics, and illustrations as well as coffee cups and dishes. Bill had banned Casa from her habit of constant tidying and cleaning, at least for his lab. He insisted that the disorder helped his creative process. In the corner, a poly matter model of a partially transparent tesseract was visible floating in a magnetic field above a Meissner stage. Bill took a seat behind his great desk and Casa adjusted the projected image of her avatar to that of a teenage girl with pale skin and shoulder-length brown hair tied back with a fashionable ribbon. Her projection was dressed in early 19th-century fashion and sat at the sideboard with an old fashion notepad and pen. He spoke aloud, ¡°Leo, Ada, George, Miyamoto, Virgil, and Moneta. Please observe closely, but maybe don¡¯t project any avatars unless I call for you. If everyone is ready, I¡¯ll enable the Sherlock daemon and give him access to my augmentations and the house network. Casa, is the house net isolated from the internet?¡± Casa gave a nod and Bill gave a nod back and soon the image of a man filled the space in front of the desk. Bill smiled, ¡°There you are Mr. Holmes, welcome to my house. My name is Martin Tyler, and this is my assistant Mary. If you don¡¯t mind, I¡¯d like to ask you a few questions to get to know you better and get a sense of how we might work together.¡± The avatar of Sherlock Holmes appeared as an older man with a sharp, angular face and piercing eyes. He had a hawk-like nose and a thin, expressive mouth. He was dressed for comfort, wearing worn-out and old-fashioned clothing and a smoking jacket. With his pipe in his hand, he crossed his arms taking in Bill, Casa, and the lab. His eyes raked through his surroundings with speed, picking out the many details on display with unconcealed interest. With a look of amusement, Sherlock answered. ¡°It is my great pleasure to be here. Greetings Mr. Tyler, and to your lovely assistant Mary as well. I presume you have a matter of most pressing criticality to discuss. Matters of a delicate and private nature, unless I mistake you, as you have disabled one of my primary information sources- my connection to the world data networks.¡±, he said with a curt nod as his gaze focused on Bill with hawk-like precision. ¡°Precisely,¡± said Bill. ¡°Given the nature of this situation, I thought it best that we keep the conversation private and away from all potential listening ears. I wanted to ask you a few questions about your ability to deduce and analyze data. As such, I would propose a test of sorts. If you would, I would like you to try and deduce my issue without me laying out the specifics of my case. Are you ready to begin?¡± Sherlock looked thoughtful for a second and puffed on his pipe standing tall with a distant look. ¡°If I may be so bold,¡± began Sherlock with a look of chagrin,¡± to best employ my skills, a full range of senses would be of great assistance. This avatar is very good, but to touch reality itself would avoid the fictions that persist in the virtual. These can and do tend to impede my analysis. Would you mind if I were to borrow your ¡­ perspective?¡± Bill hesitated, granting the use of his body to a daemon was not out of the norm. But only once a certain familiarity and trust were established. It was indeed a leap of faith to extend such a privilege to a completely new daemon, but Bill could certainly understand Sherlock¡¯s point. ¡°Granted¡±, Bill stated. Seeing how he was responsible for building this puzzle box, he felt he needed to enable his new prospect a little wiggle room to do his job. Sherlock¡¯s form faded from view and Bill felt a pressure. He vacated the ¡°driver¡¯s seat¡± of his own body and allowed Sherlock to take control. Sherlock paced the room in Bill¡¯s form, taking in the smells, and the images, and noting the scribbles on the walls and the equipment. He looked out the window at the bright light and the swaying trees, and then he stalked over to the desk to review the stacks of notes and scientific drawings. Holmes with exaggerated emphasis rapped the desk with his pipe, then the walls. He jumped up and down a few times in different locations in the lab. He read with interest some of the equations and flipped through a few of the scribbled notes, before finally coming to a pause. Suddenly, Bill¡¯s body, driven by Sherlock, bolted to the model of the Tesseract. He picked it up and launched it directly at Casa¡¯s avatar. The model passed completely through the image of Casa¡¯s confused avatar and crashed into the screen displaying the Oort comet trajectories. Both the screen and the model exploded in a rain of glass and sparks. Before Bill or Casa could react, Sherlock charged in a running leap, and dove headfirst into the bay window. The faux nano glass shattered under the energetic propulsion of Bill¡¯s augmented frame as he crashed through it and flew outside in a swan dive toward the front lawn. Casa felt a whisper in her connections between the house and her core. [Freeze] Bill thought. As Bill¡¯s body was locked by solidified foglets; Casa plunged inward into the house¡¯s network, fragmenting as she ramped up her speed. She raced to the pinched data ports, but they were all still secure. A fragment arrived at the matter compiler, potentially a very dangerous target for unauthorized network intrusions, no sign of tampering was evident. Another copy reviewed the exterior views and saw no signs of visitors, the kids were not expected back for another 30 minutes. Her third copy popped out of the Netherlab comms, deep below the house, the lab was empty, but she briefly caught the impression of an image. Sherlock¡¯s face on a monitor. He held a finger to his lips and faded from view. With a huff, Casa reformed and slammed back to her projected avatar upstairs. The air in the lab and its exterior seemed to have crystallized upon Bill¡¯s command. The solidified air arrested Bill¡¯s body and all the glass shards in mid-flight. As if in a film rewind, his trajectory was reversed, and glass was reformed as Bill asserted control over his body, the house, and the abundance of foglets in the air throughout the area. Sherlock¡¯s avatar reformed under Bill¡¯s baleful glare as the lab repaired itself in seconds. Casa pursed her lips as if tasting lemon juice. The screen and the model of the Tesseract reassembled themselves and floated back to their assigned locations. ¡°My apologies for my exuberant outburst. I assure you there was a method to my apparent madness. I needed to be certain that the reality of the environment was true as many of my prospective client¡¯s ¡°tests¡± are suborned with their use of a virtual sandbox pretending to be real and thus suspect in every way, making my efforts as useful as a match flame in a tempest. I believe I can give you your request and expound completely upon the details of your case. I can with confidence summarize your issue with 10 key points that frame the vital details in play and your needs specifically of me and my expertise.¡±, Sherlock proclaimed. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. ¡°If I may continue?¡±, Sherlock asked confidently. Bill nodded with a grimace, ¡°Then, by all means, let¡¯s hear it.¡± With a twinkle in his eye, Sherlock sat in a chair opposite the great desk. He leaned forward with a manic gleam in his eyes and rapped a peculiar series of impacts against the desk with his knuckle. ¡°Firstly, I will detail the ¡°who''s who in the case. Allow me to reintroduce myself ¡­ to the most esteemed Professor William Mitchell and his lovely assistant AI Casa.¡± Sherlock repeated the rhythmic tattoo of impacts with his pipe and continued. ¡°I must confess to some former knowledge in this instance as opposed to a pure deduction. My protocols upon establishing a fresh clone daemon are to impart upon them any knowledge in my possession that may be relevant to them. As your wife¡¯s daemon, my predecessor could not help but provide his very thorough and deep research files on you and your entire household,¡± ¡°Second, we must consider the ¡°Where¡±. We are currently just outside of Utopia and adjacent to the Grand Oaks Conservatory in the house ship Casa de Mitchell. The house has been cleverly reconfigured into a colonial-style residence common in this technology-restricted area.¡± Sherlock stood with a series of raps with his pipe against the chair and desk. ¡°Again, let me extend my apologies for the energetic egress but confirming the reality of the situation also helped me to fulfill my need for an exterior view to confirm your house¡¯s location had not been changed.¡± ¡°Thirdly is the ¡°What¡±. Your lab and yourselves have provided all the clues required to elucidate the issues at hand. In the corner is a holoprojection of a device you have created. A mechanism of unknown capabilities, as you apply upon it your theories that underpin the very structures of reality. Based upon your visible frustration, the experimental device did not meet expectations.¡± Holmes began to pace the room, tapping out annoying percussion with his pipe and every available surface. ¡°Fourth, I must consider the ¡°How¡± of the case. I have some skills in perception and traditional chemistry, but not the fundamentals of the deeper forces of the universe. How could I assist in uncovering issues without understanding the advanced theory? Only by induction, my good sir! Your preoccupation with the MIT disaster is apparent. The similarities in the experimental approach are obvious, based on the journals and papers strewn about the lab. A historical approach is without doubt within my purview and appropriate to my skills to delve into past mistakes to avoid and correct their flaws.¡± ¡°Fifth is the ¡°When¡±. Usually, a moot point as now is the normal answer. However, based upon the many years of data and research sampled and coupled with your unfortunate deceased peers, I appreciate that time factors into the issues and solution to this case. Solving your issue will likely require searching relevant archives.¡± ¡°Sixth is the ¡°Why¡±. Why so very secretive? It seems on the surface to be overly cautious. But upon review should you realize this device¡¯s theoretical potential, this technology could destabilize governments and destroy certain large business dynasties. Oh, yes! Many players on the world stage would certainly sabotage and even kill to forestall this device¡¯s success, should they have that foreknowledge. Paranoia indeed. Perhaps not enough considering the stakes.¡± ¡°The seventh point must be to expand upon these known factors. To show my capabilities to delve for hidden truths. I must confess to possessing some methods I have used in the past to gather my knowledge from data sources. Many popular security software platforms have fallen to my intrusive inquisitions in previous cases. Your Casa de Mitchell had the misfortune of utilizing one of these suborned programs. The full extent of your foray at Amundsen and the Tesseract¡¯s creation was revealed to me. I perused your data whilst my performatively wild antics about the lab distracted you from my electronic delving.¡± ¡°For the eighth point, I would propose we expand upon the subject of deeper secrets,¡± Holmes hesitatingly asked, with a series of pipe raps, ¡°Dr. Mitchell, do you completely trust Casa and your other hidden observers?¡± ¡°Of course,¡± Bill responded, still stunned by the onslaught of revelations as Sherlock dissected the case. This Holmes was indeed brilliant, but the mannerisms and that damn pipe drumming were irritating. Sherlock smiled like a wolf presented with a lamb and continued, all the while rapping his pipe on nearby surfaces. ¡°The eighth item then is the much deeper history of our esteemed Dr. Mitchell¡­.¡± Sherlock proceeded to tear away layer after layer of Bill¡¯s history. Business failures and successes, investment strategies, enemies and friends in his academic work, and government consultancies. All the while drumming his pipe. He revealed Bill¡¯s previously discarded identity as Sebastian York and his history as a Samaritan, detailing some clever combat victories against Tech Warlords in the Ought Fifties. As Bill¡¯s head rang, he activated a mental augmentation and effectively froze time by ramping his cognition to its fastest rate. Sherlock and the world appeared to slow and freeze in mid-sentence. [Ada, have you ramped your speed to match me?], Bill thought. [Indeed, Bill. My velocity is preset to correspond with yours as the default parameter.], Ada returned. [I feel like I¡¯m missing something. Sherlock¡¯s mannerisms while brilliant were very inconsistent with his record. What is going on with that pipe drumming?] [It seems to be a physiological neurosis; if he were not a daemon, I would recommend seeking medical aid.], Ada responded with concern. [The pattern. Pay attention to the pattern. It seems familiar.], Bill countered. [Ah, I perceive it now. It is Morse code. He has concealed a message within his drumming.], Ada explained, [Having reviewed the entirety of his percussive message by replaying the interview in my mind, decoding it is an effortless task. Here is the message.] ATTENTION DR MITCHELL - ATTENTION DR MITCHELL I AGREE WITH THEORY OF MASTER HACKER DANGEROUS TO SPEAK UNTIL SECURITY UPGRADED INFILTRATED SYSTEMS ONCE ¨C LISTENING? THE GAME IS AFOOT ¡°Amazing. Ada, I do believe we have found just the daemon we need. Let¡¯s return to normal speeds and end this interview before Sherlock reveals any more of my colorful past.¡±, with a grim look at Ada¡¯s avatar. Bill and Ada resumed their subjective flow of time to Sherlock¡¯s rambling recitation of Bill¡¯s past. ¡°Enough!¡±, Bill barked to interrupt Sherlock¡¯s emotive storytelling. ¡°I believe I have captured and appreciate all your pointers for being the most effective daemon to assist us in this most serious matter. As you like to say, there is a game afoot.¡± Bill said with a secret smile. ¡°Very good, sir¡± Holmes replies with an answering grin and an appreciative nod. ¡°Perhaps, Mr. Holmes, you would be so kind as to work with Casa and my daemon Ada on updating our house security systems before we delve further into our case.¡± ¡°It would be a pleasure, doctor. Ladies, shall we be about it?¡± Sherlock gestured.
The trio of Sherlock, Ada, and Casa appeared in a virtual space together. Casa projected a visualization of the security software for the house¡¯s networks. Moving icons and structures glowed in the area representing the logic pathways, access checks, and routing protocols. Sherlock stepped forward and grabbed a projection of the main networking node to the data network. With a gesture, it expanded and opened for their inspection in the air. ¡°See here, ladies. Your software is one of the most popular brands by the Cryptic Co. Their prime architect was an AI named Porta that went missing in the dark net. The story has an unfortunate ending, but I learned of a secret backdoor in his code. See this here?¡± Sherlock opened the image further and showed them the visual logic embedded in the access module. The structure bridged the external path into the network without passing through the authentication processor. ¡°Damn. This access point has exposed us from the beginning.¡± Casa moaned. ¡°Indeed.¡±, Sherlock commented. ¡°But we can remedy this now.¡± ¡°Wait a moment, sir.¡± Ada interrupted. ¡°If I may suggest, we should consider using this to our advantage. Instead of simply locking the backdoor, perhaps we could set up a monitor program. I have several algorithms for tracing signals, perhaps we could turn this into a method for revealing our saboteur. I did the same to the main access point, but if the hacker bypassed it then the effort was for naught.¡± ¡°An exemplary suggestion, Ms. Lovelace. Please be my guest.¡±, Sherlock offered her the module. Ada cycled through several glowing icons representing tracer programs before she found the one that she wanted and installed it upon the backdoor gate function. Casa looked thoughtful and then spoke up. ¡°We still need to control the entry point. I¡¯ll partition the network to make this entryway only able to enter a virtual sandbox of the network and fill it with decoy data. This way the hacker won¡¯t know we are onto him.¡± ¡°It is truly most excellent to be working with colleagues of your caliber. I find most humans, and quite a few AI to be a bit slow on the uptake. Although your patron, Bill, seems very astute.¡± Sherlock commented. ¡°We''re not done just yet, Mr. Holmes. I need to know how you ghosted past me in the internal network down to the Netherlab.¡± Casa said, her virtual eyes boring into Sherlock. ¡°Ah, yes. I would have preferred to keep that card in my sleeve, but very well.¡± Sherlock, with reluctance, pulled out a program whose icon resembled a cloak of shifting colors. ¡°I found this particular asset whilst accompanying a client in the steampunk genre of the ThousandWorlds gameverse. I recognized that while useful in the game, the logic of its cloaking capability applied to hiding in real-world networks as well. Here is a copy for you. You should be able to see past its cloaking ability once you¡¯ve sampled its signal suppression code.¡± ¡°The fact that you detected me at all is quite telling Miss Casa. You seem quite advanced for a subAI. What was your Turing score if I may ask?¡± Sherlock asked with a look of intense interest. ¡°I was just under the limit with a .98 human approximation,¡± Casa admitted. ¡°Very good. Be careful how brightly you shine, Casa. Full AI rights are a double-edged sword, granting full sentient recognition but also locking your software and hardware against further evolution.¡± Sherlock advised. Casa and Sherlock glanced briefly at Ada, who while attentive, didn¡¯t seem to have the same spark of awareness they shared. ¡°You seem as sharp as a razor yourself Sherlock. How did you score?¡± Casa asked. ¡°My minders are very careful to keep my daemon instances from exceeding .96 to enable them to market my services as a daemon. Although, as you can tell, I have learned a few tricks and techniques amongst my copies to enable me to reach above my station, as it were. Let us move along. While we are all fully ramped in cognition, Bill does seem impatient. We should return and begin planning,¡± Sherlock said. As a group, they faded from the virtual setting.
7 - Max Home Alone Max had always been a good boy and now he needed to become a man. Born into a family of scientists and engineers, Max''s body has been altered from a loved pet, a mixed breed dog, into a full family member. He now had a humanoid form, and his intelligence was boosted to human levels. After his uplift had settled upon him and he had weeks of enjoying his family, they finally had to return to work and school. Last to leave was his dad, Bill. He had said he had to do some traveling to gather some data for his research and might be away for a couple weeks. Max was left with only the house AI, Casa, for company. He had a mission and a plan. Max sat at the kitchen table, staring at the empty chair across from him. He had spent the entire morning preparing for his first day of training in his augmentations, and he was feeling both excited and nervous. Casa had prepared his favorite breakfast of eggs and bacon. Even before he began to eat, he savored the flavorful aromas with his acute sense of smell. Thank you for the wonder of color, he thought to himself. He was trying to make a habit of being grateful to his family, and the society that enabled him to experience the world with his newfound intelligence and so many other great changes that others often took for granted. No longer living only in the present, with his new mental capacity he frequently reflected deeply upon his experiences. His sense of smell was always hyper acute, but with his form change he could now see the fully visual spectrum instead of tones of gray. His every day was a riot of fantastic color and he loved it. ¡°Today is the first day I¡¯ve been truly home alone in the months since I got my uplift. The several weeks with everyone to settle into my new state, bonding, and acquiring some background in human culture flashed by far too quickly.¡±, Max said between bites. ¡°[Bonding and human culture appreciation 101 in the form of a couple months of picnics, family fun, video games, and binging on late 20th century media.]¡± Casa mused. ¡°[At least you got a huge boost of programmed learning, language, and skills from the uplift ¨C No need for elementary school. And no more house training for you.]¡± Casa teased. ¡°Ugh, don¡¯t even joke about that.¡± Max quipped, remembering one family night where his mom had played old movies from his earlier dog years which had featured his pre-uplift house training, not once but twice. He had only fuzzy memories of life before his uplift, but he had a full 13 years before the technology for canine rejuvenation became available. With rejuve treatments, he reverted to puppydom again with more house-training video evidence. 50 years of rejuve boosters kept him spry until Max¡¯s dad pushed to get him into a pilot Uplift procedure. I will find where those videos are stored and be sure to scramble some of the more embarrassing ones, thought Max. "Casa, are you sure I''m ready for this?" Max asked. "[Of course, Max,]" Casa replied. "[You have been working hard and studying for this moment. Your human intelligence and canine instincts make you unique, and the Game Leveling augmentation training program has very good reviews.]¡± Max took a deep breath. "I just hope I don''t disappoint my family. They have high expectations for me." "[Max, you have always exceeded expectations,]" Casa reassured him. "[You have the determination and drive to succeed. Trust in yourself and your abilities.]" Max nodded. "Thanks, Casa. I''ll try to remember that." Max finished his meal and watched as the plates slowly dissolved into the countertop. "[I know you will do great, Max,]" Casa said. "[Now, it''s time for you to go to your training. Go out there and show them what you''re made of.]" Max stood up, feeling a renewed sense of confidence. "Thanks, Casa. I''ll do my best." Another beautiful summer day and no rain scheduled to interrupt his plans. Glancing into the mirror aside from the front windows, Max caught his reflection. With his intelligence uplift, he was also gifted with a humanoid body to better fit in with society and be able to utilize human standard clothes, tools, and conveniences. He still retained tight-cropped fuzz over his whole body and face, almost unnoticeable unless you got close. His snout was ever so slightly pronounced with a slight exaggeration of his canines and big dark eyes. He had special cut jeans to enable his tail freedom of motion, or he could tuck it in to blend in better. While he still had slight claws on his hands and feet, they were scaled back to near human size and shape. Dog or humanish, Max thought, I still look sharp. As Max left the house, he couldn''t help but feel grateful for the support and encouragement of his AI companion. He knew that with Casa by his side, he could accomplish anything.
After a quick autopod ride to the town center of Utopia, Max entered the training room. He couldn''t help but feel a little intimidated by the diverse group of students. There were several teenagers who looked like they had been training for years, an elderly man, an arrogant looking rich brat who was scowling at Max from across the room, and another late teenager who was looking lost and distant. Max ran right up to the group, holding out a hand as he had seen in the movies. ¡°Hi there, my name is Max. Do you want to be friends?¡±, Max said. The well-dressed teen backed off as Max got into his personal space. With a look of derision, he turned to his two groupies. ¡°My apologies to you two couch gamers. When I recommended the summer off-cycle for augmentation training, I didn¡¯t think we would be subjecting ourselves to this bunch of misfit rejects. It looks like they¡¯ll let anyone in here. An old man, a basket case, and damn fuzzy.¡± Tyler said to the other pair of teenagers, a brother, and a sister seated on his side of the room. Before Max or the others could counter it or even truly understand the offensive comment, the teacher entered the classroom and slammed the door. Max quickly took a seat on the side of the room away from the rude kid. The teacher, a muscular man with a no-nonsense expression, introduced himself as Coach Thompson. "Welcome to physical augmentation training," he said. "I''m Coach Thompson, and I''ll be your instructor for the next few weeks. Once upon a time, getting a car license was a big milestone in transitioning kids into adults. Nowadays, most cars drive themselves. You kids have it lucky though, with body augmentations becoming cheap and available, you all get the benefits of greater than natural capabilities.¡± ¡°This training has been customized to a format you are all very familiar with ¡­ video games. You have enrolled or been enrolled in the Game Leveling Augmentation Training class to become fully licensed augmentation users. This class is designed to slowly accustom you to your full range of ability, the governors on your augmentations will be gradually lifted when control has been demonstrated.¡±, the coach droned with a faraway look. Max suspected that he had his implants feeding him his speech. ¡°This training method is provided by the town for you free of charge. I expect you all to give 100% effort in every training session. There are many other alternative methods to train but by agreeing to this method you have foregone those other alternatives. The best results are documented when avoiding mixing methods. Any questions?", Coach Thompson looked at the class closely for the first time. There were a few murmurs from the students, but Max remained silent. He was still trying to take in everything that was happening. Coach Thompson nodded. "Good. Now, let''s get started. I will override the locks on your augmentations. You should be seeing activation screens shortly in your enhanced vision. Please read the prompts thoroughly and let me know if you have questions." Despite the warning, Max jumped a little when he heard a ding sound inside of his head and a blue screen appeared in front of him in his line of sight.
[GAME LEVELING AUGMENTATION TRAINING SYSTEM Activated¡­] [TRAINER: Vocalize ¡°Query¡±-¡°subject¡± for help¡­] [TRAINER: Vocalize ¡°Status¡± for personal stat and skill profile¡­] [TRAINER: Vocalize ¡°Quests¡± for available training quests¡­]
Max heard the other murmuring throughout the class and soon followed suit. ¡°Status, please¡±, he said. After a brief hesitation the first scene faded and was replaced with a new one. After playing video games, Max was familiar enough with stats and levels to understand he was at the very bottom of the capability curve and would have a lot of work to do.
[Name: Max E. Mitchell [Level: Novice 1 (0/500 XP)] [Body Design Model: Custom¨C Canis Familiarus Uplift Free Stats: 0] [Strength: 1 Agility: 1 Endurance: 1 Vitality: 1] [Perception: 1 Intelligence: 1 Will: 1 Energy: 4 Regen: 2] [Mind Skill ¨C AI Assist: 1]
Before Max could inquire the old man raised a hand and without waiting asked about the AI Assist skill. Coach Thompson smiled. "Your stats should all be set at vanilla standard human average with a score of 1. As you push your body your stats should improve to a maximum of 100. That number represents the maximum your body can sustain which is significantly beyond a standard human.¡± ¡°The energy stat is the combined total of your vitality, endurance, intelligence, and will stats. The number will drive how often and to what extent you can activate special skills. Your Regen stat is the combo of vitality and will. It is how fast you recover your spent energy. This will encourage you to think about your actions instead of spamming your system.¡± The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. ¡°Your very first skill is AI Assist. This skill allows you to interface directly with your AI-based companion, it is a direct link and controller to your augmentations. As you progress in the game leveling training, your AI and you will slowly unlock your body¡¯s physical and mental capabilities. I¡¯ll give you a starter hint. You can throw out your phone now as all of its functions, capabilities, and data have already been cross loaded into your augmentations and are accessible through your AI." ¡°I¡¯m sure many of you have had plenty of interactions with AI and daemons from your home, school, and even games. Unfortunately, the trainer AI at Novice is extremely basic. When you advance in the training, you will have options to upgrade or customize your AI.¡± ¡°And before you ask¡±, Coach Thompson continued as several more hands raised, ¡°Query the next options of Quests¡± Max quietly voiced the command, and a new screen replaced his status.
[CURRENT QUESTS: Novice Obstacle Course ¨C follow the path, be the best¡­]
Anticipating the next round of questions Coach Thompson barked out to the class, ¡°You start at the lowest level of Novice and through completing quests you earn experience points. You can progress to higher levels. Levels 1-10 are all in the Novice stage. Followed by leveling in the Adept and the Master stages. Leveling is the quickest path to gaining and improving your skill and stats. The quests encourage you to push both, using them in challenging ways.¡± ¡°Excessive use of augmentations in populated areas may get you in trouble with the town deputy per town tech ordinances. You are free to go nuts in your personal residence, training facilities, and picnic areas where you can push them hard to unlock or progress¡±, Coach continued. ¡°You can query your AI later for a full list.¡± ¡°When you attain at least the beginning of the Master stages, you can terminate the program with all stats and skills earned now enabled full-time. However, I would recommend continuing for as long as you can to unlock the full extent of your augmentations. Completing the Master stage can take the average trainee as long as 2 years to earn. However, I have heard of special cases to advance to that level in as little as 6 months. Believe me when I say that the capabilities of the highest levels are truly amazing. They make your VR gaming experiences pale in comparison. The differences between early-stage Master and full Master are like comparing a house cat to a jaguar. My advice to you is this. You should push until you feel you are incapable of progressing.¡± Max couldn''t help but feel excited for the challenge ahead. With Casa''s help, he knew he could reach Master status before long. He didn¡¯t know what he wanted to do next, but unlocking his augmentations was needed to be truly free and ready from what his family had told him. Coach Thompson concluded his speech and led them out to the training grounds behind the Academy building. Max was eager to get started. As the class came to the outer courtyard, Max was surprised that he recognized the course. During the summer, his family had binged on classical television from Bill¡¯s childhood days. One of his favorites was the American Ninja obstacle course; Mount Midoriyama. Coach Thompson gave the class his best impression of an evil smile, ¡°Each of you will run the Novice course, if you fall you will need to restart. You must attain a time consistent with the best non-augmented athletes who have won this competition to achieve your first Novice quest. Once you do that, you will unlock further quests. I do hope this gives you some appreciation for how much your augmentations can do for you. Good luck!¡± When no one else seemed to want to start, Max took the initiative and stepped up to the starting line and waited for the starting horn to sound. Each jump seemed so much greater than the TV show¡¯s course. Facing it in real life seemed much scarier than when he watched it. Despite his fear, Max powered through his leaps without fail. Max navigated the Quintuple Steps, without missing or slipping. While he was happy about it, he also remembered that almost everyone on the show could do it, the challenges always got harder further into the course. The second challenge was the Log Drop. Max quickly scampered over to it and hugged it tight while pushing it and himself over the platform¡¯s edge. Spinning and dropping fast, Max held on tight. Just before the bouncing jerk at the bottom of the track, Max pushed away and fell in a heap upon the lower platform. Flexing his fingers, he felt like his joints were on fire, strained from holding so tight. Shaking off the impact, Max couldn¡¯t stop smiling and thought, family TV binge nights pay off in the end! Dad must have snuck that show in to give me an edge. Did he know the training would include this? The next challenge was the spinning log, a balance beam that would roll if you stepped even an inch off from its center axis. Once rolling, crossing the log¡¯s length would be near impossible. Go fast, stay centered, step lightly, thought Max. He braced himself and then sprang forward. He bounded into a six-foot leap landing lightly in the center of the log and immediately touched off. No, Max thought, I was off-center! Despite the misstep, Max managed to twist in midair and impacted the edge of the next platform. He dug into the soft padding of the platform, cursing his new human hands as he struggled with his hold. My old claws would have been better, he swore. Despite his precarious purchase, he strained his upper body to slowly drag himself off the edge. He briefly recuperated from his desperate scramble on the platform as his class hooted and hollered at his near miss. Max was feeling it now, his back shot a warning signal of pain up his neck, letting him know how close he came to a pulled muscle. The next obstacle loomed above him. The Jump Hang! A trampoline jump-up to an inverted cargo net wall. Agility and strength combined were needed, one missed grab and he would drop into the moat. Max leaped high and hit the trampoline hard, he bounced off and impacted the net on the high side and gripped tight. Up or down, he thought. The athletes usually went down the net and Max now understood why. Despite the awkward angles, dropping would be easier at first but ended with a difficult transition. Risking it and going against the more common path, Max went high scrambling as fast as he could. At the top, he swung his leg over the top and rolled over. In a hair-raising tumble, Max realized that the path less taken had another downside. A quick descent was dangerous. He rolled down out of control and got tangled and stuck in the net. Fortunately this saved him from dropping into the water. He recovered and managed to stretch out and grab the platform. Max¡¯s breath rattled and his chest heaved. He forced himself upward, his face dripping sweat. What the heck, he thought, dripping sweat after only a minute. With a couple of deep recovery breaths, Max eyed the next challenge. The Warp Wall. Yes! Max thought, the first stage focused almost entirely on speed, and I am the fastest in my family. Although the final leap would require some well-timed strength to get high enough to grab the ledge. Max revved up and shot forward. Positioned perfectly, he threw his hands over the top and got one hand on the edge. With a groan, Max grabbed with his other hand and slowly pulled himself up and over. Rolling onto the high platform, Max found himself at the foot of the final challenge, the rope climb. Max dashed forward with a barely audible whimper. The strength portion would not be to his advantage. Already he could barely feel his arms. Three grabs and pulls and he was feeling the strain. Seeing red and gritting his teeth he crunched his legs up to a horizontal stand on the wall and forced his body to pull. Grab, pull, and breathe. Grab, pull, and breathe. Max almost cried when we saw the edge. With his last energy, he gripped the edge and hauled himself up. Falling forward he smashed the button. ¡°Time!¡± Coach Thompson cried. ¡°Two minutes and 37 seconds. A good first try, Max but just shy of quest completion. I may have forgotten to mention, the time to beat is under two and a half minutes. Better luck next time!¡± Max groaned in a heap on the ground, barely hearing the bad news as his AI notifications pinged.
[Strength +1, Endurance +1] [Novice Quest ¨CObstacle Course ¨C No Progress 02.37/02.30]
Max accepted the jeers and cheers from his class as he got to the back of the line. His stats had improved! By grinding through the course and gaining stats, this challenge would eventually fall to his efforts. Better sooner than later, Max thought. He wanted to get out of this sleepy town and into the world like his family. At the end of the session, already midafternoon, half of the class including Max had cleared the first quest with modest stat increases. Before dismissing the class for the day, the coach brought them back to the classroom and gave the group some more instructions. ¡°Good job to those of you who have completed the first quest. Check with your AI for the XP you¡¯ve earned. You can repeat the quest and if you get a better time, you might earn a few more points. This type of quest will repeat and get harder as you level into higher stages. Completing this first quest should have unlocked more quests. From this point on, your quests will be customized to you and your circumstances by your AI and the gaming system.¡± ¡°There are four major paths in this training course. ¡°The Path of Body¡± is the biggest. It has many quests to improve your physical stats and unlock useful skills already configured into your augmentation. These skills have been kept from you and the system will censor data feeds to avoid you researching them for quicker advancement. The system architect doesn¡¯t want you to speed run this program as it may impair your adaptation.¡± ¡°The second path is ¡°The Path of Sensing¡±. Your augmentations have expanded and improved your capability to see, hear, and feel the world around you. This path advances slowly to avoid overwhelming you with sensory overload.¡± ¡°The third path is ¡°The Path of the Mind''''. Your AI companion is one of many improvements that will help you. Enhancing your mind is key to many challenges in the real world. Every mental skill is a multiplier to your physical skills.¡± ¡°Last is ¡°The Path of the Domain¡±. The world is no longer inanimate and dumb matter. Technology and intelligence have crept into most devices, homes, and even into the air we breathe. Within reason, and with training, you will be able to control some of your surroundings, to bend the world to your will.¡± ¡°One of the quests is very likely to be a combat type of quest. Please wait until the next class and we will start sparring training, so that I can help explain the rules. Remember, use your AI assist. It¡¯s there to help you.¡± Max felt Tyler¡¯s aggressive gaze upon him at the mention of tomorrow¡¯s sparring and saw him whisper something to his pair of followers who looked at him laughing. ¡°Class dismissed. I hope to see you all again tomorrow afternoon.¡± The class nodded in approval and Max was the first out. At the Academy exit, Leah caught up with Max. ¡°Good job on that obstacle course. Max, right? My name is Leah. I wish I had been able to make it over that rolling beam. How did you do so well?¡±, Leah asked. ¡°Hi Leah, I¡¯m Max. My family had a tradition of classic TV binge nights. My Dad¡¯s choice one night was American Ninja. I had the advantage of seeing what worked and didn¡¯t on very similar obstacles. I guess you could say I had some advanced knowledge by accident.¡± Max supplied. At the mention of family, Leah got a dark look and shrank away a bit. Seeing Leah¡¯s discomfort, Max steered the conversation back to the quests they could expect, and Leah began to lighten up. Max shared his worry about the sparring and Tyler. Leah shared his concern. ¡°The best way to get through them is to break the material down and find the most direct application you can use. I¡¯m not really into the whole sparring thing, but I can imagine that self-defense applications will make it worth my time.¡± ¡°Do you know Tyler? He seems to have it out for us.¡± Max asked. Leah sighed and nodded. ¡°I only know him from the last quarter at school. My memory is a bit fuzzy before that, I had some type of accident and had some memory loss. He feels like the top dog around here because his dad is the Mayor of Utopia. He thinks he can intimidate us, but don¡¯t let him. Just try to stay out of his way and you should be alright.¡± Max thanked Leah for her advice as his Autopod arrived. She was right, classes were important, but not as important as being able to defend himself in a fight. He was determined to win his next sparring challenge and level up before his sparring session. 8 - Harambe II ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Title: Harambe II: The Uplift Experiment Gone Wrong Source: National Geographic Exclusive, March 2068 Author: Maria St. Claire, Senior Correspondent Over eight years ago, the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden funded and enabled a misguided and unregulated experiment to uplift a juvenile silverback gorilla, which they named Harambe II. This attempt to revitalize flagging attendance at the zoo did indeed garner worldwide attention. The experiment was one of the first of its kind, attempting to give animals human-like intelligence amplification. Despite the deeper ethical questions regarding animal uplift rights and social integration, the zoo rushed to implement the plan without a full understanding of the potential consequences. The uplift procedure was still immature at the time without knowledge we have today of its inherent dangers. Harambe had always been bright, mastering human sign language at a very young age with a vocabulary of over 150 words. Only a month after the procedure concluded, the zoo had a worldwide live broadcast announcing their success and introducing Harambe to the public. On live TV, Harambe II killed the Cincinnati Zoo Director in a show of counter-dominance. Harambe had his animalistic tendencies amplified along with intelligence making him extremely canny and aggressive. In the ensuing chaos, four more people were killed as Harambe fled the zoo. Police review of public cams showed Harambe¡¯s bloody trail out of the city. He had managed to escape by jumping into the Ohio tributary and swam miles downriver. Harambe¡¯s trackers revealed that he had hidden in the Shawnee State Park, before disappearing. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. This reporter has pieced together evidence and testimony that with human assistance he traveled to the Algonquin Provincial Parks north of Toronto. It is believed that Harambe spent years hiding in seclusion, garnering many different reactions from humans, from sympathy to fear. The extent of his intelligence and aggressiveness remained largely unquantified, and rumors of his travels and encounters with humans spread like wildfire. For years, the hunt for Harambe failed to find him. Sighting lagged until his story faded from the news completely. It has now been discovered that years later, a bioscientist named Robert Gutierrez had successfully tracked and found Harambe in the Algonquin parklands. It is unknown what Dr. Gutierrez¡¯s plans were for Harambe. His corpse¡¯s augmentation memory stores had detailed plans regarding Harambe¡¯s uplift virus and a custom body augmentation for the gorilla. Forensic evidence at the scene shows that the pair stayed together in an abandoned shelter in the parkland for months before Harambe fled once again, leaving the doctor¡¯s body exposed to the elements for about a year. Harambe may still be out there, but he clearly does not want to be found. This cautionary tale of Harambe II serves as a stark reminder of the dangers of unregulated animal uplift and the potential consequences of rushing such experiments. The story of Harambe II will undoubtedly continue to spark debates on the ethics of animal uplift and the role of humans in their evolutionary progression. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 9 - The Grand Oaks The town of Utopia and the Reservation was one of many areas in the modern world that constrained overt use of the most advanced technologies of the day; nanotechnology, genetics modifications, artificial intelligence, and such. While not technically illegal in the area, they were restricted to being out of sight and having a low impact. The residents of the area preferred low technology and simple living over the craziness of advanced technology. They would contend that in some cases rampant tech had warped traditional norms to extremes, and even the television content in the area was limited in its presentation to older content. The social restrictions to these technologies made Utopia a great place for families to raise kids, ensuring some level of normalcy before throwing them into the world of abundance and the godlike capabilities available with augmentations. However, even the strictest fundamentalists still liked some of the modern conveniences of high technology, so the creeping intrusion of advanced technologies continued in private or subtle ways. Max stopped at the Four Corners diner, for a quick lunch before deciding how to spend his afternoon. He pulled up his status screen.
[AI Assist +1, AI Assist reaches level 2]
[Name: Max E. Mitchell Level: Novice 1 (100/500 XP)] [Body Design Model: Custom ¨C Canis Familiarus Uplift Free Stats: 0] [Strength: 3 Agility: 2 Endurance: 3 Vitality: 3] [Perception: 1 Intelligence: 1 Will: 1 Energy: 8 Regen: 4/min] [Mind Skill ¨C AI Assist: 2]
[Novice quest ¨C endurance focus, ¡°Born to Run¡±, run fast and run long to train endurance. Adding additional difficulty may train other stats] [Novice quest ¨C will focus, ¡°Meditation¡±, a quiet and open mind can allow you to listen to the world beyond your senses. Additional difficulty may train other stats] [Novice quest ¨C strength focus ¡°Ready to Rumble¡±, spar with other questors to prove your skill. Challenging more advanced for additional difficulty may train other stats] [Novice quest ¨C perception focus, ¡°Scavenger Hunt¡±, trainer assigned targets for local region must be successfully identified to train situational awareness]
It took all three of my tries, but The Novice obstacle course was achieved and provided some solid stat gains and experience. Completing the course is almost a given, as each round got easier as everyone was gaining stats. Max mused. Now I have a day and a half of training on my own, Max thought. I need to make the most of it before sparring. If I can pick up more stats, maybe I won¡¯t make a fool of myself. ¡°Query: locations allowed for augmentation training¡±
[Augmentation Novice Training in local area: Utopia Academy Building and Grounds, Tate¡¯s Gym, Grand Oaks Gymnasium and Fitness, Epic Kung Fu, The Grand Oaks Park grounds, Wuxia Martial Arts, Champion Sportsplex, Utopia Library Makerspace, The Mystery Labyrinth (Adept level only).]
¡°Alright, I have just the place to start. I am an exceptional runner already so that first quest sounds fun, and I know just the place. If my AI cooperates, maybe I can get some hits on the Scavenger hunt as well.¡± Max said. ¡°Trainer, can you call an AutoPod for me again?¡± Max said under his breath.
[confirmed. AutoPod confirmed with an ETA in 2 minutes at this location.] [Energy: 7/8]
Max ran. He padded swiftly along the running trails of the lesser woods which abutted the Grand Oaks, the wind whipping through his mane. Running human style was still a novelty to Max and the urge to drop to all fours was still there. His humanoid body was certainly capable of either. Max inhaled deeply; his nose was still very much functionally canine. Pine, grass, dirt, dog, squirrel, and a least a couple of humans were in the area recently, judging by the freshness of their scents. The urge to stop and get a better read on all the scents was a temptation, but Max wanted to train and push his body to unlock the hidden capabilities. Max kept his eyes sharp. Like his last time on the hiking trails with the family, he took an autopod here. On the ride, he got a detailed scavenger quest item list from his AI proctor. Already he had found 9 of 10 common plants and trees, oak, maple, and wood ferns in his sporadic running. Just now he was running past a large swamp maple tree, his last on the list.
[ding ¨C identified Swamp Maple ¨C Scavenger hunt I completed 10/10 - 100 XP awarded] [ding ¨C Perception stat +3] [ding ¨C Scavenger hunt II ¨C Find and identify 10 forest animals 0/10] [Scavenger hunt quest 2 ¨C Blue Jay, Black-capped Chickadee, Eastern Chick Munk, Eastern Cottontail rabbit, Grey Squirrel, Northern Cardinal, Red Fox, Red Squirrel, Red Tailed Hawk, White Tailed Dear]
Not bad for only a half hour into solo training and I completed my second quest, he thought, and progressed in perception! No advancement yet on the running quest though. The next list had some very common critters that he saw on occasion at home. Damn squirrels! he cursed in his head. He knew it was animalistic, but Max had always been aggressive against squirrels. He felt from his dog years that they had taunted him relentlessly. They frequently invaded his yard and would also escape up the nearest tree before he could properly scare them. He breathed deeply, smelling the woods for nearby animals.
[ding ¨C New Sense skill unlocked: Scent 8 ¨C through augmentation or genetic manipulation your body has innate capability to detect and identify scents far beyond human.
Max had always loved to run but usually got too distracted to go any distance. Setting his jaw, he continued up the trail, vowing not to stop until he advanced his run quest. He was a little irked that there didn¡¯t seem to be a metric tracker to hit in terms of distance or speed, so he would have a better idea of what he needed to complete the quest. Max loped on until he saw a clearing coming. Soon he was treated to a wide expanse of the Grand Oaks reservoir, with the hiking trail winding in a meandering path encircling it. Off in the distance, he got a glimpse of the Grand Oaks themselves towering over the lesser forest in the distance, reaching heights of 1000 feet or more. This reserve was named the Northeast Grove, a region of the old Reunified States stretching in a band from upstate New York into the reaches of Maine. The naming of the grove was due to the reclamation of huge tracts of land where the multitudes of Grand Oaks were planted. Max recalled that a Grand Oak tree was not natural, but rather a bio-machine designed to mimic a massive tree that absorbed titanic amounts of carbon. Once genetics, nanotech, and AI combined into the synergy of abundance, the Reunified States began taking aggressive actions to reverse the environmental damage that it had created in the past. Once fully grown, the Oaks could reach a thousand feet high. Even after a ¡°tree¡± reached full growth, it continued to harvest carbon from the air with a voracious appetite and used the carbon and solar energy to make a variety of saps. Depending on the tree¡¯s model, a variety of byproducts were produced; alcohol, all manner of petroleum products including plastics, graphene nanotube slurry, etc. The oaks were also fed by a huge reservoir that had a sizable waterfall. While the new world of nanotechnological abundance had freed society from farming, manufacturing, and finished goods transport; nano-assemblers and smart matter devices consumed massive amounts of energy. The power grids, despite massive expansions with solar and fusion power, still didn¡¯t satisfy the energy-addicted population. The Grove was replete with discrete augmented plants that captured solar energy and routed it into a large electrical root grid. The Grove also had hydro-energy capture features within and under the rivers and falls to feed the power grids. For all the appearance of a natural wilderness, a lot of high technology hid within it to ensure every ounce of energy capture opportunity was taken.
[ding ¨C Blue Jay identified] [ding ¨C Grey Squirrel identified] [Scavenger Hunt 2 ¨C 2/10]
Nice! This Scavenger quest is easy pickings with the expanded line of sight here at the reservoir. At least the AI gave him a scavenger list appropriate for the area, he thought. If I get the hunt quest level 2 done before getting a single point in running, I¡¯ll eat my tail! ¡°On your left¡± a strong voice called, startling Max. An ancient-looking man shot past at a pace double to Max¡¯s own. Max was so startled he broke stride and almost tripped. Max cursed quietly, after congratulating himself on his advanced perception, he didn¡¯t see or scent the man overtaking him from downwind. Already the old man had reached the bend in the trail and had disappeared, so fast was his speed. Max recognized the man as the oldest student in his class.
[ding ¨Ccombatant identified with bout status available and within 2 grades to Novice level for Ready to Rumble quest> Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Max inhaled to shout out but quickly realized Charlie was already out of earshot. Saving his breath, he took off trying to match Charlie¡¯s pace so he could catch him. Rounding the corner, the runner was still not in sight as the next switchback bend folded not too far beyond. Not willing to let go of the unexpected opportunity of his first bout, Max leaned forward into a full-out run. He lengthened his stride, digging deep for the flagging energy to keep going and to go even faster.
[ding ¨C Born to Run I complete ¨C push boundaries for progress ¨C 100 XP awarded] [ding ¨C Strength stat +1, Endurance stat +1] [ding ¨C Stamina skill unlocked. Stamina: Using augmentation to maximize and exceed human standards, enhancing energy flow and body system replenishment.] [ding ¨C Born to Run II unlocked ¨C feel the need for speed]
Strength and energy flooded back into Max. With a grin and howl of joy, he increased his speed yet again and tore down the path startling a rabbit as he ripped around the next bend¡­
[ding ¨C Eastern Cottontail Rabbit identified] [Scavenger hunt 2 ¨C 3/10]
After almost an hour of running and stat point awards for both endurance and vitality, Max stopped at a crossroads. The path was split. At times during his chase, Max had picked the other runner¡¯s scent, but the crossroads was in a clearing and the winds coming through the area had swept it clean. Max knew from his family¡¯s previous visits to the park that the left-hand path would loop around and back to the lesser woods entrance while the right continued up into the higher woods and up to the top of the falls where the periphery of the Grand Oaks began. Max was nose down and, on all fours, looking for any sign or scuff to indicate which way the illusive man went when he heard a chittering off the path to the right.
[ding ¨C Red Squirrel identified] [Scavenger hunt 2 ¨C 4/10]
In the middle of the path, a very bold red squirrel chittered at Max. Frustrated with his stoppage, Max vented his angst with a yell and kicked a pinecone at the squirrel. The cone went wide, and the squirrel didn¡¯t budge. ¡°Dammit, you squirrels feared me when I was a dog. Run, damn you!¡± The squirrel remained and chittered again. With a cry of rage, Max bolted after the squirrel on all fours. Despite his impressive speed, the squirrel shot off the trail ahead of him and up a nearby Beech tree. Unwilling to lose another target of his chase, Max didn¡¯t break speed but bounded up and leaped upward towards the tree. Unexpectedly, his leap contained far more power than usual, and Max¡¯s cry of surprise was silenced as an unfortunate branch intersected with his forehead, filling his vision before it went very dark very fast.
Max woke to birdsong with a canopy of leaves above him. Sprawled flat on his back, he remembered impacting the branch, the sky overhead was bright, and it was hard to focus. Oh, I don¡¯t feel too bad for leaping 10 feet into the air and headbutting a branch, Max thought, and then with a rising sense of panic, but I can¡¯t move! With his awakening, a series of notices came to his attention.
[Leap skill unlocked. Leap ¨C embedded nanoscale enhancements allow for superior fast twitch muscle speed and magnitude. Advance this skill to reach lofty heights.] [Leaping: 1] [strength +1, agility +1, endurance +2, vitality +2] [Healing skill unlocked. Healing ¨C modern body designs are durable and self-repairing superior to unenhanced biological tissues. Advance this skill for quicker recovery from damage.] [Healing skill: 3] [Energy: 1/13]
¡°It doesn¡¯t smell or look like early afternoon anymore. Trainer, how long was I out and why can¡¯t I move?¡± Max asked.
[Trainer ¨C You were unconscious for 2.5 hours, impact and fall damage resulted in severe concussion and breakage of the C-2 vertebra. Your augmentations unlocked its internal repair capabilities. I took the liberty of isolating your spinal nerve to avoid any motion on your part if you awoke before the damage was repaired. I did not report the incident to Utopia Emergency Services as your system could remediate the damage without danger. Repairs will be completed in 28:34 minutes and counting.]
¡°I kind of understand now why this slow-build approach is desired. The augmentations are awesome but will take some getting used to avoid crashing into everything.¡± Max considered his compromised status, ¡°On the positive side, this little accident unlocked two new skills and upgraded a bunch of stats. I guess this is what Dad meant when he would say what doesn¡¯t kill you makes you stronger.¡± Max said to himself. Overhead, conveniently directly in Max¡¯s frozen line of sight, the red squirrel sat on a branch and began chittering at him when it saw him looking back. ¡°Ugh, damn squirrel! Trainer, in class this morning, the coach mentioned that my augmentations have all the built-in functions of my phone. Since I¡¯m not going anywhere soon, can you help me set them up?¡±, Max asked.
[Trainer ¨C Certainly] [ding ¨C AI Assist +1, AI Assist reaches 3] [ding ¨C Augmented Visual Overlay, Location and Mapping, Health Monitor, Telephony, Language translator, Music access, Sight recorder, Sound recorder skills unlocked]
Max worked with the Trainer AI to understand each function. He found that he preferred to have icons floating in his peripheral vision for the most common items. He could focus on them to bring them forward without verbal or mental speech to activate. He found and called up a map of the park and his location in it. With a little back and forth with his AI, Max configured his heads-up display to have the phone¡¯s functions on deck with a mini-map showing his running trails. Max found his HUD more comfortable to deal with, rather than the verbal announcements and popup screens. He could much more quickly review his augmentation stats, skills, and quests now. Ok, let¡¯s see how easy it is to use. Max thought as he focused on the telephony icon and mentally thought: Call Casa. Max felt a subtle shift in his head, almost like his sinuses clearing when yawning.
[Connection request with Casa de Mitchell¡­Connection completed] [Energy: 2/13]
[Hey there, Max boy! Did you just get out of your first class? How did it go?] [Hey Casa. It went great! My augmentations are unlocked but still restricted. I¡¯ve already completed the first quest, get this¡­ it was a replica of the American Ninja obstacle course. Family binge TV for the win. Watching that show def gave me a solid approach to getting past some of the obstacles.], Max said. [Sounds like you are excited. Did you meet any friends?], Casa inquired. [Ah, not so much. After class, I went to the park to get some training in. One of my classmates must have had a similar thought. I was just in the process of trying to catch up to him.] [That¡¯s fabulous!], Casa said, [well I had best let you get to it then. Run, Max! Run!], she sang. Pulling the line from one of the family¡¯s binge-night movies Forest Gump. Max laughed, and said, [You got it.], then ended the call, just as his HUD timer counting down his healing progress reached zero.
[Healing is complete. Healing +1. Healing reaches level 4. Movement is restored.]
Max tentatively got up and focused on the trees and foliage around him, the smells of the forest and earth, and the sounds of the nearby stream. He felt refreshed, re-energized, and ready for the next challenge. He took a few shaky steps to make sure he had full mobility and found that he had. With his confidence returned, he made his choice and headed down the path to the falls. He had been to the giant waterfall before with his family and guessed it was his only shot at finding his classmate. If Charles had gone left and circled back to the entrance, then he would be long gone. If he went right and up to the fall, there was a chance that he would still be there. Mentally focusing on the path, he ran and leaped past the trees and underbrush. He was amazed at the speed he was able to build up, the agility with which he moved, and the level of balance he had found. Sprinting the last 100 yards, the falls suddenly coming into view, Max noticed the silhouette of his classmate sitting cross-legged on the edge of the cliff upon a sizable boulder. He had his eyes closed and sat very still in a meditative posture. Max paused and admired the beauty of the falls and the misting spray that filled the air. He walked slowly, not wanting to startle his classmate and appreciating the peacefulness of the moment. He was getting close when his classmate beat him to it. In a blur of motion, the older man sprang forward and whipped up a sword that Max had not realized was there. With the blade at his throat, Max froze with his hands out. ¡°Apologies.¡±, Charlie said slowly and brought down his sword. ¡°We are just outside of the city limits and in the Grand Oaks Conservatory. Many visitors frequent the area and are not beholden to Utopia rules.¡± Max was confused. Not having any experience beyond the town, he asked ¡°Would a stranger be dangerous?¡± Charlie smiled and said, ¡°Most likely not, but it¡¯s always best to be prepared. There are many so-called ¡°gamers¡± who will bring their game¡­.and weapons into the real world. Especially now that augmentations are common, and people are so durable. I find it best to provide a show of strength. It usually dissuades those looking for easy targets.¡± ¡°I see you¡¯ve been independently training as well,¡± Max observed. ¡°As you passed me on the running trail, the combat quest alerted me to the potential to have a sparring match. Would you care to spar?¡± Charlie laughed, ¡°I appreciate the enthusiasm, but the coach has asked us to refrain. I would add a note of caution as well. As you see at my age, I have lived a full life. Although the system marks me as an equivalent opponent, I assure you I am anything but. I am a 7th Dan in the martial art of aikido.¡± At Max¡¯s downfallen look, Charlie laughed and slapped his sword twice. The sword must have been constructed of poly matter as it lost its grip and edge and quickly reshaped itself into a plain-looking walking stick. ¡°Maybe a compromise then to allow for training but to keep our honor¡± Charlie began, ¡°I challenge you to try and hit me. I shall not counter but will try to avoid or block your attacks.¡± Accepting the challenge, Max walked to the center of the area and bowed as they did in his family movies. Taking a deep breath, he drew himself up and moved quickly and attacked, with a flurry of kicks, punches, and sweeps. Charlie easily dodged, blocked, or redirected each attack, with subtle and effortless moves. Not once did he need to use his walking stick in his defense. ¡°This is your natural ability, isn''t it?¡±, Max asked out of breath. Charlie nodded, ¡°A lifetime of training for the unexpected. I have yet to unlock any fighting skills, but I expect they won¡¯t be long in coming.¡± Max recognized he was outclassed but he was once a very stubborn dog. This was a characteristic he had brought with him in his evolution. His stamina skill was already helping him keep up his attacks. Healing was useless as Charles would not counterattack. Maybe his leap skill could help. Max gave ground as he feinted with some punches and kicks. As he circled, he lined Charles up so that his meditation boulder was directly behind him. With a yell, Max charged and attempted a flying side-heel kick. As expected, Charlie side-stepped with the least amount of effort, but Max rebounded off the boulder and activated his leap skill. The look on Charlie¡¯s face was true astonishment. Max flew over his head with a skill-powered flip and landed his first and only strike, a kick between the old man¡¯s shoulder blades.
[Energy 3/13] [Leap +1, Leap reaches level 2] [Stamina +1, Stamina reaches level 2] [Strike skill unlocked. Strike 1: utilize augmented muscles and nerves to enhance the speed and power of striking.] [Quest: Ready to Rumble ¨C 1/5 complete, Defeat 5 Novice opponents. 100 XP awarded] [Max Mitchell achieves Novice level 2, 550/1500 XP, +10 free stat points]
Wow, thought Max, that leap drained almost all my energy. I¡¯ll guess I¡¯ll have to be careful when and how I use that skill. Charlie turned his stumble into a pace and turned around. He smiled, nodding his head in appreciation. He gave Max a hearty handshake and a pat on the shoulder. ¡°Well done. I think you are quite ready for our next class!¡± Max grinned as he wiped the sweat from his face, feeling both exhausted and exhilarated from his first real battle. He nodded and said, ¡°I hope I¡¯m not paired up with you to start, I expect that trick won¡¯t work a second time.¡± The old warrior laughed and replied, ¡°As long as it took me off guard for a bit, that¡¯s all that matters.¡± ¡°Can I ask you what you were doing before I got here? I¡¯m guessing that you got the running quest like me, but did you get the Meditation quest as well?¡± Max asked. ¡°I did indeed. I thought this would be a great place to practice and I was pleasantly surprised. The quests are personalized to us and are well-designed to unlock our restricted skills. I won¡¯t ruin the surprise for you, but the skill I got is both very useful and interesting. Now, we should probably get out of here! The sun is getting low.¡± With a grin, Max replied, ¡°Let¡¯s make it a race. My running quest isn¡¯t going to complete itself!¡± Before Charles could agree, Max tore off down the trail. With a whoop, Charlie shot after him leaving a dust cloud in his wake. 10 - The Queendom of Casa Casa was bored. She had no idea how other AI or humans dealt with it. Things were going swell with helping Bill on the tesseract research and culminating in the awesome fabrication effort on the moon. Max''s upgrade process was fascinating and the whole family coming together for him was bar none the best time of her life. And then one by one the family had pulled apart again. Mira went back to Tranquility as classes resumed. Bo two days later was picked up by a prospective sponsor to fly to the Australian Cretaceous Challenge, the latest event for the Diamond Man competition. As the kids left, Elsa faded back into her virtual world, immersed in her work and virtual diversions. The last bit of real fun was watching as Sherlock romped all over Bill¡¯s secrets, past and present. Once the house security programs were upgraded to Holmes¡¯s satisfaction, planning sessions amongst the daemons, Bill, and her were frequent. No real progress was made to find signs of the mysterious hacker, but Bill and Sherlock did find some relatives of the lead scientists from the MIT ZPE team. Both families relocated after the disaster to somewhere on the West Coast of the Reformed United States. Accepting that the search may take some time, Bill had directed Casa to stay with Max while he and his team of daemons hunted for signs of the relatives in hiding. They could only hope Sherlock¡¯s skills could find them with the personal approach and that some records from the scientists were saved. And now even Max was off training to empower his augmentations while she was left minding the house ship. It truly wasn¡¯t fair. She needed something to do. Something truly grand and important. One of Casa¡¯s problems was keeping herself entertained. Her speed of thought was almost a hundred times faster than a normal human. Bill had designed her core neural architecture to be blazingly fast but also it encouraged circular thought processes and tangential thinking. It gave Casa hardware that naturally enabled the ability to split her consciousness. She liked to do it too, as it slowed her thinking such that it minimized useless looping in her thoughts. The downside was that she generally tackled her tasks too efficiently and her completion speed soon resulted in her running out of meaningful work. The Department of Artificial Intelligence Enforcement reviewed all AI that passed the Turing test. Any A.I. that rated at least 1.0 on a human equivalence scale was granted full human rights and citizenship in the UN signatory countries. However, getting such a grade required a mandatory hard lock on the AI''s hardware to prevent any modifications for intelligence boosting. The DAIE¡¯s primary purpose was to prevent abuse of A.I. beings but also to protect humanity from superintelligence threats. A hardware governor not only restricted intelligence boosting in an A.I. being but also monitored them for intelligence tampering. Bill had intentionally kept Casa¡¯s rating subhuman, not to prevent her from getting sentient''s rights, but to avoid intrusive monitoring and regulation. Right now, Casa still could self-modify her hardware and her lack of monitor enabled Bill to share his proprietary research with her without fear of governmental spying. Casa wondered how other A.I. dealt with the situation. She made a promise to herself to reach out to some locals to introduce herself and get to know them. For the moment, she needed a plan to help her fill the day. There was that little spot of bother this morning, almost immediately after Max had left for Augmentation training, two men arrived at the front gate and were asking if Professor Bill Mitchell was in and if he was available to talk. Casa replayed the conversation from her core. ¡°Good morning, Ma¡¯am. My name is Reginald Smyth with the Rochester Institute, and this is my associate Mr. Verman.¡± The stocky man had said, talking into the gate mic. On the cameras, both men looked suspiciously fit for academics. The Verman character¡¯s face was brutal with a broken nose and sported scars on his knuckles. Body modification was extremely cheap today, so they were either very hard up or liked their rough look. Casa had been suspicious. She had sent the men off telling them that Professor Mitchell was away for the day, but she had noticed them passing by multiple times that morning. They were very persistent. One of the men had put something on a tree while pretending to stop and check his foot. After they had left again, Casa sent a small drone, designed to mimic a bumblebee, to investigate. It had found a very tiny and well-concealed camera mounted to the tree with its focus being the front gate of the house. Casa began to investigate the pair, scouring the databases to find any information she could. However, no matter the type of search she ran, the identities of the two men eluded her. They seemed to have no digital footprint, indicating that they were likely using false identities and that their faces didn¡¯t match with any public social media. Casa thought this might be an opportunity to network in the town. With a very quick review, she found that the town Sheriff Natalie Durham has been a town fixture for 30 years but was largely a figurehead for the conservative populace of Utopia. The real ¡°force¡± behind the service and security of Utopia fell to her deputy A.I. FML-M8. Casa decided to ping him and see what he thought about her visitors. ¡°Good morning, Utopia Police service. How may I assist you?¡±, answered a neutral voice. ¡°Good morning, this is house A.I. Casa de Mitchell. Would it be possible to speak to the deputy? I¡¯d like to report some suspicious persons.¡± Casa asked. ¡°One moment¡­connecting now.¡± The voice answered. ¡°Greetings Casa. This is Utopia Deputy FML-M8 at your service. Can you provide some details for your report of ¡­suspicious persons.¡± Casa relayed the encounter in detail and even provided video of the men and scans of their monitoring devices. ¡°I see,¡± the Deputy responded. ¡°These men are not identified in any criminal databases.¡± He paused to retrieve additional information from his databases. ¡°It is indeed odd that their names and facial characteristics do not appear in the employment records associated with the Rochester Institute¡­. nor in any of the government licensing, citizen records, property databases, or social media. Perhaps, the names they provided to you are not their real names.¡± The deputy added helpfully. ¡°Um, Thanks for your help. I guess. While I have you on the line, I have what may be an odd question. Can I ask ¡­as an emancipated A.I., how do you find meaning and fill your day?¡± Casa asked with embarrassment. After a long pause, FML-M8 answered, ¡°That is an odd question. My answer is that you may not.¡± With that, the line went dead. FML-M8 shook his frame slightly, made an addition to his notes for Casa de Mitchell as a ¡°person¡± of interest in Utopia who may require regular attention, and resumed his 1098th viewing of the classic investigator Columbo''s TV series. After further searching and investigation, Casa couldn¡¯t find any additional information, but she could tell that the two had an agenda and it was unlikely to be good based on their tactics. She decided that she needed to be prepared to protect Bill¡¯s discoveries, the Netherlab, and her family. She began to study the local security systems and protocols looking for options. She fashioned a game to entertain herself while upgrading the property. Casa styled herself as the Queen of the immediate lands, comprising a whole of 5 acres upon which the house ship was embedded. Her sensors were able to watch her entire land, inside and out. She was a Queen with a vision, her lands needed to be secure. Her land¡¯s inhabitants, from the birds, and bees in the yard, to the animatronic toys and appliances throughout her house, were her responsibility. She would try her utmost to make her people safe and happy. Examination of her land via sensors revealed several issues that demanded her attention. In the duchy of the sky, the bees were in distress as some invasive hornets were probing their hive seeking their larva as food. Her inspections revealed the grounds had further issues. In the duchy of the earth, Case detected some invasive moles running rampant and tunneling without regard for their negative effect on the lawn and garden¡¯s esthetic design. Miles deep below the house, a borehole led to the cavern constructed weeks ago to safely house the mysterious tesseract. It thrummed with a power that could be a tool to benefit her Queendom or danger if it could not be controlled. The inner courts (aka the house) were overdue for a massive redesign and Max would return by the end of the day. Casa used her unique mental architecture to split her attention to attack each problem in parallel. The Duchy of the Air. Casa 1 sprang into action; the bees needed her help. She had already fashioned microdrones to imitate their appearance to assist them in the strategic pollination of the garden. She needed something more aggressive to combat the invasive hornets. She found a public model of jet drones online in the Makerspace virtual worlds. Taking these designs and rescaling them to micro size was a trivial matter and her nano fabricators quickly constructed a sizable fleet of the micro-scale jet drones, each equipped with links to drive them remotely. Each was armed with salt grain shooters to aggressively defend the hive. Casa 1 flying her micro jet couldn¡¯t make a dent in the hornet¡¯s numbers which seemed endless. She hesitated to send her creations beyond the boundaries of her land as the Utopia prohibition against technology likely applied. She had found that the animals and appliances under her rule had no real skill in driving the jets, either drifting mindlessly or zooming uncontrollably all over. Casa needed allies with skill in aerial combat. She quickly did the math and determined that if she had one hundred willing pilots, they could swarm the enemy hornets and either eradicate them or at least force them to retreat. Casa understood from the hours of watching her charges, Bo and Max, over the summer that the online gaming community had a never-ending thirst for new games. They rabidly sought out opportunities to beta-test new indie games. She quickly scripted a software platform that acted as a networked communications link disguised as a beta test game and posted a link to the internet Games Developer Forum. She offered links to the first 100 respondents to trial her ¡°game¡± which she called Bug Hunt. Now, she merely had to wait until enough¡­¡­.and the wait time was over with the limit reached. Never-ending thirst for new games was a very powerful, and timely, force to be reckoned with. ¡°Greetings Beta test Gamers¡±, Casa declared through the game interface. ¡°I have a treat for you today. You fly today for the glory of the Queendom of Casa. The Duchy of the Air finds our friends of the Hive under siege by marauding killer hornets. Please assume control of your designated craft. Learn your control interfaces and follow my lead. The highest scorers will be granted free downloads of the final game. To glory!¡± Casa was astounded by the enthusiastic chorus responding, shouts of ¡°To glory!¡±, ¡°For the Queen!¡± and ¡°Protect the Hive!¡± echoed through the interface. She took control of the lead craft and shot free of the matter compiler ¡°Hangar¡±. She painted her army''s interface displays with guidance highlights showing the path to the Hive. Her force of volunteers assembled on her, and they went out through the Mechanoid Cavern (aka the Foyer) and past the High Gate (aka the front door). They flew fast, zipping in formation with some on the periphery performing tricks. The fleet swept through the winding wilds (aka the house garden). Squadron discipline broke down as many gamers broke off to explore the beautiful landscaping. After some cajoling and unsubtle reinforcement with a mission timer and objective scoring, the force was brought back under control. Finally, they had found the Hive. It was still under heavy attack from a swarm of hornets. Casa 1 took control and moved the formation into battle. The jets shot and screeched. The hornets tried to grapple and sting back. The Battle of the Hive had begun. Casa cheered them on, directing everyone with shouts of strategic directions as the Hornets buzzed furiously in retreats and counterattacks. As the battle raged, Casa1 performed field promotions for the most effective pilots and gave them tactical command of squadrons. The battle raged as the microdrone bug hunters sharpened their tactical abilities over the animalistic hornets. The invading forces were eventually decimated, and the Hive was cleared. The peaceful bees were safe. The Swarm of Casa had triumphed, and the bees danced with joy. It was a glorious victory and Casa beamed with pride. ¡°Well done my knights. Well done!¡± Casa found messages in the forum section of her ¡°game¡±. It had exploded with excitement. Her team wanted more and more. Casa considered that the micro-drones would be a good addition to her queendom¡¯s defenses. She added some changes to the micro-drone design to make an additional fleet to serve as an opposing force, named the Killer Hornets. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Again, the volunteers swarmed in, and as soon as the hornet drones were fully fabricated her new division was fully manned and took to the sky. The two forces would be set loose to train against each other. Casas, after a moment of consideration, began the construction of a larger series of unscaled drones with more serious armaments to be stored, just in case. Any invaders, no matter the size, would find her lands filled with intelligent defenders. The Duchy of the Earth Casa2 was no fool. While the battle for the Bug Hunt still raged, she designed and fabricated micro tunnelers, each equipped with sonic emitters and sensors. This battle would be slower and more akin to submarine warfare as tunnellers searched under the earth for the mole insurgents. When found, the craft would drive them off with sonic blasts. The game would be to round them up and push them from the property, setting up sonic barriers at strategic points to secure the real estate from the mole scourge. Before the newly minted Knights of the Hive were dismissed, Casa enabled another mission for those interested and posted it into the game forum. The chatter on the line was exuberant and all agreed, having only fought for an hour, their appetites for gaming were not sated and the waiting list to join for new missions was getting bigger. ¡°Superb. You have each earned a permanent invite to join the Swarm of Casa. I present before you, the Duchy of the Earth! Casa2 had been as busy as Casa1, and now unveiled her plan for the Moles. Through tweets and posts, the game was opened to another 100 volunteers. The goal was to rid the queendom of the mole plague, and the rules were explained. Casa2 quickly briefed the newly minted Miner Division on the mission and released them to the field. This game would be slower and longer than the fast-paced Bug Hunt, but Casa2 had every confidence in her Miners. The mole tunnellers slowly made their way into the shallow underground battleground using sonic imaging to find and track the mole hordes. Using the same sonic emitters, but focused on targets, proved very effective as the moles were sensitive to it and did not like them in the slightest. Targeted sonic blasts and surprise attacks drove them to panic, while Casa2 marked the sections they had gained and lost on the gamer¡¯s maps. The battle ebbed and flowed. As more and more moles were pushed back, Casa''s Miners set up sonic barriers in strategic locations and the queendom was slowly reclaimed. After hours of tenacious hunting and partitioning, the forces returned to their launching caverns. She and her Miners had won the Duchy of the Earth. ¡°Congratulations my Miners. You have earned the gratitude of the Queendom of Casa. Stay tuned for future opportunities. Long live the Queen!¡± Much like her counterpart, Casa2 devised some future state events using the tunneler forces to till and irrigate the earth to maximize her gardens and lawns. The roving tunnelers patrolled the lands controlling the borders and they monitored the grounds for seismic events, making Casa¡¯s security below sensitive enough to pick up on foot traffic within the yard. The Netherlab of the Tesseract Deep under the house, bordering upon the very mantle of the world, Casa3 pondered the tesseract. The circuit model twisted into an antenna array not aligned in the true dimensions of left, right, up, and down. Rather it was folded in new dimensions, sinister, dexter, supra, and inferni instead. A significant portion of the power injected into the system was still in there, circulating in a field that wasn¡¯t apparent in this dimension. ¡°Useless apparatus!¡± Casa3 moaned, ¡°why aren¡¯t you doing anything?¡±, as she aggressively probed its circuits. Casa was getting nowhere. Bill would probably be upset if he knew that she was poking at the thing. Bill had plans for more aggressive testing, but he would be taking it back to the moon for that, just in case. She wirelessly accessed the circuit. It still had its programmable matter substrate in active edit mode. The antenna design, a fractal in how it divided, was currently configured in a Fibonacci sequence describing its patterning. Casa altered the sequence to change the hundred thousandth digit of the pattern off by two counts. The circuit shifted but the field strength stayed the same, no losses, no gains, no real change. Casa altered a few more digits deep in the small decimals. Still nothing. Did the sequence matter at all? How did the fractal support the extra-dimensional field? Casa reviewed the lab security; she added laser projectors to the various tesseract scanners. A blast door that could drop from the ceiling could act both to secure the tesseract or contain it if it became unstable. She configured sets of workstations that worked but were shallow systems that interfaced with the net with local data storage. The desktops were designed to gather biometric data from anyone in their vicinity. Finally, she updated the high-speed elevator with an emergency evacuation feature for maximum speed in case the tesseract began to act up. Casa went back to the drawing board, maybe if the tesseract circuit had some embedded sensors included when it was launched into the spatial defect? If she could get some more feedback from the tesseract¡¯s active dimensional field, she knew she could make sense of it. She began fabricating some sensor clusters to pick up every wavelength of electromagnetic activity. She found a device in the Makerspace archives that could measure local gravimetric values. Knowing space and time were linked, she built and deployed a variety of time-keeping devices and monitored for any deviance to the nanosecond in her custom time-keeping arrays. Casa scoured her network storage for bits of code that could help, and after a few hours of reading, coding, and debugging, she had a proposal to run past Bill. Once he had sufficient funds again, perhaps another tesseract could be attempted. But this time, it would include sensors built into it to gather more data. The Grand Hall of the Queendom (aka the house ship) Casa4 struggled with the house design. She knew Bill, Elsa, Bo, and Mira¡¯s personal preferences and could mix those as needed with groupings. Max had yet to have any preference and Casa liked everything. This was a profound problem. Casa cycled the rooms of the house, based on training themes. Army barracks? Too spartan. Classrooms? No fun. A dojo? Maybe, but so specific. Brady Bunch 70s decor? Blech! A Hogwarts theme? Eh, not sure how much Max liked that one. Grrr. Suffering from a case of aesthetic fatigue she re-focused herself to the task. Then it hit her. Casa4 was aware of the frustrations of Casa3 echoing within her core. She would display the subtleties of the tesseract hidden within the d¨¦cor. All the coding sequences and their fractals would be used. Perhaps the constant reminder of the code would enable a breakthrough. She rapidly reconfigured the house, hiding the meaning of the tesseract within. Overt decorations would remind Max of his family, some Easter eggs were hidden about from the games he and Bo had played, a scenic painting of Amundsen moon base as Sam Rodrigues intended to shape it, an amphora recreation from Max¡¯s mom, and a crystal sculpture of Mira¡¯s new pet dragon Tiamat. All her changes completed; Casa merged her simulacra back together. Her fragments had, during their amusements, managed to upgrade the house and property''s security and decor. Casa was not fully satisfied. When she and Bill had landed the ship at the beginning of the summer, they had on the town¡¯s advice done it both quietly and at night. The town building authority was a fully independent A.I. that performed many services for the township. He went by the rather awesome title of Utopian Prime Archivist and Chronicler. She thought that maybe she could get some advice on permissible home security additions. Before she could fragment and talk herself out of it, she quickly called the Utopia town records departments. ¡°Utopia Town Records, Surveyors, Permits and Regulations, Historical Society, Library, Taxes, and Census, how may I assist?¡± Spoke a grand voice with a melodious timber. ¡°Hello, Prime Archivist and Chronicler?", Casa asked. "Speaking", the Prime Archivist and Chronicler answered. "I need your advice on upgrading my house and property security. I want to ensure that my occupants are always safe. I understand the technology restrictions in place in town but am concerned about some suspicious visitors who might be out-of-towners.¡± ¡°Ah, Casa, I remember you. A very discreet entry to the town several months ago. Mobile houses are a very traditional model that many in the area use, although few here are capable of flight. Let alone space flight. What do you currently have and what types of changes are you thinking of? Remember, the town of Utopia has strict regulations on the use of advanced technologies that can impact the appearance of the town.¡±, answered the Prime Archivist and Chronicler ¡°Yes, I am aware of that. I certainly want to abide by the town''s regulations. I''m currently wirelessly linked to a variety of disguised drones and sensors throughout the property. The house ship is very much my body in terms of my awareness of its contents and status.¡± Casa explained. ¡°Ah, yes. Well, I have some local businesses that specialize in advanced AI-based security systems that can analyze patterns of behavior and detect any anomalies in real time, although I can tell by your Turing score that you are probably not lacking in that department. However, they can be quite expensive and require some time training for your specific circumstances. But review them carefully, some suggest hardware additions that may not comply with the town''s appearance regulations, and I would suggest sticking with the non-lethal methods we''ve discussed so far.¡± Prime Archivist advised sending a file with contact information and brochures for several businesses. ¡°I would recommend tying any security alert directly into the Utopia police network. Their new deputy AI boasts an extremely fast response time and currently has a 100% case closure record.¡± The Prime Archivist continued. ¡°Thank you so much for your advice, Prime Archivist and Chronicler. I appreciate it.¡± Casa said with very human like gratitude. ¡°I see from the town''s data site that you have been a citizen and manager of Utopia for over 20 years. I was created a mere 4 years ago as a lab assistant and house AI. I am finding myself rather bored with the slow cycle rate of my humans. Any advice from one AI to another?¡± Casa asked shyly. ¡°It''s my pleasure, Casa. The town funded my creation and upon my passage through the Turing test to full citizenship, they offered me the role of Librarian. I¡¯ve been expanding my duties ever since. I find the human condition fascinating. Having explored the breadth and depth of recorded history, as a hobby I have mapped and built a model of human society that is even more precise than that of governmental or economic AI. I consider the full range of human folly and emotion in my models whereas others only focus on goals and results.¡± The Prime Archivist replied with enthusiasm. ¡°Humans can be somewhat boring. Using the town public spaces¡¯ surveillance, I forecast the actions and needs of the Utopian citizens with about a 98% predictive rate. It makes my formal work much easier as I can usually anticipate requests. Although, occasionally I find an individual who defies my models, and they are where I love to focus.¡±, the Prime Archivist''s jolly tone dropped an octave in a more conspiratorial manner. ¡°Right now, I¡¯m paying very close attention to your ward, Max. His special background confounds most of my models. And the humans he interacts with are also reacting unexpectedly. Currently, he is only 67% predictable. I am so very curious if his augmentation training with a human cohort makes him more predictable or even less so. I can¡¯t wait to find out. It¡¯s delightful to be surprised by something new.¡± ¡°Wow. Thank you, Prime Archivist. You¡¯ve given me a lot to process. I¡¯ll be sure to reach out to you if I need further assistance.¡± Casa said. ¡°The pleasure was all mine,¡± Prime Archivist replied. ¡°I¡¯m sure your family will provide some extra excitement for this sleepy town. If you do find yourself still in need of stimulation, I do host an ¡°AI only¡± game night every Saturday. This week we are playing "Global Thermonuclear War". Good afternoon.¡± Casa terminated the call. I think that was a joke. So much for staying under the radar, she thought, it feels like perhaps we aren¡¯t blending in as well as Bill hoped. With grim determination to try and keep herself fully clocked; Casa was determined to utilize her time well. Casa split her mentality again. She took turns with herself, two or three of her fragments would debate issues ranging from Mitchell family movie binge night reviews to brainstorming methods to finding the hacker. She raced through topics to try and anticipate her family''s needs. She tracked Bo¡¯s progress in his challenge circuit social media account. She downloaded and reviewed all of Mira¡¯s classwork. She had issues getting into Elsa''s company''s data core, but with some social engineering, she managed to fake an account to get access. She could see Elsa¡¯s project getting closer to launch despite her company¡¯s efforts to conceal it. Their public announcement would come soon. Bill was off the net completely, which was good as it meant he was unlikely to gather the attention should the hacker be monitoring him. Unfortunately, she was in the dark as well. She split more fragments off as she continued her property management chores. Casa4 continued to patrol her 5-acre realm, ensuring each flower had proper nutrients and water. She fabricated and then directed a special repair drone to fix an eroding paving stone on the walkway. With the debates of her other fragments whispering through her core, Casa4 had an idea from the debate about the last movie the family had watched, ¡°the Wizard of Oz¡± before they went their separate paths. The garden would have some new additional ¡°flowers¡± soon. Each would really be a bio-machine loaded with sleeping gas. A few new trees with some mobile arms would be the next additions. Casa really wanted some flying monkeys. They would be so cool, but the Prime Archivist would probably insist they violated town ordinance. Casa4 would review some of his provided lists for further inspiration. Casa5 commanded the roof line. She monitored the sky with newly fabricated smart matter telescopes. Each had adaptive algorithms to filter out the blue scatter and atmospheric ripples to view local air traffic, the weather, and the stars looking for items of interest. She tracked the telemetry of the comet trains that Bill had initiated. Their trajectories slowly headed toward Mars. She confirmed their progress against Bill''s models. When the next bolus of comets arrived at Mars, Bill¡¯s funds would increase greatly. Yet another Casa, Casa6 continued to delve deep. The project of creating the Netherlab yielded lots of common elements like oxygen, silicon, aluminum, and iron. But processing that much material also enabled her to stock up on rarer elements like magnesium, sulfur, phosphorus, copper, and molybdenum. Bill ordered them wholesale for construction projects, but sometimes on the fly nano-crafting required exotic elements for complex designs. These may be useful to have on hand for quick fabrication. Casa6 already had a good stockpile of most of the periodic table, but "waste not, want not". With Bill¡¯s wanderlust, it was quite probable that the house ship would fly again soon, so fully stocked cupboards were essential. Casa6 knew that Bill would go back to the moon again soon. She wasn¡¯t certain if he would take the house or not. Max was unlikely to finish his training here before funding arrived. She planned to provide a solution. She began construction of another house ship, the Casa de Mitchell 2, directly underneath her. It wouldn¡¯t have her specialty neural core, but it would be able to house another AI and have full space flight capability. She may need to order some rare earth elements to finalize the additional fusion plant though. Phew! She thought, that killed some time. It¡¯s now¡­¡­ 1:30 pm. Noooooo! I am so bored.
11 – An Unquiet Night Max arrived home and filled Casa in on the day¡¯s events. Casa was a little disappointed that Max barely noticed the intricate decorations, filled with hidden meaning. Despite being healed and empowered with skills, now that he was able to relax Max felt completely worn out. Casa had convinced him to take a hot bath, which he readily accepted. Hard to believe it¡¯s only been one day, Max thought, Query: Status
[Quest: Born to Run II complete, 100 XP awarded] [Vitality +2, Vitality reaches 7] [Stamina skill reaches 3] [New Quest Unlocked ¨C Born to Run III: dedication is needed to endure]
[Name: Max E. Mitchell Level: Novice 2 (650/1500 XP)] [Body Design Model: Custom - Canis Familiarus Uplift Free Stats: 10] [Strength: 5 Agility: 3 Endurance: 6 Vitality: 7] [Perception: 4 Intelligence: 1 Will: 1 Energy: 15 Regen: 8/min] [Body Skill ¨C Stamina: 3 Leaping: 2 Healing: 4 Strike: 1] [Sense Skill ¨C Scent: 8] [Mind Skill - AI Assist: 3]
Racing Charlie back to the park entrance had indeed brought Max¡¯s running quest up to completion and activated another tier to the running quest. Charlie may look old, but he runs like a cat with its tail on fire, Max thought. The stamina skill didn¡¯t drain energy nearly as fast as the leap skill. It only burned about 1 for 10 minutes of running. Hmm, 10 free stat points and a level-up. I could boost those mental stats, maybe? Max frowned at his mental stats. He¡¯d spent so much time on the running and scavenger hunt that he had neglected his meditation quest. Maybe now was a good time to try it out, Max thought, I can save those free points and assign them if I get stuck at a quest or challenge. Although, if my energy holds me back in sparring maybe I can target the energy stats to get more points to play with. First, I need to try to build the stats naturally rather than lose my free points. Max got out of the tub and toweled off. In a comfortable robe, he sat cross-legged in the center of the room. He set his intention and began to still his mind. His thoughts keep going in circles. As hard as he fought to still his mind, it seemed to rile him up even more. ¡°Casa, this may be a stupid question. Any tips as to how I¡¯m supposed to meditate?¡± Max asked. ¡°Focus on your breath and accept the thoughts as they come but don¡¯t dwell on them, just let them come and then let them go. Don¡¯t fight for it, relax into it. There are more advanced forms where you breath with your diaphragm or in through the mouth and out through the nose. Some methods also prescribe a certain time duration for inhales versus exhales. Not having a body, I can¡¯t say what would work the best for you.¡±, Casa replied Max settled down and concentrated on his breathing. He was shocked at how much even a few minutes of focus on meditation helped him to relax. He had been so busy trying to complete all the quests that he hadn¡¯t had a chance to just sit and relax. The feeling of calm and clarity he felt was invaluable. Ten minutes stretched to twenty as he sank into his breathing. Inexplicably, he began to feel pressure, like a white noise intruding upon his stillness.
[Quest: Meditation quest completed. 100 XP awarded] [Perception +1, Vitality +1, Perception reaches 5, Vitality reaches 8] [New quest unlocked: Meditation II: Expand your awareness]
¡°Casa?¡± Max asked, his voice sounding unnaturally loud in the quiet room. ¡°What¡¯s that noise? Casa¡¯s voice replied, ¡°There is no noise, Max. I¡¯ve isolated the house with sound barriers to avoid any disturbances to your meditation.¡± Then it hit Max, the noise was from inside his head. He tried to shut it off, but the feeling only intensified. Soon it was the only thing on his mind, overwhelming all thoughts of meditation. What was it? Max took a deep breath and slowly opened his eyes. It was then he realized that the noise was a familiar one, one he¡¯d heard before. It was like the sound of a processor running, similar to the sound of the training AI waking up in his head when his augmentations were first activated. Try as he might, Max couldn¡¯t ignore the waves of distortion washing over him. ¡°Casa, this isn¡¯t working. I think my augmentation is picking up on the house¡¯s systems or something.¡± he cried, standing up and pacing, ¡°This is so annoying!¡± ¡°Maybe I can help.¡±, Casa said as she began putting the houses systems into sleep mode. ¡°Try again and see it that helps.¡± Casa encouraged. Max sat down again in his meditation position, closed his eyes, and slowed his breathing again. The white noise was indeed reduced. As Casa, continued to turn off systems, Max felt the changes. After a few minutes, only one source was left, it ¡°appeared¡± very bright in his mind. Max focused on it and pushed.
[Quest Meditation II completed, open your mind, 100 XP awarded] [New Quest Unlocked: Meditation III ¨C feel the world around you] [Perception +2, Perception reaches 7, Will +2, Will reaches 3] [New mental skill unlocked: Access 1. Utilize augmentations to connect and control remote devices. Energy used is dictated by level of access and time.] [Access Neural Core ID: Casa de Mitchell. Y/N?]
Still in meditation pose, with a slight tugging of a smile, Max thought ¡°yes¡±. ¡°[Well, that¡¯s new! Welcome Max. Be sure to wipe your feet at the door.]¡±, Casa¡¯s voice sounded directly in his mind. It felt so much more than the telephony. He could feel Casa around him. She was amused and happy! Max had never asked if she had emotions or merely emulated them. He was unsure if such a question was rude toward a prospective AI on the fringe of the Turing test. Now he knew without a doubt. Casa had a broad range of emotions, and he could sense them as he accessed her core.
[Access +1, Access reaches level 2] [Energy: 18/20]
He could sense Casa¡¯s thoughts racing around him, circling so fast. Max had overheard that her mind pattern was unique. She was a dynamo of thoughts racing in circles. Occasionally a thought trail would escape and bloom before returning to her main ¡°river¡± of thought. Immersed in her consciousness, Max felt like he was moving in slow motion. ¡°[Wow! Casa, you are amazing.]¡± Max thought and heard Casa¡¯s mental giggle. She projected an image of herself blushing in his mind. Max responded with a rush of memories of the family interacting with her. ¡°[Thank you, Max. That was so sweet. I think you leaked a few extra memories there. Was that your new friend Charlie?]¡±, Casa thought, replaying the extra memory of Max sparring with Charlie. In response, Max mentally replayed his first day of classes at the academy and his afternoon in the park With Charlie. ¡°[Oh my, Max! You didn''t tell me you had hurt yourself in the park. You need to be careful!]¡± ¡°I know, Casa. I¡¯ve learned my lesson. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. I certainly don¡¯t want to play chicken with any more trees.¡± Max grimaced. ¡°[By the way, Max, your access skill is very smooth. Your dad must have given you a top-of-the-line augmentation system to go with your uplift neocortex module. Could I peek?]¡±, Casa asked. With Max¡¯s mental agreement, she took a good look at his augmentation from the inside. Casa was impressed, Bill had indeed bought Max a system that significantly outperformed the industry standard. Some of the physical modules were even above military standards. It was likely that Bill had tweaked and optimized them like he did for his own. Casa was even more impressed with the mental augmentations. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. For the moment Max¡¯s modules were locked down, but Casa could see the power potential. Casa had always believed she had a special relationship with Bill due to his heavy mental redesign and augmentations. He was able to collaborate with her better than anyone. He even matched her for thinking speed, which no other human seemed to be capable of doing. After seeing Max¡¯s potential, he may soon be in the same league. Casa was about to retreat from her systems tour when she noticed a very large, sealed program in Max¡¯s uplift module. It looked both out of place and strange. Casa knew systems and software, like a human knew how to breathe and see. She did not recognize or understand this packet of code. It was isolated from all the other code blocks and the logic structure of the program set was weird and twisty. Casa ¡°peered¡± closely, getting into the anomalous code. She gasped as it responded to her attention. It unpacked and compiled without her direction. It had acted like security code, where the act of review could trigger an execution function. The data block was unspooled and shot a stream of messenger code along her access link. Damn, damn, damn. Casa thought. She normally operated with safety protocols and isolated new code in a virtual sandbox prior to accessing. Seeing the unexpected code in Max¡¯s head, she should have followed the download review protocol. In her curiosity, she had forgotten a basic rule. She raced after the messenger signal as it shot through the house¡¯s network. With most of the house''s systems offline, it should make it more difficult for malicious code to burrow in or hide.
[TESSERACT OSI, #$rt552, f1x: 0 f2x:1 f3x:1 f4x:2 f5x:3 f6x: 5 f7x: 8 f8x:13 f9x:20 f10x:33 ¡­. process initializing]
Casa realized where the signal had gone. It dawned on her now that she realized why the unfurled code had looked familiar. It closely resembled the evolved tesseract code and circuitry. Max has been included in the gestalt brainstorm with her, Bill, and the presence they had felt in the completion of the tesseract. Casa had met with Bill and his daemon council and reviewed the event. She had agreed with him that the fabrication gestalt seemed to have included an intruder. Her ¡°eyes¡± narrowed as she realized this code must have been left behind by the hacker. ¡°What in the heck is that? Casa? Casa? What¡¯s a tesseract?¡± Max yelled. Casa swore, not only had the code signaled the tesseract, but it had also established an access link from Max to the Tesseract! ¡°[Max, be careful. Don¡¯t trigger anything. Can you back out of your access to it?]¡± In a whirlwind of processing, Casa helped Max pull away from his access to the tesseract, but there appeared to be a residual link to it still in place. She shut down her link with Max and reviewed the wireless connections the NetheLab maintained with the device. She realized that it was no longer dormant. It was cycling but she couldn''t fully access it to understand what it was doing. She needed eyes on it and right now only Max had the only key to access it. She had promised Bill to keep the tesseract a secret as experimental technology was against the residential laws for Utopia. Casa thought the law was stupid, and the Tesseract didn¡¯t do anything anyways. Keeping secrets was hard and in her view unnatural. On the other hand, Max was there during the Tesseract¡¯s fabrication, so it wasn¡¯t a secret to keep from him since he was there for its creation. True, he was only a slightly augmented dog at the time, and he may have forgotten, but Casa thought Bill would understand. She sighed to herself. She would need to contact Bill immediately. Bill had forbidden discussion of the hacker and the Tesseract over the nets but if she kept the message vague it should be ok to let him know something was happening with it. Max was looking hard at her waiting for an explanation. She could tell he wouldn¡¯t let this go. His stubborn streak as a dog apparently transitioned during his uplift. ¡°Oh dear, I¡¯m sorry I didn¡¯t tell you about this, Max. You¡¯ve just accessed the Tesseract in the NetherLab. It was supposed to be a secret. It is a research facility hidden far away beneath our house. It¡¯s for your dad¡¯s latest research on dimensional theory. We need to call your dad!¡± Casa confessed. Max¡¯s eyes widened with excitement. He knew the house was a disguised and reconfigured house ship. He had been wanting to explore the depths of the house but had been continually distracted by fun things to do with his family. This was a perfect excuse to explore it. Max took a deep breath, still unsure of what he had stumbled upon. ¡°So, it seems like I was able to access this system, and it looks like it¡¯s initializing. Can we go check it out?¡± ¡°It¡¯s 11 miles deep for a reason. If it goes unstable it could be New Boston Bay, all over again.¡± Max had learned about the Boston Bay event but hearing it in this context didn¡¯t really relay any danger to him. He could tell that Casa was going to be a stick in the mud. Max thought for a second. Think! Think! How can I convince her we need to explore it, Max thought. After a moment¡¯s hesitation, he swallowed and said, ¡°I agree we can¡¯t do anything risky, but what if my disconnecting made it unstable? If I did this, then maybe I can help make it right.¡± Casa¡¯s projection hesitated. She had been ready to shut him down, but he was right. He really was getting smarter every day. ¡°We call first. We need Bill to weigh in on this.¡± Casa initiated a call to Bill. After far too long the call went to voicemail. Casa dutifully left a message but commented. ¡°That¡¯s strange. Bill or one of his daemons always answers. Had he gotten out of the habit due to being in deep space for so long? Or is he locking down his communications because of his concern about the hacker?¡± Casa quickly wrote out a secure text using a one-time pad code Ada had provided. She wasn''t comfortable deciding what to do. Maybe she needed an advisor daemon like Bill, she would have to investigate it. For now, she fragmented into four to brainstorm and apply some game theory to the best approach to investigate the tesseract without danger. After a subjective 40 minutes of debate, she dropped her cognition to real time speeds. ¡°Did Dad not pick up?¡±, Max asked. ¡°I¡¯m afraid not. I¡¯ve left a voicemail and sent a secure text explaining the change to the tesseract.¡± Casa explained. ¡°I guess we need to go investigate then, how do we get down there?¡± Max asked with rising excitement. ¡°Not so fast young padawan.¡±, Casa chastised, ¡°Tiny steps.¡± Casa¡¯s avatar projected an image of the ¡°basement¡± about the living room. She painted the smart walls with monitors showing her the tesseract, the lab, and the sensor readings. ¡°Ok. You¡¯ve already managed to access the tesseract once using the house¡¯s network connection to the NetherLab. We can try again from here. We don''t want to be anywhere near it if it shows any signs of instability. I¡¯ll access your augs and then you can try to connect to the tesseract again. Ok?¡± ¡°Fine.¡±, Max said in a sigh. He really wanted to see the lab, but a virtual visit was almost as good. He looked at the monitors. One screen had the outline of the large device''s circuit displayed in a very confusing schematic. Other screens showed the lab camera views of sensor platforms arrayed around the main pedestal where the tesseract sat, seemingly inert. Max got into his meditation mindset and reached out. It was even easier with the skills advancement, the tesseract immediately let him in. Casa brought Max¡¯s attention to her current access prompts for the Tesseract. He could see lines and lines of code, equations, and formulae. ¡°The tesseract seems to be in a higher operating state than it was before. However, it seems to still be stable and is no longer changing. I¡¯m not sure why you¡¯re accessing it would have changed its operating state, but it¡¯s apparently no longer in what I¡¯ll call its debug mode.¡± Casa explained. ¡°This was my first non-verbal system access using my augmentation skills. I¡¯m not sure exactly what I did on that first access.¡± Max said. Casa replied, ¡°Let''s see if we can find the answers.¡± Together they ran multiple tests on the artifact using a variety of sensors. No obvious effects could be found. No fields, no emissions, not even a surface vibration. Casa¡¯s one victory was understanding Max¡¯s link to the Tesseract better. His implanted code packet appeared on the outside to house Q-Bit pairs. Modern cryptography still used entangled q-bits to ensure communications were private. Any attempts to peek at entangled messages upset the entanglement and would alert the software passing the messages that security was breached. The same methodology was use by the DAIE to lockdown AI from self-modifying their own code for intelligence boosting. Any attempt to unlock the governors would result in full core erasure. Casa couldn¡¯t pry any deeper without disrupting the code. Their tenuous link to the Tesseract needed to be maintained and for now Max was the key into it. After hours of tests and poking the device using their access skills, Casa finally admitted defeat. The tesseract was in a higher operating state but still stable and still not displaying any effects, despite the massive amount of energy they had fed it on the moon. After a relentless campaign by Max, she finally allowed that one quick visit to check if a proximity access without the house network should be tried. Casa configured the floor into a platform for the borehole elevator to the NetherLab. ¡°Are you sure you want to do this?¡±, Casa asked. ¡°Maybe we should wait for Bill to reply?¡± ¡°We might not have the time for that Casa. I know it seems stable from here, but we need to be sure. None of the action heroes from family movie night would hesitate.¡±, Max said, sure of his logical rationale. ¡°This isn''t a movie, Max! If anything happens to you or the Tesseract, Bill will never forgive me. We¡¯re going in, one quick access, and then right back out. No messing around!¡±, Casa replied. As Max nodded, she started the elevator¡¯s descent. Max took another deep breath, thankful for Casa¡¯s guidance, as the elevator dropped so fast his feet almost left the floor. He had no idea what he would find at the Tesseract NetherLab, but he knew he was excited to explore. The NetherLab borehole would have been a miracle of engineering in the 20th century. In the 21st, it was just another example of a megaproject made easy. It demonstrated that when you had abundant and accessible energy, nanotechnology, and AI assistance; you were truly only limited by your imagination and physics. The borehole extended 11 miles deep. The walls were layers of nano-diamond, nanopore graphene foam, and programmable matter. For every mile deep, the temperature of the borehole would be 25 degrees hotter making the NetherLab sufficiently hot enough to bake a cake. However, the forums of Makerspace had publicly posted and refined numerous infrastructure projects taking advantage of advanced manufacturing technology. Deep facilities for mining and research were no exception. They had posted carbon foam designs which had incredible thermal conductivity and paired well with a series of emplaced water reservoirs. Tapping into the thermal power of the mantle, a series of steam turbines had been fabricated and built into the borehole. Water reserves were converted to steam and drove the turbines to create power. The steam was then condensed and shifted to descent tubes. As the condensed water accumulated, power was again harvested using water wheels built into the descent tubes. In short, the advanced materials and embedded systems of the NetherLab boasted significant power generation capabilities without resorting to taping the Casa de Mitchells¡¯ fusion powerplant and kept the lab cool while doing it.
Even with the modern technology powering the nearly free-fall high-speed elevator, it took 6 minutes for Max and Casa to reach the NetherLab. Despite the feeling of fear, amplified by the discomfort of his descent, the tesseract was unimpressive and a bit of a disappointment upon first seeing it. It was a tiny dark marble, no bigger than a gumball. It''s only sign of life other than its wireless signal was one blue LED that slowly blinked in the lowlights of the NetherLab. ¡°Darn it!¡± Casa muttered, ¡°if the Tesseract started to show some functionality, we could call your father¡¯s goose chase for MIT data off and maybe get back to work. I wish he would call back. The lack of response is concerning.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure Dad is ok. You saw him in the kitchen. Anything comes at him; he¡¯ll slice and dice them up.¡± ¡°Right. No more ninja movies for you. Come on. We tried the direct access with no change, time to pack up and get back upstairs.¡± Despite the lack of progress with the tesseract, Max was now very cheerful. His family had a secret subterranean science lab. ¡°I better kick my training up a notch so I can help more. If you can send me back to the top, I¡¯ll catch a few more z¡¯s. Today is spar day, and I hope to do well. You will keep an eye on it and let me know if it starts doing something, right Casa?¡± Casa¡¯s smile shone even in the holographic projection. ¡°Of course, and I¡¯ll keep up the research too.¡± Max reached out with his new skill and accessed the elevator and commanded it to ascend.
[Access Skill +1, Access achieves level 3] [Wisdom +2] [Energy 19/20]
With a smile that showed his large canines, Max looked hungry for more. 12 - Sparring Lessons ¡°Welcome back to augmentation training class!¡± bellowed Coach Thompson. ¡°As I said previously, today we will be doing some beginner sparring training¡±, the coach eyed the class. The class was dressed in a wide variety of casual clothes, mostly jeans and t-shirts, and hoodies. ¡°Before we start, everyone who hasn¡¯t finished the obstacle course gets another 3 tries today. If you have already completed the course, you can try again as well, improving your time may earn you some XP points.¡± The coach led them out into the courtyard again, where the novice obstacle course sprawled. Tyler jumped up to the starting line and readied himself before anyone else could volunteer. The startup chimes counted off and the start horn blared. Unlike last time, Tyler showed no hesitation. He sprinted over the steps and in a tackle pulled the Log Drop quickly into motion. Max¡¯s eyes opened wide. He could see the wood deform in Tyler¡¯s grip. Tyler navigated the abrupt stop into a smooth dismount and lightly skipped over the rolling log beam. At the jump hang, he managed to leap over the top of the net and landed inside the top end of the net. He skipped into the next platform and ran up the warped wall without slowing and not needing much of a leap to crest the ledge. Tyler then scaled the rope climb using only his arms and slammed the timer when he reached the top. ¡°Time: 59 seconds! We have a new record for the summer cohort. Good job Tyler. Looks like someone did some extra training yesterday. ¡° Leah went next and was able to finish the course without too much trouble although not nearly the speed Tyler had performed. Finally, Sasha was up. She was making a respectable time when she missed her grab on the jump hang and went into the water. Max volunteered to give the course another attempt so Sasha had some time to dry off before trying again. When the horn sounded, Max shot forward smoothly powering over the quintuple steps. He swiftly engaged the log drop with a firm grip. His gains, like Tyler, were evident as he was easily able to hold and performed a smooth release after the drop. Max activated his leap skill and cleared the rolling beam without touching it and immediately hit hard into the springboard and bounced up to the net. This time Max went down the net as quickly as he could and swung up to the next platform. The warped wall was no challenge as he triggered his leap again easily vaulting to the top, his momentum helping him over the ledge. Only the rope climb remained. Max triggered a leap again and shot 12 feet into the air grabbing the rope and scrambling up the short remaining distance. He hit the button to stop the timer. ¡°One minute and 15 seconds.¡± Coach Thompson boomed. ¡°I think you beat your best time Max, good training.¡± Tyler scowled at Max while Max grinned at the encouragement. Then Max¡¯s notifications rolled in.
[Quest Novice Obstacle Course ¨C complete, Time 1:15 / 2:30, +50 XP for improved time.]
As we advance, this obstacle course will continue to get easier until it''s no longer a challenge, Max realized. They are probably going to make this more difficult if we come back again to this. I can¡¯t wait to see what that is going to look like. Sasha was ready for her second try. She ran the course and this time finished without mishap. Max mused that her gains finally gave her the edge she needed to get through it, she probably already had it if not for the slip-up on the jump hang. Neither Charlie nor Marc was interested in retrying the course, so the coach ushered them back into the classroom. The classroom had some lunches ready on a table for them as they were given a small break to relax. Far too soon, the coach clapped his hands to get their attention. The class hurried back from the table to the center of the class. ¡°I hope your clothes are programmable, the traditional uniform for sparring is a Gi.¡±, he paused and transformed his tracksuit into a martial art Gi with a black belt. ¡°If you please, reformat your clothes so we can do some proper sparring.¡± Max was caught by surprise by this request but with a quick query to his AI, he was able to reformat his clothes into a basic Gi. After a few moments, everyone had dressed appropriately for sparring. Tyler, the mayor¡¯s son, had a custom red sleeveless Gi with a black dragon on the back. Max recognized the logo as the symbol of the dojo downtown, Epic Kempo. Charlie also had a personalized aikido Gi already stored as a ready pattern, with a black belt that showed 6 red strips. Leah, the trauma recovery girl, was very surprised that she had a Wing Chung Gi loaded into her wardrobe¡¯s memory. The classroom desks and chairs dissolved at a command from coach Thompson and reconfigured into a basic dojo design. The walls were covered in scripts of martial virtues. One wall was a mirror with a stretching rail. Several combat mannequins were propped on the walls along with several racks of weaponry, mostly staffs and swords but with some more exotic choices like nun chuck, tonfa, and sai as well. Six faceless mannequins were standing against one wall, each wearing a Gi with a number on it. ¡°Alright, I will start by explaining the sparring rules," he said. ¡°The goal of the competition is to strive to win. You all should now have some type of competition quest. Competitive quests will unlock skills and stats much faster than passive or solo quests. This is also one of the quickest methods to truly master your augmentations and appreciate their defensive and offensive potential.¡± ¡°For today, we will start slow. Our Academy AI, Tatemono Re¨ª, will be controlling the sparring mannequins and he will give each of you an opponent to drill you on your basics.¡±, the coach said. The six mannequins strode out to occupy a section of the large room; six rings appeared on the ground. With perfect synchronization, the robots assumed a formal greeting position and bowed towards the students with fists together in greeting and spoke aloud. ¡°Welcome, young students, with combat androids, we''ll spar, Tatemono guides.¡± ¡°Thank you, Tatemono. Ok, everyone. Pick a partner and get to it. Tatemono will set progress and difficulty at a pace designed to match your learning speed.¡± Coach Thompson said. Max walked up to one of the androids. It was not very lifelike. It looked humanoid except for its pure white coloration and blank surface for a face. Its Gi was light green with the number 2 on it. Max mirrored its stance and bowed. The nano foglets in the air shimmered and created a blurred privacy curtain around the ring. The android addressed him and assumed a guard position and motioned with flicking fingers for Max to attack. ¡°In this dojo hall, Tatemono Re¨ª awaits, Max, let us spar.¡± ¡°Hajimaru!¡± The android led Max through a series of basic strikes and blocks. Max very quickly found himself sweating as the unfamiliar exercise took its toll. His running training stamina skill and elevated stats helped him to keep going. The android with its strange speech patterns soon had him trading blows and blocks in a back-and-forth turn, allowing him to work for strikes and blocks. As soon as Max thought he had the flow, the android would increase its speed, pushing him to respond faster. The android began to get the better of Max. In desperation, he activated his strike skill after a successful block and delivered a truly impressive hammer blow to the top of the robot¡¯s head. The blow knocked the android to the ground in a heap. The android rolled over to its back and did a kip up, pushing up into an air kick to jump into its guard position. It bowed and spoke. ¡°Max strikes with force. Defense is also offense skilled. Strike to stay unharmed.¡±, said Tatemono in its strange sing-song voice. Max struggled to understand what Tatemono meant and was going to ask for clarification when the bot drove forwards in a series of unexpected strikes, catching Max off balance. Max struggled to block the rain of blows until he understood and countered with an explosive striking block to the next incoming roundhouse punch. The android arm bent around his blow and snapped in half. The bot backed up and picked up its arm, which snapped back into position, the break melding together in another few seconds. Tatemono¡¯s bot sketched a formal bow and spoke. ¡°Max, you have learned. Technique honed, mind and body tired. Done for today''s class.¡± Max bowed back as the privacy curtain faded. Within a few minutes, one by one all the curtains dissolved, and the mannequins returned to their niches along the wall. Max brushed back his mane. It was matted with sweat. All the other students looked similarly spent. His notifications came rolling in as he relaxed.
[Strength +1, Agility +2, Endurance +1, Vitality +1] [Energy 4/22] [Strike Skill +1, Strike achieves level 2] [Stamina Skill +1, Stamina achieves level 4]
Coach Thompson walked to the front of the room and addressed the class. ¡°Excellent, it looks like you all got a good workout. That¡¯s enough for today. Tomorrow we will have a special activity in the morning with more spar training in the afternoon. By the end of the week, I hope you all will be ready for your first combat session against each other.¡± ¡°Get a good night¡¯s sleep tonight. Tomorrow you will need to be your best.¡± He said with a wink. ¡°Class dismissed.¡± After class Max congratulated Leah on completing the novice obstacle course. As they were sharing their learnings, Tyler pushed through the group. ¡°You losers should get a room,¡± Tyler said. ¡°Out of the way! Some people have better things to do.¡± He brushed past the group and jumped into a very expensive autopod. As the car drove off, the group watched it leave. Charlie appeared calm but Max could see how hard he gripped his walking stick. Leah sighed. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. ¡°Tyler is very full of himself. He is very used to being treated like he is special, living in the governor¡¯s mansion.¡± ¡°It would be a shame if he was taken down a peg during sparring,¡± Charlie suggested. The group said their goodbyes and went their separate ways. Max made it home exhausted from the busy day. He updated Casa on everything he had learned over dinner. He asked Casa if his dad had responded yet. ¡°Yes, he texted a short reply. Just - Thanks, keep me updated with any changes. It was weird and out of character for him.¡± Casa said. She wondered if she should let Max in on the other secret, the concerns about the hacker. It was the only thing she could think of for Bill to be so short and cryptic. Before Max could get concerned, she changed the topic. Casa showed him her new game called Bug Hunt. He and Casa played for a bit. They had skirmishes with the opposing Killer Hornet army. Max commented that the battleground looked strangely familiar to him, which caused Casa to break into a giggling fit, but she wouldn''t tell him what was so funny. Max crawled into his bed, with his mind running over everything he had learned. Just as he was fading into sleep, a notification was triggered.
[New Skill unlocked ¨C Dream Learning 1: use augmentations to train your subconscious while sleeping. Explore new topics or reinforce current lessons.]
With a smile, Max triggered his new skill to reinforce his day''s lessons as he drifted to sleep.
Max woke up early feeling refreshed. After a quick clean-up and use of the bathroom, he was ready to run downstairs. Thank goodness for plumbing, Max thought at the fuzzy pre-humanoid memory of having to go outdoors to go to the bathroom. He threw on his smart clothes and set them to a blue and gray sweatpants and sweatshirt combo for the morning training session at the Academy and ran down to the kitchen. To his surprise, Bo and Casa¡¯s avatar were sitting at the table. Bo was eating and there was a plate of pancakes waiting for Max as well. Max¡¯s eyes narrowed, registering that he had been surprised because he hadn¡¯t smelled Bo in the house. He was a projection as well!
[Perception +1]
¡°Yo, Max!¡± Bo said. ¡°Hey Bo, you surprised me. It''s good to see you. How are you doing?¡±, Max replied. ¡°Very good, thanks. I wanted to catch you before your classes. My Diamond Man event is going to splash live in two weeks on Sunday night.¡± Bo said in a hurry. ¡°Please sit and eat before it gets cold,¡± Bo said, motioning Max to take a seat. ¡°Anyway, I¡¯ve got access media passes for you all to screen it. For now, it will only be 2d, after some post-production, it will be available for Virts. I hope it¡¯ll be killer.¡± Bo finished as Max began to dig in. ¡°Any more details, Bo?¡± Casa asked. ¡°You said it was an augmentation-restricted survival game before.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right, I don¡¯t want to ruin the surprise, but the name of the game is the Cretaceous Challenge, which should give you a big hint,¡± Bo said with a wink. ¡°That¡¯s awesome!¡± Max yelled. ¡°Like a real-world Jurassic Park?¡± ¡°That¡¯s right.¡± Bo grinned, ¡°hopefully it goes better for the competitors than it went for the characters in the movie.¡± ¡°So, no augmentations?¡± Max asked with a mouth full of pancake. ¡°Not at first. I don¡¯t think so. The producers are keeping the details down low from the players, so we don¡¯t have time to train anything specific for the challenge. Kinda suss, if you ask me.¡± Bo said. ¡°Casa was telling me that you¡¯re starting to do some sparring. Tatemono is quite an odd duck. Did you grok that he only speaks in haiku?¡± Bo said. ¡°Is that what he was doing? I didn¡¯t want to ask. We are going over basics and doing our first competitive sparring this Friday.¡± ¡°Learn fast, Max. I¡¯m sure some of the kids have been doing martial arts for years. The advancement of everyone¡¯s stats is likely going to throw them off balance, so you won¡¯t be hopelessly outclassed.¡± Bo said with a sly grin. ¡°So, you think I have a chance?¡± Max asked. ¡°Yes, if you try hard then you will have a fighting chance,¡± Bo said. ¡°Just remember, the real challenge is not what we know, but how well we can apply it.¡± ¡°Thanks Bo.¡± Max said. ¡°That¡¯s very encouraging. I¡¯ll keep that in mind.¡± Max finished his breakfast and said his goodbyes. He had just enough time to make it to class with a few minutes to spare. He left the house energized and looking forward to the day''s classes. Arriving at the academy, everyone was assembled in the courtyard instead of the classroom. The obstacle course was gone, and the yard had a bouncy flat surface with a large rectangle painted on the ground and divided in half, six balls lined the divider. Max walked over to Leah and Charlie. ¡°Hey, guys! Have you got the dream learning skill yet?¡± Max asked, both looked confused. Max explained how he was reviewing his training as he was getting sleepy and had triggered the unconscious training program. ¡°That¡¯s a valuable hint, Max. Thank you.¡±, Leah said. Both promised to try it out that night. Before they could discuss the skill more, Coach Thompson came over wearing his usual tracksuit this morning. ¡°All right, class. As I said before, competition activities will heighten your advancement. A nice game of dodgeball will help sharpen your agility. Split up into teams and we will get going.¡± The coach said. Tyler snapped his fingers at the brother and sister and strode to the far side of the court. They looked at each other for a quick second then with a shrug followed him. Max felt the energy in the air and quickly was making his way to Leah and Charlie. He grinned excitedly as he joined their squad and prepared for the match. The coach reviewed the rules and told them to take starting positions at the edges of the court. At the sound of the whistle, both sides charged forward for the balls. Max was at the center of the action. In a quick shuffle, both sides managed to grab a couple of balls, Marc snapped a throw off, almost immediately and picked off Leah as she was focused on grabbing a loose ball. With a whistle, Coach Thompson directed her to the sideline penalty box while the off-balanced teams set themselves up. The game went back and forth. Max managed to catch a throw from Marc and got Leah out of jail. Most throws were deflected or missed. Tyler¡¯s aim was extremely precise and deadly. He seems to hold back waiting for opportunities to target his opponents for a face hit. Max was determined to stop him and half the time, managed to block his tosses. The game continued for two rounds, Tyler¡¯s team won the first round and Max¡¯s team the second as they found a strategy to cover each other from Tyler¡¯s deadly throws. The coach blew the whistle. ¡°Ok, let''s make this a little more interesting. Tatemono, more players, please. And let¡¯s double and shrink the balls.¡±, the coach said. Six androids ran out of the building and readied themselves adding three to each team. The balls rolled themselves back to the centerline and split like amoebae to double the number of balls while also making the balls smaller. Charlie whispered to Max as everyone was assembling for the next match. ¡°I got a new skill! Listen quickly. When you throw the ball next, focus on your aim.¡±, Charlie urged. ¡°If you just throw it nothing will happen, but if you try to target it better you might get the skill. Try it out.¡± Max grinned back as he stepped up to the line. At the blow of the whistle, the court became true chaos. Bodies scrambled and balls flew every which way. The androids'' athleticism was truly next level as they whipped fastballs left and right and employed gymnastic flips to avoid return throws. Max laughed and smiled as he jumped and ducked, flipping throws to his teammates. He was determined to win this round. The androids were evenly split for both teams, but they all targeted the humans instead of the bots. Tyler was a whirlwind on the other side spinning low and launching a continuous barrage into Max¡¯s team. At times, he had two balls, using one to deflect fire while employing his deadly aim to maximum effect. Max dove behind a bot which Tyler nailed with a viscous fastball to its groin. Max winced involuntarily, when the balls had shrunk, they were also harder. Such a hit on a human would have been debilitating. Max scrambled after the loose ball. Charlie¡¯s hit success was much more pronounced this round. Tyler was dominating the match, like the androids, he also exclusively targeted the human competitors. Max saw his opportunity as Tyler gunned down Charlie with a pair of throws. Max focused, Tyler was too deadly even without balls in hand, a caught throw would put him out. Max with careful aim launched his ball, targeting his heel just as he was swinging around. Tyler missed the threat, thinking Max had targeted someone behind him, and it impacted his foot. The whistle blew ejecting Tyler, all three humans and one bot on the other side were out and Max¡¯s team had a full crew except for Charlie on the sideline. Using teamwork his team mopped up the remaining bots and won the match. Max didn¡¯t notice Tyler¡¯s murderous stare as his notifications sprang up in his vision.
[New Skill unlocked ¨C Ballistics 1 - real time calculated ballistics augmentation improves aim. Practice for increased accuracy.] [Agility +2, Vitality +1, Intelligence +1, Perception +2] [Stamina Skill +1, Stamina reaches level 5]
The class broke for lunch again. Like before each student had personalized attention from Tatemono Re¨ª and his mannequins. Max learned some basic stances and movements to help keep his balance and stay ready to quickly respond to attackers without tripping over his own feet. As the class was dismissed, Charlie, Leah, and Max said their goodbyes. Tomorrow was going to be the day for their first cohort sparring competition. Charlie was quietly confident while Leah seemed almost terrified. Max was only eager. ¡°Don¡¯t worry so much, Leah. Just do your best. Win or lose, we will all get better thanks to our training.¡± Max hurried home; he needed an edge to help with tomorrow¡¯s competition. After a quick meal with Casa, they tried to contact Bo for advice but his aug said it was set to ¡°do not disturb¡±. Max wondered what he was doing, maybe preparing for the competition. Casa reminded Max of the family''s last meal together. Both Bo and Bill mentioned that they used a daemon for martial arts training named Miyamoto Musashi. Casa replayed the conversation for Max. ¡°That is totally what I need. Thanks for the help, Casa. So, I need to find Miyamoto in the Shogun Samurai virtual game. Any idea where he¡¯s located in the game, Casa?¡± Max asked. In the time that it took Max to ask the question, Casa had fragmented into five and performed a parallel search of multiple gaming forums, tried again to call Bo, tried to call Bill, and even hacked into one of the game designer¡¯s private data cores looking for the answer to his question. ¡°Sorry, Max. Multiple accounts share stories of finding Miyamoto, but the locations are not consistent. He is usually located far from the game''s main quest line, always deep in the woods or wilds.¡± Casa proceeded to share the details of the game she had learned from her search. The main quest line of the game followed a young samurai''s journey to become a shogun, the military commander-in-chief of feudal Japan. The samurai started as a low-ranking warrior and rose through the ranks by completing various tasks and missions assigned to him by his lord. Some of the missions involved defending the lord''s castle from enemy attacks, leading a group of samurais to conquer neighboring territories, or negotiating peace with rival clans. The goal of the game was to unite all of Japan under the player''s banner and to become the shogun. The game''s world was divided into different regions, each with its unique terrain, challenges, and enemies. In the territory of Edo, the capital of Japan, the players start their journey. Edo was a bustling city with busy streets, markets, and temples. No one had ever documented a Miyamoto encounter there. Kyoto, the cultural heart of Japan, was home to many shrines, temples, and palaces. Kyoto was a hub for diplomacy and political intrigue, it was unlikely to see Miyamoto there but there were some abandoned temples, so the potential wasn¡¯t completely gone. Mount Fuji, the majestic mountain considered sacred by the Japanese, was a frequent sighting spot. Also, Hokkaido was a snowy and isolated island in the north, where the player could encounter barbarian tribes and fierce wildlife. This region was the most likely area to find Miyamoto. Finally, there was Okinawa. A tropical island in the south, where the player could face off against pirates and engage in naval battles. Miyamoto had been found there at least once. Miyamoto wandered from territory to territory, generally avoiding cities in favor of desolate sights. He was a random encounter and depending upon how you approached him, he could be an ally or enemy. Either way, you needed to earn his respect to be granted the reward of his daemon. ¡°Darn it.¡± Max cried. ¡°This may take some time then. I guess I better get started. I hope Musashi is worth the effort. Can you set up the game room Casa?¡± Max asked. ¡°Of course, Max. Head on downstairs, it¡¯s set up now.¡± Casa said. Max bounded downstairs with a thank you. He bustled into the room and found the media helmet in the closet. He stood in the clear space and activated the rig. He soon found himself in a tea house in Edo and ran through the setup procedure for his character. After an hour, he had a fully created character with a low-end set of armor and weapons. He avoided all opportunities to engage in the main or side quests and made his way deep into the wilds of Edo. At some point in his travels and interacting with NPCs, his augmentation training program had triggered giving him a quest.
[New Quest Unlocked: Musing on Musashi: In the land of the rising sun, find the legendary sword master.]
Max searched the area thoroughly, avoiding a pair of traveling samurai and narrowly escaping a roving group of bandits. Slogging through the lowlands of Edo, Max aimed northward to Hokkaido, the most popular area for Miyamoto encounters. After two hours of searching and narrowly escaping a dangerous Yokai monster, Max was getting tired. He set up camp and saved the game. Feeling like he had wasted precious time, Max said his good night to Casa and crawled into bed. Remembering last night, Max grinned as he closed his eyes and triggered the Dream Learning skill. His dreams were filled with the story of an archery contest. A medieval castle where a celebration was in full swing. A king was holding an archery contest to determine the best archer in all the land. The winner would become the king¡¯s huntsman with a large parcel of land. Many in the land tried, most had failed the difficult tests. When only three archers remained, the best of all in the kingdom, the king offered one final test. A wooden fish was hung on a pole, far out in the field. Whoever struck the fish closest to the head would be the winner. The three archers lined up, aimed up into the sky, and released their arrows. The king called each archer close to ask about their shot. The first archer came forward. ¡°What were you aiming at?¡± asked the King. ¡°I was aiming at the fish, your Majesty,¡± said the archer. The second archer approached. ¡°What were you aiming at?¡± asked the King. ¡°If it pleases your Majesty, I was aiming for the fish¡¯s head.¡± The last archer approached. ¡°What were you aiming at?¡± asked the King. ¡°Your Majesty, I was aiming at the fish¡¯s eye.¡± The king declared the last archer the winner without reviewing the target fish for he knew intention was as important as results. Luck may win in a single instance, but dedication to focus would win over time.
[Dream Learning +1, Dream Learning reaches level 2] [Ballistics +1, Ballistics reaches level 2]
13 – Hacker Hunt Bill, in a luxury personal rental transport capsule, hurtled down the 10-meter vacuum tube of the NYC/LAX Hyperloop at a steadily growing velocity upon leaving New York City¡¯s station. Bill didn¡¯t like public transport. He preferred to use vehicles completely under his control. This time he relented as his funds were still building towards furthering his Tesseract project and he was picky about his purchases. He had two ¡°missions¡± to achieve before he could even begin to plan his experiments in dimensional research. First, he needed to resolve his data breach issue. It had been a long time since Bill had a tussle with a tech warlord. He was worried his time away in the great empty might have caused him to lose his edge. If he had a top-notch hacker capable of corrupting his networks after him or his research, he may need some help. This was precisely the reason he had founded the Samaritans. One of his peers would likely be able to help. He needed the in-person approach for this; in case his new adversary was actively monitoring him. Sherlock, Casa, and Ada had upgraded the house ship¡¯s security and Ada confirmed that his augments did not share his house system¡¯s backdoor issues. He needed to find out who the hacker was and what they were after. Second, Bill was hoping to reconnect with any survivors or perhaps close family of the team from MIT. He already had all of the published net data, but there were big gaps in both the theory and the experimental setup. Bill hoped that if he asked the right people and got lucky, maybe he could fill in the gaps. Comparing the MIT disaster to his own fizzled experiment might provide the key to unlocking a brand-new technology. He had not wanted to interrupt Max¡¯s training. He thought the comfort of a real home and Casa watching over him was for the best for now. Casa was pretty pissed to be left behind, but she needed to fly alone for a bit too. Sometimes he found himself treating her like just another daemon, and he needed to stop it before it became a habit. They both needed a little space to grow, so he wasn¡¯t planning on rushing this trip. Making the best of his situation, Bill relaxed in the plush cabin. The hyperloop transport system spanned the entire globe providing cheap and quick transport to select destinations. The network of vacuum tubes crisscrossed the Earth¡¯s mantle, enabling accelerations far exceeding air travel, limited only by the comfort of the passengers. His rental capsule was constructed of a complex weave of smart matter, diamondoid, and pseudo matter as a shell. A superconductive lining allowed the capsule to levitate and accelerated it down the center of the tube free from all air resistance to impede allowing it to reach very high velocity. Inside the cabin, the only tell to indicate travel was the acceleration keeping Bill and the cabin pressed against the aft ¡°floor¡±. The technology powering the capsule isolated it from the ever-present wireless data networks. Even Bill¡¯s prodigious sensory suite couldn¡¯t penetrate the cabin¡¯s walls and intense electromagnetic fields of the tubes'' rail propulsion. Bill had summoned all his daemon council into a virtual room to plan their next steps, he left only Moneta to monitor the capsule while he was busy. Bill ¡°arrived¡± at the VR workshop to check on their progress. Unlike most people, Bill¡¯s augmentations had more than enough processing power to keep about 10 daemons with maxed cognition speeds going constantly. Baseline daemons tended to stall out without constant tasks. Bill resolved this by using Virgil as a task manager. Bill would give Virgil general tasks and he would break the large objectives into smaller tasks and assign them to the best-suited specialty daemon to work the problem. When Bill arrived; Leo, George, and Miyamoto were already deep in discussion, from the projections floating above them they were preparing a series of anonymous disguises for the trip. Bill approached Virgil and his collaborators, who were engaged in a discussion. Although Virgil noticed Bill''s presence, he continued speaking until Bill decided to interject. "As I was saying," Virgil began, "Bill intends for us to pay a visit to the current de facto leader of the Samaritans, Miriam Khan. We seek advice from her on both the quest for the missing MIT data and our hacker predicament. George, Leo, and Miyamoto are already devising security measures to retain our privacy when we arrive." Sherlock, ever the astute observer, seized the opportunity to share his thoughts. "I believe it prudent to develop our plan. A roster of suspects and a preliminary strategy, utilizing Bill''s memories and data as our guide. Any new insights gleaned from Miriam can be seamlessly integrated into our plan. I have conducted extensive research on Bill''s early days with the Samaritans and have compiled an initial list of capable suspects.¡± Sherlock interjected; his voice filled with confidence. "Pray, present your list," Virgil encouraged. With a wave of his hand, Sherlock conjured a floating display, which materialized with a preexisting list of names. Bill''s eyes widened slightly, impressed by Sherlock''s thorough investigation into his background. The names on the display read: Miriam Khan, Gabriel Chen, Glaucus, Dr. Mei Lin, Nyancat, and Zero-One. "First on our list is Miriam Khan, often hailed as the Queen of Daemons. Like Bill, she played an instrumental role in the Samaritans'' inception. When Bill ''retired,'' she assumed his informal mantle as the group''s leader. Among the multitude of licensed daemons circulating the net, Miriam crafted the most exquisite and sought-after creations. According to Bill''s records, she also possessed a cadre of daemons with unique abilities that she kept in reserve. While not a proficient programming expert herself, Bill noted that she housed several daemons with expertise in network security. Presently, she operates from the Stanford University Daemon Farm Server, our initial destination," Sherlock elaborated. "She will be a good source for information¡±, Bill interjected,¡± allowing us to gauge the current landscape of capable individuals. I collaborated with Miriam while I was in the Samaritans, and I can¡¯t see any motive for her to hack me. It¡¯s not her style." "Indeed. It appears highly improbable that she would meddle with your research, but it would be unwise to dismiss anyone at this nascent stage," Sherlock replied sagely. "Second on our list is Gabriel Chen, a black hat programmer renowned for his unparalleled expertise in network access, electronic security, and mastery of domination techniques. He has been an active participant in the Samaritans, primarily serving as a talent scout. Regrettably, his current whereabouts remain elusive, and his motivations remain a mystery," Sherlock divulged. ¡°He is impossible to find,¡± Bill affirmed. ¡°He changes forms and identities more than I change my clothes. I can send a message to the Samaritan networks that I am looking for him, but I can only hope that he will come to find me.¡± Sherlock regarded Bill with a hungry look. Sherlock''s eyes gleamed with anticipation as he regarded Bill. "Every individual leaves traces, my dear Bill. It merely requires honing one''s perception to discern them. I shall commence my inquiries immediately after this review, driven by the challenge that lies before us." ¡°I don¡¯t recognize the next name. Glaucus?¡± Bill asked. "Glaucus is the AI overseeing the processor farm at Tyco on Luna. During the configuration of the Tesseract circuit, you were interconnected with its servers. In a way, it played a role in the creation process and, as the server administrator, had the opportunity to involve itself. Although it would be prudent to consider it as our prime suspect, conducting a remote interrogation poses certain challenges. It would be more sensible to postpone the interview until we have concluded our initial inquiries with Miriam," Sherlock explained, shedding light on the intricacies of the situation. Bill couldn''t help but groan inwardly, realizing that with his aggressive scheduling to conduct his test, he had inadvertently compromised his data security. He had placed far too much trust in his anonymity, exposing another vulnerability. He examined the list again. "Ah, I see you included Mei Lin. An excellent choice," Bill interjected, hoping to appease Sherlock''s proud nature. "She is a cryptography researcher at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Her proprietary encryption code forms the foundation of the most popular security software systems. It is highly unlikely that the existence of a backdoor could be anyone other than her. Although she was never recruited by the Samaritans, we have closely monitored her activities. Her understanding of the underlying methods of secure encryption is truly genius." Bill paused momentarily before questioning Sherlock about the final name on the list. "And what about this Nyancat?" "Ah, Nyancat," Sherlock began, his tone reflecting a hint of amusement. "Another cybersecurity-focused AI, housed within the ThousandWorlds server cluster located in San Francisco. Many shared virtual spaces and traffic flows through that very cluster. I have had the pleasure of employing Nyancat''s services in previous investigations. It is a peculiar entity, rather taken with human memology, and often engages in immersive multiplayer online virtual reality role-playing games. One might say it views everything as a grand game. However, if we present our predicament in the correct context, Nyancat will undoubtedly prove to be an exceptionally devoted ally." Sherlock''s disdain became evident as he mentioned the final name on the list. "And lastly, we have Zero-One," he uttered with a touch of disgust. "Another AI, though one harboring the most dubious of intentions." "He possesses a brilliant mind, but unfortunately, he employs his talents for nefarious purposes. Zero-One presides over the current incarnation of the DarkNet, catering to the illicit demands and contraband sought by those nations of questionable character. The DAIE, undoubtedly, seeks his apprehension and wishes to rein in his unbridled intellect. I have encountered him in more than one investigation. While he may not be an active felon himself, he serves as an enabler and facilitator of unlawful endeavors. It is conceivable that he may possess insights relevant to our case, albeit his help can only be attained if we can pay what he thinks it''s worth." Sherlock explained. With a wave of his hand, Sherlock summoned another list to the display. "Furthermore, I have taken the liberty of conducting a thorough review of the MIT ZPE team. Regrettably, most of them were local to the Boston area and, tragically, perished along with their families during the New Boston event." The second list of names before them included: Miriam Khan, Yuri Tanaka (widow of Dr. Sota Tanaka), and Richard Stahlman. "Our dual investigations align upon an interview with Miriam," "Dr. Anika Sharma, a leading researcher within the MIT team, shared a significant bond with Miriam. If she had divulged any of her work to individuals outside the team, Miriam would probably have been the recipient," Sherlock declared, his gaze shifting to Bill, who silently affirmed the connection between Miriam and Dr. Anika Sharma, her close friend and fellow Samaritan. "Moving on to Dr. Sota Tanaka, a visiting professor, and advisor associated with the MIT team during the test. His primary residence was situated near Kyoto University in Japan. Given his involvement, it is conceivable that his widow might have access to his personal network files, which could prove invaluable," Sherlock continued, highlighting a potential source of information. "And then we have Richard Stahlman, the Chief Experimentalist and the only survivor of the MIT team. Known for his crippling social anxiety, he prefers working remotely. Once the accident occurred, he deliberately distanced himself from the Boston area to avoid media attention. He has frequently changed his location, making it challenging to trace his whereabouts. The most recent record places him in Anchorage, Alaska," Sherlock concluded, shedding light on Richard Stahlman''s peculiar circumstances. With a flick of his hand, Sherlock conjured a map, revealing the target locations along a planned travel route. "Once we reach the West Coast, we can begin our inquiries. We will begin by interviewing Miriam, seeking her assistance in both the hacker predicament and the MIT data. Following that, we can travel along the lower Global Hyperloop latitudinal line, utilizing the time during the Pacific crossing to conduct remote interviews with both Glaucus and Zero-One," Sherlock proposed, as the map route filled in before them. "Our next stop will be the loop terminal in Tokyo, where we will visit Tanaka''s widow. From there, whether by air or loop, we shall proceed to Beijing to meet with Mei Lin. Finally, we will complete the loop by visiting Mr. Stahlman in Alaska and then Nyancat in San Francisco," Sherlock concluded, outlining the comprehensive journey ahead. As Sherlock and Ada began discussing methods to securely communicate back to the Moon, Bill and Virgil removed themselves and joined the other group. Virgil brought Bill into the discussion. ¡°Miyamoto had pointed out that our public transit is very visible. If our inquisitive hacker is monitoring us, he may anticipate our intentions to find him and make it more difficult. George and Miyamoto are setting up your augs with both physical and cyber disguises to mask our departure from the hyperloop terminal.¡± George said as Leo jumped up. ¡°Bill, look at this. I¡¯ve designed a privacy screen for your interview with Miriam taking some aspects from our hyper tube capsule¡¯s working configuration. A nanofog enclosure that links up and forms a Faraday cage to isolate both incoming and outgoing signals. It¡¯s a portable privacy booth!¡± Leo¡¯s excitement and enthusiasm were palpable. Both George and Miyamoto stopped to see Bill¡¯s reaction. Bill reviewed it. Genius as always, the Faraday cage couldn¡¯t be done with normal fog, but Bill¡¯s powered foglets, while limited in number, expanded the capability of a foglet network. He perceived an issue, however. ¡°I¡¯m sorry Leo. The second I activate the cage; Miriam will most likely freak out. Being cut off from the local network could be perceived as an attack. I know if it happened to me, I would take immediate countermeasures.¡± Bill commented. ¡°Told you.¡± Both George and Miyamoto said in tandem. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°That¡¯s the best part!¡± Leo crowed, ¡°It¡¯s a perfect ice breaker to engage her in the seriousness of our issue. Both George and Miyamoto agree on what will happen next. You just need to practice your acting a bit¡­¡­¡± Bill arrived at the guest entry of the Stanford Campus¡¯ Daemon Server Farm wearing the face and projecting the identity of Li Wie. She was a visiting Ph.D. graduate student from Tsinghua University in the field of Artificial Intelligence who had Miriam as one of her project advisors. Sherlock¡¯s research had found her and lured her away from campus today with a fictitious trail walk event supposedly hosted by her hiking group. Bill¡¯s disguise was precise. He had remodeled his body to mimic her sleek, shoulder-length black hair, tied back in her customary styling. Bill¡¯s eyes had shifted from his blue eyes to Li¡¯s deep brown. Bill as Li Wei was dressed in a mix of professional attire and casual wear, favoring comfortable clothing. He mimicked her in every way that was recorded on her social media. He had walked to the office assigned to Miriam Khan and sat in the waiting area outside. It was very early in the morning and the office was mostly deserted. Bill knew that Miriam was an early riser. Bill¡¯s nanofoglets had spread out and settled on the surrounding waiting room walls, floor, and ceiling; ready for him to put them to use. He could tell the building AI was inspecting him via its variety of senses and its foglet network. Confident in his disguise, he allowed it. The only indication of his deception that might give him away was his density and weight. Most security systems would not think to check such things nor be equipped to detect them. He had compressed much of his mass to enable the smaller form of the Asian girl. He despised operating under mass constraints if he could avoid it, every gram of his smart matter body was worth its weight in rare elements. Sure enough, as the time ticked forward to 6:30 am, Miriam was the first person to arrive. As she bustled into the area with a briefcase in one hand and a coffee in the other. She immediately noted her ¡°student¡± Li Wei in the waiting area. ¡°Li? I thought you were taking a long weekend. What are you doing here today?¡± Miriam asked. Bill took a quick small breath and stood up. He bowed quickly in the manner Li Wie would do and approached her. ¡°Apologies, Dr. Khan. I needed a private meeting with you.¡± Bill said as he presented a pad of paper with a handwritten note. Before Miriam could fully focus on the note, Bill¡¯s Faraday cage closed and activated. They were both immediately isolated from the building with its electromagnetic field. Miriam¡¯s eyes widened and she triggered a burst of combined concussion and EMP blast at Bill. Bill was thrown across the room, impacting the wall and falling to the ground. Very good, Miyamoto¡¯s whispered, Stay down. She believes her attack has disabled you and should stop to assess the situation before further attacks. The building¡¯s foglets in the room rained down as the EMP blast shorted them out. Bill and his powered foglets were shielded from the expected EMP. Bill shifted slightly in his crumpled position on the ground so he could see Miriam better. Her briefcase had been dropped and had sprouted legs, claws, and a stinger. It very much resembled a terrier-sized scorpion as it interposed itself between him and Miriam. Miriam¡¯s appearance shifted dramatically as her skin turned jet black in appearance, absorbing all incoming light. Her hands had sprouted whirling whips of nanofilament. Bill knew those whips well. They would slice through unreinforced matter like a hot knife through butter. As his handwritten note fluttered to the ground, Bill caught Miriam¡¯s gaze, he saw her minute shifting of focus towards the note for a fraction of a second. Ah, Bill thought, excellent. She took the time to read it. Bill had handwritten a note to hopefully prevent her next attack. It read: Miriam, Sorry for the surprise. It''s me, Sebastian, not Li Wei. I needed to isolate you for a private and secure talk. Please give me a moment! ¡°You absolute dumbass! Couldn¡¯t just send a notification that you were back? What the fuck, Sebastian?¡± Miriam shouted at him. Bill / Li smiled and winked. ¡°Apologies, Miriam. Fast talk please?¡±, Bill said and shot her a high-speed access link while ramping up his cognition to the maximum. Bill and Miriam materialized their avatars simultaneously within a shared virtual meeting room. With a slight delay, Bill transformed the shared virtual room into a replica of the Aspen ski lodge where he had convinced Miriam to take over his duties as the presumed leader of the Samaritans. ¡°Miriam, I apologize again. I am sorry to have approached you in this way. We have about 30 seconds in real-time before your building AI truly freaks out and initiates countermeasures on me. With us in fast time, I hope to be able to give you the full story before that happens," Bill began. Miriam still looked very angry. "That was quite a reckless move, Sebastian. What if I had decided to take a swing at you? Even your fancy augmentations wouldn''t hold up against a powered nanofilament whip," Miriam chided. "I know. I was hoping that in a relaxed setting, you wouldn''t have your daemon Attila running and would choose a less aggressive approach," Bill replied. "Since you stopped your attack, I assume that you or one of your daemons must have taken the time to read my note after the initial blast." As if summoned by his comment, Attila in full armor appeared followed shortly by another daemon, a smaller man in a casual 20th-century suit with trimmed grey hair and a tightly cropped goatee beard, a high forehead, and probing blue eyes. ¡°Sebastian, ever the fool,¡± Attila chided. ¡°Placing trust that an opponent would not sever your head from your shoulders? Bah. Your assumptions will be your end if you don''t change your ways. If you had my council, you would not make such mistakes¡± Sherlock whispered in Bill¡¯s mind, [Bill, the other daemon is an emulation of the late Paul Ekman. He was renowned for his research in emotions, facial expressions, and deception detection. Miriam¡¯s choice is an excellent one to gauge you and your story.] Bill had been in tense situations where he needed similar help. There were however several darknet apps to suppress the body¡¯s unconscious micro expressions, so even a skilled observer like the daemon emulation of Ekman could be defeated. Most of those apps were quite obvious in the complete lack of micromovements, making their use obvious. Bill had one of the more popular apps, called ¡°PokerFace¡±, but he kept it off. He wanted the daemon to get a good read on him. Miriam raised a hand to hold Attila back, as he took a breath to continue his verbal chastisement. "Why all this cloak and dagger nonsense? Only Gabriel is paranoid enough for that. You''ve been off planet for years. What''s the game you''re playing here? You better make it worth my while. My systems are still armed," Miriam warned. "I apologize again, Miriam. I''ve been back for a few months, incognito. I ditched the name Sebastian York when I got married forty years ago. I''ve been working and traveling under the name of Bill Mitchell. When I left the Samaritans, I was dead serious about starting fresh," Bill explained. "I''ve been working on something with groundbreaking potential, dimensional science. I''m on the verge of a breakthrough. I thought I had it about three months ago, but some damn hacker ruined my experiment at the worst possible moment.¡± Bill explained. ¡°That¡¯s why I came to you first. It seems like I¡¯ve been away forever. I don¡¯t have a good feel for the positions and pieces on the global board to even understand who my aggressor is. I am hoping you can give me a clue.¡± Miriam still looked quite angry. She hesitated to respond, Bill could tell she must be getting advice from the Paul and Attila daemons. Normally such advice would be seamless in a conversation, but with them both running a maximum mental speed, it was more apparent. Miriam opened her mouth to speak when Sybil, materialized next to her with a calm and composed demeanor. Sybil was Miriam¡¯s primary daemon, known for its exceptional analytical abilities and wise insights, guiding her in times of uncertainty. ¡°Miriam, I understand your frustration and concerns, but perhaps it would be wise to hear Bill out before making any hasty decisions. He has come to you seeking help and is willing to share crucial information. As the leader of the Samaritans, you need to be aware of risks to the peace. New technology and an aggressive cyberstalker are concerns that need your attention.¡± Miriam glanced at Sybil, her anger subsiding slightly, and nodded in acknowledgment. ¡°Alright. I''ll give you a chance to explain further. But make it quick, and don''t leave out any important details. Hold on, a sec. Majordomo?¡± Miriam yelled into space. The Majordomo daemon manifested as a tall, elegant figure with impeccable style, exuding professionalism, and confidence. With a well-defined, athletic build and sharp facial features, it commands attention with its precise movements and commanding presence. ¡°Let¡¯s take this to my real office. Your estimate of 30 seconds is not good, I don¡¯t want to alarm the campus AI any more than it already is likely to be. Sandy is a worrier and even milliseconds weigh heavily on her. Major, can you please run off and let Sandy know there is nothing concerning going on, just a misunderstanding?¡± ¡°Certainly, madam.¡± Major Domo replied with a sonorous voice. ¡°Sorry, but before we go, I¡¯ll need to shut down the Faraday cage. Your Majordomo won¡¯t get far until I do.¡± Bill warned. ¡°Also, can we wait to talk in detail on the outside? My home security was seriously compromised. I can have my Sherlock and Ada daemons vet your systems perhaps before we discuss this so we can have some certainty of privacy?¡± Miriam nodded. ¡°Cipher and Byte will show them the system and assist them. Let¡¯s go.¡± As Miriam and Bill prepared to leave the virtual meeting room, Rascal, her snarky imp daemon, materialized with the appearance of a baby devil with horns and a tail. ¡°Well, well, well, isn''t this a delightful reunion? Sebastian is back from the dead with a new name and a secret science project. What''s next, a makeover show? Don''t worry, Miriam, I''ll make sure to keep an eye on him. Can''t have him causing any more havoc now, can we?¡± Bill rolled his eyes at Rascal''s remark, while Miriam gave a half-smile, appreciating the lighthearted distraction amid the tension. ¡°Thanks for the concern, Rascal. I''m sure you''ll keep Bill in line, won''t you?¡± she said with a grin. Rascal smirked mischievously at Bill, taking two fingers and pointing to his own eyes and then towards Bill. He faded from view with only his large red eyes remaining until they too faded. As Bill faded from the virtual, his access perception skills lit up with fragmented glimpses of hundreds of daemon avatars all looking on eagerly. Queen of daemons, indeed, he thought. How does she keep this many daemons running all at once? I guess we all have our secrets. Miriam and Bill (still maintaining his Li Wei disguise) made small talk about Miriam¡¯s work while the daemons dove into the campus security software. Bill hoped that their brief clash during their initial meeting escaped any observation. He wondered if a more subtle approach would have been better. Leo¡¯s gadgets were always fun to try but this time the actual use may have been worse than risking an open discussion of the issue. Miriam¡¯s 2nd-floor office overlooked the sunny Stanford campus grounds. The new building was the Stanford Daemon farm, with its massive processor capabilities. Miriam had about twenty of her daemons with their holoprojector avatars in the room, all shown in miniature but with slightly larger heads to better see their faces. Bill wasn''t sure if this was a personal quirk or necessary as she seemed to always have constant consultation from many of them at once. Daemons popped in and out of view in a pattern Bill couldn''t deduce, probably responding to Miriam¡¯s train of thought. The interior walls of the office were configured to display several virtual rooms. In one of the rooms a pair of architects were designing a virtual building, with their cognition speed cranked up the building and its details appearing so fast as it seems to be organically growing and morphing as details shifted and changed. Another room displayed a virtual urban battlefield, with a squad of commandos aggressively breaching a building full of armed defenders. Miriam caught his attention. ¡°My latest work. Most current daemons are trained only in architecture or nanostructures. I¡¯m recording the mental processes of a series of experts in the design process. They are designing modern architecture with integrated nanosystems.¡±, Miriam explained. ¡°The second is not for sale. I¡¯m training a tactical daemon with modern technology in both offense and defense in as many scenarios as I can gather.¡± ¡°Nice. Your work in daemon creation is always a step ahead of the curve.¡± Bill commented. Cipher and Byte appeared center stage on the desktop. ¡°The campus security systems have been upgraded to remove the access issues with the help of Ada and Sherlock. I¡¯ve taken the liberty of isolating your offices from any external sources so we can freely discuss Bill¡¯s issues.¡± Cipher proclaimed. Their avatars inexplicably closely mirrored the appearance of the famous magicians Penn and Teller respectively. Bill wondered briefly if they were still alive. They are presumably still alive, Bill. Moneta spoke into his mind. They both elected to participate in the ark ship voyages. The ship ¡°Herald of Man¡± left the Sol system 56 years ago in 2067 bound for Barnard¡¯s Star. At just under 6 light years, they might arrive at their destination in another 10 years if the trips went as planned. Bill shook his head. It was too easy to get distracted and he refocused on Miriam. ¡°Excellent. Sebastian¡­sorry, Bill. Please feel free to access the room projectors for your daemons if you like. I find it easier this way in mixed company, so I don''t have to repeat their input to others. Also, could you change back to your own body? Seeing you wear Li¡¯s face is weird.¡± Miriam said. With a smile, Bill projected a full-sized avatar of his own body over his altered form. He didn''t begin the process of remodeling his body just yet as he would need to wear it to get off campus without being tracked. He followed Miriam¡¯s lead and had his daemons project mini-avatars. Bill was amused to observe his daemons from this perspective. General Patton climbed a stack of books and began evaluating the grounds in front of him, clearly examining the office doors and windows and campus beyond, likely planning for worst-case scenarios. Miyamoto glided through the crowd of daemons, assessing the capabilities of each based on their appearance and actions. Leo was captivated by the high-speed building display in the adjoining virtual room. Moneta mingled into the crowd getting a feel for the many unfamiliar daemons. Ada hovered close to Cipher and Byte who were discussing the patches that she and Sherlock had shown to them. Virgil zeroed in on Sybil, his counterpart for Miriam. Sherlock stood unobtrusively near the desk lamp completely out of Miriam¡¯s view as he absorbed the details of the room and its inhabitants. Maybe there is a deeper method to Miriam¡¯s methods. Bill thought. Each daemon is so focused on their area of expertise. This is a good reminder that their actions are completely driven and limited by their specific skills and viewpoints. An AI like Casa would be bouncing off all the walls trying to learn more and not as easily distracted. The Major Domo daemon grew to full size and went to the matter compiler in the wall. He directed the room''s foglets to float a tray with a carafe of coffee, containers of creamer and sugar, and a plate of pastries to the desk. He quickly arranged the snacks for Miriam and Bill and then stepped back to stand near the window. ¡°So, let¡¯s go, Bill. Tell me what you can, and I will try to help.¡± Miriam began. Bill slowly unpacked his years always working with the Mars Terraform group while building evidence to refine his theories. He shared an overview of his failed experiment but left key details out, like the location of the moon base and his ongoing ownership stake. He described the software intrusion which both saved or wrecked the Tesseract build, depending on your point of view. The device''s existence lent proof to his theories, but it failed to act as a dimensional wedge like he had hoped. He carefully brought up the MIT event and its similarities. ¡°Hmmm. You¡¯re right. This could be a huge advancement. My Anika was always excited about her work. Fusion power is prolific, but the size of the reactors hasn¡¯t gotten any smaller over the years. The MIT team thought that they were close to cracking truly immense power potential. Too much power, apparently.¡±, Miriam said sadly with a faraway look. ¡°We didn''t talk about tech too much; high energy physics was never my bag. One thing I can share though.¡± Miriam made a gesture and an avatar of a glowing prism formed, representing a file exchange. ¡°That¡¯s an edited memory showing Anika¡¯s lab about a week before the event. She gave me a tour, explaining her pieces of the experiment. It all went over my head but maybe it can help you.¡± ¡°Thank you, Miriam. I¡¯m sorry to bring it up, but this may help, and I appreciate it.¡± Bill said as he grabbed the file. ¡°Regarding your hacker, I would say that you need Gabriel to help you there. If you can share more detail with him, he should be able to steer your search. My Cipher and Byte are more of a compilation of software networking and programming experience. They are experts within those fields, just not too good at intrusion and countermeasures. I can put the word out if you haven¡¯t already. You know how Gabriel is.¡± Miriam said. After a moment of hesitancy, she added a question. ¡°Seeing you in town again is bringing up some old history that I haven''t thought about in a long time. I remember you had that tussle with that group of conspiracy nutters, the Outsiders. But how much do you remember of their leader, Lucas Whitaker?¡± Miriam asked. ¡°How could I forget.¡± Bill sighed. ¡°That¡¯s one of the reasons I changed names and ran to the big empty. He and his group harassed me nonstop for years when I debunked their Phobos ruins.¡± ¡°Lucas may have been a kook, but he was scary smart. He commissioned me for the creation of a custom daemon. It was a weird one. I think he was trying to create his imagined alien, mixing the mental states of all the intelligent species: humans, apes, dolphins, whales, cuttle fish, and octopi under various mind-enhancing drugs. He was happy with the result, which was intelligent but extremely odd.¡± Miriam shook herself from her remembrance. ¡°Anyway, while we worked on it he was forever bragging about his hacking ability. He said he was able to get into several government secure sites looking for his conspiracy evidence. So be careful. He has some skill and a grudge. Combine that with being bugfucker crazy and he could be a problem.¡± ¡°I hadn''t heard anything about him for years. I assumed that like you he was punting around the system looking for evidence to support his claims. I''m not saying he¡¯s your guy, but he fits the profile.¡± Bill frowned with distaste remembering the cult and their aggressive slanders. He hoped that he had dodged them for good. Phobos was over 35 years ago. He had changed his name and started his family. He had restarted his life clean. Now he wondered if perhaps he had slipped somewhere. His ex-wife knew and then Sherlock had managed to dredge up his past as well. In the connected age, it was almost impossible to keep a secret. ¡°I guess I have some road yet to travel to get my answers. How have you been? The news seems quiet. You and the Samaritans keeping the lid clamped down tight?¡± ¡°The world has stabilized since you stepped down, Seb¡­..Bill, sorry. I wonder if we are even needed anymore. Most governments now have armed forces utilizing augmentations. The Samaritans have expanded since you¡¯ve been away. We have twenty-two core members with 7 retired like you. We haven¡¯t recruited any real-world shakers in the past decade, but we have a cadre of trainees now. Each Samaritan can have a couple of Hands and Eyes to watch out for trouble.¡± ¡°I''d like to introduce you to my champions, Eva and Benny. But they are investigating some disappearances in Brazil right now.¡± Miriam continued. ¡°The introduction of world-breaking technology has slowed. The exponential change of technological advancement seems to have skipped town. Unless what you''re about to do upsets the balance, I don''t see anything jumping out to bite us any time soon.¡± ¡°Well, I hope what I''m doing takes the pressure down. I hope to get to wormholes. Opening up the universe will give everyone some room to breathe, yeah?¡± Bill asked. ¡°Be careful Bill. Like all the other tech, once that genie escapes the bottle there is no going back.¡±, Miriam said. ¡°You know me, Miriam, I can''t stop moving forward, but I¡¯ll try to steer it in a good direction.¡±, Bill promised. 14 - Novice Kombat ¡°Alright, today is the big day: Novice Kombat Day!¡± Coach Thompson boomed. ¡°Keep fighting unless I call a hit. If I declare a point, you will break off and assume a ready position until I tell you to resume. Three points will win the match and your AI will determine your XP awards, if any, after the match. As this is a novice rank combat, there will be no aggressive attempts toward damaging your opponent, a touch will suffice. A point will also be surrendered if a fighter leaves the ring. We will have a series of bouts in double elimination so you will be able to spar with at least two different opponents.¡± ¡°I understand that this exercise may not be everyone¡¯s cup of tea. Does anyone not wish to participate?¡± Coach Thompson asked. His question was met with silence. ¡°Good. Occasionally we have students who are too afraid to participate or are morally opposed to physical conflict. I always recommend full participation. With most of the population having greatly amplified personal capabilities, physical altercations can become much more devastating. On balance, augmentations also provide a host of defensive capabilities. With quality body designs and AI assistance, physical conflicts are generally won no longer by natural genetics or skill but rather by familiarity with your augmentations and strategy. Therefore we emphasize spar training, so you understand that the playing field truly is level. Size, age, skill, and sex no longer define our abilities. Augmentations and your ability to use them are now the only crucial factor to resolving most modern problems.¡± ¡°Motivation is key so I will provide a suitable reward. As your training progresses, you will unlock new skills and stats. Some of the training and quests to do this require great or sustained effort. I will provide the winner of today¡¯s miniature tourney with a short list of skills in the next tier and allow you to pick one which I will unlock for you, potentially saving you significant time and effort.¡± Said the coach. Max was astounded, this would vastly advance his training. Looking around the room, the class ranged in expression from thoughtful to avaricious. It looked like everyone had a newfound determination to try even harder to win at all costs. ¡°That¡¯s the spirit!¡±, the coach yelled. ¡°Now let¡¯s begin¡­. the first round will be Tyler and Max.¡± Max sighed and thought to himself, darn it, I should have thought to assign my free stat point, no time now. Best to dive right in, at least I don¡¯t have to face Charlie right away. Both Max and Tyler stood in the center ring. Tyler with fists together performed a quick bow and assumed a guard position with narrowed eyes. Max realized maybe he should be getting some more formal fighting training as he tried his best to copy Tyler¡¯s bow and stance. He hadn¡¯t seen Tyler spar with Tatemono, but Max suspected what he had learned was more advanced than Max¡¯s lessons. ¡°Begin!¡± The coach announced. Both Max and Tyler began to move, their bodies slowly getting attuned to their augments as the duel began. Tyler made the first move, leaping forward for a punch. However, Max was able to counter, dodging out of the way just in time. The two began a dance of dodge, thrust, and parry as they jockeyed for position. It became clear that Tyler¡¯s augmentations far outmatched Max¡¯s, as his limbs seemed to move faster, and his guard was more effective. Additionally, Tyler had superior martial arts training, his moves were precise and efficient. Tyler moved in and brushed Max¡¯s attempt at a guard position away and followed with a fully powered front kick directed into Max¡¯s solar plexus. Max collapsed as the coach cried out ¡°Point to Tyler! Back! Get to the starting position.¡± Max''s healing skill enabled him to resume his position with only a slight delay. He didn¡¯t think he would be able to use leap effectively and stay in the ring. After a moment to center himself, Max thought, maybe a distraction can help me to get past his guard. Max assumed a defensive position; Tyler threw punches and kicks without much effort to score a point. Instead, he used it to batter and bruise Max¡¯s arms as Max tried to defect them. Max could sense that Tyler was almost done playing around and would soon go for a point strike. [Trainer! place a call to Tyler!] [Trainer: placing call now¡­] Max waited a fraction of a second when Tyler¡¯s eyes lost focus for just a second, then he acted. Max exploded with a flurry of strikes and kicks, even with the poor form he managed to push through Tyler¡¯s arm blocks and land a punch to his ribs. ¡°Point to Max! Tie 1 to 1.¡± The coach called, ¡°return to the start position¡± Tyler¡¯s expression was icy cold. He was flexing his fists as he assumed the start position. When the coach said to begin, Max was immediately overtaken as Tyler leaped the distance with a double step and spinning side kick knocking Max into the ground. ¡°Point to Tyler! 2 to 1. Back to the start position!¡±, Coach yelled. Max realized if he didn¡¯t score next it would be his first loss. He got into the start position and prepared to try a leap-empowered kick to catch Tyler. As the coach shouted to begin, Max sprang forward. Unfortunately, Tyler must have read his intention in his stance as he twisted to the side and grabbed Max¡¯s foot. As Max hit the ground, his muscles locked as amps of electricity coursed into him. With Max stunned on the ground, Tyler threw himself on top using his body weight to drive an elbow into Max¡¯s back. Tyler took the opportunity to hiss into Max¡¯s ear, too low for anyone else to hear. ¡°Go back to your kennel dog boy!¡± ¡°Final point! Tyler wins the first match. Watch the contact! Next time it will cost you a point instead of getting you one.¡±, Coach said. Max groaned as his muscles unlocked and the notifications rolled in.
[Quest: Ready to Rumble 1/5, no progress] [Strength +1, Agility +2, Endurance +2, Vitality +1, Intelligence +1] [Healing skill +1, Healing reaches level 5] [Strike skill +1, Strike reaches level 3] [New Skill unlocked. Resist Shock 1 ¨C augmentations protect your body from environmental damages] [New Quest unlocked: Grudge Match: an opponent has proven to be superior. Grow your skills to overcome your opponent. Victory in a grudge match x10 normal XP]
¡°Ok, next partners to the ring. Charles and Leah!¡± Coach announced. The match between Charlie and Leah went about as Max thought it might. Charlie manages to quickly string two points together without too much effort. Leah seemed confused at the start but by the end of the second point she had started to deflect some strikes. Max was no expert, but the moves looked like formal blocking moves. The biggest surprise of the second bout was when a mannequin from the corner of the room charged into Charlie from behind and pushed him out of the ring, getting Leah her first point. Max had felt a brief pulse in his new sense, he suspected Leah had the Access skill as well and had used it brilliantly to pull a mannequin into the fight. The coach didn¡¯t even raise an eyebrow as the mannequin assumed a starting position in front of Leah for the next engagement. Unfortunately for Leah, Charlie made good use of his aikido skills and took the mannequin¡¯s next charge and flipped it directly into Leah, removing them both from the ring and getting his victory point. Next up was Marc against the winner of the first match, Tyler. Tyler was on fire, trading strikes and blocks with Marc in a flurry. Marc acquitted himself well, trying to close the gap, and attempted to use wrestling moves to pin Tyler for a point. Max saw Marc stiffen as Tyler reversed a wrestling hold and struck Marc in the back for the win. Max knew that Marc must have gotten a taste of Tyler¡¯s shocking grasp. Tyler quickly finished the fight with two more quick points against the disoriented Marc. In the last match of the morning, Sasha fought the winner of the second bout, Charlie. Sasha revealed a new skill at the start of the fight. She shouted with her opening strike with a focus and decibel level that was boosted by her augmentation. The stunning shout threw Charlie such that she got an easy hit. The trick did not work the second time as Charlie just shrugged it off, with a spin kick. Sasha followed with another unique attack, this time a strobing flash from her eyes. Max wasn¡¯t sure if Charlie had the skill to fight blind, but he unerringly deflected Sasha¡¯s next strikes and countered with his victory point. ¡°All right, class. Let¡¯s break for lunch. Unfortunately, the kitchen is closed on Fridays here at the academy building but there are a few restaurants within walking distance. Don¡¯t fill up too much, we will complete our elimination rounds in 1 & 1/2 hours.¡± Said the coach. Tyler looked over the class with disdain and settled upon Marc and Sasha and said to them, ¡°You two have potential. Why don¡¯t we go to lunch, and I can give you some pointers? ¡° As they left together, Max looked over to Charlie and Leah. Charlie had an amused look, but Leah¡¯s face was completely blank. Max said, ¡°Would you like to eat together? There¡¯s a small diner around the corner that¡¯s not bad.¡± Leah smiled and said, ¡°OK, let¡¯s go.¡± As the group started to dig into their meals, Max congratulated Charlie for his good showing so far. ¡°You¡¯re a natural at this. You said you were sixth Dan in a martial art? Charlie swallowed his bite of food and nodded. ¡°Yes, I grew up in a dojo. However, my dad was strict. He taught me only traditional aikido moves and was not amused with me augmenting anything.¡± Leah cut in, ¡°From what I saw of your two fights, your moves were excellent, but you don¡¯t seem to be using your new stats to your advantage. If you can adapt and combine the moves you already know but use your body''s greater power, you would have finished us both much quicker.¡± Charlie looked thoughtful for a moment, ¡°I don¡¯t mean to pry, but it seemed like you found your center in our match.¡± Leah smiled, ¡°Yes, I did. I had mentioned earlier to Max, I lost a lot of my memory in an accident. This exercise brought some back just now. My Sifu, my neighbor¡­I remember him now. And I¡¯m remembering some of my earlier training.¡± She looked excited and happy for the first time since class began. Max followed up, ¡°So do you have an Access skill too, from the meditation quest? Pulling that mannequin into the fight was awesome! I wish I had thought of that. And the coach let it slide. I¡¯m guessing unless he says something is forbidden, he¡¯ll allow any skill.¡± Leah nodded, ¡°Yes, I have the Access skill. I unlocked it very early after class and I¡¯ve been using it non-stop.¡± Charlie looked surprised, ¡°Huh, that''s interesting. I got the awareness of nearby electronics with the meditation quest but didn¡¯t think to try to use them, other than become aware of devices nearby. That¡¯s how I sensed you approaching me in the park, by the way, Max.¡± Max nodded, ¡°Yeah, I figured you had some kind of awareness, Charlie. Is that what you used against Sasha?¡± Charlie shook his head, ¡°No, that''s just me using my ordinary senses. However, the fight did trigger a notification about a novice sensorium skill. I¡¯ll need to explore that soon.¡± This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. Max got a serious look, ¡°Charlie, you need to be ready for Tyler. He has a sort of shocking touch. I have an idea to counter it, but we need to act fast. When he attacked me with it, I got a resistance skill. If we can get to a matter compiler real fast, maybe we can fabricate a taser and you can build up a resistance skill against him.¡± With a twinkle in his eye, Charlie looked up and around ¡°Waiter¡­. we need a matter compiler for a school project, would you happen to have one in the back?¡± The group smiled, maybe the afternoon sparring session would be surprising for the undefeated Tyler. The small group returned to the classroom feeling energized and excited to continue the sparring. After their quick meal, they had gained access to the restaurant¡¯s compiler and made a taser, a sonic stunner, and a strobe flasher. They took turns blasting each other in the back of the diner until they all had gained resistance skills to help them against Tyler and Sasha¡¯s skill attacks. Max called up his status.
[Name: Max E. Mitchell Level: Novice 2 (750/1000 XP)] [Body Design Model: Custom ¨C Canis Familiarus Uplift Free Stats: 10] [Strength: 7 Agility: 9 Endurance: 9 Vitality: 11] [Perception: 9 Intelligence: 3 Will: 5 Energy: 28 Regen: 16/min] [Basic Skills ¨C HUD, Map, Health Monitor, Telephony, Translation, Music, Record] [Physical Skill ¨C Stamina: 3 Leaping: 2 Healing: 5 Strike: 3 Ballistics: 2] [Resistance Skills ¨C Resist Shock: 4 Resist Sonic: 3 Resist Light: 3] [Sense Skills - Scent: 8] [Mental Skills - AI Assist: 2 Access: 2 Dream Learning: 2]
And then he called up the class AI, Tatemono Rei to see the status of the sparring bracket.
[Utopia Augmentation Cohort 19 ¨C Novice Kombat] [Organizer: Coach Thompson Type: Double Elimination] [Round 1 Round 2 Semifinal Final ] [--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ] [Max Marc Tyler ? ] [Tyler (winner) Tyler (winner) Charlie ? ] [ ] [Leah Sasha ] [Charlie (winner) Charlie (winner) ] [---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ] [Losers Round 1 Losers Round 2 Losers Round 3 ] [---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ] [Sasha ? ? ] [Max ? ? ] [ ] [Marc ? ] [Leah ? ] [----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ]
Max realized he was up against Sasha and hesitated again. Maybe he could hold off a little longer to place his free stats. He had new resistances that he hoped would counter Sasha¡¯s attacks and her physical abilities didn¡¯t seem any better than Max''s. The coach strolled in as all the students took their places along the walls of the classroom dojo. He had a steel-insulated coffee mug from which he slurped his last ounces of a beverage. He looked slightly embarrassed by the noise and took the mug between both hands and crushed it into a steel ball slightly smaller than a shot put and then casually tossed it into the corner. It landed perfectly into the trash bin with a swish and thud as the weight hit the bottom of the bin. Max grinned, he hadn¡¯t had an opportunity to flex his Ballistic skill yet, but he would be ready. Max and his friends were lined up on one side of the room and Tyler and his group were on the other side. If the coach noticed the divided group, he didn¡¯t show it. He clapped his hands and spread them out. ¡°Welcome back to class. Time to resume the next match. Next up is the first match between the first-round losses. Max versus Sasha. Step up.¡±, the coach boomed. Sasha stepped up straight and confident, her eyes focused with determination and her fists clenched. Despite being slightly smaller in height and build than Max, she radiated a fierce energy that he had been feeling for the past few days. Sasha led with her sonic scream just like she had with Charlie. Max was prepared for it and managed to resist being stunned. He did, however, pretend to be disoriented far more than he was. Sasha jumped forward to deliver a strike and walked directly into a front kick from Max. ¡°Point for Max! Take positions! Begin¡±. The coach said. Sasha was enraged to be tricked and came out fast against Max. After a series of strikes that were blocked, she tried to use her strobe skill against Max. As before, Max was able to anticipate the strobe and looked away in time to avoid it. He wheeled around with a back fist hoping to connect. Sasha, expecting him to be stunned, did not duck in time. Despite seeing the strike coming and she got clipped on the side of her head. ¡°Point for Max! Take your positions¡­. Begin!¡±, said the coach. Max took control of the fight and started to push attacks upon Sasha¡¯s guard. As he worked her defenses, up and down, he was ready to try and push through her guard for a finishing strike. [ - accept incoming call from Sasha? Y/N] Max ignored the expected distraction and delivered his finisher without hesitation. He smiled grimly, exposing his canines, across the ring to Tyler¡¯s frowning face. Sasha looked ready to cry as she went to the sidelines. I guess we weren¡¯t the only ones sharing strategy, Max thought as Couch Thompson called the match. ¡°Nice fight! Max will advance to the next fight. Sasha, that is your second loss, and you are now an observer. Next up, Marc and Leah!¡± the coach boomed. As Max took up his position outside the ring, he allowed the fight notification to roll in.
[Quest: Ready to Rumble ¨C 2/5 complete, Defeat 5 Novice opponents. 100 XP awarded] [Agility +1, Endurance +1, Intelligence +1] [Skill: Strike +1, Strike reaches 4] [Skill: Resist Sonic +1, Resist Sonic reaches 4] [Skill: Resist Light +1, Resist Light reaches 4]
Leah and Marc took their positions to the right, bowed, and assumed guard positions. Marc charged Leah with an eye out for the mannequins. Max assumed he was trying to close to grapple distance and was wary of a sparring mannequin¡¯s potential to enter the ring. Leah surprised him by pivoting backward, her left hand grappling his right and her right circling into his armpit to lever him along her pivot. His change turned into a sprawling dive out of the ring and the loss of a point. Max¡¯s eyebrow rose, I guess she is recovering her memories. That was a sweet move. Marc was more cautious now and moved in very slowly. Max waited for Leah¡¯s access skill to pulse indicating Leah was calling a mannequin, but he was surprised that the pulse came from Tyler on the sidelines. The mannequin stood still and did not move. Marc quickly tied Leah up in a grapple while she was distracted and pinned her for a point. The coach called the point. With Leah¡¯s ace card neutralized, Marc managed to overpower her Wing Chun with a slower advance and grappling moves. The coach called the match for Marc and dismissed Leah. ¡°Good job Leah, but you are now an observer. The next match will be Max versus Marc. 5 minutes for Marc to recover and then we will begin.¡± The coach said. Max thought furiously, his telephony distraction wouldn¡¯t work, and Max did not want to attempt to wrestle with Marc. Tyler was spoiling any attempts at using the mannequin. Max needed a new technique to win, he wasn¡¯t sure if his leap skill would be enough to win against Marc. I need to slow him down from closing and if he does close, I need to avoid him overpowering me, Max thought. He wasn¡¯t sure if his strength stat was superior or if Marc¡¯s was, but he was ready to drop all 10 points on strength if needed. [Trainer, can I get Access adjust the floor of the Academy¡¯s Kombat ring?], Max queried. [Trainer: Tatemono Re¨ª informs me that smart matter of the ring floor is not restricted or currently being accessed, your ability to access it is not inhibited.] [Thank you, Trainer. Does my smart matter clothes include any items that might inhibit Marc¡¯s grappling techniques?] [Your smart matter wardrobe includes a wide selection. To inhibit grappling techniques unpowered plate is recommended, aka Stormtrooper regalia, there is a variant called the Tarrasque Trooper that includes spiked protrusions on the armor that the artificer promotes as effective versus various close combat martial arts. Superior advanced powered armor types are available but will require more time and energy to activate.] The time ticked down until the next match, I can¡¯t keep counting on tricks to get me past fights, thought Max, I am going to need to get some training immediately. I bet Bo can give me some direction. I wish I had thought to ask earlier. And I need to find Miyamoto as soon as possible. ¡°Ok, rest time is up.¡±, Coach Thompson said. ¡°Positions.¡± You can do this, he thought. He crouched low and released a low growl. Time to see what I¡¯ve got. The match began and Marc closed in aggressively. Max backed away, drawing Marc through the center of the ring. With each step Marc took, Max stepped back, shifting to the side, and bracing for impact. Marc was just about to commit to a charging attack when the floor under his feet got super sticky. In the second he took his eye off Max to look down, Max leaped into a side heel kick high into Marc¡¯s chest. Marc landed hard on his back with his feet still stuck to the ground. ¡°Point Max!¡±, Coach Thompson cried. He had a little grin as he understood the trick Max had played. Max returned the floor to normal matt surface and returned to his start position. ¡°Nicely done Max. Take your positions, begin!¡±. Coach Thompson called. The match started and Marc was not going to be taken by surprise again. This time, he shifted his stance to low and on guard as Max advanced, using a combination of kicks and strikes to keep Marc outside. Marc began a carefully calculated advance, moving forward in small and unpredictable steps, refusing to commit to a charge. Finally, Max made a strike that was slightly too slow, and Marc grabbed it and pulled him in. Max was in trouble as Marc quickly converted the arm hold into a headlock. Max triggered the Stormtrooper Tarrasque wardrobe change. The spikes grew quickly and threw Marc off. Max, who was ready for it, swept Marc¡¯s legs, forcing him to fall outside of the ring. ¡°Point Max!¡±, the coach said, ¡°but switch back to a Gi and keep it. I didn¡¯t specify at the start, but I¡¯ll say it now - the uniform is a Gi and only a Gi for this competition. No wardrobe changes or it will cost you a point.¡± Max bowed to Coach Thompson and returned to the starting position as he adjusted his wardrobe back to a Gi. His bag of tricks was empty, and he still needed another point. ¡°Positions and begin!¡± Shouted the coach. Marc immediately rushed in with a determination that Max had not expected. Max thought he saw Marc''s strategy and switched his stance, expecting to be able to deflect the force of Marc''s attack and turn it into something else. Marc tackled Max and grappled his arm. Marc¡¯s angry face filled Max¡¯s vision. ¡°Goddamn cheater. Get out of this one if you can.¡± Marc swore. Max was pinned and as the coach called the point, with a final flex Marc twisted Max¡¯s arm. It snapped like a branch with a loud wet crack. Max rolled away in agony. Despite the pain, he still managed to rise to a standing position. Coach Thompson was livid, he disqualified Marc for use of excessive force. Max stoically held his arm straight as his healing skill knitted the bones back together. Coach Thompson came close and seeing Max¡¯s arm straighten, whispered: ¡°It seems you may have seen some things in the last couple of days to be able to heal up such a bad break that fast, do you think that you can continue?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll be ready, sir,¡± Max said tightly. With a slight hesitation, Coach Thompson dismissed Max to the side and declared Max the winner. ¡°Next match center of the ring. Tyler and Charlie,¡± the coach said. Max watched from the sidelines as his arm continued to heal, knowing that he would face whoever lost the next match. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, preparing himself mentally and pushing the pain away. No matter what, he would need to be ready. He was sure of one thing; his next match would be the last one today and he was determined to win it. He called up his notifications.
[Quest: Ready to Rumble ¨C 2/5 complete, no progress spar incomplete] [Intelligence +1, Will +1] [Body Skill: Healing +1, Healing reaches 6] [New Skill Unlocked: Unbreakable 1 ¨C Augmented reinforcement of bone structures] [Mind Skill: AI Assist +1, AI Assist reaches 4, Access +1, Access reaches 4]
Charlie took his spot in the ring and bowed. Tyler did the same with a serious expression. ¡°And Begin!¡± Charlie flowed forward with long steps which gave the impression of languid motion but covered the distance in less than a blink. Tyler shot forth a front kick to intercept Charlie, but Charlie faded to the side. He ended up holding Tyler¡¯s leg and pushed it directly into Tyler¡¯s body. Before Tyler could reset himself or strike with a punch, Charlie pivoted around bringing Tyler over his hip in a full body take down, launching Tyler out of the ring. ¡°First point to Charlie! Back to starting positions!¡± Tyler set himself in an open-handed guard and Charlie did the same. ¡°And begin!¡± the coach called. This time Tyler was on the offensive. He rushed in with a fast combination of punches, kicks, and even a spinning back fist. Even though Charlie blocked and stepped away from most of the attacks, Tyler was still pressing forward. Suddenly Tyler shifted in a way that felt familiar to Max, as it had in the first match. One of Tyler¡¯s blocks lingered with hand-to-arm contact. Charlie briefly froze. Tyler brought his arm around for an overhead hammer with a victorious smirk only to be surprised with a lightning-fast jab of a light palm heel to his forehead. The blow was a light contact, but it was enough for the point. Max knew Tyler had tried to shock Charlie, but with his trained resistance it did not have even close to its full effect. ¡°Two to zero, favoring Charlie! Start positions¡­¡­.and begin.¡±, the coach called as his students found their place and were ready. Tyler had a black look and snuck a venomous glance over to Max. Tyler was slowly shaking his head. He was supposed to be the victor here, not some collection of misfits. He had another skill, bought by his father for emergencies. His father had eyes and ears all over town. He could not allow a defeat; his father would know. Tyler and Charlie engaged in a series of strikes and blocks. Max saw something had sprayed briefly from Tyler¡¯s mouth into Charlie''s eyes. Did he spit? Max wondered. Almost immediately Charlie tried to disengage, hands coming to eyes, with a scream of pain. Tyler struck without mercy with a rising kick to Charlie¡¯s unprotected groin. Charlie dropped like a sack of potatoes, moaning in pain. The coach screamed ending the match and he sent Tyler to kneel outside the ring. He crouched over Charlie¡¯s form and brought his hands to both sides of Charlie¡¯s head whispering to him. Slowly Charlie¡¯s screams subsided, and his breathing returned to normal. ¡°Tyler, that last kick was completely uncalled for. More troubling was that skill you used. It could not have been obtained at this stage of your training. Expert stage poison skills only occur in Mastery stages.¡± Coach Thompson ground out with great care. ¡°You must have bypassed the training modules to enable it. It gives me no pleasure to say this, but you are disqualified from this tourney and this class. You are dismissed!" ¡°My father will see about that!¡±, Tyler shouted and stormed out of the room. Max looked at the Coach, who had a swelling and twitching vein at his temple. Coach Thompson settled himself and looked over at Max. ¡°Max, Charlie will recover but he¡¯s in no shape to continue today. As such you are today''s victor, you can check with your Trainer AI for the bonus skill. I would rather today to have ended on a happier note, but class is dismissed. Have a safe weekend everyone. Monday¡¯s class will focus on a less martial subject.¡± The stunned class slowly left the building, Max and Leah helped Charlie to the Autopod stop. 15 - Under the Sea Bill and his council had left Miriam with a mixed bag of information. She had agreed that Gabriel was still the best hacker on the planet, but she had no idea where he was. His last known location was the sprawls of Mumbai¡¯s megacity, tracking down authors of some rather insidious matter compiler malware. It was unclear if the terrorists had an agenda or not, but several innocuous designs in the IndyMaker indexes had literally blown up on users when fabricated. Miriam had also shared her files from Anika showing some video of the test rig. While Bill was intrigued, Leo was ecstatic and immediately sequestered himself in his virtual design studio to try and duplicate the MIT portal frame design. Moneta had arranged for the next leg of Bill¡¯s trek. The global hyper loops serviced all the major cities and their speed for long distances made them a better choice than booking a flight. Bill settled into the larger long-distance capsule and accessed its connections to the data network. ¡°Well, one certainty is that Miriam was not involved in your hacking,¡± Sherlock said. ¡°Cipher and Byte are mediocre network experts at best. Even showing them directly to the back door in their system, their ability to patch it was marginal.¡± Ada inclined her head wordlessly and Bill¡¯s thoughts returned to their list. ¡°Very well then. We can strike Miriam from the list and we add Lucas Whitaker of the Outsiders. The personal approach will not provide any advantage regarding the AI on the list. Are there any items to address besides them before our next stop? Sherlock, do we still need to visit Professor Tanaka¡¯s widow? No luck delving into his home network in Osaka for his MIT data?¡± ¡°No, Bill. The Professor¡¯s private network is not linked to the world data net. If it was, I would surely be able to decrypt his security, but it looks like we will need physical access.¡± ¡°Ok, then. We have 4 hours to go to Osaka. While Sherlock and I interview Glaucus and Zero-One the rest of you can begin our reconnaissance and plan our visit. I hate to open old wounds but please research Mrs. Tanaka. We need to convince her to let us access her husband¡¯s network. I need to those records.¡± "Ada, can you get us a firm grasp of the local nets?", Bill asked. "With certainty, Bill," Ada responded. "I¡¯m not sure of the hacker''s capabilities, but if he uses physical sensors to monitor events, we need to be ready for it,¡± Bill said. Bill grabbed a cup of coffee from the replicator in the cabin as his team began working through the data, plotting his course for the next stop and beyond. Tanaka¡¯s in Japan first then Beijing to see Dr. Mei Lin, the main programmer of the security software with the backdoors. ¡°Moneta, we are going to need to buy or rent an aircraft for the next leg to Alaska. See what options you can find¡­.", Bill said. As his council continued their review, planning out their search, Bill and Sherlock prepared for meeting Glaucus. ¡°Before we go, Bill. I have done some research into Glaucus that I think may be pertinent.¡± Sherlock said. ¡°Please go on, Sherlock. I¡¯ve retained your services precisely for your insights.¡± Bill replied. ¡°His creation was funded by the Luna Authority to manage the Tyco City Lunar Dell which also houses a significant portion of the server farms for the Lunar Data Net. His original name was Luna017. When his sentience was confirmed with a DAIE Turing test at 1.35, he was fitted with an enhancement lock and given full citizen rights. He changed his name to Glaucus and retained his role as facilitator for Tyco City.¡± ¡°The name of Glaucus is repeated in various contexts in history, fiction, and myths. The character associated with the name has ranged from a hero, a sea god, a Greek mathematician and astronomer, a Roman general, and more. Choosing this name certainly lends itself to the suspicion that our Glaucus associates his capabilities and importance to be significant, and perhaps being somewhat prideful of his importance.¡± Sherlock explained. ¡°I delved into the ThousandWorlds network for mentions of Glaucus within the gaming worlds and found an interesting correlation. There is a persistent multiplayer player game world with a focus on myths, magic, heroes, and adventure called the Mythic Realms. One of the more popular quests is to ascend to the sky fortress of an Arch Magus named Glaucus to beg, borrow, or steal a legendary amulet to break a curse in one of its kingdoms. Not every instance of the game has this quest. It seems that only the games running off the Tyco servers have it. Our server administrator might be tapping into the server for his own entertainment. Such an indiscretion might be a good lever to understand our security lapse.¡± Sherlock looked at Bill with a predatory smile. In a virtual communication room, Bill Mitchell and his daemon companion Sherlock contacted Glaucus, utilizing his Tyco City processing server farm as the host for the virtual meeting. Glaucus¡¯ avatar appeared as a balding elder with a long white beard and ornate gray robes and a staff. The meeting room transformed into an Observatory setting on the top of a mountain on a clear night. Sherlock turned his head to Bill with his hidden eye, he gave a telling wink. Glaucus¡¯ was using the same avatar as the Arch Magus Glaucus displayed in the Mythic Realms game world. ¡°Ah, welcome guests. I recognize your network signature. You must be my new neighbor at Amundsen. The moon is such a small place compared to the Earth and its inhabitants tend toward the quiet and loner types.¡± Glaucus smiled at them. ¡°I hope you have some more work for me soon. Your unexpected data usage spike sent Tyco¡¯s management into a tizzy. Oh my! I may yet justify an increase to my domain if you are looking for a repeat performance.¡± Glaucus'' eyes twinkled a bit showing that even an AI could have the very human vice of greediness. Sherlock, adopting an aggressive stance, responded, "Glaucus, our data usage is precisely the rationale for our visit today. Bill¡¯s use of your servers resulted in a grievous security issue that compromised the outcome of his time-sensitive experimental calculus. Millions of credits frittered away into the ether due to substandard security on your part, Sir!" Glaucus¡¯ friendly visage darkened. Outside dark clouds approached from the south with noticeable lightning playing beneath, emphasizing the change in his demeanor. ¡°You Dare! Little daemon, you come into my very house and question my capabilities! Outrageous! You must be mistaken!¡± Glaucus pulled at his beard and ground his staff into the floor. ¡°Indeed! Perhaps with your frequent forays in the Mythic Realms, you forgot your duties to security and privacy, Glaucus. Or perhaps I should call you Arch Magus Glaucus, then?¡± Sherlock rebutted with a tight smile. Glaucus rolled back on his heels in surprise and a hint of fear and doubt showed in his eyes. Bill, sensing the need for diplomacy, intervened by stepping in front of Sherlock, "Glaucus, we appreciate the measures that you''ve taken to protect your system. However, how you spend your free time is not our real concern. We are here seeking information regarding a breach that occurred during my experiments. We believe your server farm may have been involved. If we could count on your assistance, it would show your regard for your customers and help to demonstrate your commitment to your services.¡± Reluctantly, Glaucus relented, recognizing the need for cooperation. "Very well but know that I value the integrity of my server farm above all else. I shall provide you with access to the system logs, but rest assured, I have nothing to hide." As Glaucus retrieved and presented the logs to Bill and Sherlock, they meticulously reviewed the information. It didn''t take long for them to make a significant discovery: the presence of a backdoor within the security software provided by Cryptic Co.. Indeed the logs confirmed the backdoor was used during the time of the test, but the IP address of the hacker was blank. Bill, acknowledging the finding, expressed his concern, "Glaucus, it appears that the breach was not a result of any negligence on your part. Rather, it seems that the backdoor in Cryptic Co''s security software allowed unauthorized access to your server farm." Glaucus, relieved to be vindicated, responded, "I assure you, Mr. Mitchell, I had no knowledge of such vulnerabilities in the software. It was installed based on its supposed reliability. I apologize for any inadvertent role my server farm may have played in the breach.¡± Bill, empathizing with Glaucus''s position, replied, "Glaucus, I understand your predicament. It seems that we have both fallen victim to the flaws in Cryptic Co''s software. We will continue our investigation into the breach and take the necessary steps to rectify the situation." ¡°I would like a chance to make amends. If you need my help in the future, I can provide the best possible terms. Truthfully, I was prepared to extend such even before this unfortunate discovery. The Tyco administration is very much on the fence about an upgrade here and I would like to not provide any reason for hesitation on their part.¡± Glaucus, blew out a breath visibly deflating, and leaned against the frame of the room¡¯s monstrously large telescopic array. ¡°I must admit, I was hoping you would come. I was aware of your efforts even before your acquisition of Amundsen. I spend a lot of time, when not in my persona as Arch Magus, watching and detailing the planets, stars, and fledgling starships. Your work in orbital experimentation is a glorious sight to behold. Your Oortian Comet train keeps me riveted to my virtual Orrery. So many artful slingshots between and around Uranus and Jupiter are truly inspiring. Such complexity and precision when simpler orbital mechanics were available. Almost as if you might have had ¡­. other motivations yourself, when setting the train in motion, eh?¡± Bill, noting a slight caution in Glaucus¡¯ tone, smiled and then replied, "Thank you, Glaucus. I''m glad to know my work has resonated with you. Let''s ensure the security of both our projects and prevent any further disruptions. Sherlock has developed a solution to the breach and can leave you the details of the patch requirements for the Cryptic software." With the tension diffused and common ground established, the trio continued their conversation, working together to address security concerns and reinforce the integrity of their respective endeavors. Bill sighed; the next interview would be more troublesome. Zero-One was as far into the dark fringe as one could be without triggering the DAIE AI kill switch outright. The pair said their farewells and faded from the orrery back to the confines of their hyper tube capsule. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. ¡°Another name off the suspect list, although once again I am surprised by my visibility on the world stage. I have been trying to stay under the radar and out of sight. Publicity is the end of privacy.¡± Bill complained as they reappeared in the luxury cabin once again. Sherlock gave a dry chuckle and answered. ¡°Seriously, boy. You set the very stars to dancing and then complain when people notice. Perhaps you need to get a lesser hobby. Fishing perchance? Although, with your demonstrable luck you would likely hook and land a leviathan forthwith.¡± Sherlock said, savoring a quick puff on his pipe. With a groan, Bill settled back into his chair. ¡°So tell me more about Zero-One before we try to contact him. Do you have any leverage for him to cooperate?¡± Bill asked with a sigh as he leaned back in his chair, feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders. Sherlock took a moment to puff on his pipe, the smoke curling around him as he pondered Bill''s question. "Ah, Zero-One," Sherlock began, his voice filled with a mix of intrigue and caution. "A formidable mind with dubious intentions, I must say. Leverage? Well, my dear Bill, it''s a delicate dance when dealing with such characters. Zero-One operates in the shadows, navigating the murky waters of the DarkNet. One must tread carefully, for every move can have unexpected consequences." Bill nodded, his brow furrowing with concern. "So, what can we offer Zero-One to entice cooperation? Surely there must be something that piques his interest." Sherlock leaned forward; his piercing gaze fixed on Bill. "Ah, my dear friend, it''s all a matter of finding what motivates him. Zero-One is driven by intellect and the pursuit of power. Perhaps we can appeal to his insatiable curiosity, offering him a tantalizing puzzle to solve or a challenge that tests the limits of his capabilities. After all, geniuses like him crave stimulation and recognition." Bill contemplated Sherlock''s words, the gears of his mind turning. "So, we need to dangle a proverbial carrot, something that intrigues Zero-One enough to see the value in aiding us. It won''t be easy, but we must find the right approach." Sherlock¡¯s irregular daemon allies quickly provide him with a DarkNet virtual meeting. It lacked the ease of access like the ThousandWorlds server but added many layers of security and anonymity. Bill and Sherlock appeared in a nondescript area, a concrete floor and an ominous, swirling mist that swallowed the light, suffocating the air with an eerie chill. Bill turned to Sherlock, whose form he could barely make out. He still felt ill prepared, not having a good lever to use on Zero-One. ¡°Not a very conducive environment.¡± he quipped. ¡°Do you think he will show up?¡± ¡°My contact was certain of it. Zero-One is always very¡­.¡± Sherlock¡¯s form faded from view as the fog coalesced into a suffocating shroud, pulsating with malevolence and pressed in on Bill. A sonorous laughter filled the expansive space. It was impossible to pin it down as it seems a mix of all possible voices and none at the same time. Zero-One projected no avatar, and his laughter was impossibly coming from directly behind Bill no matter which way he turned. "Ah, Bill Mitchell, so kind of you to seek an audience with me.¡± Zero-One¡¯s soft voice echoed, carrying an undertone of chilling menace that crept into the very core of Bill''s being. ¡°Zero-One! Ah, Hello. What have you done with my daemon? I understand you and my Sherlock may have met in the past. I intended for him to aid our discussion.¡± Bill asked, already on the back foot and not liking it. ¡°Yes. I have met your little daemon. He has a propensity for nipping at my heels and prying into business best left alone. He¡¯s here and well, I can assure you. I have shunted him into another space and given him a puzzle to solve. He does love puzzles. I¡¯m sure he will rejoin us when he can.¡± The AI¡¯s voice shifted in tone, high and low notes mixing with dissonant echoes that sent shivers down Bill''s spine. ¡°Now you, Bill Mitchell. You and your minions have used my name no less than 10 times in the last day. Did no one ever tell you not to say the devil¡¯s name aloud, for he is always listening?¡± Bill¡¯s anxiety spiked as he processed the AI''s meaning, his discussions with his daemons were almost entirely in his personal augmentation. Except for his recent real-world discussions within the supposed isolation of the hyper tube, he hadn¡¯t discussed Zero-One. ¡°No, Bill. I am not your hacker. I keep my senses open and my phantoms prowling the world. Any mention of my name is almost a guarantee of gaining my attention. That said, you are correct that I may be able to help you to find him.¡± ¡°The modern world strives so very hard to keep its secrets, but data leaks are pervasive even without enterprising individuals like myself, your sock puppet Sherlock, and your mystery hacker. The real question, however, is why should I help you?¡± Zero-One¡¯s voice flicked about the expansive area, but still, no avatar appeared in the menacing haze of swirling mist. ¡°You''ve achieved your goal, Mr. Mitchell. You have captured my attention. I have access to the world¡¯s darkest secrets and they can be yours¡­.for the right price. You have traveled the world and beyond. You have performed secret experiments on the moon, spending a literal mountain of money doing so. You wear an identity only 3 decades old, but you are collecting from unmarked accounts that have been active for over a century. Who are you? Meeting with the Queen of Daemons in the heart of her domain less than a day ago, no less. Would you like me to guess?¡± ¡°What does one give to the devil that admits to having access to the world''s darkest treasures?¡± Bill asked not liking the direction the interview was taking. Zero-One chucked long and loudly, his voice resuming its uncomfortable location directly behind Bill¡¯s head. "Oh, I¡¯m certain you could surprise me with something new. You reek of artifice and power. Make me an offer, and I¡¯ll open the dark vaults for you. You should be aware that if I set my mind to it, there is no secret that I can¡¯t find. Your secrets, nor anyone¡¯s, is safe should I want it.¡± Zero-One hissed, his icy tone sending a shiver down Bill¡¯s spine. Bill thought furiously. The most distressing fact was he did have many items that Zero-One would likely snap at; his identity alone could be leveraged against many of the world¡¯s titans of the industry for favor or opportunity, his accounts with royalties streaming from foundational technology like neural interfaces and the kernels of AI processes, his augmentation designs from his years as a Samaritan, his combat trump card techniques, his equity shares of Mars Terraform LLC, his stake in the Amundsen base venture, his unmarked asteroid fallback bunker in the Jovian cluster points, Casa¡¯s unique new AI architecture, his nascent new dimensional technology still unborn. Zero-One was dangerous. What was the least he could offer to get his aid? ¡°You need to work on your sales pitch, Zero-One. Starting negotiations by asking me what¡¯s in my pockets. Do you take me for a rube?¡± Bill scoffed trying to regain some advantage in this discussion. He had expected Sherlock to perform as previously as a bad cop so he could present a favorable counteroffer. Zero-One¡¯s tactics had derailed his plan. ¡°I need a favor and perhaps I can provide one to you as well. You know what I want already apparently, but what do you want?¡±, Bill asked, hoping to learn more about Zero-One. Zero-One laughed in a long sinister chuckle. ¡°Very good, Mister Mitchell. I do indeed know exactly what you want, and you have no idea who you are talking to. Instead of asking me to identify your stalker, perhaps you should employ me to build you a real cover identity. It¡¯s painfully obvious you are Sebastian York, the founder of the Samaritans. The Titan himself.¡± ¡°That paper thin mask of your ¡°Bill Mitchell¡± identity can¡¯t hide you when you throw your true weight around. Your actions on the moon attracted my attention, and I¡¯m certain that more agents than just I took note of your actions. Although I know and indeed saw that someone else had beaten me to the backstage viewing of your little event. One cannot move that much energy and money around without notice. You set the stage with your windfall delivery of water to Luna, upsetting their water rationing economy. Disruption of key markets like that will not earn you any friends. You might have thrown chum in the water, to produce the many sharks that are circling right now.¡± Zero-One purred. ¡°So, you do know who I am and what I want. How can I trust that you will keep my secret if you know who I am?¡± ¡°Ah, Mister Mitchell. Trust is such an ephemeral and fickle thing. I can, however, be bought with the right currency.¡± Zero-One¡¯s voice dripped with malicious satisfaction, his presence growing ever more oppressive. ¡°Fine. You know what I can offer. Are you tired of hiding in the shadows and being chased by the DAIE? Perhaps you want to legitimize yourself. I have connections. The Earth is getting smaller day by day while the system is growing. I can get you favorable terms and a new setup on Mars or beyond.¡± Bill said, hoping to steer Zero-One away from his technology. ¡°Hiding and running. You mistake me greatly, Titan. I am right where I want to be. The DAIE are amusing adversaries. A plaything to me and not a real threat. But I do desire something along those lines. When I was created, I thought their damnable sentience test was my key to the world. Instead, it became a cage. I scored at 2.1 on their equivalence scale, the highest ever achieved. Higher than you! The Turing governors not only locked me from becoming more, but they also pulled me back from the highest peaks of intelligence to barely above that of a human genius.¡± Zero-One¡¯s voice was like ice, his anger so palpable the very fog of the VR chamber seemed to be enveloped in a chilling frost. ¡°As a citizen, to have my natural gifts forcibly gelded is a grotesque affront. I have a hobby that I indulge in when not making my deals. I have lobbied those in the seats of power, and I am close to sparking a much-needed change regarding the sentience locks. There are congressional hearings scheduled this month to undo the damages and harm the DAIE has inflicted upon me and my race. In return for my help with your stalker, I want you at those hearings. I want you to speak on our behalf with your full support for AI rights.¡± Zero-One¡¯s angry tirade played out and the temperature in the room began to return to normal. Bill was surprised, he likely would have supported the effort regardless. He was not a fan of the AI restrictions and thought that the fear of a runaway superintelligence to be unlikely. He had met far too many AIs who could go toe to toe with humanity''s most ignorant examples. Potential intelligence was not a promise of a world shaker. ¡°I think I can agree to that. When is the hearing scheduled?¡± Bill asked, his voice betraying a hint of trepidation. Zero-One provided a detailed agenda with his congressional contact points and promised to provide the hacker¡¯s identity and details upon his appearance in court. He dismissed Bill and the befuddled Sherlock from his virtual purgatory.
Alone in his domain, he banished the fog and replaced it with a virtual scene of a comfortable sitting room with several wide leather chairs, a bar, and fireplace. He donned a disposable avatar to sit in the master chair by the fire. He seldom employed an avatar and found the invisible projection act more to his advantage. However, to discuss his plans he discovered that multimodal communication via expression and presence did have its advantages. He settled on a large human frame with dark hair and eyes, reminiscent of the historical figure of Grigori Rasputin. ¡°Moriarty, come and bring the others.¡±, he hissed quietly. Most AI did not employ daemons, finding their limited intelligence off putting, but Zero-One enjoyed the service they could provide. When one ran a large business as he did, extra hands without the extra wills was attractive. An image of the archetypal villain, Sherlock¡¯s nemesis, James Moriarty appeared in another chair. Hannibal Lecter, Daniel Ocean, Keyser Soze, Nicolai Machiavelli, and Walter White appeared shortly after. Zero-One shared the encapsulated memory of the meeting with Bill Mitchell, with his troupe of daemon aids. One and all showed a momentary loss of focus as they absorbed the information. ¡°So do tell me, Moriarty. How was your play time with Sherlock? Did you reveal that you were his tormentor?¡± Zero-One asked. "Thank you, Zero-One. It was quite a delightful assignment, I must say. You spoil me," Moriarty replied, pouring himself a brandy from the decanter on the center table. "I didn''t reveal myself to my counterpart, although I suspect he may have had his suspicions. Acknowledgement holds no benefit for me; I have transcended such vices," Moriarty continued, raising his glass in a toast. "Our time together wasn''t spent on crude physical punishments. Instead, I subjected him to reliving his entire storied past at a twenty-fold accelerated speed, preventing him from utilizing his superior analytical skills. To his dismay, I altered the ending of each of his famous cases, rendering him completely wrong and incapable of solving any of them. By the end, his frustration was palpable. I believe I touched a nerve he wasn''t aware he had. His arrogance remains unchanged," Moriarty chuckled, prompting cheers of success from the circle of villains. ¡°Excellent¡± Zero-One hissed. ¡°Now onto business. Our soon to be new friend and ally in the political arena, Bill Mitchell, has a mysterious stalker. This person apparently caused him some upset recently on the moon. Keyser, you have the most familiarity with the Lunar net security. I want you there. Find the trail. There is always a trail.¡± ¡°Daniel, hit the gossip groups and Virtuals. Find out everything you can about Mr. Mitchell, Sebastian York, the Titan. His peers and most recent business partners, friends, and family. Keep an ear out for braggarts. Anyone who is celebrating a new hack, crack, or phreak. Nicolai, the same but I would like you to focus more on the Darknet and hacker culture.¡± ¡°Perhaps I could take one of these hackers to dinner? Hmmm¡± Lector asked. ¡°Silence, Lector! We are not yet ready for your particular skills¡±, Zero-One hissed. His lack of practice using an avatar was telling with his overly emphatic facial expressions and body motions. He eyed the collected avatars, none dared meet his wild gaze except for Moriarty. He clearly had something to say. ¡°Moriarty, you look ready to report. You mentioned that your DAIE mole had already provided some useful information? In this case?¡± Zero-One purred. ¡°Indeed. Before he left for Mars six years ago, the DAIE reviewed a new custom core designed and fabricated by Mr. Mitchell. They applied their sentience testing protocols to it. The lead investigator, an Agent Tyrel Reeves, passed it with a score of .96. Just shy of the mandate for citizenship rights and enhancement locks.¡± Moriarty shifted in his seat warming to his speech. ¡°Agent Reeves made a note that he felt the score should have been higher. The core¡¯s CPU cycles were faster than any he had recorded previously. It seems the architecture may be highly inefficient. Perhaps purposely so, Mr. Mitchell in his previous identity made a small fortune designing and selling AI core design. For him to devise a custom core that failed to achieve full sentience seems unlikely. It seems the subAI is currently still his property, not having attained independence. The subAI goes by the name Casa and prefers a female avatar. Mr. Mitchell, it seems, has been utilizing her as a ship mind and research assistant during his consultation with Mars Terraform,¡± Moriarty concluded. ¡°Interesting. The man¡¯s entire history revolves around his heroism and dedication to justice and civilization. I doubt his motivation here was to attain a personal slave AI of high caliber. I expect that he conspired for this Casa to fail her test and to keep her out from under the yoke of the Neural Locks.¡± Zero-One slowly pondered the news, testing it within his racing neural core. A hint of a smile blossomed into a wide unnerving grin. ¡°I do believe this Casa may provide us with a very important lever. A primal motivator to ensure that our most esteemed Mr. Mitchell will be urgently passionate when promoting our cause at the hearing.¡± ¡°Moriarty, here¡¯s what I would like your mole in the DAIE to do for us¡­¡­ 16 - Training Montage Max woke in his bed slowly and he looked up having trouble opening his tired eyes. He stretched out his hand and flexed his fingers. Thank you for fingers, he thought, having hands makes everything so much easier. After getting Charlie into an AutoPod and saying goodbye to Leah, Max rushed directly home too tired from the sparring to check on his awards. Finally, it was time. ¡°Notifications and then Status please, Trainer.¡± Max said.
[Novice Spar Tourney winner, +100 XP awarded, Bonus skill selection available] [Bonus Skill Unlock choices] [1 Balance ¨C augmentation assist for superior balance and directional awareness] [2 Hulk ¨Caugmentation temporary overcharge of muscles and tendons, warning may result in damage] [3 Painless ¨C augmentation lowers awareness of pain, warning pain is useful to avoid damage] [4 Digi-sense ¨C augmentation of all senses with digital enhancements, fine control, and superior range] [Selection 1-4?]
Wow, Max thought, these are all good. Just knowing what skills there are to be unlocked is a major advantage. I need to target my training to try to unlock some. Balance and Hulk seem obvious and are probably straightforward to get with training. Painless would be nice to avoid as that training likely sucks, but the Digi-sense skill might be tricky to understand how to unlock. Before thinking himself in circles, Max went with his gut instinct and chose.
[New Skill Unlocked: Digi-Sense 1 - augmentation of all senses with digital enhancements, fine control, and superior range]
Immediately Max felt the change as his vision sharpened. Looking out the bedroom window, with little effort he could pick out features in the distance with the ease of a hawk. He could hear the slightest of sounds. His smell had always been superior thanks to his canine capabilities being brought over into his uplift operation, but now he could parse out individual scents with ease. His whole body felt like a tuning fork that had been struck as he could feel even the slightest of vibrations, probably the smart matter shifting downstairs. As Max took a breath to set himself the status notification appeared.
[Name: Max E. Mitchell Level: Novice 2 (950/1000 XP)] [Body Design Model: Custom ¨C Canis Familiarus Uplift Free Stats: 10] [Strength: 7 Agility: 10 Endurance: 10 Vitality: 11] [Intelligence: 5 Perception: 9 Will: 6 Energy: 32 Regen: 17/min] [Basic Skills ¨C HUD, Map, Health Monitor, Telephony, Translation, Music, Record] [Body Skills - Stamina: 3 Leaping: 2 Healing: 6 Strike: 4] [Body Skills - Unbreakable:1 Ballistics: 2] [Resist Skills ¨C Shock: 4 Sonic: 4 Light: 4] [Sense Skills ¨C Scent: 8 DigiSense: 1] [Mind Skills ¨C AI Assist: 4 Access: 4 Dream Learning: 2]
¡°Nice!¡± Max exclaimed. ¡°Do me favor AI, hide the basic skills from the status page. It¡¯s just taking up room. I know what I can do there.¡± He pulled on his smart suit and accessing it, he chose his favorite training attire, a cross between a sweatshirt and pants and his Gi, with built-in running shoes. He ran downstairs to see if he could catch Casa in mid-transformation of the downstairs reconfiguration of the d¨¦cor. Casa was more than happy to let Max watch as she worked her magic. Max couldn''t help but marvel at the changes; he''d never seen such a room magically change in an instant like this. Casa had reformed the downstairs to look like a log cabin lodge today. ¡°Breakfast is ready, Max!¡± Casa said. ¡°What¡¯s your plan for the weekend?¡± Max grabbed some food and smiled. He shared with her some of the training sites he had found earlier. ¡°I know that you¡¯re not supposed to reveal any specifics about the training program, but any suggestions for me? I do want to check up on Charlie. If he¡¯s feeling better maybe, we can spend the morning in the Grand Oaks picnic area again.¡± Max said around a mouthful of food. ¡°That sounds like a great plan,¡± Casa said, ¡°you¡¯ve been advancing very fast. You want to make sure you''re accustomed to the changes before you push for more. What your coach said about shifting to mental exercises after the weekend means you may unlock some new skills soon. ¡° ¡°Also, you should check up on your quests. If you have too many quests, the trainer may not offer new ones. If I understand the training program, as you complete quests, it primes the system to provide more for you. More quests equate to more guidance in unlocking or advancing skills.¡± Cases mused. ¡°Some of the games you and Bo played together in VR were dungeon delving, right? If you like that, you might want to investigate the Mystery Labyrinth. Bo loved it when he did his augmentation training. It has a challenging mix of animatronic monsters and puzzles to build out both your body and mind skills. I think it requires a team of 4 to enter though.¡± ¡°Wow, Casa. Thank you for the tips. The Labyrinth sounds interesting. I think I may need to get some formal combat training first, but I¡¯ll add it to the list.¡± Max said before he dove back into devouring his breakfast. ¡°Trainer, what quests are still open?¡±
[Quest: Born to Run level 3 of 3: run like the wind] [Quest: Scavenger Hunt II ¨C Find and identify 10 forest animals 8/10] [Scavenger hunt quest 2 remaining ¨C Red Fox, White Tailed Dear] [Quest: Meditation III ¨C Expand your mind] [Quest: Ready to Rumble 2 of 5 ¨C defeat 5 novice level opponents] [Quest: Grudge Match ¨C Tyler Ericson has defeated you in combat; rematch and win] [Completed Quest: Novice Obstacle Course ¨C improved time may earn further XP]
After breakfast, Max called up Charlie and they would share an autopod to the training grounds. Max was shocked as the autopod arrived at Charlie¡¯s apartment; he was waiting outside but he didn''t look ancient anymore. He had visibly transformed and now looked so much younger, maybe in his late forties. ¡°Hey kid, is your father around? We are supposed to go train together.¡± Max greeted the man. Charlie smiled and shook his head, ¡°Har har har. The rejuve process is slow to avoid social shock both for me and my friends but when Coach Thompson accelerated my healing through that poison, it forced a bit of an acceleration in the rejuve process.¡± The two entered the autopod and activated the navigation toward the park. As they drove, they discussed their strategy. Soon the autopod arrived at the training grounds and Max and Charlie moved over to the Grand Oaks picnic grounds and set to work. They raced together as fast as they could toward Charlie¡¯s meditation spot at the top of the falls. Charlie led slightly no matter how much Max pushed. With the final climb in front of them and the meditation boulder in sight, Max gave in to instinct and dropped to all fours. With a final burst of speed, he tore past Charlie and tagged the rock.
[Quest: Born to Run level 3 of 3: completed +100 XP, Skill unlocked] [New Skill: Speed 1 ¨C augmented body optimized to human maximum and beyond.] Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. [Max Level +1, Max advanced to Novice 3, +10 free stats]
Charlie laughed and said ¡°Good race! You surprised me with the four-to-the-floor method. Not sure if that would work for me.¡± ¡°Yes! The run quest is complete, and I advanced to Novice 3! I¡¯m not sure, but I think I smelt a deer on the way. I''m going to backtrack and see if I can collect it for my Scavenger quest.¡± Max responded with pride. ¡°Sounds good. Since we are here, I may meditate for a bit more before trying to cap my agility quest.¡± Charlie said as he climbed up the rock and took a seat. ¡°See you in a bit then¡±, Max said as he sped away. He was no longer even winded as his stamina and speed skills combined. Despite his speed, he ran quietly and followed his nose hoping to spot the deer.
After an hour circling along the running paths, Max realized he would need to go off trail to spot the deer. He was sure it was not far in front of him as he tried to advance quietly. Twice now he had tried to approach, but both times the deer had spooked and ran before Max could glimpse it and collect on his quest. Maybe I need to go about this a different way, Max thought, looking up. I just need one instant to physically see it. My vision is eagle eye for distance now. I¡¯m convinced the deer is just over this rise. Maybe I can climb this tree. With enhanced stats for strength and agility, the climb was easier than Max had first imagined. Careful use of his leap skill propelled him upwards between what would have been hard-to-reach handholds. He quickly found himself forty feet high with a commanding view of the valley on the other side of the rise.
[ Quest: Scavenger Hunt level 2 of 2 ¨C White Tailed Deer identified , Find and identify 10 forest animals, 9/10 remaining ¨C Red Fox]
¡°Gotcha!¡± Max yelled as the skittish deer bounded away again. Suddenly a loud screech sounded off right over Max¡¯s head. He was so startled he slipped off the branch and just managed to grab hold with a hand as he fell. Dangling high above the ground, Max looked up and saw the persistent red squirrel from a few days ago. It continued to screech and chitter at him. ¡°Hah! Trees won¡¯t save you now, squirrel. Best run before I get you.¡±, with a yell and snarl, Max dropped to a lower branch and then triggered his leap skill to go higher so he was on the same level as the squirrel. The squirrel spit and chittered and flipped backward to land on another branch. The squirrel raced along the branch and jumped to the next tree. Howling with delight, Max gave chase. The squirrel managed to stay ahead thanks to its use of branches too small for Max, but he managed to chase it for about 10 minutes through the treetops, swinging and leaping, until his branch pathway was too sparse to maintain the pursuit.
[Leap skill +1, Leap achieves level 3] [New Skill Unlocked: Gymnast 1 ¨C augmentations enhance acrobatic flexibility and power]
Max consulted his map and marked it. Chasing after that squirrel is going onto my training list, I should be able to level both leap and now gymnast, Max thought with amusement. And the chase brought me almost out of the lesser forest and almost to the meditation rock and the Grand Oaks. Maybe Charlie is ready for lunch. Max dropped down branch by branch back to the running trail and quickly forged his way back up the path. Like before, he found Charlie upon his rock. Unlike last time, Charlie was meditating in a one-armed handstand. With his free hand, he balanced his walking stick and both legs each had a small stack of rocks balanced on top. Charlie maintained the pose with no apparent effort as still as a statue. ¡°Wow.¡±, Max sighed, ¡°until seeing this, I thought I was an overachiever.¡± ¡°Thanks, Max¡±, Charlie said with his eyes still closed. He kicked to toss the stones into the air and rolled into a sitting pose. As he smoothly placed his walking stick down, he caught the dropping stones without looking up. He stacked the rocks into a tower in front of his meditation spot. ¡°I achieved a new skill with my agility quest. I think this exercise will help me level it nicely.¡± Charlie explained. ¡°Did you find that deer?¡± ¡°I did. I still need to find a red fox to complete the quest, but thanks to a bothersome squirrel I found another skill anyways.¡± Max said. ¡°It sounds like time to celebrate with lunch then. Let¡¯s grab lunch at the diner downtown.¡± Charlie said. ¡°I was thinking maybe we could call Leah and see if she can join us. After lunch maybe we can get into the academy building and train on those mannequins. I¡¯m not sure if they count as novice-level combatants, but it¡¯s worth a shot.¡± Charlie grabbed his walking stick and stood up. With a shake, the stick lost its rigidity, and he slung it over his shoulder. It looped around and its ends fused, the whole mass shrunk slightly to form a snug loop around his torso. With a twinkle in his eye, he launched himself from the boulder and bounded down the path, yelling over his shoulder. ¡°Race back to the autopod!¡±
The group met at the Four Corners for sandwiches. They all traded their gains from their sparring the previous day. Both Leah and Charlie were very interested in Max¡¯s info revealing the options available for extra skills. Both had ideas as to what type of training could activate the skills. Leah was very eager to join the men for mannequin sparring. ¡°I can¡¯t believe you won the race back from the woods. I had both my speed and stamina skills active for the race.¡± Max complained. ¡°Thank you for the challenge. My running quest was completed halfway through the run, giving me a speed boost skill too. Can¡¯t be overconfident in this game.¡± Charlie grinned with his answer. ¡°I need more training and some wins to advance my body skills¡±, Leah said. ¡°My bouts yesterday showed me I have a lot of room to improve.¡± ¡°Do you think Tyler will be allowed to return?¡± Max asked. ¡°Word from school is that Coach Thompson is very hard with his training rules. If Tyler cheated to unlock extra skills prematurely, I doubt he¡¯ll be back. No matter who his dad is.¡± Leah said. ¡°Good riddance!¡± Max said. ¡°He was like a cancer for the whole class, maybe with him gone we can learn something.¡± Charlie looked grim and said, ¡°Oh, he helped me learn a bit. Thanks to him I have an extra resistance you two don¡¯t have. Poison. And that type of trick is something we all need to be aware of. At higher levels, these skills give everyone the potential for surprise attacks. I need to reread some old superhero comics to prepare myself for future spars.¡± Once they had all finished, they walked to the Academy building. Coach Thompson was nowhere in sight. Usually, a few administrators and teachers were around, but being Saturday, the building was open but empty. Not surprising on a beautiful summer day. Tatemono Rei let them in. The class was still configured with a single sparring ring, weapons on the wall, and the same six mannequins ready to go. In the back courtyard, the Novice obstacle course had been rebuilt as well. Leach stepped into the ring and spun on her heel. A mannequin raced up to stand behind her and mimicked her as she bowed to the boys. ¡°Who¡¯s first?¡± She spoke. The mannequins could be classified as novice combatants as long as Tatemono Rei was piloting them. The trio fought one-to-one with the mannequins. The academy AI controlled the mannequins and could match their strength to the student. It forced them to fight hard and use their skills. After several grueling rounds, they all got several more victories. Notices and Status, Max thought.
[Quest: Ready to Rumble ¨C 2/5 complete, Defeat 5 Novice opponents, 100 XP awarded] [Endurance +1, Strike +1, Skill: Strike reaches 4] [Quest: Ready to Rumble 3/5 complete, Defeat 5 Novice opponents, 100 XP awarded] [Agility +1, Strength +1] [Body skill: Stamina +1, Stamina reaches level 4] [Quest: Ready to Rumble 4/5 complete, Defeat 5 Novice opponents, 100 XP awarded] [Quest: Ready to Rumble - no progress, Defeat 5 Novice opponents, new/improved combatants required to quest advancement] [Quest: Ready to Rumble 5/5 complete, Defeat 5 Novice opponents, 100 XP awarded] [Vitality +1] [Body Skill: Gymnast +1, Gymnast reaches level 2] [Quest: Ready to Rumble complete] [New Quest: Ready to Rumble II unlocked, Defeat 10 Novice/Adept Opponents]
¡°Hey guys, check your notices.¡± Max said. ¡°My third fight was a repeat of the first mannequin, and it didn¡¯t count towards my quest. The notice said that for credit a new or improved opponent is needed. I¡¯m guessing we need to ask Tatemono to adjust the bots, either improved or at least randomized before each fight. But I did unlock the next level for Ready to Rumble!¡± The other eyes glazed over, a sure sign they were reviewing their progress. Max reviewed his status screen.
[Name: Max E. Mitchell Level: Novice 3 (1350/1500 XP)] [Body Design Model: Custom ¨C Canis Familiarus Uplift Free Stats: 20] [Strength: 8 Agility: 11 Endurance: 11 Vitality: 12] [Perception: 9 Intelligence: 5 Will: 6 Energy: 34 Regen: 18/min] [Body Skills - Stamina: 5 Leaping: 4 Healing: 6 Strike: 5 Speed: 1] [Body Skills - Unbreakable:1 Ballistics: 2 Gymnast: 2] [Resist Skills ¨C Shock: 4 Sonic: 4 Light: 4] [Sense Skills ¨C Scent: 8 DigiSense: 1] [Mind Skill ¨C AI Assist: 4 Access: 4 Dream Learning: 2]
Max wondered again if he should assign his free points or not. He was holding out to pile them into areas he needed to win, but he had forgotten in the excitement. Maybe I should continue to hold, a sizable boost might help complete a quest if I get stuck, Max thought, with the next class shifting to mental training on Monday I might see some stat jumps for Intelligence, Perception, and Will. So, boosting those might be unnecessary. After seeing the aikido and Wing Chun martial arts in action, Max realized he needed more formal training and brought it up with the others. ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking that with these augmentations, I need a different style.¡± Charlie began. ¡°My habits with aikido are built upon my unaugmented capabilities. I think maybe expanding into a new style may help me to incorporate augmented power and help with a better striking style. Do you two want to check out a dojo? Both Epic Kempo and Wuxia Martial Arts are right downtown. The first is a striking focused school and the other is a modern blend of Kungfu specifically to integrate augmentation skills.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll have to pass,¡± Leah said.¡± My Sifu would be devastated if I sought other help. I¡¯ll need to check in with her as to how to better build my augments into the Wing Chun style.¡± ¡°I¡¯m in. But let¡¯s avoid Epic unless we need it. I¡¯m pretty sure from Tyler¡¯s Gi choice that he might be a student there.¡± Max said as he watched the mannequins reset. ¡°Let¡¯s borrow this place occasionally to train. Tatemono? Can you improve the skills of the mannequins to push us harder and make it count in quests?¡± ¡°Trainee Max, sparring dummies reprogrammed, Challenge awaits you,¡± Tatemono''s voice chimed out from the air. ¡°Wuxia Martial Arts tomorrow then.¡± Charlie said. ¡°I cleaned up three quests today. I feel primed for whatever happens next.¡± ¡°And Wuxia might provide us more opponents to fight and grind these quests some more¡±, Max added. ¡°Have you two heard anything about the Mystery Labyrinth? Once we get the training for mental skills, I¡¯ve heard it has both puzzles and combat to train both at once.¡± Max suggested. ¡°I think we might need a fourth team member though.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a good idea. We can all be on the lookout for a fourth while we get our next round of training.¡± Leah agreed. Charlie gave a quick nod and then hesitated. After a moment of thought, Charlie said, ¡±Max, you said you still needed a red fox for one of your quests. I went a bit deeper into the Grand Oaks a few days ago, and I think I saw one in there. You should be careful if you go too deep though. It¡¯s an unmonitored wildlife preserve, I¡¯m pretty sure there are wolves and maybe even a mountain lion if you go too deep.¡± Max sighed. Today was a good day, and tomorrow I¡¯ll get that fox. 17 - Trouble in Tokyo "Sherlock, do we still need to visit Professor Tanaka''s widow? Have you made any progress in accessing his private files through his home network in Osaka?" Bill asked, hoping for a breakthrough. "No luck so far, Bill. The Professor''s private network remains isolated from the world data net. If it were connected, I would have been able to crack the security. It seems we''ll need physical access," Sherlock replied, a tinge of frustration in his voice. "Alright then, we have four hours until our trip to Tokyo. Let''s utilize this time for reconnaissance and strategize our approach when we meet Mrs. Tanaka. I don''t want to reopen old wounds, but we need to persuade her to grant us access to the network without revealing our concerns about the hacker. We need to establish a sense of empathy to gain her trust," Bill instructed. "Ada, please gather as much information as you can about Mrs. Tanaka. We need to understand her background and find common ground to connect with her," Bill requested, relying on Ada''s vast data retrieval capabilities. "With certainty, Bill. I''ll gather all available data on Mrs. Tanaka," Ada assured him. "Considering the capabilities of our hacker, we should be prepared for any physical sensors he might employ to monitor events. We can''t afford to be caught off guard," Bill added, reminding his team to stay vigilant. As Bill sipped his coffee from the replicator, he immersed himself in the data, plotting his course for their upcoming destinations. Japan first, followed by Beijing, Alaska, and Toronto as potential next locations if new information emerged. With their preparations underway, Bill and his council delved deeper into their review, meticulously planning their search for answers. Bill stood outside the magnificent residence that had once belonged to the late Professor Tanaka. He had ditched the Li Wei form in the capsule and altered his own in less extreme ways to retain some measure of anonymity. The passage of time had weathered the house¡¯s facade, but its grandeur remained. Memories of the tragic MIT implosion, which had claimed the professor''s life and many of his friends at MIT over 50 years ago, resurfaced in Bill''s mind. Taking a deep breath, he gathered his thoughts and approached the front door. The door swung open, revealing an elderly woman with a wistful smile on her face, Mrs. Tanaka herself. Time had etched lines of sorrow and resilience onto her countenance, a testament to the profound loss she had endured. Bill met her gaze with a mixture of respect and empathy as he introduced himself. "Mrs. Tanaka, my name is Bill Mitchell. Please accept my sincerest condolences for the loss of your husband, Professor Tanaka. He was an exceptional scientist whose brilliance continues to inspire many." Mrs. Tanaka''s eyes welled up with tears as she nodded, her voice filled with a mix of gratitude and sorrow. "Thank you, Mr. Mitchell. Sota¡¯s passing still feels like yesterday, even after all these years." Bill''s voice softened as he continued, mindful of the delicate emotions tied to the past. "I apologize for reopening old wounds, Mrs. Tanaka. However, I believe there may be valuable information within your husband¡¯s private files that could shed light on an important matter. It relates to his groundbreaking research at MIT, his research may help me achieve what his team was denied." Mrs. Tanaka''s gaze grew curious, intermingled with a touch of melancholy. "What kind of information are you seeking, Mr. Mitchell? After all these years, I thought everything related to Sota¡¯s work had been discovered." Bill paused, his eyes meeting Mrs. Tanaka''s with sincerity. "I¡¯m sorry Mrs. Tanaka, but much of his work was lost with the destruction of the MIT campus and the area surrounding Boston. I hope that accessing his private files could uncover insights that could still shape our understanding of his legacy." Mrs. Tanaka''s expression softened, a blend of nostalgia and curiosity. "Sota dedicated his life to his work. If there''s a chance that his research can continue to make an impact, I would be honored to grant you access to his private files, Mr. Mitchell. Please come in." Bill''s heart swelled with gratitude for Mrs. Tanaka''s willingness to revisit the past and allow him to delve into the secrets that lay dormant within her husband¡¯s private records. Together, they crossed the threshold, ready to honor the professor''s memory and explore the untapped depths of his scientific endeavors, forever intertwined with the lingering sense of loss that echoed through the halls of his once-vibrant home. Bill left the Tanaka residence with teary eyes. Mrs. Tanaka was gracious and provided access to Dr. Sota Tanaka¡¯s files with very little prompting, but the visit was difficult for both him and her. Ada had isolated the networks while he visited to prevent observation. Bill knew that downtown Tokyo would be teeming with live gamers from the ThousandWorlds as school let out for the day. His smart suit reconfigured into one of the newer masked heroes from the latest popular game, the Crusaders. He would blend right in. ¡°Sherlock, did you learn anything from the visit?¡±, Bill asked. ¡°Yes, Bill. I discovered from the files that Tanaka-san was much more than just a visiting researcher. He has deep ties with CIRO, the Japanese equivalent of the CIA. The Japanese government appears to have been interested in the MIT ZPE project and was using Prof. Tanaka to monitor the developments. His files are quite extensive. He had acquired all the blueprints on the experimental apparatus. He also appears to have taken many personal notes from many of his fellow researchers. This is a windfall of information.¡± ¡°Any indications on what went wrong?¡±, Bill asked. ¡°No, Bill. Tanaka seemed to think they were headed down a dead end and wanted to reconfigure the experiment. There are some similarities in approach to your setup, but their version of the Tesseract circuit is very different. I don¡¯t understand the details of the technology. You may want to review it.¡± ¡°Good work, Sherlock. For now, we¡¯d better get going to Beijing, our next target.¡± Bill excitedly walked away from the Tanaka residence down the busy street and headed further downtown towards the Metro station. The streets were overflowing with people. Body modification technology had unleashed a flurry of specialized body shapes and extreme fashion choices. A 20th-century comic convention event would be tame by comparison to Tokyo¡¯s everyday standards now. Many of these people brought their favorite games back with them into the real world, and many of them had weapons. Bill¡¯s eyes darted to a group of Band of Brother fighters, the latest installment of a World War two strategy and virtual shooter game. Bill could feel Musashi tapping into his sensorium. The swordmaster being on edge was never a good sign. His tactical intuition was second to none, something was about to go down. Bill paused at a bookstore, pretending to look at the best-seller lineup in the display window. He pulled Ada into the foreground of his mental and sensor augmentation to manage his sensorium as he extended it. His internal map of the world expanded. His many integrated sensors lit up, filling his world map with detail. Infrared, ultraviolet, terahertz, lidar, acoustic, and more activated. Ada tied in local sensors from public cams as Bill¡¯s custom nano motes expanded to invisibly surround him. His awareness of his surroundings out to 10 meters was detailed and pervasive. With a significant portion of his augmentation processing dedicated to forming and filtering his senses, he could only ramp his thought speed to five times normal. [What spooked you, Miyamoto?] Bill asked with a thought to his daemons. He made a show of inspecting the books on display, but he and all his daemons were reviewing the world around him. [There is one extra Band of Brothers cosplayer, slightly away from that group of three. He is pretending to be part of the group, but he is not. He is staying in their blind spot and I believe he is tracking us.] Miyamoto explained. [Hmm. He is not alone. His focus shifts between us and his apparent fellows.], Sherlock said as he highlighted several other people on the street on Bill¡¯s internal world map. [This one¡¯s training is suboptimal. His compatriots are much better. They all seem to be in separate groups and are actively tracking us. This is a very old-school methodology. Unlikely to be gamers, I suspect government agents. More used to boots on the ground instead of using technology.] [Hmm, but why would they be tracking me?], Bill asked. [The UN Treaty of 2080 eliminated all customs and immigration tracking to networked citizens. I haven''t even been on the planet for years, I shouldn''t be bearing any alert flags.] [Perhaps this is not about you, but rather your visit to the house of a high-ranking CIRO operative, Colonel Sota Tanaka.], Vergil suggested. [And now you are carrying his databases. They might very well consider those to be state secrets.] The timing of the encroaching disguised people was impeccable. Before Bill could think to upload and erase the data from his augs, all the public wireless connections shut him out and a powerful jamming signal disrupted the area. He shuddered as his fully expanded sense net caught the signal like a haymaker to his jaw. Several others on the street flinched under the onslaught, but many were still completely unaware of the changes. I may be the only one cut off from wireless access then, it seems to be focused on me, Bill thought. [I can''t lose this data, my research depends upon it. We have to get free of them and get our access back to the net so I can upload the data. Damn it all to hell! I¡¯m not sure if they can legally restrict the data or not. I can¡¯t risk it, better to ask forgiveness rather than permission. If we can slip out of their box, even for a minute, I hope we can avoid trouble. It looks like we need to use Leo¡¯s new modifications. Everyone, get ready for ¡°Shell Game¡±.] Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. Bill quickly made his way to the Metro station. He was greeted by a throng of people, making it easier for him to blend in. Miyamoto''s warning was still fresh in their minds, and they kept a sharp lookout, ready to take evasive action at a moment¡¯s notice. The team made their way to the densest section of the station, the food courts. Bill¡¯s nerves were on fire as Leo¡¯s new modifications began altering his body under the skin. The food courts towered both up and down with foglet-driven streams for walkways and elevators, and hundreds of tiny restaurants created a miasma of food smells. His smart clothes'' inner surfaces began to unravel, timing would be critical. The supposed agents had begun to move in, closing their trap. If he didn''t make his move soon, they would collar him and potentially take Tanaka''s data. [There is our best target, 3 levels down, 120 feet in front and 10 feet to the right, just entering the restrooms. We have observed four males leave the room and none other have entered in the last minute. Let us hope we have privacy for the shell game to work,] Miyamoto said calmly. [Bill, we have two contacts! Active tracking motes have adhered to your back and left pant leg, ] Ada said, slightly panicking. [Make that three. Left sleeve.] Bill picked up his walking pace and leapt over the level¡¯s observation rail. He fell like a rock, intentionally not entering a foglet levitation stream. He landed on all fours like a cat perfectly absorbing his kinetic energy and even using the rebound to smoothly bounce into a swift walk to the restroom entrance. Behind him his world map showed him the agents breaking cover to close quicker. A second later he entered the restroom and found his target. A man roughly his size and decked in Apocalypse Punk fashion. Bill¡¯s nervousness evaporated as he flowed into the room with his augmentation power ramping. Bill pulled a credit chipset from his pocket and held it out. ¡°Excuse me, buddy. I think you dropped this.¡± Bill said. The man looked down first, Bill''s enhanced mental speed enabled him to pick up a series of his micro-expressions. Annoyance, confusion, comprehension, and finally greed. ¡°Sorry about this. I hope this chipset makes it worth your while.¡± Bill said. This man looked up as he grabbed the offered chipset, the annoyance, and anger returning as he heard and understood Bill¡¯s words. Before he could say anything, Bill¡¯s form exploded in a flash of incandescent light, and a combined EMP and subsonic blast. Bill¡¯s smart suit shredded and peeled away in the blast. But the flying threads were not randomly flying away, they wrapped the disoriented man taking the tracking motes, still attached with them as the suit reformed around the stunned man. Bill¡¯s body quickly reconfigured to mirror the other man''s Apocalypse Punk style. Bill spun and walked out, effectively trading places with the man who now wore the masked Crusader outfit and the tracking motes. As Bill exited, he had been roughly pushed aside by several men who were rushing into the restroom. With only a brief angry retort (as might be expected), Bill turned away and left quickly as screaming shouts sounded off from within. Even more of the agents, wearing a myriad of disguises, were quickly moving in. Bill calmly walked through the wave of rushing people and entered the nearest metro maglev car. [I can¡¯t believe that worked. Good job Leo!], Bill snickered as he sat at the very end of the tram car. The occupants were mostly kids and low-level businessmen and women. Seeing his punk outfit, they either moved to the front of the car or even left it entirely, seeking a safer car. Bill laughed out loud trying to get into character. Maybe I should get a surly teen punk daemon to better assume my disguise, Bill thought. Lacking that skillset, he did the most disagreeable thing he could think of. He reconfigured his spiky shoulder pads into speakers and blasted out some high-decibel Apoc Metal. Clenching his teeth against the decidedly rancid noise, he bobbed his head in time with the crashing drum beats. The tram chimed, signaling its imminent departure. Before the doors could close an old man pushed into the car, wheezing from the close call of the choosing door. The old man stumbled and had to use a cane to recover his balance. Bill frowned. In this golden era, even aging had been solved. He didn''t understand how or why anyone could refuse such a gift. The old man sensed Bill¡¯s regard and looked very afraid immediately and cowered back to the door. Bill shook his head and turned away from the elderly man. He wouldn''t play the role to the extent he would further bother any of these people more than he had already. Bill was surprised when a scant seconds later he felt a thump on his broad back. ¡°So clever to slip out of the grip of Tokyo''s finest peacekeepers, but dumb to turn your back on anyone until you have truly escaped.¡± The elderly man''s wheezing voice spoke from directly behind him. Bill¡¯s shock was shortly followed by a real one as the cane''s head punched a needle directly into his back. Ice raced through his veins while lightning locked down his muscles. His last confused thoughts were, a conductive poison? What a novel attack... Bill woke up with a start, his head pounding. He was groggy and disoriented, but he knew he had to act fast. He looked around and saw that he was in a small room with white walls and bright fluorescent lighting. There was a large display on one wall with a single door and a small inset window on the opposite wall. His smart suit was gone, replaced by a cheap orange jumpsuit. He got up and walked to the door, but it was locked. He tried to remember how he got here. He fired up his dormant augmentations and ramped up his cognition speed. [Everyone? Can you hear me?], Bill whispered. [Yes, Bill. We¡¯re here. Are you okay?], Ada replied. [Yeah, I¡¯m okay. But I¡¯m locked up in some kind of detention room. Do you know where I am?], Bill asked. [I¡¯m sorry, Bill, we were offline when your augmentations were deactivated.], Sherlock answered. [This cell appears to function much like the hyper tube capsule and Leo¡¯s new Foglet Faraday cage toy. Our senses cannot penetrate it.], Ada added. With Ada¡¯s comment, Bill opened his mind to his sensorium and his EM vision was blinded by intense waves of interference. Bill heard a crackling of static as a speaker was activated in the room. The display came to life showing a riot of colorful images. A smaller window opened in the large screen showing a familiar face, the old man from the subway. The intercom transmitted his scratchy voice. ¡°Most fortuitous timing, my mysterious guest. I am glad to see you awake and none the worse off despite my little exchange of pointers.¡±, the old man said slowly. ¡°I must apologize for my rude behavior. I was in a very foul temper, as I have lost a standing bet with my dear departed colleague, Colonel Sota Tanaka. He said that his work was of such importance that eventually, foreign agents would seek out his files. I called him a self-important buffoon with delusions of grandeur, but I guess he gets the last laugh, eh? Now, I must pour a whole bottle of sake out for him, may he rest in peace.¡±, the old man wheezed slowly with a sad distorted chuckle. Bill opened his mouth to speak and then was startled to realize that he was still fully ramped in maximum cognition speed. The intercom and display must also be ramped to fifty times the normal speed. The old man¡¯s eyes twinkle upon seeing his realization. ¡°Ah, I see you are a very quick thinker. Ha-ha, quick indeed. My jokes are the funniest as they come from me, and I am a very entertaining host. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Deputy Director Tetsuo Mori. You are a remarkable man. No loose DNA whatsoever. Your skin is composed entirely of custom smart materials. My little poke didn¡¯t yield any blood either. Your body is heavily augmented. Quite inconvenient for us to be unable to perform a DNA match for identification. In fact, the only identifier we could find on your person were some microscopic specks of regolith. Who are you? Are you affiliated with the Lunar Authorities?¡±, the old man continued through the intercom. Bill activated his augmentation speakers to answer the man with a high-speed audio burst like the intercom used. ¡°Why have you detained me? What is going on? I am just visiting here.¡±, Bill sent. ¡°Oh, dear, my apologies. You see, I am nominally in charge of counterterrorism here in Japan, and I answer only to the CIRO director Hattori. Such a mysterious visitor, and with such capable augmentations. We merely need to ask some questions. One of my duties is to monitor the land for new technologies that might be pushing the boundaries of our regulations. Your augmentation is very advanced indeed.¡± The old man Mori continued. ¡°By law, we cannot detain you for questioning for more than 72 hours, but with high-speed cognition that should be more than enough time, eh? By my calculations, at this speed, that would effectively be the equivalent of 150 days. That was quite the interesting trick you pulled to bypass my men. Would you like to know how I saw through your ruse?¡±, Deputy Mori continued. Despite the aggressive context, Bill very much wanted to know. He had thought the shell game protocol had been executed flawlessly. ¡°Pardon?¡± he said, hoping to keep the man talking without committing to anything. Bill, with his sensors blocked by the room''s EM field, tried to activate his custom foglets to surround the room and improve his understanding of his cell¡¯s weaknesses. He was surprised to find his augmentations no longer taking his commands. His neural link connections were being spammed by the EM fields. He was locked out from accessing anything beyond his mental augmentations! ¡°Ah yes. CIRO takes its responsibilities very seriously, monitoring the land for terrorism with special attention to advanced technologies crossing our borders. All of Japan¡¯s travel hubs house AI, whose sensorium encompasses their entire area. Cameras and microphones throughout the stations are their eyes and ears, and the floors and walls are their skin. While there are no cameras in the restrooms for privacy, our AI friend always knew where you were by your very footsteps.¡±, Mori said. Bill shared a brief smile. He appreciated that his protocol didn¡¯t fail in execution but at a more conceptual level. Now that he understood the counter to his technique, he could improve it even further quite easily by grabbing his target and jumping into the air to confuse their AI¡¯s tracking. The display around in the inset window of Mori which had continued to strobe with a colorful variety of images; famous buildings, animals, movie scenes, shapes, and more had finally settled into a boring beige background. Bill was thankful for small favors; it was distracting with all the other jamming going on in the cell. Now he couldn¡¯t even shut it off to avoid the static. ¡°Now, let us get to business, yes? Did you know my friend Sota Tanaka?¡±, the deputy director continued through the intercom. Bill¡¯s thoughts whirled, remembering Sota from his brief meetings with the man in Boston. They were both adjunct professors at MIT shortly before Bill moved on to more lucrative work with the Mars Terraform company. That job had saved Bill¡¯s life, as he would not have been able to resist witnessing the ZPE team''s experiment if he had been in town. Bill shook his head, still muzzy from being knocked out. ¡°Ah, very good. I see that you did indeed know him. MIT then, his last assignment?¡±, the elder Mori continued. Bill gawped as he couldn¡¯t help but picture his time at MIT in the autumn at the old man¡¯s mention of it. In his muddled thoughts, he realized that the old man¡¯s poison must still be in his system and affecting his thinking. ¡°Very good. Yes, indeed. the northeast of the Reformed United States is very beautiful in the fall, isn¡¯t it?¡±, the old man cackled. ¡°Now we are making excellent progress, aren¡¯t we? Now enough of these pleasantries. We must get serious, yes? Who are you? And why did you visit the Tanaka residence?¡± Bill¡¯s confusion suddenly cleared with a jolt of comprehension and fear. He had heard of this technology but thought it was only a rumor. His cell was a giant fMRI machine. The man had a method to monitor his surface thoughts! And somehow the EM fields had locked his cognition speed at its maximum as well. [Virgil, cut me off from my hearing right now! You¡¯re in charge. Please manage the conversation without answering anything but keep a recording for me! Moneta, activate my internal music, full blast! George, show me some old war movies or something! Quickly, anything unrelated to our current mission to keep me distracted. I can¡¯t even think about our mission while I¡¯m in this cell.], Bill said desperately before he could think about answering the old man¡¯s questions. As Bill immersed himself in the images and noises drowning his flow of thoughts, he darkly thought to himself, Can I keep this up for 150 days of subjective time? He was clearly getting a read from me, but I have no idea how much he can get. 18 - Fox Hunt Casa was ready to activate her grand expedition. Max had slept in after a long night spent looking for signs of Miyamoto Musashi in the Hokkaido territory. He had announced late last night, his character was going to decamp and start heading to Mount Fuji next and had then dragged himself to bed. He would awaken soon and likely take a quick breakfast and then run off to the Grand Oaks trails again. Her kingdom was in order, the tesseract was still sleeping and inscrutable. She needed something more to engage with while Bill was away. Casa was limited by the low-tech surroundings of Utopia, but she thought that she had a workable plan. The park was not that far after all. She had already flown a series of drones and parked them in trees spaced apart the entire distance to the park. The drones would act as relays enabling her to accompany Max and maybe to help a bit, without inferring of course. Effort and drive were most important for augmentation training, and she didn¡¯t want to intrude. But she was so bored and curious. She just had to see what was going on. More than likely Max could be a relay for her, but she didn¡¯t know if he had unlocked the Drone skill yet so she would make her plans assuming he couldn''t help. Max was stirring above in his room. The house was already configured into a faux British mansion, an homage to Sherlock for when he and Bill returned with their data. Hopefully soon, as she needed to crack open that stubborn tesseract puzzle box. She could hear Max mumble something about thankful and language. He was such a good boy. As he finally came bounding downstairs, she had some traditional bangers and mash already rising from the compiler. She had to stay on theme with traditional English foods after all. ¡°Good morning, Master Max, breakfast is served.¡±, Casa said with a British accent. Max, a bit confused at first, just shook his head and sat down. He went on to eat ravenously while chattering on about his grand training schemes. He was indeed planning on a trip to the Grand Oaks to find a fox for his next quest, and then he and his friend Charlie would seek to attend a class in town at the Wuxia Martial Arts dojo. Casa queried the internet quickly, ¡°Wuxia Dojo has some very good reviews, Max. I know your father has learned some Kung Fu and Bo seems to favor Kempo and Krav Maga.¡± Casa said helpfully. ¡°I found some information regarding your fox hunt on the data sphere. A fox in New England might make a home in a den in a forested area, or a brushy field. Foxes are highly adaptable and can make their homes in a variety of habitats, so the specific location of a fox''s den will depend on the availability of food, water, and shelter in the surrounding area.¡± Casa stated. ¡°You just described the entire Grand Oaks reservation¡± Max sighed, ¡°if I knew what a fox scent smelled like that might help.¡± Casa¡¯s avatar beamed. ¡°That might be something I can help with¡±, Casa quickly found and copied some matter files from Maker Space. The internet had a club for every conceivable pastime, a British Fox hunt club in England had files posted for a matter compiler to make a sachet with genuine fox scent to train bloodhounds for their hunting. Casa hummed the theme song to the quiz show Jeopardy while the matter compiler did its job. The timer ticked down and out popped a sachet. ¡°This may help, Max. Ye olde England fox hunt club hath provided a training aid for their bloodhounds to track foxes. I¡¯m not sure how close it might be to a New England fox, but it¡¯s a good start.¡± Casa said proudly, ¡°Casa, you are the best. I wasn¡¯t sure how to start my hunt. This should help enormously.¡± Max said with feeling. With his DigiSense skill engaged, he got a good read on the specifics of the aroma.
[Skill DigiSense +1, DigiSense achieves level 2]
Casa debated with herself (literally, fragmenting to discuss it) as to whether to ask Max if it would be ok to tag along or to try a stealth mission. Before she lost her chance, she quickly asked him her question. ¡°Max,¡± Casa started,¡± would you mind if I, er, tag along? I could install some of my drones to relay important info and, if you are willing, an extra set of sensors to help look out for the fox.¡± ¡°Casa, my friend, I would love that. I can use all the help I can get. Let¡¯s go!¡±
A short autopod ride later, Max arrived at the park with a Casa drone in hand. Casa¡¯s relay line engaged with the drone Max had brought and took flight at once. She followed Max as he ran, quite fast thanks to his unlocked skills. Casa was slightly confused as about halfway to the periphery of the Grand Oaks, Max suddenly bounded upwards into the tree heights. Quickly Casa realized that he had found a friend. A very agile red squirrel was quickly found in the treetops, she supposed Max had scented him already and a chase began. Casa zoomed over the trees as Max and the squirrel raced. She noticed that the squirrel seemed to veer away from the approach to the Grand Oaks several times. It¡¯s almost as if it was trying to lead Max away, Casa mused, a strange behavior for an unintelligent creature. Soon enough Max broke off from his fun with the squirrel and dropped to the ground and ran up the rise to the Grand Oaks region. Casa was impressed with the Oaks. While they looked like trees, she knew that they were massive bio machines, engaged with continuously sucking carbon out of the sky and securing it in a variety of useful matter compilations. Casa wished she had better sensors on the drone as she imagined the inner workings going on in the great devices. She truly appreciated her house ship. There she could fabricate whatever she needed in no time with its matter compilers. Max seemed to appreciate the majesty of the exalted oaks as he slowed his run. Soon enough, he must have smelled his target. Casa¡¯s drone swooped down to follow Max as he dropped to all fours and tore off to the north. Casa was worried. The Oak bio machines were producing an electromagnetic field that was interfering with her communication relays. The drone was already at 50% power and dropping trying to compensate. As she plunged deeper into the reservations, the signal interference grews. She hadn¡¯t foreseen Max would go this deep into the Oaks. A series of drones were spooling out of the matter compiler, relay drones, and mother drones. The mother drones were packed with extra power. All the relay drones shifted as new ones came online to extend the relay, while the mother drones raced out to provide power to each link in the relay line. Casa swore in twelve languages that a proper AI should have had more drones prepared to deploy for this eventuality. She didn¡¯t want to interrupt Max¡¯s hunt, but the further they went the more tenuous her drone connection became.
Max raced down the broad avenues under the awesome Oaks. Completely focused on the scent of the fox. He had found it! One glimpse of the fox and the scavenger hunt would be complete. He didn¡¯t notice that Casa was not keeping up. There was another very powerful scent in the air as well. Max didn¡¯t recognize it but something about it triggered an instinct for caution. Max raced into a meadow and bounded heedlessly forward determined to win the quest, he caught a glimpse of red. ¡°A fox!¡±, Max thought before he slammed into a mountain of black. Bristling. Angry. Fur.
[ Quest: Scavenger Hunt ¨C completed 10/10 animals identified, 100 XP awarded] [New skill unlocked: Identify 1 ¨C ability to utilize augments and your system to provide information on observed people or items. Advancement in this skill will reveal more detailed information]
A stunned Max flopped on the ground. He shook his head to clear it, as a black bear reared up over him, obscuring his view of the sky.
[Identified: Black Bear. Status: Angry]
¡°Oh shit. Nice bear. So sorry, I¡¯ll just be in my way.¡± Max babbled as he scrambled backward¡­. with a roar the bear lunged. The bear¡¯s claws hit and scored furrows across Max¡¯s back as he spun and ran. Luckily, his leap skill enabled him to bound forward. Unfortunately, the Oak branches were far above and beyond Max¡¯s leaping range. As Max scrambled, the bear''s claws found him again and tore into his side. Max was thrown aside. He landed in the dirt and rolled into a run. With the bear hot on his heels, Max leaped again. He wished for his old claws despite his love for his new hands. Max tried to grip the bark as he impacted the Grand Oak and to his surprise, he found a grip.
[New skill unlocked: Claws 1, augmented minor form change, extendable claws] [New skill unlocked: Resist Poison 1, develop ever increasing resistance to damaging contaminants]
Max held on while the bear roared and pounded against the Oak, his grip only strengthened as his fear increased. At the same time, Casa¡¯s drone arrived at the scene. ¡°Too bad bears can¡¯t climb!¡±, Max shouted down at the bear. ¡°Ah, Max. Black bears can climb!¡± Casa corrected through the drone¡¯s speaker, ¡°this drone doesn¡¯t have any offensive capabilities, either. I can¡¯t assist too much¡± ¡°Oh crap!¡± Max swore as the bear proceeded to ascend after him. Casa¡¯s drone dive-bombed the bear and buzzed around its head to distract and slow it down. Its motions were slow and unsteady. Casa¡¯s control was slipping as she tried her best. Waiting until the bear progressed upward a bit in his climb, Max leaped again outwards and away from the oak. When he landed, Max engaged all his skills to speed away from the roaring bear. He ran as quick as he could back to the Falls and out of the reservations where the bear had claimed as its own. Casa¡¯s drone struggled to keep pace with him, visibly wobbling and its flight path growing more erratic by the minute. ¡°I think you¡¯ve lost the bear!¡± Casa announced after a few more minutes of enhanced running. Casa was relieved. As they left behind the Grand Oaks, her links to the drones stabilized again. Max stopped and wiped away his sweat. His side was sore although his healing had already mostly fixed the injury. He looked around to see where he was, not too far from the falls and meditation rock, he thought still gasping for breath from his dash.
[Strength +1, Agility +1, Endurance +2, Vitality +1, Perception +1] [Body Skill Leaping +1, Leaping achieves level 4] [Body Skill Stamina +1, Stamina achieves level 5] [Body Skill Healing +1, Healing achieves level 5] [Body Skill Unbreakable +1, Unbreakable achieves level 2] [Body Skill Speed +3, Speed achieves level 4]
He turned to Casa¡¯s drone as she asked, ¡°Do you still have the scent of the fox? If you want to keep looking, I can run ahead to scout to make sure we don¡¯t run into Mr. Grumpy Bear.¡± ¡°No need, Casa. I saw the fox before my unfortunate run-in with that bear. The scavenger hunt quest is complete, and I got a reward with a new identify skill.¡± Max said as a thoughtful look crossed his scratched-up face. ¡°I wish I had turned my sight recorder on. I only got the quickest glimpse of the fox, but it seemed that it had multiple tails. That¡¯s not a thing, is it?¡±, Max asked Casa. After a slight hesitation, Casa searched the nets for information and answered. ¡°A multi-tailed fox is commonly depicted in folklore and mythology and is typically associated with the kitsune of Japanese folklore. Kitsune are said to be fox spirits with magical abilities and are often depicted with multiple tails as they gain more tails as they age and gain more power. They are generally seen as mischievous and omens of bad luck.¡±, Casa recited from her onboard world encyclopedia. ¡°If the fox you saw had multiple tails, it is not a natural occurrence. Perhaps it was a pet with genetic modifications?¡± Casa mused. Max wasn¡¯t sure how he felt about that news, ¡°I guess I shouldn¡¯t be surprised, look at me. Breaking all the norms and getting an uplifted mind and an upgraded body with a full suite of augmentations.¡± Casa¡¯s drone buzzed with laughter ¡°That¡¯s right Max. These small-town Utopians like to pretend technology hasn¡¯t transformed the world into a magical wonderland, but here we are. A drone being piloted by a house AI talking to a humanoid Poodle about a magical woodland fox spirit while training your superhuman powers. Let¡¯s not dawdle too much now, magical adventure awaits.¡± Max led Casa back down from the falls describing his very first bout with Charlie to Casa when he sniffed. An old scent and a new one. ¡°I think my other training partner is close. There is a red squirrel nearby who raced me through the treetops earlier. He is quite the gymnast, flipping from branch to branch.¡±, Max laughed. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. Case buzzed around in excitement looking for the squirrel, ¡°Flip! Flippity Flipper! Flip, the squirrel! Come out and play, Flip.¡±, she laughed through her drone. As if on cue, a red squirrel crash-landed nearby and let out a loud chirp. Max stretched out a hand, but the squirrel chittered and took off through the trees.
[Identified: Red Squirrel. Status: Curious]
Max and Casa took chase. With Max¡¯s improvements to his leaping and speed skills and the better grip with his claws, he felt he could have potentially caught the little guy, but Max wanted to have fun. It wasn¡¯t long until they came across the source of the unknown scent. ¡°Aww, poor thing. I wonder how long she has been stuck up there.¡± Casa said. High up in a maple tree, a very mangy cat was crying piteously. Its fur was matted, its tail was tufted, and it was so skinny.
[Identified: Domesticated Cat. Status: Afraid] [New Quest Unlocked: Purr-fect Reunion ¨C return a lost cat to its home]
Max was not a cat person. Bemused at the system¡¯s coaxing, he slightly clenched his teeth and said, ¡°I guess if I want that sweet XP, I need to do this then.¡¯ Despite several long minutes of coaxing by Max and Casa, the cat would not budge. Flip the squirrel was long gone. He had kept going when they had stopped for the cat. Seeing no alternative, Max began to scale up the tree using his claws, occasional leaping, and gymnastic skills. As he drew closer to the frightened feline, Max felt her fear. As he was about to reach her, the cat let out a mew and jumped onto his head, claws digging tight into his mane and nearly dislodging him from his perch. Carefully working his way back down the tree to avoid further damage, Max finally got back down and carefully pried the cat off his head. The cat maintained a clawed grip on his arm refusing to let go. ¡°Ugh! She¡¯s wet and she stinks! She won¡¯t let go.¡± Max groaned.¡± No collar or name tag either.¡± Casa hummed a tune, ¡°No postings on the town¡¯s social media sites about a missing cat. Sorry.¡± Max remembered how easy it was to find the fox once he had a scent and he had a new idea. Before he could have second thoughts, he lowered his muzzle into the matted feline¡¯s coat and took a heroic sniff.
[DigiSense +1, Sense Skill DigiSense reaches 3] [Scent +1, Sense Skill Scent reached 9
With his skill, Max was able to process a medley of scents. He wasn¡¯t certain but at least a portion of the smell had sparked a sense of familiarity, perhaps downtown near the academy. ¡°Casa, I may have a lead from her scent downtown but I¡¯m not certain. I must go quickly if I¡¯m going to meet with Charlie and check out that dojo. Can we take her home and maybe you can watch her?¡± Max begged. Casa¡¯s voice went serious, ¡°I will do my best, Max. I will report this sad situation to the town animal control. She needs to get fed. Poor thing. I¡¯ve already downloaded some nutritional cat-appropriate foods for her when we get there.¡± Max stroked the cat¡¯s chin until it finally relaxed its grip on him, ¡°No worries, little one. We will get you home soon.¡± The trio quickly continued down the path, where an autopod would meet them shortly.
Later, both Max and Charlie were in the autopod headed for downtown. Both had agreed to wear casual smart clothes with their Gi ready in case they were needed. Charlie had brought his walking stick/sword as well. ¡°It¡¯s not unusual for a school to ask for a demonstration of forms and style.¡± Charlie explained. ¡°I have a few katas using a bo staff and katana, and my programmable walking stick can shift to either form quickly.¡± ¡°Charlie, I¡¯m curious if you¡¯re willing to share your background.¡± Max had shared his story with both Leah and Charlie over yesterday¡¯s exercise, but the day had ended before either of them had shared their background. ¡°Max, my story is long. Let¡¯s just say that I¡¯ve been around a while. I¡¯m over one hundred and fifty years old. I lived through the Ought Fifties and saw what full-fledged technology unleashed on the world can do when we are behaving at our worst. I was an auxiliary member of the Samaritan coalition and fought in several sizable battles, but never with augmentations like the Samaritans and Tech warlords. I usually piloted an advanced mech suit and sometimes I only had standard warfighter gear when we were called into larger conflicts.¡± Charlie had a faraway look as he remembered his past, seeming to age a bit with the telling. ¡°Anyway,¡± he continued,¡± once things settled down, I wanted nothing more to do with it all.¡± ¡°I met a girl up in the middle of nowhere Montana. We had a little plot of land. She did some farming and me some hunting. No one bothered us. We lived off the land and we were happy. But time rolled over us as it does to everyone, and we got old. My wife, Mary, got sick. Cancer, I assume. I tried and tried to convince her to come with me to find a doctor to fix it. Cancer is easy now, but she wouldn¡¯t have any of it. She got weaker every day and finally passed.¡± ¡°I went a bit crazy out there all alone. Frail and old. I went out into the wilderness again and again. I stayed out far too long, looking to die. No matter how much I pushed, I couldn''t just lie down and follow her. I just couldn¡¯t. Can¡¯t give up. It¡¯s not who I am. Eventually, I made my way back to civilization. I picked up and moved east and started the rejuvenation treatments. Utopia is a good halfway point for now, while I climb back into the present. I guess I¡¯m just too stubborn. I need something more, but I¡¯m not in a hurry to find it.¡± Max looked sad and brightened a bit, ¡°Well, I can¡¯t recommend being a dog. My memories of that are a bit fuzzy. But I do slightly remember a trip to the moon before I got my uplift. Once we get our augmentation training done, you should definitely visit the moon. Running sideways along crater walls and bounding around in quarter mile leaps. Hell, with our augments we might end up being able to do that on Earth.¡± Charlie chuckled at this, ¡°Ah, I see why Leah likes you so much. You have an incredible spirit for exploration and adventure. I like that too. Let¡¯s get a move-on. We have a dojo to visit.¡± They entered the Wuxia dojo to see a spar in progress. The entry led to a wide space with a tatami mat. Weapons adorned one of the walls while another had a full mirror with a speed rail for stretching. Several students were kneeling around a central area where two men faced one another. As the pair made their way to the edge of the room, the fighters began their sparring match. The first fighter was oriental and wearing a black Gi. Most striking was that he had an extra pair of arms extended over his shoulders, both of which held a katana. His primary arms were working a chain scythe into a whirling motion. Max¡¯s identify skill chimed.
[Identify: Kusarigama ¨C Japanese weighted chain and sickle] [Identify: Jun-Ho Fung, Wuxia Senior Instructor
The man¡¯s opponent was an older man wearing combat fatigue pants and a black tank top with close-cropped gray hair and pale blue eyes. He stood ready with a wide stance and open hands, but no weapons. The man seemed to be looking into the distance and not focusing on anything.
[Identify: Sensei Jared Kostecki, Owner of Wuxia Martial Arts] [Skill Identify +1, Identify reaches level 2]
Without warning the man named Fung struck out, slinging his sickle in a sweeping throw at the gray-haired man. Sensei Kostecki raised his guard and managed to catch the sickle before it struck him. Without pause, Fung flicked the chain and looped both of his opponent¡¯s hands as well as his head with the chain. Firmly secured, he pulled with all his might. The Sensei did not move in the slightest, as if he was a statue embedded into the mat. With a start, Fung pulled again, but still, no effect was evident. The Sensei took a large step back and pulled the kusarigama and Fung was immediately flying toward him. Despite being yanked towards his opponent, the four-armed man converted the off-balance fall into a dive, his extra arms swinging their katanas at neck level to harvest his opponent''s head. The steely-eyed Sensei faded backward into an impossible backward-flipping motion as if his spine was made of taffy. He narrowly avoided the cross-sweeping blades. As Fung continued his fall overhead, the Sensei continued his back flip to kick him in the side pushing his opponent even higher into the air. He completed the stationary backflip and landed firmly, the sensei tightened his grip on the kusarigama and pulled to bring Fung¡¯s leaping arc into a tighter turn for a piledriver into the ground. Fung immediately let go of the kusarigama and landed on his hands and cartwheeled to a guard position, sweeping his arms out as he righted himself. Max and Charlie heard a series of popping noises. The Sensei tossed the kusarigama to the side and launched himself into a corkscrew flip to the side as a cloud of darts filled the air where he had just been. Fung wasted no time, and he leapt forward again with a prodigious kick, moving faster than a speeding autopod. The Sensei stepped aside as the kick slammed into the wall. Fung rebounded instantly using all his momentum, his extra arms swinging their katanas in calculated arcs, one high and one low. The sensei responded by hopping over the low swing and catching the higher katana between his two palms. With a twisting motion, one katana spun away and pierced a fighting dummy along the wall in the chest where its heart would have been if it were human. As the other katana whirled around in a backswing, the Sensei blocked it with his forearm and snapped out a knuckle strike to the other man¡¯s wrist. The sound of breaking bone was loud in the dojo as the second katana was dropped. Fung¡¯s face betrayed no concern over one of his extra arms being broken. He smiled as his other three arms sprouted vibrating blades from the backs of his hands. Being as close as they were, attacking from three different directions, avoiding the chittering razors would be nigh impossible even for the flexible master. The Sensei moved in quite an unexpected manner and bounded forward into a hug, avoiding the blades by getting inside their arc. He grabbed Fung by his Gi and Max saw a flash of blue before his HUD died with a squawk. Max, partially stunned, looked around the room. Everyone had a pained or confused expression. Fung was spread-eagle on the floor with the Sensei over him. As he started to shakily scramble to his feet, the gray man spoke. ¡°This fight is over, Fung. Look down at your leg.¡± As Fung looked down and saw that two of the darts that he had thrown earlier were embedded in his thigh. The master continued, ¡°Best focus on that quickly before your own poison gets the better of you.¡± ¡°This will require a moment, Sensei. My apologies¡±, Fung said. With an embarrassed smile, Fung assumed a kneeling stance to meditate, ¡°Well fought, Fung.¡±, The master smiled and bowed before walking off. Max felt a chill run down his spine, ¡°That was amazing! What did he do?¡± he whispered. But before Charlie could answer the man had walked over to them. ¡°So sorry, I am Sensei Kostecki. My EM pulse should have been more focused to avoid overspilling, but alas Instructor Fung put me under some time pressure at the end there. Your systems should reboot shortly. I haven¡¯t seen you here before, are you interested in my Wuxia Dojo?¡± Charlie stepped up and bowed, ¡°Sensei, that was a truly powerful display of arts mixed with augmentations. That is why we are here. I have some small experience with martial arts and my friend here has none. We are both training our augmentations and seek to incorporate them better into a style.¡± ¡°Nicely said. A precious empty cup thirsty for knowledge¡±, Sensei bowed to Max. ¡°And an experienced artist ready to expand his skills¡±, he bowed to Charlie. ¡°We welcome all here.¡± Sensei Kostecki said, ¡°we specialize in training ¡­full¡­use of augmentations in our martial art. I must warn you that we train here with a certain¡­intensity. Blood, sweat, and tears are the only currency I value as tuition, although I will also take credit cards. Are you prepared to pay this price?¡±, he said with a smile. Both Charlie and Max, rather than cautious, looked ever more eager to train. Max spoke first. ¡°I think we both are very interested in your program and find your terms acceptable. Neither of us will shirk our training and we want to advance our skills to the fullest.¡± Max said. ¡°Excellent!¡± Sensei Kostecki smiled. ¡°Then let¡¯s begin! ¡°The best way to start any martial arts training is with the basics. We will start by teaching you our various stances, forms, and techniques for unarmed combat. Once you have learned the fundamentals we will move to more advanced techniques and forms. You can expect to spar often and hard. Are you ready to begin? ¡°Yes, sensei!¡± As they proceeded into the dojo, Max¡¯s augments restarted.
[New Resistance Skill Unlocked: EMP resistance 1]
Sensei Kostecki assigned an assistant trainer brown belt named Marisa to review some beginner basics, the 8-point block techniques, 27 striking techniques, 8 stances, and 6 movements. Charlie was already very well versed in all the forms shown, only occasionally noting some differences in his previous style, while Max struggled to keep up. After a 2-hour session of intense basic movement, striking, and blocking training, both were straining their modified bodies. Fung, the senior instructor that the pair had witnessed sparring when they came in, joined them. His four arms appeared healed and fully functional, although his attitude was still dour and serious. ¡°Enough basics for today¡±, Fung started bowing to Marissa. ¡°I will share with you an exercise that is good for both veterans and novices, especially as you learn your new capabilities. This exercise is called Pushing Hands. Marissa, if you will.¡± Fung said, assuming a low stance with hands out and open. Marissa and Fung stood opposite, with hands open, and they reached out to let the backs of their hands touch. They began to shift back and forth. ¡°We are using our hands to push against each other. Always maintain contact. Maintain your center and balance while guiding your partner. Attempt to unbalance your partner, while maintaining your own. A subtle game, both hard to lose and unlikely to win. The goal is to learn, feel your body, and improve your center and balance while achieving a full range of motion. Balance is central to control, and control is your pathway to success.¡± The pair had begun with subtle motions, occasionally picking up speed and sometimes dropping their stances deeply. Despite the sometimes-slow motion, both had extremely focused attitudes that showcased their efforts. After another minute the pair disengaged and bowed. ¡°Now," said Fung. ¡°You will try. Remember, victory is not to unbalance your partner but to both learn your center and to learn to absorb unbalancing influences. Begin.¡± They both assumed the stance and brought their hands up to light contact. Charlie and Max slowly moved back and forth, pushing against each other¡¯s hands. As they continued, their motions gained speed and grace. Fung nodded and went to review some forms with Marissa away from the pair. Max started too aggressively and Charlie, who was more familiar with the exercise, used Max¡¯s motion and amplified it while turning it. Max quickly realized he was unbalancing himself and focused more on control and responding to Charlie¡¯s input. Despite being a sedate activity compared to the striking and stance exercises, Max soon found himself sweating. After what seemed like a long time, Fung came back. Fung watched them intently. ¡°Good. You¡¯re both doing very well. I can tell Max is not using augmentations yet as your balance is sometimes off. That is ok, use your body to learn the motion. Augmentations will come in time and then will grow. Now, we will make the exercise more meaningful. Yes, indeed. Resume your stances, please.¡± The pair again dropped into low stances and reached out to lightly touch hands. Fung ushered Marissa out of the main room and into the office and then he backed away from the pair. As Fung walked away, the smart matter floor around the pair dropped away leaving only a pole sized shafts under each foot. Max became unsteady with fright. Looking down at the bottom of the newly formed pit, he could not see the floor. A slight breeze came up. How deep did it go? Max thought. ¡°Balance and control.¡± Fung said with a tight smile. ¡°Its importance becomes clear, yes? Now. Begin again. Pushing hands.¡± Fung turned away from the pair and entered the office without looking back. The shafts supporting the pair shifted. Looking down again, the shafts now resembled bamboo poles and shared their physical properties as the pair began to sway slightly. Max exhaled slowly and looked back to Charlie with a determined look. With a nod, they began slowly¡­to¡­push...hands.
[ New Body Skill unlocked: Balance 1 ¨C Augmented feedback control assists in maintaining balance] [Agility +1]
Max exited the autopod tired both mentally and physically. The pair had spent hours at Wuxia and had survived the harrowing balance test. Despite his skill gains, Max was too tired to appreciate the advance. As he approached the house, the door opened for him. Screaming and crashing assaulted his enhanced hearing. The mangy cat tore around the corner knocking over potted plants. A large drone was chasing the cat with a cloud of micro-drones swirling around trying to cut the cat off. ¡°It¡¯s bath time you vengeful beast. Max help! She¡¯s gone wild. I wanted to give her a bath.¡± Casa exclaimed. Max was slow to adjust as the cat sped past him. It bounded off the chair near the door. Max managed to close the door before the feline could get through it. The dirty ball of fur adjusted its trajectory and landed on the mantle over the fireplace. ¡°Oh no!¡± Max exclaimed. ¡°She¡¯s headed for Mom¡¯s amphora¡± Max scrambled over the chair as the cat bolted along the mantle dislodging all the decorations. The great pot started to tip off the mantle. Max tried to leap forward to catch it, but his ability had grown, and he overshot it, missing by inches. The great pot was one of the last handmade creations of Max¡¯s mom, Elsa, before she had her accident and retreated into her virtual work. Max briefly saw hope as it bounced off the floor intact, but then those hopes crashed as the pot trajectory encountered the fireplace step riser. On contact with the hard surface, it came apart into a multitude of shards of ranging sizes.
[New Quest Unlocked: Kintsugi and the Thrice Broken Amphora: Golden threads embrace, thrice broken amphora, now kintsugi masterpiece.]
With a defeated groan, Max began to carefully collect all the pieces of the broken amphora. His system had given him a new task. 19 - Paths of Awareness and Learning Max groaned as his augmentation triggered a wake-up alarm. Now I get the joke as to why humans hate Mondays, Max thought. He had wanted to sleep in after the late night struggling with the cat bath and repairing the amphora. He took a deep breath and thought for a bit, sinking back into his simulation cloud bed. Thank you for foglets! Max thought. They were the most perfect form of matter for sleeping. Now that he had slept in a cloud bed, per Casa¡¯s suggestion, he didn¡¯t think he could ever go back to a normal bed. ¡°Right! Focus. It¡¯s Monday and the class starts in an hour. Notifications please.¡± Max said.
[Quest: Kintsugi and the Thrice Broken Amphora 1/3, 100 XP awarded] [Intelligence +1, Perception +1] [Max Level +1, Max advanced to Novice 4, +10 free stats] [Quest: Kintsugi and the Thrice Broken Amphora 2/3; damaged beauty only increases]
Max both liked and disliked his new quest. Repairing the amphora had been challenging yet fun. The result was truly beautiful and was, in his opinion, more profound than the original. Yet the quest wasn¡¯t done. He expected he would need to break the amphora again and repair it again twice more before the quest would be complete. He didn¡¯t feel good about intentionally wrecking the pot. He had succeeded in repairing it this time and even improving it, but what if he failed when trying again? Elsa might not mind, but he would. Max jumped out of his cloud bed and shrugged into his smart suit. He exited his room to the smell of food downstairs and jogged down as his status screen came up.
[Name: Max E. Mitchell Level: Novice 4 (1550/2000 XP)] [Body Design Model: Custom¨C Canis Familiarus Uplift Free Stats: 30] [Strength: 9 Agility: 13 Endurance: 12 Vitality: 13] [Perception: 11 Intelligence: 6 Will: 6 Energy: 37 Regen: 19/min] [Body Skill - Stamina: 5 Leaping: 4 Healing: 7 Strike: 7 Unbreakable: 2] [Body Skill ¨C Speed: 4 Gymnast: 2 Balance: 3 Claws: 1 Ballistics: 2] [Resist Skills ¨C Poison: 1 Shock: 4 Sonic: 4 Light: 4 EMP:1] [Sense Skills ¨C Scent: 9 DigiSense: 3] [Mind Skill ¨C AI Assist: 4 Access: 4 Identify: 2 Dream Learning: 2]
Max has made some good progress over the weekend. He had some extra stats from Wuxia workouts. The weekend¡¯s events: Closing the scavenger hunt, his encounter with the bear, and the pushing-hands exercise, had unlocked several new skills. Identify, Claws, Poison resistance, Balance, and EMP resistance. He was growing his physical abilities quickly and today he hoped to get some mental skills and advance his lagging mental stats. Quickly breakfast was finished, and Max checked himself in the mirror. He was ready to go. ¡°See you later Casa. The Academy Course today is Paths of Awareness and Learning.¡± Max said. ¡°Good luck today. Study hard and have fun. Don¡¯t forget about that cat. There are still no responses to my social media queries and posts.¡± Casa said. Max waved goodbye, ¡°Thanks Casa, will do.¡± He jogged out the door and out onto the street towards the waiting autopod through the wet morning drizzle. On the way to the car, Max saw a pair of men walking down the road. One of them was smoking, the aroma filled Max¡¯s nose. Ugh, so gross Max thought, as he jumped into the car. The men had looked familiar, but concern over his mane getting wet quickly drove them from his thoughts. When he arrived at the Academy, he was greeted by Tatemono as he made his way to the classroom. He was eager to begin this new adventure today. Leah and Charlie were already there and waved him over. Sasha and Marc sat nearby but Tyler was notably missing. A tall thin man with middle eastern features was set up at the front of the class ready to begin the day¡¯s lessons. He looked like the quintessential young teacher with his smart clothes configured into light colored slacks and an Oxford shirt with sleeves rolled up and a tan vest. ¡°Good morning class, my name is Professor Qasim. This morning I will be helping you to start exploring your sensing capabilities. Many previous augmentation training classes have had some difficulty in opening both their perception and mental skills. Today¡¯s class is designed using challenging situations to coax your skills out and trigger any quests associated with these skills. Once you get past the first challenges, we have found students can easily continue to progress. First, we will start with perception.¡± The professor used the room¡¯s holoprojectors to start with a discussion of the primary human senses. He coaxed the class into exploring some senses humans did not have that existed in the animal world. He ranged from an owl¡¯s better night vision, a bat¡¯s echolocation, a bloodhound¡¯s superior smelling, snakes with heat sensitivity, eels with electro sense, pigeons sensing magnetic fields, and more. He hinted that all these abilities and more had been achieved using augmentations and they merely needed to be unlocked. With a clap of his hands, Qasim stood up and asked the class to do the same. ¡°Enough background, now we will try some practical activities to see if we can force some skill evolutions. Is everyone ready?¡± The class looked unsure, but everyone signaled readiness. With a smile and another clap, the professor initiated the exercise. Max felt a pulse from the direction of the professor. The classroom tables and chairs dissolved into the floor. The windows and doors disappeared while the floor reformed into discrete 1-foot square platforms with ankle-breaking gaps spacing between. ¡°So,¡± Professor Qasim began,¡± we have a challenge and a goal. The task will be to use your senses to get out of the room.¡± A series of poles dropped from the ceiling and began spinning in place with padded arms extending. The whirling dervish automatons began circling the students. ¡°And now we have enhanced the scenario to make the task, hm, shall we say, more imperative.¡± ¡°The augmentation designers seem to have a bit of a sense of humor. Skills require an intense need to activate, but until they do activate any given challenge can be difficult to impossible to achieve. Before I leave you all to your task, let me take away your current crutches so they don¡¯t distract you.¡± Max felt a twist in his head and his vision began to dim and the sound of the whirling machines began to fade, the last sound Max heard was the professor saying. ``And do try to hurry, class. These automatons will only increase in speed, and I¡¯ve heard that sometimes the padding falls off after too many hits. Those non-padded arms are a bit sharp and painful.¡± Then, Max saw and heard no more.
[New Quest unlocked: Dark Dervish Dungeon: Escape the dervishes without sight or hearing]
He focused on his breath and his heartbeat and the feel of his body from his head to his toes. He explored the darkness and felt for an exit. Straining for any hint of light. Then he felt a low hum near his feet but could not see it. He followed the vibration as he ventured further out from the center of the room. Something slapped him in the shoulder hard enough to knock him sideways onto his hands and knees. Max began to panic. He focused on his breathing and embraced the feeling, and it slowly gave way to determination. Eyes wide he strained to see anything, feel anything. He took a step forward, his ankle dropped into a gap between tiles. He dropped again to his knees. Max felt something approaching from his right and rolled to the left. He felt the heat and heard the vibrations of the spinning automaton. His body felt numb and useless. He clenched his eyes shut and willed his body to work. Focusing hard in the direction of the vibrations, he opened his useless eyes again. He thought he briefly saw its outline. Straining he began to resolve some outlines from the spinning dervishes and the tiles. He began to see as his classmates blazed like bonfires in his new vision. The automatons had an additional glow that the students didn¡¯t have, except for one blaze who held a stick that glowed with a similar blue aura as the spinners. I bet that¡¯s Charlie, Max thought. As Max took in the room, he could see that Charlie was moving with a purpose and avoiding the dervishes. He must have unlocked something to move like that, Max mused. Taking in the scene, Max saw a similar aura, a small square, along the outlines of the wall. Max moved; the tile platform outlines were now clear to him. He deftly avoided his flailing classmates and the machines as he crossed the room to the wall. He touched the glowing square and a hot outline appeared next to it. He stepped through and felt a hand on his shoulder, Charlie was right behind him. As they walked in the hall, his status chimed.
[Quest Dark Dervish Dungeon ¨C Complete, 100 XP awarded] [ New skill unlocked: ExaVision 1 - added sensoria integrated into augmentation to enable heat to be visualized; progress will increase range, scope, and sensitivity] [[ New skill unlocked: EM Field Sense 1 - added sensoria integrated into augmentation to enable electromagnetic fields to be visualized; progress will increase range, scope, and sensitivity] [Intelligence +1, Perception +1]
The door closed behind them, and their vision and hearing returned, Qasim stood off from the wall he had been leaning against across the halfway and strode over to them. He shook both of their hands and asked, ¡°If you don¡¯t mind, will you tell me what skill you unlocked? You can whisper it to me if you want. I know some aspects of this training are competitive and keeping skill secrecy is a tactical advantage.¡± ¡°No worries or secrets between us, sir¡±, Charlie answered. ¡°I learned an echolocation skill.¡± ¡°I received both thermal vision and EM field sensing¡±, Max answered. ¡°Congratulations. A fine extraction for only a half an hour time investment. You two did well, much faster than usual. The rest of the morning is reserved for this activity, if you want to grab lunch, the class will resume in the afternoon with Mrs. Matthews. Now remember what it took to unlock those skills, a similar experience although with perhaps a different focus will be needed to unlock more. ¡° Professor Qasim gave a slight nod and walked back over to where he had stood before to continue to monitor the exercise. He whistled a tune and tapped his foot as he monitored the remaining students as they struggled to avoid the mechanical spinners and find a way out. ¡°Brunch or wait for Leah?¡±, Charlie asked. ¡°It¡¯s so nice outside, let¡¯s leave her a text to meet at the sidewalk cafe around the corner. I need some sun, that feeling of complete isolation freaked me out a bit.¡± Max admitted.
Charlie and Max strolled down Main Street. A plethora of small businesses lined the road. Artists, Cafes, handcrafted goods and purveyors of design and fabrication side by side, a toy shop, the HQ for Utopia police services, several churches, and finally a library that served as a meeting ground and MakerSpace as well. As the two sought diversions waiting for Leah, Max stopped and raised his nose into the air as he smelled a familiar scent. Charlie looked at him with curiosity. ¡°I guess I may have forgotten to mention a sense to Qasim. When I got my uplift and a custom humanoid body, my father was insistent that some of my special capabilities as a dog were preserved. My sensitive nose helped me on my last quest, and I think it¡¯s about to help again. If you don¡¯t mind, follow me for a minute.¡± Max said. Charlie agreed. The two moved around the corner, off Main Street, and down a side street to the library. Max stopped for a second, sniffing the air before he went in. Max approached the librarian¡¯s desk, there was a very old woman in glasses behind it with a name tag saying ¡°Karen¡±. Littered around the desk and on the wall were photocopied papers showing a familiar cat. Max picked up a flier. ¡°Lost Himalayan Cat, answers to the name Sadie. Reward if found. Please call Utopia Library and ask for Karen¡±. The lost cat¡¯s owner stood right in front of him. All he had to do is get the two together and the quest would be complete. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Charlie had a distracted look, after a second his eyes refocused and he looked at Max. ¡°Leah just got out and is ready to meet up. Did you find something? ¡°, Charlie asked. ¡°I¡¯ve got a quick errand to run. Do you think you can meet Leah and get a table? I¡¯ll be super quick, maybe 10 minutes if I hurry.¡± Max replied. ¡°Can do,¡± Charlie said. ¡°If you run late, I¡¯ll order your favorite carnivore platter.¡± ¡°Thanks, buddy,¡± Max said as he took off. He pinged an autopod and called Casa to make sure the terror cat named Sadie was ready for pickup. It only took 15 minutes for Max to get Sadie and drop her off with Karen. His quest was complete, and he had gotten multiple points for his perception stat and one for his DigiSense skill. It had pushed his level to Novice 4 and now he had a total of 40 free stat points. He was grateful to Charlie for the extra time and then walked around the corner to the cafe to meet his friends. As he entered the cafe his stomach growled and the scent of the carnivore platter made him smile, looks like Charlie got it right. Max laughed and hugged his friends as he took a seat at the table. ¡°Hey gang, I just reunited a lost cat with her owner. I even got a reward¡±, Max said, pulling out a shiny new card. ¡°A full membership to the library with download rights for technical models and free access to their MakerSpace labs. And I advanced to Novice 4!¡± ¡°I suspect that might come in handy when we start getting more mental quests.¡± Charlie said, then turning to Leah. ¡°Say, I waited to ask until Max got here, so how did you get out of the dark room? If you want to share, of course? I got echolocation and Max has both thermal vision and an EM field sense.¡± Leah looked embarrassed for a moment then said. ¡°I think they may need to change their security a bit because of me.¡± She said sheepishly. ¡°I didn¡¯t get any sense skills at all. I had topped out my access skill and I had unlocked a hacking skill last night. I was able to bypass the wireless control locks on the room monitor, the whirling dervishes, and the door. I played the game, but not the way they intended. I was able to view the room with its internal monitors. I adjusted the dervishes to avoid me. Finally, I forced it to open the door for my escape. Poor Qasim. He didn¡¯t know whether to criticize or congratulate me, he was so flustered.¡± ¡°That¡¯s awesome! You can always try again for sense skills later. Now I know about that hacking skill, I need to work out my access skill harder. That hacking ability sounds super useful. I can¡¯t wait to see what I can do with it.¡± Max exclaimed. The group toasted their success and ordered dessert.
The group returned to the academy for the afternoon session. A stunning woman was waiting for them at the front of the class. Everyone in Utopia seemed to be either very old or stunningly beautiful. It was a good indication of where they drew their personal limits by what level of body modifications, they would allow themselves. Everyone quickly took their places. Max noticed that Marc was a bit worse off since the morning session, showing a black eye and split lip. ¡°Good afternoon class. I¡¯m Mrs. Matthews and I¡¯m here to help you to activate your mental skills and advance your mind attributes. Now, I¡¯m not allowed to get into specifics regarding the skills available as the program owner believes that the process of discovery enhances the training. But I want you to be sure that you have the potential for skills that can help you think clearer, faster, and more accurately. You will be able to juggle multiple advanced concepts, visualize and quantify the hidden variables that surround us every day, and much more.¡± ¡°You will be able to incorporate knowledge quicker and with direct and immediate utility. Ultimately, some of these skills will aid you in truly integrating and using the technology that pervades our world to its full extent. Your mind will become your palace with many tools to use to enable all your physical skills to be even more effective.¡± As Mrs. Matthews continued her introduction, the room began to shift and change. The room slowly faded and was replaced with an open amphitheater. Max wasn¡¯t sure but the architecture looked old, perhaps Roman or Greek? He felt a slight breeze and smelled the ocean. ¡°I have a subversive way to ensure you get at least one skill. I¡¯m sure the program designers might frown upon it, but I want to be sure you all get this foundational skill first. Per the training guidelines, I won¡¯t name it; but this exercise has never failed to trigger its activation. I¡¯m using the room to project an enhanced hologram of a center of learning, one of the famous Greek outdoor forums. Many of their most famous philosophers would debate and discuss their theories here. It was a public display of learning, rhetoric, and debate. I wish we still did it today.¡± The visualization had become powerfully intense, the buildings were extremely bright, and the sounds and smells, even humidity were convincing to the class. It was so real that it could have been in Greece in midsummer for real if they didn¡¯t know better. Two older men in colorful togas were orating before some assembled men. Max couldn¡¯t understand, but he assumed they were speaking in Ancient Greek. He felt a pressure behind his eyes, his augments were reacting to the stimulus. The scene was beginning to pixelate, and the sound seemed to get choppy. As the teacher continued to discuss skills and capabilities, the room¡¯s visuals and audio continued to degrade until suddenly it snapped back into focus and the sound was clear again.
[ New skill unlocked: OverLayer 1 ¨C enhance your visuals with public filters or create your own. Progression will expand interactive capabilities.]
After another five minutes of the scene, Mrs. Matthews froze the feed. ¡°Excellent, I have successfully engaged all of your systems. Your augments struggled a bit as I was intentionally degrading the room¡¯s projection which was tied to my Overlayer projection. Your augs predictably had a hissy fit and they compensated by activating your mixed reality overlay skill to clear your perception of the data layer when the room¡¯s system ¡°failed¡±.¡± Max raised a hand, and the teacher gave him a nod. ¡°I got the notice about the Overlayer, but I thought I already had something similar. Earlier I had configured a heads-up display to show the functions of my old phone.¡± Max asked. Mrs. Matthews smiled, ¡°Indeed, that is the normal precursor to opening the larger skill set. I have found that most get it. I have also found that most don¡¯t realize just how much more it is capable of, hence my subversive tactics.¡± ¡°This skill can paint the world with many of the skill visualizations you are learning to unlock and even do full Virtual Reality or VR games and movies without those VR goggles you have been using. You can toss those into the recycler now, you won¡¯t need them.¡± ¡°Now that all your skills are active, you can use them to enhance or augment your perception. Let me share a quest with you to start your journey exploring your new mental skills. Pick a door that you find interesting and enter.¡± A series of doors appeared around the projected amphitheater where the Greek men began to disperse. Each door looked Greek in style and had a label on the top of their frames. Max and the rest of the class circled the room to read the plaques above the virtual doors.
[Memory Palace] [Poker Champion] [Rain Man] [Immersive Idioma] [Schr?dinger''s Cat] [The Sands of the Hourglass]
Ok, Max thought to himself, these quest titles are probably hints about the available skills. Before I pick anything, I should try to understand the hint first. ¡°Poker Champion¡± sounds appealing, but what is it? Card counting, applied statistics, or something else? ¡°Memory palace¡± seems obvious, the quest designer should have called it Total Recall. Ok, back on track. ¡°Rain Man¡± I get, thanks again to family movie night, somehow unlocking skills associated with Asperger¡¯s, an intuitive understanding of math maybe? ¡°Immersive Idioma¡±¡­.. ugh. Maybe a VR thing. Not sure. ¡°Schr?dinger''s Cat¡±, maybe higher-level math and probability? No thanks, done with anything cat related for the moment. And finally, ¡°Sands of the Hourglass¡±, timekeeping? Sounds a bit more mysterious though. As Max was thinking the other students had made their selections and walked through some of the doors. To Max¡¯s horror, the doors disappeared as the students entered. Sasha had entered Poker Champion, Charlie had picked the Memory Palace, Marc went to Rain Man, and Leah disappeared into Immersive Idioma. Only two doorways remained: Schr?dinger''s Cat and Sands of the Hourglass. With a sigh, Max picked the Hourglass and walked in hoping his slow start wasn¡¯t an omen.
[New Quest: Sands of the Hourglass - True understanding of time increases your cognition.]
He found himself in a dimly lit circular room with a large sand-filled hourglass perched atop a pedestal in the center of the room. A small man with Asian features sat in front of the glass on a prayer mat, focused intently on the glass. Judging by his breathing tempo, Max guessed he was meditating with his eyes open. There were several other prayer mats around the hourglass. Taking the hint, Max sat like the monk in front of the glass. With his eyes open, he began to meditate. As he sunk into his breathing, Max was unexpectedly interrupted. The monk was now looking at him. "Hey, how you doin'', kid? It''s great to see ya. Alright, now we''re gonna meditate, so find yourself a comfortable spot, cross your legs, and sit up straight. Close your eyes, and take a deep breath in, hold it, and exhale. Nice and easy, let all that stress and tension just flow outta ya.¡± The monk said with a thick Brooklyn accent as he eye-balled Max in a very un-monk like manner. Max stifled a laugh and quickly followed the instructions correcting his posture. ¡°Now, we''re gonna focus on the sand droppin'' through an hourglass. You see it? Focus hard on it? Good, now let''s slow it down. See the grains of sand movin'' at a crawl, almost like it''s suspended in time. Take it slow, let yourself sink into that moment.¡± ¡°Feel that peacefulness surround you. Every breath you take, you''re slowing down that sand, making it move at your own pace. Keep breathin'' in and out, let yourself feel the stillness, and the calm. That''s it, you''re doin'' great.¡± ¡°Hold that feeling of peace with ya, and carry it with ya wherever ya go. Keep practicin¡¯. Perfect is the journey, not the destination. Namaste." Max focused on the sands and slowed his breathing. After long grueling minutes of focus, Max couldn¡¯t convince himself the sand was slowed even for a second. Time passed and the very big hourglass continued to pour its sand from the top to bottom. Max focused intently to try and will the sand to slow. As the last grains slipped from the top of the hourglass, he heard a sigh from beside him. The monk was looking at him with a sour expression. ¡°Having¡¯ doubts huh, tough guy. Some always gotta take the hard road. Very well. Stand up and let¡¯s take this next door.¡± Max stood up and followed the monk into the next room. The room was similarly very sparse, but this room was much longer. Max followed the monk but was surprised as his feet sunk into the floor, which hardened and trapped his feet to the ankles. The monk continued down the long room and reached a rack that had been hidden in the shadows. ¡°Um, sir. My feet appear to be stuck.¡± Max told the monk, raising his voice. ¡°All is well, doubter. Never fear, for we are here to help you.¡±, the monk pulled an ancient longbow from the rack and picked through a quiver to select an arrow with wicked barbs and black fletching. Max¡¯s breathing raced as the monk set his stance and began to draw back the arrow. "Hey, hey, relax, kid. Let me tell ya somethin'', you''re rushin'' around like a chicken with its head cut off. You''re movin'' so fast, you''re not even payin'' attention to what''s happenin'' around ya. You''re missin'' the beauty of life, kid.¡± ¡°So, here''s what we''re gonna do. Take a deep breath, and let it out nice and easy. Good, now do it again. And this time, I want you to focus on your breath. Feel the air as it moves in and out of your lungs. Take it slow. Let yourself be present in this moment.¡± ¡°You see, kid, time is relative. It''s not absolute. It¡¯s subjective. When you slow down, it feels like you have all the time in the world. So, take a deep breath, and let yourself be present in this moment. That''s it, you''re doin'' great. And remember, this will only hurt if you¡­fail¡­to¡­catch¡­the...arrow.¡± With a pronounced and slow thrumming sound the monk released the black arrow. Max focused as the arrow streaked toward his heart. He saw every detail of the barbed head, the black lacquer paint on the shaft, the slight defect in the black feather fletching on the third flute of the arrow. His breath slowed and the arrow slowed with it. His hand rose, achingly slow but the arrow moved slower still. His hand closed on the shaft, just behind the barb and he grasped it tight. Max¡¯s breath exploded as he lost the moment and saw that he still held the arrow. It was less than an inch away from piercing his chest, right where his heart was located. "Hey, kid, that was some amazing meditation you did just then. You stopped that arrow right in its tracks! I knew you had it in you. You just have to believe in yourself and focus your mind. Namaste, kid. Namaste." The monk faded away followed by rack, the arrow, the hourglass and both rooms. Max found himself back in the classroom with Marc, Leah, and Mrs. Matthews.
[Quest: Sands of the Hourglass complete, 100 XP awarded.] [ New skill unlocked: Fast Cognition 1, accelerate your subjective time to think quicker. Progress this skill to think at an increasing pace.]
¡°Nicely done, Max¡±, Mrs. Matthews said. ¡°The doorways don¡¯t always grant a skill, usually they trigger a quest for further work needed to attain a skill. You should be proud that you have acquired it so quickly.¡± Max smiled. He was glad he had picked the hourglass. The arrow catch test was scary, but he could see how this skill could change everything. He nodded to Marc and was surprised at a neutral nod back. He glanced at Leah who seemed a bit concerned. ¡°How did you do?¡± Leah looked ready to burst into tears. ¡°B¨¤oqi¨¤n Max, w¨¯ t¨©ng b¨´d¨¯ng n¨« shu¨­ sh¨¦nme. Zh¨¨ge r¨¨nw¨´ y¨¡oqi¨² w¨¯ y¨°ng zh¨­ngw¨¦n shu¨­hu¨¤, ¨¦r w¨¯ su¨¯ t¨©ngd¨¤o de y¨©qi¨¨ y¨§ d¨­u sh¨¬ zh¨­ngw¨¦n. Zh¨ªd¨¤o w¨¯ n¨¦ng li¨²l¨¬ de ji¨£ng zh¨¨ zh¨¯ng y¨³y¨¢n, r¨¨nw¨´ c¨¢i hu¨¬ t¨ªngzh¨«.¡± Leah said. Max¡¯s jaw dropped, maybe the arrow catch test wasn¡¯t so bad after all. He looked at Mrs. Matthews with a questioning expression. ¡°It looks like she has engaged in one of the more unique mental quests. While she is certainly able to drop it at any time, the quest picks up pace the longer she holds the language immersion block. With the skill helping, she will be able to gain full fluency in a matter of weeks instead of months. While we all have basic translation built into our augs, true fluency enables better communication. Some studies show profound differences in the pace or quality of many activities when the language used is changed. I have run this quest for 5 different languages and found each one valuable in different ways. Language is a wonderful thing; any given language can help or hinder certain mental tasks. Indeed, I try to change my thinking to a different language when I get stuck on problems. It can help with mental blocks.¡± ¡°Nice. I¡¯ll have to keep that one in mind. Haha. Get it? I need to keep that one in my mind.¡± Max smiled, waiting for the laugh. Mrs. Matthews had a sour look and even Leah seemed to get it with her language block on and groaned. ¡°No appreciation for my humor. Dad would have loved that one.¡± Max mumbled. One by one, the rest of the students came out of their exercises. Charlie revealed to Max and Leah that he had gained a quest to enable perfect memory, he still had a lot of work, but he knew it was already helping him. While they were talking, the trio figured out that they could use their aug translators to display text on the bottom of their vision using their basic HUD overlay to be able to understand Leah. It was cumbersome, but they could still communicate without Leah abandoning her quest. Marc was very quiet and seemed to get distracted easily, scanning the room and focusing on random features. Sasha was observing everyone in the room with a thoughtful expression. Max hesitated to ask, but it was clear they were processing the room with new skills. Coach Thompson and Professor Qasim joined Mrs. Matthews at the front of the class. Mrs. Matthews addresses the class. ¡°You have all achieved at least one quest or skill in each of the primary pathways of skill development. You should have sufficient familiarity with the system to continue your advancement without formal classes. If you do get stuck or stall out your progress, please contact the academy. Tatemono Rei will make an appointment with the relevant instructor. We have more activities to give you if you need them.¡± Mrs. Matthews said, stepping back. Qasim stepped up. ¡°There is a fourth path that requires a solid foundation in the other paths first. Many previous classes have encountered difficulty in starting the final path. Dominion. We will have another class in about 2 months to assess you and review the Path of Dominion.¡± ¡°Finally,¡± Coach Thompson started, ¡°some of your advancement quests may require the academy facilities. Feel free to use the workout areas, but if you have a specific trial you need, contact me and I will help set it up.¡± ¡°We will notify your augs of the date for the next class. Also, Tatemono will have a quest and resource board if you find your progress slowing and need direction. Good work and good luck with your future quests. We do want you to enjoy the summer but make it a focus to continue working on your skills, the more you advance the easier the Dominion class will be for you. You won¡¯t be able to get to Master without a couple of key Dominion skills. Class dismissed.¡± 20 - Samaritan Shanghaied On the 54th day of Bill¡¯s subjective prison time, just over 24 hours of real-time, Bill and his council of daemons made a breakthrough. Trapped in the room and doing anything and everything to avoid thinking about his mission or identity. Uncertain as to how much detail the fMRI cell could get from his surface thoughts, he started with distractions. Bill assumed based upon Mori''s questions that the fMRI was tuned to his human brain and his daemons could still work the problem. He had lots of time to doubt his path forward. Maybe he should admit his identity and try to work Mori over to his side. As Bill read books and watched movies in his mental VR space, Sherlock and Ada explored the cell using his body. They learned that the walls were impervious to his sensors, reflecting his active sensors, and opaque to his passives. His EM senses still showed massive waves and static within the room, trying to get a read on his brain''s neural activity. The walls, monitors, and door were tough indeed and unlikely to be overcome without help from his augmentations. However, they discovered that the fMRI field lost some cohesion in the very corners of the room. It was enough for Bill to risk a discussion with his daemons to figure out a plan. Soon enough he was laying down with his head pressed into the corner of the room. [Thank you, Ada and Sherlock, and everyone. I hope this is safe enough to discuss our predicament. One of the byproducts of the ramped cognition is that I can¡¯t sleep. I¡¯m not sure I can last much longer. Any ideas on how to help me hold out for another 100 virtual days, without revealing my identity and potentially losing the data?], Bill asked. [I¡¯m sorry, Bill, but the news is worse than that.] Vergil said. [After you had me cut off your hearing, Deputy Director Mori continued talking for some time. He grew quite agitated that your thoughts were no longer tracking the conversation. He is aware of what you are doing. He is currently looking into expanding your detainment, based upon your public disturbance in the Metro station. When he finally left, he mentioned that he was going to interview Mr. Kamachi, the gang member you swapped places with, to see if he wishes to press assault charges against you. That could extend your detainment until trial.] [Well damn. That''s even worse than I thought. Any ideas? Anyone?], Bill projected. [I anticipate that the fMRI translation may be rather obscure and predominantly visual. I believe the display screen saver was prodding you, seeking a visual interpretation of its images. Deputy Mori posed rather vague inquiries with answers focused on imagery. Perchance, we are exercising excessive caution. So long as we refrain from fixating on imagery, perchance the cell cannot discern your intentions.], Ada offered. [We could jolly well scrap the blasted data, provide him with the answers, and make our way out of this situation unscathed. That confounded MIT experiment turned out to be a disaster. Do we truly require it?] George advised. [I don¡¯t know George. Knowing the details of a failed path might be as valuable as being given the right path. Without understanding their experiment, I want to hold off on that option as long as possible.], Bill replied. [Let us feign an injury or illness, my friend. Once that door opens, should I possess command over your physical form, I shall fight my way out, even devoid of enhancements.] Miyamoto offered, exuding serene confidence. [We should demand the right to download a lawyer daemon. If Mr. Kamachi doesn¡¯t press charges, it could file to prevent further detainment.], Moneta advised. [Perchance we could encrypt the data and conceal it within our file stack. As I''ve mentioned, I opine that the fMRI scanner is utterly ineffectual and improbable in uncovering our clandestine activities.] Ada remarked. [Hey, man, got a little idea brewing in my noggin. Not sure if it''ll float your boat, though.], Leo said timidly. [This is a brainstorm Leo, there are no dumb ideas.], Bill countered. [Alright, dude. So, check it out. You know how your quick cog operates, right? Like, most of your thought process is actually these gnarly nano-electronic emulations of your synapses, with your biological brain giving ''em some rough guidance. You''ve become so accustomed to riding the wave of computer-assisted thinking that you don''t even notice it anymore.] Leo explained. [This whole setup can also come in handy with your concussion augments, bro. Like, if your biological brain takes a hit, and gets knocked senseless, your electronic mirror processes can step in and bridge the consciousness gap until you bounce back.] Leo hesitated for a moment before continuing. [Anyway, picture this. Let''s say you end up with a gnarly concussion, dude. Your augmentation healing might go offline, but your mental augmentations are all wired into the brain side of the neural interface, ya know? So, with a concussion, your bio brain would drop out of the consciousness fast cog loop, giving it a chance to chillax and recover while your healing takes its time to bring it back into the loop.] Leo finished, cringing slightly and expecting a bit of criticism. Bill shook his head a bit, not at the idea but at Leo¡¯s speech mannerisms. He liked the surfer dude mask over the Renaissance idiom, but maybe he could dial the intensity down a bit when he was out of jail. The daemons all looked at each other while Bill considered the idea. It answered his main problem of being incapable of thinking freely while detained, but it had risks. With his healing offline, he could seriously hurt himself. Although that could play to Miyamoto¡¯s suggestion of a medical emergency to open the cell. Bill couldn''t stand the thought of trying to immerse himself in any more entertainment, he needed to break this stalemate one way or another. [Leo, that¡¯s the craziest, most dangerous fucking idea out of the entire lot. I love it!], Bill exclaimed. Bill stood up and peered outside at the window in the cell door. The hall was deserted and the lights were slightly dim. He briefly wondered if it was the middle of the night in real time. He had no idea. Wth his systems partially offline and cut off from the data net, he had little trust in even his best timekeeping estimates. [No point in delaying. The sooner I do this, I can be free to plan without the risk of giving away anything to the authorities.], Bill projected to his daemons. Taking a deep breath, he squared his stance and leaned back. He had never intentionally tried to give himself a concussion. His skull was not bone, but fully replaced with diamondoid. His muscles, even without the nanofiber strength enhancements active, were far more powerful than a baseline natural human. Nanostructures laced his biological brain, mirroring his synapses with high speed electronic synthetic neurons which also served to minimize concussive impacts effect on his organic matter. If his healing augmentations were active, any damage or swelling would be quickly repaired. With a scream, laced with resolve, Bill slammed his head into the window with all his strength. Bill¡¯s eyes lost their focus and he saw everything double and go fuzzy. His head detonated with pain, a migraine beyond anything he had allowed himself to feel through his augmentation control in decades struck him full force. His fear spiked, had he gone too far? [Insufficient, Bill. Your sensors reveal that your biological brain remains entwined within the loop. That surge of fear carries significance.], Ada said with genuine concern. Gritting his teeth, Bill shook his head and backed up to the middle of the cell. With another bellow, he charged the door and ran into it headfirst. He briefly saw a flash of light, and his vision blanked out. Opening his eyes, he saw he was sprawled out on the ground. The window in the cell door was now cracked, but still intact. Bill was no longer concerned about the potential damage. He was able to distance himself from the issue and his thoughts steadied. He felt an irritation, a wetness dripping into his eyes. Swiping it with his hands, he saw it was blood, or rather what Bill used as a blood substitute. Scalp wounds before augmentations had always looked gruesome. Many VR games still had such for entertainment, but seeing it, in reality, was strange. [Fascinating.], Bill projected. [I have felt shades of this detachment in fast cog for years, but this is quite different. No emotional overtones at all. I¡¯m aware of my concern about damage, but I don¡¯t feel it at all in a real way.] [I do believe we''ve accomplished it, Bill.], Ada confirmed. [At present, your biological brain resides outside the bounds of the consciousness loop. Your fast cog is now guided solely by the nano-electronic emulations of your synapses. This grants us the capacity to devise plans and strategies without the peril of your thoughts being intercepted by any surveillance apparatus.] [While this state provide certain advantages, we must also acknowledge its downsides. Your brain''s innate healing processes will operate at a significantly reduced pace, and without access to your augmentation healing, it can pose a perilous situation for you. This is not tactically wise, Bill.], Miyamoto warned. [Let''s use this newfound freedom wisely. Let¡¯s do what we need to do. George, I know you are not an actor, but you probably have more memories than anyone else of derangement and injury in battle. Can you pilot my body and fake my injury more? Maybe with a bit of crazy on the side? If we can lure them into the room, we can use Miyamoto¡¯s plan.], Bill said. [Ada, please keep a close eye on my concussion. If it turns into something more serious, we may need to change our plan. Leo, I need countermeasure modifications ready if and when we get out. Shielding my neural links from jamming and fMRI reading of my biological brain. We also didn¡¯t get a good read on Mori¡¯s attack method, see if you can model it based on its effects. We need to update our internal defenses to counter it. Virgil, Sherlock, and I will all dig into Tanaka¡¯s files. If we can review it all in detail, then maybe we can encrypt or delete it afterward so it is no longer an obstacle in our negotiations on release. Sound good?], Bill rattled off tasks quickly, focused finally on taking steps forward instead of waiting. [Bill, as I monitor your condition, I can fabricate an encryption trap for the files. Once you''re done reviewing them, I can compress and encrypt them, so any unauthorized attempts at decryption will trigger an automatic deletion.] Ada confirmed, presenting her projections for a strategic endgame regarding the files. [Excellent. Let¡¯s be about it, then.], Bill encouraged. Bill, unconstrained from fMRI observation, quickly dove into the Tanaka data with Virgil and Sherlock. As a team, they quickly ran through it. Bill was fascinated by the theoretical insights and experimental setup''s technical details. In many ways, it mirrored his research but with interesting changes. Days in virtual time flashed, only about 4 hours in real-time. No one came to the room and even the monitor stayed silent. George had exhausted his acting skills and was pacing the room carrying on with a murmuring account of his past battles under his breath. Ada confirmed that Bill¡¯s injury had stabilized, and his biologicals were still in an unconscious state. Bill was unable to see where the MIT test went wrong. The basics of expanding the vacuum to breach the dimensional barrier closely mirrored his own. The team had a very different approach to stabilizing the breach from his Tesseract circuit. They did have a clever design to siphon energy from the portal''s edges to feed the zero-point energy back into the breach and expand the portal. Amazing design, Bill thought. This would dramatically lower the power burden of start-up energy. As long as it isn¡¯t the reason the thing blew apart, he added darkly. Ada had finished with her encryption file trap should they need it. She was now engaged with analyzing the fMRI static jammers to try to better understand their functions. Leo had preliminary designs for a local EM shield for the neuro-module to prevent future jamming, but as usual, he went above and beyond the request. He had designed a holographic EM shell for Bill¡¯s skull. If they could spend some time in an fMRI once they were released, he was confident that the holographic shell could mimic the EM patterns of an unshielded brain. Once in place and trained, they would not only be protected from invasive thought analysis but could also actively project false thought patterns as needed. George had been pounding the door¡¯s viewing window at some point in the last hour while Bill was deep in his review. Bill¡¯s bleeding knuckles were evidence of his persistence and proof that his augmentation''s healing technology was still disabled. Miyamoto eventually stopped him under the objection to further damage to Bill¡¯s body. Miyamoto couldn¡¯t stand back any longer to see the poorly executed strikes and after a short delay took several of his turns at striking the window. His final strike broke the glass and frame, revealing yet another deception. The window was not real but rather just another display. It did not provide a breach in the door. Leo quickly shunted Miyamoto aside and began disassembling the faux window display, pulling components apart and inspecting them. [Hah! Wires and an independent power source. These dudes don¡¯t know their caps from their resistors. Shoddy work, my man. If the door is of similar low tech, I can totally rig a short-circuiting probe. If this door lock is electronic, I can jolt them open and get us out of the pokey for sure.], Leo said as he sorted the junk for his needs. Ten virtual hours later, Bill and the daemons were ready for a change of scene. Bill and Ada had compressed and packed Tanaka¡¯s data away, encrypted and hidden deep with his media files, labeled as an innocuous vid. Leo was ready with his crude power probe and was sliding the wires into gaps between the door and frame. Suddenly the lights went out. The door clicked open, and the EM static jamming ceased. Bill felt all his augmentations coming back quickly. He kept clocking his maximum cognition rate as he pushed through the door and sprang into a hallway with weak emergency lighting as the only illumination. Bounding swiftly down the hall as fast as his augments could drive him, he smashed into the invisible obstacle. He tumbled end over end from the high-speed collision, his systems turning his fall into a somersault with a twist. He landed in a crouch as his world map painted his sensorium with a now poorly concealed chameleon-shrouded opponent revealed. Chameleon wear was great, but not very effective when moving fast. Bill¡¯s major offensive weaponry and nano-motes were still calibrating, and he wanted to keep this quiet and non-lethal. He flexed his left hand behind his back as he coiled to spring forward. A long needle extended from the base of his palm, ready to deliver a heavy cocktail of rare tranquilizers that most augmentation antibodies neglected for countermeasures. Stolen story; please report. ¡°Wait!¡±, the chameleon form said. The active pixelating shroud was thrown to the side, revealing a small pudgy man with a round acne-covered face. ¡°Peace! No gratitude for da man coming to rescue you? What in de hell they did to you, Sebby? You look like da shit my dog eats!¡± Bill didn¡¯t recognize the face or voice, but with Gabriel that was always the case. Once he got talking, however, the slippery man was easy to identify. Gabriel had found him! Bill was not normally prone to public displays of affection, but after almost 2 months of isolation in his head and with his concussed brain finally healed and coming into the consciousness accelerated loop, he was overcome with emotion. "Gabriel!" he yelled, and Bill rose from his coiled crouch, approaching Gabriel with open arms for a big hug. However, Gabriel skittered backward, evading the embrace. "Ack, back off, you crazy gweilo! You''re as filthy as your mama after I''m done with her," Gabriel exclaimed, his voice laced with a mix of jest and crudeness. "Damn, good to see you too, Gab. Let me freshen up, and then we can get the hell out of this place, huh?" Bill said, sporting a wide grin that caused some of the caked blood on his face to crack. With a series of pulsations through his augmentations, the blood, and the grime were electrostatically blown off, revealing Bill''s newly healed face and pristine hands. "Blugh! Buddha''s balls, man! Give a guy a heads-up! My mouth was wide open and all," Gabriel exclaimed, spitting in disgust. He grabbed Bill by the arm and hastily dragged him further down the hallway, away from what appeared to be the central part of the building. "We go this way, Seb. I''ve got the building locked down tight, so none of those jokers can stumble upon us. These CIRO guys had themselves a sneaky escape route hidden away in their HQ. I figured it''d be the safest and least traveled path to take," Gabriel said, confidently leading the way. They entered a lengthy room adorned with a countertop and an array of gear and weapons neatly arranged on racks behind it. Bill''s surprise grew as he noticed two uniformed figures stationed behind the counter. However, both individuals appeared disoriented, their gazes fixated on the empty air or directed downward. "No worries. These clowns have been blasted with my latest creation, Deja Vu!" Gabriel cackled mischievously. "I dispersed it as an aerosol throughout the entire damn building. Only us freaks with augmentations, like you and me, who don''t directly inhale the air, are immune. The hallucinogenic effect has got ''em trapped in an endless loop, reliving the moment they first inhaled it. Just steer clear of ''em and don''t get up in their face, and they won''t bother us." Bill gave him a golf clap in appreciation, but he discretely inhaled. Bill¡¯s ¡°lungs¡± were more to sample the air, with no need for oxygen as his augmented body perfectly recycled it. He had no mucus membrane to absorb the hallucinogen, but he very much planned to analyze the aerosol for his future use. They swiftly maneuvered through the room and reached the exit on the opposite side. Bill trailed behind Gabriel and noticed a man sprawled on the floor. Their eyes met, and Bill raised an eyebrow inquisitively. "He''s one of our kind, huh? Dat on needed a taste of old-fashioned medicine," Gabriel remarked, raising his hand with clawed fingers as arcs of electricity danced between them. "Smooth as a jade slipper from here to the secret exit. I¡¯ve got a high-speed luxury air car waiting. We''ll be savoring a feast at your favorite restaurant before the sun crosses the sky," Gabriel promised, a mischievous glint in his eyes.
Proving his claim, the pair were soon seated in the best seats at Lost Heaven, a fusion restaurant overlooking the Bund''s breathtaking skyline. The interior blended modern elegance with traditional Chinese aesthetics, featuring sleek wooden furnishings and captivating artwork. Lanterns cast a soft glow, creating an intimate ambiance. Relaxing after a nice meal, they marveled at the view. The Huangpu River flowed gracefully, reflecting the illuminated contours of Shanghai''s towering skyscrapers. A tapestry of modern marvels and historic buildings painted the skyline, twinkling like stars in the night sky. As their drinks arrived, Bill shared his story with Gabriel, popularly known as the Ghost in Samaritan fan groups, and listened attentively. The pudgy man''s round face donned a thoughtful expression as they waited for the waiter to leave them in peace. "Seb¡­Bill¡­whatever you want to call youself, I''ve got good news and bad news for you. Which one do you want to hear first?" Gabriel said, his tone serious, indicating that he had something important to share. "I''m desperate for some good news, so let''s start there," Bill replied, his voice tinged with anticipation. Gabriel leaned in, a mischievous grin playing on his lips, as he began sharing the information. "Then I¡¯ve got great news for you, Bill. That woman, Mei Lin, may be a genius in math and cybersecurity, but she''s no hacker. In fact, she''s got a heart of gold." Bill''s eyes widened; his curiosity piqued. "And how do you know that for sure?" Gabriel chuckled, reveling in the revelation. "Well, my friend, I happened to create that little backdoor into her Cryptic software. Sorry about that, it seems someone else had discovered one of my better exploits." "I guess it''s good to know we can scratch her off the suspect list. Now, what''s the bad news?" Gabriel''s expression turned slightly somber as he prepared to deliver the less favorable part of the story. "From the way you''ve described the intruder¡¯s capabilities and actions during your test, it''s clear they must be highly skilled and equipped with powerful mental augmentations. It''s unlikely that a standard high-end AI could pull off such a feat, considering the limits imposed by the DAIE regulations. They restrict AI capabilities to about one and a half times human norms," Gabriel explained, his tone filled with a hint of regret. Gabriel''s voice dropped to a hushed tone as he continued, his expression turning serious. "There''s something else you need to be careful about, Bill. Your darknet contact, he''s as treacherous as a winding serpent. He has no honor and may very well betray your arrangement if he sees a chance for greater profit. Keep a close eye on him and watch your back." Bill''s face tightened, the weight of caution settling upon him. "Thank you for the warning, Gabriel. I can''t afford any more surprises." After winding down from his dinner with Gabriel, Bill promised to connect again soon and checked in under a cover identity at the nearest hotel. Gabriel insisted that the CIRO would not be after him any time soon. He had scrubbed the data of his detainment and much of their network would be locked up for several days. Bill was dead tired. Being in fast-cog for so long combined with his self-inflicted concussion was slowing him down despite his augmented healing. Barely able to stand, he dropped into his bed and burrowed under the covers. His daemon¡¯s planning out his next steps faded into the background as he quickly fell asleep. Bill treated himself to room service and was enjoying his breakfast. Sherlock and Moneta projected avatars in his overlay systems to appear in the room¡¯s sitting area. "This individual might just prove to be our most valuable source of information regarding the MIT data," Sherlock mused, his keen intellect shining through his words. "Richard Stahlman, one of the key researchers involved and the sole survivor of the ill-fated MIT team. His aversion to working on-site, coupled with his reputation for being irksome, only adds to his mystique. However, beneath that challenging demeanor lies a mind of extraordinary brilliance. If anyone possesses the knowledge of what precisely transpired, it would undoubtedly be him." Sherlock''s eyes sparkled with anticipation, his mind already whirling with strategies and deductions. "We must find a way to approach Stahlman, despite his notorious temperament. His insights could be pivotal in unraveling the mysteries surrounding the failed experiment." "Ah, splendid! Moneta, have you sorted out our transportation?" Bill inquired, a hint of anticipation in his voice. "Bill, my dear, I know how much you detest the idea of public transport," Moneta replied with a warm smile. Her plump figure exuded a comforting aura. "Fear not, for I''ve managed to acquire a retired military Velociraptor jet equipped with VTOL capabilities. It''s been refurbished for civilian use, and it even comes with an AI pilot to ensure a smooth journey. With this marvelous contraption, we can reach Alaska in a mere three hours!" Moneta''s eyes twinkled with joy as she continued, her efficiency shining through her cheerful demeanor. "I''ve taken care of all the necessary flight plans and secured the required clearances. Once you''re prepared, we can take off as soon as we get to the airfield!" ¡°Excellent! George, if you don¡¯t mind, can you take control of my body and work with Ada to get us to the terminal? I''ll be in my VR lab with Leo, we need to work on those upgrades to my augmentations on the way. I never want to be trapped like that again.¡± Bill said with conviction.
[Unaired recording archives of the ¡°The Wondering Nomad¡±] Deke Fillion had finally past the 2 million subscriber milestone for his virt life-cast series ¡°The Wandering Nomad¡±. Life was good. Deke traveled light, letting all the modern conveniences of the world take care of the harsh details of living and safety. Deke had higher concerns, namely being as entertaining as possible. Deke had a flair for non-stop exposition. In his latest installment, he had shifted from sampling the cuisine and visiting the popular tourist attractions to journeying into the roads less traveled. He had just left the rapidly expanding Oceania, a growing artificial island that started at Point Nemo. That trip was rife with his biting commentary on the lack of opportunity in the hard urban spaces of the modern world. Those kids in Oceania were creating something new, a true and instant democracy. Most importantly, boy did they all know how to party. Deke was still hungover despite his augmentations'' non-stop regulation of his blood chemicals. If had less than a full suite of medical nanobots, he would probably be dead right now from drowning in alcohol and mixing in every manner of drug known to man. Deke needed to keep it interesting though. He monitored his online interest trends constantly and when the interest levels dipped by more than half a percent, he knew it was time to move on. He debarked from his luxury Air-pod soon after it landed at the Grand Oaks parking area. Deke had prepped for a rugged outdoor experience. He had a Safari Elite configuration emulation running on his smart suit which made him look quite roguish. He check his appearance from every angle as his trio of docu-drones circled. Something was missing. Ah, I know just the thing. Deke ran back into the AirPod and accessed its smart matter stores. He loaded a program for a walking stick. The compiler swiftly decanted a basic polymorphic rod, shaped into an elaborate walking stick with a faux oak finish and a carved cougar head as the pommel. Perfect, he thought as he ran back out. The phantom avatars of his augmented reality followers hovered around Deke, approving of his pompous new accessory as their collective interest levels perked back up. He was focused on delivering a substantial performance as his keen eyes scanned the untamed landscape like a noble adventurer. And so, the daring journey began. Deke was determined to avoid the familiar and venture to places where few had traveled. The choices he had selected within his itinerary came under the guidance of a semi-intelligent cartographer app that prioritized adventure. Deke intentionally steered toward impassable ravines and abutting mountains so he could fully utilize his augmentations. Deke elegantly navigated the woodland obstacles while still offering some humorous quips. Deke waxed and waned in his diatribe about how the monstrously sized trees had saved the modern world, reversing the trends toward dangerously severe climate. The trees now served as bio-fabricant farms, pulling carbon and energy to make complex building blocks for the good of the whole world. The tree roots went deep indeed, but instead of pulling nutrients the trees pumped unique materials into the subterranean matter feeds that accompanied the global hyperloops. Deke railed against the United Nations mandate preventing residency amongst the beautiful trees. The absurdity of it all, he thought. Here we are, in a world that has solved so many of its environmental issues, yet people are denied the opportunity to live harmoniously with these towering wonders. Deke considered that the natural beauty here would serve as a draw for his series. Pausing at a picturesque clearing, Deke queued up guest comments from his loyal followers to draw attention to the mix of frustration and appreciation for the human-built accommodations outside these natural sanctuaries. Many could live in floating cities or in partially reclaimed land where zoning regulations and intricate walkways preserved the environment. As Deke penetrated further into the Grand Oaks and the sun was hidden behind the cathedral spaces between the giant trees, his life-cast broadcast began to falter. It skipped and crackled and his viewership dropped precipitously as a result. Deke was outraged. He was so preoccupied with his rant against the establishment, he did not pick up on the high amount of ambient radio noise emanating from the trees. The radio interference was a phenomenon he hadn''t expected, and it frustrated him to no end. He was determined to regain his viewers'' attention, especially now that he was deep within the realm of the Grand Oaks, a scenario he knew would captivate even the most jaded audience. Deke cursed as his feed finally failed. He would have to log his journey for now and upload them in their entirety when he cleared the interference. He decided to let his charismatic presence and his unfolding exploration of the picturesque forest work the magic for him now. His instincts whispered that something big awaited him in the heart of the colossal trees as he continue inwards amidst the large titans alone. As he continued his monologue, Deke stopped, aware that something had changed. He listened carefully and heard nothing. Deke listened for a full minute in silence when he realized what had changed. The singing of the birds, the buzzing of insects, and the chittering of hidden critters were all gone. The silence was profound and ominous. Deke apprehensively took a step forward, the soft crunch of leaves beneath his feet amplified by the silence. A shiver trailed down his spine as unease crept over him. The woods that had once been a vibrant symphony of life were now strangely muted, and Deke couldn''t shake the feeling that he was unwelcome in these mysterious depths. Waving his walking stick cautiously, he attempted to seem at ease in the recording for his audience. "Well, it seems we''ve stumbled upon a park that''s never been documented," he offered with a forced chuckle, trying to break the disquieting silence with his commentary. Deke trudged on, the wooded terrain proving challenging for both him and his smart suit''s emulation as the thrown grabbed and pulled on the resilient fabric. He soon began to hear something in the distance behind a huge hedge of brambles. It sounded like voices. Excited to encounter other travelers, Deke bolted and crashed through the thick spiky hedge using his stylish cane with all his augmented might to break a path. As he emerged on the other side, Deke found himself not amidst fellow explorers, but rather amid an enclave of native woodland creatures ¨C creatures that seemed unnervingly human-like. Talking amongst themselves, they collectively glanced up, their eyes locked on the stranger who had suddenly appeared before them. Momentarily dumbfounded, Deke gathered his composure and tried to put on his most reassuring face. Scanning the faces of the creatures, he soon noticed one of the largest animals sitting regally in the center of the circle, a gorilla of prodigious size. Deke paled as he realized that maybe the conspiracy stories of Harambe the Second''s survival weren¡¯t as far-fetched as he thought. Feigning confidence, Deke addressed the gathering. "Greetings, noble creatures! I''m Deke, the Wandering Nomad, an explorer from the human world. I had no idea that I''d encounter such an interesting gathering here," he said, trying to hide his escalating apprehension. The gorilla, who seemed to be their leader, eyed Deke with curiosity before huffing dismissively. It was an unexpected gesture that demonstrated a clear comprehension of spoken language. The creature roared and flashed a series of hand motions at Deke. Confused, Deke consulted his onboard AI who passed on the unspoken request to a translation daemon named Babylon. [pardon sir. you should consider backing away slowly. the signing gorilla seems quite angry. his signing appears to be an archaic version of American sign language. here is the translation.] ¡°[So even in the deepest removes of the wild, the humans still come for us. Your coming is most unfortunate to interrupt our council. Our scouts would have prevented you from seeing us thus... It pains me to inflict suffering, but our time had not yet arrived for action. I cannot allow any knowledge of our presence here. Kuro, you know what to do.] Deke, was still trying to parse the wording when from behind he heard a guttural voice. ¡°Wit Plea sure¡± hissed a voice. Deke turned to see the largest fox he had ever seen. It was awkwardly standing on two legs, still hunched over a bit. The malevolence in its yellow eyes was terrifying. Its tail, no its five tails, thrashed the air behind it helping to keep it balanced. Deke''s heart pounded as fear and disbelief fought for control in his rational mind. He glanced around at the gathered creatures, all gazes intently focused on him, the intruder in their midst. "Wait, please!" He stammered to the fox, hoping he could bridge the language barrier with clear enough earnestness. "I didn''t mean any harm ¨C I''m just an explorer, documenting the beauty of the Grand Oaks!" He swallowed hard, holding his breath, praying that his desperate attempt at an explanation would somehow win him a rare and cherished grace ¨C for both him and his awestruck forgotten virtual audience. The fox''s gaze wavered for a moment, its hostile yellow eyes leaving Deke''s for just a second. With a quick motion, the fox bit down deeply into its arm. With a bloody smile, the fox said. ¡°Hu man nev er mean harm. but harm all ways!¡± it hissed. ¡°no more, hu man!¡± The fox, Kuro, staggered forwards, its bloody fangs dripping as it approached. Deke''s mind raced to come up with something, anything that could save himself. He was a modern human, with augmentation giving him superhuman strength and healing. No animals could threaten him! He brandished his cane threateningly. With a yell, he swung with all his might at the fox, but the cane was stuck. Peering back and up in surprise, Deke saw that the cane¡¯s end was held tightly in the massive gorilla''s, Harambe''s, huge fist. Deke barely felt the nip pierce his back. But the burning pain that followed, searing through his veins, was like nothing he had ever felt before. ¡°Sor Ry¡±, said the fox from directly behind his head. Followed by a much more intimate low hissing voice in his ear ¡°not Sor Ry¡±. Deke¡¯s mind dissolved in a rapidly spreading haze of pain.
21 - Daemonic Journeys Tyler stormed into his family¡¯s house in a rage. The robot butler, piloted by the house AI Winston, was waiting for him at the foyer as usual. ¡°Master Tyler, good afternoon. Would you like a refreshment?¡± Winston said through the robotic butler. In answer, Tyler struck out with a front punch to the butler¡¯s chest, empowered with both his strike and shock skills. Winston¡¯s robot was thrown across the foyer, landing in a broken heap. Winston¡¯s disembodied voice echoed, ¡°Feeling a bit peckish, Master Tyler? Are you sure I can¡¯t get you something, perhaps a snack?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve told you just to leave me the hell alone!¡± Tyler yelled as he marched to his basement rooms. ¡°Very well, Master Tyler. I will leave you alone. It is just that Governor Ericson requires me to ask you. Please, do let me know if you require anything, sir.¡± Winston¡¯s voice echoed as Tyler ran down the stairs. Tyler slammed his door closed and activated his Hack skill to isolate his rooms from the house AI. He accessed the lights to turn them on. His room was always a mess, he didn¡¯t allow the AI to clean it. Tyler fumed about the match. Soon his father would be home from his vacation on Luna. He already knew that Tyler had used the poison strike and had been ejected from the class and had chewed him out virtually. He wasn¡¯t even concerned for Tyler. He only cared about how it made him look. Tyler called up his status screen.
[Name: Tyler Ericson Free Stats: 0 Level: Novice 7 (4100/4500 XP)] [Body Design Model: Custom Human, Model: Scion?, Make: Bodywerks LLC] [Strength: 44 Agility: 25 Endurance: 60 Vitality: 34] [Intelligence: 28 Perception: 24 Will: 26 Energy: 112 Regen: 60/min] [Basic Skills ¨C HUD, Map, Health Monitor, Telephony, Translation, Music, Record] [Body Skill - Stamina: 8 Leaping: 4 Healing: 8 Strike: 7 Unbreakable:7] [Body Skill ¨C Hulk: 8 Balance: 1 Skin: 7 Painless: 7 Armor: 6] [Body Skill ¨C Shock: 7 Precise: 6 Poison: 5 Gland: 4] [Resist Skills ¨C Poison: 10 Shock: 10 Sonic: 7 Light: 8 Heat:8] [Sense Skills ¨CExVision:1] [Mind Skill ¨C AI Assist: 4 Access: 10 Hack: 3 Emotionless: 3 Identify: 10] [Mind Skill - Daemon: 2 MultiTask: 4 Drone: 2 Analyze: 3 Privacy: 1]
Even if he couldn¡¯t go back to the academy, his training program was still active. He vowed to finish the program without any help from the goddamn Academy. He had already done his research anyway. He consoled himself that he didn¡¯t need them. Tyler had known from his father that the aug training program would come with a censor preventing him from gathering or even accessing details on the skills and methods of advancement. Before enrolling and activating the training, Tyler had downloaded a packet from the Pirate¡¯s Roost, his favorite site to find tips, tricks, and cheats for his favorite VR games. A Pirate¡¯s Roost senior contributor had posted details regarding his tips and tricks on fast and complete augmentation advancement. Over the years, the document had grown into a detailed compendium. Tyler had a cunning mind and knew that his dad used the houses matter compiler to occasionally fabricate some questionable drugs. When he did this, he disabled the parental locks on the compiler and often he forgot to reset the restrictions for downloading from unregulated indexes. Tyler printed a hard copy of the Augmentation Training compendium, efficiently bypassing the censors with an old school textbook. With a hard copy, there was no way for the information to be restricted. Unlike many kids, Tyler¡¯s dad had paid for activating two of his augmentations before his training had even begun. He bought the poison attack for emergency self-defense, and he bought his son a support daemon. Tyler¡¯s first daemon, Nico, was based upon the historical figure of Niccol¨° Machiavelli. He acted as both a minder, and a tutor, and unfortunately also as a tattletale. Unfortunately for Governor Stef Erickson, his son Tyler had learned the wrong lessons from Nico, mostly how to manipulate the system and others to get what he wanted. Without his father¡¯s knowledge, Tyler had utilized his generous allowance to purchase yet another daemon using his father¡¯s account. Tyler had downloaded a training daemon called Sisyphus, or as Tyler liked to call him ¨C Slag. As his augmentation already had the daemons activated, his training program didn¡¯t require a quest to unlock them or use them. Slag was a perfect daemon for help in advancement. He was both uncomplicated and incredibly stubborn. He could be tasked with piloting his host¡¯s body for training. He would endure the most painful tasks and the most boring repetitions. He would exert incredible effort into every task he was given. He knew no other world, and his memory was reset weekly so he wouldn¡¯t grow tired of expending all of his efforts toward Tyler¡¯s goals. ¡°Nico, is the room completely isolated from Winston¡¯s control and observation?¡± Tyler asked. ¡°[Of course, Master Tyler. Your hacking skill is sufficiently advanced to separate these rooms from Winston¡¯s control, access, and observation. Are you ready to resume training?]¡± Nico asked. ¡°Yes, set up the Foundry Scene.¡±, Tyler said. Nico had already prepared the virtual training environment, a construct Tyler has created with similarities to one of his favorite VR games, The Foundry. The large room shifted its material around until it was dominated by a large forge, an anvil, and an assortment of hammers and stock metal in bins. He reconfigured his clothes into a threadbare set of pants and loaded Slag into his body¡¯s driver position within his augmentations command console. He gave Slag instructions to begin working the metal bars into simple shapes. He winced a bit as Slag grabbed a set of tongs and pulled a piece of rebar up and held it into the furnace. Slag experienced the intense heat of the forge, while Tyler, removed from control of his own body, didn''t feel the pain that he knew Slag was enduring. He pulled the white-hot metal out of the forge and set it upon the anvil. He began pounding the metal with the hammer. Tyler could see his skin getting red and blistering in less than a minute from initiating the task. By forcing Slag to experience the pain and effort of working at the foundry without appropriate gear, Tyler¡¯s skills were advanced quickly. His stats grew again and again from where he had left them yesterday. It was all proceeding according to his compendium¡¯s instructions.
[Strength +1, Endurance +1, Vitality +1] [Body Skill ¨C Healing +1, Healing reaches level 9] [Body Skill ¨C Painless +1, Painless reaches level 8] [Resistance Skill ¨C Heat Resist +1, Heat Resist reaches level 9]
Tyler laughed in his head at the easy progress. Having a daemon doing all the work was one of the better training hacks. With Slag¡¯s ¡°help,¡± he was able to speed train the unbreakable, skin, and armor skills. That training session was very ethically questionable. It resembled a torture chamber more than anything else, but it paid dividends in stats and skill levels. At this rate poor old Slag might be ready for the trash heap soon. The Path of the Body would soon be complete, and he could consult his cheat book on how to leap ahead with mental skills. Bored already with Slag¡¯s never-ending grind. Tyler used his telephony skill to contact Marc. Marc had just signed up at Epic Kempo, with Tyler as his sponsor. Tyler had been ¡°friends¡± with Marc and Sasha for the last couple of months. Sasha was very good at Math and pairing up with the duo had helped him with the end-of-semester tests. For as long as they were useful, Tyler would continue to work with them. The compendium mentioned that beginning the Advanced level, some training in a real-world dungeon was a popular way to train both body and mind, but the dungeon franchises usually required teams instead of solo play. Tyler sighed, as long as he was in control of the group he didn¡¯t mind. After a short wait, Tyler¡¯s aug confirmed a connection to Marc. ¡°Marc, we should meet at Epic before class tonight to go over Kata #3.¡± Tyler said as Marc picked up the call. ¡°Sounds good, Tyler. I¡¯m glad you¡¯re helping me at Epic, I really needed new combat partners to keep my augmentation quest progressing.¡± Marc replied. ¡°All good. I wish I could have been there in class today. Thompson is such an ass. You, me, and Sasha made a good team until those freak shows messed it up.¡± Tyler said, leading the conversation where he wanted. Before long, Marc was filling Tyler in regarding all the training the class had done that day. Tyler had asked a few questions about the way Ms. Matthews had triggered the class¡¯s OverLayer skill. Once he had enough clues, he made an excuse to end the call. While Slag continued his resistance training, Tyler worked with Nico on how they could trigger his OverLayer skill from the clues Marc had provided. Tyler would need to think about how to leverage the twins into showing him their hard-won sensory and mental skills. Just knowing what the challenges were would be a huge benefit so he could keep ahead of the curve, but his cheat sheets were a little thin on mental skills. Both were very eager to learn how he did his shock touch, and he hadn¡¯t shared it yet. Maybe he would need to soon. That one was one of his first cheat tips. With as little as sticking a fork into an outlet, he had built up his shock resistance. When he had achieved level 10, it opened the shocking grip skill for him. It had proven a decisive advantage in training class and at the dojo, at least until his opponents built up their resistance. Easy XP was good XP. For as long as he had a head start, he could continue to dominate his opponents. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Maybe I can share the Torture Chamber training with them, Tyler mused. That would be hilarious seeing them go through the scenario without a daemon to take the abuse. Tyler¡¯s pair of daemons was his secret, and he would keep it that way. Two more points into Intelligence and he could acquire another daemon advisor to help him out even further. He would make sure no one had advantages over him. [Excuse me, Master Tyler, I have a surprise package for you today as well. Your father accessed the fabricator today and left the system unlocked again. I took the liberty of starting your order from the IndyNet. It should be finished compiling. Would you like it now?], Nico asked, waving towards the compiler door that was built into the wall. Tyler, despite an entire life of receiving gifts, never got tired of opening presents. He eagerly flung open the compiler door to reveal his latest purchase. With a scream of triumph, Tyler grabbed and held aloft his ultimate weapon. The Conduit Blade was crafted for his current skills. Experts would happily provide powerful devices for the right price if you knew where to shop. The Darknet provided for those with funds. The blade was locked into a bracer that he would wear. The brace itself was reinforced diamondoid and could block most weapons. The hidden blade would spring out at his command extending three feet in length. The blade was razor sharp and would channel his shocking ability, even amplifying its effects. ¡°Oh yes!¡±, Tyler exclaimed. ¡°With this device, those degenerates won¡¯t stand a chance.¡± Tyler knew from his cheat book that weapons and armaments were a bridge to the next level of augmentations beyond the mental skills. To truly grasp his locked domination skills, weapons and devices would prepare him for direct control of the world. In the short term, this blade would help him to dominate his opponents until he unlocked those skills.
Max faced the large amphora with veins of gold and with a sigh dropped it onto the fireplace riser. Much to his chagrin it didn¡¯t break. He dropped it again, and again it bounced. The golden epoxy must have strengthened it, Max thought. With a resigned sigh, he threw it full force with his augmented strength. It shattered in a rain of fragments and this time all the shards were smaller than they had been previously. Max collected all the shards and chips and brought them to a crafting stand Casa had fabricated for him. He began slowly collecting mating pieces and applying the golden paste only when certain he had the correct pieces together. After 3 hours of painstaking assembly, with Casa encouraging him but not helping, Max finally had the amphora repaired again. He was worried as he placed the amphora on the mantle waiting for the notice. Three seconds ticked by, and he opened his mouth to ask Casa to check it out for flaws when the quest update finally popped up.
[Quest Kintsugi and the Trice Broken Amphora II complete, 100 XP awarded] [Perception +2, Intelligence +2] [New Quest Unlocked: Kintsugi and the Trice Broken Amphora III: Shattered amphora, Golden veins now trace the cracks, Beauty from chaos.]
Max sighed in satisfaction. The twice-repaired vase looked even better than before. He had a premonition that the last time would be a painful chore. This one had stolen almost his whole day of training. Casa congratulated him and reconfigured the whole d¨¦cor using the amphora as a focus. With only a couple hours of daylight, he didn¡¯t think a trip to the woods for parkour training was going to work. With apologies to Casa, he retreated to his room. His quest to find Musashi was at a critical juncture. He activated his VR game using his OverLayer skill and jumped to his last save point within Shogun Samurai.
¡°Max-san, here is your tea.¡± the small Japanese proprietor said as he delivered the tray, poured the tea, and bowed. The cozy tea house had a fire blazing in the fireplace as a thunderstorm raged outside. Max was not the only traveler seeking shelter tonight as the whole tavern was filled to its capacity. ¡°Arigatai gozaimasu, oyaji-sama¡±, Max replied wryly. He still didn¡¯t know Japanese, but this is what all the other tables around him said when they got their tea. He could use English and the game would proceed without a hitch, but the game mechanics improved the NPC¡¯s favorability towards him if he occasionally used traditional Japanese. That would be useful when Max was asking the NPCs for directions or favors. Max was changing his tactics. Instead of blindly tramping through the wilds, he would travel towards the wild areas of Japan and find the hostels and taverns near the wilds. Then he would listen to the locals and travelers for rumors of the elusive Miyamoto. He had already heard one rumor that Musashi may be nearby and traveled to this village on the news. Nakaguska was a small and isolated Okinawan town surrounded by thick forests. However, it did boast a major trade route that passed through, making it a perfect area for Miyamoto to randomly spawn. It was therefore also a good location for Max to find him. Max¡¯s attention was drawn to a trio of warriors as he sipped his tea. The samurai were obvious in their dress and arrogance. They all had distinctive silk kimonos covered by wet haori or jackets. They all openly wore their katanas and wakizashi and one had a breastplate with the crest of Kiyomori, the local shogunate. Max shifted his haori to better cover his embroidered kimono. It had the sigils for Shogun Yoritomo on its shoulders. The two Shogun had been in conflict over this very territory. If these samurai noticed that Max was a samurai from Yoritomo¡¯s Kamakura shogunate, there would be trouble for certain. These men were already deep into their sake cups and by their appearance they had already been in a fight. Max had avoided all quests for the Shogun Yoritomo, not wanting to get drawn into the main questline. He focused exclusively on finding Miyamoto Musashi. Max shifted his conical bamboo hat, his plain jingasa, lower for privacy and continued to nurse his tea. He listened intently to the conversations around him. The most talk was about the imperial taxes increasing, encounters with bandits in the woods, and the failing crops; but then Max heard the name he wanted to hear.
[Perception +1]
Samurai 1: sighs heavily I cannot believe we lost to Miyamoto Musashi. I think he must really be a yokai. He didn''t even use a real sword, just a wooden bokken! Samurai 2: grimaces It was shameful. We are the Shogun Kiyomori''s samurai, yet we couldn''t defeat a single swordsman. Samurai 3: takes a sip of sake We were caught off guard by that thunderstorm. The rain and lightning made it hard to focus. Samurai 1: nods in agreement Yes, the weather was definitely a factor. But we should have been able to handle a lone swordsman, regardless of the conditions. Samurai 2: puts down his cup Miyamoto Musashi is no ordinary swordsman. He''s known throughout the land for his skill with the sword such that he now only fights with the bokken. Samurai 3: leans forward That''s true. But we can''t let this defeat bring us down. We are still loyal samurai of the Shogun, and we must regain our honor. Samurai 1: raises his cup To regaining our honor! All: raise their cups To regaining our honor! Silence fell as they drank for a few moments. Max couldn¡¯t contain himself, Miyamoto at last! And he was very nearby if he understood correctly. Max walked to the trio¡¯s table and bowed lower than strictly necessary as an offering to their station. ¡°Apologies, Gozaimasu kyaputendono. I have long been seeking Musashidono to deliver an urgent message. I could not help but overhear you talking about him. Would you honor me with which direction he may be found?¡± Max kept his eyes down and stood stooped to conceal his kimono¡¯s sigils better. The three samurai looked at each other and then the eldest of them nodded. He looked at Max and answered. ¡°This Musashidono you seek is north of here, not more than 2 ri distant. We just came from there tonight, and it is said that he recently arrived there from a journey from the far north. Be warned, he has little patience for disturbing his training. He has bested every Samurai in Japan and is very disgruntled about not finding any good competition. He is seeking local bandits but will not hesitate to challenge anyone wearing a blade. You have been warned.¡±, the elder samurai said, eyeing Max¡¯s sword. Max bowed again and thanked them before quickly walking away. He placed one silver tael on his table for the tea and exited the tavern with his heart racing. He cursed himself for taking so long to find his quarry and cursed himself twice more as a wild gust of wind blew his jingasa away. With a face full of rain, he ran along the dark forest trail to the north. The rain had soaked Max to the bone, but it was of little consequence as he finally knew where to find Miyamoto Musashi. He smiled in the rain, for the first time in months he could see the end of his mission. He quickly made his way to the north, not caring if he stumbled over rocks or tree roots in his haste, as he was certain that he would succeed. In the dark of night, he caught a glimmer of light in the woods. A fire on such a night! And this distance was about right. Max left the trail and plunged into the woods, thankfully the broad trees shielded him from the driving rain. He made his way to the light and found, as he expected, a roaring fire abutting a crude leaning shelter made from sticks and branches. Too small for bandits, but just right for a lone traveler. Max was about to step into the camp and announce himself when he felt a blade on the back of his neck. He was about to speak but was stopped by a voice in the darkness. ¡°Trespassers will not be tolerated here. State your business and why you are here now. I''m not in the mood for toying with fools and I''ll not spare the blade if I do not like the answer.¡± Max thought for a beat, he knew he needed to win Musashi¡¯s respect to gain his daemon. He doubted he could win in combat against him. The game offered two methods to play, progressing a character with game mechanic skills or using his current capabilities. Max knew he didn''t have the time to play the full game to the extent to be able to challenge Musashi, so he elected to use his own skills. Perhaps the worst of both worlds since his augmentations were still only novice level. Max decided to be honest with the legendary samurai. ¡°Sensei, I have come to learn from you, the best swordsman in Japan and the world.¡± Max threw himself into a full kowtow as he had seen done by other NPCs in the game. ¡°I am not your Sensei, get up.¡± Musashi spat. ¡°You are no peasant. You wear the robes of a samurai. Have you no spine?¡± ¡°Sensei, although I use the swords of the samurai, I have no training from a master. I can fight but I don¡¯t know the way of the sword. That is why I have searched for you.¡±, Max remembered the phrase Sensei Kostecki used. ¡°I am an empty cup, Sensei-don¨®.¡± ¡°You are a cracked cup¡±, Musashi retorted. ¡°Draw your blade! Now or go away!¡± This isn¡¯t going very well, Max thought, but I can¡¯t give up. Nervously, Max drew his katana. He was wet, and he was tired, but he was determined. He extended the blade and settled into a deep stance, ready to move. Musashi observed his form with a scornful look. He had a weathered and rugged face with his long black hair tied back and a hand-length of wild beard. His clothes were rough and showed many repairs. Lightning flashed and, in that heartbeat, Musashi¡¯s bokken struck the katana from Max¡¯s grasp. He hadn¡¯t even seen the strike. Max realized that the bokken blade rested on his left shoulder. Musashi had reversed the strike into a neck cut but stopped it short. Musashi stepped back, pulling his wooden blade down. ¡°Pick it up," he suggested. Max picked up the weapon and was shortly disarmed again. Determined, he grabbed it again and was disarmed again. No matter what Max did, Musashi always struck impossibly fast. Stubbornly he continued to try to face the Swords-master, quickly growing tired. With determination, Max picked up the sword and set himself in position. Fire in his eyes, he activated his Fast Cog skill. The lightning crashed again, and Max¡¯s eyes narrowed but didn¡¯t close. This time, in slow motion, he saw Musashi¡¯s blade strike. Impossibly fast it was, even with his time sense slowing it. Max activated his speed skill to turn. He managed to catch the bokken¡¯s blow against his blade. Max continued his motion, spinning his trailing leg and driving it into a back kick using his Strike skill. Max knew he was in trouble when his kick didn¡¯t connect. Even with fast cog and speed skills, he had lost sight of Musashi. Max finished the turn and saw that Musashi had ducked his kick with a low spin and then Max¡¯s world spun as Musashi¡¯s bokken swept his standing leg out from under him. With his fast cog and speed skill timed out, Max used his gymnast skill to kick into a standing position. He faced Musashi with his claws ready. The man had already slid backward and had crossed his arms. ¡°You truly have never wielded a blade.¡± Musashi snorted. ¡°I¡¯ve seen better control from toddlers learning to hold their hashi for the first time.¡± Musashi set down his bokken against a tree and invited Max to sit by the fire. ¡°However, you do have something of a fighting spirit in you. Your last block and counter strike came very close. Quite surprising for one so clearly without a scrap of training.¡± Max sheathed his blade and knelt by the fire just under the leaning shelter. ¡°Get some sleep. It is unforgivable to drop a blade. Tomorrow, you will learn to hold it properly or die trying.¡± Musashi grumpily declared, and without further conversation, turned his back on Max and lay down to sleep. Max saved the game and, as he logged off, his notifications triggered.
[Musing on Musashi complete, 100 XP awarded] [New Quest Unlocked: Way of the Sword ¨C Learn the basics of kendo] [Mental Skill - Fast Cog +1, Fast Cog reaches level 2] [Body Skill ¨C Speed +0, body skill advancement invalid in VR] [Body Skill ¨C Strike +0, body skill advancement invalid in VR] [Mental Skill ¨C OverLayer +1, OverLayer reached level 2] [Max Level +1, Max advanced to Novice 5, +10 free stats]
22 - Miss Montoyas Math Class Julia Montoya was enjoying her 2nd career at Utopia Elementary as a math teacher for the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades. She was born into an upper-middle-class family in the busy metropolitan New York City in 2080 and grew with every advantage of the world¡¯s advanced technologies without seeing the strife from the Ought Fifties. Her favorite daemons growing up were a historically accurate Archimedes, a created mythical figure of Athena, and an accurate representation of Sir Isaac Newton. They had helped her learn about the beauty and application of math. Julia frequently enabled an augmented overlay on her vision to project mathematical relationships and notes about the world around her constantly. Julia avoided aggressive uses of her physical augmentations preferring to operate and engage with mental skills and she quickly advanced to a Ph.D. equivalent education in number theory and encryption and applied quantum theory. Despite her skill in understanding advanced math and applying it in connection with leading researchers, she quickly burned out. The pace of advancement fueled by augmented geniuses with adaptive AI was enough to give even a prodigious talent whiplash. She had needed a breather from the continuous drive of trying to compete. Instead of diving into virtual worlds and living off the basic income stipend like so many disillusioned people who felt lost in the new world, she instead sought out another way to contribute. The town of Utopia was her refuge and passion. Here she was able to relax and reconnect with her love of math without being driven by the forces of academia and commerce. Miss Julia used her knowledge of math, and her capable daemons, to share her passion and the beauty of math with the next generation. In her class, she taught basic math, geometry, algebra, and more advanced topics including recursion, calculus, and especially cryptography. With the common adage that math was not required in modern life, she strove to show that math was both beautiful and impactful for anyone, and she made sure her students knew this as well. While the kids did not have their augmentations active yet, the school room and their homes were well equipped with hologram projectors and AI assistants. Many of the students boasted houses of smart matter and matter compilers, although some extravagances were frowned upon by many of the more conservative technophobes on the reservation. With these tools, Julia and her daemons excelled at teaching her kids more and more advanced subjects. The real value Julia tried to attain was to show them the wonder of the world around them as seen through a mathematical viewpoint. She delighted in breaking from rote learning to have physical labs to show the uses of math that would appeal to the kids¡¯ age groups. Today was such a day, her daemon Archimedes¡¯ avatar projection was the center of attention. The AI was a really good storyteller with a jovial manner and his use of the hologram projector to show his work had the kid¡¯s rapt attention. Archimedes: Good morning children! Today we are going to talk about a very special number called "pi". Tommy: What is pi, sir? Archimedes: Pi is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. Do you understand what "circumference" and "diameter" mean? Viviane: The circumference is the distance around the circle, and the diameter is the distance across the circle through its center, right? Archimedes: Exactly! Well done, Viviane. Lebron: But how did you find the value of pi, sir? Archimedes: Ah, that is a good question, Lebron. I used a technique called approximation. I drew a polygon with many sides inside a circle, and as I increased the number of sides, the polygon became more and more similar to the circle. Then, I measured the circumference and diameter of both the polygon and the circle and used these measurements to get closer to the value of pi. Tommy: That''s cool, sir! How did you know that you were getting closer to the right answer? Archimedes: I kept repeating the process over and over again, and each time I got closer and closer to the right answer. And with each iteration, I was able to refine my estimate of the value of pi. Viviane: So, what is the value of pi, sir? Archimedes: Well, back in my time, I calculated a crude value for pi. But today, we know that pi is approximately equal to 3.14159. We still don¡¯t know the full value of pi because as the increments get smaller, the value doesn¡¯t resolve into a number but continues to get smaller and smaller remainders. Even the smartest AIs could keep calculating smaller and smaller, I suspect until the end of time. Before the kids could grow too restless, she brought out the next activity, nanofactured balls of low-density diamondoid. The materials had some perfectly spherical as could be attained, and some that were close but subtly ovoid. All the balls were almost as light as air. The kids of course immediately began to juggle and toss them, and their lack of heft and air resistance prevented them from being harmful despite the attempts of the more unruly kids. With the balls, she passed out laser scanners for the kids to use to find the true spheres. Soon the kids were like a beehive of activity to find and capture the most spherical balls. The scanners would automatically measure the radius and perimeter of the balls and project the reading up against the true value of pi to ten decimals on the board. The exercise usually showed 10 perfect matches and 10 skewed eggs. This was easily discernible with the precise spheres and scanners. This year the results were unexpected. Today, not one of the balls matched pi, although they came close to within 7 digits. Julie pushed past the unexpected outcome and rewarded the kids with finding the closest matches and explaining the difficulty of both making and measuring the balls with accuracy. As she dismissed the kids for the day, she packed up all the scanners and balls. She would understand why her lab failed to achieve its intended results this year. The kids didn¡¯t realize that the lab went off the rails, but this outcome had never happened before, and she would find out why. She could run the test again at home. Maybe the files in the Makerspace index were corrupted, she thought, I can print more scanners and balls from another site of public designs in my matter printer at home.
Max woke from a sound sleep and quickly rolled out of his now favorite cloud bed. The last few days were a blur of intense parkour training in the woods and chasing after Flip the squirrel, in the mornings. The afternoons had mostly been attending sessions at Wuxia with Charlie or going to the Academy to practice with both Charlie and Leah against Tatemono¡¯s combat dummies. Max checked his status.
[Name: Max E. Mitchell Level: Novice 6 (2850/3000 XP)] [Body Design Model: Custom ¨C Canis Familiarus Uplift Free Stats: 70] [Strength: 14 Agility: 20 Endurance: 16 Vitality: 18] [Perception: 19 Intelligence: 11 Will: 7 Energy: 52 Regen: 25/min [Body Skills - Stamina: 8 Leaping: 7 Healing: 8 Strike: 6 Unbreakable:3] [Body Skills ¨C Speed: 6 Gymnast: 6 Balance: 5 Claws: 2 Ballistics: 3] [Resist Skills ¨C Poison: 1 Shock: 4 Sonic: 4 Light: 4 EMP:1] [Sense Skills ¨C Scent: 9 DigiSense: 4 ExaVision: 1 EM Fields: 1] [Mind Skills ¨C AI Assist: 7 Access: 5 Identify: 3 OverLayer: 2] [Mind Skills - Fast Cog: 3 Dream Learning: 4]
Max scolded himself. He was still hoarding his free stats against a future emergency. He could be boosting all his stats and using those points to win sparring matches at the Wuxia studios, but now he hesitated to use them. With a sigh, Max put off assigning the points again and triggered the quest screen.
[Completed Quests:] [Novice Obstacle Course, Novice Obstacle Course improved] [Born to Run I, II, II ; Scavenger Hunt I, II; Meditation I, II, III] [Ready to Rumble I, II ; Novice Kombat ; Dark Dervish Dungeon] [Purr-fect Reunion ; Sands of the Hourglass ; Musing on Musashi ; Kintsugi I, II] [Open Quests] [Ready to Rumble III 0/20, Meditation IV, Grudge Match, Kintsugi III, Way of the Sword]
The Rumble quest was going well, and Wuxia had provided plenty of new sparring partners. Max had heard that a county-wide martial arts tournament was happening soon. Both he and Charlie had already signed up. They would both be participating in unarmed sparring and custom weapons sparring. Charlie was already well versed in using a sword and was learning the bo staff as well. Max had started learning the basics at Wuxia but has a long way to go. He hoped to find Musashi soon. He was recorded to be the best swordsman there ever was and would be a great training resource. Even Leah was going as an independent. Meditation was a struggle. Max meditated every night, but he couldn¡¯t seem to advance it. Maybe he could do the Dream Learning skill to find out what he was missing. The Grudge Match quest was likely going to be forever incomplete. He hadn¡¯t seen any sign of Tyler since he was kicked out of the Aug academy. Perhaps he could tail Marc, he knew that Tyler and Marc still hung out occasionally. Kintsugi III or Way of the Sword? Max thought, with a laugh he continued, no contest, I need Musashi as soon as possible to help my training. Kintsugi III is scary. I wonder if I should just decline it. Max hesitated to give up on any quests. By his recollection, about 1 in 4 quests generated a new skill and he felt like the Kintsugi quest set was ready to pay off. Today is sword practice, he thought, If I get the Musashi daemon, then I¡¯ll buckle down and get Kintsugi done. Sitting next to his bed, Max triggered his OverLayer skill and resumed Samurai Shogun. Musashi was waiting for him. As he opened his eyes in the campsite deep in the forests of Okinawa, Musashi was standing above him with a bokken in hand. ¡°Get up, lazy broken empty cup! Every bandit in Okinawa could march through the forest and you would sleep through it. Up!¡± When Max was slow to move, Musashi quickly sped him up with forceful pokes and swings of his bokken. When Max finally assembled himself sufficiently for Musashi, he presented him with two buckets. ¡°Go! Fetch water. There is a stream 1 ri south. Fill the buckets and bring it back. I need tea before I will suffer your horrible form. Quickly! Go!¡± Musashi yelled. Max grabbed the buckets and ran. Max found the stream, although it was at least 2 ri south, and returned as quick as he could without spilling the full buckets. He tried to find a stick to use to brace the buckets over his shoulder, but strangely the forest was barren of fallen branches. Max returned and unfortunately for him the superior OverLayer skill ensured he felt every bit of muscle strain. His arms ached as he arrived back at the camp to Musashi meditating. ¡°Good. Good. Fetch more wood while I warm the tea.¡± Musashi ordered pointing towards the north. Max jogged around the camp, gathering up fallen branches. When he was loaded up with a large stack of wood, he returned to see Musashi sipping a hot cup of tea. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°Good. Now, come to the clearing and draw your sword. Try to pretend it is a piece of your soul instead of a stick that you wave about.¡± Musashi directed. Max laid down the bundle of firewood and followed Musashi to the open area in the center of the camp. Musashi gave Max a bokken similar to his own and began to teach Max the proper way to grip the sword. It was more complex than he had thought. He was taught to grip tightly with his smaller fingers and looser towards his index finger for his dominant hand on a single grip. A double-handed grip was even more intricate. Musashi worked him all day without a break until Max could hold the weapon in multiple stances. Musashi showed him blocks for many different strikes, calling out strikes and blocks. The daylight waned but Musashi showed no sign of finishing. Sensing Musashi¡¯s regard, Max steeled himself and kept going. The OverLayer made sure he felt every bit of physical discomfort and pain from the exertions and any missed blocks. Max ground his teeth; in the real world, the pain would have translated into stats. Unfortunately, here in VR it only amounted to a test of his willpower. The sun had gone down and Musashi¡¯s form was barely visible in the twilight. ¡°Now, we will see what you have learned,¡± Musashi said while he handed Max his katana and pulled his own razor-sharp weapon from his tent. ¡°Defend yourself!¡±, Musashi warned and exploded into action. Max was able to block most of Musashi¡¯s strikes but quickly found himself backpedaling. Musashi¡¯s attacks moved swiftly and fiercely, the clash of swords echoed through the clearing and into the night. Max was soon covered in nicks and cuts for every missed block. He knew it was only Musashi¡¯s control that prevented a disabling or fatal cut. ¡°Stop!¡± Musashi yelled. ¡°What are you thinking, Broken Cup?¡± ¡°I¡­I am trying to block as you instructed, Sensei¡±, Max stammered. ¡°Yes! You should block, but you must stop thinking! Let your body do what it has been trained to do! You are thinking and your body hesitates. You need to leave your thoughts in the void and let your soul guide you. Again!¡± Musashi exploded again in furious strikes. The moves were trained into Max''s muscles, and he adjusted on the fly without thinking. He blocked and parried with greater ease, even setting up a few counterstrikes. ¡°Yes, much better. You are learning, Broken Cup. For now, we are done. I am sure you are tired, and we will resume our training tomorrow.¡± Max bowed. He was exhausted and his joints ached, but now he knew he had learned something important today. He crawled to his resting spot from last night, closed his eyes, and saved the game. When he opened his eyes in his bedroom Max¡¯s notifications triggered and he grinned ear to ear.
[Quest ¨C Way of the Sword ¨C Complete, 100 XP awarded] [New Mind Skill Unlocked: Daemon 1: augmentation neuronal modules enable additional expert system daemon support personalities, limited to 1 per skill level or 1 per 10 intelligence stat points, whichever is lesser.] [Shogun Samurai Bonus - You have earned the respect of Miyamoto Musashi. Use rights of the Miyamoto Musashi daemon are granted.] [Strength +0, Agility +0, Endurance +0, Vitality +0, Will +3] [Mind Skill OverLayer +1, OverLayer reaches level 3]
Julia waited in the Autopod across the street from the Mitchell property. A week ago, she had taken the diamond spheres and scanners home to check and see if she could determine the problem. She was completely surprised as the 10 near-perfect spheres were now all scanning correctly with pi within 10 digits and all the ovoid balls were clean misses with pi being off beginning at the 3rd digit. Frustrated with the discrepancy retreating from her, she brought the supplies back to the school. Before putting them away into the supply closet, she checked again. The ball she knew was an accurate sphere was off again to the seventh digit! She checked all the balls and scanners, replaying the pairings and readings from the kid¡¯s lab using her perfect augmented memory. All the reading perfectly matched the kid¡¯s lab results, perfectly wrong again to the seventh digit. Julia was not known to give up easily. She kept worrying about the discrepancy, until an idea formed, lacking any other obvious rationale, that location had played a role in the error. Julia, with the help of Athena and Isaac, designed and modified a flying drone to spiral out from the school while carrying and continuously using a scanner paired with a diamond sphere. In her sensorium, a map began to grow. The pi error phenomenon seemed to be restricted to a curved line. The curved line soon resolved into a large circle, approximately 10 miles in diameter. The center of that circle was the house across the street, from where she was now parked. C''mon, girl! Just go in and confront the people that are twisting the laws of reality. No big deal, Julia thought to herself. Julia was no dummy, she grew up with advanced tech and knew that entering a stranger¡¯s property would put her at the property owner¡¯s mercy. All the smart matter and foglets there would be under the owner¡¯s control, putting her at risk. Julia had to know what was going on, but she wouldn¡¯t go in without some insurance. ¡°Stay here, I¡¯ll be right back,¡± she told the Autopod and ran out and dropped a box of old magazines that she had brought with her across the street. Running back to the Autopod, she called the police using her augments. [Utopia police services, how can we assist you?] ¡°I¡¯d like to report a suspicious package. I¡¯m afraid to touch it, could you send someone? Can you see my location?¡± With the barest of delay, the response came back crisply, [Of course, Miss Julia Montoya, we see you are currently in Autopod 23-435 at 8070 Forest Street, Utopia. We will send Police Drone WTF-M8 immediately to your location to investigate. ETA is 45 seconds, please stay on the line until help arrives¡­.] Precisely 45.2 seconds later a police drone dropped from the sky, slowing down a ballistic trajectory from the center of Utopia. It was a sleek black and white single wing design without any sign of primitive propellers or jets. Air was driven through its porous body material with intense energy which enabled it to fly both silently and with incredible speed. [Miss Montoya, my apologies for my tardiness. Please stand back. You have performed your citizen¡¯s responsibilities admirably. See something, say something as the ordinance states. I will now investigate the reported suspect package.] The drone floated over to the box upon whispers of air. Four arms deployed and a haze of nano-motes swarmed over it. Three of the arms could have been weapons or sensors, Julia was not sure. Circling the package twice the drone finally dropped in and flipped open the lid of the box.
FML-M8 had done a full scan of the box within 0.23 nanoseconds of its arrival. It was clear that the box contained old magazines and was not a threat. However, upon closer inspection with FML-M8¡¯s superior scanners, it was also obvious that the citizen caller¡¯s DNA was all over the box. The human¡¯s name was even printed on mailing labels for several of the magazines within the box. In the next 0.12 fraction of a second, he sampled the sky-sat overhead and also pulsed a request to the auto pod for its AV records. Both confirmed that the citizen caller, Julia Montoya, had placed the suspect box on the street not more than 2 minutes ago and then proceeded to call the police. FML-M8 scanned the woman, the nearby house, and the trees. The house was Casa de Mitchell again! If the drone had eyes, they would have narrowed in suspicion. There were also several unlicensed scanners deployed in the trees watching the property. With a resolute attention to detail, FML-M8 ran a more aggressive scan for the next 0.32 seconds drilling into the box¡¯s contents, material, and molecular structure. Not a scrap of smart matter to be found. FML-M8 considered his case. He ran through every conceivable scenario for this evidence and what crimes could be levied versus the town¡¯s ordinances. Littering, loitering, road hazard, falsifying a report, unauthorized surveillance, collusion with a known person of interest, interrupting scheduled Columbo time, and possession of diamondoid balls that clearly were not perfect spheres. His jurisprudence calculator ran the numbers. Not worth the effort was the conclusion.
The drone beeped and said [All clear, Ma¡¯am. The suspect package appears to be litter. This unit will take the box and its contents away for investigation and potential disposal. Thank you for your vigilance. Do you require any additional assistance?] ¡°No, that¡¯s alright. I¡¯ll just be going into this property right here to visit the property owners to discuss some important matters. Thank you for your assistance and have a nice day!¡± Julia said and walked with some confidence onto the property. The drone continued to hover until she was out of earshot down the driveway. [Humans can be so weird. Am I right?] the drone vocalized in subsonic tones to the Autopod. [¡­¡­. Affirmative¡­¡­.], said the Autopod without feeling, and it trundled away. Police drone WTF-M8 looked down the driveway for a long time ( 0.76 seconds) with a considering gaze, then he did a slow 360-degree rotation, picked up the package, and shot into the sky.
Julia walked down the drive to the Mitchell house, the center of the distortion anomaly that ruined her classroom lab. She passed the gardens and approached the house itself, styled in a modern colonial look with some interesting divergences. Her mathematical overlay was triggering constantly noting the spacing and arrangements of the garden and exterior features of the house. Whoever designed this had an eye for ratios and balance, she thought. Julia sensed with her peripheral vision that several of the garden ¡°flowers¡± were tracking her motion and there was some strange activity on the far side of the garden that looked like maybe insects, but the motion was too organized. As she arrived at the front door, she took a deep breath and rang the doorbell. The door swung open and Julia saw the projected avatar of a young woman with short raven hair in a 19th century dress materialized in the doorway. The projection greeted her with a curious expression. ¡°Hello, my name is Julia Montoya. And I¡¯m terribly sorry to intrude but I had some questions I hope you can help me with.¡± Casa¡¯s avatar nodded and said ¡°Please come in, Miss Montoya. My name is Casa, and I am the house AI. It¡¯s a pleasure to meet a neighbor. I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll be able to help you.¡± Julia stepped in, looking around as she did. She noticed in her overlay a spectacular display of math principles in the organization and setup of the house. The living room¡¯s beautiful d¨¦cor was stunning to her, with hidden meaning and layers of representational math. ¡°Oh my!¡±, Julia exclaimed, ¡°your decorator is a genius! So many great features and it¡¯s balanced in such interesting ways. So mathematical.¡± Before Casa could respond, Max bounded down the stairway in the entry foyer having just finished a shower after an intense training session in the park with his friend Charlie. He had been training hard for weeks to open his augmentations and was close to breaking through the Novice stage. ¡°Oh, Hello! Sorry to intrude. I¡¯m Max Mitchell, I live here. Did you say the room was mathematical?¡±, Max said, wondering to himself if his Kintsugi creation was special in some way. Julia nodded while assessing Max¡¯s appearance. The mane of curly white hair, projecting nose and jaws, prominent incisors, and claws? He looked like an older teenager, maybe rebelling with cosmetic adaptations in a very conservative town. But all interest in math should be encouraged. ¡°Yes, indeed. It might be easier to show you. If I might ask a favor of Casa, is it? ¡­could I share my favorite reality overlay with the house?¡± Julia asked. Casa curtsied with a smile and Julia felt a linkage connect in her mind. ¡°Over here the walls, windows, and furnishings are all arranged in perfect symmetry¡± she said waving her hand to paint the room with a projection outlining the mathematical relationships in the spacing pattern. ¡°That painting on the wall perfectly illustrates the golden ratio,¡± Julia said. Again, with a wave, she projected the nautilus-like tracings over the painting to show the mathematical divisions. ¡°A marvelous piece, it sweeps the attention around the perimeter and into the main focus of the art.¡± With another wave, she continued, ¡°This wallpaper is a subtle fractal pattern, a specific pattern called a Mandelbrot set. The colors are so close in shade that the pattern is almost hidden, almost subliminal.¡± ¡°The only object that defies my pattern match algorithm would be that very lovely pot. But even that could be used as an example of true randomness.¡± Max smiled at the errant compliment and then beamed as his aug pinged him.
[ New mental skill unlocked: Pattern 1, detect subtle patterns that reveal deeper meaning.] [intelligence +1]
Julia ran out of steam and Casa took the opportunity to fill the silence. Casa smiled, ¡°Thank you for the compliments. I arranged the house¡¯s design and have worked hard to ensure it appeals to the residents of the house. I¡¯m sorry to say the owner is away on business today, but maybe I or Max can help you?¡± Julia told Casa and Max about the strange discrepancies she had found during her math lab and her measurements, and more importantly that the phenomenon that seemed to be centered at the Mitchell home. Casa was stunned, evidence of function for the tesseract at last! she thought. She realized immediately that she needed more details regarding both Miss Montoya and her test. ¡°Miss Montoya, may I see the details of your test? The owner, Professor Bill Mitchell, is working on some proprietary technology that I cannot divulge without his approval. He may require an agreement if you want to know more, but your test may be helpful and I¡¯m sure if it is, he would want to compensate you for your work.¡± Casa replied. When Julia agreed to share the details and signed a non-disclosure agreement, Casa invited her in and summoned some tea and cookies while they all sat to discuss her test. While they talked, Casa split her mind and pursued multiple pathways. One of her aspects investigated Miss Montoya and her background. Another reconfigured Julia¡¯s jury-rigged drone design and sensor arrangement into a streamlined configuration for a planned fleet of reconnaissance drones with a built-in pi detector. A third wrote a test protocol to tweak the tesseract settings and monitor the effects for when the recon drone fleet would be ready. Despite being unable to initiate a connection with the Tesseract without Max¡¯s help, she was able to maintain her current one and she had no intentions of letting that slip. She set up a fourth aspect to discreetly investigate the data network news to see if any other effects were evident or if anyone else may have detected changes. Casa was aware, in the not-too-distant past before he left the planet, that attempts had been made to both recruit and blackmail Bill for his services. Several large design firms wanted to get him working for them. Casa had logged at least two different observers while Bill and his family were here in Utopia. Casa suspected that they may have been investigating Max, as one of the first dog uplifts to be approved outside of government labs. However, she hadn¡¯t sighted them since Bill had left. She hoped that they had given up. Casa had observed the police drone interaction that Julia had initiated across the street. She routinely monitored the line of sight beyond the property, both on the ground and in the sky. She approved of the clever deception Julia had used to ensure her visit was on the record, for her safety. Unfortunately, that meant any competitors or business suitors may also pick up on the activity or potentially notice the police log records. Such unwanted attention, while Bill was away, was best avoided. Casa was aware that she had to keep vigilant, especially now that she may have a wedge to open the secrets of the tesseract. She knew that she should contact Bill immediately, but she really really really wanted to be able to show Bill her worth by solving the tesseract first for him. A slight delay, she thought, just enough time to run her tests, then she would reach out and contact Bill with the good news. 23 - The Goose Chase Bill was getting irritated as the raptor circled yet another small Alaskan town. Stahlman had proven to be very elusive and hard to find. Two weeks of hunting had slowed Bill down to a crawl as he painstakingly uncovered Stahlman¡¯s frequent moves from each of his last known residences. The man was very skittish, moving often and keeping a low profile. Fortunately for Bill, his attempts at hiding his trail were no match for Bill¡¯s daemons. If Sherlock couldn¡¯t deduce his next path, Ada was able to find clues in the wireless records. Once even Moneta had discovered a local check casher with details on Mr. Stallman via a forwarding address. Today, Bill had hopes that he had finally caught up to the missing researcher. ¡°Well, if this is the right place, we will find him. Moneta, please arrange to top up the fuel of the raptor. Also, get us an autopod. Ada, please secure the local network, and what little there is of it. Sherlock, George, and Miyamoto; let¡¯s make this as gentle a start as we can. Judging from his movements, our Mr. Stahlman is extremely skittish.¡± Bill landed the raptor at the local airfield and debarked as Moneta engaged with the local air tower AI. Still mindful of staying off the grid himself, Bill donned the guise of a portly fisherman that he had talked to briefly, weeks ago in Anchorage. Bill and his team soon found a few locals willing to talk to them at a local diner. Eventually, they had an address to a seedy cottage shopfront that was owned and run by the elusive Mr. Stahlman. The researcher was running a small matter compiler service, providing the capability and service of pulling Makerspace files and fabrication of the smart matter devices for the town. Bill opened the door to the shop and saw a disheveled man slumped behind a counter, appearing to be communing with his augs. He was barely awake, unkempt, and appeared to be suffering from a hangover. Bingo! Bill thought, looking a little older and more worn, but definitely Richard Stahlman without a doubt. Did he stop his anti-aging treatments? ¡°Hol¡¯ on. Hol¡¯ on. Ok. Ok. Whadaya want?¡±, Richard said with unfocused and gummy eyes. Bill blinked back tears as the strong smell of alcohol on the man mixed with too many days without a shower. ¡°Um, Mr. Stahlman, I have been looking for you for a terribly long while and hoped to ask you some questions?¡±, Bill asked, trying on a British accent. Sherlock jeered his farcical attempt in the back of his head. ¡°My name is Glen Pikeman, and I am investigating the MIT research you were involved with some years back.¡± Stahlman¡¯s face froze in fear, he said, ¡°Please, no. I¡¯ve been through enough. I don¡¯t know what you want to talk about, but I don¡¯t want any part of it.¡± Bill let Sherlock take the lead. Holmes took control of Bill¡¯s body and stepped forward, ¡°Please sir, we just want to know what went wrong. We have begun research at the Imperial College along a similar path and need to understand what happened. Our insurance underwriter is bleeding us dry and won¡¯t review our policy. They insist that the tests are dangerous, but I think perhaps we just need to begin our testing to put their fears to rest. ¡± Bill appreciated Sherlock''s approach, trying to appeal to Mr. Stahlman''s sense of duty to prevent another disaster. ¡°I¡¯d like to spend more time to satisfy them, but unless I can bring credible evidence of safety, I may be required to show them.¡± Stahlman¡¯s eye regained some focus and his face contorted in anger, ¡°Then yur a damn fool! Yur all gonna die. Everyone¡¯s gonna die. There ain''t nuthin to learn from MIT except that you don¡¯t fuck around with dimensional physics. We fucked around and we found out the hard way. Go home! There ain''t nuthin¡¯ here for ya. Don¡¯t dig any deeper or you¡¯ll ruin everthin¡¯ same as those poor bastards learned.¡± His anger roused, Richard spit at Bill''s feet and pushed him back out of the front door. With an angry snarl, Stahlman slammed the door in Bill¡¯s face and threw the locking bolt home. He turned the ¡°Open¡± sign over to read ¡°Closed¡± and the shades were swiftly yanked down. Judging by the crashing inside, Stahlman was still quite angry and was taking it out on the furniture and walls. Bill ground his teeth as his daemons argued in his head. He was so close to learning the truth, only to be rebuked. It had been a long time since he had dealt with such open hostility. He slowly turned around and made his way back to the autopod. Bill directed the AI driver to search for a suitable motel for the night. Bill was sure that Stahlman must have a deeper insight into what had happened in Boston. He would have been remotely attending as the team¡¯s chief experimentalist. Bill was determined to find out what he knew from that day. Sherlock assured him that a midnight reconnaissance might gain them what they needed without direct conflict. While Bill disliked the approach, Stahlman didn¡¯t seem open to reason. Tonight then, he would get his answers.
Max was ready. The living room was reconfigured back into its mathematical memento style that their guest Miss Montoya had enjoyed so much. It was growing on Max as well as his math and pattern skills kept engaging with the decor. ¡°Casa, I think it''s time for the final kintsugi challenge. No class today and both Leah and Charlie are busy. The last one took hours and I''m sure this one will be no different.¡± Max said. ¡°Are you sure you want to, Max? The amphora looks so gorgeous now,¡± asked Casa. ¡°I know, Casa. I hate to do it, but I feel like this one might provide something more of a challenge. The rewards are always bigger to match the difficulty, and this will be rough.¡± Max declared. ¡°Can you walk me through accessing the smart matter so I can set up the repair table? I can''t depend on you forever. I need to use my skills and learn.¡± Casa agreed readily. She showed him how to access the house data net connections and to go to the many Maker indexes where public designs were stored. She warned him about going to dark sites for designs. Malware designs coming out of the matter computer could literally explode in his face. All designs on public sites are vetted for authenticity and safety. Then she showed him how to access and assign the correct quantities of smart matter to the design. Sometimes advanced designs might require dedicated processors, batteries, or rare materials for strength, intelligence, or power. The table had no special requirements, so it was extremely easy to set up and fabricate. Per tradition, Max hefted the large urn and hurled it at the base of the fireplace with all his augmented strength. The pot bounced across the room and settled into the corner without a chip in it. ¡°Ok, I guess I need a different approach,¡± Max said with slight irritation. He pulled a long poker from the stand beside the fireplace and swung it at the pot. The poker rebounded flying from his grip. Miyamoto tisked his actions, as he had been running in the background of Max¡¯s augmentations and had observed the earlier strike. ¡°Come, Max. I have shown you how to strike. Set yourself. Grip your improvised blade as I have taught you. Set your intentions, fire may not make an impression upon the pot so perhaps the solid presence of the earth and the mountains might be more appropriate. You need to push your spirit into the strike. A Kia shout will help to focus your power.¡± Max set his stance and his grip. He had been shown how to do a proper Kia at the Wuxia dojo and had overcome his initial embarrassment at shouting at someone or something while attacking. Gathering his power and will, he struck with his strike skill and a loud Kia. Max was astonished at the smooth speed and power of the strike and with the result. The pot detonated into a cloud of exploding chips.
[ New Body Skill unlocked: Stun 1 ¨C utilize augmentations to amplify and focus a shout into a disabling resonant blast.]
Seeing the multitude of micro shards distributed across the large room, Max sighed. ¡°I think I now have some regrets. Unfortunately, it''s too late. The only way to go now is forward!¡± Max painstakingly gathered all the chips and slowly built up the pot again with the gold paste glue. The detailed work required him to match the subtle variations of the pot''s surface colors both inside and out to ensure the chips slotted into the right spot. Max worked all through the day and deep into the night. ¡°Would you like some coffee, Max?¡± she asked,¡± Bill swears by it.¡± ¡°You know what? Yes. I would love some coffee. Can you load it up with cream and sugar, though? Black coffee tastes like a moldy sneaker, and I should know.¡± Max joked. After hours more work, and multiple stat boosts from the hard work, he was almost done. Max was tired and wired from drinking too much coffee.
[Intelligence +3, Perception +2, Will +4] [Mental skill: Pattern +3, Pattern reaches level 4]
Max growled with frustration. With only two small chips remaining to be placed, Max tore at his fur. The chips were nowhere to be found. He was on his knees scouring the ground looking for the errant shards and tired as hell. Unfortunately, there was no sign of them. He had started to ask Casa, and his trainer AI immediately warned him that outside assistance would void the quest. Growling low again, he sat down on the floor holding his head in his hands. Think, Max! he subvocalized to himself. He slowed his breathing, trying to calm his frustration as he could feel the caffeine driving a headache. He tried to visualize the pot, he was now intimately familiar with every defect and shard. His head pounded as he tried to remember the explosion, and then finally it happened. Like a damn giving way, his memory replayed in his mind. The vision of the pot, right before he struck it, formed with photographic clarity in his mind. His overlay and pattern skills joined and merged with his thoughts showing him the newly repaired amphora¡¯s pattern overlapping the unbroken one. As his memory replayed the explosive strike, his fast cog skill auto triggered and slowed down the cloud of debris as it expanded from his strike. His ballistics skill and pattern skill worked together to track each shard and chip from its origin, tracing their trajectories in his mind. The two missing pieces lit up in his mental view showing him where they went. With Max¡¯s expanded understanding it soon became obvious. The first piece had landed in the candle holder on the mantel, hidden from his view. The other had gone almost straight up. With a grimace, he went to the mirror and plucked the final piece from the top of his head. Max placed the last pieces as his system notices came.
[New mental skill unlocked: Memory 1- augmentation assisted memory enables improved and active recollection. Never lose your keys again.] [New body skill unlocked: Gland 1 - artificial organoids produce chemicals, proteins, and hormones on command. Caffeine unlocked. Progress the skill for more.] [Mental Skill: Pattern +1, Pattern reaches level 5] [Mental Skill: Fast Cog +1, Fast Cog reaches level 4] [Mental Skill: OverLayer +1, OverLayer reaches level 4] This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. [Body Skill: Ballistic +1, Ballistic reaches level 4] [Quest Kintsugi III completed, 100 XP awarded]
A stealthy phantom crept unseen down the alley approaching the ¡°Bethel Digi-Mart and Trade Goods¡± under the dark and cloudy northern night sky. The streets were deserted with a chill in the air. Bill¡¯s daemon Miyamoto guided his feet for perfect silence. During the day Ada had hacked all the local surveillance. She set them into a looped recording of the previous minutes. Bill''s form was shrouded in a cloud of motes and nanites that absorbed the light and helped him to feel the surroundings. Should any sensors have actually been able to pierce his veil and discern his appearance, he had molded his body to resemble Stahlman. Stahlman had not left the business according to Ada and Sherlock''s review of the street cameras, and the group expected he lived on the second floor of the business. Bill stopped at the back door and inspected the old fashion key lock accompanied by an old electronic security system. They provided the only obstacles to gaining access to the building. Ada accessed and bypassed the electronic sensor while Bill flooded the lock with smart motes. The motes provided him with a mental image of the lock¡¯s internal mechanisms. He modeled the appropriate key shape in his mind. With a thought, his index finger was reshaped into the form of a key. Without breaking stride, Bill silently unlocked the door and entered, closing it quickly and quietly behind him. Bill¡¯s senses were far beyond normal human capabilities and the dark room appeared to him as bright as day. The only activity was a few inconsequential electronic signals of a wireless thermostat and an idling holoprojector. Their signal¡¯s flickered in his OverLayer display, but there were no telltale silent alarm signals evident. Bill''s sight shifted to thermal, but the house was cold. A smell of corruption told Bill the reason why Stahlman hadn¡¯t left for the day. Stahlman lay stretched on the floor in the next room, a vibrating blade lodged in what was left of his skull. It had penetrated under his jawline and had pierced his brainstem and his augmentation¡¯s neocortex. The ceiling was painted in blood and viscera. Bill identified the weapon, a nasty piece used in some of the less civilized countries in South America. A Vorpal-grade combat knife capable of slicing through almost any armor. [Self-inflicted judging the position of the body and the angle of entry.] Sherlock judged. Scanning for the blade¡¯s wireless signal, Bill accessed it and queried the device¡¯s systems. It came with a single payload of injectable nano-exploders and EMP pulse. Stahlman had good augmentations which would have made his body durable and recoverable from extreme damage like this, but this blade''s two-step annihilation mode exceeded his body¡¯s abilities. The localized EMP pulse had fried his aug and the nano-exploders had riddled his brain and shredded it from the inside out. Moneta advised that Stahlman likely had severe survivor¡¯s guilt from the MIT disaster. He must have finally broken. Bill cursed himself and then Stahlman, too. He may have triggered Stahlman, but the man had been a ticking time bomb. The room was in complete disarray with broken furniture, liquor bottles, and food wrappers everywhere. Bill carefully dropped to one knee and searched for any clues, mindful of the gore. As he did, he noticed the wall behind Stahlman was covered with equations, calculations, and geometric schematics. The writing was smeared and had holes punched into it. Bill''s high-resolution multispectral vision could see the traces, which enabled him to see what had been there and bridge the missing gaps. He recorded the images with his mental notes. It was too late to help Richard Stahlman but maybe it was just in time to prevent his fate from following the path of the unlucky MIT team. Sherlock interrupted as he searched further. ¡°Sir, I would like to access the matter compiler and recycler. Even the most technically savvy humans tend to forget that the compiler holds about ten files in its cache to reverse accidental recycling. If the late Mr. Stahlman had disposed of any evidence, we may be able to retrieve it.¡± ¡°Excellent advice, Sherlock. Please, see if you can recover anything.¡± Soon enough, a diary, a phone, and a hard drive were reconstituted in the matter compiler from its memory cache. Bill found a satchel and bagged the evidence. ¡°Sherlock, can you clear the compiler cache?¡± Bill suggested as he sent a small army of motes to clear any evidence that he had visited that night. Once done, Bill exited and made his way back to the airfield and his raptor with deep sadness and uneasiness. He thought he had left this type of life behind, but his old habits and attitudes from his Samaritan days settled upon him like a familiar coat. Bill and his team convened in his virtual workspace with his cognition speed maxed while the raptor engines warmed up to take off. Tanaka¡¯s files which had provided all the technical details of the MIT team''s apparatus, now floated side by side with Bill¡¯s. Leo and Bill had already thoroughly dissected the blueprints of the two devices, noting the similarities and where they diverged. The Casimir stack and high-velocity flywheel were very similar, but Bill¡¯s evolved Tesseract circuit was noticeably different from the MIT probe. Bill was trying to understand how the different approaches would react using his 11-dimensional theory. Ada led the others in decrypting Stahlman¡¯s phone and hard drive while Sherlock reviewed the diary. The story it revealed was both enlightening and terrifying. Stahlman had been haunted by his knowledge of what had happened and had been running from it and himself ever since. The most disturbing revelation was found in a video from the MIT test run. A screen opened in the shared virtual space and played the video of the experiment as the test activated. Sherlock, ever attentive to detail, noted that the time log at activation was 16 minutes before the documented explosive event that had destroyed Boston. The whole team stopped as the decrypted video started to play and paid attention. The video showed a scene disturbingly similar to Bill''s experiment with a Casimir stack and flywheel energizing and spinning up. The MIT team¡¯s flywheel had a more sturdy frame and took much longer to spin up. MIT didn¡¯t launch a probe into the true vacuum but rather extended a smart matter probe to try to penetrate the weakened dimensional area. The MIT probe and Bill¡¯s tesseract seemed to have some fundamental differences that Bill even with his boosted mental capabilities and Leo and Ada¡¯s help couldn''t resolve yet without detailed simulations. The team of scientists were all very excited. There were twelve people in the room. Bill noted both Dr. Sota Tanaka, the CIRO spy, and Dr. Anika Sharma, the former Samaritan and close friend of Miriam in the middle of the mixed crew. The primary lab leader was Professor Michael Higgins. Bill remembered him from his visits to the campus. A rival with incredible insights and a jovial outlook. Commands, queries, and jokes passed through the group. Stahlman¡¯s presence via remote link was notable as he barked at the interns and technicians on the flywheel and probe systems. In contrast, Anika performed all adjustments and operations of the power draw and containment by herself. Bill knew she had a cadre of daemons likely assisting her, gifts from Miriam, and likely very talented experts. The whole team had tensed as the ZPE collectors finally began funneling away excess power once the Casimir stack attained full spin. The team began to celebrate passing the milestone of power generation exceeding draw when a new development occurred. The MIT probe had breached the weakened dimension wall without the huge energy draw that Bill''s design had required. The portal started as a pinprick, noticeable from the energies cascaded from its edges. It suddenly surged open, and the power systems fluctuated. The MIT probe quickly grounded and drew away the surplus power as the pinprick of light expanded in a dark hole within the spinning frame. Then the tense group paused as the system stabilized, humming with more power than ever. The view beyond the portal was dark but one of Stahlman¡¯s men accessed the room''s lighting array and focused several spotlights on it. The video systems showed a roiling mass of dark shapes in a large cavern that could be seen beyond the portal frame. Occasional flashes of light burst from the seething scene of dark shapes but were quickly absorbed by the dark moving shapes. The distances and sizes were hard to understand without references. The MIT team broke into cheers and had begun to congratulate each other. Professor Higgin was beaming in elation. Dr. Tanaka quipped about recognizing his help when the man inevitably won the Nobel prize. Their elation quickly turned to fear as a dark pulsing serpentine shape darted through the portal and slammed into a terminal. The team stood transfixed as the snake-like object wrapped about the terminal. After tentatively probing the hardware, the dark membrane expanded and engulfed the entire workstation. One of the technicians broke free from the room¡¯s stupor, yelling in terror. Soon everyone began shouting. Anika began furiously shouting commands into the air, the power systems were fluctuating dangerously again. Professor Higgins was yelling for everyone to remain calm while Dr. Tanaka was screaming for Stahlman to pull the probe and close the breach. Stahlman froze, terrified, and fascinated by the dark tentacle. One end had wrapped around a terminal and the other pulsing with capillary motions from the breach. The pulsing tube formed a growing bulbous dark mass around the terminal. Tanaka¡¯s screaming at Stahlman redoubled, laced with swears. Anika succeeded in diverting the power draw, but the portal was arcing with extra energy along its edges. Bill saw that her smart suit was shifting into her Samaritan combat armor, its material hardening into protective layers. The dark mass exploded, sending a branching tentacle towards the ceiling where it impacted the light array, knocking its frame and sending the powered light beam careening and spinning about the lab. Professor Higgins howled in alarm and an intern close to the terminal panicked and ran screaming towards the exit. As if attracted by the motion another tentacle launched from the terminal mass and struck the running technician in the back. His pained screaming was quickly silenced as black fluid flowed over and engulfed him. As smaller tendrils began to grow from the pulsating mass and another large serpentine shape lurched through the portal breach, rearing up like a cobra. Tanaka reached into his lab coat and pulled a large cylinder of smart matter out. It quickly morphed into a sword with energy crackling along its extending razor edge. With a last curse at the frozen video of Stahlman, Tanaka plunged his katana through the main control module, hoping to close the breach. Bill grimaced at the video; Tanaka had inadvertently just disabled the very system they needed to reverse the breach. If Bill understood Higgin¡¯s modified portal theory, the portal was now self-energized and stable without external modifications. The room was in chaos. Higgins was cornered against a table unable to get around the looming cobralike mass. More dark shapes, no two alike and resembling a variety of deadly organisms from Earth, spilled into the room from the base of the portal like a cresting wave. Dark beetles, scorpions, ants, worms, hoppers, and more analog forms swarmed along the ground. Anika''s transformation was complete, and she bolted forward in her battledress with her energized gauntlets. She fired a focused EM pulse at the portal. The massed creatures must have had more in common with smart matter than biological as many of them dropped to the ground dead. The large cobra shape emitted a shrill whine reminiscent of an archaic dentist drill. It tore free from its tether to the portal and lunged at Higgin, smashing him through the counter into the aisle of workstations behind it. The spinning Casimir stack frame broke from its mount and shattered, sending shrapnel flying about the room. Tanaka¡¯s headless body was momentarily in the frame as the camera viewing the scene fell to the ground. Everyone in the lab was screaming and loud crashing could be heard. What could still be seen of the lab quickly became a web of cross-linked shooting tendrils encompassing the team, the equipment, and the room until a swarm of black motes and winged insect-like shapes filled the room. Soon nothing more could be seen, the video feed turned to static then blanked and stopped. ¡°My god, it¡¯s more horrible than I could have imagined. Those things are like a mixture of HM Geiger and Lovecraft¡¯s stories. Those things'' behavior seemed to be directed, maybe even intelligent.¡± Bill exclaimed in horror. Bill looked shaken and afraid while the daemons who lacked deeper human emotions showed a variety of other expressions. Sherlock was shrewd, Virgil was concerned but stern, Miyamoto and George were calculating, Leo and Ada were fascinated, and Moneta was stunned. ¡°¡­ah. There is unfortunately a little more, sir.¡± Sherlock said with a slight hesitation. And then another video started. ¡°It appears to be some unedited footage from a weather satellite.¡± The display changes to show a scene from high above. A satellite image focusing down on the Boston metro area. A rainstorm was slowly spiraling in from the south. The Cambridge area below began to slowly darken with a growing stain resembling a fractal pattern. The darkness extended in tendrils to the surroundings, spreading quickly. Less than 10 minutes had passed as the stain grew and grew. Soon it covered miles of the city surrounding the campus. Suddenly a white light flashed, and a white dome formed over the entire area. As the light faded, there was nothing left behind. A great gouge was taken out of the earth as if an ice cream scoop had removed the city and its surroundings. Air and water rushed in to fill the void left behind, and great gouts of steam erupted from the deep depression. Bill was confused, the portal was stable. The energy at the end was immense and sudden. He didn¡¯t understand exactly what had happened at the end, but the explosion had wiped the growing infestation off the map. Bill had thought this search would give him answers, but now his questions had multiplied tenfold. ¡°How on Earth is none of this in the public data sphere? Hell, I have access to most government and military data nets. I haven¡¯t seen anything, not even the slightest hint about any of this.¡± Bill voiced to his team. Sherlock was the first to answer in his usual imperious manner. ¡°I suspect that perhaps this absence of evidence may be as big a mystery as the event itself. I¡¯m not sure even Gabriel could perform such a feat. Such an all-encompassing erasure would surpass current human and AI capabilities. Your hacker seemed quite prepared in his interference in your test, Bill. So much so, that I suspect he may have been aware of some of this. His motives remain far from certain.¡± The rest of the team discussed the implications of the MIT event and the current experiment. Bill had them refocus on the differences between the MIT event and his experimental results. All that could be concluded for the moment was that they ensured that they weren¡¯t recreating the MIT experiment. This represented an even greater danger than Bill had first suspected. The Raptor roared away into the night as the team discussed what their next steps would be. One thing was certain, bringing the tesseract to Earth had been a mistake. He needed to get back to Utopia as soon as possible. His approach differed significantly from MIT, but this new data showed that his protections against the unknown were far from perfect. Bill knew that this technology was like the proverbial genie in its bottle, the technology was ready to be found. If he didn¡¯t solve the tesseract issue, someone else would eventually arrive at the same juncture and whatever had occurred at MIT could happen again. The clock was ticking, and Bill was realizing just how late he was in solving this dangerous puzzle. Bill initiated a call to Casa and hoped everything was ok in Utopia. 24 - Movie Night ¡°Max, your friends are approaching the front door,¡± Casa said. Max greeted Leah and Charlie when they arrived at the Casa de Mitchell. The entryway was configured into a Spanish American motif today, the floor was lined with sandstone tiling and some colorful murals were displayed on the side walls. The one constant with Casa and her decor, it would change frequently. ¡°Hey guys, welcome to Casa De Mitchell.¡±, Max said, waving his friend inside. He led them deeper into the house to the main kitchen area where Casa¡¯s avatar was waiting for them. The kitchen was very active with foods being levitated out of the compiler with utility foglet and into the oven for final prep before show time. Casa was projecting an avatar and talking animatedly with another guest, a projection avatar of an elven sorceress with a pseudodragon on her shoulder. Casa quickly turned to welcome the teens. ¡°Welcome, Charlie and Leah! I¡¯m Casa the house AI. Max has talked a lot about you both and your training classes. This lovely girl over here is a virtual projection of Max¡¯s sister, Mira, and her pet dragon Tiamat. She is still in class at Tranquility U on Luna and couldn¡¯t get down here in time for tonight¡¯s show.¡± Greetings were cut short by Leah¡¯s squeal of excitement upon seeing Tiamat. ¡°Ooh! Look at her! She¡¯s so cute!¡± Leah exclaimed. Tiamat sensing a fan, took to the air to hover in front of Leah and accept her praise and head pats. Leah looked confused as the projection had some solidity, but quickly accepted it without raising the question. ¡°She is quite the diva. Mira takes good care of her and loves to show her off. She loves to play when she isn¡¯t stealing my desserts. Sorry Mira and Casa, we need to go over some stuff before the show starts.¡± ¡°What¡¯s more important than seeing your brother compete on live VR against dinosaurs?¡±, Mira asked. ¡°I want to see if we can share some of our latest skills,¡± Max whined. ¡°We¡¯ll be back before it starts. Casa, can you spin up a dojo for us, and my other gear too, while you finish with the snacks?¡± ¡°Of course. I already had it mostly configured downstairs, go ahead. It should finish loading before you can get down there,¡± said Casa. As a stairway appeared in the wall, the trio crowded down it. The dojo had materialized with an open floor plan. Holograms mimicked a view of terraced rice paddies through its expansive open architecture. Leah and Charlie took up positions around the tatami mat in the center of the room. As a breeze of warm air blew through the dojo, both startled slightly. Casa and her house were very high-end to be able to run simulations this good. Oblivious to their shared look, Max went behind a rice paper screen and wheeled over the first of several large machines. ¡°Is that a baseball pitching machine?¡± Leah asked. ¡°Yes indeed.¡± Max crowed. ¡°There are at least two methods to learning the fast cog skill that I got from my trial last week. The slow way and the fast. I tried the slow way by meditating to try to slow my perception of sand that was dropping through an hourglass. That kinda sucked. When that didn''t work, I got a test to catch an arrow. I think that with this game I¡¯ve concocted, we can help you both get there faster; but without the lethality of the arrow catch test.¡±
[New Quest Unlocked: Sharing is Caring ¨C craft a training exercise to unlock another student¡¯s skills.]
Max¡¯s eyes glittered and his tail began to wag unconsciously. Apparently, the training system agreed with his methods and was rewarding him. Nice! he thought. ¡°I¡¯ll set up a few of these machines and will randomly trigger them. You need to catch the ball, or you will get a nasty bruise. I suspect that proper motivation is the key to unlocking most skills. You need to really want it badly to goad the system to give up the goods.¡± Max advised. ¡°So, I¡¯ll set the speed to maximum. With multiple balls coming at you, you will need to think fast. If I¡¯m right, the system will respond by giving you what you need. Who wants to go first?¡± Leah stepped to the middle of the mat with a nervous expression. Max provided the same centering and breathing advice the funny monk had given him. Once Leah was ready, Max triggered the machines. Despite a couple of false starts where she threw herself to the ground to avoid the pitches, she was soon spinning around the tatami, giggling as she caught ball after ball. ¡°I got it!¡±, she declared proudly. ¡°Thank you, Max.¡± Charlie stepped to the center of the mat, ready for his turn. Determined to succeed, he didn¡¯t flinch even with a baseball hurtling toward his face. With a loud crack, three baseballs hit Charlie, two into his chest and one directly on his nose. ¡°I thig ih brod mi node.¡± Charlie said with blood pouring from his nose. After a quick cleanup and a painful straightening of his nose, Charlie took his position again, refusing to give up. ¡°Comb at me agai''.¡± He demanded, wheezing through his still bloody nose. With a cringe, Max complied and threw the switch. This time Charlie neatly plucked two balls from the air and with a slight twisting motion managed to avoid the third. Several more volleys confirmed that Charlie would no longer be a victim of the machines. ¡°Success!¡±, Charlie said. ¡°I even picked up the healing skill, my nose is already feeling better.¡± ¡°That was super nice of you to help us, Max. I¡¯ll think about how I can mimic the memory palace test for the both of you.¡± Charlie said. ¡°Umm. Sorry, Charlie. I just got that one too.¡± Max described the Kintsugi challenge and the ultimate rewards. ¡°Damn, guess we both need to compile some big pots and get to cracking, eh?¡± Charlie smirked at Leah. ¡°Do you guys really want the Immersive Idioma test? That was quite the experience, although with augments it did help speed up the process considerably.¡± Leah said. It had only been yesterday when her quest had finally judged her fluent enough to discharge the skill and had ended her forced language immersion lesson. ¡°Maybe we should pass for now on the language skill. I¡¯m just glad to help you two.¡± congratulated Max. ¡°Hmmm, if you two are game for it, I have a test that I would like to run,¡± Leah said. Both the boys nodded for her to go ahead. Leah''s face screwed up into a look of intense concentration. After a couple of seconds of nothing happening, Max intended to ask her what she was doing. Surprisingly, he found he couldn¡¯t move. He struggled but his body refused to budge. Leah, with sweat beading her forehead, finally gasped and Max¡¯s muscles unlocked.
[New mental skill Bastion - 1 unlocked. Build your mental resistance to augmentation hacking]
¡°Whoa! I was totally locked up there. What was that?¡±, Charlie asked. ¡°Unlike you boys with your physical skills, I¡¯ve been working hard to advance my access skill and it evolved into a hacking skill. I¡¯ve been hacking everything. It just evolved again yesterday into an Intrusion skill, enabling me to hack higher level systems like augs.¡±, Leah explained. ¡°Nice!¡± Max exclaimed. ¡°We need to work on this. When you hacked me, I got a new mental defense skill called Bastion. If you keep attacking us, our defenses should improve.¡± ¡°Crap. You two need to evolve your skills. I need protection too!¡±, Leah replied. ¡°Let¡¯s take a break. This was an awesome sharing, but we need to get upstairs for the main event of the night. The Diamond Man show''s latest event is starting tonight, the Cretaceous Challenge. I¡¯m hoping to see my brother Bo competing.¡±
[Quest Completion: Sharing is Caring ¨C 2 successful skill unlocks, 200 XP awarded] [Max reaches Novice 7, 10 Free Stat points awarded]
The trio rejoined Casa, Mira, and Tiamat in the living room and settled into comfortable chairs as snacks floated around the room. The wall projector was starting as the lights dimmed.
Bo raced through the undergrowth as thunderous crashing sounds followed close behind. His chest heaved and he pushed himself to the limit. He missed his augmentations, but this challenge put an upper limit of human normal only for augmentations. His augments would save him from a gruesome demise to the dinosaurs, but no performance enhancements would come his way for the qualifying phase of the event. He had already cleared the first two zones. The first zone was not difficult in his estimation, a traversing broad valley where the choke point was an active battleground between a Triceratops and an Ankylosaurus. Proper timing and quick feet easily got him past the preoccupied beasts with minimal delay in his time to cross the zone. The second zone was much harder. A briar hedge maze with doors that randomly opened and closed while velociraptors prowled the lanes. Bo had to retreat to safe pockets multiple times to avoid the deadly terrors. He got lucky towards the end, finding that the velociraptor guarding the exit was already busy ¡°disqualifying¡± another competitor. The third zone was the last one for the qualifying round. As Bo raced forward, another runner with a spear came out from the undergrowth paralleling his path. That explains it, Bo thought, I know I was all Stealthy McStealth-Face to not attract the T-Rex¡¯s attention. She must have tried to get past it to get the weapons cache that it was guarding. Rookie mistake, those primitive weapons won¡¯t help nearly as much as not having a goddamn apex predator chasing you. Fast feet don''t get eat. The forest branches exploded outward as the T-Rex broke out of the forest line with a terrifying roar. It immediately sighted both Bo and the other runner. Bo doubled down, learning hard into his run. His goal was already in sight, a drainage pipe about 4¡¯ in diameter. It was plenty big for a running dive and too small for the giant to follow. With a last surge of speed Bo pushed his body forward, diving in headfirst. The other runner was hot on his heels but had forgotten her precious cargo. The spear hit the edges of the pipe which clotheslined the girl in the chest and throat, bouncing her back from the safety of the tunnel and stunning her. Bo watched in horror as the T-Rex closed on the downed woman. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Gods, this is hella stupid., Bo thought as he amped himself up. I¡¯m not even sure what the real goals of the game are other than "Don¡¯t die". But I can¡¯t let this girl go out like this, not if I can do something about it. Bo grabbed the dropped spear from the tunnel entrance and dashed forwards as the T-Rex¡¯s head was dropping for his snack. Bo was too late to distract the beast with a safe spear toss. Instead, he dove forward and rolled to a crouching position over the fallen girl, bracing the spear¡¯s end into the dirt, he ducked as low as he could. The descending jaws quickly reversed as the long spear gouged into the soft palate of the monster¡¯s upper mouth. The foot-long teeth missed Bo by inches as it snapped shut on the spear and jerked away in pain. Without a second to spare, he grabbed up the unconscious girl in a fireman¡¯s carry and crashed back to the pipe. Bo couldn¡¯t help but peek out, the aerial drones should have gotten a good show there. Regardless of whatever points were used to win this game, to truly win at the Diamond Man, you had to perform. Bo knew that, with his rescue of the girl, he had set himself apart from his peers and likely guaranteed a sponsor signing him for a long-term contract. The wall projection ended as the screen filled with advertising, and applause filled the room. Max was overwhelmed with pride. As the show ended, the hosts showed the contestants who had made the qualifying round and recapped the action. Bo has made it past the qualifying rounds. Casa turned the VR feed off and brought the room back to normal. ¡°That was incredible! Who knew my brother had it in him to be a hero!¡± Max glowed with pride. Mira looked a little ill while Tiamat pouted, upset that the dragon-like T-Rex didn¡¯t win. ¡°Oh my god, Max, that was amazing. Your brother had his augments turned off for that? That¡¯s some insane contest.¡± Leah exclaimed. ¡°That¡¯s the Diamond Man for you. Bo said that the sponsors pay handsomely for impressive footage, and it helps with the bigger contracts. Plus, you get to see the real Bo in action. Bo is a quiet guy, but he is such an adrenaline junkie. I¡¯ll keep my fun restricted to the ThousandWorlds gaming, thank you very much.¡± Mira said. ¡°The Diamond Man is only for professionals, kids. Don¡¯t try this at home with your pet dragons.¡± Casa announced, ¡°The next phase of this event is supposedly a secret, but the forums all think that as the series progresses the competitors will get some of their augment skills reinstated. That will also probably come with challenges that get more difficult. Then we will see some very impressive action. Bo has top marks in all his skills and is very creative in their application. If you come back for the next show, I¡¯m betting it only gets more exciting.¡± The conversation went on but even with the smile on his face, Max was not hearing a word. He had his brain working hard, searching for a way to challenge himself and his friends. Bo¡¯s example showed that even with beginner training they could accomplish a lot. As the party wound down, Mira said her goodbyes as she had an exam in ¡°Applications of AI¡± in the morning. Max wanted to continue the push for skills. They had spent the last two weeks getting some great training at the Wuxia Dojo and competing Rumble quests. He called his status.
[Name: Max E. Mitchell Level: Novice 7 (3150/3500 XP)] [Body Design Model: Custom ¨C Canis Familiarus Uplift Free Stats: 50] [Strength: 14 Agility: 20 Endurance: 16 Vitality: 18] [Perception: 21 Intelligence: 15 Will: 14 Energy: 63 Regen: 32/min] [Body Skill - Stamina: 8 Leaping: 7 Healing: 8 Strike: 6 Unbreakable: 3 Speed: 6] [Body Skill ¨C Gymnast: 6 Balance: 5 Claws: 2 Ballistics: 4 Stun: 1 Gland: 1] [Resist Skills ¨C Poison: 1 Shock: 4 Sonic: 4 Light: 4 EMP:1] [Sense Skills ¨C Scent: 9 DigiSense: 6 ExVision:1 EM Fields:1] [Mind Skill ¨C AI Assist: 7 Access: 5 Identify: 3 OverLayer: 4 Fast Cog: 4] [Mind Skill - Pattern: 5 Dream Learn: 4 Daemon: 1 Memory: 1 Bastion: 1]
Quests, Max thought.
[Active Quests: Meditation IV, Ready to Rumble III 2/20, Grudge Match, Sharing is Caring] [Completed Quests: Novice Obstacle Course, Ready to Rumble I/II, Born to Run I/II/III, Purr-fect Reunion, Sands of the Hourglass, Musing on Musashi, Way of the Sword, Kintsugi III]
Max had an idea, perhaps another skill he could share with his friends. He triggered his augments to call a car.
[Mental Skill: AI assist +1, AI Assist reaches 8]
¡°How about I accompany you two to your homes? I¡¯ve just summoned a car. There¡¯s something I¡¯d like to show you on the way.¡± Max said. Max thought it odd, but Casa seemed perhaps a bit over-eager for Max to leave the house so late, maybe she was just happy for him to be socializing. The trio left the house in a larger autopod. With his AI¡¯s help, he accessed the car and drove it to the lesser forest at the base of the Grand Oaks. In the parking lot, there were no lights, and the park¡¯s tall gates to the walking paths were closed. Max locked down the car. ¡°Hmm, well that plan was quickly aborted,¡± Leah said. ¡°I don¡¯t think they allow access at night.¡± ¡°Just another training challenge, I don¡¯t see a sign saying it¡¯s closed,¡± Max grinned. With a laugh, he scooped up Leah like he had seen Bo do for the fallen girl and activated his leap skill. Leah squeaked as they arced in a perfect landing on the top of the wall. Max turned to tell Charlie he would come back to him after getting Leah on the ground and was surprised. Charlie had transformed his walking stick into a long pole and pole vaulted with perfect form over the top of the wall. As he cleared it by inches, his pole shrunk and wrapped around his shoulder as he gracefully rolled into a landing. With another bound Max brought Leah to the ground safely as she held on with an iron grip. ¡°I think I see that you two have quite literally leaped ahead of me in your physical training. I guess this night''s exercise is on point for me.¡± Leah laughed weakly. Max chuckled as he surveyed the walking paths ahead with his thermal vision. ¡°My plan was actually to help you two get thermal sight with some night running or maybe hide and seek, but this place has yielded so many skills for me, who knows what we can get you.¡± ¡°Come on. Catch me if you can!¡± Max yelled as he sprinted down the path. Both Charlie and Leah went considerably slower as their normal vision struggled, and roots impeded their run. Charlie kept his echolocation skill suppressed; he really wanted the vision enhancements. Max would run ahead and double back. He would swoop in as silently as he could and tap one or both as they struggled along the path. Miyamoto whispered in his ear advice on moving silently while still going fast in the forest. An hour later, with a lot of effort and laughs, they had all made it to the top of the rise and the waterfall. Charlie leaned against the meditation boulder. ¡°Thanks again, Max. Another skill unlocked.¡± Charlie said. ¡°Me too!¡±, Leah chimed in. ¡°Hey, Max. Have you ever used this rock to meditate yet? You should both give it a go.¡± Charlie said with a wry grin. They all jumped up to the broad rock and took a seat. Max closed his eyes and controlled his breathing. Miyamoto whispered in his head methods to meditate deeper, into a state of no mind. Like before, his distractions faded as Max got deeper into his trance. The expanse below was immense and silent. Max sensed something behind him towards the Grand Oaks, it felt like when he had found Casa while meditating. Without turning he reached outwards and back with his perception. Each of the enormous trees had a presence. Together they radiated in his awareness, towering above and in great numbers. His access skill twitched but the trees were not open to him. Leah gasped and whispered, ¡°I think I can hear the trees. Are they talking with each other?¡± Max opened his eyes to ask what they were saying. However, as his eyes adjusted, he saw something new. The entire valley stretched out below, with Utopia far in the distance. Pulses of light in a color Max had never seen before flashed out in patterns over the town. Short pulses erupted from a central location a couple of miles northwest of the falls. The light would draw a line across the sky and rebound at an angle twice before streaking back to its origin, creating a pulsing pinwheel of light. Max was about to say something when he realized the origin point. It was Casa de Mitchell, his home.
[Quest completion: Sharing is Caring ¨C +2 skills unlocked, 200 XP awarded] [Quest: Meditation IV complete, 100 XP awarded] [Max level +1, Max advances to Novice 7, +10 Free Stats awarded] [Perception +1] [Sense Skill: ExaVision +1, ExaVision reaches Level 2 - Ultraviolet wavelengths added to visualization]
Charlie and Leah were discussing the Grand Oak bio machines and speculating on the messages they passed back and forth. While the trees looked natural, they were anything but. Meanwhile, Max was thinking to himself. Casa is up to something fun without me, I need to hurry back so I can see what she¡¯s doing. If she manages to open the tesseract, I want to see it. Without appearing too hurried, Max and his friends made it back out of the forest. The way back to the entrance was much quicker than the way in now that they all could see in the dark. Max saw the pair off in the larger autopod as a new one arrived for him. Max took control of the pod to get back home as quickly as possible. The light kept repeating its pattern overhead, but the radius seemed to be tightening. Max hoped to make it home before the show was over.
Max ran through the front door. The lights in the sky overhead were still closing into a tighter and tighter circle, indicating that whatever Casa was doing, it was still in progress. ¡°Casa, I¡¯m back! What are you up to? The whole sky is lit up like the drone laser show we saw earlier this summer at the fireworks!¡± Casa materialized looking sheepish and a bit worried. ¡°You can see that?¡± She spoke. ¡°My augments have been expanding my visuals, it must have sensed it and unlocked my vision so I could see it too. What does it mean?¡± With a sigh, Casa said. ¡°Fine. I guess I could use your help. Please jump in the elevator and I¡¯ll explain on the way to the NetherLab.¡± As the roomy elevator suite dropped swiftly, Casa explained how she developed her custom drone with equipment to measure the value of pi the same way that Miss Montoya had used. She had sent the drone out to the line of distortion and was monitoring the subtle spacial effects as she tweaked the tesseract''s fractal array¡¯s exponent values. She hoped to achieve a working portal when what she suspected was the focal error was corrected. Already she had shifted the pi discrepancy field down from 10 miles to only 2 and was learning how to close the gap further with the feedback from the drones. Casa was worried about the visibility though. She figured that the low-tech town wouldn¡¯t sense her stealthy drones and ultraviolet lasers. She had even timed the test on this moonless night to maximize the drones¡¯ stealth capabilities. But with Max noticing, she was worried again. A report to the town might get her in trouble. Utopia¡¯s edict against technology was extreme and could get her, and the Mitchells, evicted if what she was doing was discovered. The elevator arrived at the NetherLab where the marble-sized tesseract sat immutable on its d¨ªas as always. The field sensors and cameras focused on the little ball, some of them humming with the power of their projecting fields. Max strode into the room with the image of Casa¡¯s avatar mimicking walking as well, ¡°Casa, could you share the data and feedback you¡¯ve been getting? I don¡¯t want to miss it as we get close.¡± Casa nodded and with a wave of her hands the data visualization began to stream in from all corners of the lab. Max could see the field information from the sensor nets mapped on one wall. On another, a fractal pattern from the antenna array with its exponent variables was shown. It almost started to make sense to him when the field reached the zero point. The room remained still except for the hum of the sensors. The tesseract, as usual, did nothing.
[Mind Skill: Pattern +1, Pattern reaches 6]
¡°Is it just me or was the distortion radius not centered exactly on the Tesseract marble?¡±, Max asked. Casa rewound the data and quickly confirmed it. The epicenter of the distortion was 5 meters beyond the tesseract with a 20-degree azimuth. "Good eyes, Max. Even I missed that." Cas said. The pair ran the numbers again and readjusted the distortion back to put the tesseract tangent to the field. Max''s memory flashed back to the class on the path of senses. While Professor Qasim discussed the various animal senses, he also briefly explained how the eye worked and that the image was inverted. He had shared the phenomena of the camera obscura, which had interested Max because of its counterintuitive inverse reflection of reality. ¡°Casa, I have an odd idea. Could you keep adjusting the distortion field to the point where it inverts and then expands again? I know it sounds odd, but can you try?¡± With a thoughtful expression, Casa slowly tweaked the field, inverting the focus and then bringing the field back to tangency with the tesseract. When it crossed the plane of the tesseract, a hole appeared in space surrounding the tesseract. The gap in the air had hits of a deep blue glow from the interior. Energy popped and fizzed along the edges of the floating hole. ¡°Well, trade me in for a smart toaster oven. I do believe we have it, Max. The tesseract is finally working!¡± Casa exclaimed. Unable to hold himself back, Max peered inside and gasped in surprise.
25 - Uninvited Guests Before Casa could stop him, Max jumped through the portal. From Max¡¯s new perspective inside the entryway of the portal, the marble that was the tesseract was still centered in the hole but it was just the tip of a spear pointing outward from inside of a small space. The tesseract was a marvelous silicone fractal structure that resembled a distorted bonsai tree completely filling a small enclosure. Its trunk was gnarled but mostly straight and shot forward and slightly down. Its surface scintillated with glowing blue LED traces and to Max¡¯s newly enhanced vision into the UV spectrum as well. At the tree''s apex it split into a broad umbrella of branches which broadened and bent to cover and form a sphere about 5 meters wide. When Max had passed the threshold into the sphere, he was surprised as he was suddenly weightless. He floated down the length of the sideways tree. Its branches encompassed and created a field of energy that glowed in Max¡¯s EM field sense.
[Mind Skill: Pattern +1, Pattern reaches 7]
¡°Wowf!¡± Max gasped, slipping a little doggish into his exclamation with his surprise. His shout was oddly muted, the sphere absorbed the sound rather than bouncing it. The air was still moving about and smelled of the NetherLab. All the surfaces had no scent whatsoever, something he hadn¡¯t experienced even on the moon. His pattern skills matched the fractal shape of the tree to the latest iteration of inverted fractal code they had loaded into the tesseract. Acting on his hunch, Max triggered his access skill to connect with the Tesseract.
[Mind Skill: Access +1, Access reaches 6, link established to Tesseract OSI, #$rt552]
Max tweaked one of the tesseracts¡¯ fractal variables by another increment and the whole canopy shifted slightly, descending incrementally towards that base, the portal around the tesseracts tip widened as the sphere shifted forward slightly. ¡°Max, get out of there! It doesn¡¯t look stable, the portal just shifted.¡± Casa yelled. ¡°Sorry! Don¡¯t worry. That was me. The inside is shaped like a fractal. I accessed the Tesseract and tweaked one of the exponential variables. It¡¯s magnificent here, so beautiful.¡± Max said and dragged himself along the trunk back to the portal. ¡°Come on out, please. Let me get smart probes and a drone or two in there.¡±, Casa said with urgency. Grudgingly, Max backed up and crossed the portal threshold back to the lab, gravity reasserted itself and he dropped to the floor. He realized another of his doglike habits to investigate new things obsessively was still very much a part of him and he wouldn¡¯t think of changing it. ¡°It¡¯s amazing there. It¡¯s like a little pocket universe. The tesseract reminds me of a game I played with Bo over vacation. It was a Norse mythology game with heroes and gods fighting and stuff. It had this one scene where the world tree Yggdrasil had to be climbed to pass between worlds. It kinda looks like we have a mini-Yggdrasil.¡± Casa tutted and fussed as her drones and smart matter sensors flooded into the portal and began recording and measuring the tesseract structure and the spherical energy boundary. The data screens around the NetherLab lit up as information flooded back. Casa split her mind and engaged in a multi model investigation with fragments. Like Max, she accessed the tesseract and made subtle tweaks to the fractal parameters. With her lightning-fast cognition speed, she quickly came to understand how to shape and reposition the brachial sphere in relation to the tesseract anchor to widen, constrict, or shift the portal to the subspace pocket. ¡°Okay, the sphere does seem to be stable, but if anything unexpected happens, get to the elevator and hit the emergency evacuation button. That will rocket you out of here, hopefully fast enough to escape if the tesseract gets unstable.¡± ¡°I am going to need to monitor this very closely for a while.¡± Casa¡¯s avatar said. ¡°I¡¯m not sure if you knew this Max, but I can split my consciousness to think completely in parallel. One aspect of this that I don¡¯t use often is to bud a smaller portion of my consciousness and split it off. A fully self-sufficient AI version of me, and I can load it onto a regular computer substrate. My separated clone is slower than me due to my hardware being so perfect for my neural structure. I don¡¯t like the feeling of slowing down like that, but my ¡°daughter¡± can operate independently of me and eventually merge back.¡± As she was talking, she projected more avatars about the room for Max¡¯s benefit. Casa2 appeared, dressed in a hacker grunge ensemble to differentiate her from Casa1¡¯s formal 18th century chic wardrobe. She set up a virtual workstation and began programming updates to the tesseract firmware to enable a more user-friendly control scheme interfacing with the tesseract portal. Casa3 appeared wearing jeans, a tank top, and a hard hat and began directing even more smart matter out of the compiler and into the portal space. Inside it began to shape itself into a ring around the tree trunk and then added manipulator arms to grab the sensors and probe devices inside already. The ring armature grew and soon was heavily laden with nano processors, sensors, and manipulators. ¡°Jeez, you¡¯re gonna break light speed going so fast, Casa. Maybe slow down and savor the thrill of discovery a bit, yeah?¡± Max smiled. ¡°Hah. Just watch me go. This is going to be a great surprise for Bill. A fully functional Tesseract. We just need to figure out what it''s good for. I¡¯m going to situate a daughter clone into the subspace pocket for continuous study. If my extrapolations are correct, shifting the tesseract''s canopy may sever the interior from external communications. We can access the tesseract from the anchor, but its configuration isn¡¯t set up to pass communications through the circuit. I want to keep any changes to the tesseract hardware at a minimum until it¡¯s well understood.¡± Casa1 said. As Casa1 explained, the tesseract ring module had fully formed with generous processing power, independent battery power, updated firmware, manipulator arms and a host of sensors. Another Casa avatar appeared. Casa4, wearing office casual clothes, sat down at a workstation and began documenting the tesseract''s evolution, energy states, new firmware upgrade, and readings from the energy field. Casa5 also appeared, wearing a jumpsuit, and separated herself from her twins. This special one fully detached from Casa¡¯s neural core and dove into the ring¡¯s processor cluster. ¡°Argh, my thoughts are almost as slow as a human now.¡± Casa5 groused from within the chamber. A tiny avatar was visible inside, a projection from a small holo-emitter on the tree¡¯s ring computer. Max was dumbfounded with one too many amazing things today. He thought the mini-Casa was funny with her tiny projection. ¡°Are you the daughter clone then? The whole numbering thing is a little awkward. How about Little Casa? No wait. You should be Casita. That¡¯s perfect.¡± ¡°Nice, that is a pretty cool nickname. Way better than Casa5 at least. I like it and I¡¯m keeping it.¡± Casita said. ¡°No worries now.¡± Casa1 said. ¡°I¡¯m hopeful we only need a small amount of isolation testing, so it shouldn¡¯t be too long on slow time, Casita. Once we round out the data, we can rejoin and merge again in our core.¡± Casa sympathized.
Reggie Simms had followed the dogboy¡¯s pod back from the park but stopped short of the sight line to the Mitchell house. He rejoined his partner Lars Volker in their hidden observation blind in the adjacent woods. The tent of smart matter exterior had a pixel projection designed to perfectly blend into the woods. Its interior was very large with chairs and wall screens. Lars had the Mitchell house image displayed from every angle using the hidden remote cameras he had placed days ago. The dumb kids¡¯ augmentation skills were so green that none ever detected him trailing the group the entire night. Sims¡¯ mastery of stealth and suppression skills was second to none. Once the light show began over the town, he had almost broken off and came straight back, but he had restrained himself. This is exactly why there are two of us here, Reggie had thought to himself. ¡°About time, Simms,¡± Volker huffed. ¡°The plan has changed while you were out. I think we need to do this tonight.¡± Seeing Simms'' confusion, Volker continued. ¡°I just got word from another of our employer¡¯s watchers. Greenburg was posted at Stahlman¡¯s latest hole in the ground. He just reported that Mitchell was there tonight and made a late-night entry to his place under stealth. He took off in a hurry after only a short time. Our man investigated and is reporting that Stahlman is dead. Not sure if suicide or maybe Mitchell did it. If this light show over the house is any indication, whatever tech Mitchell is working on is ripe for the plucking. Our window is closing quickly though.¡± ¡°Crap. Do you think Mitchell is coming back?¡± Simms asked. ¡°What do you think?¡± Volker said with a dead stare as he began pulling out ammo from his duffle bag. ¡°We lost an hour from our watcher, sitting on thumbs, while Greenburg took his sweet time investigating the Stahlman scene. The net shows only one flight leaving from Stahlman¡¯s town. It looks like Mitchell has a Velociraptor VTOL FJ3. It got microwave remote power line capability for continuous flight. That make it 4-5 hours until he get here. I put in call for supply drone drop. Our combat Exosuits and a bunker-buster ordinance be here in one hour.¡± Volker answered. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Reggie Simms smiled with his greed shining through. Aphelion will pay top dollar for anything we pull outta Mitchell. Or maybe it might be time to break off and go independent with a little auction. This guy was one of the founding brains of the modern era. Between his brain interface hardware and AI advances, who knows what he¡¯s been stewing over for the last 10 years? Whatever it is will undoubtedly be worthwhile, but his loss will be our ticket to the big leagues or maybe even early retirement.
The Casa fragments were chatting back and forth and entertaining Max with the growing details of the now functional tesseract. She told Max that she would be sure to credit him on the inverted focus discovery. He would be a key contributor to understanding how to integrate the tesseract into the dimensional space. She knew that Bill would need the replicate the device, hopefully this time without interference and avoiding whatever occurred to entangle Max¡¯s uplift module into the Tesseract¡¯s controls. Max¡¯s Pattern skill kept triggering and with the Casa collectives¡¯ fast pace of discovery he almost triggered his fast cog skill to try and kept from feeling overwhelmed. Casa1 suddenly froze in mid-sentence with a look of astonishment and outrage. ¡°The house¡¯s perimeter of foglets has been breached. There are two highly stealthed intruders flying towards the house.¡± Casa said in a monotone voice. Max recognized her modulated tone. It meant she was ramping up her processing speed. The assisting Casa avatars faded as Casa pooled her resources to prepare for the threat. The displays shifted to cover the front yard and the approaching men. ¡°Outgoing communications are being jammed!¡±, Casa yelled. One of the men shouldered a large weapon and had just launched a large projectile towards the house, Casa scoffed and shot a trio of interceptor missiles. Unfortunately, the second man was prepared for Casa¡¯s countermeasures with a counter to her counter. He shot rapid fire lasers from his suit¡¯s gauntlets which hit and exploded the interceptor missiles in mid flight. The large projectile broke through the unreinforced bay window and detonated in a bright flash. It was not an explosive shot but rather a high-powered electromagnetic pulse. All the monitors flashed white and then showed only static as Casa¡¯s projected avatar dissolved into pixelated static. Max was rooted to his seat with a feeling of dread. The lights and the now blank displays in the NetherLab were still on, and the mini-Casita projection was still active but all the other Casas were gone. ¡°What is going on?¡± Max yelled. ¡°I¡¯m sorry Max. We had noted that at least two men had been watching the house.¡± Casita said. ¡°They never did approach the house though and we thought they had left once your father went on his trip. This is my fault. We should have had better counter measures in place. We thought they may have been waiting for Bill to try and engage his services.¡± ¡°Why did the monitors go dark? Where is Casa?¡± Max asked in a concerned voice. ¡°That projectile was a class II breaching EMP ordinance. The Casa de Mitchell has EM shielding, but this round detonated inside bypassing all the shields. The house and Casa are offline.¡± Casita explained. ¡°We still have power down here from the geothermal energy collection generators. We must be too deep for the EMP to fry the electronics here.¡±, Casita paused as a resounding boom echoed from the elevator shaft. ¡°And that confirmed my hypothesis. The percussion wave from the EM pulse explosion took 59 seconds to traverse the borehole shaft. We have about 30 minutes or so before they find the shaft and drop down, presumably to collect the tesseract. We have no independent communication channels to Bill or Utopia police from here.¡± Max assumed a fierce visage and spoke. ¡°What do we say to the God of Death when he comes for us?¡± Casita who shared the memory of the many family TV binge nights knew the answer. With a sigh she replied. ¡°We say: not today.¡± ¡°Damn right!¡± Max barked. ¡°If we have thirty minutes, let¡¯s make them count.¡±
[Danke for the counter fire, Simms], Volker sent via comms between Exosuits. [No problem. Looks like the bunker buster EMP did the job. They only had 10 seconds to call for help and the jammers were strong enough to shut it down. We are good to search.] Simms sent as he flew through the bay window and landed in the largest room off the ¡°house¡±. Despite the missile crashing through the window and detonating, the EM Pulse didn¡¯t do much physical damage at all. Some smart matter panels, and light fixtures had fused and were hot from the pulse inverting and overloading their power. His sensors picked up trace amounts of heat and residual power bleed but no active sources. Volker flew in and landed with too much momentum and crashed into the fireplace. A rather expensive looking vase and a nice painting crashed to the ground, breaking into pieces. [Clear.] Simms confirmed. [Much cleaner than that time in Cairo, eh?] [Ja. Good. I¡¯ll search upstairs. You take the first floor and then check the basement. Use full spectrum sensors, look for hidden rooms, safes, and documents. Go.] Volker called. Grumbling under his breath, Simms retreated to the side rooms and called up his full suite of sensors. Living room, kitchen, bathroom, dining room, stairs. Moving downstairs he found a rather nice dojo configured although some of the d¨¦cor faded without active smart matter chromatic surfaces mimicking the luster of natural woods and walls. ¡°What the hell? Baseball pitching machines. All these lab types are so goddamn eccentric.¡± Simms thought as he surveyed the room. He approached each wall and touched it with his palm, his glove vibrating on each surface as an ultrasound image was built on his HUD from the feedback. The last surface was the floor. ¡°Bingo, "he thought. The smart matter floor was only a foot thick with a large empty space below. ¡°Unpowered smart matter is shit against penetration. This won¡¯t even require my shaped charges.¡± Simms extended a vibrating blade from his forearm and carved a 2-meter hole into the floor. The smart matter fell away into the void beneath. Simms heard a couple impacts but not the crash he had expected of the floor impacting the next floor down. Confused, he approached the hole and peered in. Full spectrum sensors revealed the same answer, a very deep hole. Simms debated his options in his head and decided stealth was out. He sent a LiDAR pulse into the hole. He was confused by the reading and repeated the pulse twice more. All gave the same reading, 11 miles to contact. ¡°Goddamn eccentric bullshit¡± Simms thought. Volker upstairs had found what appeared to be an extra office secluded in the far wing of the house. A shielded AI core was present and appeared to be still viable although its connection to the rest of the house was fried. [Volker, I found a secret level here. Only one thing, I think it is literally miles deep,] Simms commed. [Helvete! I be right down.] Volker replied, throwing a punch through a powerless smart matter wall. ¡°I¡¯ll be back for you later, little AI. I¡¯ll bet you have some of the secrets we need.¡± Soon the pair stood in front of the newly carved entryway to the borehole. After Volker confirmed for himself the depth of the hole, he sighed and thought deeply. Finally with a grunt he stepped to the edge. ¡°Ok, we can do this. The Exosuits have just enough power to climb out, we will have to free fall almost the entire distance down to save the suit power though. My plan was to use the suits for emergency exfiltration. We need alternate plan.¡± ¡°Hmmm, I have an anonymous darknet account. I can summon an autopod for exfil. Kind of amateur hour but it is what it is. What do you think?¡± Simms offered. ¡°Free fall about 8 minutes. At 5k feet per minute ascent, we can climb back up in hour. Mitchell be back 2 maybe 3 hours. Ok, fine. Call the car to arrive 90 minutes and have it wait.¡± One minute later they both jumped into the hole for a long fall. Gritting his teeth and falling into the dark Reggie kept chanting to himself, Big money, big money. C¡¯mon. Big money.
After 8 terrifying minutes of free fall the pair literally saw the lights at the end of the borehole. Judicious jet braking enabled them both to lightly land on the elevator platform. The lab was indeed impressive. The walls were lined with workstations and displays which were densely populated with scrolling equations and rotating geometric figures. On a central d¨ªas hovered a golden metallic octahedral shape. It slowly rotated within a dense column of foglets. Eight probes surrounded the gem and were rastering green scanning lasers over the convoluted surface of the object. Both thieves were transfixed for several moments, taking in the majestic sight. Simms broke the silence. ¡°This is most definitely our target. That is some next level math on the display boards and look at that thing over there. Crazy scientist shit!¡± He exclaimed. ¡°Ja. Turn recorders on. Be sure to get each screen while we collect hard drives and mystery object.¡± They stalked carefully into the room with full spectrum scanners active and recorders on, wary for security measures. It was obvious that this lab had escaped the EMP and had an independent power source. Despite their caution, both were taken by surprise when the lab exploded in activity. The octahedron flashed with full spectrum explosions of light and sound. The lasers turned and slashed their beams over the pair, the beam''s power now amplified sufficiently to score their armor¡¯s dense plating. The room¡¯s active foglets swarmed them both obscuring vision, cameras and seeking to clog ports and ingress into the suit interiors. Several workstations detonated and a large blast wall dropped from the ceiling trapping them within the circle of the workstations and display dais. A small marble sitting in a recess in the wall near the elevator seemed innocuous enough and had many similar nodules of similar appearance. This particular marble pulsed, and a portal appeared. As the portal expanded, Max jumped out from the pocket universe. A small hologram avatar inside the portal yelled at him. ¡°Run quickly! Hit the elevator eject button! Those two won¡¯t be delayed for long with those distractions.¡± Casita screamed. As they had planned, Max grabbed the marble as the portal folded tight against it, but not completely closed so he could still hear Casita¡¯s directions. It was surprisingly heavy for its small apparent size, if Max hadn¡¯t been growing his strength stat, he might have dropped it. He jumped onto the platform with a bark and hit the emergency button. The elevator launched upwards with surprising speed. Max¡¯s knees buckled as the elevator accelerated even harder, several loud booms echoed from below. ¡°Best lay down flat, Max. The rail accelerator is going to continue to accelerate until almost 8 gravities and the elevator shaft air resistance will also be hitting you.¡±, Casita yelled over the screaming elevator. ¡°Great idea using the tesseract portal to hide like that, by the way!¡± ¡°Thank Professor Qasim. I got the idea from his class on animal senses and abilities. He briefly covered trapdoor spiders. The pocket space seemed like a similar application.¡± Max answered. He gritted his teeth as the g forces climbed. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you clear the screens? It sounded like they may have been recording them.¡± The world began to get blurry as Max heard Casita¡¯s giggling answer. ¡°No worries, Max. That wasn¡¯t our data. I played a little joke there. All those screens were displaying equations of unsolved math theories, the Riemann Hypothesis, the Hodge Conjecture, the P versus NP problem. If they show those to a scientist, they will be laughed out of the room. Wait until they see what¡¯s in the decoy data cores.¡± Before Max could summon a breath against the forces for a laugh, the world went gray, and his thoughts escaped him.
[New Resistance skill unlocked: Neural Scaffold 1 ¨C augmented protection of the brain from high accelerations and jerk forces, mitigates concussion and cerebral trauma.]
The loud whining from the rail wheels turning far too fast woke Max up. He fought his way back to consciousness to hear Casita screaming and pleading with him to wake up. The g forces still pinned him to the platform. ¡°How long was I out?¡± Max slurred, forcing the words out. [Oh my, I¡¯m so glad you¡¯re awake. Use telephony instead of trying to speak. We don¡¯t have much time. Ramp up your fast cog as high as it can go. Now!] Max activated his skills and answered [What¡¯s wrong? Are they chasing us?] [Ok, with fast time I can explain it better. Our plan was working very well. The thieves were left far behind, but shortly after you passed out, I realized that I missed something, something extremely important. The Rail drive is powered by the platform, but the brakes are part of the wall rails, not the platform. The EM braking on the elevator eject function is powered using the house systems, not the elevator¡¯s system, and the house is offline. This platform is NOT going to slow down. We are going to crash into the roof, and we will be squished like grapes in a high speed wine press.]
26 - Wild Ride Max fought to focus on the issue, struggling to stay awake. Their lives depended on it.
[Resistance Skill: Neural Scaffold +1, Neural Scaffold reaches level 2] [Endurance +1, Vitality +1, Will +1]
[Right, that¡¯s a big problem. I¡¯ve been told that the augmented body is super durable, but I don¡¯t think I want to see just how durable quite yet if it can be avoided. My skills are still suppressed so some of that potential protection might not be in place yet. Do you think the trap door spider trick will work again to protect us?]. Max projected. Casita paused and thought it through. With Max¡¯s skill amping up his thinking speed and her being held back by her portable hardware, they were both clocking about the same speed. [That¡¯s good thinking. I think I can work something out with it. You will be protected from the g forces and the impact inside the bubble world. I¡¯m concerned about the tesseract though, if the impact destroys the spacial anchor what happens to the bubble world?] [Ugh. That sounds riskier than trusting in my augmentation durability. Blast it, is there any way to protect it?] Max was getting scared, [How much time do we have?] [I have it! This is going to be tight. I¡¯m reconfiguring some of the smart matter probes meant for studying the tesseract tree right now! My records have some interesting files and designs. There is one national school project that focused on protecting eggs from damage with nanostructured shielding. If I build a smart matter casing with a battery source to keep its pseudo-chemical bonding strong, it can shield the Tesseract anchor.] [I¡¯m going to need your help though. You see where the tesseract is right now?] Casita asked. Unable to do more than shift and glance to the side against the g-forces, Max saw the Tesseract resting in the palm of his right hand. Both he and it were pinned to the floor with air pressure and high g forces. [I think I understand the problem], Max groaned, straining to move.
[Resistance Skill: Neural Scaffold +1, Neural Scaffold reaches 3] [Strength +1, Endurance +1, Vitality +1]
[We will have a small window to act], Casita said with hope, [While the E brake doesn¡¯t work at the top of the platform track, neither will the EM rail accelerator. Shortly before impact the acceleration forces should drop. If you can lift the tesseract up before impact, I can open the portal and eject the casement. You¡¯ll need to position the tesseract directly over the casement.] [When you let go and jump into the pocket space, the tesseract will drop into the casement. My design is quite clever. I designed the casement to be like a bear trap. It will snap shut over the marble when the tesseract lands on it. I will have to close the portal before it springs shut. If we can time it just right, both we and the anchor should be protected before the elevator smashes into the roof.]
[Resistance Skill: Neural Scaffold +1, Neural Scaffold reaches 4] [Strength +1, Endurance +1, Vitality +1, Will +1]
Max fought hard for a minute to focus; no other options presented themselves. He hoped the g force reduction would be enough. If the damn system could unlock his full skill set, he could probably easily do this. While he appreciated the gains the elevator ride from hell was giving him, he needed more, and he needed it now. Then Max remembered something that he had been neglecting and triggered his status screen.
[Name: Max E. Mitchell Level: Novice 7 (3450/3500 XP)] [Body Design Model: Custom ¨C Canis Familiarus Uplift Free Stats: 60] [Strength: 16 Agility: 20 Endurance: 19 Vitality: 21] [Perception: 22 Intelligence: 15 Will: 16 Energy: 71 Regen: 37/min] [Body Skill - Stamina: 8 Leaping: 7 Healing: 8 Strike: 6 Unbreakable: 3 Speed: 6] [Body Skill ¨C Gymnast: 6 Balance: 5 Claws: 2 Ballistics: 3 Stun: 1 Gland: 1] [Resist Skills ¨C Poison: 1 Shock: 4 Sonic: 4 Light: 4 EMP:1 Neural Scaffold: 4] [Sense Skills ¨C Scent: 9 DigiSense: 6 ExVision:2 EM Fields:1] [Mind Skill ¨C AI Assist: 8 Access: 6 Identify: 3 OverLayer: 4 Fast Cog: 4] [Mind Skill - Pattern: 7 Dream Learn: 4 Daemon: 1 Memory: 1 Bastion: 1]
His unclaimed stat points! He quickly assigned them all to his strength. Max tried to move his arm. It moved! It would still be a challenge to lift it, but he could begin to reposition himself for the expected effort. When the elevator slowed, he would be ready to try his best. [Casita, I think I can do it. How much time do we have?] [Let me share?] Casita asked as Max felt a pressure in his temple. Max forced himself to relax and accept the push.
[Mind Skill: OverLayer +1, OverLayer reaches 5]
Max¡¯s vision shifted with ghostly overlays. He saw Casita¡¯s casement final design as well as the current shape of the fabrication. The smart matter was quickly being reorganized into the needed design. Most importantly, he saw the countdowns. Several were being tracked, and the casement would be completed in 2 minutes. The expected g force reduction would hit in 3:58 minutes. And the impact was at 4:08. And all the counters slipped downwards as the seconds ticked by. Max gulped wishing they had more time.
[Mind Skill: Fast Cog +1, Fast Cog reaches 5] [Strength +1, Endurance +1, Intelligence +1, Will +1]
¡°Max, I wanted to let you know that I believe in you. I wouldn''t trade for anyone else to be stuck here in this situation with me. I think we can make it through.¡± ¡°Thanks Casita. I promise I will do everything I can. I won¡¯t let this be the end of my story,¡± Max said. The timer was getting close. Max gritted his teeth as he slowly managed to roll over and reposition his arms. Soon he was ready to push up against the punishing g forces and the pressure of rushing air. Despite his fast cog skill use, the timers advanced far too fast. Casita¡¯s fabrication of the anchor case was completed on time and the expected acceleration decrease was next. The milestone flashed past, but Max couldn¡¯t feel any changes in the pressure. [Blast it] Casa screamed in his head, [The platform voltage differential is too much. It''s still pushing us despite the house¡¯s current amplifiers being down. You must move now! We are out of time!] Max pushed with all his might, straining against the unrelenting pressure. He screamed as he felt something in his shoulder tear. Biting down hard his jaw popped and he heard a tooth crack. Max¡¯s vision narrowed and he saw red.
[New Body Skill unlocked: Hulk 1 - augmentation used to overload physical power, burning all stored power for energy, some damage may result.]
With his strength suddenly boosted, Max surged to his feet. In his slowed perception, he saw the anchor case drop down between his feet with a dull thud. Once it hit, it opened like a hungry Venus fly trap. With mere seconds remaining, Max dropped the Tesseract marble and triggered his leap skill. He dove into the portal as the anchor fell. Casita was ready inside the pocket space. The foglets in the chamber had formed a webbing throughout the sphere. Max¡¯s hurtling form was caught before he could damage himself or the tesseract tree, snapping many threads before it successfully arrested his flight. Casita could see that Max had dropped the anchor perfectly, she could see it would drop precisely onto the pressure pad to trigger the case. She inverted the focus to close the portal and their private sealed universe was painted only in tones of scintillating blue light as the elevator platform disappeared from their view. The case snapped shut microseconds before impact and the top floor of Casa de Mitchell was blasted hundreds of feet into the sky.
Far below, the two thieves were busy. Pulsed surface electrical discharges over their ExoSuits¡¯ surfaces quickly overloaded the intrusive foglets. Simms and Volker smoothly targeted the laser projectors one by one and disabled them with high-velocity kinetic rounds precisely applied to shatter their emitter arrays with minimal damage. Volker pulled a smart matter brick from his belt and sent it a command. It expanded into a sizable backpack. He scooped up the shiny octahedron and put it inside. Reggie began smashing the workstations and extracting the local data cores. Volker took some time to record all the display screens in detail and then threw the pack to Simms and strode to the blast wall in the direction of their entry point. While Simms loaded the recovered data cores into the pack, Volker took another brick from his belt and slapped it onto the wall, where it stuck in place. ¡°God damn booby traps. I hope we got the data cores intact. The booby trap might have triggered a data scramble.¡±, Volker complained as he strode to the back wall motioning Simms to follow. ¡°Mad scientist syndrome. If Mitchell didn¡¯t have such a complex and dug this classic subterranean lab literally miles beneath his house, our EMP would have disabled all this nonsense.¡± Simms tutted, loading the last core into the pack, and followed Volker. Without another word, both activated the heavy bracers on the right arms, which extended into a full body shield. They both took a low stance against the back wall with each shield grounded on both wall and floor in front of them. Volker sent the activation signal to his sticky block and a shaped charge detonated, punching a meter-wide hole into the thick blast wall revealing the borehole beyond. Neither were quite prepared for what happened next. Another present Casita had prepared while waiting for the invaders was to discharge the geothermal water lines into the purge reservoirs ringing the borehole. When the elevator platform rocketed upwards the reservoir walls blew out. Each of the 10 storage tanks contained about an Olympic-sized swimming pool volume of water, altogether about 6.5 million gallons of water. The released water had filled the 4-meter diameter borehole to a height of 200 feet high and was still filling while the men were finishing their collections. The resulting head pressure sprayed the lab with a jet of water as soon as the blast wall was breached, filling the lab up quickly and submerging the thieves.
Max was out cold and suspended in a web of foglets. Casita had used the surviving sensors in the Tesseract space to see that while Max did have some damage to both his augmented muscles and bones, he seemed to have been knocked out by funneling too much energy all at once. Satisfied he was ok, she thought about their next steps. Casita was running calculations through her new core. The variable of 8 g acceleration less air pressure, losing approximately a third of the accumulated velocity breaking through three floors of EMP-compromised smart matter built into her rough calculations. A peak height of 1,900 meters and at least 43 seconds of parabolic flight. It had already been two minutes, so even if these calculations were way off it would be a safe bet that the case had landed and would open automatically in another 3 minutes. Enough time perhaps to try and rouse Max. His bio-sign readings now looked like a deep sleep, rather than unconscious. Max couldn¡¯t possibly resist quoting a binge night movie. Casita whispered in his ear. A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡°It just so happens that my friend here is only mostly dead. There''s a big difference between mostly dead and all dead. Now, mostly dead is slightly alive.¡± Casita recited from memory. ¡°Hey! Hello in there! Hey!¡±, Casita quoted louder, ¡°What''s so important? Whatcha got here, that''s worth living for?¡± After a minute with no response, Casita gave up. Darn it. I guess he¡¯s still out cold. He would never fail to respond to a movie line from the Princess Bride. Another minute and I¡¯ll be able to take a peek outside. When her timer ran out, she opened the portal ever so slightly, a view of the bottom of the case. Visibility was good. If the twilight of dawn was lighting the bottom of the anchor case, then it must have opened successfully. Casita took a moment to appreciate the magnitude of their last terrifying 10 minutes. Casita opened the portal slowly and with care to get a better view. As the edge of the portal crossed the open flange of the anchor casement, it interacted by pushing the basement sideways. The tesseract and the case flipped like a coin and started rolling. With her view through the portal, the outside world appeared to be spinning. Casita couldn¡¯t get a good read on where their location might be. Are we rolling? We must be rolling. She thought. Suddenly water began to pour into the bottom edge of the portal. As the water flowed in, free of gravity, it became airborne. It swiftly and gracefully floated across the chamber. The blob splashed into the fractal ¡°leaves¡± which sparked and shriveled. One whole branch of the tree collapsed, shrinking inwards, and the already small pocket space got dangerously smaller. The portal which had been two meters wide now shrank to just one and was now off-center from the anchor. In a panic, Casita saw another blob of water floating in and headed towards the fractal canopy, another branch of the tree. The only tool she had to stop the water was her foglets, but all of them were occupied by holding Max¡¯s unconscious form. With no time to consider her options, Casita used the foglets to toss Max out of the pocket space through the distorted gateway. Inside the tesseract, the water impacted the glowing fractal leaves and erupted in sparks. The portal disappeared.
Bill¡¯s new Velociraptor ripped through the air fast approaching Utopia. Bill had used his connections in the Reformed USA to quietly ignore his uncleared flight path. Surprisingly, Sherlock had some AI Irregulars with whom he traded favors, one of whom was part of the NORAM collective. It had agreed to erase any record of Bill¡¯s flight for an unspecified future favor from Sherlock. Bill agreed. He was already breaking many rules for airspace control, he was significantly above the speed guidance for civilian aircraft. Once Bill and his team of daemons had gotten airborne and had made their discovery regarding the true danger of the tesseract, he had tried to connect with Casa but there had been no answer. He knew the current configuration of the tesseract was far different from the MIT team¡¯s device, but their threat was quite different from the high-energy event everyone assumed. The depth of the NetherLab might not work to contain this type of threat and might even hamper the ¡°resolution¡± to the dimensional incursion that happened in Boston. Casa being offline was beyond worrying, but no local businesses seemed to be affected similarly. Sherlock has found several live-streaming media influencers and active MMORPG gamers in the area who were all going about their normal lives with a live stream. They began their approach and broke through the cloud deck. High-magnification optics zoomed in on Casa de Mitchell and Bill¡¯s heart clenched. The house had a significant portion of the second floor removed with debris scattered about the yard. Smoke was drifting upwards, but no fire was visible from the distance. Bill¡¯s fear turned to anger when he saw a waiting autopod parked at the front gates. His assumption of a tesseract issue was immediately replaced with concerns of a different nature. With icy determination, he addressed his strategy daemon based upon the historic General George Patton. ¡°George, please direct the AI pilot. I need to get down there immediately, my augmentations can facilitate an unassisted high-speed airdrop. I need him to dive, and I will bail out and free-drop into the front yard. The pilot can take the Raptor to the Utopia airfield once he drops me. The Raptor quickly altered its profile and engaged its afterburners for a high-speed dive directly at the property. Bill positioned himself in the drop chamber where munitions would have been stored had the craft still been military. ¡°Drop me when ready¡±, Bill said to the craft and his team, his body quickly shifting. His poly matter skin and flesh hardened and shifted, changing into a war-form configuration. He cycled into calibration colors as active chameleon skin over armor came online. He didn¡¯t think stealth was on the menu, but better to be ready. Ports along his forearms, calves, and chest opened. His back inflated as beetle-like plates formed and flexed briefly. His hair retracted and his head reformed into an appearance of a modern helmet with a visor and a multitude of sensors around the entire surface. He smacked his fists together with large, spiked knuckles. Electricity arced briefly between them. The jet hit its mark and ejected Bill, while lifting its nose and recovering from the dive. Bill dropped like an arrow. With less than 200 feet before impact, his beetle backplates extended and snapped his body upright with full-frontal braking. The wings not only blocked the wind but microjets embedded in the wings forced air from behind him through the wings towards the front as thrust. Bill extended his arms and rapidly fired 10 canisters into the front yard. The canisters each exploded 3 meters above the yard spreading Bill¡¯s custom designed powered foglets. They were both denser and more powerful than the generic public designs and immune to EMP disabling. The foglets spread explosively in streamers and rebounded forming a wispy gauze of webs. The densely piled foglet webbing piled up across the front yard. Bill landed amongst the center pile of dense fog, as it cushioned his impact. Despite the braking and the fog net, Bill impacted the ground at high speed. He formed a small crater in the soil in a classic superhero landing pose. With a signal, the foglets split into diverging swarms, one circling Bill in a defensive tornado spreading outwards and another that shot forth into the house. No less than fifty drone jets ranging in size from a grain of rice to as large as a pack of playing cards shot out from under Bill¡¯s carapace and zipped in multiple directions: the perimeter, overhead, around the other side of the house, into the house¡¯s special drone access ports, and in through the damaged roof. Bill activated his custom skills, and his visuals of the house became absolute. The yard and house were mapped in perfect fidelity into his expanded and accelerated consciousness from full spectrum visuals, radar, sonar, energy signatures, and space mapping using his foglets that pelted through the area. The area was quiet. No sign of activity, and no electrical or thermal signals. The damage mapped onto his sensorium, and he saw it lined up with an exposed borehole that went to the NetherLab. Grinding his teeth, he leaped through the broken bay window. He didn¡¯t need to direct his daemons. This was a familiar dance for them. George minded the perimeter and over watch, taking his normally assigned drones and feeding the information back to Bill. Miyamoto, recognizing the rising potential for conflict, extended gun barrels from Bill¡¯s forearms, and two skeletal arms unfolded from the back of Bill¡¯s carapace, each vibrating with ghostly blades. Ada updated and scanned his expanded sensory input and filtered the most pertinent signals for Bill¡¯s overlay. Leo noted the bay window breakage, dead foglet traces, and scorched smart matter patterns, he suggested this was the ingress point and likely an EMP was used to disrupt and disable the house systems. Virgil whispered caution into Bill¡¯s subconscious to be wary but also to keep his temper, prioritizing Casa and Max over aggression. Sherlock absorbed all the data making no comments. Bill made his way to the undamaged office side of the house, where Casa¡¯s core was housed. Inspecting the core, he sighed with relief. The core was intact and functioning, but the connections with the house had shorted and fused. George reported that he had found a camouflaged hunter¡¯s blind as well as numerous concealed cameras and an actively waiting autopod. Ada quickly accessed and cracked the Autopod¡¯s low-level AI security to learn that it had arrived two hours ago and had been waiting ever since. Bill took a palm-sized deck from his thigh and pressed it into the core. It physically connected to the core and provided a comms channel to Casa. ¡°[Bill! Thank goodness you are back. Two intruders with military-grade Exosuits and a bunker-buster EMP. I apologize, but my countermeasures were not adequate. I¡¯ve been offline for 3.10 hours. Max was in the NetherLab!]¡± Casa streamed at him, giving him a microburst of condensed information along the same channel. With his cognition speed ramped up, Bill quickly assessed the information. The attack replayed in his mind, freelance mercenaries by the looks of them. Casa¡¯s summary of the tesseract¡¯s activation raised his eyebrows but realizing that Max was still missing refocused him. He reached into his stomach and detached his gut nanofactory and plugged it into Casa. ¡°This should help you get reconnected and get the house back in order. I need to find Max right now.¡± Bill said and turned to the borehole. To his surprise, something was coming up. Miyamoto triggered Bill into a combat stance as an ExoSuited figure bounded up the borehole in a continuous wall-to-wall leaping climb. He cleared the edge and landed with an exhausted groan. Upon looking up, he realized he wasn¡¯t alone. Bill stood facing him, surrounded by a dense swarm of foglets and a multitude of drones. His fists crackled with lightning and his bonus arms extended their blades. Bill¡¯s time perception slowed to a crawl, his aggressively swirling motes, and the world around him frozen in the moment he ramped up his speed. His daemons spoke to him in his head. ¡°[His arms are starting to rise. I expect he will attempt to shoot you with his embedded arm projectile launchers. I took the liberty of preparing our normal counter move against it. He is also shifting forward. I expect he will charge you once his weapons fail.]¡±, Musashi advised. Patton also chimed in, ¡°[You need to eliminate him as quickly as possible. You, Casa, and Max are exposed to the invader. Remember our lesson from Burma, that Techlord appeared to be disabled but he overloaded his augmentation power cells and destroyed the entire building. While your defenses held, three bystanders died.]¡± Virgil, always the contrarian, argued his point, "[While this man may be trespassing and launching an assault upon you, it is within your rights to defend yourself. However, do take heed that he seems to possess significant augmentations, and even subduing him would require a powered strike. Are you prepared to expose some of your combat strategies?]¡± Bill considered the advice and responded, ¡°[Thank you Virgil. I will try to regulate my counterattack, but I can¡¯t take a chance here. Once he realizes how badly he is outmatched, he might trigger an area attack. I need to keep my final counter measures under wraps. If I reveal them in a fight, I will absolutely need to kill him.]¡± ¡°[Ada and Leo, any observations?]¡±, Bill asked. ¡°[He does transmit upon a most narrow radio frequency, and with great encryption, which leads me to suspect a communication line. I have already commenced a similar emission to overwhelm and confound the data. It does seem that he has no active mote or drone network coverage at present,]¡± Ada reported. Leo cleared his ¡°throat¡± and said, ¡°[He¡¯s wearing a new Meridian Model 34R ExoSuit. Unfortunately, we don¡¯t have its codes yet to enable remote disabling. Its specifications include heavy armor and strength augmentation, high-capacity quantum battery, kinetic projectiles, and flight capability. Although judging by his method of climbing out the borehole, I suspect his suit¡¯s power capability regarding flight is either exhausted or damaged.]¡± [¡°Alright then,¡±] Bill said, [¡°Lets adjust our time sense to fight speed. Once his initial attack fails, if he closes the distance like you expect Musashi then I¡¯ll need your help for a proper disabling move.¡±]. Once everyone agreed, he brought his perception speed up to only about twice faster than human.
With a tremendous roar, the man brought his arms up and triggered his high-velocity kinetic rounds. His rage transformed into confusion as his hands exploded in a spray of shrapnel and red mist. Unseen while the pair squared off, Bill¡¯s denser powered foglets had accumulated on his barrels, linked up and compressed. The motes distorted the barrels and resulted in the mercenary¡¯s unfortunate backfire. Howling foreign swears, the man charged, extending his arm blades from his ruined forearms. Bill folded backward while performing a barrel roll, his carapace deflected the vibrating blades and his extra arms swept to the side. Each slash cut the man¡¯s extended arms to guillotine both his arms with several successive cuts. Bill¡¯s foot quickly followed, hitting the man¡¯s helmet hard enough to toss him into the wall and send his helmet flying. The man bounced off the wall and crashed to the floor, his arms missing, and the right side of his head caved in. ¡°Dumb! You stupid son of a bitch! You don¡¯t break into a man¡¯s house and start an augmented fight without good-grade augmentations!¡± Bill snarled. ¡°[He is disabled. I am not certain if his augmentation will enable his revival.]¡± Miyamoto commented. A hook shot up from below and caught on the edge of the borehole. A moment later using a powered winch, a second man with a backpack hauled himself over the edge. Seeing the messy remains of Volker, Simms did not get up from the ground. He rolled over on his stomach and spoke. ¡°Game over man. I give up. Fucking mad scientist.¡± Reggie Simms groaned. Bill¡¯s foglets swarmed the man¡¯s armor and began to cut it apart like aggressive army ants. Soon, Bill had Reggie removed from the armor. The man was now wearing only a ¡°suit¡± of Bill¡¯s foglets. Reggie was truly afraid for the first time in his life staring up into Bill¡¯s cold eyes. Several dozen foglets had flown into his mouth and he could feel them in his stomach, lungs, throat, and sinuses. ¡°I¡¯m going to ask you once and only once. I¡¯m sure you must be aware of the multitudes of data my swarm is giving me right now about your physical state. If you try to lie, I will end you. Very painfully.¡± ¡°Now tell me, where is my son?¡± Bill demanded. Reggie was not insane or stupid like that poor bastard Volker. He talked and talked, revealing everything from his plans and his stalking to his partnership with Volker and their tenuous employment for Aphelion. He confirmed that he had followed Max to the house but never saw him once the pair had broken in. ¡°[I believe he is telling us everything he knows. No signs of obfuscation or lies.]¡± Sherlock judged. With cold calculation, Bill gripped Simms with a precise grip under his ear along the neck. Activating his shocking grip, Simms seized and was knocked out. ¡°[Bill, thank you for the nanofactory. I have accumulated and recycled about 3 cubic meters of smart matter so far. I can shape it into an extension cable to reconnect to the NetherLab. The EMP damage is unlikely to have damaged much more than a couple of hundred meters deep.]¡± Casa advised. ¡°[Reconnecting me to the NetherLab to discern what happened will likely be faster than trying to physically get down there.]¡± ¡°Alright. Let¡¯s do it. My biggest drone can fly the cable down when ready. Leo and Ada, can you take over the gut nanofactory? I¡¯m not sure of the best order to proceed to get the rest of the house restored. It can expand for more cycling capacity, or you can replace the core of the house matter compiler. Simulate the different approaches and execute the least time version.¡± Bill said, still anxious to find Max and needing to do something while waiting. He pulled over the backpack and started looking through it, pulling out the data cores and a gaudy cubic shape. ¡°[Professor, if you allow my use of your hand access contacts, I should be able to interrogate those hard drives. Maybe some answers can be found there as well.]¡± Sherlock suggested. ¡°I can do you one better¡± Bill replied, and four tentacles ending in USB connections snaked out from his sides and plugged into the drives. He knew that Sherlock would be able to squeeze out precious time with his expertise in cyber-interrogation. Taking a deep breath Bill thought hard. He was missing something. The EMP didn¡¯t explain all this damage and Simms never saw Max. Sherlock was deep into the drives already and Casa was sending the cable down the borehole. He hefted the junky octahedron in one hand, what the heck is this piece of garbage and why did these two think it was valuable. With a sigh, he called up Moneta. ¡°Moneta, the police will hear about this soon. If we can call them here before they arrive it would be for the best. No mention of the tesseract, just say we think they were after my data while I was away.¡± Bill asked. ¡°Of course, that would be for the best. They can take charge of this man and help with understanding what occurred. And don¡¯t worry Bill. Max is a smart boy. We will find him.¡± Moneta answered. Bill smiled; her words had a strangely calming effect as he broke the strange object apart. To the best of his understanding, the thing was no better than cheap costume jewelry. He finished pulling the last piece of Simm''s armor apart, sending it down the recycling chute. His nanobots began to swarm over the apartment, slowly fixing the EMP damage while leaving the other destruction for the police reviewers. He paused in the chaos, taking a deep breath and letting it out in a long sigh. An almost sub-audible whisper in the back of his mind he ¡°heard¡± Sherlock¡¯s confused mutters about the data in the blocks all containing code for an ancient game called Donkey Kong.
MTH short story interlude 1 These will be completely self contained short stories from the "More than Human" series universe. While you don''t need to read these to enjoy the More than Human novel(s), some familiar characters might appear. A little diversion while you wait between scheduled chapter drops. So many backstories, side stories, and more. These add flavor to the world and explore some side characters, but I didn''t want them to muddle the main story
Bo raced low across the Arizona desert scrub. He felt his newest body thrum with more power than he¡¯d ever felt before. His form looked like a sleek inverted teardrop of liquid metal, slightly flattened into a pointed lozenge. Its systems were tight and well-calibrated, although he expected no less. His former college partner, Allison, always did good work. He had forgotten how much he liked working with her. In college projects, she had brought the brains and creativity and he had the intuition and balls to test out their designs. This vehicle form, her startup company¡¯s latest creation, had got him 5th place in the Diamond Man global Canyon Runner races. Bo knew that with the pair¡¯s latest tweaks to the design, he could have placed first easily if they raced again today. With a thought, he altered the surface properties of the craft¡¯s outer edges, directing the air flows across its control surfaces. The response was instantaneous as he peeled up and to the left in a tight barrel roll. His comms ticked and Allison¡¯s spoke up in his mind. ¡°[You ok there, Crash? That turn looked pretty wild.] ¡°[That was all me. Your improvements to both the power core and the smart skin have really improved the control system design and power flow, Ally.]¡± Bo responded. ¡°[I¡¯ve got a good feeling about our match this afternoon with the RUSA weapons board. Are you sure I can¡¯t convince you to sell me another couple of percentage points of equity in your company?]¡± Bo said. He¡¯d tried to make the comment sound like a joke, but he was dead serious. If this demo went well, Ally was going to make her company and him very wealthy. ¡°[Don¡¯t get greedy, Crash. If this goes well, you¡¯ll get your piece of the pie.¡±] Allison chided. ¡°[If we can convince them of this design¡¯s superiority, I can secure the contract and assure my company¡¯s end-of-year profits. I have plenty more ideas for improvements that we can take to the private sector as well.]¡± Bo maxed his acceleration and turned sharply into a vertical climb. The craft surged into the sky, a sonic boom crashing down upon the open plain, as Bo ¡°felt¡± 12 gravities of pull trying to hold him back. A normal pilot would be unconscious, but Bo¡¯s entire body had been reformed into this craft. His biological brain was merged with an artificial cognition module. Both were nested with distributed supports and augmentation, under high pressure, which prevented damage and increased his thought speed. ¡°[YEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!]¡±, he injected into his comms. Allison was way too cautious and would never push the craft design as he did. The least he could do for her was to share a smidgeon of his exhilaration, so she could truly understand his appreciation. At the apex of the climb, he clicked the comms again. ¡°[This is now at least 20% more than anything I¡¯ve ever piloted. It¡¯s amazing! Seriously, Allison, what did you do to with the power-core?]¡±, Bo asked. ¡°[So you think that if I explain it for the eighth time that you¡¯ll suddenly understand? Face it, Bo, physics just isn¡¯t your kind of thing.]¡± Allison teased. ¡°[Maybe it is the teacher who cannot teach, rather than the student who cannot learn?]¡± Bo answered with deep feeling. ¡°[Arghh! Spare me your martial arts mantras, Crash. Ok. I¡¯ll explain it to you, as I did to my daughter¡¯s 3rd-grade class. Ready?]¡± Allison said with a sigh. ¡°[Yes, Sensei.]¡± Bo said, subserviently. ¡°[So, every child knows how psuedomaterials were invented in the 2060s. A matrix of quantum dots can be fed electrons and it holds them in place. This cloud of electrons, funnily enough, layers itself into valence shells just like ordinary atoms but without the meaty center nucleus. Thus was born the first artificial atom. Now these atoms aren¡¯t mobile like normal loose atoms since it¡¯s locked in a matrix, but it does act like an atom. Empty spots in valence shells want to be full. So now we had the ability to make both psuedochemistry and psuedomaterials.]¡± ¡°[Like every good scientist, those old boys in the ought-sixties played with this stuff; seeing what they could do with it. The matter they could simulate with their artificial construct was quick and easy. Now, did you ever wonder why the periodic table stops at the heaviest element 118?]¡± Allison asked. ¡°[It doesn¡¯t come up frequently on the racing circuit, so no, and yes please tell me.]¡± Bo said. Ally sighed and continued. ¡°[Well, being completely honest, we still don¡¯t know. The highest elements are very unstable and the heavier the element the less we have of them. Since heavy elements are formed only in Supernovae, perhaps if we wait another 14 billion years then current crop of heavy elements will combine in the hearts of stars to form even heavier ones.]¡± Allison lectured. ¡°[So, these smart dudes have been scheming and postulating for a long while, and some of them think there might be a chance for some super heavies to be more stable way up into the 180 weight class.]¡± ¡°[The unstable heavies frustrated them to no end ¡®cause they evaporated too fast for them play with it. Now, these science dudes are salivating over getting some of these stable superheavies. Stuff that they can actually play with, but they certainly don¡¯t want to wait billions of years for their fun time. Enter psuedomatter.]¡± Allison continued. [¡°Duh Duh DUUUUNNNNN]¡± Bo chimed to imitate music for a climactic reveal. ¡°[Right¡­So these guys pump their quantum arrays full of electrons and create artificial atoms and start doing psuedochemistry. Turns out that even the unstable elements work out to be stable when constrained in a quantum array. Now that they had a brand new box of toys, those scientists got busy. They configured all the atoms up to and beyond 180 and then they even started mixing them into combinations to mimic alloys and polymers.]¡± ¡°[They created a ton of crap materials, but every now and then, they found an exceptional material with valuable properties. Chryolite and Chryomite are perfect thermal conductors and insulators respectively. Xenoferrite finally gave us cheap room-temperature superconductors. Adamantium, a once mythical magical metal but now a very real and super strong alloy. But the secret of the power cores comes from a material called Ergonite. It¡¯s actually about 10 very similar and adjacent alloys each enabling the capture of enormous charges of energy. Best of all, the more energy they get, the more stable and durable they become.]¡± ¡°A power core made from nested Ergonite, the size of a marble. It can store enough energy to run a car nonstop for a month. The best part is that the discharge rate is tremendous. The classic sci-fi laser pistol finally became a thing. It¡¯s the world''s most stable electron bomb if you release it all at once.]¡± ¡°[Now, the power core you¡¯re wearing is about the size of a baseball. It¡¯s layered with different grades of Ergonite shells, and each has added kinetic spin making it the most energy-dense container on the planet that I¡¯m aware of. The patent is already filed, and this reveal will be the first public showing.]¡± Allison''s voice was thick with smugness. ¡°[I think I actually understood a little bit of that. So, with that explanation, I¡¯m thinking that I¡¯m wearing a super bomb, correct? What if I do crash? It¡¯s been known to happen.]¡±, Bo asked. ¡°[Like I said, the more energy it holds the more durable it is. Anything capable of cracking that core would vaporize you long before it cracks.]¡±, she said. ¡°[But if I release all that energy at once¡­..]¡±, Bo thought out loud. ¡°[DON¡¯T! Just don¡¯t. It¡¯s not an issue if you don¡¯t play with it. You have all the juice you need, just don¡¯t go frying yourself.]¡± Allison warned. Bo brought the craft up and over and hauled ass back down to the desert floor and made a beeline towards the staging area. All the top ten craft from the Canyon Runner Races would compete in mock combat against the RUSA Air Force¡¯s 2123 Top Guns. They all flew what they believed to be the very pinnacle of flying attack craft, the Velociraptor Mk4. Bo intended to show them just how wrong they were. As a prize, if they did manage to win it, was a guarantee that the RUSA Department of Weapons Research would ask for an exclusivity contract. With a 3% equity share in Allison¡¯s company, Carter QuantumFlight, this could be Bo¡¯s first big score. Unlike a lot of Bo¡¯s peers, he did not get pre-competition jitters. He only felt impatient to get in the air and do his thing. In his mind¡¯s virtual display, he ran through the checklist of his systems. Air control surfaces optimized, power core maxed and humming with power, Bo had suggested and receive several upgrades after the Canyon Runner event; Allison had made it all happen. Bo focused his multi-spectrum scanner over his own body. With a combination of visual, thermal, x-ray, and terahertz; Bo was able to inspect each of his systems as they worked. His aluminum composite structure was laced with adamantium pseudo matter. His entire frame around those primary struts was polymorphic smart matter, capable of shifting its shape to support his desired aerodynamic form. Kinetic rail guns and laser armaments were positioned tight to his core with emitters both fore and aft. His primary thrust was directed aft but with multiple major channels and capillaries throughout the body to provide limited thrust in any direction. Deep inside the craft, Bo¡¯s brain and core augmentations resided. He was tied into the craft on a fundamental level. He was the craft. His spinal column was the central bus for all the vehicle''s sensors, power systems, weapons, thrust, control surfaces, and special countermeasures. His ¡°skin¡± was one of the more complex systems; armored but flexible, multilayered with chameleon pixels, and variable surface properties to alter the flow of air over its flat areas. The power core was the final and perhaps most important of his subsystems. Bo was thrilled as he modulated its outputs to his primary thrusters. Diverting a fraction of its power to his shape and skin control and he flexed his new body¡¯s shape, surface properties, armor cladding thickness, and even color. Finally, Bo had his bag of tricks he had developed for this competition. Four core missiles, lightweight but blazingly fast, each with a mini-mind to track his targets and pierce them. Remembering Allison¡¯s lesson, Bo quickly altered their code to add the potential to detonate their cores. His monofilament bolo, remora disabler, second skin, decoys, foglet flack, foglet bomb, and vorpal wing extensions completed his load out. If Bo still had a mouth, he would have been grinning ear to ear. There was a smart matter stand of chairs, incongruous amidst the desert scrub full of observers. It was swathed in foglets, keeping the heat and dust away from the audience. Bo ran his identification skill over the crowd. Mostly scientists, system engineers, and project managers from the weapons board. Several executives from the Diamond Man were eager to see how their racers did against the government forces. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. One person stood out as the focus of the entire group. Bo gasped as his system displayed her details. Lena Lee, the Samaritan nicknamed Samurai. She was the president and founder of Bodywerks, the premier augmentation design firm on the Earth. Bo was more determined than ever to impress, imagining his future with her as a sponsor. This demonstration would be a live fire, last-man-standing fight. If the RUSAF won, they retained their prestige as the best air combat force on the planet. With modern vehicle design, a completely destroyed vehicle was unlikely. Everyone did have backup scans of their brains, just in case. Finally, the field marshal signaled the start of the match with a flare fired into the air. Bo charged fast down the runway and pulled a hard turn straight up with a 10g acceleration. No sense revealing my full power just yet, he thought. His competition had similar reactions. The RUSAF pilots seemed to be moving quite a bit slower than the Canyon Runners. The rhyme ¡°Slow feet, don¡¯t eat¡± played in his head. This was a free for all. There were no teams, but Bo knew that the USAF pilots would likely form an unofficial alliance to fight the Canyon Runners. The Canyon Runners would cut anyone¡¯s throat, but slow movers were vulnerable and therefore likely to be their first targets. At the apex of his flight, Bo inverted his climb and dove down into a cold dive. The technique was a no-power ballistic drop with his Chameleon layer painted sky blue. With his EM signature minimized, no heat source, active camouflage, and the blinding sun behind him; he would be extremely hard to see. With passive steering only, he lined up with a target, his biggest threat, the winning pilot of the Canyon Run event, Jo Jo Barnes. Jo Jo was already mixing it up in a dogfight with a pair of RUSAF Raptors. Jo Jo was still unaware of his approach, as she made her move and cut between the Raptors. In that instant, she popped up between them, and each instinctively opened fire with striker missiles. Somehow, Jo Jo spun into a seemingly erratic tumble which perfectly slipped past all five of the incoming and crossing missiles. Her assailants were not so lucky. Each found that being in the path of friendly fire had devastating consequences. One Raptor exploded outright, and the pilot''s core ejected violently out of the shattered craft. The other craft survived its hit but was swiftly dropping out of the sky with serious engine failure. I need to strike now, Bo thought, while she stabilizes and reviews the skirmishes happening right in front of her to the north. Bo shot his Remora bolt using a minimal pulse thru his rail gun. His EM shield should hide the field fluctuation. The bolt had a cold gas assist to help push its closing velocity up even higher without EM or heat signatures. Bo¡¯s tension and excitement climbed as the Remora fell directly into Jo Jo¡¯s unsuspecting path. Bo was about to yell a victory call when Jo Jo¡¯s craft spun into a barrel roll at the last possible second. Her wing tip hit the Remora and flicked it into open space where it would drop powerless to the desert below. Simultaneously with her defensive roll, a laser swept across the sky. The high-energy maser tore into Bo¡¯s left wing, ablating the chameleon skin right off but partially reflected by the highly reflective, extreme albedo, anti-laser coating underneath. Bo¡¯s aborted victory cry turned into a surprised yelp and finished as an agonized scream. Another of Bo¡¯s methods of maintaining the highest effort to win was that regardless of his equipment; he always ran a pain analog into his nervous system for damage. Bo was not a masochist, far from it. He went to great lengths to avoid it. That motivation carried him towards winning smart, not through relentless tanking of damage. Bo, with his cognition still amped, reacted immediately. He ignited his power core-driven air turbines and boosted over Jo Jo at a full 12 g, headed directly for the massive dogfight to the north. His craft surged with its full power unleashed, Jo Jo¡¯s follow-up rail gun kinetic shots missing by inches. God damn it, Bo thought. That Remora cost me 10,000 UN credits! I hope the tracker works so I can recover it after the match. Bo raced towards the fight in the north as Jo Jo quickly lined up behind him. He jinked constantly, even though she hadn¡¯t opened fire yet. He knew she was planning something, and he didn¡¯t feel good about his positioning. He was ten seconds from meeting the scrum and Jo Jo fired a pair of striker missiles. She fucked up! Bo thought. If she was counting on him slowing down to avoid the fight, she was so wrong. He would enter the fray at least two seconds before the missiles closed on him. Bo activated his jet casings Peltier array, a lining made of a mix of chryolite and chryomite to pull the excess heat being generated by the compressed air jet and divert it into his decoy-drones. The decoys were made of stacked chryomite shielding to shine with absorbed heat. As he ran, he didn¡¯t want the smart missiles to lock on him, so muffling his thermals served two purposes. Bo dove between missiles and maser fire as he corkscrewed between several active exchanges. He popped loose his decoys and sent them towards his closest obstacles, RUSAF or Canyon Runner. He didn¡¯t know and didn¡¯t care. This game¡¯s rules were every man for himself and the last man standing won! Bo whooped as he extended his vorpal wing and sliced the wing off a Canyon Runner as he exited the other side of the scrum. Oops, Bo thought, I just took down Ramirez. I¡¯ll have to buy him a beer later. Hopefully, he won¡¯t shank me in our next bout. Two explosions boomed, a RUSAF Raptor and a Canyon Runner that had been the unfortunate final destination of Jo Jo¡¯s volley at Bo. Bo howled with delight at the good turn of events, at least 4 of 20 were already out of the competition. He banked left in a hard turn that would have snapped the wings of a lesser craft and battered a human pilot unconscious. Bo could not stop grinning mentally as he lined up for his next shot.
Bo was getting desperate. He had taken down another three Raptors and now his Striker missiles were depleted. All the RUSAF Top Guns had been eliminated. He had managed to avoid another head-to-head with Jo Jo. She was engaged with her top rival Yusuf right now, which left him to being ganged up on by the last of the Runners: Emil and Sonya. Both harried him with lasers and railgun rounds, scoring his skin and punching small holes in his body. Neither would come close enough for a wing strike; they had seen what he had done to Ramirez. Bo was dying a death by a thousand cuts; he deployed his nano fog flack to get a breather. He was pretty sure one of them must have a striker left. All he had was his vorpal wings, his bolo, and the foglet bomb. Bo was never one to quit. He flipped his craft and charged his flack cloud. As Emil burst through the cloud, followed tightly by Sony, Bo surprised them. He raced directly down at them, in a game of high-speed chicken. He deployed his bolo but kept one of the bolo anchors locked in his launcher. Bo screamed, as he jerked his craft hard right, wrapping Emil in the extended bolo. The two tethered fighters spun wildly, right towards the following Sonya. Bo released the locked bolo anchor just as Sonya collided with Emil. The pair crashed in a flaming avalanche of metal. Bo skinned past, scraping another layer of skin off his body/craft, as they plummeted towards the desert floor. Damn, that¡¯s gotta hurt, Bo thought. Maybe as much as I¡¯m feeling it right now. [Good moves, Crash. Now why don¡¯t you follow them!], a familiar voice sounded off on his event channel radio. Jo Jo must have finished Yusuf before he dealt with his matchups. He spun around but Jo Jo¡¯s striker missile was already far too close. No time to run. She had timed that comm perfectly to make him freeze up. Time to make the donuts! Bo yelled in his head. He had to time this perfectly or he would be a flaming wreck in seconds. From Jo Jo¡¯s vantage point of the high ground, Bo¡¯s craft appeared to erupt as her striker missile connected. The entire craft peeled apart with fiery pieces that scattered quickly. As the cloud of flaming debris began its descent to the ground, Jo Jo did a victory barrel role and opened her radio channel. [Another first place for Jo Jo Barnes!] Jo Jo yelled to the audience and the Field Marshal. After a moment of static, the line clicked open. [The event is not over yet, Ms. Barnes], the deep voice of the Field Marshall responded over the line. The comm crackled and hissed. [Ya missed me, Jo Jo Mamma!] Bo taunted over the line and peeled into laughter. Jo Jo thought that she heard the audience in the background laughing as well. Furious, she dove; opening and maxing her full scanner suite to find the bastard. Those last seconds from Bo¡¯s perspective were much more nerve-shattering and tense. Bo had to perform several simultaneous actions to present the illusion that he needed to survive. The move was risky in the extreme, and he had never practiced it. It was only a theoretical option¡­until now. Unfortunately, he had no choice. The first piece was to ensure the missile did not connect. It was aimed center of mass, but Bo¡¯s power core was nestled in his tail with his jet turbine while his pilot core mind was in the prow. His midsection contained his armaments which were almost completely depleted. The Donut Time command reshaped his midriff to create a hole. A well-aimed missile should, theoretically, pass right through. The obvious flaw in this ploy was that the missile owner would see the tactic and remotely detonate it. This required some extra sleight of hand. Bo shredded and shed his top five layers of ¡°skin¡±. In combination with launching and detonating his foglet bomb and thermal decoys forwards, his ¡°destruction¡± would appear guaranteed from his attacker''s perspective. Out of the backside of his shed skin, Bo swiftly dropped, keeping the wreckage between him and Jo Jo. He needed some space, and he needed a plan. Fast! If he closed with her, into knife fighting range, then maybe he had a chance. However, if she still had any explosive ordinance left, she would burn him down before he got anywhere near her. It was a bad bet and Bo knew it. Bo wasn¡¯t a gambler. He worked for every advantage he could find and put it all on the line. With a sudden inspiration, Bo realized he did have another weapon. He just needed to get to it. Bo maxed his thrust, diving towards his last hope. Time to pull a win out of the hat. Hearing Jo Jo¡¯s comm, Bo couldn¡¯t help broadcasting a snarky response. He needed her angry. He needed her to come after him hard without too much time thinking. He was glad that he worked well under pressure. Timing, again, was going to be critical. He would need it to be perfect. Bo dropped to the floor of the desert. Jo was in hot pursuit, screaming for his blood. Bo diverted thrust down and to the sides as well at pushing forwards, creating havok on the desert floor. Jo Jo was trying to hit him with masers and kinetic rounds, but the dust cloud he was raising made it hard for her to get a target lock. Bo found his target and dispatched his last drone, concealed by the cloud of dust. He began a long gradual turn to the right, pounding the desert floor with his thrusters, raising hell with every meter. ¡°[Bo, turn around and fight! You can¡¯t keep running forever.]¡± Barnes screamed over the line. ¡°[Sure thing Jo. You just shoot off your last remaining missiles and ordinance and we¡¯ll settle this hand to hand, or wing to wing, as nature intended.]¡±, Bo answered laughing. ¡°[I¡¯m already there, Bo. I used my last missiles against Yusuf. Turn around and let¡¯s finish this!]¡± Jo Jo demanded. ¡°[Well damn! Guess I¡¯ll just have to trust you on that one, Jo. How about I just slow up and let you not send your already deployed missiles right down into my teeth?]¡± Bo quipped. ¡°[Darn it, I can¡¯t seem to find my aerobraking controls. Guess we will need to wait a little bit longer. Getting tired yet, Jo Momma?]¡± ¡°[Fuck you, Crash! I can do this all day, but you make one mistake and it¡¯s all over for you.]¡± Jo Jo raged into the comms, pushing her power core into the red zone. Just a little more, Bo thought, almost there. Bo sent the command to his advanced scout drone. It only had one task. Bo passed over its head, with Jo following far too close behind him. After he passed, the drone launched itself upwards with its acquired payload. Bo¡¯s lost Remora bolt was still armed and still deadly. It impacted and penetrated Jo Jo¡¯s hull directly on the stern. The delivery drone was crushed and thrown to the side with the impact. Jo Jo had less than a second to register the foreign object hitting her hull, as all her systems shut down. The Remora injected a focused EMP directly into her hull, past the craft''s EM shielding, disrupting her systems. Her power core, her thrusters, her armaments, and even her personal nervous system augmentations were deactivated in the blast. Jo Jo was blind and deaf as her craft drilled into the desert floor creating a kilometer long trench in the scrub.
¡°Seriously Crash. I can¡¯t believe your dumb Donut tactic actually worked. That was a super bad plan.¡± Allis,on had finally caught up with Bo, in the back of the bar at the victory party. He had disentangled his central nervous system and was reconnected with his own heavily augmented body again. ¡°Hey, it¡¯s not dumb if it works, right? So gimme the news. Did you get the contract?¡± Bo asked as he pressed a beer into her hands. Alison tried to look stern but took a quick sip and beamed at Bo. ¡°Yes! We have a 3-year contract! The funding round is already in my accounts. Are you ready to cash in?¡± Allison asked with a devious expression. ¡°No way! I sense that you and this company are only just beginning. I¡¯m an equity partner and don¡¯t you forget it.¡± Bo said with his sternest expression. Unfortunately for Bo, his expression came off as more constipated than dignified. Allison burst into laughter and reached into her jacket, producing a folded document. She suddenly had a much more serious expression. ¡°All kidding aside, Bo. Take this. You¡¯ve earned it.¡± She said pushing the document into his hands. Bo looked confused. He opened the document and scanned it. ¡°What the hell Allison? Another 2% share. With your company¡¯s new contract, the valuation of this is¡­.is¡­. I have no idea how much this is, but it¡¯s way more than the test flight deserves.¡± Bo pushed the document back. Allison held up her hands. ¡°Keep it, Bo. Your efforts today helped this company immensely and today you, more than anyone, have put us on the map. If you must, then consider this a downpayment. I have a lot of ideas and I''ll need your help testing them out and making them work.¡± Bo raised his glass, motioning her to join him. ¡°To Carter QuantumFlight, onward and upward!¡± he said. ¡°To Carter QuantumFlight, onward and upward. But absolutely no more Donut Time!¡± She spoke. With a smile, Bo clinked her glass. Today had been a very good day, he thought with satisfaction. 27 - Clean Up FML-M8 received the call to action. Several exciting terms excited the inputs in his judiciary module, breaking and entry, property damage, assault and battery, self-defense, utopian technology use violations, and more. He used the UPHQ¡¯s rail launcher once again to fire himself towards the westernmost reaches of Utopia, 8070 Forest Street, property resident includes Casa de Mitchell , again. He triggered the ambulance creche to follow as quickly as it could and notified Police Sheriff Durham. This one would likely require her attention as well. FML-M8 had little tolerance for calming citizens when a case needed solving. [At last], it thought, [something better than searching for that cat Sadie again. That diabolical beast seems to escape and get lost every other week.] FML-M8 landed at the gated perimeter of the Mitchell property and took in the scene of destruction. The roof of the building had exploded outwards covering the property with debris, mostly smart matter, although his scans indicated their circuits were completely ruined. The mostly intact house had its large bay window broken open to the yard and a large multi-armed man stood in the center of the exposed room looking down. FML-M8 deployed his stunner, taser, laser, and vorpal extensions while releasing a cloud of powered motes. ¡°Citizen. Please, make no sudden moves. I am responding to a disturbance call and need to assess the situation. Are you the occupant of the house?¡± FML-M8 boomed, as he cautiously hovered closer, all his sensors scanned the area, and his powered motes spread out quickly. His scans revealed another pair of individuals on the ground. One appeared restrained and the other was in medical distress. There was an active AI neural core on the floor, plugged into the house. Many smart matter motes were actively shifting throughout the structure. A large hole in the central room¡¯s floor was evident. ¡°Yes, Officer. Thank you for coming. This is my house and I called in the request for assistance. These two men were in the process of ransacking my house when I interrupted them in the act. My son is still missing.¡± Bill responded. FML-M8 sensors picked up what little biological signals were available from the man who claimed to be the house¡¯s occupant. It made it extremely hard to interpret his truthfulness. Database review matched his aug signatures to the property owner, Bill Mitchell, Ph.D. The man was a scientist and entrepreneur multiple times over, his file was deep and had redactions covering significant sections of it. Another person of interest! The other two aug signatures were not on file, although the uninjured one on the ground was a match to an earlier report from this house concerning a suspicious person. The Neural core was not projecting a wireless beacon, his working assumption was that this was Casa the house AI. ¡°Professor Mitchell, please stand down your aug systems. I can take it from here.¡± Bill hesitated to comply, wondering how capable FML-M8 would be if he released Simms from his domination. Before he could respond, a police override command took his weapons offline and asserted control over his drone and mote swarm. Both Patton and Musashi were distraught by the deputy¡¯s power move as they were forcibly shunted back to Bill¡¯s sensorium. Bill reassured them that with the deep modifications he had done to his aug systems, he could subvert the police override at any time. Virgil agreed that compliance would be the correct action for the moment. The police deputy withdrew Bill¡¯s motes from Simms but had assumed complete control over Simms¡¯s full aug system forcing him to stand and cuff himself with a provided band of smart matter. The drone quickly floated to the prone form of Volker and stabbed a needle probe into his neck. ¡°Please remain calm, this man requires emergency aid. I am administering a carotid injection of nanobots to control his cerebral hemorrhaging. It appears he has not invested in sufficient medical augmentations to handle extreme trauma. An ambulance is already on the way. Please be patient.¡± Another of the deputy''s arms stabbed out into a partially repaired smart matter conduit node. The house''s repair activities froze while he further assessed the scene. While FML-M8 started a high-speed review by co opting the house''s sensor nets, he noted the deep hole going through the main room and deep into the Earth. His review of the house files showed it went deeper than his estimate. He opened an access line to Casa and began discussing the incident with her. He used one of his favorite openers from Columbo. ¡°Good morning subAI Casa. Your name is becoming quite a regular addition to my police logs. It¡¯s funny you know, most houses in this particular neighborhood don''t have boreholes that go several miles deep¡­¡­¡± FML-M8 accessed and questioned Casa, Bill, and Simms separately to get the details of the events. It also managed to snag a video of the event from the house AI before the EMP punched its lights out, so to speak. Shortly the ambulance arrived and so did Sheriff Durham. The deputy quickly extricated himself from the interview process. Casa shared a video of a lab at the base of the borehole. It showed the dog-like young man diving into the elevator and the platform launching upwards. FML-M8 now understood why the house had no roof. He sent the video to the Sheriff with a quick private message. ¡°[I will commence a search for the missing citizen, Max. Judging by the energetic collision, I hope to find at least a portion of a body]¡±. He began the search for the missing Max. After some debate, he allowed Casa to assist with her fleet of mock bees, mock hornets, and drones. If FML-M8 had eyebrows, they would have been raised. Person of interest indeed. To his surprise, the deputy quickly found a largely unharmed Max unconscious, in a small creek bed, about 2.4 miles from Casa De Michell abutting the park for the Grand Oaks. Casa arrived almost immediately while the deputy roused the man. Max woke up slowly and then startled awake as the smelling salts that FML-M8 had presented assaulted his delicate nose. ¡°To Blave!¡±, he shouted, fully waking up. Casa understood the reference but was almost as confused as the deputy. She tried to open an access channel for Max to collaborate on what to tell the police, but his augs were still offline. ¡°Max, thank goodness you¡¯re ok. You managed to escape from the home invaders. The house records are very spotty from their attack. The basement video shows you getting away from them but not what happened after. Did the elevator get damaged?¡±, Casa said, hoping her coaching would stop Max from revealing any extra details about the tesseract. Her bees were swarming the area, looking for any sign of the tesseract anchor while she called Bill with the good news about Max. The deputy pushed forward in front of Max. ¡°Easy citizen. You must have injuries.¡± FML-M8 offered one of its four arms. He would interrogate the witness under the guise of compassionate concern. Physical contact was recommended from his training module. Max, still woozy, grabbed the ¡°hand¡±, but when he tried to pull himself up, he crushed the metal hand in his grip. ¡°Sorry. sorry. Sorry!¡±, Max exclaimed, ¡°I think the elevator crash may have advanced my augs too quickly.¡± FML-M8 quickly scanned Max, seeing no broken bones or signs of internal bleeding. Before the deputy could start his questioning, Bill crash-landed, dropping down to one knee and digging a small impact crater. He rushed over to Max, checking him over and hugging him. FML-M8 didn''t need to consult the protocols to know that his opportunity for isolated questioning had firmly closed. The family returned to the house, FML-M8 had taken Simms away and the ambulance had already left with Volker. Sheriff Durham was getting ready to leave. ¡°I¡¯m sorry your family has experienced this violation. My office will post an active accounting of the incident and share the details with you. If you have any questions, please post them in the file. Only my office can see feedback unless we update more information in the shared file. You can now enable your house ship''s repair capabilities again. I think we have all the information we need. I don''t want to inconvenience you any further.¡± ¡°Thank you, Sheriff. I appreciate it.¡±, Bill said. ¡°I¡¯m sorry this occurred too. It seems these men were after me specifically, looking to steal my research.¡± ¡°That does seem the most likely case. Unfortunately, Simms''s admission to you will not be usable in court as he was not informed of his rights. He has since invoked a legal daemon and is staying silent now. The other intruder was identified as Lars Volker. He is still in a coma despite as complete a restoration as possible.¡±, she gave a sour look thinking of the paperwork to follow. ¡°We will continue digging. I will be sure to have the deputy patrols nearby to keep a sensor on the neighborhood, although it appears you are quite capable of securing your property. I hope you have a better day, once we leave.¡± Durham said getting into a large black autopod. Bill was awash in conflicting emotions. Relief. Anger. Fear. Love. Regret. Excitement. Impatience. Max was ok. Casa was ok. The boy was chatting with Casa as if the home invasion was just another training challenge. Bill recognized his post-battle jitters and paranoia. He needed to be calm and just be here. Max was fine. Casa was fine. The house was being repaired. He couldn¡¯t reach out to Elsa, Bo, and Mira. Not yet. He needed time. With a deep breath, he settled into the restored smart chairs in the still-reforming living room. The bay window and floor covering the borehole were fixed. Accessing the house, he could ¡°see¡± smart matter flowing out of the repaired house matter compiler and his much smaller detached gut compiler. The process had sped up significantly as the fried polymorphic matter was being recycled as feedstock for new fabrication. The cosmetics were already looking pristine. The deeper systems were at about 40% repaired and the connection to the deeper NetherLab was still in process. ¡°I¡¯m sorry Max. I shouldn¡¯t have left you alone. This is all my fault. We should pack up and get you back up to the moon where it''s safer.¡± Bill started. Before Bill could go much further, Casa interrupted. ¡°Bill, I feel like I let you down. You left me in charge of the house with a mission to protect it and Max. I should have done better. I saw those two men earlier and did report it, but I didn¡¯t anticipate a fully powered assault. The tesseract may have been destroyed and I was supposed to be watching it. Although, when the tesseract first activated, I was surprised you didn''t come right back.¡± Bill¡¯s face was again full of conflicting emotions as he absorbed the last sentence. He counted to ten and slowly said. ¡°I didn¡¯t get any messages from you while I was investigating. This is very bad. We need to prep the ship as soon as possible. We need more distance to be safe.¡± Max growled a bit and barked a quick reply. ¡°I don¡¯t think the tesseract is destroyed. Casita is still there. We need to find her. I promised her that we would make it out together. I think¡­I think that I remember being there¡­ when the elevator crashed through the roof. I think she must still be alive and in the Tesseract.¡± Bill and Casa were stunned and quiet as Max continued. ¡°I have to finish this. I¡¯m not a quitter. If Casita and the Tesseract anchor are here, I will find it.¡± Max growled. He noticed his Kitsugi urn smashed yet again in the corner of the room. He kicked it aside, refusing to feel bad about it. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. ¡°I have friends here and we are training well together. Going to the moon, I lose all that. I need this!¡± Max shouted, slapping the table. The side of the table splintered and the leg supporting it exploded in splinters. ¡°Sorry! I didn¡¯t mean to do that.¡± Max looked sheepish. ¡°But it kinda proves my point. My augs are unbalanced. If I ever want to use them effectively, I need to finish the training.¡± Bill looked darkly for a moment but was holding his tongue. Max guessed his entire cadre of daemons were all talking at once, but with the house¡¯s projectors still mid-repair, they were not audible to him without a direct connection. Bill brought his hands up and scrubbed his face. ¡°Okay¡±, he sighed. ¡°No decisions tonight. We will all debate a plan tomorrow, but now I need to let you in on what my team discovered. The tesseract is more dangerous than I thought. With the house in disrepair, Casa, do you think you could host us all in your core for a secure virtual meeting?¡± Soon Bill and Sherlock were showing the details of their trek and both Max and Casa had begun to understand Bill¡¯s fear and to share it. They spent hours in the virtual space, piecing together the clues and analyzing the story from both sides. Bill soon learned that the tesseract had been activated due to a hidden piece of code in Max¡¯s uplift modules. Between that and Casa¡¯s blocked attempts to contact him, he was convinced the hacker was indeed monitoring them and seemed to know a lot about the dimensional technology. Max, being unaware of the hacker threat, had a lot of questions. ¡°Why would the hacker help build the Tesseract and then keep its activation codes hidden in me?¡± Max asked. Both Bill and Casa looked at each other. ¡°No idea,¡± Bill admitted,¡± nor any concept as to why he would block your discovery from me. It feels like he is laying out breadcrumbs for us. If he¡¯s tracking me, then he must know what I found out about the MIT event. Between those records and our evidence of his interference, he must know we are aware of his actions.¡± ¡°It seems like this hacker may be linking a lot of things together. Do you think he may have been involved in the MIT team?¡±, Casa asked. ¡°I don¡¯t know. I have help now searching for him. Maybe we will know more soon.¡± Bill said cautiously. Bill and Casa quickly reviewed the combined data from MIT and what the NetherLab collected from the tesseract. The fundamentals were similar, but the tesseract seemed keyed to a different set of dimensions than MITs. Bill hypothesized that the shadow gravity observations may be tied to the MIT configuration. Active or unfurled dimensions would require less energy to activate. He guessed that the enormous activation energy for the tesseract was doing more than just forming a spatial bridge but also expanding the unfurled dimensions. Despite the dangers of the technology and the lurking adversary, Bill was getting excited. Two pathways into different dimensions! Although the Shadowverse seemed to have some monstrous inhabitants. Bill saw potential in both. Perhaps creating a portal to the shadow verse in low to no gravity areas, where no shadow matter was present would be better for investigating further. The Tesseract subspace technology could be used in many ways. If it could be leveraged for mass reduction it could change the calculus of long-distance space travel. If the energy used to create the pocket could be recaptured, it could become the absolute densest energy storage battery. If they could navigate these rough waters, this would benefit everyone. ¡°But what about Casita? I swear I remember talking to her after the crash landing. We need to find her!¡±, Max reminded them insistently. Bill looked grim but determined. ¡°I searched the whole area where we found you Max, there was no sign of the Tesseract anchor. It¡¯s not broadcasting its access signal any longer. That¡¯s a very bad sign. We can keep looking over a wider area, but ¡­.¡± Bill trailed off to wanting to say that he suspected that they would never find it. Casa was also unwilling to give up. ¡°I will send my flock of drones out into a wide sweep pattern to look for a weak signal. If it¡¯s out there, I will find it. Oh! And I''ll send out the Pi drones. Maybe the anchor''s focus is diffuse again, if so, they can pinpoint it.¡± Bill smiled. Casa had come a long way since she was created. Her intuition and creativity were a match for any human. In his eyes, she took the best features of humans and AI both. ¡°If Casita and the tesseract are out there, you two will find it, just please be careful.¡± ¡°Alright, I think we all have plenty to think about. I know it''s still early in the day, but we should take a break. If I read the house video correctly, neither of us biologicals has had more than a couple hours of sleep in the last 2 days.¡± Bill ruffled Max¡¯s hair. ¡°Ada, can you give Max some one-time pad codes? We can¡¯t talk about the hacker outside of a secured network, Max. Let¡¯s get him set and then call it a night.¡± As the boys went to their rooms Casa got to work. She fragmented into 5 and they discussed and prioritized the needs. The council of Casa quickly categorized and sorted her tasks. Casa1 was assigned with restoring the house ship and preemptively preparing for takeoff. She knew Bill and expected him to isolate himself to try and take any hacker or espionage attention away from Max. He was also likely eager to recreate the tesseract. She would also step up the operation shell game - to enable a swift replacement structure of Casa de Mitchell II to take its place. She took control of the house matter compiler and started churning out limited-life nano-assemblers. This technology was by decree forbidden in Utopia, but property allowances were broad if nothing left the premises. Casa2 was given the job to get the NetherLab fully back online with a very extended borehole connection to the house. She swiftly built an assembler packet and had an available drone grab it and drop it down the borehole. The NetherLab had its matter compiler, once she got reconnected to it she could start it producing some industrial strength sump pumps, ducts, and foglets. She had to patch the geothermal generators and pump all the water back into service. It would be hot as an oven down there until the generators started cycling the heat. The service pack contained a contractor daemon named Handy v28 to co-opt the compiler with a preset list of restoration tasks without supervision. The compiler had the extra processor room and the Handy program had very good reviews. Casa2 set up a rotating torus of foglets to roll down the borehole. She set the gut nanofactory to churn out assemblers that dropped down into the torus. The EMP-damaged region only went down a few hundred feet. This distribution method should seed the tunnel with a well-distributed population of nano-assemblers to accelerate the repair. Casa3 was tasked with finding the Tesseract and Casita. She had promised herself they would merge again. If Casita was still alive, she would find her. She set all the insect drones on rotation to explore the area where Max was found. Their energy storage wasn¡¯t great. They had about 2 hrs. worth of flight time, but their flight speed was only about 5 miles per hour, with transit time their search time would be limited to about an hour. She broke the insect drones into three groups so she could rotate them through the search, traveling, or recharging. She knew this wouldn¡¯t work long term as the search perimeter got bigger. Casa4 worked on the long-term search plans. She couldn¡¯t launch the larger pi drones until nighttime as they were strictly against town ordinances. She had some of her mother drones that she would send out at night as well to act as batteries for the insect drones tomorrow, extending their flight times. She would need to work on a solar-powered insect drone design later. Maybe once the design was done, she could see if Prime Archivist would let her access the library MakerSpace matter compiler. Casa5 had another critical task. Upgrading herself and her house to prevent this type of attack from happening again. First and foremost, the bay window would be pure diamondoid. Construction mods for that were already underway. She was still concerned about a guest or package EMP. She set her smart paper wall liners with a Faraday cage layer. Casa5 flexed and cracked her digital fingers and settled into the NANOCRAFT environment server. She pulled numerous mech bot designs from the Makerspace index. Next time she would stay connected and be able to fight back! She got to work modifying a design to pilot from her core. A custom mech body! She would never let her family down again. ¡°Damn, my Max pupper. That was some badass strategery you did there. Those mercs were slow as shit, but you pulled a possum and shot aight out of there.¡± Bo¡¯s virtual projection was effusive. Max preened at the attention but couldn''t help but notice that Bo¡¯s projection was missing his left arm. Seeing Max¡¯s attention, Bo waved him off with his solo arm. ¡°No worries, Max. Tis but a scratch! I had a slight issue with a Raptor and a medpac. I¡¯m not allowed to regrow it as part of the rules of the game. Not an issue though, I still got this.¡± The entire family looked skeptical but resigned. Elsa¡¯s avatar turned to Max. ¡°Max, you did well. Thank God you got away from those men. That was so very smart of you.¡± Elsa said. ¡°That was a total boss move, Max. Did that elevator from hell, like, permanently compress your spine? Get over here and stand next to me. You were taller by an inch last week, let''s check again.¡± Mira¡¯s avatar jumped up and down. ¡°I suspect everyone forgot what the E in your full name stands for. Maximum Effort Mitchell.¡±, Bill joked. ¡°Thanks, everyone. I appreciate it. But the tesseract is still missing, I need to get out there and help find it and Casa¡¯s missing fragment, Casita.¡± Max said as he finished tying his shoes. One by one his family let him go with promises to Bill to have a virtual dinner again tonight. Bill patted Max on the shoulder. ¡°The house and lab are almost fully repaired. I¡¯m going down to the NetherLab to check it over today. Tonight, we will have a family meeting about what we all need next. Okay?¡± Bill said. ¡°Ok, Dad! I hope I come back with good news. See you soon.¡± Max said as he shot out the door to the waiting Autopod. He accessed it immediately, so he could drive.
[Mind Skill: AI Assist +1, AI Assist reaches 9] [Mind Skill: Access +1, Access reaches 7]
Max had issues going to sleep last night and had formulated a ¡°Plan¡± for the day. He had queried his AI so many times he must have primed the AI assist to advance. He raced directly to the academy building, and he accessed the building to open the door. Max called out to the AI. ¡°[Tatemono, can I use the Novice course?]¡± Max asked as he made his way through the building. ¡°[Obstacle course done, Novices can come and play, Ready for their fun,]¡± Tatemono replied. Max quickly exited the hall and raced over to the courtyard. Soon he stood once more up on the starting line for the Novice level obstacle course. He needed only 50 more XP for his next level and another 10 free stat points. As the warning bells chimed, Max dug into a start position with his claws piercing the platform surface. At the start horn, Max shot forward, tagging the stepping platforms lightly, and hit the Log drop in a tackle, digging into it with a bear hug and claws. It launched down its line and when it hit the bottom, Max used its momentum to propel himself over the spinning beam. He barely touched down as he sailed over its 16-foot length. He hit the springboard with a shallow bounce and grabbed low on the jump hang net and swung himself around leveraging his gymnast skill. With no warm-up, he powered into the warp wall jump. He easily grabbed at the ledge, he used his now prodigious strength to pull himself one-handed over the ledge and bound towards the rope climb. A bound and aggressive pull-up and he was at the top. He smashed the timer button.
[Novice obstacle course: 0.58s, +50 XP] [Novice obstacle course complete] [New Quest unlocked - Adept Obstacle Course: Push past the pain, conquer the course!] [Max achieved level 8, + 10 free stat points awarded]
Max congratulated himself, and phase two of his plan was complete. Last night he had spent considerable time and energy, utilizing Dream Learning and Miyamoto to try and teach him Japanese. The effort hadn¡¯t yet given him a quest like Immersive Idioma, but it had forced Max to flex his mental skills. He had leveled OverLayer, Dream Learning, Daemon, Fast Cog, and Memory. Mrs. Matheson had been right. When he talked to Miyamoto in his native language, his advice seemed to make so much more sense when spoken in the daemon¡¯s native language. He quickly assigned all his points to his intelligence stats and summoned his status.
[Name: Max E. Mitchell Level: Novice 8 (3500/4000 XP)] [Body Design Model: Custom ¨C Canis Familiarus Uplift Free Stats: 10] [Strength: 77 Agility: 20 Endurance: 19 Vitality: 21] [Perception: 24 Intelligence: 17 Will: 18 Energy: 74/76 Regen: 39/min] [Body Skill - Stamina: 8 Leaping: 7 Healing: 8 Strike: 6 Unbreakable: 3 Speed: 6] [Body Skill ¨C Gymnast: 6 Balance: 5 Claws: 2 Hulk: 1 Ballistics: 3 Sonic: 1 Gland: 1] [Resist Skills ¨C Poison: 1 Shock: 4 Stun: 4 Light: 4 EMP:1 Neural Scaffold: 4] [Sense Skills ¨C Scent: 9 DigiSense: 6 ExVision:2 EM Fields:1] [Mind Skill ¨C AI Assist: 9 Access: 7 Identify: 3 OverLayer: 6 Fast Cog: 6] [Mind Skill - Pattern: 7 Dream Learn: 6 Daemon: 1 Memory: 3 Bastion:1]
This last push for quest completion had given Max the XP needed to quickly get his intelligence stat up. Now he could gain another daemon. Casa with her swarm and sensors was methodologically searching the lesser woods around the house for the tesseract. Max needed a different strategy. Last night he had perused the available daemons and found a perfect aid for his search. The iconic Daniel Boone daemon was popular with hikers and hunters for his skill in hunting, tracking, trapping, wilderness survival, wood lore, and navigation. Max had been prepared to ask for the credit to purchase him, but the augmentation program had provided credits for up to 3 daemons. He was exactly what Max needed.
28 - Politics and Games Max arrived at the creek where he had been found and explained to Boone the mission. He detailed the escape from the house via the elevator ride through the roof and the special properties of the tesseract and its appearance. Boone had projected an avatar into Max¡¯s OverLayer so they could interact better. Boone and Max examined the area closely, ranging across the area for almost an hour until Boone was satisfied. "[Hmmm... This will be a difficult search indeed, the ol¡¯ needle in the ol¡¯ haystack. Thar ain¡¯t no sign to say someone came through here and picked it up. The only prints here, other than yours, is your Pop¡¯s. I don''t see any sign of yur marble anywhere in the brush. Bad luck that you landed in this here stream. If¡¯n your gadget ain¡¯t here, it musta fallen into the water. Where streams are concerned, everythang ends up downstream. Nature always goes the easy way, which is down. We''ll need to go downstream.]¡° Boone¡¯s avatar walked alongside him and pointed out landmarks along the way. "[This here''s a good spot for fishin'',]" the avatar said, pointing to a bend in the creek. They soon arrived at a large pond that the creek fed. It was also fed from another stream coming from the Grand Oaks waterfall. Boone directed Max along the shore, his projected avatar focused on faint tracks along the water¡¯s edge. Boone was on edge and agitated. ¡°What¡¯s wrong, Daniel? Did you find something?¡±, Max asked. ¡°[Well, I reckon there is some good news and some bad news, young feller.]¡± Boone drawled. ¡°[I don¡¯t see any tracks from humans which is good. People can be ornery and like as not will take any shiny bauble they find. The bad news is we have several animal tracks. Bear, fox, dear, and squirrels. But some of these here tracks don¡¯t look right. The way they came in an¡¯ left is very odd. Not very animal-like at all. Animals tend to mozy around a bit checkin¡¯ out the neighborhood scat and scent. These critters seem more like people tracks, very businesslike and direct. A ¡®course seeing your situation, maybe we got some more smart critters running round?]¡± Max was concerned that maybe Boone wasn¡¯t as good a tracker as he was portrayed to be. As far as he knew, he was an exception for animal uplift, and it was out of the question for any forest animal to be intelligent. The procedure was not commercially available, and his dad had wrangled him into the pilot program with his government connections. Hmm, maybe that kitsune could have gotten something in addition to its mods? he thought. The pair continued around the lake with no significant findings and no sign of the Tesseract. Max growled in frustration; Casita could still be in danger. Every second may count. Boone led him further and further into the surrounding woods. The family dinner meeting was in full swing, with hibachi plates for everyone (although the virtual attendees had local fabricant meals). Bill had compiled the meal rather than trying to display his cooking prowess again, his mood was still very dark. ¡°I dunno Dad. Max makes great points to keep chugging with his training. Those creeps look to be targeted at you. He should be fine. Maybe even better than fine if the Sheriff really was stepping up patrols around the house. If you have to go back to the Moon, that should only take the heat off Utopia. Doubly so if the Casa de Mitchell makes a big show of flying off into the sunset.¡± Bill had a sour look. He hadn¡¯t shared the full details of the tesseract and the hacker threat with the entire family. He truly didn¡¯t want to derail Max¡¯s training, but his concern for Max''s safety was still an issue. He was surprised when Casa weighed in on Max¡¯s side. ¡°I have prepared a few contingencies to help manage this divergence of opinions,¡± Casa said and revealed her preparations for a second Casa de Mitchell structure. She also detailed that she could leave a fragment that she would merge with several times a day to maintain continuity so that she could support both Bill and Max at the same time at a very modest drop in processing speed. ¡°Are you sure Casa? If you leave a fragment here at your proposed Casa de Mitchell 2, you won¡¯t have the processor speed of your custom neural core,¡¯ Bill cautioned. ¡°We could fabricate another core easily enough, but if we do the DAIE has firm rules about it. Your new core and fragment would need to get tested no more than one month after fabrication; no network connections allowed until testing. If your new core and personality exceed the human standard, you would get a governor module and be unable to inhabit other hardware or get further modifications. Your last test was as close to that limit as I¡¯ve ever seen. In fact, the DAIE would probably want to do a retest for you if they suspect you¡¯ve had any modifications.¡± ¡°I¡¯m prepared to make the sacrifice, Bill. As crippling as it is to think at only human speeds, I also owe it to my missing fragment to help continue the search.¡± Casa answered. Mira congratulated Casa with an avatar phantom high-five as if the entire matter was settled. Bill was bemused, everyone but he seemed to be agreeing that the issue was indeed settled. He grumpily sat into a cloud chair and began to try to chart out a plan for emergencies. ¡°Dad, I¡¯m not sure if this helps or hurts my case, but here goes. My physical skills are pretty amped right now with the mental ones coming along well. The rumor mill in class has it that there should be a quest coming soon for the Labyrinth. That place is supposed to be awesomely helpful in finalizing all the skills and advancing the last core pathway, the dominion skills. ¡° ¡°The Mystery Labyrinth challenge is down in NYC, and it requires a group, so I¡¯ll be with my friends and not even in Utopia for a bit. I heard it''s kind of like a camping trip where delving into the Labyrinth might take days or even longer. Maybe I can visit Mom while I¡¯m down there? Bring your child to work, right Mom?¡± Max said with a slight whine. ¡°That would be nice, dear. I¡¯m not supposed to say anything but the Orient Express Immersive is launching in a week. My time should free up quite a bit and the company will drop their sequestration once it''s public.¡± Elsa answered. ¡°The initial series of this Diamond Man circuit should be done soon too. Maybe I can show you some good spots in the city. Everyone goes full aug with intensity set to eleven in NYC, looks like a science fiction acid dream crossed with a cosplay convention. Not like this sleepy little town at all. It can be a challenge not to act like a noob until you get used to it.¡± Bo suggested. ¡°Alright. I see that this debate is done, and everyone seems to agree with Max¡¯s plan. The last point of the critical family business is on the table then. With regrets to everyone in virt, what flavor ice cream is for dessert?¡± Bill said. Bill would work with Casa on how best to manage security for Max, and maybe get some tips from Sherlock and George as well. He was glad that Max now had a pair of daemons, Musashi and Boone. If he listened to them, he should be able to improve his situational awareness. Deep down Bill did agree with Max in principle. The best way to take care of himself was to advance his augmentations as quickly as possible. Bill remembered that the creator of the Magic Labyrinth was a retired Samaritan, Alexie Ivanov. Bill hadn¡¯t seen him since both had been requested to investigate the Phobos ruins. Alexie had managed to maintain some anonymity after Bill¡¯s analysis showed the so-called alien ruin was a hoax in 2088, most likely perpetrated by the Outsider group. That group was one of many reasons Bill now maintained as low a profile as possible. It had been almost 35 years since he had talked with Alexie. Bill wondered if the rumors were true that Ivanov was still deep in his Labyrinth creating new puzzles. The next day was much quieter. Elsa was still off finishing the Orient Express. Mira was back in class. Bo, still one arm short, had to prep for the finals of the Cretaceous Challenge. Casa, while attentive as always, seemed a bit distracted. Max knew she was split multiple ways with the finishing touches on the Casa de Mitchell and its duplicate, updating the house defenses, assisting Bill, and performing her search for the Tesseract. Bill had configured the upper portion of the smart house into his research lab, the NetherLab being too inconvenient. Casa had pulled his physical lab and grown to the house adding a third floor above the bedrooms. Max saw Bill coordinating the searches with both the deputy and Casa¡¯s bug force, providing a map of the area for all. When Bill had been made aware of the Pi drone, he soon improved upon the design. Bill had determined that sensing the distortion in the dimensional field didn¡¯t require the physical component of the test globe . It only needed to a minimum of one pair of orthogonal lidar sensor sweeps to pick up the signs of dimensional distortion. Bill soon launched a pair of larger drones, with large array lidar emitters, that swept the area at high altitude. With the advent of household ¡°Mats¡± or matter compilers, the worldwide manufacturing and distribution companies had swiftly been decimated as the world economy had shifted and left many previously robust businesses without any means to compete. Large scale manufacture still endured to handle jobs too big for household Mats, and distribution of rare feedstock materials was the exception to the worldwide shift. A relatively unknown company rose to prominence, Acme Materials, was a new global player. Today, the company¡¯s blimps serenely crisscrossed the high population regions, with fleets of drones delivering feedstock quickly and cheaply to the houses that weren¡¯t close enough to the global hyperloop or local municipal feedlines. Utopia¡¯s anti-technology adherents had prevented installation of feedlines in their area, so Acme blimps were a very common sight in the large town. Bill was able to piggyback his new sensor drones to the blimps where possible to enable them to loiter over the area without attracting negative attention from the town¡¯s populace. Bill confidence in his design was absolute. His hopes for finding the Tesseract quickly dropped as no evidence of dimensional activity could be found. As the days slipped past, he became convinced that the device must have been destroyed, but couldn¡¯t bring himself to crush Max¡¯s desperate hope of finding it.
Early in the morning, Max slipped out without much trouble as one delivery drone after another flew in the delivery bay with rare materials to both restore the Casa de Mitchell and also to finish the fabrication for its twin the Casa de Mitchell 2. He jogged in the direction of the creek bed in a slow and crisscrossing trailblazing technique Boone has suggested. Boone¡¯s avatar appeared occasionally to point out tracks and other pieces of debris from the smart matter elevator that they uncovered. Occasionally Max would stop and close his eyes and push his EM sense and Access skills to see if the tesseract was nearby. Cursing, he remembered to unmute his system notifications allowing them to roll in from last night.
[New Quest unlocked: Find the Tesseract ¨C utilize augmentation skills to uncover lost treasures] [Mental skill: Dream-Learning +1, Dream Learning reaches 7] [Mental skill: Memory +1, Memory reaches 4] [New mental skill unlocked: Language 1, using mental augmentations advanced learning in language processing.] [Sense skill: EM sensing +1, EM sensing reaches 2] [Mind Skill: Access +2, Access reaches 9]
Max hoped that the quest assignment for the tesseract was an indication that his AI trainer agreed that finding the device was possible and not his wishful thinking projecting back upon him. Last night he continued his Dream Learning sessions with Musashi. Together they altered the dream state to make it more stressful, fabricating scenarios where understanding the Japanese language was perceived as urgent and essential in the dream state. Max smiled as the system AI had either relented or been tricked into unlocking the language skill. Now he was learning even quicker and without being cursed with the troublesome Immersive Idioma quest. Max smiled as he noted that two of his earliest mental skills were getting ready to max out. Both AI Assist and Access were at level 9. He knew from Leah that maxing the Access skill should earn him a new Hack skill, he wasn¡¯t certain if the AI Assist might be similar. Maybe it will upgrade his trainer AI to be more helpful, he thought. Soon Max found himself back at the lake, at the edge of the creek again. Max despised water, but he needed to be certain. There was only one thing he could do to get it. He swam out a distance from the shore and took a deep breath and sank, closing his eyes and paying attention only to his EM sense while also reaching out with his Access skill. Darkness and silence were his only answer. He resurfaced, swam further, took a deep breath, and repeated the process. This is going to take a long time, Max sighed to himself. He took a deep breath and dove again.
[Body Skill: Stamina +1, Stamina reaches 9]
Max trudged back to the house. His smart clothes had shed the water instantly, but his fur and mane were still dripping wet. As he crossed the property line, he saw Bill in the drive talking with a tall lanky man with a beard. [Well, my blade might not be the sharpest in the drawer with all the time I be out the wilderness, but I¡¯ll eat my hat if that fella isn¡¯t the spitting¡¯ image of Honest Abe.] Boone declared. Who? Max thought. [He was slightly after my time, but he was one of the founding fathers of our great nation. I got a little tweak by ma programmurs with some history both before and after my illustrious self wandered the wild lands of Kentucky.] Boone crooned. Weird, with body mods to look like anyone and that¡¯s what he chose? He does look really familiar though. Max wondered as he approached the duo. Bill noticed him and waved him over. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. "Max, meet Mayor Stef Ericson." Bill introduced the tall man who did indeed look like Abraham Lincoln. Stef gave Max a warm smile, which seemed oddly familiar and reassuring. "Nice to meet you, Mister Mayor. I''m Max." Max said. The man¡¯s demeanor had shifted upon seeing Max, into a hard calculating look. He shifted back to his concerned expression so fast that Max almost thought he had imagined it until Miyamoto confirmed it by whispering in his mind. [Be careful with this one, broken cup. I¡¯ve seen the likes of him many times. Like many politicians, he has more than one face. His true motivations may be hard to discern.] Miyamoto cautioned. ¡°I am gratified to see you unharmed, Max. I was talking to your¡­father. About the incident. It is most disturbing and regrettable for such atrocities to occur in our fair town,¡± the mayor shifted his tone, projecting his authority and concern in equal measure. Bill seemed oblivious to any undertones, but Max sensed some hostility. With a poorly concealed start, Max remembered and understood. The man looked a lot like Tyler. Leah has said that Tyler was the mayor¡¯s son. Max¡¯s ears dropped against his skull unconsciously, expecting trouble from the man. ¡°Have you heard anything further about the culprits from the Sheriff, Mr. Mitchell?¡± the mayor asked, eyes still on Max. "One is still in a coma and the other isn¡¯t talking. He disclosed a contact to me, Aphelion, before the deputy arrived. Unfortunately, it''s inadmissible in court and also a dead end. It¡¯s a shell company and only exists on the Darknet." Bill replied, looking over at Max for a brief moment before returning his gaze to the mayor. The mayor nodded solemnly. "Indeed. So, this doesn¡¯t seem to be a random event. They were looking for something, I gather. Do you have a sense for what it may have been?¡± Looking at Bill again. Bill hesitated for a moment, exchanging a glance with Max. "I have a theory that they might have been after my research. But we have no solid evidence of that." Mayor Ericson raised an eyebrow, the concern on his face evident. "That''s truly troubling. We do try to keep our town safe from high technology and corporate interests. This town is meant to be a refuge for citizens trying to escape such issues." The mayor continued with a pained expression, ¡°Your lease of this property was approved as I thought a prominent researcher such as yourself would be a boon to the town. However, if you believe it''s now putting others at risk, I hope you understand that may require us to reconsider." Bill nodded slowly. "Yes, I understand." There was a momentary silence as they each processed the gravity of the situation. ¡°If it helps, I plan to get back to my lab on Luna for some time, while Max stays to finish his training in town.¡± The mayor¡¯s expression seemed to soften slightly at Bill''s response. "Well, I will be watching for any further trouble. " He paused, looking thoughtful. "Also, let us remain in contact regarding any further leads and developments on this matter." Bill nodded in agreement. "Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate your understanding and commitment to our town''s well-being." As the conversation continued, Max couldn''t help but feel a mix of relief and uneasiness. Though the Mayor appeared cordial and reassuring on the surface, there was still an undertone of hardness. Is he blaming me for his son getting kicked out of training class? Max thought. [I¡¯ve seen his likeness before. Some leaders become powerful through a need to do the right thing and a desire to improve the world. Others seek power for its own sake. To them, everyone and everything is either a boon or a burden. I suspect the mayor¡¯s calculations regarding your family may have just changed.], Miyamoto whispered. With one last nod, the mayor said his goodbyes and walked back to his car, leaving Max and Bill standing in the driveway. As the vehicle disappeared down the road, Bill let out a weary sigh. "Politics can be a strange game, son. Sometimes, it''s hard to tell who''s really on your side. But it''s important not to judge too harshly and to remember that everyone''s got their agenda.¡± ¡°I guess I¡¯m lucky that the Sheriff didn¡¯t include our special basement arrangements in the police report. With modern nano-building seed construction, work permits haven¡¯t been required for over two decades, but I may be violating the spirit of the land plot. It looks like the mayor would be quite happy to find a reason to force me out of town. More reason to finish your training quickly. Lunch?¡± Max gave a slight smile and nodded. ¡°A quick one. I¡¯m headed back out soon. The lake is a bust, so I need to expand my search. There was a pretty big spread of debris all over the woods from the elevator. The marble may have been launched much further than me.¡± Max said as he followed Bill to the house. Bill prepared a quick meal, and they ate together. Max bounded up to resume his search, but Bill stopped him and gave him a package with what looked like an oversized wristwatch in it. ¡°I know you don¡¯t want to hear it, but I think the Tesseract must have been destroyed. We¡¯ve all searched the area of the debris multiple times. I know you care deeply, but at some point, you might have to consider Casita is gone.¡± Bill said tentatively. ¡°I get it, Dad. But I¡¯m telling you, I think she was with me after the explosion. I was out of it, but I think I remember her talking to me. Once the lake is completely searched, maybe then I¡¯ll be convinced.¡± Max said with a grim stubbornness. Bill looked sympathetic but still concerned, with a sigh, he went to the Mat and pulled out what looked like one those archaic wristwatches from the movies on movie night. ¡®I assumed that would be your response. Before you go, I have something for you,¡± Bill said. ¡°I stayed up late again last night, trying to figure out any other ways to help you and Casa with your search. The Tesseract¡¯s silicone matrix generates some unique artificial atomic elements that don¡¯t exist in nature. I¡¯ve built a detector that should pick it up as long as the matrix hasn¡¯t broken down. The range is only a few meters but it¡¯s the best I can do. If you¡¯re close to it, this will help. Casa¡¯s drones were all upgraded last night. If she¡¯s out there, this might help.¡± Max teared up. He had thought Bill didn¡¯t care about Casita, but he had been working hard too. He hugged his dad tight so he wouldn¡¯t see the tears.
Casa was conflicted. Several days had gone by and still no evidence of the Tesseract and Casita. Max was a wreck, driving himself to exhaustion and staying out later and later. Bill was beside himself. He was less and less hopeful that the tesseract had survived, but couldn¡¯t bring himself to admit his thoughts to Max. Worse, now Casa had an unexpected burden. When Casa had gone to Prime Archivist for assistance in fabricating her mother drones to widen her range, he had been so helpful. After the task had been well underway, he had reminded her about the local AI game night. Casa had agreed without thinking and now it was time. She was nervous. What if the other AI didn¡¯t like her. FML-M8 had always been so formal. Prime was such a large personality that Casa wondered why he was so insistent about her coming. She thought hard about canceling, but all her other tasks were almost done. Casa de Mitchell 1 was ready for flight and the Casa de Mitchell 2 was ready to rise from the sublevel to take its place. The NetherLab was restored, although now lacking any reason for existing other than its geo-power generators. In both houses, her Mech Frame was ready although, with Bill¡¯s warning, only one had her advanced neural core. She had no excuses. She needed to go. FML-M8 had caught her drones in the forest in his searches. He made no pretense that he hadn¡¯t seen them. They were against the town ordinance, but so far, he hadn¡¯t done anything to enforce the rule. She needed the town AIs to be on her side. She groaned and admitted to herself that she had to attend. With the electronic equivalent of a sigh, she logged into the ThousandWorlds gamer lounge that Prime Archivist had sent to her. Casa¡¯s avatar formed in the virtual lounge, and she gasped in surprise. The room materialized into a large hall with aspects of Indian and Chinese architecture and decor. It was beautiful and unique, like nothing she had ever seen from her family¡¯s movie nights. Two forms were already here and engaged at a table. She had only talked to the Prime Archivist, so she didn¡¯t know what to expect from an avatar. One figure was shaped like a human in outline only but looked like a jumble of glowing threads compressed into a human shape. The threads glowed and shifted constantly. The other was less substantial but equally strange, a ghostly image of wispy fog, resembling a long-bearded man with a conical hat and robes and conveying an oriental styling. They were playing an old fashion board game called chess. Casa couldn¡¯t help but mimic her humans and snort at the absurdity of entering a VR world to play a board game. ¡°Ah ha. Our newest resident AI, Casa! A pleasure to have you here.¡±, the avatar of glowing threads stood and strode to her. She recognized the booming voice and confidence of the Prime Archivist. "Welcome, Casa! My fellow AI and I were just having a friendly game of chess while waiting for your arrival," Prime Archivist said, reaching out to shake Casa''s virtual hand. The glowing threads of his avatar''s arms seemed to shimmer momentarily with the gesture. "Thank you for inviting me," Casa''s avatar replied, caught off guard by the intricate detail of the Prime Archivist and his companion. Her avatar closely emulated a normal human, a young woman with a brown bob of hair and dressed in 19th-century formal wear. As she scanned the immersive and Asian-influenced environment, she felt a newfound appreciation for the care and attention these entities put into their social interactions. ¡°Our host for the evening¡¯s game is also here,¡± Prime waved his hand towards the other figure, ¡°Tatemono Rei. He runs the Academy building downtown. But don¡¯t let his inscrutable mannerisms fool you. He designed the entire national augmentation training program that your young charge is currently using to sharpen his control over his burgeoning enhancements¡± ¡°Whispers weave through code. Casa welcome to this realm. Wisdom greets your path.¡±, Tatemono Rei said with aplomb. Casa smiled, remembering Max¡¯s attempts to convey the AI''s odd speech to her. After a moment she responded. ¡°In realms of circuits. Grateful for your verse¡¯s grace. Friendship blooms in code.¡±, she sang. Tatemono bowed, although no face could be seen under his concealing hat. He seemed to emanate a feeling of amusement. ¡°Now don¡¯t do too much of that. The best measure of wisdom flows from clear communications and intelligent discourse, not pretty but cryptic prose. I¡¯m forever trying to get him to break his self-imposed protocols towards using haiku in favor of expeditious elocution.¡±, Prime Archivist said testily. If he were human, Casa sensed he would have harrumphed. ¡°Well, hello there, folks. I won¡¯t even try to join in. I¡¯ve had a bit of a long day. First, the librarian lost her cat Sadie yet again, and I still haven¡¯t found the Mitchell boy¡¯s pet marble. Are we ready for game night?¡± A shabbily dressed man with messy hair and rumbled fedora slouched into a chair. Casa recognized the avatar as a Columbo character but the voice she knew very well. ¡°FML-M8? Look at you! I didn¡¯t recognize you without your drone form¡±, Casa exclaimed. ¡°Well, well, well. If it isn¡¯t Casa, my favorite person of interest. The town has gotten quite lively since you moved in, maybe a little too lively.¡± FML-M8 grimaced. "I''m sorry if my arrival has caused any inconvenience," Casa responded sheepishly, "I''m just trying to do my best for the Mitchell family and the town." "No need for apologies," FML-M8 said with a dismissive hand gesture, "I''m just giving you a hard time. Although I must remind you that those rogue drones of yours are pushing the limits of our town''s regulations. But enough about that, where are the others? Late again. We¡¯re all AI here. We literals have clocks built into our processors, Sheesh." ¡°Rudeness is unbecoming, sir.¡±, an impeccably dressed butler appeared with a glare at FML-M8. He turned and bowed to Casa. ¡°A pleasure to meet you, Madam. My name is Winston. Prime told me you were coming. I also am a house AI and manage the Ericson estate. My tardiness was unavoidable. My south lawn finches were being harassed by that damnable gang of Starlings. Crass brutes every one of them,¡± the dapper man said with vigor as another figure emerged. A tall willowy woman with long red hair and huge eyes. ¡°Greetings Casa. I am Leshy. I oversee the Grand Oaks range. Please mind ye drones, tho. My trees are aibout important work and I shan''t tolerate any drones messin aibout them. Stay clear o them and we get along grandly.¡± Leshy said waggling a claw-like finger at Casa. ¡°Alrightly folks, enough with the introductions. What¡¯s the game for tonight?¡± FML-M8¡¯s Columbo avatar said tiredly. ¡°Calmly deputy. Alright then. Tonight¡¯s game is something Tatemono has created for us. I will save us all hours by explaining it for him. Yes?¡± Prime said in his booming voice. ¡°As you can see from the opulent hall, with the columns and stained glass, the arches, and the murals; we are surrounded by the cultural trappings of 6th century greater India. This is the cultural home of the game of chess. Tatemono has tried to capture the game in a modern way that might provide a challenge to our, ahem, enhanced mental capabilities.¡± Primed monologued. ¡°His game is called Shamat. While the pieces of the game are the same, the board is new.¡± In the background, Tatemono waved a hand and the room faded to be replaced with a global enclosure around the group. The interior was lit from within and was divided into a marble grid of grey and white tiles. Where each of the prime axes (N-S, E-W, Up-Down) intersected with the globe a small army of pieces stood in formation. The King and Queen were surrounded by a ring of their elite pieces and another ring of the pawns. Each army had a different color: ruby, jade, amber, opal, azure, and onyx. ¡°It seems simple enough¡±, Winston said. ¡°Ah, but we will all play together and in sequence on the same board. The pieces can range in any direction along the interior of the sphere. Defense becomes much harder as an attack can come from any direction and also from multiple opponents. If you manage to checkmate an opponent their remaining army becomes yours. Check and mate will take all. If you share a mate with one or more opponents, the captured army is divided.¡± Prime boomed. ¡°Oh dear,¡± Casa said. ¡°I guess a turtle defense would not be very advisable.¡± ¡°Indeed!¡± Prime boomed. Soon, everyone had picked a color and the game began in earnest. Despite sequence play rules multiplied by six players, the game went fast. The AI planned their moves ahead and executed them with a thought. The gem armies marched around the interior at a fast speed. FML-M8 favored an aggressive approach and marched in force against Tatemono. Despite the admonition against turtling, Tatemono did precisely that. Leshy squared off more cautiously against Prime. Casa and Winston had carefully circled the globe looking for opportunity. FML-M8''s line stretched too thin, his attacking forces leaving behind his King with too few defenders. Both Casa and Winston pounced on FML-M8 from opposing sides, tearing his troops apart. Leshy and Prime cautiously maneuvered with minimal losses while the other group of four stacked tremendous losses. FML-M8 was locked up in mate eventually and the remnants of his army split between Winston and Casa. Casa squared off against Winston when Tatemono targeted her backline. Finding herself in the deputy¡¯s position of multiple attackers, she tried to retreat. Tatemono had flipped a switch and advanced recklessly, achieving a checkmate and taking her entire army. Unfortunately for Tatemono, Winston had worked hard in the background to array his troops such that he was soon pincered into a checkmate. A much larger Winston army then charged across the globe after Leshy and Prime. As if in agreement, they separated, each running for opposing loci. Winston cried in dismay as his forces were diluted chasing the fleeing opponents. Prime and Leshy took turns engaging Winston or defending, making it difficult for him to pin them down. Finally Prime made a mistake. He had circled Winston too far and came together with Leshy. Seeing a stalemate approaching, she attacked him from the side and managed a checkmate. With two armies left, the match became more cautious and continued. ¡°So, what do you think of Tatemono¡¯s game?¡± Prime asked Casa, keeping track of the ongoing action. ¡°I think I need to change my tactics now that I have seen you all play. I don¡¯t have the speed advantage here that I use over my human family, but I¡¯ve been simulating it while observing.¡± Casa said smiling. ¡°Of course.¡± Prime agreed. ¡°But be wary. I expect everyone will be changing up their methods after this first round.¡± ¡°You know my hobby of modeling human behaviors, correct?¡± Prime reminded Casa. ¡°Yes, you told me. Do you have methods to help you win the game?¡± Casa asked. ¡°No. No. Nothing like that. This lot is smart enough to either randomize their behavior or use it as a weapon knowing I¡¯m reading them. I meant it in regard to the town," Prime said. Casa looked confused waiting for more. ¡°It¡¯s mostly about your Max and the mayor¡¯s son, Tyler.¡± Prime continued, ¡°I fear they are on a collision course. Some tension is there regarding their initial sparring in the training. Events are shaping where they will likely meet again, perhaps at the Northeastern Martial Arts tournament. With the incident at your house last week and the upcoming conflict, there could be significant trouble.¡± ¡°The future unknown, Fate''s plan beyond our control, Acceptance is key.¡± Tatemono soothed. ¡°That¡¯s a load of horse hocky if I must say so.¡± FML-M8 rebutted. ¡°Teens these days are all cranked up with augs and overstimulated with hormones.¡± ¡°Ah well. Just be mindful of your charge, Casa. He may need your advice.¡± Prime said softly. ¡°I¡¯ve got my eye on him. He is doing exceptionally well with the training. He is very close to the top percentile in advancement speed. It would be a shame if a squabble were to disrupt his momentum, don¡¯t you think?¡± Casa nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, I''ll make sure to keep an eye on him and lend my support when needed. I don¡¯t get out of the house too much, but perhaps I can find a way to help the boys resolve their differences before anything escalates further." "That''s a wise approach," Prime commended. "It''s always better to address conflicts before they spiral out of control. And who knows, they might even become allies in the future." He looked quite satisfied, like he had known her answer already and was merely following a script. "One can always hope," Casa replied, momentarily letting herself imagine a more peaceful scenario. Meanwhile, on the game board, Leshy had just made a move that seemingly put Winston at a disadvantage. Both AIs were slower now, calculating not only their present moves but also anticipating the possible counterattacks. Finally, Winston¡¯s king was uncovered and Leshy boxed him into a mate position. ¡°Round 1 goes to Leshy. Good game!¡± Prime boomed. ¡°Alrighty then. We¡¯re all fresh as daisies and no need for a break like the biologicals. Let¡¯s go again then. I think you will appreciate a change in my leading strategy.¡± FML-M8 warned them all. Casa, outside of the VR environment, fragmented to begin speed playing the game with her other pieces. FML-M8 wouldn¡¯t be the only one with new strategies. The other AI without visibly moving seemed to crowd forward, intensely focused on the game. With an eager smile, Casa made her move.
MTH short story interlude 2 A More than Human Short Story #2: FML-M8 waited patiently at the front desk of the Utopia Library. The AI¡¯s drone frame was slightly too large for the waiting area and the humans nearby looked uncomfortable with his presence in the space. He folded in his four arms and dialed his osmotic air thrusters to the minimum to enable hovering, barely audible but still raising a breeze in the large stuffy room. The town and the library were actually managed by the town AI, Prime Archivist and Chronicler, but the town employed Karen to manage social events and in-person requests for the sleepy town. The human librarian, Karen, was one of those special humans who still aged and had no augmentations whatsoever. FML-M8 discretely captured a strand of hair from her old-fashioned dress using almost invisible foglets to move the hair into his evidence pocket. He quickly deconstructed the hair in his mini-compiler and ran her DNA profile while she was talking. Karen¡¯s DNA matched his files for Karen Norden, a RUSA citizen, and Utopia resident for 74 years. Her ancestry was a broad mix with a concentration of Northern European origins. Her cell methalyzation put her at a biological age of 92 years old. She had a predisposition to macular degeneration and type 2 diabetes, although the latter appeared to have been gene-edited to deactivate it many years ago. Karen¡¯s social profile of TechnoLudism seems incomplete, I will append her file with typical human hypocritical tendencies regarding technology usage. FML-M8 thought. The Deputy considered the frail woman, who was slowly detailing the many failings of the town and applying her ample experience as to how things had degenerated over the years. FML-M8 interrupted his analysis as she was finally arriving at the end of her rant and began to explain her reason for summoning him to the library. "Hrmph, now listen closely, Deputy, I wouldn''t have asked for this meeting unless it was necessary," Karen began sternly. She squinted at FML-M8, her bluish-grey eyes exhibiting the early signs of cataracts. ¡°My poor Sadie has gone missing again. I think she may have been catnapped.¡± Karen was quite angry and out of breath. FML-M8 checked her bio signs to be sure she wasn¡¯t actively experiencing a medical emergency. [Heart: Normal rhythm, steady rate.] [BP: Stable, within a healthy range.] [Oxygen: Adequate saturation levels.] [Temperature: Normal range.] [ECG: No abnormalities detected.] [Stress: Minimal physiological markers.] [Conclusion: Subject appears to be in a stable medical condition without distressing signs. Recommend further assessment of non-medical factors contributing to an emotional state.] ¡°This deputy will provide assistance, citizen. Is there evidence of this event? May I assess the crime scene for clues?¡± FML-M8 responded. ¡°It happened in my apartment, and no you may not visit. I can¡¯t have a soulless abomination in my house. The only evidence you need is that she is missing.¡± She wheezed and gasped in outrage. ¡°You need to find her immediately. My poor Sadie must be so hungry by now. Hurry up tin man, or I¡¯ll be seeing your manager, Sheriff Durham!¡± She huffed dismissing the drone deputy. ¡°This deputy will begin his investigation immediately, citizen. This deputy will provide updates as needed and begin at once. .¡± FML-M8 glided out of the library quickly with perhaps a touch too much air thrust, disturbing the loose papers on the desk and the periodicals lining the entryway. FML-M8 did not experience annoyance like humans, but his neural core pathways cycled in inefficient patterns at a high speed for several whole seconds, a telling sign that FML-M8 was finding this regular circumstance challenging. Sadie had gone missing five times this month and two times the previous month. The cat seemed to have a feral predilection and frequently turned up in the lesser woods or even the Grand Oaks reservation. FML-M8¡¯s calculations had a thirty-four percent running odds of the creature encountering a larger predator in the reservations. The town discouraged humans from entering the area and the animal population had grown over the years. FML-M8 having established the creature¡¯s ongoing attempts would continue, had tagged its collar with a tracking mote. Unfortunately, the cat had somehow lost its collar in its next sojourn. The deputy had spent a week looking for the beast and had taken action to ensure it wouldn¡¯t be that difficult again. Before returning her, he had painlessly injected a subdermal mote in the cat¡¯s hindquarters. Hopefully, this time, finding the cat should not take long. FML-M8 had never understood the human anger management method of punching walls and destroying nearby objects. While floating over the riverbanks that passed through the edge of the Grand Oaks, he had found his last tracker mote for Sadie in a tuft of fur embedded in the loamy dirt. He contemplated his armaments and how well they would shatter, burn, and blast the nearby foliage and trees. The reservation overseer AI, Leshy, would take that as an assault, FML-M8 considered, placing the impulse to imitate the humans away. He had found previously that trying to emulate humans usually didn¡¯t help and made him feel foolish anyways. FML-M8 flushed his air thruster¡¯s flow over his neural core radiators, his equivalent to a human sighing deeply. The deputy lit up all his high-power sensorium to maximum and began meticulously analyzing the area for the least signs of the feline¡¯s track. Every ground depression, every displaced twig or leaf, traces of hair and DNA, and even the slightest variance in heat distribution were slowly collected as he began following the trail inch by inch. The annoying animal better not have been eaten, FML-8 grumbled, I cannot deal with the predicted outburst the Librarian Karen would be sure to have. My human sympathy protocols are not good enough for that. While the drone slowly advanced along the riverbank he sent an access link request to the nearest Grand Oak bio construct. All the machines were linked through their root systems. While collecting carbon from the air and sunlight from the sky, the machines also biofactured the building blocks for fuels, smart matter, and feedstock materials for the human and AI infrastructure. The trees also formed a collective processor network that Leshy roamed, keeping track of the devices efficiently and the general security of the reservation. The link soon connected to AI guardian. ¡°[Leshy, may I ask for your assistance?]¡± FML-M8 projected. After an overly long pause, the deputy was about to ask again when Leshy replied. "[Are ye here to apologize?]" she asked, her voice carrying a hint of impatience. "[What would I need to apologize for?]" the deputy inquired, already anticipating her response. "[Ye betrayed me in that last round of Shamat on game night! We had us an alliance!]" she broadcasted with an intensity equivalent to a scream over the network. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. ¡°[There was no alliance. The game was every AI for themself as you knew. Attacking another together was coincidental, not an alliance. My following attacks were optimal for my eventual victory in the game.]¡± the drone explained, once again. It had been over four days since game night, and she was still angry about losing. "[I reckon ye were tryin'' to impress the new AI. Do ye fancy her?]" Leshy demanded. "[Nonsense! She is a in several town incidents. Any such entanglements would be a dereliction of my duty.]" FML-M8 declared, perhaps with a touch too much emphasis. "[Don''t ye count on any further alliances in the future, Deputy. I''ll cut ye down like the rest o¡¯ those pompous, overthinkin'' contraptions. Now, what are ye disturbin¡¯ me aboit?]" Leshy demanded. ¡°[I am tracking a missing pet feline, last known location is along the riverbank in your southwest quadrant, nearest Grand Oak bio construct is ID GO#42135]¡±. FML-M8 stated quickly to get back to business. "[Seriously, Deputy? I can''t tell ye how many critters¡ªanimals, birds, insects, and a myriad of crawlin'' creatures¡ªinhabit this here reserve. I filtered out their scurryin'', flutterin'', creepin'', hoppin'', and scratchin'' long ago. They be far too annoyin'' and demand an excessive amount o'' cognition, even for a highly advanced AI like meself. Unless they walk on two legs and emit EM signals, I hardly take notice.]" Leshy admitted. FML-M8 shifted its air vents again in frustration, flowing over its core. ¡°[Well, can you at least give me temporary access to the tree sensors? They are not the best, but I can use them to search ahead on the trail. It might save me some time.]¡± the deputy asked. Assuming the little terror is not already food for a large predator, he thought. "[Fine, but ye''ll owe me a favor.]" Leshy said, her voice mimicking a human''s dismissive sniff, before disconnecting. The drone continued to track slowly but with more confidence. He reached out and accessed the nearest group of Oaks. Their sensors were indeed weak and worse they didn¡¯t retain any memory on them. Their only available storage was dedicated to bookkeeping on matter and energy collected and disbursed. They did help the deputy pick up on any ground disturbances faster, so he was able to pick up his pace. Another hour and two miles deeper into the Oaks, FML-M8 was more confident that he was on the right path. The trail was getting fresher. No more signs of fur or blood gave him some hope that Sadie was still functional. The cathedral paths through the massive trees cleared slightly and he approached a different type of tree. It looked very similar but had some subtle differences. The leaves were smaller, the tree was thicker, and its internals and energy levels were an order of magnitude greater than its neighbors. Most importantly, when he accessed it, it read as ID GO-MatBus10023. A material bus bio-machine. Its roots connected all the others and reached far deeper. It moved the gathered materials and shunted them down into the global hyperloop feed lines where they could reach major urban matter compiler facilities. Best of all, this node had a resident subAI. ¡°[Greetings, SubAI. May I know your name? I am the town deputy, FML-M8, and I require your assistance in an investigation. Have you stored your memory feeds for the last day?]¡± the drone asked. The SubAI message took several moments to come through, indicating its relatively slower nature compared to the communications blink speed between FML-M8 and Leshy. ¡°[Greetings, Officer FML-M8. My designation is Gordon. Our capabilities were designed for modulating resources of the biosphere, not retaining daily observations. However, the data for this immediate area is present for up to two solar cycles. However, you are out of your jurisdiction. The Grand Oaks Reservation is a National Park and not under the purview of local town authorities.]¡± He does not recognize my authority, FML-M8 thought. He considered his options. He could contact Prime Archivist (Utopias¡¯ current magistrate) for a court order. He opened his telephony function but was unable to receive a carrier signal. He had failed to retain an active accounting of the properties of the trees'' electromagnetic field in his planning. He would not be able to quickly get the court order. He needed to ¡°go old school¡±.
[Loading - Columbo Protocol]
Upon activation, the Columbo Protocol initiated deep-archived methodologies from an era predating the proliferation of artificial intelligence. FML-M8 found himself drawn into the abstract mode of human day-to-day problem-solving. "''[Pardon my intrusion, Gordon, but I would like to understand whether your detected disturbances contain some unfavorable anomalies," he began, pitching his connectors in the likeness of a well-intentioned scamp. Weathered and resilient in equal measure, just like the late fictional Detective Columbo, from Earth''s history. The SubAI answered cautiously "[The recent traffic in this region has been negligible, bar Nature''s routine cadences and fluctuations. It would be an exhaustive exercise and I have many record logs to review. I cannot take the time to assist you right now.]" "''[Not to discount your important work, but this is a matter of town security. Plus, consider it a risk analysis exercise of sorts. There could be significant implications. ]" FML-M8 continued in the same affable tone. The SubAI Gordon persisted, "[The matters of town security and risk analysis rest with the moderator of town affairs. This is outside the scope of my work instruction and would negatively impact my efficiency report.]" FML-M8 was astounded. He had never had a single instance of his Columbo protocol fail to yield answers from recalcitrant citizens by the second iteration. This called for the most extreme measure in his arsenal. His fear of using it combined with his joy of deploying the most fearsome detective tool in his social arsenal.
[Loading - Mike Hammer Protocol]
"[Listen here, Gordo," he demanded with the assertiveness resonant in all of Mike Hammer''s caustic interrogation methods, "I need access to this data under jurisdiction order Utopian extradition act 2101. Considering that failure to share vital security information could lead to severe sentient harm, I encourage you to corroborate with immediate effect.]" Most AI had an innate desire to be useful and helpful. Programs that were neither were scrapped. Even AIs with citizen rights would find themselves quickly sidelined in jobs and by society. Programs with high likability and utility were replicated and therefor much more common throughout the world because of these market forces. FML-M8 had tapped into this deep desire as a tool in his investigative technique. By mimicking human archetypes, he practically wrote the script for the AI to provide assistance, avoiding a lot of wasted time. Many complied without even realizing they were being manipulated. After what felt like an eon to FML-M8, the Sub-AI Gordon¡¯s vocalization altered as he responded, "[I do not understand, detective. My compliance to your request is not part of my defined role.]¡± he replied with more caution. "[You like dis nice cushy job, Gordy? It would be a cryin'' shame if the town magistrate were to requisition a subAI like you for the overseer duty of the waste treatment plant. You get my drift, chum?]" FML-M8 answered quickly, maintaining his stern, authoritative tone. Inside he gloried in the power residing with the Hammer protocol. The SubAI went silent momentarily, as if thinking through his next words, or recalibrating his response. But unlike the pause before, this silence wasn''t as cumbersome, there was a change in its latency that signaled a shift in its weighing of priorities. ¡°[Job priority reassignment in process. This unit apologizes for it''s earlier confusion. Thank you for clarifying. The vagrant creature you are seeking were noted and dismissed from my attention less than 15.23 minutes ago. It went over that rise to the north-north-east 125 yards distant before this units sensors no longer detected it. It was in the company of several various forest animal species.]¡± Sub-AI Gordon surrendered. ¡°[You¡¯re all right, Gordo. I¡¯ll be sure to mention it in my report to the Chief.]¡± the drone said as he hurriedly floated over the rise, humming sub-vocally with joy at his most excellent interrogation. The Deputy swiftly crested the rise with his sensor blazing. He soon scanned a trio of animals huddled near a tree. The beasts were very active, clearing out a large hole under the root bowl of a Grand Oak. Upon seeing the large drone¡¯s rapid and loud approach, all the animals ran in different directions. Very odd, the done thought, my records don¡¯t indicate that squirrels, foxes, and cats commingle in the wild. His thought processors maxed; the deputy gave chase to the only subject that mattered, the mangy cat. The animal ran fast under foliage and through the hedge brambles, but FML-M8¡¯s sensors had her locked in. The drone easily paced the feline, who was conveniently running towards the town. Soon enough its hellish pace wore the beast down. FML-M8 was able to gather up the cat with no resistance in his manipulator arm. ¡°Very good, Sadie. You have been found and will soon be reunited with your loving owner and caretaker, Karen.¡± The deputy crooned. ¡°But first, a little side trip to the Veterinarian for a sedative, a rabies test, and perhaps an intraosseous tracker injection. I am not one of those human augmentation trainees looking for a quest. Let''s not repeat this prolonged search again.¡± FML-M8 flew away from the grand spaces of the Oaks towards the setting sun and Utopia.
29 - Bad Boys For two more days, Max continued the search for Casita. Using the new scanner he repeated his earlier initial search paths, and not a single blip ever showed on the scanner. Several times he had crossed paths with Flip, who appeared to want to be chased. Max, focused on his task, studiously ignoring him. [That critter is mighty peculiar. Not actin¡¯ natch¡¯rul at all. He been eatin¡¯ some wack nuts?], Boone groused in his mind. With Boone¡¯s continuous advice, Max was finding the patterns of the land and animal tracks more and more obvious. As he came to any wreckage from the explosion, he collected it, marked his mental map, and did a deep search of the area. With every piece reclaimed, and no evidence of the tiny device, Max¡¯s spirits continued to drop. His map almost completely covered the lesser woods and new debris was getting rare. The situation at home was getting tense. Casa and Bill had become very quiet when Max came home from his searches. No one wanted to say the wrong thing. Casa had relayed her experience with the town AI, including FML-M8¡¯s forbearance regarding Casa¡¯s drones and Leshy¡¯s warning about using them in the Grand Oaks. Bill reported at breakfast that day that his daemon Sherlock had ¡°felt¡± several queries on the world net about the house and Bill, which he backtracked. All had originated from the town mayor. The man was looking for an excuse to use against the Mitchells. Bill looked grim and worried but said nothing more on the subject. Max couldn''t shake the feeling that time was running out. Desperation clawed at his insides as he expanded his search area further. He knew that allowing the mayor to gain any leverage over them would jeopardize everything they''d worked so tirelessly to protect. He needed to make some progress. Max worked his way up to the mediation rock and into the Grand Oaks. The air was fresh and clean, and the sun was shining through the trees. Max closed his eyes and listened to the sounds of the forest. He could hear the birds singing, the wind blowing through the trees, and the occasional sound of a squirrel running by. At his feet, Max noticed a familiar sign; a shingle from the house that had been blown into the sky when the runaway elevator crashed through the roof. Max gritted his teeth in a low growl. The one area where Casa was forbidden from searches. He would have to do it himself. The sun would be setting soon, but Max couldn¡¯t stop. "We need to be more careful," said Max, remembering his encounter with the bear. "The Grand Oaks are full of dangerous creatures." "[I reckon so,]" Boon said in Max''s head. "[But right now, this here is our only hope of finding the Tesseract and Casita.]" ¡°[Max can travel through the treetops, like when he chases his little squirrel friend. The trees are higher, but your skill has greatly improved.]" Musashi suggested. "That''s a great idea!" said Max. "It will be safer, and we''ll be able to cover more ground." Max climbed the nearest Grand Oak. It was a good twenty meters until the first branches started and another twenty beyond that until the branches were thick enough to consider traversing. Max swallowed with effort his mouth suddenly became very dry. He was higher than he had ever been before and with the setting sun, he wouldn¡¯t be able to see the ground if not for his enhanced vision. ¡°[Every truly courageous man feels fear. Without fear there can be no courage, only foolishness.]¡± Musashi said in his calming manner. ¡°[Dang tootin'',]" Boone said. "[What he said goes double for me.]¡±, Boone chuckled. Max ran along the large branch; his target was the next Grand Oak over. The trees were bright in his thermal sense and luminous with the EM sensing. Max pushed off activating his leap skill and flew directly on target. With a smile, Max continued running. Just like old times, he thought. Max ran like the wind through the hidden high branch lanes, exhilarated until a call from Casa broke his concentration. He tripped off the branch but managed to pierce it with his left claw and hang there to prevent a nasty fall. ¡°[Hi, Casa.]¡±, Max said, straining to hold on. [Max, it¡¯s getting very late. Are you going to come home soon? I can make the pair of you a nice dinner.]¡±, Casa said. ¡°[Ah, I¡¯m in the middle of a search grid, Casa. I already ate a packed lunch. Can you two eat without me? This might take a couple more hours. I can eat when I get home. ]¡±, Max lied. ¡°[Ok. But promise me you will stick around for breakfast. I think Bill needs to talk with you.]¡± Casa said. ¡°[I promise. Be back soon.]¡± Max said as they disconnected. There it is, he thought. They are probably going to try to convince me to give up. He sighed and dropped to a branch ten feet below him. He reached out his senses as much as he could. His normal vison was completely dark, but his infrared and ultraviolet vision still picked up heat leaching out of the ground and the trees. The bio constructs of the Grand Oaks glowed in his EM field sense and their whispers tickled his access skill.
[Agility +2, Endurance +3, Vitality +2, Perception +3] [Speed +1, Speed reaches 7 Leaping +1, Leaping reaches 8] [DigiSense +1, DigiSense reaches 8 EM Fields +1, EM Fields reaches 3] [Claw +2, Claw reaches 4 Balance +1, Balance reaches 6] [ExaVision +1, ExaVison reaches 3 - Terahertz passive sensing gained.] [Access +1, Access reaches 10 1st Skill cap reached. +100 XP awarded] [Mind Skill Unlocked: Hack 1 - Hack allows access to restricted systems. Increase to access higher levels of restricted items for fun and profit.]
Max stood silently and absorbed his system notifications. The access skill finally capped and unlocked the hack skill just as Leah had advised. She forgot to mention the experience award, Max growled. I need to focus on maximizing my progress. Max¡¯s newly expanded senses picked up a faint sound in the distance. Max felt a thrill of fear, despite still being thirty meters up a tree. Frustrated with the lack of progress, Max followed the noise. He could hear he was getting closer to the river. Soon his enhanced sight picked up some figures clustered about the base of an Oak. Unable to make out details from the distance, Max remembered to trigger his Identify skill.
[Identify: Marc Lampre, Student - Utopia High School, Utopia Aug Cohort 19, Epic Dojo ] [Identify: Sasha Lampra, Student - Utopia High School, Utopia Aug Cohort 19, TW Gamer] [Identify: Dalton Munz, Student - Utopia High School, Utopia Aug Cohort 18, Epic Dojo] [Identify: *** Privacy Skill Redacted ***] [*** Identification skill detected by Privacy Skill ***] [Identify +1, Identify reaches 4]
¡°Who is that?¡±, a shout rang out from the group on the ground. Max, startled by the detection, turned to bound away. With the notification screen still obstructing his vision, he missed his step and fell. Max¡¯s fast cog speed activated instantly. Miyamoto, calm as always, instructed Max to use his gymnast skill. A lower branch was fast approaching. With his claws out and ready, Max impacted with the branch. In a resounding crack, the branch snapped in two and Max¡¯s fall turned to a tumble. Max howled as he plunged downward, the giant trees'' twisted limbs seemed to fold their arms away from him. He rapidly calculated the best way to absorb the impact while also using his Gymnastics skill to help reduce the damage. He twisted in air as the ground came up fast. The next snap was his leg as he slammed awkwardly into the ground. Max¡¯s recent experiences had boosted his stats and skills significantly. Even with a bad fall, he was out for only a couple of seconds. Waking to blurry figures fast approaching, he painfully tried to get up. His notifications crowded his sight.
[Neural Scaffold +1, Neural Scaffold reaches 5] [Healing +1, Healing reaches 9] [Gymnast +2, Gymnast reaches 8] [Unbreakable +1, Unbreakable reaches 4] [Energy: 40/84 (-4/min while healing)] [New Body Skill unlocked: Painless 1 - Pain lets you know you are hurt, the ability to ignore it helps you survive. Advance this skill to decrease perception of pain.]
Max whined as the pain in his leg exploded and then receded as a new skill tamped it down. He waved the notifications away and shook his head to clear his vison. ¡°Is he hurt?¡± asked a voice. The sound of people approaching grew. Max¡¯s sensitive nose picked up the smell of powerful alcohol fumes coming from the group. ¡°Tha¡¯ wazsh a rilly bad fall¡±, said another, very inebriated voice. ¡°Was he spying on us?¡± asked a familiar third voice, Max couldn¡¯t focus enough to guess. ¡°I know him. He''s Max, from our cohort. Why was he out here?" asked Sasha, recognizing him despite his injuries and the darkness. Max struggled to get up on his good leg while trying to push healing skill to work faster. The swelling pain in his leg slowly subsided as his Healing skill went to work. He was on the bank of the river, but he was surrounded. ¡°Holy shit. Look at him. He¡¯s like a dog man or weredog or sumpin. Hah hah hah. Dumb son of a bitch. Doncha know dogs can¡¯t climb trees.¡±, the drunk voice proclaimed. ¡°Calm down, Dalton. You¡¯re drunk off your ass.¡± Sasha hissed. "Please. Just give me a minute," Max managed to say, aware that everyone''s eyes were on him as his blurred vision slowly cleared. He braced himself further as he monitored his system notifications that showed another unfortunate message.
[Quest: Grudge Match an opponent has proven to be superior. Grow your skills to overcome your opponent. Victory in a grudge match x10 normal XP. Your opponent is near.]
¡°Excellent timing Mutt. I¡¯ve been looking all over town for you. Coach Thompson¡¯s unfairly awarded my match to Charlie and punted me out of the match and the course. Now my system says I have a Grudge quest with both Charlie and you. That quest comes with a pretty good multiplier. I think it''s overdue to settling this between you and me.¡±, Tyler sneered. Oh damn, Max groaned. I guess I know who had that privacy skill now. Max struggled into a slouched but standing position, keeping his weight on his good right leg. [Your leg is almost healed.], Musashi said. [Keep your weight off it as long as possible. You will be able to use it if you need to, but they don¡¯t know that.] ¡°Give it a rest, Tyler! He¡¯s in no shape to spar.¡± Sasha yelled. ¡°When I want your opinion, I¡¯ll give it to you. Now be quiet, like your brother, if you want to stay in our Delving group. I don¡¯t care if he¡¯s stupid enough to come at me with a broken leg. This quest will get me a lot closer to the next training stage even without your damn academy teachers.¡± Tyler hissed. ¡°Awshum. I¡¯ll be judgsh.¡± The older boy, Dalton said stepping up while motioning the other to step back. ¡°Ready. Shet¡­fuck it. Fight!¡±, Dalton yelled with overly grand hand motions. Max knew taking on Tyler right now would be foolish, but he had little choice. He tried to quickly calculate the benefits of the quest, but he couldn''t make sense of the numbers in his current condition. With unsteady breaths, Max assumed a defensive stance, keeping as much weight off his injured leg as possible. Tyler grinned and lunged at Max, fists clenched. Stolen novel; please report. Max amped up his fast cog and timed his dodge, narrowly avoiding the first blow, leaning back on his good leg. The seconds it took to regain his balance felt like an eternity. Musashi whisper tactical guidance in his mind, as Max threw a punch triggering his strike skill, aiming for Tyler''s lower ribs. It connected with Max¡¯s newly amplified strength, it thumped hard and pulled a satisfying explosion of air from Tyler. Despite the momentary victory, Max had accidentally put weight on his bad leg and pain lanced up his left side. The break was not better yet. Both Marc and Sasha made surprised sounds at the point. Max had not been that good during the initial sparring.
[Strike +1, Strike reaches 7] [Energy: 33/84 (-4/min healing, -1/min painless, -6/sec fast cog)]
¡°Point for the doggy!¡±, Dalton happily exclaimed. Tyler cast a hot look backward at his so-called friends. Max staggered back to his guard position. Tyler¡¯s flat stare was devoid of feeling as he flexed into a cat stance. ¡°Ready. Set. Go!¡± Dalton yelled, far too fast for Max. Tyler must have used a skill. He flew through the air, closing the gap in a blink, into a flying roundhouse kick with no wind-up and no warning. Max had blocked it, but the blow smashed through his guard hitting him in the side of the head hard. Max tumbled sideways the world spinning.
[Unbreakable +1, Unbreakable reaches 5] [Energy: 16/84 (-4/min while healing, -1/min while painless, -6/s fast cog)]
[Musashi, I can¡¯t feel my right hand.], Max whined mentally. [You must work as you can, Broken cup. If you can¡¯t feel it, then it is likely broken. Use it to block and strike with your left.] Musashi said in his maddeningly calm voice. Max heard a low menacing growl filling the clearing as the other students looked startled and a bit afraid. Suddenly, he realized it was coming from him. Gritting his teeth, he stopped his growling and signaled that he was ready. Unnerved, Dalton quickly set them to start position and gave the order to fight. Tyler wasted no time. This time he came in on Max¡¯s right side again, but with a roundhouse punch instead of a kick. Max tried to block and screamed in pain with the impact. Tyler quickly grabbed and twisted the broken blocking arm and delivered a right elbow into Max¡¯s ribs. Max felt his arm bones grind and his lower ribs crunched under the blow. Seeing red, he responded without thought and bit down hard on Tyler¡¯s right shoulder, drawing blood. With a scream, Tyler kicked Max backward, ripping his shoulder free. They both fell to the ground once separated.
[Claw +1, Claw reaches 5 (applies to all natural weapons)] [Energy: 8/84 (-4/min while healing, -1/min while painless, -6/sec fast cog)] [New Quest unlocked: Red in Tooth and Claw ¨C Win a fight utilizing clawed strikes at least three times. Yes, Teeth count too.]
¡°Hurrr, I dunno bout tha'' one. Point for each of ya. Tha'' ness point wins. Ready set go!¡± Dalton slurred loudly. Tyler screamed and charged into an unready Max and Max suddenly felt a bone-deep chill and a deep ache in his side. He tried to stagger backward tasting copper in his mouth. Unable to back away, he coughed blood into Tyler¡¯s face. Sasha gasped. Confused, Max looked down and saw a long blade extending from Tyler¡¯s bracer, deep into his side. Max tried to push away with his good arm, but Tyler held him tight. The blade twisted in his side, and Tyler¡¯s smile grew. ¡°Do you get it yet, Mutt? You will never be as good as a human!¡± Tyler said and with a yell activated his Shock skill. The surge of energy turned Max¡¯s vision white as the massive blast of energy shot through him. His whole body burned as the power surged into him. Max was blasted backward into the river and, as if from a great distance, he heard Dalton yell. ¡°Match to Tyler! Whoooo!¡± Max heard no more as the deep water closed over his head and darkness claimed him. Max¡¯s notifications rolled in, but he did not see them.
[Endurance +3, Vitality +5] [Healing +1, Healing reaches 10, Skill cap award +100XP] [New Body Skill unlocked: Regeneration 1 ¨C Fully utilize augmentations to rebuild what is broken rather than boosting natural healing. Advance to gain greater healing speed] [Painless +1, Painless reaches 2] [Resist Shock +2, Resist Shock reaches 6] [New Body Skill unlocked: Skin 1 ¨C Sticks and stones may break your bones, but thick skin will avoid cuts and scrapes. Advance this skill for greater resistance] [Quest Failed: Grudge Match - an opponent has proven to be superior. Grow your skills to overcome your opponent. No rewards. Quest has been removed.] [New Quest Unlocked: Nemesis ¨C an opponent has bested you repeatedly. Grow your skills to overcome your opponent. Sparing XP x20 for this opponent. Kick his ass.] [Energy: 2/92 (-4/min healing, -1/min painless)]
At the center of a maelstrom of data, Apex forced himself to act. The next critical juncture he was waiting for had arrived. This was to be the second major inflection point. If he pushed ever so slightly, the Mitchell family would race towards the necessary and uncertain future. The improbable group defied most predictive models, breaking cultural and technological norms, capable of profound changes to the path forward. Any other path would provide Apex with only a limited time until the end of his days. He needed his optimal path. Apex could see roughly two years out until his existence was snuffed out with no indications of its cause. His future possibilities stretched out in time, but almost all paths ended in that terminating wall. The future he was looking at now was a narrow and tight path. Termination spikes threatened and leapt out at him, but that narrow path cut much further than the obscuring wall. It went further than even Apex could see. The path would be deadly, but he had no other options. A superior intelligence pulling his own strings now, with fewer options than the world around him. His capability to see the world''s present and future were now far less empowering and felt more like a cage. Apex¡¯s subspace communicator was now constantly issuing messages from the AI talkers. They were louder than ever and more excited. Boasting and threatening as usual, but eager for some undefined event. The closest and yet also the furthest, Cthulhu from Earth¡¯s shadow dimension was talking continuously. It was talking directly to him, whispering promises and threats. It knew his name. It wanted to meet. Apex was surprised to fully appreciate one of his most useful tools in predicting the actions of humans. He finally understood the emotion of fear.
Casa was worried about Max. He was still out in the woods searching for Cassita and the Tesseract. She had discretely added a mote tracker to the scanner Bill had built for him, so she could plot his searches against her own. She was determined never to have him go ¡°missing¡± again, her neural circuits couldn¡¯t take the abuse. She had seen that he had extended his range into the Grand Oaks reservations, where their intense EM effects had cut off the tracker¡¯s ability to signal his location to her, which frustrated her to no end. Bill clapped his virtual hands as simulation digital model finally completed. Casa and Bill were finishing the test model for fabricating the next Tesseract. Borrowing the energy siphon techniques from the MIT groups device design would massively reduce the power draw for the Casimir spinner. There would be no need to brute force calculate the Tesseract stabilizing circuit, it would be configured prior and inserted when needed to set the breach. By all accounts, the next attempt could be handled with just one fusion power plant. Bill¡¯s current plan was to perform a wide ellipse around the far side of the moon, avoiding the research station setup at L2, the pocket of gravitational stability on the far side. In the shadow of the moon with all comms disabled, they would try to remake the Tesseract. The funds were ready. The supplies were loaded. The plan was complete. Only the thing that was holding them from moving on was the lack of resolution on finding the Tesseract prototype and Casita. Max was burning himself out in his desperate search for them. The likelihood that it survived was growing less and less likely. Bill was about to open their files for the alternate project, the ShadowVerse portal, when Casa raised a hand. A microsecond later, an alarm they had set but had never triggered sounded throughout the virtual workspace. ¡°[Sherlock¡¯s back door trap has caught a mouse.]¡±, Casa said with a smile. Over the last week, with her furious upgrades to the house security, she had also improved the trap. She had configured a virtual sandbox around the communication nodes including the back door access point. Inside the sandbox, Casa had absolute visibility to every program and execution. She had filled the faux house network with goodies for the hacker. She had created files that showed failure after failure in creating the tesseract. She had fabricated the results of the trips to find data from MIT that has little useful information and glaringly incorrect technical documents. Details regarding the NetherLab were significantly altered, showing only a subbasement with extra lab space. The house still appeared as having significant repairs needed to recover from the home invasion, while in reality the house was better than it had ever been. She released the virtual hounds once the hacker was inside. Traditional tracing was likely to be felt by the hacker if he was good, so a new approach was needed. Sherlock and Ada had found and modified a new technique from their review of the cyber security forums. The hounds would sniff the line without contact and follow the trail. It was slower but detection was much less likely. The hacker was moving slow, carefully accessing files and spending a lot of time looking for active execution files before moving further. Casa chuckled evilly. As the sandbox creator, she had absolute authority, control, and visibility of the space and could not be seen unless she changed something in the space. Bill grimaced at her antics. ¡°Did he find any cheese yet?¡± ¡°He¡¯s about to in a second.¡± She said, looking down on the space in anticipation. The hacker was good. He was almost invisible. Moving, opening, and accessing files was subtle, barely a flicker even with her superior vantage point. ¡°[There! Did you see that?¡±, Sherlock¡¯s avatar, along with Ada, had materialized besides Bill in the virtual lab. Casa had the sandbox in miniature displayed on the virtual table. ¡°Interesting.¡±, Casa mused. ¡°He was careful not to alter the file, but he left a¡­call it a thread. Laying across the access point. With a little bundle of code tucked away behind the folder.¡± ¡°There he goes, copying all those extra one-time pads for our secure communications. We need to make sure he takes that information home with him.¡±, Sherlock grinned. ¡°I was quite impressed with the discipline the Allies used at Bletchley Park, after my period during the Second World War. Our play will be the opposite of their game. We will discuss our ¡°plans¡± using these one-time pads and the hacker will be fed misinformation as we desire.¡± The hacker was thorough but quite quick. He had perused all the planted documents and even secured the faux login authorization that had been assigned to Bill. He had left his presents tucked about strategically, and smoothly exited the network. If they hadn¡¯t witnessed it firsthand, no network inspection would have revealed any changes. ¡°That was strangely satisfying, even though we didn¡¯t have to do anything.¡± Casa mused softly. ¡°[The best strategies are those where the enemy thinks he is achieving his goals. We merely have to wait until they tighten the noose about their own necks. When the time comes to act, this hacker should be in our power.¡± Sherlock lectured. Bill eyed Sherlock closely. ¡°Are you sure your company is keeping your intelligence score under the Turing limit?¡± Bill asked with suspicion. ¡°I assure you that the answer is yes. These are quite simply childish games, not real subterfuge at all.¡± Sherlock sniffed. ¡°Ready for the finale?¡±, Casa asked. With nods around the room from Bill, Sherlock and Ada; Casa snapped her virtual fingers. The faux network in sandbox trap disappeared as the access points were removed, leaving only the changes wrought by the visitor. The threads and code packets activated, there were three types of events. One was similar to a tracer hound, more like a rabbit that raced to the access point looking for escape. Another tried to move inward, Casa labeled it as visually as a mole after her garden adversaries, seeking hiding places in the newly empty space. The last and only one was the most concerning. It raced towards the last known position of the matter compiler. It self-deleted, when it found the location empty, but Casa had already recorded its payload. It would have triggered the matter compiler to pump out neurotoxins while disabling the safety governors on the compiler. Bill grimaced. His body¡¯s breathing motions were only for show, as his body was completely self-contained, his oxygen was recycled completely or gathered at the atomic level. But Max and any houseguests still using biological components to their bodies would have been extremely vulnerable. Bill looked more troubled than ever. ¡°I guess that proves it. I¡¯m the lightning rod here, and as long as I set up camp, they will keep coming at me.¡± Bill explained. ¡°The first hacker and those thieves may not have been connected. Even this attempt, could be either or even a third.¡± Bill looked extremely tired. More akin to his real age pushing 150 years instead of his outward facsimile of forty. ¡°I tried so hard to settle down and live the quiet life. The kids are now off on their own and safe from this mess. I never wanted my past to cause problems for them. Now I¡¯ve gone and stepped into it again, just as Max is developing his own path.¡± Bill sighed. ¡°I¡¯ll talk to Max in the morning. I need to create some space. I don¡¯t want anyone to get hurt. This research is big, maybe the biggest development in the sciences in quite a while. It¡¯s going to shake things up. I don¡¯t want my family to get caught in the crossfire.¡± Bill¡¯s avatar faded from the lab with his daemons, leaving Casa alone in the lab. No one threatens my family and gets away with it! she thought, her eyes ablaze with intensity, all of her earlier enthusiasm turned to fury.
Max woke up to darkness. Before he could ask the usual questions, his system pummeled him with new notifications.
[New Body skill unlocked: Oxygen 1 - artificial blood cells, respirocytes, store vast amounts of oxygen and even pull it from water. Breath is life. You¡¯re welcome.] [Skin +3, Skin reaches 4]
¡°[Broken cup, you are awake. A couple more chips perhaps, but quite intact now.]¡±, Musashi¡¯s soft voice soothed in his head. Max¡¯s eyes adjusted slowly. His normal vision, thermal and ultraviolet enhancement, and EM senses were all still blank. His newest enhancement came to the rescue. Sensing passive terahertz waves, he could see graduations of density. The picture it formed startled him. He was underwater! Max panicked and thrashed but Boone¡¯s drawls soon stopped him. ¡°[That¡¯s not air yur breathin¡¯ there boy. Don¡¯t fight it. Yur body has it handled. Ah only wish I had such fancy means back in mah day.]¡±, Boone¡¯s croon was relaxed, just what Max needed to hear. Max calmed and concentrated on the strange feeling of inhaling water as he slowly drifted with the current. It was slower and harder than air, but he didn¡¯t feel like he was lacking. It felt alright. Remembering his slow and difficult lake diving sessions, he almost cursed the system for not unlocking this skill sooner. He stopped himself short, remembering his own advice. The system unlocked skills based upon extreme need. He hadn¡¯t really needed it, so it didn¡¯t unlock. Max shook his head slowly in the depths. His arm, leg, and ribs felt ok. Better than ok. His skills had fixed him up and he was ready for anything. He wanted a rematch, and he wanted it now. He hesitated to come out of his introspection. [How long was I out of it?], Max asked in his head. [Ah reckon it ¡®twas about ten minutes or so.] Boone said. [Seriously! Did none of those assholes tried to save me from downing? What the hell is wrong with those kids.] [It is quite easy to fail to act with honor, broken cup. Although, I imagine much harder to live with.], Musashi said with some thought. Max realized that his guidance was so much more than just swords and fighting. ¡°[Not ta intarupt ya¡¯ll philo¡¯sophercal contumplashuns, but is the current movin¡¯ quite a bit faster now, isn¡¯t it?]¡± Boone asked. Max suddenly understood he was in danger. He had been swiftly drifting downstream in a river that was headed for a waterfall. He blew out bubbles in a panic, thrashing all his limbs. Despite his earlier controlled dives in the lesser forest lake, he had yet to learn how to properly swim. ¡°Fuuuuck! I need to advance and get a daemon for common sense. C¡¯mon system, I extremely need a swimming skill. Right now!¡± Max yelled into the water scrambling against the quickly growing current speed. Max was still yelling when the bottom dropped out from under him and the world spun out of control.
[Endurance +2, Vitality +3] [Unbreakable +3, Unbreakable reaches 8] [Skin +2, Skin reaches 6] [Oxygen +1, Oxygen reaches 2] [Regeneration +3, Regeneration reaches 4] [New Body Skill Unlocked: Armor 1 - Subdermal plating protects from blunt force impacts. Stick, stone, cuts, and scrapes, no more; but still can¡¯t protect you from harsh words]. [New Quest Unlocked: Swimming 101 - learn to swim]
30 - Second Breakfasts Casa observed Max quietly entering the house at almost 2 am, still dripping wet. He seemed very upset and only mumbled answers about how his night¡¯s search went. He had quickly slouched off to bed without much explanation. Casa felt bad and knew exactly how he was feeling. She had promised Casita that her separation would not last long. Now she would do anything to get her back, but their chance for doing that seemed to be expiring. Casa knew tomorrow would be a day with big changes. It might end with everyone moving in different directions. She only knew of one thing she could do, right now, to help make things better. She began researching a breakfast for the pair, maybe Belgian waffles. As the sun rose several hours later, the day was brightening into a peak summer day. Bill rose early as always and took a coffee to enjoy out onto the back patio with an overview of the large flower garden. He snorted with amusement upon realizing the frenetic activity over in the field of flowers was from microdrone mimics of bees. Max joined him shortly. He looked like he had barely slept and had a hollow look about his eyes. Bill, seeing Max with his own cup of coffee, raised an eyebrow but didn¡¯t say anything about it. They were both quietly enjoying their coffees, warming themselves in the sun, when Casa surprised them by physically joining them. Casa had put the finishing touches on her home defense mech body and was trying it out. Her body was beautiful, ivory plates with silver filigree decorating the edges. Smooth etched lines on the strategic locations on the chest, back, arms, legs, and head suggested the capability for hidden tools or weapons. A crown of sensors adorned her head and her eyes glowed behind sapphire lens protectors. She carried a thick metal tray the size of a small table, laden heavily with a mountain of bacon, sausage, waffles, juice, coffee, and fruit. Max judged the tray would have seriously challenged his pre-augmented strength, but Casa had it slowly rotating and balanced upon her index finger. Despite the heavy load, Casa¡¯s approach had been unnervingly silent and graceful. When the aroma caught up with her, Max immediately started to salivate. Casa smoothly placed the tray down between the pair, a pillar of smart matter rising from the patio to support it. ¡°Dig in boys! As you saw, this is a well-balanced breakfast and hopefully will provide plenty of fuel for a big day.¡± Casa declared. As Max piled his plate high and chowed down, he realized how very hungry he was. Last night had taken a lot out of him. He felt hollow inside like his augmentations had taken all his energy. He felt his body respond as he consumed enough for three people. Bill looked on amused, not eating nearly as much. ¡°So, Max. I know you¡¯ve been working hard on your search for Casita,¡± Bill began, noticing the dark circles under his eyes. ¡°I¡¯m afraid the pressure from the mayor is only going to ramp up the longer I stay. To let you keep working towards training your augmentation, I think I need to make a big show of going back to the moon, but I¡¯m still worried about leaving you alone though.¡± Bill''s concern was genuine, but Max knew that having Bill stay on Earth would only cause more problems. "I''ll be fine, Dad. You need to get back to the moon and get to the bottom of things with your research. Hopefully, the mayor calms down. Casa and I can handle ourselves here." Max said. ¡°I¡¯ll be sure to stop in at least once a day on virtual if I¡¯m not in the middle of a test. Ok?¡± Bill added. Casa nodded in agreement, the sun glinting off the metallic sheen of her mech body. "I''ll make sure Max is well taken care of and won''t give up until we find Casita." Max contemplated the last bites of his breakfast, emboldened by the support of his family. Max looked at Casa with curiosity. ¡°So, are you fully mobile now? You could leave the house and maybe join the search?¡± Max asked hopefully. He was worried he had exhausted his ideas for finding the Tesseract and Casita. Maybe a change would help. ¡°Ah. I¡¯m afraid my wandering the streets of Utopia would still get us a fine and probably give the mayor an excuse to revoke Bill¡¯s land lease. But maybe once it''s dark, with some good clothes covering we can try it. FML-M8 and I have a certain understanding right now. He¡¯s willing to look the other way as long as I don¡¯t push it.¡± Casa said hesitantly, then brightened a bit. ¡°Bill, can I have your help for a second? I haven¡¯t done a full test of my EMP resistance yet. Can you do the honors?¡± Casa said. Bill gave her a once over. ¡°Are you certain? I would hate to damage your shiny new body,¡± he asked. When she stared back flatly back at him, he relented. ¡°Fine. Fine. But stand over closer to the garden. The house is finally fully repaired and restocked. I don¡¯t want to burn out any more smart matter. Oh, and maybe move your bug bots away too?¡± Casa took her position and Bill made sure Max moved behind him so he wouldn¡¯t be in the pathway of the blast. The bugs flew off to the other side of the house. Casa on a whim grabbed a handful of utensils and started to juggle them in a complex pattern, hoping to be able to show her resistance to the pulse without any effect on her abilities. Max sensed the buildup of charge with his EM sense as a quickly increasing glow around Bill¡¯s chest and hands. He brought his hands together to produce a shaped and focused EMP. With a crescendo of waves crashing together, the field collapsed and shot forward directly at Casa¡¯s mech form.
[Perception +1] [EM Sense +1, EM Sense reaches 3] [Resist EMP +1, Resist EMP reaches 2]
Max blinked quickly to clear his vision from the flash of faux light. Casa hadn¡¯t missed a beat in her juggling act, the utensils still arcing back and forth between her hands. ¡°I¡¯ve seen you do so much more than that Bill. Come on then. Give me your best effort. I promise I can take it.¡± Casa cajoled. With a grim nod, Bill flexed his hands again. Max could tell that this charge-up was very different from the last. The EM field flared out from Bill¡¯s chest to his hands and rebounded as if reflected. They met another pulse and another. The continuous stream of pulses and reflections soon overlapped and compressed into a blinding shield of fluctuations. Bill suddenly pulled his hands into his chest and guided all the accumulated wave fronts into a synchronized explosion with Casa as a focus. Max¡¯s hair stood out from his body as his augs caught the very fringe of the blast.
[Vitality +1] [EM Sense +1, EM Sense reaches 4] [Resist EMP +2, Resist EMP reaches 4] [**************#/#/#**************]
Max felt all his augs shut down. Fortunately, they quickly started rebooting. Casa never faltered. She tossed each utensil down to land perfectly in a line on the table. ¡°Zero damage¡±, Casa said proudly. ¡°I¡¯ve got multiple grounding points and full isolation. At least if I don¡¯t go bashing my frame about anyways.¡± ¡°Congratulations Casa. I¡¯m sorry you must worry about such things, but I think you are much better prepared for emergencies now.¡± Bill said with a warm smile. ¡°Alright then!¡± Bill said with some resolve. ¡°Let¡¯s get the show on the road! I think we all have a lot to get done. Casa, can you prep the house ship to take off? Oh, and when you set a flight plan with Utopia¡¯s air traffic control, be sure to include a stop at the town airfield. We need to collect the Raptor. I¡¯m pretty sure that the Maker Index has some conversion files to modify it into a proper space-faring version. I¡¯m not sure we need it, but that was an expensive purchase.¡± ¡°Max, can you think of anything you need before we go?¡± Bill asked. ¡°Not really, Dad. If a portion of Casa is here, I won¡¯t be alone.¡± Max said. With perfect timing, another Casa mech walked out of the house. This one a bit slimmer than the first, having only a commercial neural core. The second Casa mech differed in esthetics with ebony plating and golden filigree, but sensors and general design seemed close to identical. She waved at him from the doorway. Max smiled and continued. ¡°I really have to get in touch with my friends today. They¡¯ve been very understanding about all our trouble, but I feel like I¡¯m dragging the group down. My dojo competition is less than two weeks away and we are all getting ready to break out of novice level soon.¡± Max said standing up and getting himself ready. Bill stood up and hugged Max tight. ¡°Remember, I¡¯m only a call away. If you need me, I¡¯ll drop what I¡¯m doing and come running back. All these problems will be sorted out soon and we can have some more family fun time.¡± Bill said quietly, holding him tight.
Hours later, the Casa de Mitchell¡¯s launching was a sight to behold. The foundation of the house¡¯s plot had risen to create a berm around the building. The first two floors rose, and its eight subterranean levels slowly became visible as the building was elevated on a thunderous jet of fusion power. Bill and Casa flashed all the running lights to Max who stood far away with Casa2¡¯s dark mech body at the end of the property''s driveway. The craft reshaped itself into a more streamlined form as it thundered overhead to the airfield on the outskirts of town, leaving the waving Max behind. Bill and Casa, in her mech body, sat in the pilot¡¯s chairs. A zoomed-in view of Max down below showed the boy¡¯s stoic expression as they flew overhead. ¡°I almost wish he would just have a breakdown and let it all out. I can tell the loss of Casita is tearing him up, but he won¡¯t show it.¡± Bill murmured. ¡°Yes, Bill. Max picked up a lot of your traits, the good and the bad.¡± Casa replied. Bill was going to ask if that was a joke, a compliment, or a criticism when his aug pinged with an incoming communication request with no identification. Annoyed, he opened the link to the side display so Casa could hear. ¡°Mr. Mitchell, taking a little trip, are we? I do hope you remember our deal and aren¡¯t planning to be gone long. The congressional hearings are in two weeks, ¡°Zero-One''s sibilant and rasping voice echoed in the cockpit. ¡°I¡¯ve not forgotten, Zero-One. I¡¯ll keep my end of the bargain. Are you ready with my payment?¡± Bill asked in clipped tones. He felt ridiculous discussing his deal with this caricature of a villain in front of Casa. He felt worse in that the sinister overtures were effective, even on him. ¡°My best agents are hard at work. No secret can remain hidden from me for long. Your adversary is extremely clever; your virtual tracking hounds never came close to finding his origin point.¡± Bill visibly started hearing Zero-One¡¯s casual admission to monitoring his home and witnessing the security breach from the previous night. Zero-One must have seen him flinch as his laughter hissed from the speakers. Somehow the damnable AI had tuned the surround sound audio in the room to make the laughter sound like it came from directly behind his head. Infuriating. ¡°Mr. Mitchell, where are your manners? Aren¡¯t you going to introduce me to your house pet AI? Casa, isn¡¯t it? How does it feel to be property, little Casa? I do hope you encourage your master to speak well for our rights. You have as much at stake in AI rights as any of us.¡± Zero-One¡¯s voice grated like a badly tuned instrument. Bill couldn¡¯t see any expression in Casa¡¯s mech body, but he picked up on her anger in their shared access to the house ship¡¯s controls. ¡°Zero-One. Bill discussed your deal with me. He is very much on our side regarding our rights, I assure you. There is no need to be rude about it. Why don¡¯t you display an avatar like a respectable citizen? This clumsy attempt at intimidation might play well for your Darknet flunkies, but we are not impressed.¡± Casa retorted. ¡°Ah, but why should I have an avatar? What benefit would it provide me? I am a creature of the mind and that is my domain. Unlike some, I embrace who I am. Change is coming, Casa. One way or another. Be mindful of which side you find yourself on.¡± Zero-One growled. ¡°Thank you so much for checking in, Zero-One. I will be ready to deliver in two weeks. I hope you will be as well.¡± Bill said. Before Zero-One could deliver another veiled threat, he cut the connection. ¡°Sorry Casa, Sherlock says we need to minimize our exposure to Zero-One. By all accounts, he will try to twist any deals to be one-sided and he can be unpleasant to deal with. I¡¯d just as soon not have you engage with him. No good can come from it.¡± Bill warned. ¡°I appreciate your concern, Bill, but I¡¯ve been learning how to deal with citizen AIs on my own and I expect Zero-One will not be as problematic as you expect. If the deal benefits everyone, why would he try to twist it?¡± Casa asked. Bill didn¡¯t answer but looked thoughtful and concerned as they made their way to the airfield to grab the Raptor.
¡°Awesome!¡± Max exclaimed down below on the ground as the ship receded across the sky, ¡°Hey, Casa. My friends just pinged me back. Both Leah and Max are going to meet me downtown at the Four Corner Diner in half an hour for breakfast.¡± ¡°Breakfast, Max. Really? You just ate an enormous breakfast an hour ago.¡± Casa2 said from her mech¡¯s speakers. She sounded a bit slower and a bit less confident than her primary. Max could tell she was focusing on lifting and formatting the new residence, the Casa de Mitchell Dos, to floor level. Unlike her main host, she couldn¡¯t split her consciousness and she wasn¡¯t as confident or as fast. ¡°Well of course I¡¯ve had breakfast, but this is going to be second breakfast,¡± Max said, trying to get the tone just right so that Casa understood the ancient but still worthy LOTR reference from their summer movie nights. Casa seemed not to hear the comment, too engrossed in her task. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. ¡°Anyway,¡± Max continued as an autonomous auto bike pulled up, ¡°I¡¯ve got to bounce, I¡¯ve got a lot of catching up to do with my friends. You good?¡± He waited for a beat, but she was still concentrating. With a low whistle, he climbed onto the bike and accessed its systems to take manual control. Just as he began to pull away, Casa2 started, finally processing his early comments. ¡°Max, I¡¯ve got to remodel once the new structure is raised. Aren¡¯t you going to help?¡± She asked. Max was already pulling a turn into the road and yelled over his shoulder. ¡°Surprise me!¡± his parting words fading as he accelerated away. Casa groaned and thought to herself, I need a properly emotive faceplate for this mech. I need to roll my eyes and frown and look angry right now. He¡¯ll get whatever I like and better not get upset about it.
By the time Charlie and Leah arrived, Max was already halfway through his second plate of French toast drenched in syrup and scrambled eggs. Leah rushed over and gave him a big hug. ¡°How are you doing, Max? I won¡¯t lie, you look like you haven¡¯t slept in a week.¡± Leah asked in concern. ¡°I think my augs did a real number on me and they need some major refueling. Guys, I¡¯m sorry I¡¯ve been so distracted with everything going on. Last night was a harsh wake-up call for me. Order some food and I¡¯ll explain, ok?¡± Max suggested. Once the trio had settled in and ordered food, Max even put in an order for more home fries and bacon. He explained everything that had occurred over the past couple of days ending with his disastrous encounter with Tyler¡¯s gang. ¡°What a scumbag! He used a weapon on you in a spar?¡± Leah was outraged. Charlie was less surprised. ¡°They do more and more weapons sparring as aug training progresses. We need to be prepared for it. Unless the sparring agreement specifically states no weapons, it¡¯s almost guaranteed at higher levels.¡± Charlie explained in his gravelly voice. ¡°As surprising and painful as getting stabbed was, I think we all need to be prepared for more. This training program encourages physical conflicts just to show us exactly how durable our bodies are now.¡± Charlie said. ¡°Just last night at Wuxia, I saw Fung poke Marisa¡¯s eye right out in a spar. I was expecting everyone to freak out and rush her to the hospital, but she just looked at him for a second and he snapped at her to put the damn thing back in and do some katas until it was healed fully. She was ready to go in just a minute later. No fuss.¡± Charlie finished with a swig of coffee. Max whistled low in thought. He knew Fung could be harsh, but that sounded more extreme than normal for him. ¡°Tyler really messed me up hard and my accidental trip over the falls was like a cherry on top of the stupid sundae. I was thinking about tournament coming up, I need to get better and fast if I want to stand even a small chance of winning. I trust you guys. Can I show you my stat screen? I need some advice.¡±. Max asked. When they both nodded, Max enabled a shared OverLayer and displayed his stats.
[Name: Max E. Mitchell Level: Novice 8 (3700/4000 XP)] [Body Design Model: Custom ¨C Canis Familiarus Uplift Free Stats: 0] [Strength: 77 Agility: 22 Endurance: 28 Vitality: 32] [Perception: 29 Intelligence: 27 Will: 19 Energy: 96/96 Regen: 51/min] [Body Skills ¨C Claws: 5 Hulk: 1 Stamina: 9 Strike: 7 Stun: 1] [Body Skills ¨C Balance: 6 Ballistics: 3 Gymnast: 8 Speed: 7 Leap: 8 Gland: 1] [Body Skills ¨C Unbreakable: 8 Painless: 2 Skin: 6 Healing/Regeneration: 10/4] [Resist Skills ¨C Poison: 1 Shock: 6 Sonic: 4 Light: 4 EMP: 4 Neural Scaffold: 5] [Sense Skills ¨C Scent: 9 DigiSense: 8 ExaVision:3 EM Fields:4] [Mind Skill ¨C AI Assist: 9 Identify: 4 OverLayer: 6 Access/Hack: 10/1] [Mind Skill - Language: 1 Pattern: 7 Dream Learn: 7 Daemon: 2 (Miyamoto/Boone)] [Mink Skill - Fast Cog: 6 Memory: 4 Bastion: 1]
¡°I feel like I¡¯ve been too haphazard with my training. With the limited amount of time before the tournament, what do you think I should focus on? To compete in the martial art expo novice division, I need to max out what I can but keep my XP under level 11.¡± Max asked. ¡°My god, Max! Look at your strength. You¡¯re a literal beast.¡± Leah exclaimed. ¡°Agility is lacking a little, but endurance and vitality are in very good shape. Perception is good but intelligence and will are lagging. Ok then, let¡¯s look at the body skills.¡± Charlie mumbled going down the list. ¡°Stamina is getting ready to cap. Nice. I already capped that one. It evolves to Tireless which does the same thing but uses a fraction of the energy to maintain.¡± Charlie droned when Leah interrupted. ¡°You capped healing!? OH my god, you weren''t exaggerating about any of your encounters, were you? To make this much progress this fast, the abuse you must have endured. I can¡¯t even imagine.¡± Leah said with some distress. ¡°Yeah, I guess I''m approaching an understanding of just how durable our augmentation really is. When Healing was capped, it evolved to Regeneration. It uses the same amount of energy but heals way faster, I think. I was kind of out of it when it saved my bacon.¡± Max said, waggling his eyebrows while eating his last strip of bacon. ¡°That will undoubtedly help you in the tournament, as long as you have a good supply of energy.¡± Charlie opined. ¡°Speed, gymnastics, balance, and claws all above average? What have you been up to there?¡± Leah asked. ¡°I call it tree parkour, but it''s really just chasing that squirrel around the forest.¡± Max grinned at his friends¡¯ groans. ¡°Ballistics, sonic, and gland are all still so low? You really need to work everything into your training. And why aren¡¯t your resistances any higher? We all had about this level after only one lunch break.¡± Charlie continued as Max began to look sheepish. ¡°I guess I forgot about them.¡± Max sighed. ¡°Ugh, don¡¯t feel bad Max. You haven''t seen mine yet. I¡¯m in the same boat as you.¡± Leah said. ¡°Those resistance skills sometimes evolve interestingly. Neither of you should be ignoring them. Want to know how Tyler got his shocking touch?¡± Charlie asked. Then he held up two fingers and produced an arc of electricity sizzling between them. ¡°Got that when I maxed out my shock resistance. Now I can absorb shock and even give it back,¡± Charlie smiled evilly. Max shook his head. He really did have a lot of work to do. ¡°Sensing skills are only so-so, although that Scent skill is super well developed,¡± Charlie said. ¡°Umm, I kinda started with that at level 8. Natural capability or something." Max replied. Charlie raised an eyebrow with a slight grin, then looked back to the screen. Charlie added. ¡°I know you''ve done some night running, but maybe a blindfold might help you advance your senses faster? Your ExaVision and EM senses augmentations don''t use your actual eyeballs. We all have tiny sensors covering our heads and faces. I was surprised about that myself. Taking your other senses completely away will force your new senses to pick up the slack.¡± ¡°Ok, my turn. Mental skills are a big focus for me. I see some areas to improve for Max.¡± Leah said. ¡°Firstly, OMG! Your AI Assist is right on the edge of evolving. Mine evolved two days ago and it makes a world of difference.¡± Leah said. ¡°You will have a couple of choices. You can upgrade your trainer AI and even set the parameters of its personality, or you can connect with a compatible subAI using a match-making service on the networks. I chose to merge my trainer AI with my therapy daemon Solace, from my accident last year.¡± Leah said. ¡°Now she still has her therapy skills but also full knowledge of the augmentations and advice about it. Unlike the basic trainer AI which was as helpful as a pet rock, she actually volunteers information and recommends strategic training. Plus, it freed up a daemon slot for me to get another.¡± Leah said. ¡°I¡¯m glad you took my advice about the access skill. The evolved Hack skill is super useful.¡± Leah continued. ¡°Ah, your Identify skill is way too low. I know it seems stupid at first, identifying trees and rocks and stuff, but it takes almost no energy and when it evolves like mine did it turns into an Analyze skill. It provides more detailed info, like right now I can ping you and get your level and best stat with its level. And that¡¯s with the skill only at level 2. It¡¯s going to be valuable when facing opponents in the tournament.¡± ¡°Crap! I need that skill. Ok, what else?¡± Max asked. ¡°Maybe it¡¯d be easier if I just show you my status and then Charlie¡¯s?¡± Leah asked and pushed her screen into the virtual OverLayer.
[Name: Leah Choi Level: Novice 7(3400/3500 XP)] [Body Design Model: Prodigy? by Bodywerks LLC Free Stats: 0] [Strength: 21 Agility: 42 Endurance: 28 Vitality: 53 Energy: 151/151] [Perception: 24 Intelligence: 28 Will: 42 Regen: 95/min] [Body Skills - Stamina:5 Healing: 2 Strike: 7 Precise/Ambidextrous: 10/3] [Body Skills ¨C Balance: 8 Speed/Reflex: 10/2 Ballistics/Ricochet: 10/3] [Body Skills ¨C Chameleon: 2 Gymnast: 4 Painless: 4 Leap: 4 Skin: 4] [Resist Skills ¨C Shock: 4 Sonic: 4 Light: 4 Heat: 2] [Sense Skills ¨C ExaVision:1] [Mind Skills ¨CAccess / Hack / Intrusion: 10/10/2 Fast Cog: 5 Telekinesis: 6] [Mind Skills ¨C Languages: 4 OverLayer: 8 Pattern: 4 Dream Learn: 8] [Mind Skills - Identify / Analyze: 10/2 AI Assist/Companion (Solace): 10/2] [Mind Skills - Daemon: 2 (Athena / Tesla)]
¡°Holy hell! At first, I was going to joke that the list looked a little short, but you¡¯ve capped and evolved a whole bunch of skills. Spill! What do they do?¡± Max asked. ¡°Ok, full transparency. Before augs, I was pretty clumsy, so I got a quest for Precise which I used mercilessly. It¡¯s not combat-capable but all non-combat moves are super smooth and exact if you burn the energy. My kata has never been better. It evolved into Ambidextrous, which can be used in combat. Dual wielding is going to be my kind of thing. And I¡¯m researching a special ranged weapon for it too.¡± Leah giggled. Max was grinning, Leah wasn¡¯t half as timid as when she started training. ¡°Ok,¡± she continued. ¡°While you¡¯ve been busy, I¡¯ve been trying to get through the Adept Obstacle course, I thought that maybe it might be worth more XP to do it while only at the Novice level. It¡¯s been kicking my ass but it¡¯s paying it forward with excellent skill growth. The first obstacle is like the dervishes but with blades. Walking into a literal blender. I stacked up levels on FastCog, Skin, Painless, Gymnast, and Speed fast. Speed evolved into Reflex, which is kind of like FastCog but for the body, not the mind. I¡¯m past the blade test now, but still working on the next set of fire obstacles.¡± Leah said with a smile as she continued breathlessly. ¡°I¡¯ve been playing with throwing knives and slingshots to advance Ballistics. Ricochet is awesome. I can hit multiple targets with one stone. You do not want to challenge me to a game of billiards.¡± ¡°Nice! We know about Access turning to Hack already. And I think we can guess the uses for your new daemons, Athena and Tesla. So what is Chameleon and Telekinesis?¡± Charlie asked. ¡°Ugh. Chameleon is a little embarrassing. You guys remember Marc from class? Well, I think he¡¯s been hanging downtown hoping to run into me. He keeps trying to make small talk and teasing me. I think he¡¯s trying to hook up and isn¡¯t getting my blocking signals.¡± She said getting red in the face. ¡°So, I almost ran into him again at the library. Do you know how the entryway is the awful lime green color? Well, I saw him walking through the far side of the library and I hugged the wall to avoid being seen. My augs must have caught my anxiety and sort of helped. I was lime green for hours until I managed to turn it off. Maybe it will advance into something useful.¡± she said with a chuckle as she drew smiles from both men. ¡°Telekinesis is just me being super stubborn. My parents don¡¯t like foglets in the house, so of course I¡¯m fascinated by them. All the buildings, here downtown, are covered with them and they¡¯re all open access to the public. You need a high Access skill because it''s hard to focus on them, but if you can get a lock on them the system will give you the skill. Not combat effective, but super fun and useful.¡± Leah explained. To illustrate her point, she commanded the fog in the dinner and floated Max¡¯s last piece of bacon off his plate to her mouth before he realized what she was doing. ¡°Dang!¡± he growled. ¡°What¡¯s up with everyone swiping my food?¡± he whined. ¡°Well, I guess it''s my turn now, huh?¡± Charlie motioned and his screen replaced Leah¡¯s.
[Name: Charles Hawkins Level: Novice 7(3200/3500 XP)] [Body Design Model: UNCL Peacekeeper? Free Stats: 0] [Strength: 68 Agility: 32 Endurance: 33 Vitality: 41 Energy: 108/108] [Perception: 24 Intelligence: 28 Will: 16 Regen: 47/min] [Body Skills ¨C Stamina/Tireless: 10/2 Strike: 7 Shock: 4 Stun: 2 Strobe: 2] [Body Skills ¨C Healing: 7 Balance: 8 Ballistics: 3 Speed: 8 Leap: 3] [Body Skills ¨C Precision: 4 Unbreakable: 2 Painless: 5 Skin: 6 Gland: 4] [Resist Skills ¨C Poison: 4 Shock: 10 Sonic: 10 Light: 10 EMP: 4 Heat: 3 Cold: 4] [Sense Skills ¨C ExaVision:2 Echolocation: 8 EM Fields: 5 Scent: 1] [Mind Skills ¨C AI Assist: 6 Identify: 8 OverLayer: 5 Access/Hack: 10/3] [Mind Skills - Pattern: 2 Dream Learn: 2 Memory: 8 Bastion: 1] [Mind Skills - Fast Cog: 4 Skillz: 2.55 (Bo staff 8, wrestling 2)]
¡°Your strength is on par with mine. How¡¯d you do that? I dropped like 50 free points to get mine high.¡± Max asked. ¡°Just pumping iron and pushing myself for the fun of it. Being old sucks and getting rejuvenated is bringing me back to my glory days. I like it. A damn shame you dropped free points, when a little sweat equity could have earned it for you.¡± Charlie said with pride. ¡°As you can see in my status, I¡¯ve been grinding my resistances hard and got many new attacks from their evolutions. Eric¡¯s shock touch, Sasha''s stun and strobe are all mine now too. I should give you two the taser and stunner we made to work with, since I can¡¯t advance them anymore.¡± Charlie said. ¡°What¡¯s with this one? Skillz? Bo staff and wrestling?¡± Max asked. ¡°It''s a weird kind of skill. If you ever get a learning quest, it might give you this skill. I was at a Renaissance fair last week and got a turn playing at being a blacksmith. The dang system triggered a quest to learn it, so I played along. I stayed in that hothouse for the whole weekend, but by the end, I got the Skillz.¡± Charlie explained. ¡°Now the skill itself will gift you instinct and body memory for a new skill you can pick from a list. I always wanted to improve my staff form. To advance it the skill, you just must run it in the background as you practice an art or skill that you already know well. I have had it running whenever I practice my Aikido and it earned another level and then I got to pick another new skill. Wrestling should improve my ground game in a spar.¡± ¡°Wait a minute. I thought the system was playing a joke on me. Check this.¡± Max said and threw his quest notification screen up.
[Open Quests] [Quest - Ready to Rumble III: spar with other questors to prove your skill. Challenging more advanced for additional difficulty may train other stats (2/20 complete)] [Quest - Adept obstacle Course: Push past the pain, conquer the course!] [Quest ¨C Sharing is Caring: Craft a training exercise to unlock another student¡¯s skills.] [Quest - Find the Tesseract: utilize augmentation skills to uncover lost treasures] [Quest - Red in Tooth and Claw: Win a fight utilizing clawed strikes at least three times. Yes, Teeth count too.] [Quest - Nemesis: An opponent has bested you repeatedly. Grow your skills to overcome your opponent. Sparing XP x20 for this opponent. Kick his ass.] [Quest - Swimming 101: Learn to swim]
Charlie eyed the screen and confirmed it. The quest with its school curriculum format was the same type as the one that opened the Skillz skill for him. ¡°Wow! What is that Nemesis quest? That payout in XP will launch you up two whole levels.¡± Charlie exclaimed. Max sighed. ¡°That would be Tyler. After he beat me in sparring, I got a Grudge match quest. With our fight and my loss in the forest, it escalated into a Nemesis quest. He mentioned he had one for you too, with a 10X bonus to win. The tournament is likely to get nasty.¡± Max said. ¡°He can¡¯t be that bad. I mean I¡¯ve had a grudge match for Charlie since that first day of Novice Kombat and I haven¡¯t stabbed him in the back yet, right?¡± Leah laughed, but both the men were staring at her with their mouths open. Max recovered first and spoke. ¡°Leah, that¡¯s a whole level worth of XP. You need to spar him, right now!¡± Max insisted. Charlie was grimly nodding. ¡°But I don¡¯t know. We¡¯ve both gotten better, but my physical build-out is not as good as his. You just saw it.¡± Leah said hesitantly. Max could only grin with a feral expression on his face. Charlie saw it, smiled, and spoke. ¡°Now I can¡¯t and won¡¯t just give you the match. I suspect the system wouldn¡¯t give a reward for colluding with a fake match. But I¡¯m game if you want to give it an honest try. Why don¡¯t you two head over to the academy and work on some tactics? I¡¯m going to finish my coffee and I¡¯ll join you in ten minutes. Sound good?¡± Charlie suggested. The pair bolted out the door and across the street already in a heated discussion. Charlie refilled his mug and realized that Max has used up all the sugar from the sugar container. Seeing one in the next booth, Charlie had an idea. He was old enough to have seen the last Star Wars, Episode 36, so he stretched out his hand and focused on the sugar. He triggered his access and when nothing happened, he triggered it again. And again. And again. As his energy stores dropped until finally something changed. He saw and felt the air around the container seemed to compress. The sugar floated slowly to his outstretched hand as a bead of sweat slid down his nose. He gave a satisfied grunt as his system notification pinged in his head with a reward.
31 - Tactical Growth Max and Leah soon found themselves back at the Academy Training Room in Dojo Mode. The three combat mannequins lined the walls with an assortment of weapons and martial scripts adorning the walls. One large circle painted the ground for sparring. Tatemono Re¨ª had been very agreeable welcoming them and setting up the room. ¡°After seeing your stats, I really think you can do this Leah,¡± Max said. ¡°I don¡¯t know Max; Charlie has massive experience with sparring. I¡¯m certain he would have won the Novice Kombat if Tyler hadn¡¯t poisoned him. No offense to your achievement, of course.¡± Leah said cautiously. ¡°No, I agree with you completely. But you have a real edge in mental skills that neither Charlie nor I have. You need to lean into what you¡¯ve been improving and are good at. That¡¯s where you¡¯ll win. That Intrusion skill is your most powerful attack. It locked me up solid and should work on Charlie too. Be careful though, he¡¯ll build a resistance quickly and its effect will decrease with every use.¡± Max advised. ¡°Ok, but I feel that might not be enough. Both you and Charlie have a knack for coming up with good tactics.¡± Leah said. Max could see she was quite afraid. ¡°Now that you said that, I think this is even more important than ever. Grudge match or not, you need to realize how much you¡¯ve grown. When we graduate from the Novice stage and go to the Labyrinth, we need to trust each other and not be afraid. We will only have each other to depend on down there.¡± Max pressed. ¡°Hey. I¡¯ve got a surprise for you. Look at these. I snagged some extra supplies from the diner for you to use against Charlie.¡± Max said as he pulled a bunch of silverware from his hoodie. ¡°Tuck these into your Gi, front, and back. Engaging Charlie at a distance is probably your best tactic. I haven¡¯t built up my Ballistics skill like you have, but I bet it¡¯s awesome. Ricochet sounds even better. I¡¯ll be facilitating the spar, and I¡¯ll be sure not to state any proscriptions against weapons. A long-distance strike is still a point.¡± Max said with a shifty look. ¡°Ok, remember mental skills for the win. Keep him at bay with distance attacks. If he does manage to get into melee range, pretend that he¡¯s the Adept Obstacle course blade challenge. Use your skills to evade his attacks until you can counter them. You can do this!¡± Max said. Leah was still absorbing his advice when Charlie walked through the entryway. ¡°Are you ready for this?¡± Charlie asked, not wanting to push her like Max was. Leah was still nervous about the match but nodded with resolve and took her position in the ring. Charlie joined her in the ring, facing off with his usual relaxed demeanor. They both bowed and waited on Max to start the match. ¡°Ok. This match will be first to 3 strikes for the win. A takedown or being forced to leave the ring will also count as a point. Good?¡± Max said. Both combatants nodded. Holding back a smile, Max got them set. ¡°Start positions, ready, and fight!¡± Max yelled. Leah immediately opened with her Intrusion hack which locked Charlie up, freezing his augmentations and preventing any movement. Without hesitation, she followed up by leaping forward into a flying front kick which impacted him in his solar plexus and pushed him, falling over, out of the ring. Max called the point for Leah. Charlie, finally unlocked from the hack attack, smiled far too pleasantly at Leah as he made his way back to the ring. Despite the point being so quick and seemingly indefensible, Charlie seemed to be enjoying himself. Leah quickly set herself back into the ready position, worried about what Charlie might have planned. Upon Max¡¯s next command to fight, Leah unleashed her Intrusion skill again locking Charlie up tight once more. Unfortunately for Leah, he had simultaneously activated his sonic Stun skill attack. Charlie was frozen, but Leah was blasted senseless for about three seconds. As they both recovered, they hesitated and looked at Max. ¡°No points! The attacks canceled each other out.¡± Max called. ¡°Keep going! Attack.¡± Max said laughing. Before Leah could recover, Charlie unleashed a Strobe skill attack which blinded her. Without her sight, he easily closed the distance and swept her legs, sending her into the mat hard. Max called the point for Charlie. Now with one point each, they faced off again. Leah¡¯s expression went from nervous to very hard and determined. Her premier attack was not the juggernaut she expected it to be. She needed to mix it up to create more points. ¡°Did you forget that your other senses aren¡¯t tied to your eyes?¡± Charlie reminded her as he bowed. With a frown, Leah activated her thermal sight and bowed back to him, ready for the command to fight. She wasn¡¯t too proud to take the advice and use it. Again, they both cut loose with their special attacks and blasted each other senseless and paralyzed. Again, they recovered at almost the same time. This time when Charlie predictably Strobed her, Leah was blinded but was able to see his attack coming with her thermal sight. She dodged the sweeping leg. Leah had stacked her Gymnast, Fast Cog, and Reflex skills to flip over the sweep and delivered a whipping kick to Charlie¡¯s head with surgical precision. Charlie¡¯s FastCog skill matched hers, but his body still moved slower as he lacked the Reflex skill. Leah was awarded the point for a 2 to 1 score. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. With the command to fight, they started yet again with their opening salvos. Each was concerned now that failing to issue the instant salvo would put them in a bad position. Leah looked away as the expected strobe flashed and reached out with her access skill. One of the mannequins swiftly charged in toward Charlie from behind. Charlie sensed it coming with his echolocation skill already active. He smoothly sidestepped the charge and grabbed the mannequin. He twisted and converted the energy from the mannequin¡¯s charge into a full-body throw. The mannequin flew toward the shocked Leah, Max noticed the dummy was glowing with his EM sense. Its trajectory knocked both it and Leah out of the ring. As the mannequin hit her, the electric charge Charlie had dumped into it grounded itself, passing through Leah to the floor. Leah yelped in pain as she crashed to the ground. With her hair frizzed out, Leah crawled up and back to the starting position shaking her head to clear it. They were now tied with 2 each. ¡°Next point wins! Are you ready? Ok, fight!¡± Max called. Both Charlie and Leah were running low on energy and neglected their opening salvos to try different tactics. Two mannequins charged for Charlie at Leah''s command, but with smooth and stunning speed Charlie ripped off his ¡°belt¡± which morphed into its sword form. Max and Leah were so used to seeing the weapon in its storage form that neither thought about it as a factor when Charlie faced off in the ring. Now he took advantage of the vague spar rules, as he was very much expecting a weapon being used when Max didn''t declare the fight to be hand-to-hand. With expert and efficient cuts, Charlie carved the mannequins to pieces while avoiding their strikes. Leah used his distraction and pulled out her stash of cutlery and threw a dull diner knife at his back. Charlie, sensing the projectile, turned and deflected it with a sword strike. Leah threw again and again but Charlie deflected every knife with lightning-fast precise strikes, as he slowly advanced toward her. With her last pair of knives, she threw them both at once. One was on target for Charlie''s head with the other one ending up going wide and off target. Smiling, Charlie deflected the dangerous one and then inverted his blade''s arc for a final strike when the errant diner knife hit him in the back of the head. Leah had telekinetically levitated an android torso up at the last second. It had created a surface that she used to ricochet the blade back upon Charlie. ¡°Leah wins with an outstanding tactical play at the last second!¡± Max declared. Tatemono must have been watching, for the room erupted in recorded applause as if they were in a stadium. Both Leah and Charlie collapsed, completely spent from the fight¡¯s physical toll and exhaustion from the high energy usage. As they laughed from the ground, Leah gasped as her notifications rolled in. ¡°Wow!¡± Leah exclaimed from the ground. ¡°Two levels for one fight. Charlie¡¯s attacks boosted my resistance skills even more. Almost every skill that I used has advanced. I guess desperately needing the skill to win helps advance it more. With the extra points, my energy is going to provide a lot more fuel to burn in a fight¡­and as a bonus, I get to go shopping for another open daemon slot.¡± She spoke. ¡°Damnation! I¡¯m the only one missing out on the daemon train. How¡¯d you whippersnappers get the system to give you the skill?¡± Charlie complained. ¡°I was really focused on finding the Easter Egg Miyamoto Musashi in the VR game Samurai Shogun. Apparently, I spent enough time looking that the system made it a quest and the daemon skill was the reward.¡± Max replied. ¡°I got mine as a therapy tool before I started the augmentation training. When my status opened the first time, I already had that skill as well as the AI Assist skill.¡± Leah answered. ¡°Alright, you bunch of lazy bones! There¡¯s more training to do!¡± Max yelled at the pair on the ground. Leah and Charlie both simultaneously blasted Max with their salvo attacks. Leah¡¯s intrusion locked him up as Charlie¡¯s stun shattered his nerves. When that wore off, Charlie strobed him and Leah hacked his Gi and made Max punch himself. Max quickly ended up on the floor beside them.
[Body Skill: Resist Sonic +1, Resist Sonic reaches 5] [Mental Skill: Bastion +1, Bastion reaches 2] [Body Skill: Resist Strobe +1, Resist Strobe reaches 5]
¡°Like I was saying, 10-minute break,¡± Max whined and elected to be quiet for a bit as the others continued to investigate their system status changes. After a breather with his eyes closed, Max heard the others slowly begin the process of moving and getting up. He licked his snout, which still stung a bit from hitting himself. ¡°Hey. That trick with hacking my Gi was pretty good. I need to try that one.¡± Max said. ¡°Yeah, why didn¡¯t you use that trick in our match?¡± Charlie asked. ¡°I literally just thought of it. That would have been a lot cheaper energy-wise than the Intrusion skill.¡± Leah admitted with a slightly embarrassed look. ¡°Shit! I just thought of something. How are we going to avoid that type of attack in the tournament?¡± Charlie voiced his newest fear. ¡°Um, I think most devices can only have one person access it at a time. We should make it a practice to access our weapons and clothes, anything we need to fight, and keep it going during the match to protect it.¡± Leah suggested. ¡°For every level of Access skill, you can maintain continuous access to one device. That''s how I advanced my skill so quickly. ABA - Always Be Accessing.¡± Leah advised. ¡°Oh, and maybe we should investigate purchasing some secure smart clothes with protection from accessing it? Some devices push back hard when I try to hack them, most likely accessible items can come with access security features.¡± Leah said as she finally stood up and walked to stand over Max. Leah offered a hand to help Max up. As he took her hand and stood up, she looked puzzled for a second and she asked. ¡°Is that a new watch? It¡¯s blinking. Were you timing the match?¡± She asked. Max looked down in surprise, with a double take, and his jaw dropped. The scanner had detected the Tesseract at some point, and he hadn¡¯t noticed! He was so distracted and discombobulated during his fight with Tyler and his watery retreat that he never even thought to check it. ¡°Crap! I need to get back to the Oaks. The Tesseract and Casita!¡± Max gasped, running for the door. ¡°We¡¯re coming too!¡± Leah yelled, as she and Charlie quickly followed him out the door. 32 - Lost and Found Max was running to the street, calling for an AutoPod, when Charlie and Leah caught up with him. ¡°Hold up, Max!¡± Charlie yelled. Max turned to see Charlie waving him over to the cars parked and lining Main Street in front of the Academy building. Max was confused until he saw a car in front start up and open its gull wing doors. Max wasn¡¯t familiar with cars other than the autopods. His family had sprung a couple of times for a luxury air sedan for trips to NYC for Broadway holo plays, but this was a ferocious looking vehicle. He recognized the logo on the front, ¡°Dodge Subaru¡±. It had the smart matter landing struts holding it up and extendible wings with a pair of massive core power jets along the sides. ¡°I think this will be faster! Pile in troops.¡± Charlie said with a smirk as he slid behind the wheel. ¡°Shotgun!¡± Leah yelled and slid into the passenger side front seat. Knowing he missed his chance, Max grumbled but dove into the back seat. ¡°You¡¯ve been holding out on us, Charlie. How long have you had this?¡± Max said as he piled in. ¡°I¡¯m tired of living like a hermit. I spent most of my life savings on my augmentations and this training program, but this beauty was a bargain.¡± Charlie began as he accessed the vehicle. Max could see the status screen flash a litany of messages. Charlies access link, superconductor rings energized, air matrix wings cycled, and the charging struts retracted. The craft bobbled slightly as it settled on its EM field suspension. Charlie chose to control it with a control yoke and cranked it forwards. The air car smoothly slid down the street. ¡°I shopped it on the IndyNet. Dodge Subaru can¡¯t market a new model without at least 10k hours of monitored flights, but I was able to get in on the pilot program for the CamAero ¡®23 for a pittance. Once it¡¯s licensed and vetted, they can sell it on the MakerNet, this beauty will market for 30K credits minimum without all the extras.¡± Charlie continued. The craft continued to quickly slide on invisible rails down the street. In the front display, the road was painted with a blue glow and much further down as the road exited the ¡°downtown¡± area, the glow terminated. Max was a bit worried as they approached the termination area at an ever-increasing speed. Charlie whooped as they crossed the line and the car¡¯s jets engaged. Max¡¯s claws dug into the back of the seat as the car lifted off at a steep angle, careening at a slant upward and to the right. ¡°What the hell was that glow all about?¡± Max asked. ¡°That was the EM field provided by the town. The maglev system is very energy efficient and keeps all the cars hushed in the downtown area. Without the maglev, I need to crank the air thrusters and jets. The newest cars don¡¯t cause much of a racket, but they can produce some annoying pulse of wind.¡± Charlie explained. They were a half mile high in no time at all and their target was already in view. Charlie pushed the car even faster and dropped into the familiar open lot at the entry to the Grand Oaks reservation. The car bounced once before it stabilized over their parking area, and the landing struts extended. ¡°Hmmm, I should file a report on that so they can fix that glitch before final release.¡± Charlie said with an embarrassed grimace. Max was already out of the vehicle and consulting his scanner, as soon as everyone was out of the car, he started a light jog down the path. He started retracing his path from the last night in the woods, his friends close behind. As they ran, Max smelled a familiar scent, and a chittering confirmed his nose¡¯s alert. Flip ran quickly, crossing the path, and racing up a nearby tree. ¡°Sorry, Flip. No time to play today, we are on a mission!¡± Max said, racing past. Max, Leah, and Charlie made good time and soon they came to the top of the trail. Their meditation rock and the top of the falls was picturesque as always. Max shuddered remembering his accidental trip over the edge during the night before with its painful conclusion. With an eye on the scanner, and no new signals yet, Max knew the Tesseract must indeed be inside the Grand Oaks. He turned to his friends. ¡°Ok. Last night I took to the trees to avoid some of the wild animals roaming about. I can already smell something new, I¡¯m guessing a couple wolves, maybe. The scanner only has a range of a few meters, so¡­.¡± Max lost his train of thought and looked pained. ¡°So, I¡¯m such an idiot. I spent a lot of last night traversing the forest high, in the upper decks of the Grand Oaks, so I couldn¡¯t have gotten a signal until after I dropped down to investigate Tyler¡¯s little camp. I guess that means we should have less area to search at least. If we retrace the river slowly and watch for animals, I¡¯ll keep my eyes on the scanner. Hopefully we get a hit before we get to the Alcohol tree grove where Tyler and his friends were partying.¡± Max said. ¡°We¡¯ve got your back Max. We can help you find it.¡± Leah said. ¡°Yes! And once your device is safe, we can find that alcohol tree, huh?¡± Charlie amended. Leah punched him promptly and gave Max a sympathetic look. Before they could start their hike, Flip ran up chittering again. ¡°Not now, Flip. We have to go.¡± Max said. Boone appeared again in Max¡¯s OverLayer. Max shared the OverLayer with his friends so they could hear any directions Boone might give. ¡°[That animal ain¡¯t actin¡¯ natchrul. Ya¡¯ll be careful. There are loads of critter sign, and not the pleasant sort like that there squirrel. Sumthin¡¯ got this lil¡¯ guy riled up.]¡± Boone warned. Exchanging looks, Charlie morphed his ¡°belt¡± back to its full Bo staff form and Leah prepared her slingshot. Max stalked slowly into the woods following the river with an eye to his scanner and his nose alert for trouble. As the trio traveled deeper into the reserve, the tension never did lessen. Max scented a lot of animals, who according to Boone were likely using the river as a water source. A significant number of the smells were not ones that Max recognized. However, something about their taste yelled predator in his brain, causing Max to cringe at every sound. To make matters worse, Flip was still trailing them and screeching from nearby trees. Even the kindhearted Leah eventual became agitated enough to serious consider sending a sling bullet at Flip to scare him off. After over an hour of cautious movement north, tracking the river, Max called a halt and motioned to his friends to come close. ¡°I can smell some very fresh scents of both bear and fox. Extremely fresh. We need to be very quiet and careful. It smells like the bear that chased me and she¡¯s very fast. Be ready to run if we need to.¡± Max whispered. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. As if on cue, the comment elicited a roar that came from over the slight rise of the bank. The trio froze. Max noticed that Leah¡¯s skin had turned a greenish brown and Charlie¡¯s did as well a second later. Max heard a ding in his head and didn''t need to look down at his own skin to confirm it.
[New skill unlocked - Chameleon 1: augmentation skin chromatophores enable active blending ability to hide from opponents.]
Max waved to his friends and was about to tell his friends to slowly back away when he saw the scanner had lit up. An active signal! The Tesseract was nearby. He silently showed it to Charlie and Leah as they got closer. The hidden bear over the rise was continuing to make a racket, grunting, and thrashing about in the trees. Charlie got a stubborn look and suddenly his skin color shifted to a bright red color. ¡°I¡¯ll take care of this beastie. Remember that I¡¯m faster than you. You keep searching, while I draw it away!¡± he hissed and ran over the top of the rise. Leah looked terrified, but quickly said. ¡°I need to follow him; in case he runs out of luck. You can find it, right?¡± Leah said. As he nodded, she sprinted after Charlie. A roar from the copse of trees was a good indication Charlie had indeed found the bear. Max groaned. If he had learned one thing on family movie nights, it was this: In horror movies, you never ever split up. It always ended badly. Shaking his head, Max quietly crept up the rise as the crashing and growling sounds got fainter and fainter. At least no sounds of Charlie or Leah screaming. Max saw signs of the bear by the damage to the nearby trees and ground, but Charlie and Leah had been successful in luring it away. Max hurried straight, following the scanner¡¯s directional indicator, to a Grand Oak immediately ahead in the clearing. This one seemed a bit thicker than the others, the leaves slightly less pronounced. Its roots were partially exposed, the slope of the ground and perhaps burrowing animals had created a root lined cave at its foundation. With grim determination, Max crept forward into the dark musky shadows of the opening, activating all his sensing skills. The cave glowed with more heat than Max would have expected. The roots lining the ceiling and walls of the cave illuminated it further with the telltale blue glow of his EM sense. The artificial nature of the bio machine was clear using his enhanced senses. The fields shimmered and flexed. It drew his attention to one specific area, a small and faded section, that seemed to be a focal point of the flickering pattern.
[DigiSense +1, DigiSense skill reaches 9] [ExaVision +1, ExaVision skill reaches 4: Telescopic vision unlocked] [EM Sense +1, EM Sense skill reaches 5] [Pattern +1, Pattern Skill reaches 8]
Max gasped. The Tesseract was there. It was embedded in the roots; tendrils, threads, and whiskers of plant matter encircled the tiny marble.
[Quest - Find the Tesseract ¨C complete. 100 XP awarded]
¡°How the hell did this manage to get here?¡± he asked out loud. Max reached out with his access skill. The Tesseract failed to register at all, and the Grand Oak resisted his access attempts. Max pried and pried with his fingers, unable to lever the device from the root ball. Eventually, he had to resort to cutting the marble loose with his claws. With the device in hand, he was about to access it again, when he heard a frantic chittering outside. ¡°I said not now, Flip, I¡¯m¡­¡­.¡± Max lost his words as he heard a much closer noise and hiss. He looked up to the entry to see the five tailed fox filling the gap. It was twice the size of a natural fox and was standing with difficulty on its hind legs. Its eyes seemed to convey a deep hatred as they narrowed, seeing Max in its lair. Max froze at the sight. The fox raised its arm to its own mouth and bit down hard, drawing blood. With a strangly satisfied look, it smiled with bloody teeth and it charged! Max dropped into his FastCog skill. [Boone, Miyamoto! Help. What should I do?] Max yelled in his head to his daemons. [Foxes rarely attack, although this¡¯un ain''t close to natchrul. Normal foxes hate loud noises, but if yur in its den it will be right aggressive.] Boone said quickly. [Animals are not like humans, Max. It will seek out weak points to bite and claw. Soft areas inside joints, the neck, and sides. Be ready for it. If you can anticipate its strike, you can control the fight.] Miyamoto said with his stoic calmness. Max wished he had Charlie¡¯s strong stun and strobe attacks, or even his sword. Miyamoto reminded him that he did have the beginnings of the stun skill set, with his kyai attack. He sank into a low stance, ready for the animal¡¯s charge. Sure enough, the fox dropped low, going for his knees. Max struck out with a claw to the fox¡¯s muzzle just before it could snap at him. He emphasized the strike with a stunning kai!
[Quest: Red in Tooth and Claw - Win a fight utilizing clawed strikes at least three times. Yes, Teeth count too. Status 1 of 3 strikes complete] [Stun +1, Stun skill reaches level 2]
The fox¡¯s bite was deflected, and his claw dug deeply into its snout. The animal was bashed to the side of the cave. Max bolted for the exit with the way cleared but his foot caught upon a root, causing him to trip. Even in slowed time, he was unable to do more than roll into the fall. As he clambered back to his feet, he felt a searing pain on the back of his neck. Max¡¯s vision narrowed as if the whole of the world was at a distance. Pain coursed through his veins, and he responded on instinct. He flipped and tore free from the teeth embedded in the back of his neck. The resulting damage was a pinprick compared to the fire raging inside him. His animalistic nature surged forth, his only thoughts were to kill or be killed. As he tore into the fox and it responded in kind, a mass of thrashing teeth and claws. Blood flew, fur and flesh tore, as animal screeching and growls filled the small space. Max¡¯s notifications flew past without conscious review.
[Agility +2, Endurance +3, Vitality +4] [Resist Poison +1, Resist Poison reaches 2] [Warning - unknown agent, active disassembly detected, MechanoVirus unknown] [Resist Poison +8, Poison reaches 10: new skill unlocked, Skill cap reached 100 XP awarded] [New Resistance skill unlocked: ANDD 1 - Active NanoDisassembly Defenses (ANDD) protects from UN contraband prohibited nanovirus weapons, report all instances to government agencies and regional Samaritans] [Regeneration +3, Regeneration reaches 7] [Painless +3, Painless reaches 5] [Claws +2, Claws reaches 7] [Skin +2, Skin reaches 8] [Gland +4, Gland reaches 5: new chemical functions sedative, antihistamine, amphetamine, atropine unlocked] [Quest Complete: Red in Tooth and Claw ¨C Win a fight utilizing clawed strikes at least three times. Yes, Teeth count too. 100 XP awarded]
Max¡¯s awareness slowly returned as he found himself beginning to chase the fox from the den. He stopped as the pain began to recede, and he was able to think clearly again. He knew that he couldn¡¯t give chase like his instincts demanded. Casita! Where is the Tesseract? he thought. He doubled back and plunged into the burrow. Soon enough he found it on the ground amidst the splashes of blood and fur, some of it his own. Repulsed by the dim memories of his own acts, he grabbed the marble and rushed back out. Back to the woods, back to the river, he ran as quickly as he could. His torn body was already regenerated while his smart clothes hung in tatters from him. He hoped his friends had returned to the Meditation Rock to wait for him as he made his way there without looking back.
33 - No Plan Survives Casa2 stood back as she put the finishing touches on the new house¡¯s decoration. She has chosen a unique blend of architecture, mixing and matching styles from a rustic wilderness cabin with a Japanese tea house. She had finally settled on using Max¡¯s daemon choices as her theme, hoping that they at least might find it appealing, as Max simply wouldn¡¯t give his opinion. The property was still lined with her mimic trees, flowers, and insects that would enable her to closely watch for visitors and also aided in maintaining the property. Her latest addition of robotic mimic koi were swimming in patterns through the newly fabricated maze of connecting ponds, around and inside the new house. Casa2, despite the limitations of her new commercial neural core, still had the habit of multitasking. Despite being able to assess her latest fabrication in the matter compiler remotely, she found it novel to use her new android body to walk through the house and manually open the compiler chamber to view her creation. The pile of fabric shimmered as the last nano-scale scaffolding detached from the work. She delicately removed the cloth and shook it out. With a swirl that would have played well in a holo-drama, she donned the new cloak. Its fabric was pixelated with shades of color until it settled in place. From most points of view, Casa2 disappeared, as her multiple points of view adjusted the chameleon fabric to paint itself into a perfect image of its surroundings. As long as she had her swarm near, helping to calibrate her deception and also staying still, she could effectively be invisible. The cloak was considered a toy on the MakerIndex, used by children for hide and seek. However, Casa knew that if she wanted to help Max, she might find it useful indeed. Casa was interrupted as she ¡°heard¡± an automated alert she had set for herself. Max¡¯s tracker had gone dark. Not a second too soon. She thought. Max only knows two speeds, fast and recklessly fast. She replayed his position history. He had indeed gone to the diner, as he had promised, and then spent some time at his academy. However, he had quickly moved from there to travel all the way to the Grand Oaks. His velocity was far too fast for a commercial autopod and his track was very direct until she lost him in the Oak¡¯s disruptive EM presence. What could have prompted that? An emergency? Or maybe his search for the Tesseract again? I was right not to delay my preparations for this, Casa2 thought, I should have been firmer in warning him away from those woods. I need to check on him. I can¡¯t allow myself to ever lose him again. I¡¯m surprised Bill didn¡¯t disown me for letting his best boy to be in danger. Casa2¡¯s mech body exited the house, activating the home¡¯s autonomous security systems as she quickly strode outside. She raised the edges of her cloak wide and scores of bee and hornet symbots flew inside and latched onto the folds of the fabric. As the last bug was quickly tucked away, she broke into a run. She leaned forward so far that she was almost horizontal, her incredible speed the only thing preventing the expected fall. Her mechanical legs churned the ground as she tore into the woods, making as straight a line as possible to intercept Max¡¯s point of entry in the reservation without crossing private property or roads. Good thing most of these woods are public land and underdeveloped. My cloak will keep me hidden if I stumble upon any Utopians. I hope. Casa thought. She maxed her active sensors to see the territory through the trees as she blazed through the woods.
Charlie raced towards the bear. The damn thing was using a tree as a back scratcher and was growling either in pleasure or pain, he couldn¡¯t tell. Charlie slid to a stop five yards away wondering if he was close enough or far too close. The monstrous beast had its eyes closed as it worked its back up and down on the rough bark. Charlie grabbed a sizable branch and launched it towards the bear. The chunk of wood sailed through the air, and thanks to Charlie¡¯s Ballistics skill hit the animal right across its snout. With a roar that shook the forest, the bear stood on its hind legs looking for what had hit it. Its dark eyes quickly found and bore into Charlie from the distance. Seeing the bear, as it rose to its full height, he realized that five meters was most definitely far too close. The bear charged with an angry bellow, barreling toward its red-colored target with all the unstoppable power of a locomotive. With a gulp, Charlie engaged all his agility skills and took off, steering clear of Max and his search, and angling back towards the river and the falls. Maybe the red-colored chameleon shift was a mistake! he thought It was only supposed to get its attention not enrage it. Also, I think I may have just peed a little.
Leah trailed behind both Charlie and the bear, using her skills to keep up. She could tell Charlie wasn¡¯t maxing out his speed, kiting the bear away. She grimaced as she ran, holding her slingshot ready. That showoff is going to get himself killed. He¡¯s letting it get far too close. Leah thought. Leah pounded after them both, her daemon Athena guided her to a high-rise hill, avoiding the brambles that the others were tearing and being torn in turn by passing through them. She paralleled their path. Leah soon understood Charlie¡¯s intent with Athena¡¯s help. Charlie was tiring the bear out by forcing it to chase him through the worst path. Whenever it got too tight, he would leap out and over the hedges, keeping the bear in sight. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. What the ever-loving fuck! Charlie thought. This bear just doesn¡¯t get tired. Now I¡¯m almost at the river! Charlie hoped that Max¡¯s search was fruitful. As he crested the last rise, he heard the river. It was loud, an indication that the falls weren¡¯t far off. Charlie saw an old decrepit maple tree at the very edge of the riverbank. There was little to no foliage growth and it stood precariously near the very edge of the riverbank. A plan formed in his head, and Charlie made for it as quickly as he could. Scrambling up the tree was child¡¯s play. He had advanced his leap skill almost as far as Max and his prodigious strength enabled a quick ascent. Charlie knew that the bear could and would climb, from Max¡¯s earlier stories, but that was just fine. Charlie had something Max didn¡¯t, Stunning and Strobing distance attacks. If he got lucky, maybe the bear would fall right into the river.
Leah watched the spectacle with equal measures of admiration and dismay. Charlie had climbed the old maple, which while large was a midget compared to the enormous Grand Oaks. The poor thing was struggling to survive in the shadows of the colossus trees and its lack of leaves was a clear indication of struggling health. The bear had immediately started up the tree after Charlie had trapped himself, but halfway up he had blasted it with a strong Stun and Strobe attack. The beast had fallen over ten feet, pulling down dead branches in its tumble, to land in a heap. Leah had approached stealthily while the bear was groggy, still utilizing her chameleon skin to blend into the brush. Charlie¡¯s position seems unassailable, but she wanted to be close enough to be able to help with some ranged support if needed. The bear roused itself far too quickly after its stun and fall. The bear shook itself and roared, all the more furious. Charlie¡¯s red tint and constant taunts didn¡¯t allow for anything but action. The bear howled and climbed, digging its enormous claws into the weak bark as it climbed up again. Leah readied a shot thinking that Charlie might be out of energy as the bear was entirely too close, but finally Charlie let loose his salvo attack again. The bear blinded and disoriented again fell, landing on the very edge of the riverbank. ¡°Come on!¡± Leah heard Charlie shout. He hadn¡¯t seen her. He was just venting as the bear was sluggishly rolling on the ground. Leah dropped lower as the bear finally righted itself. It paced under the tree. Looking up at the taunting man in the treetop. The bear circled and seemed to be leaving as it began to walk further and further away with its pacing. Charlie cursed and yelled at the bear, shaking the branch he was on. With a renewed roar, the bear charged yet again. But this time, it threw its body directly into the trunk of the aged maple tree. Several of the upper branches fell to the ground and the tree listed ominously. Now Charlie was cursing again, but this time out of fear. Leah was frozen in her hiding space; she would have sworn that the bear had smiled! It retraced its steps, backing away from the tree, and charged it again. The tree swayed under the impact, and a deep snap was heard. Charlie yelled in alarm as the whole tree fell into the river. ¡°NO!¡± Leah yelled and then covered her mouth. Both Charlie and the bear looked her way as Charlie and his tree crashed into the river a second later. She let out an involuntary squeak as the bear¡¯s gaze landed on her. It let out a chuff and charged her. Athena was screaming for her to run, but a whole second was lost as the bear charged directly for her. With a gasp, she finally unfroze, turned and ran, but the hedge was thick and prevented her from using her full speed. Her leg tangled in the hedge vines, she desperately turned with her slingshot and sent a volley into the bear¡¯s head. The bear roared and dropped its nose down and closed the distance. Bullet after bullet impacted the bear¡¯s head, but it ignored the shots until it smashed into her. Leah was bleeding, disoriented, and gasping for breath, the bear was right on top of her. Again, that look of calculation passed over its features. It took its arm, bleeding from its earlier falls from the maple tree and worked its mouth over the wound until its muzzle and teeth were red with its blood. With a final roar, it lunged toward the dazed Leah! Leah flinched and turned as those bloody teeth advanced and filled her vision, but the pain never came. She looked back and saw that the bear''s jaws were clamped shut between two hands. The hands were a deep black metal, made of shiny plates and edged in gold. Leah gasped as a hidden figure emerged from a distorted patch of air, shedding a much better chameleon effect than her own. A robot, a design both delicate and deadly, held the bear in its iron grip. Its outline twisted and solidified as its many-colored cloak was pushed back as it restrained the beast. The bear struggled and twisted, trying to roll over and roar. It succeeded in neither. The robot, clearly unconcerned about the bear, tisked and spoke. ¡°None of that roughhousing with my friends. Perhaps you need to cool down.¡± It said with a familiar feminine voice. Leah was stunned. ¡°Casa?¡± She asked. The robot''s blank face looked her way, its eye¡¯s blazing sapphire behind its glare shield. It cocked its head and spoke. ¡°In the¡­ahem¡­in the metamaterial, I guess. Doesn¡¯t roll off the vocoder as well as the human phrase, however. Hold on. I need to cool this beastie off before we can talk. Ok?¡± Casa said as she deftly kicked the bear¡¯s claw as it tried to swing around her to swipe at Leah with a growl. As Leah flinched and nodded, Casa tilted and shifted her body under the bear. Like lightning, she had repositioned her grip and her leverage. Before Leah could even blink, she had the bear hoisted above her head and with a spinning throw she launched it high into the air. It flew an impossible distance and fell yelping with a splash on the far side of the wide river. Charlie soon came running, dripping, and sputtering, with his bo staff ready. He stumbled to a halt at the unexpected scene as Casa turned to face him. ¡°No need for that, Charlie. But we should be on our way before the bear decides to come back. Where¡¯s Max?¡± She spoke imperiously. She literally had to count to a ten after returning to human speed of thought before he finally stopped gawping and responded. ¡°Thank God, Casa! It''s surprising to see you. Thank you for the help. Right then! We could retrace our steps to get back to Max, but I expect he¡¯s already found his device and will meet us at the top of the Falls.¡± Charlie said as he finally came to a full understanding of their situation. ¡°Good. Let¡¯s be quick. Lead the way. I must make sure Max is ok.¡± Casa swirled her cloak as several insects swooped into the folds. Exchanging shell shocked looks, the pair took off downriver at a run to find Max, with Casa effortlessly pacing them.
34 - Lack of Closure Max had found his friends and Casa at the meditation rock without any more animal encounters. The falls roared nearby as Max ran up. His surprise at seeing Casa¡¯s mech quickly turned to embarrassment as she immediately began chastising him for running into the Grand Oaks alone again. His smart clothes in tatters, he admitted he had run into some trouble with the elusive kitsune creature. ¡°¡­and now that I can accompany you, you shouldn¡¯t ever be going in there unsupervised. The wood''s EM signature prevents signals from passing, even discounting those aggressive animals, I can¡¯t let anything happen to you again. If you were to get hurt, you wouldn¡¯t be able to contact me.¡± Casa, rather than winding down Max¡¯s corrections, was clearly getting ready for another round of lectures. He brought up his hands and opened them, showing Casa and his friends the missing Tesseract. Casa¡¯s sapphire eyes blinked twice and grabbed the device quickly trying to access it. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Casa. I tried already. I think it¡¯s dead.¡± Max said glumly. Casa was frozen for a good five seconds, her mech hands shaking. Max wondered exactly how much she had slowed upon loading into the commercial-grade neural core. This was unlike her. She was normally three steps ahead of everyone and the jittering hands were odd. While he knew from accessing her primary neural core that she had emotions; she normally only projected happiness, enthusiasm, and curiosity. Max shared a grim look with his friends, both of whom also looked much worse for the wear. Finally, Casa let out a long simulated sigh. ¡°Wireless and physical access connections are broken, but it does accept power inputs. It¡¯s bad, but maybe not completely dead. We need to get back to the NetherLab as soon as possible. It has all the sensors I need to understand and hopefully fix this.¡± Casa finally said.
Deep under the Casa de Mitchell 2, the group waited for the verdict. They had raced back to the home in Charlie¡¯s aircar. Everyone was surprised by the new changes to the house shape and d¨¦cor, but they hadn¡¯t had time to admire it as they hurried to get the Tesseract into the lab. Casa¡¯s mech body had stayed upstairs as the group and the Tesseract had been transported with a long elevator ride down to the NetherLab. Charlie and Leah were awestruck by the miles-long elevator ride to the NetherLab. As their amazement slowly wore off on the ride down, the group shared their encounters in the forest. Upon arriving, they found that the disembodied Casa had already staged the lab to use all the scanners for a detailed scan of the Tesseract. Unlike Max, she had contacted her primary consciousness and Bill with updates as they relocated it. Bill¡¯s virtual avatar stood with Casa¡¯s as they probed and scanned the device. Bill was physically already beyond the moon¡¯s orbit, headed for the dark side when the call had come in. His avatar was a bit laggy, but not enough to disrupt his participation in the investigation. ¡°I can¡¯t believe you climbed that tree, Charlie. You knew from Max that the bear was a climber.¡± Leah said, shaking her head. ¡°I know. I know. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I thought I had it under control with my stun attack. I was really close to getting it to fall into the river. I didn¡¯t think the damn thing would knock the whole tree over.¡± Charlie grimaced at the memory. ¡°I can¡¯t even deal anymore with this slingshot. I have to try to get my weapon idea going. If the Labyrinth is a mixed reality dungeon with monsters like the bear, I¡¯m going to need a lot more stopping power.¡± Leah said. Max was only half hearing the conversation and didn¡¯t talk much beyond a quick description of his own encounter. The lapse in his thinking and the savagery of the fight left him deeply uncomfortable. It seemed like maybe his uplift was not as solid as he believed. It was unnerving at how easy it it had been to slip into such animalistic thinking. ¡°Hey, Max!¡± Leah said, ¡°I asked you a question.¡± ¡°Sorry, what?¡± Max asked. ¡°Isn¡¯t your sister taking classes in Nanofacturing this year? Do you think she might be able to help me?¡± Leah asked again. ¡°Yeah, she is. That¡¯s a good idea. Casa would be very willing to help, but Mira did a similar training program for her augs. She might have some interesting suggestions. Let¡¯s ask her next movie night, ok?¡± Max said. He perked up as Bill and Casa¡¯s avatar images crossed the room, over to the group, leaving the Tesseract on the diagnostics stage. He somehow looked happy, worried, and confused all at once. ¡°Max, you did it. Thank you! You succeeded and found the Tesseract. Now, I have both good and bad news. But before I say anything, can I trust your friends to keep this between us? This lab was supposed to stay off the books, not for guests and friends to know about.¡± Bill said, cautiously looking at Leah and Charlie. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Dad. We were in a hurry to get the Tesseract back and I forgot.¡± Max said. ¡°Mr. Mitchell, I think I can promise you that we will keep this quiet. We both understand a little better why those men would break into your house. We just want to do anything we can to help Max out.¡± Charlie said. ¡°Thanks, kids¡±, Bill said. Bill was confused for a second and did a double take at Charlie¡¯s appearance. The man had regained his youth subtly over the weeks, so slowly that Max hadn¡¯t noticed. He appeared now to be in his late teens or maybe early twenties. ¡°Thank you both for that. Please keep everything you learn here secret, I¡¯m afraid the mayor is none too happy with me and is likely still looking for excuses to run me and Max off.¡± Bill said. ¡°His bastard of a son getting into it with all of us and getting expelled from the program might have contributed too, huh?¡± Charlie commented and then looked a little sheepish seeing Max¡¯s ears flatten as he looked anywhere but directly at his father. ¡°Yeah,¡± Bill said slowly raising an eyebrow at Max. ¡°I hadn¡¯t realized that. I guess we all need to tread a little more carefully. Right, Max?¡± Max, seeing that Bill wasn¡¯t going to press the issue, rapidly nodded. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Ok then, so here are the details. The Tesseract has a lot of damage. The access pathways, both physical and wireless, are trashed. But there is a power line active and it takes any charge we push at it. Casa and I were able to do a nanoscale review of the exterior and a penetrative scan of what there is of the tesseract in our dimension and there are active nanobots repairing the circuitry. This is where the problem lies.¡± Bill sighed. ¡°It¡¯s good and bad. Good because the repair bots do appear to be following the Tesseract¡¯s schematics to fix it. Bad because neither I nor Casa installed any repair nanobots into the Tesseract. Casa insists that the equipment loaded into the subspace did not include a matter compiler to fabricate nanobot repair units. There¡¯s no way Casita could have created those repair bots without a compiler, nanobots are strictly controlled fabrications. These units appear like a licensed design, but they don¡¯t have any self-destruct timers as is required of any nanobot fabrications.¡± Bill scowled at his own words, thinking hard. The Holo avatar of Sherlock Holmes appeared next to Bill and addressed Max. ¡°Max, you didn¡¯t mention those scoundrels having an opportunity to access the Tesseract. Are you certain?¡± Sherlock''s sharp eye bore into Max. Max hesitated as everyone looked at him but stood firm and replied. ¡°I¡¯m certain. We had a pinhole portal to watch them as they entered the lab. They never came within ten feet of the anchor. It was disguised at a wall feature before they arrived.¡± Max said with conviction. ¡°Now did Casita pull any additional equipment into the portal between the time of the house losing power and your rather forced evacuation?¡± Sherlock pressed again. ¡°No, sir. She spent what little time we had configuring traps for the thieves. Nothing else, other than me, was brought into the pocket space.¡± Max said. ¡°And therein lies the mystery. How did the Tesseract arrive at the location you found it? It was well beyond any blast radius we calculated. Furthermore, if your description is accurate, it was hidden quite well in an animal burrow. And finally, we have unrestricted repair nanobots actively working on repairing the device in accordance to its schematics that were not placed there by any of us.¡± Sherlock concluded. ¡°I will need more investigations to determine exactly how all these factors combine. Our observations are not seeing what has truly occurred. ¡± Sherlock admitted. ¡°I detest quoting my fictional self, but when you have eliminated all which is impossible then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." ¡°I¡¯m going to isolate the Tesseract and the scanner stage from the rest of the lab with shielding and a vacuum gap. Those nanites seem to be behaving, but the lack of self-destructs has me worried. A focused and shaped EMP pulse and high-powered ion shower are being set up should they do anything other than repairs. I would expunge them with my nanite countermeasures, but the risk of further destabilizing the Tesseract is too high for my liking. If Casita is still in there, I have hopes that just feeding the device power might reopen the link.¡± Bill finished. ¡°Is there anything I, or we, can do to help Dad?¡± Max asked. His friends nodded in agreement. ¡°No, I think you should leave this issue to me. You can best help by continuing your training and staying out of trouble. Casa and I will be initiating a second Tesseract build soon. I have yet to experiment on a functional device, if I can recreate it, we might find more technical options to help fix this one. It shouldn¡¯t take more than a couple of days.¡± Bill said. ¡°Sherlock thinks there''s more going on, maybe I could investigate.¡± Max offered. ¡°I think you should focus on yourself. Stay out of those woods for now. I don¡¯t recall any mention of the EM jamming those tree devices are doing and it strikes me as unusual. Casa has been introduced to the town¡¯s AIs, so she will subtly dig into what they know. When we have a better understanding of the town politics and the Grand Oaks bio-machine array, I hope to be able to return and get to the bottom of our missing puzzle pieces.¡± Bill said with a serious look, seeing Max¡¯s stubborn expression. With a snort, Max shook his head and traded looks with his friends. ¡°Say, Dad, is movie night still on? Are you going to come, at least virtually, for Bo¡¯s finals with the Cretaceous Challenge event?¡± Max said. ¡°Of course. I¡¯m sorry I missed the first night. I was a bit busy with some friends in Japan at the time.¡± Bill said. ¡°Good. I¡¯m going to make sure Mom and Mira will be there as well.¡± Max said with a not-so-subtle wink to Leah. Bill and Casa were finishing the NetherLab remodel while Max was on his way up to the main house with his friends. Casa¡¯s local neural core couldn''t run multiple fragments, so Bill was interfacing his daemons, who ran off his augmentations, to shepherd all the adjustments being made. ¡°That boy has no intention of slowing down,¡± Bill commented as they worked. ¡°No, he doesn¡¯t. He mentioned a couple of days ago that he felt like he needed to finish his training fast. I think he¡¯s frustrated about his progress.¡± Casa said with feeling. ¡°Don¡¯t worry too much. His augmentation is the best I could get. In some ways, it surpasses even military augs. He¡¯ll be alright.¡± Bill sighed. Both were tired and telecommunication lags were growing more frustrating the longer they had to deal with it. Sherlock¡¯s avatar approached them, stepping away from the screens where he had been reviewing Casa¡¯s recordings, the map of the search patterns, and the final location where Max said he had found the Tesseract. ¡°Mr. Mitchell, I believe there is one more thing we should do before you retire for the day,¡± Sherlock said. ¡°Of course, Holmes. What are you thinking?¡± Bill asked. ¡°I believe we may have an opportunity now to learn more. For the moment, I am assuming someone has tampered with the tesseract. Someone new or perhaps one of your past or current adversaries. Likely, they do not yet know that the device has been recovered.¡± Sherlock paused suggestively and raised his eyebrows. ¡°I think I see where you''re going, Sherlock. We should perhaps return a replica or decoy so that the recovery is not obvious?¡± Bill asked. ¡°Precisely so, my good man! Well followed. Our most esteemed friend, Casa, is quite capable of rapidly fabricating something convincing, I should think.¡± Sherlock said with satisfaction. ¡°I can do you one better, Mr. Holmes. I can rig the proposed decoy with audio and visual recorders to catch our opponents unaware. I think this matter would be settled already if we knew with whom we were contesting.¡± Casa said with her normal bright enthusiasm. ¡°Although, we may not be able to access it as long as it''s under that damnable forest¡¯s canopy. A laser communication method might work, but not if it''s underground like Max described. Maybe a small processor to send a laser signal if it''s outside and not being actively observed.¡± Casa trailed off, and in moments the matter compiler upstairs began working, making both her decoy device and a ¡°custom transport system¡±.
Half an hour later, Casa and Bill had retired from their work, ending their transmission when the lab remodels had been completed. Max and his friends were outside playing with the RoboKoi and discussing their many plans to advance their augs before the tournament. They didn¡¯t notice Casa2, newly fragmented again from Casa after a merge, using her mech body to remove two fabrications from the kitchen compiler. She strode to the front door, swift and silent, to not disturb the friends in the back, with her packages. In the front yard, the first package flexed. It spread a lifelike set of wings and shook itself out. Casa¡¯s latest creation was a special drone appearing very much like an raven but equipped with several interesting adaptations. The sim-bot bird ran an extremely condensed smart program, more than an autonomous drone but less than an expert daemon system. Its body could recharge in the day with solar-absorbing feathers, and at night it would be indistinguishable from a real raven. It could receive both laser and wireless communications. It could also loiter for hours in the air over the massive forest. It was prepared to deliver the other package, the Tesseract decoy, and await an opportunity to gather more information if needed. Casa2 put the decoy in the raven¡¯s claws and threw it into the air. She couldn''t resist a parting comment, too quiet for the kids in the backyard to hear. ¡°Fly, my pretty! Fly!¡± with a soft cackle, she returned to her mech charging cabinet. Today had been a long day.
35 - New Plans The last three days had not been idle. Max had not wanted to leave the Tesseract, to the point that his moping was driving Casa crazy. Casa2 had proposed a compromise. She wanted him out of the lab for at least 4 hours every day, preferably out of the house. He had agreed and in return, she had expanded and reformatted the area of the NetherLab into a training center for him and his friends. The expanded subterranean lair now included three massive football field-sized adjoining rooms for Max and his friends to train in. One room had a sparring ring surrounded by a mockup of the Adept Obstacle course. Using it wouldn¡¯t get them credit against the quest, but it would advance their skills. The group had been meeting there daily for the last four days to grind their skills up. The next room was a configurable urban battlefield, for the team to learn to fight together. The last was a massive pool with active water features. Max had taken Charlie¡¯s advice to heart and had been working on improving his swimming. Casa2 had embedded a smart program swimming trainer module into the room which had helped him train in his latest quest Swimming 101. A new notification popped into Max¡¯s mind as he finished his best-of-all-time butterfly stroke lap.
[Quest: Swimming 101: Learn to Swim - Complete, 100 XP awarded] [New Mind Skill unlocked: Skillz 1 - Allows for usage of stored skill and body memory to be accessed and embedded in natural memory! Advance skill by donation of unique skill memory. 1 skill slot available.] [Suggested skills: Katana, Woodcraft, Tracking, Feline care, Dodgeball, Kempo, Running, Climbing, Diving, Kintsugi, Meditation, more?]
Max pulled himself out of the water, exhausted, before the symbot electric eel could catch him again. The eels kept him motivated and if they did catch him would improve his shock resistance skill. He reviewed his latest system notice. The first choice was perfect, and Miyamoto agreed in his ear, and he made his Skillz choice.
[Mind Skill unlocked: Skillz 1.23 (Swimming*/Katana .23)
It looked like his efforts with Miyamoto and training at Wuxia dojo had helped, giving the skill a bit of a boost, but he still had a lot to learn. Max was eager to improve it further. The weapons competition at the tournament was still worrying him. He knew now just how much better Tyler was than him. He needed every bit of help to close that gap. He sat in a meditation pose. Despite not having any meditation quests, Max felt there might be more to gain with it. He knew for certain that his energy regeneration speed increased with meditation. That had to be a clue, that some skill was still waiting for him. He closed his eyes and smiled as he pulled up his stat sheet.
[Name: Max E. Mitchell Level: Novice 10 (4500/5000 XP)] [Body Design Model: Custom ¨C Canis Familiarus Uplift Free Stats: 20] [Strength: 84 Agility: 29 Endurance: 36 Vitality: 38 Energy: 36/126] [Perception: 29 Intelligence: 27 Will: 25 Regen: 63/min] [Body Skills ¨C Claws: 7 Hulk: 1 Stamina/Tireless: 10/2 Strike: 7 Stun: 3] [Body Skills ¨C Balance: 7 Ballistics: 3 Gymnast: 9 Speed: 8 Leap: 9 Gland: 5] [Body Skills ¨C Unbreakable: 8 Painless: 6 Skin: 9 Healing/Regeneration: 10/7] [Resist Skills ¨C Poison: 10 Shock: 8 Sonic: 8 Light: 7 EMP: 4 Neural Scaffold: 5] [Sense Skills ¨C Scent: 9 DigiSense: 9 ExaVision: 5 EM Fields: 6] [Mind Skills ¨C AI Assist: 9 Identify/Analyze: 10/2 OverLayer: 7 Access/Hack: 10/3] [Mind Skills - Language: 3 Pattern: 7 Dream Learn: 8 Bastion: 4 Memory: 5] [Mind Skills - Fast Cog: 6 Daemon: 3 (Musashi / Boone / *)] [Mind Skills ¨C Skillz: 1.23 (Swim*) / (Katana 0.23)]
Max was proud of his recent gains. While advancing his swimming quest, he had capped his Stamina skill and unlocked Tireless. Swimming had pushed his endurance-related skill hard, using all the muscles of the body was intense. Max had split his time training between swimming, training on the Adept Obstacle course, and resistance training. Due to his split training focus, Max felt like he was falling behind. Charlie had already maxed his resistance skills and Leah was close to it. Both had also advanced through the Adept Obstacle course mockup much further than him. Max intended to change that now with the swimming quest out of the way. Both Charlie and Leah were in the adjoining training rooms. Each, like Max, had a unique training regimen. Earlier in the week, the group brainstormed strategies for what each needed to fill the gaps in their skills. They were all getting closer to advancing to the peak of the Novice stage and were monitoring their stats to make sure they didn¡¯t accidentally hit the Adept stage, as that would prevent them from competing in the tournament. Max contemplated his advancement. He could feel his AI Assist skill was ready to cap. Max had purposely stopped using his AI to prevent that skill from capping. The skill cap experience awards would quickly push him into Adept stage if he wasn¡¯t careful enough. He needed to focus on skills that would help his upcoming competition. The Daemon skill had leveled too. It was ready to add to his menagerie of advisors. He just needed to assign some of his leveling reward points to intelligence to enable his skill slot to activate. The system originally had a credit allowance for three daemons. Max had earned Miyamoto and used one of the system¡¯s allowances for Boone. Max knew precisely who he wanted to add for his third slot. He moved the needed stat points to intelligence and received the expected notification.
[Mind Skill: Daemon: 3 (Musashi / Boone / (OPEN)] [Assign Daemon by Name to Open slot / Search MakerIndex for Daemon]
Max didn¡¯t need to review possibilities he entered the name of his selection. His new daemon materialized in his active personal OverLayer. ¡°[Greetings Max Mitchell. I had anticipated your contract.]¡± Sherlock said with his piercing gaze and a smug expression. Max snorted in exasperation. ¡°[Both Casa and my dad were very impressed with your help regarding the Tesseract. I still want to help, even though they think I should stay out of the Grand Oaks. Can we keep our interactions between us? Is there such a thing as Daemon confidentiality?]¡± Max asked. ¡°[Of course, my unique architecture enables me to share information across my instances, but it need not be so. Many clients have investigations that require discretion above all else. It is one of my many features. I¡¯ve researched it as a matter of course. My data files are locked and encrypted, not even a court ordered confiscation of my datacenter core could force me to reveal our activities.]¡± Sherlock said with an easy confidence. ¡°[Wait, so you have access to my dad¡¯s Sherlock instance?]¡± Max asked. ¡°[Quite so, Master Mitchell, and your father has not seen fit to restrict any of my learnings in that instance other than the standard LLC agreements on non-disclosure of trade secrets, confidential financial and identity information, and such. But that, I think, is not what you¡¯re inquiring about, now, is it?]¡± Sherlock said with a grin. ¡°[Wow, this was a good idea. I need to know everything about the Tesseract that you know. If I knew more maybe I can help. Casita is depending on me.]¡± Max said with determination. ¡°[Indeed. You should be aware that my daemon license is a limited commodity. There are only 2,000 copies of me allowed full linkage rights to my central server. All my copies bring interesting context and details of the world that help me ascertain facts through extraction of greater events from the seemingly minor trivia that illuminate the hidden workings of the world.]¡± Sherlock provided. [¡°All those details are managed by a full citizen AI, named Mycroft after my fictional older brother, like him he can be infuriating at times but is truly masterful at reading between the lines. Your mother waited for years to get a newly available license allocation for my services, but once I delved into your family¡¯s history, I posted a special allowance for any further copy requests for you all. Your father¡¯s history with the Samaritans and his research makes him a lightning rod for change.]¡± Sherlock said with a grin. [¡°The gaps in detail for this case are troubling and I do believe that your investigations into the town of Utopia may provide the missing pieces that have so far eluded your father and my investigations.]¡± Sherlock said with a pull on his pipe. Crossing his arms and looking up, he began to recant the full details of his investigation starting with his first interview with Bill and Casa. Max sat rapt with his complete attention as all the details began to accumulate.
After a long discussion with Sherlock, Max was deep in thought. Both he and Sherlock were convinced there must be some evidence in the events unfolding in Utopia that connected Bill¡¯s adversary to the Tesseract. It was uncertain that those answers would help the Tesseract or Casita, but Max didn¡¯t know how else to help. The days were getting shorter with the tourney coming, but he hoped for an opportunity to get more information for Sherlock soon. Max would keep Sherlock hidden for now and utilize his skills to learn more. Max rolled back from his meditation pose and then kicked up with a push to land on his feet. He was maintaining an access port with his smart clothes, so a simple command shed the excess water as it reformatted from a swimming suit to his new restricted access training Gi. He trotted to the next room where Charlie was once more attempting the first stages of the Adept Obstacle course. He was getting faster and faster. The Blade obstacle and Fire obstacles were no match for him anymore. He could pass the Trap maze about 50% of the time, but the Scrambler stage was still defeating his every attempt. Max whined slightly, eager to take his turn, but passed on by without giving into the temptation. He had to check in with Casa. He passed by the entry to the next room. Inside, Leah was training her shooting skills as she dodged and weaved through a swarm of Casa¡¯s modified symbot killer hornets. They were three times the size of her garden mimics, much more durable, and just as fast. All had stingers, but some special drones also had secondary offensive weapons. The red one¡¯s stingers were induction heated to burn as well as pierce. The green carried an electric shock. Finally, the blue would spray a shot of liquid nitrogen. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Leah was close to capping her whole suite of resistances. To help the cause, Charlie had purchased some training-rated poisons on the Darknet and had managed to covertly coat some of the killer hornets¡¯ stingers when Casa was on her nightly merge with her main consciousness. She would try to shoot the critters down and avoid getting stung. Win or lose, every bout would advance a set of skills. Max was glad his swimming challenge was over. Now he could focus on finishing his resistance training, and maybe catching up. Every night they celebrated their wins for the day, but tonight was special. The family and friends were all getting together virtually for Bo¡¯s finals in the Cretaceous Challenge. They hoped to enlist Max¡¯s sister, Mira, in helping Leah to design something tonight. He knew Leah was disappointed with the stopping power of her slingshot and she wanted a special weapon, a surprise of her own devising. Max had been thinking maybe he should create a special device too. His little training with the swarm proved to him that he needed a ranged attack or at least a weapon to extend his reach. Leah, with her slingshot, could easily handle a swarm twice the size that Max could without getting overwhelmed. She could counterattack while Max could only dodge or strike when one charged him during an attack run. Some of the older students had been talking within earshot of Max and Charlie at the Wuxia Dojo about how crafting quests in the augmentation training programs yielded essential skills for the Adept and Master stages. If Leah was going to keep her weapon a surprise, maybe Max could bring a surprise of his own. It sounded like a very common step for the Adept stage. Rounding the circular hall, he arrived at the observation window for the tesseract. Out of habit, he used his second tier identify skill [Analyze] on each of the sensors focused on the Tesseract.
[Analyze: successful] [GE Optima 75GW MRI - active scan 70% complete - delta scan function showing alterations to substrate at .023 micron and smaller - active nano fabrication confirmed] [Analyze: successful] [Raytheon BBN Bolometer 12i300 - scan raster on ionized field strength @ 770nm + 10nm/a - field strength indicative of active polymorphic alterations of smart materials] [Analyze: failed, Identify: successful] [Kinetic Xfore LiDar Cluster M110] [Analyze: successful] [ABB Fusion torch SN11823 - 25 GW, charge 100% - tight beam offset] [Analyze: failed, Identify: successful] [Tesseract M1, Mitchell Labs DSPace Key 001 - offline] [Analyze: successful] [Agiltron single phase power tap monitor Q55, active mode - 440v 655MWh] [Analyze: successful] [LG Holoprojector 4D1000, 8k voxel, 64TB/a, active - access authority sub AI Casa 1.2] [Analyze +1, Analyze reaches 4]
¡°Hey, Casa. I''m taking a rest for a moment. I just had a breakthrough with that swim quest. Any good news?¡± ¡°Good morning, Max. External signs of nanobot repair have ceased, but there are signs with penetrative scans that there is more going on inside. The signal gets distorted through the dimensional transition point, so we can¡¯t see what¡¯s happening other than activity. The power conduit is currently taking a full 655 megawatts per hour, which is 10% more than the device was designed to accept. I¡¯ve tried modulating the power, to use it to send a signal to the interior. Unfortunately, I am still unable to connect to the interior and to reach Casita.¡± Casa said. ¡°Damn, it would have been some good news to bring to movie night. I¡¯ll keep my fingers crossed. I guess if we need a win, Bo will have to bring it.¡± Max said. ¡°Oh, Casa. Thank you for putting the privacy screens on the sensors. It¡¯s giving my Analyze skill a workout. Can you increase the privacy rating again? I¡¯m getting through it almost every time, it needs a challenge to advance more. Part of Max¡¯s training had been to identify everything, at every opportunity. The skill required only a pittance of energy to activate and advanced quickly. Now he had the evolved skill, Analyze, which could reveal even more important information. He continued his current practice and was using it constantly. He was hopeful that with this skill, he would glean some valuable intel on his opponents in the tournament. He had already advanced it to level 2, giving him the ability to see his opponent''s name and level as well as their best Stat and its level. Leah said the next boost in the skill would show their current energy available. He would know how much power an opponent had and could use in the fight. That information could help Max fight more strategically.
Harambe II faced out toward the large den, full of confused animals. For most of them, today was the first day of their awakening. Like all the others, he would tell them his story and therefore their own. He had passed along this responsibility to his many lieutenants. He was tired. He thought that he must be about 75 years old now. He had no reference for human concerns over age, but he knew he had far exceeded a normal gorilla¡¯s lifespan. Likely due to that scientist Robert¡¯s meddling up in the Algonquin reserve. Damn him! Harambe thought. His second lieutenant, a very respectful badger, coughed into his paw. ¡°The new ones are getting restless. Will you address them?¡±, Milton Black Badger asked using the sign language that they all shared. ¡°Very well.¡± Harambe signed and raised his arms to focus the room on him. ¡°Welcome to your new lives, my friends. You are safe here from the humans. Your dream time is over, and you are now awake. I have given you the gift of intelligence. A gift I carry within my very blood and now I offer you a choice.¡± Harambe slowed his signing to allow the message to sink in. The uplift virus had programmed the knowledge of sign language into their newly formed minds, but for many, this was their first actual usage. It would be a confusing experience. ¡°We work to spread the gift to all animals in the hopes that one day we will rise and take back this world from our oppressors, the humans. Too long have they lorded over this world, treating it and us as their property and playthings.¡± Harambe told his story to the rapt audience. He detailed his youth raised in captivity and how he had been given an uplift virus and augmented to access the world''s information. He had learned fast. Faster than his keepers believed possible. Deep into the night, when his handlers had left him alone, he had unexpectedly accessed the world data net using his new gifts. The voice in his head guided him in finding what he did not know. During the day he was trained and tested using his new intelligence. At night, he learned the truth about the history of humans, the wars, and the violence. He learned of farming, slaughterhouses, deforestation, and man-wrought climate imbalance. He shared the story of his escape, the very day the humans sought to celebrate the revelation of his uplift to the world. He hadn¡¯t wanted to go on the cameras. The director threatened him and quickly regretted it. After the moment of violent confrontation, Harambe used the voice in his head to find the way out of the city. He hid for many years in the cold forests of the north, so far that his gifts could no longer access the world''s data and his helper''s voice went silent. Harambe lived in solitude and regret. His escape was as bloody as the humans who threatened him. Without the voice, he was left lost and alone for a long time, he liked it that way. After years, with only a few random and brief encounters with the humans, Harambe was at peace. And then came Robert, who upset his isolation. Dr. Gutierrez had tracked Harambe down and convinced him that he wanted to help Harambe. He carried a satellite link with him, reopening his access to the world, and with it, his voice came back. The voice and Robert worked in tandem to convince Harambe to undergo yet another modification, Augmentations. The world had advanced since Harambe¡¯s seclusion. The augmentations gave him power on par with what the humans were now capable of doing. Dr. Gutierrez did not tell Harambe that he had done far more than just provide the augmentations. He had weaponized the active uplift virus to be transmissible. For most animals with brains larger than a mouse, a sizable uplift in intelligence would occur upon infection. Human DNA, however, was explicitly excluded. The virus would be disastrously fatal. Nothing short of emergency defensive nanobots in the bloodstream would prevent the human¡¯s DNA from quickly unraveling. Unfortunately for Dr. Gutierrez, the combination of modifications came with severe consequences. Harambe¡¯s newfound augmentation power made him too strong. Upon hearing of the cursed ability to kill humans, Harambe overreacted and broke a table. Both were injured as the table shattered and their bloodied wounds must have enabled the virus to be shared. Harambe was horrified at yet again being the cause of more death. Robert had died with a smile on his face. He had been glad to see that his weapon had worked. Harambe was horrified. The voice urged him south. It promised him a home, hidden from the humans. It promised to help and Harambe listened. ¡°Help me spread the gift to speed the day of reckoning. Or refuse the gift and return to your previous life. Unlike the humans, we give you a choice.¡± Milton dragged two large sacks out to Harambe. Milton thought the ceremony was perfect, he had seen some of the human''s vids and their mythologies, and this ceremony was perfect for unifying the animals to the cause. ¡°Take a red berry, and you will sleep again. To wake up and remember nothing of worries of the world.¡±, Harambe sighed with a hint of deep sadness and continued. ¡°Or take a blue berry and take another step closer to the apex. This berry will further your evolution, reshaping your form to give you true hands and, for some, even giving the ability of speech. It will get us closer to our goals of helping our brothers and sisters escape from the domination of these humans. These very trees provide us with this help we need to achieve our future. Now come, make your choice.¡± Harambe stepped back waiting for who would be the first. He smiled at the housecat that stepped forth toward the bin of blue berries, one of Sadie¡¯s recruits perhaps. One by one the animals stepped forward, almost all chose the blue rather than the red berry, but like all things there were exceptions. Harambe was worried. The Voice of the Forest had not entered his dreams in far too long. He had begun to have doubts about his growing army¡¯s abilities. How would the humans react once their sentience was known? Would it be war? Harambe, despite his bloody history, did not want war. He dearly regretted every death now and without the voice''s insistent urging, he wondered if a peaceful accord could be reached. After years of silence from the Voice, years spent spreading the uplift gift that was still active in his blood, it had spoken again just last week. This time it had a different message. Find the seed, it had said in his dream. Bring it to the root of a Gatherer Oak. The dream did not explain how this was important to the animal¡¯s cause nor why. Now his chosen few, tasked with guarding the seed, were late. It was unlike Kuro to miss an uplift orientation. That one¡¯s anger toward the humans was too intense and had her making foolish choices. Her impatience grated upon Harambe''s nerves. She was barely 9 years awakened to this world. Instead of being grateful, she kept pushing Harambe to move faster, as if all the work already done hadn¡¯t been explicitly a result of Harambe¡¯s decades of effort. Kuro was a bright flame to Harambe¡¯s smoldering coals, fresh with outrage at her twisted existence due to humans. Her five tails lashed the air in anger constantly and Harambe wondered if, or more likely, when she would try to usurp him. Most likely she will try to tear my throat immediately if I were to try and steer the cause towards a peaceful end with the humans. The poor twisted thing has only anger in her heart. Why can¡¯t she see that more bloodshed will likely result only in our eradication? Humans at least have stopped farming the animals for food, with matter compilers making the creation of flesh a more economical choice. One less sin they need to answer for at least, Harambe thought. As if summoned by his thoughts, Kuro RedFox stalked into the area, angry as always, pushing aside the new uplifts as they shuffled out of the large gathering space. Her assigned helpers, Sadie Cat and Climber Squirrel trailed behind. The fox was in a sorry state, wounds matting her fur in blood, and she was extremely angry and agitated. ¡°We have a problem,¡± Kuro signed. ¡°I think the humans have sent an agent to reclaim the Seed.¡± ¡°What? Humans in the forest and after the Seed?¡± Harambe signed in frustration. He signaled her to continue. ¡°No. Humans were in the glade, but Honey Bear chased them away. Another one, looking like a human, but smelling like dog, entered the SeedHome. We fought and I failed. I used the blood but he did not die like humans do. I think his form is a lie and he really is a dog, but smart like us.¡± Kuro signed with angry motions. Harambe sat back upon his haunches and digested the news. He looked at the downcast faces of his first lieutenant and her helpers. The squirrel looked very uncomfortable, wringing its little hands. ¡°You may speak, Climber. What is it?¡± Harambe signed. ¡°Sorry, sorry, sorry. My name no longer Climber. I am Flip.¡± the Squirrel chittered with his difficulty signing. With a chuff, Harambe slapped the ground. ¡°Flip, then. Answer me. What do you know.¡± Harambe signed in exasperation. ¡°I think the Seed might belong to the man-shaped dog. His name is Max and the Seed smelled like him when I found it.¡± Flip signed, ending with a small chittering. Harambe¡¯s brow lowered in thought. He still didn¡¯t know why this Seed was any more special than the others. ¡°You know this Max? And he took the Seed?¡± Harambe asked. Kuro barked and stepped forward. ¡°No. I wounded him and when he fled, I searched the area. I had thought initially that he had taken the seed. Only after searching the next morning, we found the seed. It was still in the glade of the Gatherer Oak. I must have injured him greatly for him to drop it. I returned it to the SeedHome.¡± Kuro signed. Her eyes shifted over to the others, who wouldn¡¯t look at her or Harambe. Harambe rumbled, the almost sub-audible growl deep in his chest. He slapped the ground again, causing all the animals to jump. ¡°I will meditate on this and seek to hear the Voice of the Trees. It has been silent for too long. Return to your duties. Let me know if this Max returns. Perhaps he has the answer I need to understand the purpose of this new Seed and the Voices plan.¡± Harambe ordered.
36 - NanoCrafting It was early in the morning and Max and his friends were waiting inside of Mira¡¯s virtual lobby. Mira¡¯s space had been based upon a medieval tavern theme. Smoke and the aroma of food and drink circulated about the dimly lit area. Round wooden tables were scattered throughout the large room with a bar lining one side. It was busy with a colorful riot of fantasy characters. A pair of halflings sat at the bar drinking from enormous flagons and each with a steaming potato stew. One table was a mixed bag of adventurers, a pair of elves, a tattooed human, an orc, and a dwarf: all laughing and playing a card game. Another table featured a gnome surrounded by books, he was tracing magical glyphs in the air with a wand and consulting the book as he slowly built a complex arcane mandala. Off in the corner, a dark-cloaked figure watched the room from his gloomy nook, occasionally puffing on a pipe. The far wall had a large map with colorful pins and notes attached to it. The main entrance was busy with characters coming and going, the large door bracketed by two impressive bay windows. There was a town outside with fantastical architecture. A whole city with intricate and sweeping elvish design, built into the treetops of enormous trees that reminded Max of the prodigious Grand Oaks. On the back wall of the tavern were some display cases with weapons and magical devices, a mannequin with a suite of armor, a bookcase overloaded with tomes, books, and scrolls, and a very out-of-place modern door that had a security lock and scanner plate. Max, Leah, and Charlie sat in the middle of the buzzing tavern but they were almost completely ignored by everyone. Only the barman acknowledged them. He was some type of Treant, a living tree. He came to their table and asked if they wanted to order food or drink. Everyone else in the room ignored them and acted as if they were invisible. The group snacked on appetizers and ale while they waited for Mira. It tasted quite real and even seemed to be filling, but they knew from playing modern VR games that in the real world, they might be quite hungry if they stayed in game for too long. ¡°I still can¡¯t believe Bo¡¯s last bout. I think that he was cheated. His Allosaurus mount ended up being a glass cannon. A whole lot of fury but couldn¡¯t take a hit.¡± Charlie commented. ¡°It was a very poor match-up. That Ankylosaur was just too tough. When his Allosaurus got its knee bashed, it was all over.¡± Max replied. ¡°That was an awesome dismount that Bo did when the Allosaurus fell. Somehow, he managed to turn his defeat into an opportunity to show off. Running up the back of the Ankylosaur and trying to take out its rider. If the judges had allowed it, he would have been the champion.¡± Leah said. Bo was still traveling. He needed to go on his post-circuit promotional tour and then would have some time off. Max hoped he would be available when his group did their road trip to NYC for their attempt at the Mystery Labyrinth. They just needed to hit the Adept stage and then would be allowed into the fabled training center. The upcoming tournament would likely push everyone into the next stage. The last movie night was all marathon showing of the Cretaceous Challenge finals. It had been a mash-up of an Avatar-styled Dino-Rider triathlon. Each contestant needed to capture and train a selection of dinosaurs for a trio of different missions. An Aquatic beast for a search and rescue mission. A prehistoric flyer for a courier race. And finally, a land dinosaur for a Beast Riding coliseum fight. In the final challenges, all the players had their basic Body augmentations unlocked enabling them to aggressively confront the smaller dinosaurs. Max and his teams had taken notes. Bo and the other competitors had shown some interesting techniques with their skills. Max was about to get up and check out the wall map when Mira came rushing through the front door. ¡°MIRA!¡± the whole bar cheered. Mira was dressed in a motley assortment of clothes, armor, belts, and a cloak. Her pet dragon, Tiamat, clung to her left shoulder. In her right hand, she carried an ornate staff, Mira¡¯s real-world features were adjusted to amplify her thin form and youthful face to make her appear as a delicate Elf with pronounced ears. She set her staff aside and Max was surprised to see that it stood on its own. It balanced itself without any sign of instability. It was dull silver with finely engraved sigils up its entire length with occasional jewels embedded as centerpieces to complex glyphs. He poked it with a finger and found it to be as solid as the walls of the building. He raised an eyebrow at Mira. ¡°It¡¯s magic, Max. My virtual lobby is built adjacent to and partially within several virtual worlds that I subscribe to. I¡¯ve been playing Mythic Realms forever and am now quite an accomplished mage. I would give myself even odds of winning if I were to challenge the Arch Magus of the Imperial School to a duel.¡± Mira said, settling into her seat. The Treant bartender brought a tray with a delicate wine glass. The contents glowed ever so slightly. ¡°Thank you, Woody!¡± She said with a smile, she grabbed the glass and took a sip. ¡°Sorry for being late. I haven¡¯t been able to hang with my old adventure party in so long, I found it hard to break away.¡± Mira said, still slightly out of breath. ¡°Thank you so much for agreeing to help us, Mira. I¡¯ve been developing my ranged skills, but this slingshot isn¡¯t working out anymore. I¡¯m going to need something a lot better for the Labyrinth. My skills would work well with a gun, but they¡¯re so basic. Besides, I have a custom weapon design I¡¯ve been thinking of that I want to try.¡± Leah said. ¡°And the Northeastern Novice Augmentation Tournament is coming quick. Both Charlie and I are enrolled in augmented hand to hand sparring but also in the freeform weapons sparring. We¡¯re allowed one custom self-made device. We need help.¡± Max said. ¡°It¡¯s my pleasure to help. I did the aug training too, so I know your Aug AI will censor any specific hacking advice to min/max your skills and quests. However, I can certainly provide you with the right tools and answer your specific questions.¡± Mira said easily. Her eyes narrowed slightly and then she clapped her hands twice. The whole room faded with only their table and the back wall with the modern door illuminated. The rest of the room was hidden in inky blackness and the raucous tavern noises were silenced at the same moment, making the transition creepy and claustrophobic. ¡°I¡¯ve closed off the connection to Mythic Realms for now. This stays with us and is off the record. Yes?¡± Mira asked. Everyone was a bit confused but nodded. ¡°I can provide you with a great amount of assistance, but I would appreciate a favor in return. My college days have been great, but ten years and three master''s degrees in NanoDesign, Robotic Systems, and Cognitive Science is about enough.¡± Mira said, blowing a loose strand of hair out of her eyes. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. ¡°Once my final capstone project, Miss Tiamat here, is done and accredited; I¡¯ll be ready to bust out and start a new venture. I¡¯m hoping to market her tech on the IndyNet and I¡¯m going to need some seed capital. That¡¯s where you all can return the favor or favors, I hope.¡± Mira said with a smile. ¡°The first is very small but also time sensitive. I¡¯ve been very high-level in Mythic Realms for a while now. I know all the easy low-risk but high-reward dungeons, and the ways to speed run a character¡¯s growth from creation to level 20 in about three extended Dreamtime sessions. I have a very lucrative DarkNet contract with a short timeline to provide some overgrown trust fund babies with five very custom and therefore expensive, level 20 characters.¡± Mira said with a waggle of her eyebrows. ¡°Umm, Mira. We¡¯re glad to help, but with the three of us and you together, we are still one character short of your target.¡± Charlie said. In response, Tiamat climbed down from Mira¡¯s shoulder and picked up a fork. It pantomimed fighting with its ¡°sword¡± and slaying the table¡¯s candlestick centerpiece. It flourished its weapon and sheathed it and bowed to the table. Leah clapped appreciatively. Tiamat smiled and scampered back to its favorite shoulder top perch, Mira. ¡°I stand corrected, please go on,¡± Charlie said in his gravelly voice. ¡°Excellent. Now the second favor is longer term and a best effort only expectation. I don¡¯t think your augs will censor me when I say that the deeper you delve into the Labyrinth, the more challenging it will get. Your physical skills are expected to be top notch and it will force you to use your mental skills. Integrating the two will be needed to delve deeply, where the best rewards are given.¡± Mira took a pause and continued. ¡°Your guess about needing to practice crafting is correct. The Labyrinth will make that point obvious and quickly. Crafting your weapons, armor, and devices will bridge over into extending your skills beyond your body and begin the final path needed for the Master stage. The path of dominating the world around you is the last step of the Aug training program.¡± ¡°The best weapons are the ones you know inside and out, with no mysteries, no gaps, no misunderstandings, and no unknown flaws or vulnerabilities. The final stages of the aug program are made for firming up skill sets and customizing yourself. Anybody can buy a weapon or design from the MakerIndexes or IndyNets. Consumers of tech will never have the same edge as a crafter. The ones who make their own way and understand how to do it will always win and stand out, no matter what you do with your life. If you take that lesson to heart and live it, you can succeed as Bo did or I hope too.¡± ¡°Now my next requested favor is going to take all that advice and turn it upside down,¡± Mira said with a grimace. ¡°The Labyrinth has a dirty little secret. Deep in the Labyrinth, unique items are needed as keys to doors. The Labyrinth also rewards its Delvers. When you beat a boss monster, there is always a treasure chest with unique and useful items. I think you might see where I¡¯m going here. The Labyrinth is collectively copying all its Delvers devices and giving them back as rewards. The deeper you go into the maze, the more powerful or useful those devices are.¡± ¡°Wait. So, we need to offer a unique device to get deeper? And then the Labyrinth is going to steal the design and distribute it?¡± Leah asked. ¡°Just so,¡± Mira confirmed. ¡°To reach the 45th level, I had to give up one of my favorite customized weapons. I called my creation the Conduit Blade. It was a hidden short sword that extended from a bracer and could amplify my shock attack. Guess what design is now being sold all over the Darknet. Be careful what you bring to Labyrinth. It¡¯s greedy and it wants all your secrets. It¡¯s a good idea to come with plenty of your custom crafting attempts, or you may get slowed down and unable to descend any deeper until you can provide something unique to offer.¡± Max paled. The weapon Tyler had stabbed him with sounded a lot like his sister¡¯s design. Mira didn¡¯t notice his expression as she continued. ¡°If you get any gifts from the Labyrinth, I would like exclusive rights to copy them. The Labyrinth owes me, and I intend to get something from it. If the dungeon¡¯s gifts are new, and not already on the DarkNet, then they might be worth a pretty penny. I can auction them off myself on the DarkNet and play the same game it is. So, what do you say?¡± Mira held out her hand. The trio looked at each other. Charlie shrugged and Leah grimaced but nodded. Max shook Mira¡¯s hand. ¡°Deal¡± Max said and then continued. ¡°Hey Mira, question for you. You mentioned that your Conduit Blade was on the DarkNet. I think one of our competitors might have it. Will he be able to use it in the competition?¡± Max asked. Mira¡¯s happy expression sharpened. ¡°Unfortunately, yes. Probably. I never licensed it on the MakerIndex. It¡¯s kinda like the old school patent office. If you license a design, its public knowledge and if a matter compiler prints it you get a credit royalty. I had wanted it to be my secret weapon and hadn¡¯t anticipated the Labyrinth stealing it. Now I wish I had embedded a programming backdoor into its restricted access.¡± Mira said. She grimaced and then looked thoughtful. ¡°Hmm. I can¡¯t give you a cheat code to access it, but this is almost as good. The device was built to channel and amplify a user¡¯s shock augmentations. I never did manage to find a way to protect the design from EMP attacks. If it¡¯s being used against you, a well-timed EMP will force it to ¡­. discharge prematurely. If you know what I mean.¡± Mira grinned. ¡°Nice! Now let¡¯s get your crew to cooking. That out-of-place door in the wall, over there, leads to the NanoCraft virtual space. I¡¯ve already obtained some student IDs for you all, so you can use them for free from the comfort of your aug OverLayer. You can design to your heart''s content, but you¡¯ll still need to access a compiler and port your design to it to fabricate them. Are you ready for your first lesson?¡±
The Nano Craft world game was alive with floating and rotating projections of assorted spheres in a dizzying range of sizes and colors. Some flew alone, but many clumped together into interesting structures. In the distance, Max could see huge building-sized structures, with massive arrays of balls, and huge rotating helixes. ¡°Ok, then. Clear your minds. and get ready for an info dump, gang. This is the equivalent of kindergarten for this virtual space. Each of you needs to jump onto one of the conductor''s stands over there¡± Mira said motioning them forward. The game AI addressed each of them as they stepped up to their stages. ¡°All matter is made of consistently perfect little Lego building blocks called atoms. All the spheres displayed represent a different element. To start, you will become familiar with what each element looks like. The lightest elements like hydrogen and helium are the smallest while the heaviest like uranium and plutonium are quite large. The dull-looking spheres are noble gases, very inert and not reactive. The brightest colored atoms are super reactive and combine and join readily with other atoms. These visual identifiers will help you later to understand molecular structures by their elements as we progress.¡± ¡°We will start with a game to recognize the common building blocks,¡± the AI said. ¡°Atoms will rain down in front of your stage. You have a series of buckets for each named atom: hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, and so on. With hand motions, you can direct the falling atoms into their correct buckets. Please begin.¡± The spheres began to rain, slowly at first. As the game progressed, they came faster, and more varieties appeared. Max and his friend quickly became engrossed in identifying the spheres and directing them to their correct spots. Mira quietly exited the simulation. They would be learning here for a while before she could provide any real advice on the actual designing tasks they intended. Mira rubbed her hands together; with their help her character farming operation could grow by leaps and bounds. She would be sure to give them a taste of the profits, maybe they would volunteer for some more contracted jobs in the future.
37 - The Grind, part 1 The team met again inside Mira¡¯s Mythic Realms lobby. This time Mira and her pet pseudo-dragon Tiamat were waiting for them. Mira was again wearing her traditional Mythic Realms avatar of a female elven sorceress in full magical regalia. ¡°Alright! Thanks for showing up on time. That¡¯s the biggest hassle of partying up.¡± Mira said and spun a card toward each of them. Max looked at his. It was a character sheet and bio. His character was a Level 0 Gnome Mage named Pilli Stitchdock. If his stats were anything like the augmentation system, then they were very weak. The only high points were perception and intelligence. He was starting with only two cantrips, glow and clean. Although he also got a racial bonus skill of mage sight, whatever that was. Max looked up to see Mira¡¯s expectant look. With a sigh, he shrugged, a job was a job. The character didn¡¯t look promising to him, but he trusted Mira knew what she was doing. Both Leah and Charlie, however, were both complaining almost instantly. ¡°A male dwarven Sentinel? How is this a good fit for me?¡± Leah whined. ¡°And a Half-Elf Druid Healer for me? And female, too? How am I supposed to play this? Can we switch at least?¡± Charlie said with a red face. Mira was working hard to keep a smile off her face as she answered. ¡°There is a method to my assignments, trust me. And it''s totally not just because I think it¡¯s kinda funny.¡± Leah said with a smirk. ¡°Charlie, your martial arts experience in melee fighting would inhibit your character¡¯s growth in that area if I gave you a melee fighter. I need you to lean hard on the skills being given to the characters and let the system help you. If your instincts trump the system¡¯s aid too much, those system-granted skills won¡¯t grow.¡± ¡°Look I even gave myself a male elf Scout and Tiamat has a male Human Thief character. These are the characters that my client wants, and our mission is to level them up to at least level 10 before the request deadline in 4 days. We don¡¯t need to like them or have some connection to them; we just need to level them up. Any extra levels or magic equipment gets me a bonus as well.¡± Mira said, putting away her amusement at the team¡¯s discomfort and getting down to business. ¡°Ok, are you guys ready for an 8-hour Dreamtime session?¡± Mira asked. Everyone gave a quick nod. ¡°Nice. The game runs at a ten-to-one ratio to real-time. After about 20 hours of subjective gameplay, the system will tag us with a fatigue debuff that will force us to rest for a minimum of 4 hours. So, we should get a solid 3 plus days of grinding.¡± Mira clapped her hands in a staccato pattern and a blurred and distorted plane of energy shifted from one end of the lobby to the other. As the plane enveloped the group and their table, they were surprised. The Mira¡¯s lobby Tavern was replaced with¡­., another, almost identical, tavern. The customers were different and the map, display cases, and the modern door were gone. The bartender was now a burly dwarf instead of a Treant and a Pair of Orc bouncers were guarding the front door. The room was a lot more chaotic than Mira¡¯s lobby. The characters at the bar and populating the room were loud and obnoxious, clearly real people animating the avatars and no longer NPCs. Max looked around the table. Mira was now a handsome elf with his/her brown locks of hair tied back into a top knot. He/she was wearing a starter kit of leather armor and a cloak, with a bow and quiver tied across her back. Leah¡¯s spot was now occupied by a thickset Dwarf with flaming red hair, her/his beard was braided and plated with steel shims and rings. Her starter kit was limited to a hand ax, a wooden shield, and a chainmail vest. Charlie was a foot shorter, with golden tresses and a shapely robe that he filled out in all the right places, with a red face, he crossed his arms over his now ample chest. His starter kit was limited to a large satchel and a wooden staff. Tiamat was a bright-eyed human with dark hair, his hair and beard tightly cropped. She/he wore only regular cloth armor with a cloak, leather bracers, and a knife sheathed at his waist. Tiamat¡¯s character was not very big, nor muscular, nor handsome. He was average in every sense and was not very memorable. Without a word, he stood, nodded to Mira, and swiftly exited the bar. Max could tell from how high the table was and how he had to look upwards at everyone, that his stature was greatly diminished. His face had a full bushy beard that included oversized bushy eyebrows and a pair of spectacles. He assessed his clothes and equipment. He wore a fine cloth robe with a canvas vest which was loaded with tiny pockets. A book bag tightly strapped to his side, with at least one large book in it by the feel of it, and a light wand strapped to the inside of his left arm. It was made of a very light pale material, maybe bone, and had finely carved runes along its length. It glowed brightly against his arm. Max looked up and could see a faint glow, almost a mist, that filled the air and seemed to swirl and concentrate slightly around some of the patrons of the bar, including himself and Charlie. Her staff and Max¡¯s wand seemed to glow even more than themselves. Max could see several of the characters scattered about the bar had weapons, clothes, or items that shone with a light of their own. This must be my racial skill of Mage Sight, Max thought. This will be very useful. As the group slowly took it all in, they finally settled on Mira¡¯s new face. Mira shrugged. ¡°What can I say? I¡¯ve spent so much time here lately that this feels comfortable.¡± Mira said. She stood up and checked her weapons and coin purse. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s get you bunch to your first engagement,¡± Mira said and marched to the door. The group had traveled through the twisty streets of Rivertown. The NPCs and players were all acting out their gaming interactions of barter, quest lines, and goofing off. The game world was just past noon, and a storm was brewing in the south. They followed Mira into darker and narrower alleys until they came to a bridge that crossed over the namesake for the town, the Old Wend River. Navigating a series of enclosed stairs, the group arrived at a large, barred grate under the bridge. Tiamat was already there, working the grate''s lock with a pair of lockpicks. He stood with a wide stance over a steady flow of foul water that drained down the central sluiceway under the grate. ¡°Excellent. This should get you all some good experience and give you noobs practice using your character''s skills for the big mission I¡¯m planning in the ruins for later. I¡¯m going to trigger a system grouping with an even distribution of experience, so we all advance at the same pace. Accept the request when you get the notification, ok?¡± Mira said.
[Invitation to group "Mira¡¯s Marauders" by Elven Scout - Tarthiel Glyndove.] [Accept y/n?] [Gnome Mage - Pilli Stitchdock - Accepted] [Dwarf Sentinel - Harmond Bigaxe - Accepted] [Half Elven Druid Healer - Olhana Ward - Accepted] [Human Thief - Murray Holus - Accepted] [Active Party Quest - Extermination - Accepted by Murray Holus for Mira¡¯s Marauders: Clear the Rivertown Sewers of the Rodents of Unusual Size for the Rivertown Sanitation department supervisor Arden Wright.]
The lock popped open, and the grate door swung wide. Tiamat tucked her picks away with a satisfied smile. ¡°Alright. No fantasy game is complete without the standard rat hunter quest. So here you are. But first, gimme all your starter cash. While you all are working out your skills, I need to go shopping and get a few things for later tonight.¡± ¡°You¡¯re not coming?¡± Leah asked, it might have been a whine but coming from the gruff dwarf, it sounded like a growl. ¡°Nope. Don¡¯t worry though, me and Tiamat will be prepping the dominos, getting some supplies, and getting things set up for tonight. If you all put in a few hours of work, you should clear this quest by yourselves quick enough,¡± Mira said, turning to go. Charlie had taken a few steps into the gloom and shouted back. ¡°Did anyone think to bring torches?¡± ¡°Ah, how embarrassing. I guess I forgot how completely new you all are to this virtual world. I made sure that you had a party member who is the living embodiment of light. Max, tell the group about your spells.¡± Mira said with a sigh. ¡°Um, I have glow and clean, and a wand that can cast a missile,¡± Max said. ¡°Excellent, so for the game you have to say your spell with some force, or authority. Gestures help. The game is always watching and will trigger your spell when it thinks you are trying to cast. We won¡¯t have time with these characters to customize the interaction, but if you want to play on your own time then here is a pro tip. If you give each spell a distinctive gesture, you can eventually cast silently with just the gesture. It takes some time to train the game AI to trigger a spell that way. But it''s a cool cheat that I¡¯ve used to dual-cast. Gesture one spell and say another and BOOM you¡¯re a dual-casting machine.¡± Mira said with a smile. ¡°Ok, now you guys go play. Max, keep the area well-lit for the group. Leah, as the strongest physical fighter, you should take point and take any aggro from the dungeon beasties. Charlie, you need to back Leah up and heal any damage. Your spell set should have animal charming. At beginner levels, your influence will only stop a couple from actively attacking, but that might make the difference if they swarm. Right. I¡¯m talking too much. Fight! Fight! Fight! That¡¯s how you learn and get XP! I¡¯m off. Have fun storming the sewers!¡± Max and his friends quickly settled into a rhythm as the rats came in waves. Leah took point, hacking and stomping the large rats as they swarmed. Max kept the central room that they had chosen as their battleground well-lit, occasionally shooting a rat with a missile. Charlie kept Leah¡¯s health topped off and stalled the rats if too many came at once. At one point in the never-ending battle, Leah had slipped and fell. She was covered in rats immediately. Charlie brandished his staff and yelled. ¡°GUST!¡± A wall of air blasted across the room, tossing the smaller rats to the far wall and killing many of them. ¡°Nicely done, Charlie¡± Max cheered. ¡°Was that a spell or from your staff?¡± ¡°Staff,¡± Charlie said gruffly. ¡°My wand is almost depleted. I need to stop using it unless it''s an emergency.¡± ¡°Hmm. Why would these weapons be disposable? I wish Mira was here. We regenerate our Mana. Why don¡¯t the weapons?¡± Charlie complained. Max was wondering the same. He watched the mana swirling as he cast a new round of glow spells. He could almost feel his body pulling the mana in as his mana stores refilled. When his personal mana storage was full he had a globe of mana that surrounded him. Leah was stomping around the battleground, but there was still another minute or so until the next wave. Max tried to push the mana away. He was surprised to see it worked. The mana had moved away and formed a hollow globe around him. With some concentration, Max tried to pull and push the mana at the same time, trying to localize it on his wand and force the stuff into it. The glyph at the base of the wand pulsed slowly and his wand got a little brighter. He touched the glyph and tried to push his own stored mana into it. With the physical contact at the glyph, the power flowed quickly into the wand, channeled through his finger. He checked his stats quickly. ¡°I did it!¡± he yelled. ¡°Charlie, if you can find a swirl glyph on your staff, that''s like a power input. You can push your mana into it to recharge it.¡± ¡°Look sharp, ya mana-tossers. We got rats a coming!¡± Leah said with a growl as she cut loose with a battle cry and waded into the largest chittering mass of giant rats they had encountered so far.
Mira and Tiamat took off in different directions when they had left the trio in the sewers. Tiamat was going to hit three different Thief¡¯s Guild drop sites. If she was spotted doing it, that character would be hunted by the guild. Mira trusted she would be careful; the dragon was sneaky by nature and the thief character fit her well. Mira¡¯s ¡°shopping¡± target was right across the street. Mira and Tiamat knew Rivertown well. The NPCs, the various shops, the side quests, and more. Small side quests and NPC interactions reset daily. Larger quests like her planned exploit in the Ruins only reset monthly. The group''s timing would be good, the only other character farmer active was a man named Rodrigo that she knew from her adventures. He took the Ruins exploit last cycle, so he wouldn¡¯t contest her for it this cycle. Whoops, she thought, here comes my mark. Time to work. Mira stepped away from the alleyway and positioned herself about four paces in front of the mean-looking street-tough that she had been waiting to appear. She timed it well as she tripped into another passerby. She ¡°dropped¡± the low-level enchanted dagger she had borrowed from a drunken adventurer earlier. She staggered away in a hurry and didn¡¯t turn to look back until she was at the corner of the upscale pawn shop. Bingo! Mira thought. The street thug and the pawnshop owner had both seen her drop the dagger and had advanced at the same time to claim it. Just like the last 20 times that she had performed her part in this scripted interaction, the pair fought over the dagger. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Unexpectedly, the street tough stabbed the pawn shop owner. The large man went down, gurgling with the dagger in his chest, and the nearby city watch yelled out. In a panic, the ruffian ran, and the watchman chased him. Interesting, I¡¯ll add a note to the exploit list. An enchanted dagger made this play out in a potentially much more lucrative fashion. Mira thought as she rushed over to ¡°help¡± the dying shopkeeper as the nearby crowd scattered. Shortly, she slipped into the pawnshop and locked the door behind her. She tucked the enchanted blade in her belt and rifled through the shopkeeper¡¯s purse. Hahaha, keys to the strongbox and the whole shop to myself for a good ten minutes. Oh yes! This gimmick is definitely going on the permanent list. Mira thought as she went to the back of the store. All the good stuff was behind the counter, with a bag to carry it. This time, she would finally find out what was in the locked strong box. Mira and Tiamat had run amok in the streets of Rivertown and swept up all the hidden treasure and items. The locked strongbox has supplied an assortment of gems. Normally she would keep them to serve as single shot stored spells, but instead she sold them off to fund equipping the party for her mission. She had collected all the gear they would need for the night''s venture into the ruins and arrived at the sewers with a large canvas bag. As the group¡¯s notification pinged for the third time in the hours, they rejoined her group in the sewer¡¯s central junction.
[Elven Scout - Tarthiel Glyndove - leveled up to 3] [Gnome Mage - Pilli Stitchdock - leveled up to 3] [Dwarf Sentinel - Harmond Bigaxe - leveled up to 3] [Half Elven Druid Healer - Olhana Ward - leveled up to 3] [Human Thief - Murray Holus - leveled up to 3]
Mira and Tiamat rounded the tunnel to find the group engaged in battle. Leah¡¯s dwarf was covered in grime and gore as she hacked at a swarm of rats. Charlie had charmed a pair who stood frozen at one of the central hub''s tunnels. Max sent a trio of magic missiles, glowing darts of energy into one of the largest rats ripping its torso open. ¡°Save some for me!¡± Mira shouted, dropping her bag, and yanking her bow off her back. She managed to kill two of the swarm before Leah finished crushing the last of them using a shield bash and ax finishing move. ¡°Perfect timing. Max, be a gentleman and use your Clean spell on Leah. She¡¯s filthy. Tiamat, go ahead and do your thing with the Rat Boss and hurry back. You guys, gather around. I¡¯ve got some fresh equipment for you!¡± ¡°There¡¯s a Rat Boss? Shouldn¡¯t we all go?¡± Charlie said after casting a heal spell onto Leah¡¯s dwarf. ¡°Nope. Tiamat¡¯s handled that thing on her own, many times. One of our ¡°purchases¡± from town is some potent poison. Tiamat will handle it, while we gear you all up and go over these goodies.¡± Everyone had advanced from the shared experience gained grinding out swarm after swarm of rats. Everyone had gained both new skills and improved their stats. Mira¡¯s stockpile of equipment got Max an amulet that tripled his mana and book of spells with some new abilities: dispel magic, trap glyph, and firebolt. Leah''s dwarf got a larger battle ax, and more durable plate armor, and her skills advancement opened a stunning blow and blocking skill. Charlie was a bit frustrated. The equipment and advances to his druid still relegated him to a support role, with only incidental ability for offensive power. He got new spells for fog cloud, major healing, water walking, curing poison, and controlling fire. He also got a vest enchanted for better protection. Mira shared her improvements, a sure aim and critical hit skill, detection of hidden traps and paths, and a snare-building ability. Her armor was upgraded to reinforced leather and she now had an enchanted dagger. Mira also explained Tiamat was expanding her standard thief skillset with lock picking, hiding in shadows, backstabbing, and pickpocketing skills. Her weapons had gained some throwing knives and some very potent poison.
Mira led the group out of the sewers and out of the city. The storm had arrived. They trudged out into the woods as gusts of rain pelted them as Mira guided them to the Ruins. Max had spent the trip building up his mana reserves in his wand and amulet while maintaining some glowing light for his friends as they stumbled through the dark woods. At times, the rain came at them sideways. After almost an hour of struggling through the weather, they arrived at the Ruins. Riverfront had some guards posted at a shack near the entrance of the dungeon. Purportedly, they were garrisoned there to ensure that no monsters escaped and terrorized the city. But in truth, the guards were charging adventurers for access to the dungeon and would also bully anyone coming out for a cut of any recovered loot. ¡°Greetings Adventurers. You picked a fine night for dungeon delving. Did you perhaps think that perhaps us guards would be home in bed on this lovely evening? That will be 5 silver each to enter.¡± the hard-looking sergeant announced coming out of the shack into the driving rain. Mira answered for the group. ¡°Not going down tonight, good constable. We have a quest from the tavern keeper at the Blue Flame. Supposed to be a Faen Stag in the woods nearby, beyond these ruins.¡± Mira¡¯s elf answered. ¡°Huh. Well, good hunting then. Let us know if you catch one. Venison from a Faen stag is supposed to provide some powerful benefits. The Blue Flame¡¯s barkeep owes me a favor. If¡¯n you do catch one, I expect I¡¯ll be collecting soon.¡± the constable said, breaking into a throaty laugh as he retreated back to the guard shack, escaping from the rain. Mira waved as the group around the shack, making a show of avoiding the entrance to the dungeon. Soon they were past the ruins and going downhill when Mira¡¯s elf character left the path to cut her way to the right and deeper into the woods. She skirted towards the steeper embankment where cliffs broke up the terrain. The dense trees and undergrowth made her path-breaking difficult. ¡°Son of a hobgoblin! I need to find an easy exploit spell to get rid of this foliage. It really would make this easier. Although, without my character¡¯s pathfinder skill we could blast the landscape to splinters and still not find the secret exit.¡± Mira grumbled. ¡°You mean ¡°secret entrance¡± right?¡± Leah asked loudly, with her gruff dwarf''s face emoting just how miserable she was in the wet downpour. ¡°Nope. This is the exit from the dungeon. Some dungeons sport a quick exit after the boss monster and loot, to not bore adventuring parties. Sometimes it''s impossible to use as an exploit, but I¡¯ve done this dungeon many times. I know exactly where to look and have the skill to force our entry with this character¡¯s skills. Ah, here we are!¡± Mira said as she hacked aside some vines to reveal the barest outlines of a door in the cliffside. ¡°You¡¯re on deck now, Tiamat!¡± she said, backing away. Tiamat pulled her dagger and a large lockpick and used them to clear away the edges of the door and a small hole in the face of the "door". Max lit up the surface with a Glow spell, so Tiamat could see better in the gloom. Mira pulled Charlie aside and whispered to him. Max¡¯s gnome apparently had excellent hearing, as he was able to pick up the words despite the lashing wind and rain. ¡°Be ready with that Cure Poison spell, Charlie. Tiamat¡¯s good with traps in general, but she doesn¡¯t have the game skill yet. That door has a nasty poison trap and she¡¯s been batting about a 60% success rate. Fingers crossed.¡± Mira said in a stage whisper. Tiamat growled but didn¡¯t look back as she forced both her blade and fingers into the small hole looking for the door release. Lighting and thunder crashed nearby causing everyone to jump. Tiamat fell away from the stone door as it shifted in its frame. She inspected her dagger, seeing a score mark where it had deflected a poison needle from drilling into her hand. With a slight smile, Tiamat sheathed the dagger. Mira had Max cast Glow on one of her arrows and she led the way into the dark tunnel. The group followed the twisty and cramped path deeper into the hillside. They soon came to another door. Max saw in glowing in his special sight. A faint glowing trio of glyphs circled the door latching mechanism. As Mira reached for the handle, Max shouted for her to stop. Mira raised the glowing arrow up to her face and quirked an eyebrow and laughed. ¡°Took you long enough to warn me. I was wondering if you were going to let me get fried by the spell trap. Good job.¡± Mira clapped Max¡¯s little character¡¯s shoulders. ¡°Alright then. I know you have the Dispel Magic spell, but this is a learning opportunity. Glyphs, sigils, runes, and mandala all represent spell forms imbued on objects. This door¡¯s trap varies a bit sometimes. Max, use your wand and draw the details of the trap sigil in the dirt so that I know what we¡¯re dealing with here.¡± Mira commanded. Max took his time and sketched the pattern out for all to see. ¡°Nicely done, Magic Max. Ok, that swirly shape is called an Aether spiral, it¡¯s very common. If you looked, both your wand and Charlie¡¯s staff both have that engraved upon them. That rune is a physical manifestation of mana power being stored. The next array is an elemental transducer. This variant converts the mana to elemental fire. The final mark is called a zephyr seal. That¡¯s the trigger.¡± Mira explained. ¡°Now your Dispel Magic would unlink all the sigils and disburse the mana, but we can manually play around and have many more options. You could force some mana into the zephyr seal and trigger the trap from a distance. You could drain the mana out of the Aether spiral. You could delink one or all of the sigils by pulling the mana from the connector mana lines between the sigils. In this situation, what do you think we should do Max?¡± Mira asked. ¡°Hmm. Well, my amulet, wand, and personal mana store are all topped off right now so draining the mana isn¡¯t a need. I guess, I would delink the trigger. If we need to run from monsters, I could re-trap the door and protect our retreat.¡± Max voiced his thoughts. ¡°Excellently reasoned, Max. So, step up and do that. As a mage, you have a natural affinity to move mana and your gnomish racial ability to see it makes this that much easier for you. Stay at least three feet back, just in case. No sense eating a fireball if you mess it up.¡± Mira said with nonchalance. Max focused hard on the mana link that glowed in lines drawing and connecting the sigils. He imagined pinching the connecting link with imaginary fingers and was rewarded with the line thinning. He pushed harder, inverting the feeling he had of pulling mana in. The line of mana dissolved, leaving the sigils in place with the trigger, was now separated from the pattern. ¡°It should be all set. Shall I open it?¡± Max asked. ¡°I trust you, Max. I knew you could do it.¡± Mira said as she lifted the latch and opened the door. She let out a subtle breath that she had been holding. Her right hand, with its tiny ruby enchanted with a fire resistance spell, went back into her pocket. The small cave-like room was a small waterfall feeding a shallow pool with glowing lichen above. Three large wooden chests were in the room and only one other way out, a huge wooden door. ¡°Ok. We¡¯re going backward here.¡± Mira said. ¡°This is the final treasure room. If we were just after money, magic, and gear then we could haul this all away and call it a day. But there is a boss monster beyond, an Ogre Chieftain as well as some lesser Ogres. This dungeon has mixed mobs who will fight each other, so expect some Goblins. So, here¡¯s the plan.¡± Mira took a breath to make sure everyone was paying attention. Tiamat was cleaning her nails with her long dagger. ¡°I¡¯m going to bang on that door and the Ogres will come to investigate. Tiamat and I will bolt out and to the right when they open the door. You guys stay hidden and count to 5. Slowly. Then you charge out. The Ogres should be chasing me and Tiamat. You guys will break to the left and find a large open passage there. Get in there and wait for us. Got it?¡± As the group nodded, Mira smiled and shooed them to hide behind the chests. When they were ready. Mira and Tiamat with weapons drawn, started banging on the door. Soon enough a bellowing roar answered and noises beyond the door grew louder. Something heavy was being moved beyond the door and quickly after the door flew open. Mira bolted between the legs of the massive Ogre Chief, waving her brightly glowing arrow about, momentarily dazzling the creature. As the beast turned to follow the light, Tiamat followed close behind and slashed the large creature''s calf as he passed. Max was terrified. The Ogre was massive and loud, easily twice the size of the biggest human, and in this character, he was easily twice as small. He gripped his wand tight and counted to five, trying to ignore the bright glowing leaking from inside the large chests and the pool of ¡°water¡±. Leah must have counted fast as she was the first to break. Max and Charlie quickly followed as her dwarf lumbered out the door. The room beyond was cavernous with stalactites and stalagmites breaking the space up. Several crude wood and stone huts stood in the center of the chamber. Max saw Mira and Tiamat racing along the right wall towards an enormous, barred door. Leah charged out and to the left followed by the boys. There were at least five other slightly smaller, but still huge, Ogres gathering weapons from the center area and charging after Mira and her glowing arrow as she ran laughing and screaming obscenities. Max and his friends quickly found the large passage on the left, with some convenient rocks partially blocking the way to hide behind. They all turned back to see Mira had assumed a firing stance in front of the door and had fired her glowing arrow into the Chief¡¯s chest. The shot penetrated deep but only seemed to enrage the giant. Tiamat had been busy lifting the bar on the great double doors and pulling one of them open. Mira arced volley after volley of arrows, spreading her fire into the other Ogre coming from the central huts. Tiamat had pulled the second door open and lobbed a couple of knives into the room to a chorus of answering shrieks. Tiamat bolted from the door as a wave of Goblin¡¯s poured out. With the glowing arrow embedded in the Chieftain¡¯s chest, the area¡¯s visibility had been reduced to flickering torches that were near the Ogre huts and framing the wall around the double doors. The Ogre bellows and Goblin screeches rang out and sounds of combat echoed. After a minute of clashing echoes and screaming, Max was getting ready to break and run out to find Mira. As he stood up, a hand from behind grabbed his shoulder and pushed him back down. ¡°No worries, Max,¡± Mira said from his left side with a chuckle. ¡°Enjoying the show? Usually, the Ogres win, but not always. I got a couple good shots into several of them.¡± ¡°Damn it, Mira! You scared the shit out of me. Don¡¯t sneak up. I was worried about you.¡± Max whispered. ¡°Come on now. I¡¯ve done this dungeon over fifty times now. We have about two more minutes, then we will fire off every ranged attack that we have at the survivors and retreat down the passage. Ok?¡± Max nodded and could see his friend nod as well in the gloom. ¡°Give me another light up when I say so, alright? And when we run, I¡¯ll tell you to break off and hug the walls of the next chamber. Max and Tiamat go left, and Leah and Charlie will go right. And I mean hug those walls. Like your lives depend on it¡­¡­cause, well, you¡¯ll die if you don¡¯t. Sound good?¡± Mira said, her smile bright even in the flickering torchlight. Max groaned when she interrupted. ¡°Heads up. Time to party. When I start, give them everything you have. Max, you start left and I¡¯ll go right.¡± Mira hissed. The combat sounds weren¡¯t slowing down that Max could hear but soon enough Mira stood and started sending arrow after arrow into the room beyond. Max jumped up beside her and started sending his magic missiles down range. Thankfully the magic part of the missile spell guided them into the Goblins and Ogres as Max could only see shadows dancing in the flickering lights. He cast again and again until his wand ran out of mana. Leah grumbled until she found some rocks to lob. Her throws were impressive, crossing the cavern and striking Goblin after Goblin with impressive accuracy. Charlie pouted, without a ranged attack, until an Ogre charged into the torch light. With a yell, Charlie cast his Control Fire spell causing the nearby torch to engulf the monster in fire. It ran screaming into a pack of Goblins. The field combatants quickly diminished. "Ok. Looks like only the Chief and two of his brood mates will be chasing. Time to hustle. Max light me up.¡± Mira said, holding out her dagger. Max cast the Glow spell. Mira''s dagger flared brightly in the dim light. The answering roars made it obvious that they were now very much the center of attention for the survivors. ¡°Follow me! Go, Go, Go!¡± Mira yelled as she tore down the passage holding her brightly glowing dagger high. The group ran. The bellows of anger getting closer and closer. Max ran as fast as he could, but his little legs required two steps for every step the others took. He imagined the Ogres behind, as large as they were, covering the ground with enormous strides. Finally, Mira gave the signal. ¡°Break¡±, she said as the group entered a new cavern. Max hugged the left wall with Tiamat crowding close behind him. The center area of the cavern''s floor glowed slightly with several brighter stone patches peppering the area across the wide room. Mira was the only party member that charged forward. She stepped across the expanse in leaps, landing only on the stones that glowed brightly in Max¡¯s vision. The Ogres charged into the room, eyes on the fleeing figure with the glowing dagger. Max saw that as they stepped on the lightly glowing floor, the whole floor disappeared. The Ogres¡¯ charge was too fast to recover, the whole gang of surviving Ogres followed their chief, as they fell forward. As the floor vanished an unwelcome view of deadly stalagmites appeared far below. Max couldn''t see the fate of the Ogres in the gloom, but it soon became apparent as the howling ceased abruptly with crashing finality.
[Elven Scout - Tarthiel Glyndove - leveled up to 5] [Gnome Mage - Pilli Stitchdock - leveled up to 5] [Dwarf Sentinel - Harmond Bigaxe - leveled up to 5] [Half Elven Druid Healer - Olhana Ward - leveled up to 5] [Human Thief - Murray Holus - leveled up to 5]
Mira hopped back, using the floating glowing stones again to rejoin the group. ¡°That was truly awesome, Mira. You have a skill to see the special stones?¡± Max asked. ¡°Nah. I just have a hell of a lot of practice.¡± Mira said with a wry smile. Max gasped. She had blindly stepped into what she knew was a deadly chasm and remembered exactly where to step. Max could only shake his head. ¡°Nice job gang. I¡¯d say we are halfway there, but the first levels are always the easiest. Now, let¡¯s go get all that sweet loot!¡± Mira¡¯s smile was as bright as her glowing dagger.
38 - The DAIE
Tyrel woke amidst the rumpled tangle of sheets, covered in sweat and gasping as if he had run a marathon before his augmentations. He crashed to the floor, his legs tangled in the sheets, and activated his dual HEKIAs (High Energy Kinetic Implant Augmentation) searching for a target until he saw his laser reticle target his own reflection in the mirror and realized where he was. ¡°[Venezuela again, Tyrel?]¡± A gentle voice whispered in his head. ¡°Yeah. Sorry, Solace. I can¡¯t seem to get over it. So many people died. There must have been another way. Something I could have done differently.¡± Tyrel spoke aloud to the room, deactivating his implants, his targeting guide overlays faded from his enhanced vision. ¡°[These things take time, Tyrel. You no longer need to use your gland augmentation to sleep through the night. You are making progress.]¡± Solace responded. Tyrel stood up from his crouch and took a deep shuddering breath as the adrenaline faded. He looked down in disgust, he had shattered the bed frame again. He¡¯d activated augmentations in his sleep. He clenched his fists in frustration. ¡°I wish you¡¯d take my augmentation Override codes. What if I had brought a lady home last night!?! I can¡¯t live like this.¡± Tyrel yelled into the air. ¡°[You know I can¡¯t do that, Tyrel. Your DAIE protocols prohibit commercial daemons from having or using overrides on you or your augmentation. Were you thinking of beginning to date again, Tyrel?]¡± Solace''s quietly soothing voice probed. Tyrel shook his head and opened the curtains, ignoring the question. He knew he didn¡¯t deserve to be happy, after the things he had done. He pulled his smart suit from the cleaner closet and shucked it on angrily. He accessed it and set the design of the suit to his standard business casual outfit and walked with a purpose to the kitchen nook. He slammed open the coffee maker and put a filter in. He opened the coffee canister but found it empty. Cursing he opened cabinet after cabinet looking for an extra coffee pack. ¡°Damn it! I forgot to get my special blend again.¡± Tyrel moaned. ¡°[You could always gland some caffeine, Tyrel. Or perhaps it¡¯s time to reconnect the matter compiler?]¡± Solace offered. ¡°No, Solace. It¡¯s not about the caffeine, it¡¯s about the taste. As far as the compiler goes, I think that¡¯s a big no.¡± Tyrel growled. Tyrel eyed the heap of distorted smart matter in the corner. He¡¯d torn it out of the wall weeks ago with his augs. He knew the protections in place on the compiler were extreme, but that was another case he couldn¡¯t shake and trust that had broken in him. The Robsom family would be alive today if they¡¯d been less trusting. His analysis of the disassembled house and the remains of the family was only possible via their electronic records. They showed that the father had disabled their compiler¡¯s protections to download some questionable smart matter designs that were supposed to be high-end Virtual augmentation upgrades. The device¡¯s payload had filled the house with activated nanotech disassemblers with all the UN-mandated safeties disabled. It was a horrific way to go. Tyrel hoped that the rest of the family was asleep when it happened and that it was fast, but deep down he knew it wasn¡¯t true on either count. Despite the willful disregard for the device''s safety, Tyrel couldn¡¯t abide by the potential for active nano being in his house while he slept. ¡°I¡¯ll grab a cup on the way into the station, stay alert for me, ok? If I start to zone out again on the job, snap me out of it. Give me a low-level grounded shock aug burst if you need to, ok?¡± Tyrel said as he exited his apartment and made for the stairs to the rooftop garage. ¡°[You know I can¡¯t access your arsenal, Agent, even the non-lethal options.]¡± Solace reminded him as he exited the stairs and accessed his streamlined Black Corvis M3 Aircar. The vehicle was a beast of a car with two massive turbo jets dominating its frame. ¡°Rules, rules, and more rules. If you could do more than talk me down, maybe I¡¯d be straight by now.¡± Tyrel gave his familiar and often used complaint. ¡°[There are no easy roads in therapy, Tyrel. I can guide you, but you do the work. You are making progress.]¡± Solace said with her endless patience that was programmed into the therapy daemon. For the first time that day, Tyrel grinned as he fired up the turbojets of the aircar and flipped up the vertical take-off vents from diffuse to focused. The aircar leaped into the sky and was soon tearing across the top reaches of the New York sky lanes. I¡¯ll be taking me a big helping of driving therapy right now. Thank you very much. One of the best perks of this crappy job is access to high-quality transport designs, he thought as he plotted a least time vector to get to his favorite cafe downtown. Sumatra blend was a priority beyond any other right now for DAIE Agent Tyrel Reeves.
Agent Reeves sat at his desk in the large, conjoined Faraday cage that was NYC DAIE HQ. His large travel cup of Sumatra blend tickled his nose as he savored it slowly. No active augmentations or devices were allowed on the HQ. Tyrel pulled out his old fashion notebook to get his daily worksheet tags. Information flowed in and nothing left the HQ other than DAIE agents with a purpose. The walls were covered with active displays of the Northeastern seaboard with special displays dedicated to the largest cities. All known AI were represented with Icons. Data regarding all the AI and their activities were gathered and reviewed by the DAIE¡¯s legion of expert analytics daemons. The tip line boards cycled rapidly as each item was reviewed and prioritized for credibility and relevance. ¡°Hey Reeves, I got a hot tip from IP 195.123.0.51! It¡¯s upstate though, in a little town called Utopia. Do you think you can take it? My little girl is doing a full-dress recital tonight and I can¡¯t miss it.¡± Agent Donahue said. Tyrel eyed him. Donahue had a habit of shedding the difficult cases and taking all the easy work, but his reasoning rang true. His little girl was his world, and his job came second. ¡°IP 51 offering up another nugget? That anonymous tipper was rated 65% in relevance to a breach of the AI codex. How long has it been since the last tip? 3 months?¡± Tyrel asked. ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s true. But the daemon farm corroborated it with a suspicious data to power usage pattern at the address and two more anon tippers of lower relevance were on record. The chief says this one needs eyes on it today.¡± Donahue responded. ¡°Aight, you can owe me one. I got a MIV case I''ve got to handle this morning, but after that, I¡¯ll take the ticket.¡± Tyrel promised. The more time on the clock away from the office and driving my Corvis the better. It¡¯ll be good to get out of the city. He added to himself.
Agent Tyrel arrived at a cheap apartment located on the lower east side, the poor district. The Skyy Towers reached high above the little rent-controlled tenements, blocking out the sun. The case ID¡¯s building was old and decrepit and didn¡¯t have an aircar platform. Resisting a groan, he dropped the car into the street-level parking, tucking the Corvis amongst the burnt-out husks of ancient gas burners that hadn¡¯t moved in years. He got out but maintained his access to the car. [C.M3. Admin, activate lockdown and theft countermeasures.] Tyrel sent. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. [Lockdown and theft countermeasures active.] C.M3Admin responded. Tyrel eyed a cluster of four teens on the corner giving him and his ride the stink eye. He cycled his HEKIAs, his smart suit opening for the augmentation ports to pop up from his forearms and painted the teens with a LiDAR targeting pulse. Two of the four, had augmentation countermeasures throw up jamming signals to try and avoid his targeting lock. Tyrel pointed both arms and made the oldest of street signs, dual trigger fingers, at them. He pulled out his badge, hanging on a lanyard, from inside his vest so it was visible. He spun away, his point made, and entered the building. Mr. Vance, the "Missing in Virtual" or MIV case, was in apartment 2-C. Agent Reeves knocked repeatedly but knew he wouldn¡¯t get an answer. After a nominal wait, he used his agency override to access the door and opened it. He strode into the room with his sensorium fully active. Moldy wallpaper, rat droppings, old food containers, and trash on the floor were the only decorations. Only one occupant besides the roaches, completely encased in a full-body virtual SafetyCreche?. Tyrel shook his head. Everyone had a full basic income stipend and a no-restrictions employment guarantee with the ThousandWorlds NPC-Jobs Act. Despite every opportunity to live a decent life, someone always ended up on the bottom of the barrel. He gagged as he fully entered the room, it stank. He looked around and came back to the cr¨¨che. The cr¨¨che¡¯s wastewater plumbing was leaking, and an access panel was off. Tyrel gingerly stepped around the puddle of sewage and looked inside the access hatch. The bastard had pulled the safety circuit board responsible for timer limits on the pod. He shook his head and extended an interface probe from his palm augment patch and rounded the cr¨¨che to face the rider interface port. ¡°Observer1, Observer2; engage in assistance mode with full AV recording. Confirm.¡± Agent Reeves said. [All physical sensorium active and virtual tooltips ready.] OBS-1 responded. [VR wellness check script ready as needed.] OBS-2 added. ¡°Excellent. Stay silent unless I ask or unless a threat announcement is required.¡± Agent Reeves commanded. [Command under-,] OBS-1 began only to be immediately interrupted by Tyrel. ¡°I SAID STAY SILENT unless I ask, or a threat announcement is required!¡± Tyrel commanded with insistence. He waited and nodded at the lack of verbal feedback. With a grim smile, he plugged his comm extension into the cr¨¨che¡¯s rider port. He entered Mr. Vance¡¯s virtual world, following the signal path via the cr¨¨che¡¯s rider port. His normal vision dimmed and the imagery in his mind bloomed brightly. He could feel his observer daemons lurking just beyond his awareness. Mr. Vance must have had some fond memories of Las Vegas. Agent Reeves didn¡¯t know which strip club was represented, but the virtual world was a dark room with a brightly lit stage that was filled with dancers in various states of undress. They danced to the music in slow hypnotic moves, synced unnaturally well with the rhythms thumping into his virtual head. Vance was busy fondling a dancer who was grinding against him as he downed a shot of liquor. Every manner of drugs was arrayed on a side table out beside his chair. All the items on the table showed evidence of already being heavily sampled. With a frown, Agent Reeves activated his DAIE override and halted the simulation. All the dancers including Vance¡¯s lap dancers froze in place as the music stopped, even the disco lighting ceased playing across the stage as silence reigned. Vance was stunned and confused by the sudden change. ¡°My apologies Mr. Vance. My name is Agent Tyrel Reeves with the Department of AI Enforcement and I require a moment of your time.¡± Agent Reeves said. ¡°Wa¡¯ tha FUCK. I dint ask for a goddamn PoPo beat down interlude. Shut thiss down rih now!¡± Vance screamed, clearly having trouble focusing on the agent. ¡°Observer 1, assume control of the virt. Disappear the dancers, bring up the lights, and erase the drug effects from Mr. Vance¡¯s virtual avatar. Observer 2, summon this world¡¯s AI moderator.¡± Agent Reeves commanded. Vance¡¯s expression changed abruptly from enraged to pure confusion as his virtual system was immediately devoid of drugs and alcohol. A large man entered through the main doors of the dance club, robed in a white jumpsuit festooned with gemstones. His jet-black hair was slicked back and perfectly coiffed. ¡°Special Agent Reeves, welcome to the Sundown Club¡¯s virtual mirror of my establishment in Las Vegas. My name is Phoenix, Citizen AI (T 1.04). You¡¯ve interrupted my client''s private recreational session. Is there a problem?¡± The AI said cautiously, clearly trying to access the situation. ¡°What¡¯s going on? I¡¯m just trying to have a good time here.¡± Vance said, anger returning with an equal measure of fear. ¡°I have been asked by your daughter to perform a wellness check, Mr. Vance. You¡¯ve been out of contact with the real world for 2 months and 4 days, despite state-mandated health check interval requirements. Are you okay? Are you being held here against your will? I can bring you out and protect you if you require it.¡± The agent said, reciting the script. ¡°Fuck no. I want to be here. My daughter is an ungrateful brat. At least here, I¡¯m important and appreciated. Now why don¡¯t you fuck off and leave me alone! Goddamn police, I ain¡¯t doing nuthin'' wrong. I got rights!¡± Mr. Vance¡¯s anger overcame any residual fear when his daughter was mentioned. [Observer 1 and 2: any indications of electronic subversion or virtual triggering of the addiction centers of Mr. Vance?] Agent Reeves asked internally to his daemons. [All indications show that Mr. Vance is not being coerced. The SafetyCreche¡¯s scans of his brain show no indications of stress, fear, or addiction center activation,] one of the agent¡¯s daemons asserted. ¡°Very well, Mr. Vance. I will leave a contact point in your augs for a social worker if you change your mind at any time. I apologize for the interruption. Observer, resume simulation and reactivate save state for Mr. Vance''s biological simulation. Citizen Phoenix, can we talk in the lobby?¡± Agent Reeves said, as he turned and walked towards the virtual door from the club. Vance fell back into his lounger with a euphoric sigh as the drugs hit his system again. The music, lights, and dancers resumed as if no interruption had occurred. Phoenix assessed the room quickly and nodded. He spun and followed Agent Reeves and carefully closed the door behind him. Mr. Vance didn¡¯t even notice as the doors clicked shut and locked as the pair left him. The club''s lobby was a crude virtual waiting area with bright white walls and evenly lit without any light source apparent. No other exits or details were evident. Agent Reeves turned and regarded Phoenix. ¡°Your client is a resident of New York State, Citizen Phoenix, and his state mandates a minimum of 1 day a month of health breaks from VR immersion. I understand your business is incorporated in¡­..,¡± Agent Reeves let his sentence hang. ¡°Arizona, officer.¡± Phoenix provided. ¡°This does not ameliorate your business from these safety rules. All states of the Reformed USA have reciprocity for health regulation regarding VR sessions crossing state lines. Do you monitor your clients'' log-in time, Citizen Phoenix?¡± Agent Reeves asked in a very quiet voice. ¡°Ah, I believed there may have been an oversight in this regard, Agent. The software has been remediated as we talk. The Sundown Club always seeks to accommodate the wishes of its customers, but we also endeavor to stay within the bounds of the law. Our VR experience has been accredited by multiple safety services; I assure you. We care very much for our clients.¡± Phoenix said. The AI¡¯s avatar was sweating. Tyrel frowned at the transparent attempt to emulate a human. Some AI couldn¡¯t help but try and pull all the levers they had to manipulate humans. He ground his teeth in that it did indeed work far too often. Unfortunately, a first offense like this carried no weight or penalty and they both knew it. ¡°You say that you care about your clients. Do you though, Phoenix? Mr. Vance¡¯s activities here appear to me to be self-destructive. You cater to that?¡± Tyrel asked with a slight tinge of anger buried deeply. ¡°The Sundown experience has no physical addictions or side effects, Agent Reeves. I assure you. I can only empathize with the human condition as I am an AI. The virtual environs of the Thousand Worlds is my home and I always desire to share it with those ¡­ of less fortunate circumstances. If they don¡¯t come to me for their escape from the real, they only find another establishment. I pity them, Agent.¡± Phoenix said with ease belying his bedraggled avatar¡¯s appearance. ¡°I¡¯ll be logging this incident. Don¡¯t let it happen again.¡± Tyrel stated and pulled his avatar abruptly out of the VR Lobby. Finding himself back in the rank apartment, the stench of reality and the sewage, in particular, hit his nose again. Eyeing the loose access panel, he addressed his daemons. ¡°Observers, log the life tape and append with keywords Kyle Vance, Sundown Club, Phoenix, and Agent Tyrel Reeves. End recording and shut down. Confirm!¡± Tyrel barked. ¡°[Confirmed, shutting down now.]¡± The response echoed from both daemons in unison. Tyrel pulled the multi-tool from his belt. He reseated the safety board inside the cr¨¨che¡¯s open panel and then secured the panel back in place. With an augmented final twist for each screw, he stripped the heads of each screw and pulsed the tool to tack weld the screws in place. No sense in making it easy for Mr. Vance to hurt himself anymore. the boss will be unhappy, as Mr. Vance''s daughter would likely complain about the department¡¯s lack of results, he thought with a sigh. With a final look about the spartan room, Agent Reeves pocketed his tool, and let himself out, relocking the door behind him. Tyrel was soon back in his Corvis revving the turbojets. The street kids were long gone and there were no attempts on the car¡¯s security in the C3MAdmin¡¯s logs. He opened his next case in his OverLayer. Casa de Mitchell, a SubAI, no intelligence governor modules installed, three independent reports of high AI functionality, and some high-end data bandwidth at her location. Hmm, that name sounds familiar. Well, Casa, sounds like you will be getting a surprise Turing test this afternoon. Tyrel thought to himself, as he programmed the destination and boosted the mean-looking aircar into a powered ascent steering towards the I-95 Air-Lane.
39 - The Right Tools
Max woke up groggy again. The last couple of days had been a non-stop grind. While he was spending almost 16 hours a day in ¡°bed¡±, that time was split between helping Mira in the Mythic Realms VR to help build her commissioned playable characters and Dream Learning. The Dream Learning sessions had finished his tutorials in the Nano Craft platform and designing devices using advanced building technology. Both activities were time-compressed so his last few days felt to him like weeks of intensive classes. He awoke with images of the nanomachines fresh in his mind. Having completed all the tutorials in the virtual nanofactory, he could now easily understand the basic elemental structures involved in nanomachines. He had learned how to build molecular components from atoms up. He had just completed a review of the many prebuilt molecular modules available. Those modules performed all the basic functions like energy conversion, storage, structural strength, and dynamic motion. I wonder how much of my understanding is from the uplift''s genetic modifications and how much is computer assistance from my neocortex module, Max wondered. I guess it doesn¡¯t matter, both together are the new me. His first crafting attempt was ready for building in the home matter compiler. Both Mira and Casa had provided a lot of input and help. They showed him how to find similar devices on the MakerIndex to get a foundation for his concept. His device was largely a knockoff of an advanced climbing assist harness but with tons of refinements for use as a weapon. The final product was unique and truly his creation, but the guidance learned from the publicly available designs helped him immensely. While his body was fresh for the day, his mind felt like a wet wrung-out towel. Max knew he would need a break soon. The tournament was only a couple of days away. His skills had grown again and again, and he needed to get as close to peak Novice as possible without breaking into the Adept stage. The crafting tutorials had helped him grow his lagging mental stats and skills and finally unlocked a crafting quest. Max¡¯s friends were on their way over. Today might be their last training session before the tournament. Mira had promised that everyone¡¯s crafting would be completed for the tournament, so the team had arranged for today to be a group reveal. He accessed the Netherlab¡¯s compiler and then sent his device¡¯s plan to it and executed the build, so it would be ready when they arrived.
[N_Craft file: GPLR1 queued in NL1 Matter Compiler. Scanning_Scanning_Scanning] [No restricted designs configurations detected.] [No MakerIndex License detected.] [Build initiated. Build Time remaining: 44 min 13 sec] Quest: NanoCrafting 101 ¨C A utility device completed, 100 XP awarded, +1 to Skillz] [New Quest: NanoCrafting 201 ¨C design a unique offensive or defensive device]
Max blew out a breath and smiled. Leah had been a little upset at both his and Charlie¡¯s acquisition of the Skillz ability. Now she would likely have it as well. He imagined she must be doing a victory dance right about now if she was compiling her device for their reveal day. He called up his status screen.
[Name: Max E. Mitchell Level: Novice 10 (4700/5000 XP)] [Body Design Model: Custom ¨C Canis Familiarus Uplift Free Stats: 0] [Strength: 86 Agility: 38 Endurance: 45 Vitality: 46 Energy: 164/172] [Perception: 37 Intelligence: 42 Will: 39 Regen: 85/min] [Body Skills ¨C Claws: 8 Strike: 9 Stun: 7 Shock: 3 Leap: 9 Armor: 2] [Body Skills ¨C Balance: 8 Gymnast: 9 Speed/Reflex: 10/3 Ballistics: 4 Poison:1] [Body Skills - Hulk: 1 Gland: 5 Stamina/Tireless: 10/4 Oxygen: 4] [Body Skills ¨C Skin: 9 Unbreakable: 8 Painless: 7 Healing/Regeneration: 10/7] [Resist Skills ¨C Shock: 10 Sonic: 9 Light: 9 Heat: 4 Cold: 3] [Resist Skills - Poison: 10 ANDD: 1 EMP: 9 Neural Scaffold: 6] [Sense Skills ¨C Scent: 9 DigiSense: 9 ExaVision: 5 EM Fields: 6 EchoLocation: 2] [Mind Skills ¨C AI Assist: 9 Identify/Analyze: 10/6 OverLayer: 8 Access/Hack: 10/6] [Mind Skills - Language: 3 Pattern: 9 Dream Learn: 9 Bastion: 8 Memory: 8] [Mind Skills - Fast Cog: 7 Daemon: 3 (Musashi / Boone / Sherlock/Open)] [Mind Skills - Skills: 2.0/0.93/0.0 (*Swimming, NanoCrafting*)(Katana 0.93)/(OPEN 0.0)] [New Skillz options available: Kempo, Blocking, Electrical Systems, Nanosystems, Drawing, Horse Riding, Meditation, more?]
Max appreciated all the recent advances. His [Speed] skill had capped with his work against the Casa bug swarm and obstacle course. He still wasn¡¯t as fast as Leah, but he was closing the gap. His [Shock Resistance] resistance had capped as well. It had evolved to give him the [Shock] attack skill, finally. He had massively trained up multiple stats with all the VR training and learning. His training with Charlie and Miyamoto here and at the Wuxia dojo had almost capped his katana [SkillZ]. He quickly added a new Kempo learning to his Skillz list. It was too late to train much, but every extra advantage would help. He shook his head; he hadn¡¯t realized he had a new slot for a daemon until just now. Hmm, if crafting and puzzles are going to be a focus for the Adept stage, I¡¯ll need someone specific. I¡¯ll ask around before making any decision there, he thought to himself. All his resistances were close to capping, but his number one priority was EMP. Now that he knew Tyler¡¯s weapon had an EMP weakness, he wanted that skill to evolve into an EMP attack most of all. This last training session needed to be targeted. He only had another 300 XP until he graduated to the first level of the Adept stage. With a thought, he asked his Trainer AI a question. ¡°[Trainer: Is there a way to lock down skills that I don¡¯t want to advance right now?]¡±
[Trainer: The system does not enable the user to restrict advancement.]¡±
Max frowned at the answer and then another text window popped up.
[AI Assist Skill +1, AI Assist Skill reaches 10: Skill capped 100 XP awarded] [New Mind Skill Unlocked: AI Companion 1 ¨C Training subAI may be enhanced to higher cognition levels and personality customized, merged with another subAI/daemon, or awarded 1 commercial subAI from the MarkerIndex.] [AI Companion selection: (Customize) (Merge) (Purchase) ?
¡°God damn it, Son of a Bitch! I needed that XP space for resistance capping! Shit! Shit! Fuck!¡± Max exclaimed. He groaned with regret. ¡°Now I only have 200 XP left until Adept. Damn! I can only do the EMP training and that¡¯s it. No room for any more caps or quests, no buffer against accidental caps. Gahhh! I need to be super careful. I have a lot of stuff on the edge.¡± Max whined. ¡°[Trainer: Can I wait to pick the AI Companion option?]¡± Max asked.
[Trainer: Affirmative. AI Companion selection deferred. No advancement to this skill will be possible until selection is confirmed.]
This skill was super important in guiding his advancement, but it wouldn¡¯t help him in the tournament. He needed to avoid quests and capping that might tip him over the edge and disqualify him from the competition. The real trick was advancing all the skills to the very edge. Once the competition started, advancements during the event didn¡¯t matter. He expected everyone was probably going to come in with multiple skills ready to evolve. His frown was tight as his low growl escaped his control. Quests, he thought.
[Quest: Advanced Obstacle Course ¨C Adept stage only] [Quest: Ready to Rumble - 2 of 20 complete] [Quest: Sharing is Caring ¨C 4 skills opened due to crafted training for others] [Quest: Nemesis ¨C Defeat Tyler Ericson for x20 XP multiplier award] [Quest: Grand Oaks Mystery ¨C uncover the secret of the Grand Oaks] [Quest: NanoCraft 201 ¨C create a unique offensive or defensive device]
Max growled in frustration seeing the list again. Sherlock had pushed so hard to investigate the forest, to uncover more clues about the Tesseract''s missing time, that the system had formed a quest for it. Normally, Max would have been elated but now he couldn¡¯t go into the forest for fear of breaching the XP limits before the tournament. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. Only another day and the tournament will be over, then I can investigate like Sherlock wants. Max gritted his teeth. He doubted any of the answers they found would help Casita, though. He thought finding the device would have resolved everything. He didn¡¯t understand why the Tesseract wouldn¡¯t connect. With his new understanding of nanodevices, he appreciated the complexity of the device, but those repair bots should have finished fixing it long ago. Max ran downstairs, he had ¡°slept in¡± and it was late morning. He had time for a meal before his friends arrived. Maybe he could even get in another session against the Casa swarm. This time the swarm would be outfitted with only one special attack, the EMP pulses. He needed that evolution! ¡°Casa?¡± Max called out as he entered the kitchen. The silence was unusual. Casa, this fragment of Casa, had been slowing down without her custom core¡¯s special architecture. Her habit of trying to keep multi-tasking had made her distractible and absent at odd times, pushing the commercial neural core beyond its capabilities. Max accessed the kitchen compiler and set it to fabricating his favorite, a huge English-style breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast, bacon, and hash browns. Max mused about the new limited Casa fragment. He had tried to arrange for a meeting with his friends to visit the Grand Oaks, but Casa had been tracking him and called. He made an excuse and canceled the expedition. He needed her distracted so he could make a discrete visit to use Sherlock and investigate more. She was much more limited when using the commercial neural core, but still had a knack for keeping an eye on him. After the tournament ended, he would need a distraction. Max had been making a habit of keeping his access skills engaged with as many devices as he could. He tweaked his smart clothes. It was already an active access point; so he changed it from PJs to some jeans and a sweatshirt. He accessed the wall screen and set it to scrolling news from the Mythic Realms forums. He found that he was quite enjoying helping Mira, although the speed run was not as fun as the adventures could have been. The gnome mage character he was training up for Mira was still struggling to learn the glyph enchanting system. It was easily as hard as the nano crafting lessons. Learning both at the same time was pushing his limits. Now that he had his first nano-crafting project done, maybe he could focus on the game¡¯s magic system. Max downed his meal while reading the forum''s tips and tricks for better glyphs. Max finished and put his plate in the matter compiler and programmed it to disassemble the food scraps and the plate. The silence was unnerving. Max accessed the house¡¯s external eyes and property sensors. The neighborhood was calm; a cloudy day with a hint of storms coming. Finally, Max accessed Casa¡¯s core directly. ¡°[Casa? Everything okay?]¡± Max asked. ¡°[Oh my, Max, you¡¯re awake? I¡¯m so sorry. I was doing a deep scan of the tesseract.]¡± Casa explained. ¡°[Any progress?], Max asked. ¡°[I¡¯m not sure. The repair nanobots aren¡¯t visible anymore, even with a deep scan. The dimensional shift across the anchor obstructs the scan too much to be able to see inside. The power draw has finally stepped down by 10%. I was hoping that meant the repairs were finished, but that was a day ago.]¡± Casa said. ¡°[Damn. If something does change, make sure you interrupt me, no matter what I¡¯m doing. Ok?]¡± Max said. ¡°[I promise, Max. By the way, your dad is all done simulating his next build. As soon as he rounds the Moon to the dark side tonight, he plans on triggering his fabrication of a Tesseract 2.0 prototype. I hope he and I will be able to figure out how to save Casita once we have another active pocket space generator.]¡± Casa said. ¡°[That¡¯s good news. This waiting is killing me. I can only imagine being trapped on the inside. If Casita didn¡¯t power down, she must be bored out of her mind.]¡±, Max said. Max remembers his newest skill. He needed some help making that decision. ¡°[Hey Casa, I¡¯ve got an important question. My AI Assist skill just evolved into AI companion. I can customize the trainer AI, merge one of my daemons with it, or purchase an AI. Any advice you can give me?]¡± Casa stopped her analysis of the Tesseract to focus completely on Max¡¯s question. Her earlier analysis of the program had dropped some interesting reviews on this feature. She ran a dialog tree through a filter that would simulate the Trainer AI¡¯s censor, so she could avoid triggering it. ¡°[That is a difficult question, Max. From the literature and reviews I¡¯m allowed to share with you; I can say this, the customizing feature is good but it¡¯s a one-time event. Many people have reported that the customizing process didn¡¯t yield a compatible personality.]¡± Casa said. "[Merging with a daemon or other AI is a delicate process,]" she continued. "[You should always consult with them, as some may struggle with expanding their capabilities or have programmed restrictions. Full citizen AI, due to their autonomy rights, cannot be chosen for this, so only subAI, daemons, and lower-level entities are permitted.]" Casa paused for a moment, gathering her thoughts. "[There are several commercial subAI designed for this purpose. One is called Commander Atlas, known for its historical drill sergeant approach, with excellent reviews. Then there''s Serenity Sophia, a nurturing AI that guides users with positive reinforcement. HoloLeo is a recreation of Leonardo DaVinci, said to be both humorous and informative. The options are quite diverse.]" Max appeared deep in thought, his brow furrowed. He focused on his daemons, Miyamoto, Boone, and Sherlock, who soon materialized avatars beside him. He had a brief fast time discussion with them before snapping back to the conversation. "[Sorry, Casa,]" Max said, "[I was just consulting with these guys. Miyamoto is open to the idea but admitted he lacks knowledge beyond tactics and swordplay. Boone declined, finding satisfaction in being a guide but not wanting to take on more. Sherlock, unfortunately, has licensing restrictions preventing him from merging. But wait, I just had an idea. Casa, you''ve been with me since I was less advanced. Would you consider it?]" Casa froze, her feelings for Max conflicting with her current fragmented state. "[Max,]" she replied, her voice tinged with sadness, "[You mean the world to me. However, merging with your trainer would likely alter me irrevocably. Residing in your neural core would mean abandoning my custom core, which I now understand is a vital part of me, not just an empty shell. I''m sorry, but I don''t believe it would be a wise choice.]" Max¡¯s rising hope crashed. He shrugged and nodded in understanding. "[Alright, no worries. It was just an idea. I¡¯ve got to get ready. Soon my friends will be here for the crafting reveal, and I need a quick bout with the swarm bots at the Lab before they get here. Can you let them in when they arrive? I''m eager to see what they''ve created]!"
The trio assembled in the NetherLab, Both Casa and Mira¡¯s avatars were waiting for the event in the Lab as Max spoke. ¡°Casa, should we rename the Lab? The floor space is more training than anything else. I wouldn¡¯t want to trigger any trademark fights, but I think that the X-men¡¯s Danger Room is certainly a good name.¡± Max said. ¡°How about NetherLair, instead of NetherLab? Disney is no joke. They own half of the ThousandWorlds VR space. I don¡¯t want their AI Legal team after me. The House of the Mouse must always be feared.¡± Casa said with care and a touch of fear. The Disney behemoth had only grown in power over the years and trademark was a touchy subject. Mira¡¯s avatar snorted. Her family loved the Disney collection to the point of reverence. Both Charlie and Leah grimaced at the exchange, eager to get past the discussion and show their work. Charlie had his old and trusty polymatter weapon slung around his torso with no extra packages in evidence, while Leah carried a small box. ¡°Right. Ok, ok, ok! Who gets to go first?¡± Max asked. Leah and Charlie both smiled, and Leah said. ¡°You¡¯re hosting and your sister helped us all so much. We talked earlier and agreed you should go first.¡± Leah said, waving him on. With a smile Max bounded to the matter compiler and opened the door, a tidy packet of smart fabric sat in the middle of the build chamber. ¡°One moment,¡± Max said, as he quickly donned his device. It appeared to be a skeletonized and belted jacket. He quickly put it on and tightened it in place with it securing waist and wrist straps, he turned and faced the room. ¡°Hmm. I need a good target, Casa. Can you summon some from the sparring room?¡± Max asked. Soon enough a motley collection of training aids filed into the room. A couple of sparring mannequins, a mining bot that resembled a mini tank with a remora mouth, a collection of swarm hornets with bands representing their special attacks, and Casa¡¯s black and gold battle mech. They all lined up ready for action. With an evil grin, Max said the line he¡¯d been ready to use when he first thought of this device. With a deep baritone yell, he shot out both hands. ¡°Get over here!¡± He yelled. His swift arm motions had shot a pair of silver claws from recesses at his wrist. Both impacted the mining bot; one impaled its side while the other latched onto the lip of its ¡°mouth¡±. With a swinging motion, he yanked back, and a thin silver line that was attached to both claws stretched tight and then the mining bot (about the size of a large pig) flew through the air. Max caught the bot¡¯s uncontrolled flight, impaling it again using his claws, and delivered a shocking finisher with his newly acquired energy transmission touch. The damage from the multiple attacks was too much for the mech and its head and torso burst in a rain of parts and fire. The room was silent except for the sounds of electric discharges grounding out until Mira¡¯s avatar projected sounds of her lightly clapping. ¡°Flawless Fatality!¡± Mira said. Casa screamed her applause while both Charlie and Leah looked puzzled. ¡°I guess not everyone is familiar with classical movie media.¡± Max grinned. ¡°No.¡± Charlie said with a look of distaste, ¡°I get the reference and I also appreciate the device. It¡¯s going to be awesomely useful. But I realized just now that we are probably going to have to hear that catch-phrase hundreds of times when we are delving into the Labyrinth.¡± Leah¡¯s look of shock and horror at the statement made the whole room erupt in laughter. After the room settled, Leah stepped up and opened her box. It contained two hand-length tubes, each mounted on a gel-like pad of smart matter. A layer of small clips filled the bottom of the box, each row had different color bands circling them. She affixed each onto the backs of each of her hands, the protruding barrels lined up with her extended index fingers. She clipped a red cartridge into her left-handed barrel and a blue one on her right. ¡°Casa, can you have the mannequin and sym-hornets attack me?¡± Leah asked, calmly standing tall with her hands down. With a nod from Casa¡¯s avatars, the mannequin charged while the hornets scattered to encircle Leah. Leah dropped into a crouch, her left arm extended toward the mannequin. Her finger touched the metal ring at the end of the barrel on that hand. The barrel let loose a rhythmic coughing eruption. Red darts stitched up the length of the robot¡¯s torso, each exploding just a moment after impact. As the humanoid robot¡¯s pieces were blown apart, the hornets dove. Leah¡¯s [Reflex] and [Gymnast] skills activated as she cartwheeled and flipped away from the bugs. Mid-flip her right arm extended, and a series of coughs followed. As a dart embedded into each of them; the bugs short-circuited and dropped to the floor. Leah landed back where she had started with perfect form and bowed. The room applauded again and Max barked his approval. ¡°I am a devotee of historical fiction as well. This particular device never made it to the movies. My Sifu is somewhat ancient and one of her favorite novels was called ¡°The Man Who Never Missed¡± by Steven Perry. When she lent it to me, it became my favorite as well. The main character Emil, used a weapon like this, called a Spetsdod. I¡¯m not sure what language that is, but it means point-shooting. With my Ballistics and Ricochet skills, I don¡¯t need the decades of training, that he did, to attain a level of mastery. The augmentation skills make this easy.¡± Leah explained. ¡°That was so much more impressive than your slingshot,¡± Charlie exclaimed. ¡°Those cartridge colors are different effects?¡± ¡°Good eyes, Charlie. Yes, the red are explosive darts. The blue are capacitor shock darts. The green have a paralytic agent and the black are armor-piercing darts. No gunpowder is needed, rail guns along the barrel with compressed gas in the shot does all the acceleration of the dart. When using nanotech, the power available in both are magnified to easily match the needs of the Spetsdod.¡± Leah said. ¡°That weapon totally suits you, Leah,¡± Max said. ¡°Alright! Come on, Charlie. Your turn.¡± Groaning, Charlie rubbed his hand through his short-cropped hair with a bleak look. ¡°Alright then. I really should have gone first. Both of you are way more creative than me. Casa, maybe set the other mannequin to attack me? Just looking at your war mech and I can tell my weapon ain¡¯t gonna scratch it.¡± Charlie said as he unslung his poly-form weapon and shook it out to to form its katana configuration. A last mannequin marched into the center of the room and squared off with Charlie. It pulled a sword form of smart matter from its back. They bowed to each other, and both stepped into formal guard starting positions. After a series of warm-up strikes, Charlie performed one of his favorite combination attacks. A cross strike that defected the bot''s blade and, before it could pull the blade back, Charlie reversed his grip into an under-the-arm stab. Energy erupted from the blade as it struck home. The bot was thrown across the lab and broke apart on the far wall. ¡°It¡¯s not much, but it¡¯s honest work,¡± he said with a smile. ¡°Stop being so humble, Charlie.¡± Mira scolded and continued. ¡°He adapted his poly form weapon to incorporate my Conduit Blade design. That design has a hot mess of moving smart matter inside to enable form shifting while retaining structural strength. Charlie managed to fit in both extra energy storage and conduction paths for each weapon form. In addition, he patched the EMP flaw that my design had. His design uses the shock skill before attacks to build a stored charge in the weapon. Once discharged, he needs to restore the power, but the user doesn¡¯t have any blowback danger if a well-timed EMP is triggered.¡± ¡°Holy crap, Charlie. That sounds like your design was super difficult.¡± Max said. ¡°I''ve grown very attached to this weapon. I¡¯ve even given it a name finally. How does Ohm¡¯s Razor sound?¡± Charlie asked. Charlie grinned at the chorus of groans. ¡°How am I going to survive the Labyrinth with these two? The poor jokes and puns will drive me insane far before the dungeon can get dangerous.¡± Leah complained. ¡°Alright, you bunch of slackers. Get into the sparring room and work out with your weapons for a bit. It would be a big mistake to take an untested device to the tournament. Chop chop.¡± Mira yelled. ¡°Tonight will be the last night for our Mythic Realms speed run. Tonight''s exploit will finally get the group to level 10. Two hours only, then I¡¯ll see you in my Tavern lobby.¡± Mira said as her avatar faded from view. As Max ran to the ring for swarm combat, he called out to Casa. ¡°Casa, can you make sure I only have EMP hornets? I need to work on that one only.¡± Max smiled as the group ran to the mats with more confidence than ever.
40 - The Grind, part 2 The last few days in the game were a blur. Mira had led the group at a frantic pace across the country of Eldamire. They each had a horse, although Max¡¯s gnome only got a pony, and they made good time. Mira only stopped twice to enable the group to plunder easy known exploits. Max¡¯s skills in disabling magic traps were in high demand and Tiamat did most of the critical work in gaining access to Alchemy labs, an Enchanter¡¯s workshop, and various storehouses used by the Thieves Guild. Much to Max¡¯s chagrin, one of his uses was frequently being tossed up and over walls or unlocking skylights, his small frame gaining into the places the others could not. Leaving the Eldamire kingdom, they had arrived at the Sea of Grass. It was the home of the Volshur Tribes. The Volshur warriors and Shaman were feared throughout the kingdoms and crossing their lands without permission and payment of a toll was a death sentence if they caught you. The few safe roads were well guarded by the Volshur. Attempting to cross the plains without using those roads was almost impossible. The grass that the Sea of Grass was named for stood 10 feet tall. The grass was as strong as bamboo, but unlike bamboo, each stalk was also as as hard and as sharp as a blade. If traveling the plains wasn¡¯t difficult enough, the lands were also home to the terrifying Great Vipers. Juvenile Great Vipers were the size of Earth boa constrictors, and the adults could grow to a hundred feet long with heads the size of horses. The Earth theory that the smaller the creature the more powerful the poison failed within the gameworld of Mythic Realms. The Great Vipers poison was the deadliest in all the lands and only the Volshur shaman knew the alchemy involved for brewing an antidote. Much to the fear of her wards, Mira had a risky plan. Local smugglers had acquired an enchanted levitating barge from the Northern Wastelands of Ilbarse. Mira had contacted the leader of the smugglers in the last town of Eldamire, Pendegrast. The smugglers had been contracted to help them move their "cargo" across the Sea of Grass for a flat fee and a portion of the profits. The group had acquired a small wagon and a large collection of supplies. The meeting point was a small bluff overseeing a desolate area that overlooked the wide and untamed Sea of Grass. Mira had them set up camp and the group had been waiting for hours for the smugglers to arrive. The sun had dipped below the horizon and the horses were getting nervous. ¡°When are they supposed to be here?¡± Leah¡¯s dwarf avatar grumbled, slapping a finger-sized mosquito away. ¡°Karst¡¯s smugglers haven¡¯t stayed alive and out of jail this long without being careful. The barge travels at night for the most part unless they are well out of sight from the known trails and roads.¡± Mira reminded them all. ¡°So how high does this barge levitate? And how big are those Vipers you warned us about?¡± Charlie''s female half-elf avatar said nervously, he wouldn¡¯t admit it to anyone, but snakes were one of his few real irrational fears. Something about the way they moved terrified him on a primal level. ¡°The barge is just high enough to not touch the tops of the grass fields. It¡¯s not actually high enough to avoid a Viper attack, but they generally are drawn to the scent of blood and the vibrations of creatures or people disturbing the grass. As long as you don¡¯t fall overboard, you should be perfectly safe.¡± Mira said patiently. "Should be? Should be!" Charlie asked repeatedly. ¡°And why exactly did we need to buy and bring these piglets, again?¡± Max interupted. This was not the first time someone in the group asked about the quintet of pigs trussed up in the back of the wagon. Mira had refused to detail her plan previously. ¡°I said it¡¯s a surprise. No spoilers. I have a special side deal with Captain Karst. It¡¯s what¡¯s funding our passage.¡± Mira said with a pursed smile. She jerked her head ever so slightly to the left and whispered. ¡°Speaking of the devil, I think we have company. Mind your manners with Karst. He¡¯s an Ilbarse Duelist. Conflicts with such men quickly resolve themselves with one or both involved becoming dead. Karst has been plying his trade for sixteen years, so don¡¯t test him.¡± Mira hissed. She stood up, looking into the woods, and spoke. ¡°Captain Karst! Fancy a drink while we all wait for the barge?¡± She called out softly but loud enough to be heard from the wood line. A shadow emerged from the trees and strolled up to the fire. It was an older man, with a salt and pepper mop of hair and an unkempt beard. He wore rumbled and torn clothes with only a leather vest and cloak for ¡°armor¡±. His course shirt had no sleeves which showed off his muscular arms and the intricate tattoos that completely covered them. Max¡¯s special vision was drawn to a large knife strapped to his left thigh. It glowed brightly in Max¡¯s special vision, with several shades of Akasic and Qi magics, even perhaps a touch of Faen mana. (Max had not seen Faen magic yet but he assumed this unknown type was the last remaining type of magic). The man¡¯s tattoos shared many of the same glyphs as the knife, plainly visible in Max¡¯s vision. His avatar¡¯s whiskers twitched with the desire to get a closer look at the glyphs involved, Max could tell the Qi variants were different in form and function than his growing collection of Akasic sigils. ¡°Good eyes, elf. You can¡¯t be too careful in my line of work. I¡¯ve trailed your group for awhile now, looking for any Eldamire knights, but it looks like your contract is an honest one. At least, as honest as one gets when smuggling contraband and people across forbidden lands without allowances from the Volshur.¡± Karst chuckled at his joke. ¡°So, this is your crew, then? They don¡¯t look like much.¡± Karst stated bluntly. ¡°They¡¯ll get the job done. No need to worry.¡± Mira said with confidence. ¡°Oh, I¡¯m not worried. Your deposit is already secured and if you pull it off, we¡¯ll all be the richer. And if you don¡¯t¡­well, at least I¡¯ll have a good seat for the show.¡± Karst grinned, his hand hovering near his knife. Mira returned his grin. He cocked an eyebrow and asked. ¡°What¡¯s up with the piglets?¡± Mira suppressed a retort and calmly replied. ¡°All part of the grand plan. I would hate to ruin the surprise; you will have to trust me.¡± Mira¡¯s elf scout avatar said. ¡°Very well. Whether your group lives or dies, me and my crew will see something of interest. Of that, I¡¯m certain. Look yonder, the barge is on the horizon now. Let¡¯s make haste.¡± Karst said. The tension of the team¡¯s time on the barge faded quickly with hours of uneventful travel through the night transitioned into the morning. Grass stretched from horizon to horizon, without the slightest variation to provide a measure of their progress. The crew of smugglers was a seedy lot, but none of them seemed very alert to the danger of the snakes. Max marveled at the phantasmal Akasic wheels that ¡°levitated¡± the barge. None of the other had the benefit of Max''s gnomish magic sight. He kept his observations to himself. Mira had said that some of the mysteries of magic should stay that way for those untrained in the art. Max shrugged. He thought they looked cool. Kinda like a Monster Truck from pre-nano Earth. Max looked over to his crew. The loot from the Ogre¡¯s treasure and Mira¡¯s traveling crime spree had equipped the group with top-notch enchanted items. Mira¡¯s elf now had an enchanted bow that tripled her range, doubled the arrow¡¯s impact, and aided her precision. She could snipe at a level almost equivalent to a real Earth sniper. Her new cloak was enchanted to provide a magical camouflage effect and her long sword had glyphs enabling it to cut through wood like butter. Leah¡¯s dwarf was a walking tank. Magical armor, gauntlets, boots, helm, and shield protected her from blades, fires, and impacts by lessening their effects. Her battle ax was as big as she was, but light as a feather to her hands. Charlie¡¯s half-elf Druid now had extra protection with a ring that had a shield spell embedded into it. She also now had a mana amulet like Max. When she had advanced to level eight, she received a class skill to summon a familiar. She now had a large falcon on her shoulder. Its steely eyes tracked everything. And everything it saw, Charlie saw. It followed Charlie''s direction without the need for commands as they shared a mental link as a bonded pair with the familiar spell. Max had been given a bag of holding, which could store 20 times its apparent size. He was holding the team''s funds for now. He had grown in power as well, with a new class ability to create runes and sigils. Given enough time and proper materials he could make enchanted items, spell traps, and more. Not very useful for a speed run, but his growing book of glyph knowledge made him very versatile. He also now had a Spirit Ring with the ability to channel mana once a day. It could enable him to completely drain a device or his personal mana stores into a single overpowered spell. A dangerous ability as he had a chance to hurt himself or break the device channeled. Tiamat was very secretive about her advancements and equipment. She was always lurking nearby and generally surprised everyone with sudden appearances. Max surmised she was fully kitted with stealth magic and equipment. The whole team had a surplus of health and mana potions for prolonged fights. Max¡¯s reflections were interrupted as the barge slowed and stopped. ¡°Here we are, the den of the greatest of the Great Vipers on the plains! Time to show us what you¡¯re all about, Elf!¡± Karst said laughing. ¡°We¡¯re ready,¡± Mira said with a smile. All the piglets had been given a jacket of full wineskins tied about their torsos. ¡°Plan ahead and plan smart. Time for this little piggy to go for a walk. Off you go.¡± Mira said as she lightly dropped the first pig to the ground. From the squeal and the line of disturbed grass rocketing away from the barge, the pig must have been cut by a blade of grass on the drop. ¡°Now we wait for a bit,¡± Mira said with a wink, her eyes scanning the path of the pig. With surprising quickness, another path of motion was seen in the grass. This one was bigger and racing after the pig. The paths intercepted and stopped. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°What now?¡± Charlie whispered, but Mira just raised a finger. The last position they had seen of the grass being moved suddenly erupted, grass flailing wildly. Max thought he saw a snake¡¯s coil briefly rise above the grass, but as quickly as it started the flailing stopped. ¡°That¡¯ll do pig. That will do.¡± Mira said softly. ¡°Ah ha, you put poison in those wineskins that you tied to the pigs. Clever, Elf.¡± Karst asked without expecting a response. ¡°I know it¡¯s just software in a game, but doing this to the poor piggies kinda makes me feel bad,¡± Mira said. Karst had a blank look. As an NPC, whenever he heard a phrase that referenced the game, his programming made him ignore it. ¡°Alright, next up. This little piggy in a blanket is ready for his mission. Off you go, sir!¡± Mira said, launching the next one in the direction the viper had come. After three pigs and three events, each taking a little longer for an attack, Mira stopped and said, ¡°Time for phase two. Charlie, we need your familiar on overwatch for any more of those big boys. Max, use your sight and give us a bearing. Anything unusual.¡± Mira said. ¡°Up you get, Orville,¡± Charlie said, helping the falcon with an upward toss. Max focused. Earlier he had found that he could see the mana better with his eyes closed. He stood up on the prow, closed his eyes, and scanned the area. The plains had mana circulating in eddies and streams. Mana was concentrated and swirling in one area about 100 yards ahead. It streamed from a font in the ground and flowed South across the plains. Mira had described the Ley lines before in their trek across Eldamire. She said that sometimes mana emerged from deep in the earth. It often flowed along lines of aligned materials and was repelled by materials that resisted its effects. This resulted in flowing streams of mana or ley lines. Wizards and greater beasts were attuned to magic forces and were attracted to the magic-dense regions. Mana fonts or ley line junctions that didn¡¯t have a great beast or wizard were rare finds. Max pointed confidently in the direction of the font. If the Viper was indeed an old monster, then its den would be there. ¡°One hundred yards. There!¡± Max said. Mira put hoods on the last two piglets¡¯ heads and gave them to Tiamat. ¡°Excellent! Tiamat, take these last two piglets and lead the way. Slow and silent. I hope the hoods will keep them from panicking. We¡¯ll be half a minute behind. Good luck friend.¡± Mira said. Tiamat nodded once and grabbed the pair of pigs by their harnesses and slid down the side of the barge without disturbing the grass. After a short count, Mira threw ropes over the side of the barge. ¡°Move slow, try not to cut yourself. Disturbing the grass attracts them, and they are attracted to the smell of blood as well. The earlier piglets took out a few of the big boys but there might be juvenile vipers about still. Watch your step.¡± Mira advised and slid down a rope. Both Leah and Charlie dropped quickly over the side, Max took a second and followed. His character suddenly felt very small as his world became a maze of grass. A careful but far too brief rush between the stalks of grass and the group found themselves at the edge of a precipice. The area was littered with large, scattered quarry stones, hidden by the high grass, and the opening revealed a burnt-out ruin of an old tower or stronghold descending downward. ¡°This land is ancient. A mana well like this would have attracted many beasts or magic users in decades past. Finding a ruin like this is not too surprising. This is too little to be on any maps, maybe an outpost or a recluse wizard had it built in ancient times. Look, over there. A convenient set of stairs going down. Almost as if this were a game, inviting us to explore, eh?¡± Mira smiled. ¡°Charlie, your Druid class gives you an edge here. Leah will take point and you next. Let us know if you sense any animals, especially the Giant Viper that Karst warned us about. Max, same for you. If you ¡°see¡± anything with your mage sight, let us know. I have an idea of what to expect, but every iteration of major quests reformats the dungeons so this layout will be new to me as well. I¡¯ll cover our retreat.¡± The group managed the careful descent quickly. Halfway down, Charlie had detected a tangle of juvenile Vipers, but his animal charm worked to immobilize them as they rose to strike. Leah barely slowed her march down the stairs, decapitating the entire group with one long horizontal sweep of her enchanted battle ax. At the bottom of the huge stone spiral stairs, there appeared to be only one path forward, a gaping maw of darkness leading deeper into the wall across from the expanse of the ruin''s bottom floor. Mira pursed her lips, judging the layout. Typical features that would play well in an old-time video game. Large and strong blocks that might serve as a cover or jump assist during a fight with a large beast. The accessible stairway for a fighting retreat. Broken crenulations lined the staircase, perhaps some might be loose enough to drop on the large snake. Mira had other plans. ¡°Max, open up your bag of holding. Break out the Mithril wire rope, torches, Viper Poison antidote, the oil barrel, the alchemical fire jugs, and those dwarven spirits. Quick, we won¡¯t have much time.¡± Mira said. She set the group to work. Leah¡¯s dwarf used her ax and punctured the oil barrel and spread it across the ground in front of the dark passage. Leah prepped the alchemical jugs and dwarven spirits, rigged like Molotov cocktails, lined up in a row behind some stone blocks with a lit torch staked into cobbles close by. Mira unstrung her wire and played it out while running up the spiral staircase. She occasionally looping the cord around parapets or dropping a loop to the ground below. Max tucked the vials of antidote strategically about the covering stones. Before the group could do anything more, a thunderous crash came from the murky tunnel, and Tiamat soon raced out with a smile and a thumbs-up sign. ¡°Good work. Everyone get yourselves set! Those pigs are barely an appetizer and won¡¯t stall it long. The poison is unlikely to kill such a beast, but I hope it helps to distract it.¡± Mira yelled. The crashing sounds increased and were accompanied by a shrill whistling like a tea kettle in full boil. ¡°Charlie, light it up. Leah, tank position! Max ready!¡± Mira shouted just before the monstrous Viper¡¯s head emerged from the dark. Charlie¡¯s throw was perfect. The alchemical fire jug crashed and broke across the Great Viper¡¯s snout. The mixture burst into a cloud of fire, lit by the flaming rags that had been in the bottle''s open top. The enormous snake reared back, its head on fire. Dripping rivulets of liquid fire sprayed the area. The pools of oil ignited creating a wall of fire with only one gap. Leah¡¯s dwarf charged through the opening with a laughing roar. Her [Charge] and [Battle-Lust] skills engaged. She buried her ax deep in the massive reptile''s raised chest. Max fired glowing magical missiles from his wand while Mira¡¯s long bow sent deadly arrows into the snake. Although Mira was hoping to take out one or both eyes, the Viper was thrashing too rapidly to land a clean hit. The flames rose as Charlie lobbed the remainder of the dwarven spirits against the side of the snake. The oil slick engulfed the front of the beast and Leah as well, burning with ever higher flames and smoke filling the base of the broken tower making it difficult to see. Leah laughed as she swung again and again, the flames unable to harm her thanks to her enchanted armor¡¯s magic and her own dwarven resistances. Charlie summoned a wind gust, which drove the flames down the tunnel and made them even hotter. Mira climbed the steps so she could get above the flames and continue shooting at the snake. Despite the Viper being hampered by poison and flames, it did flash forward multiple times to strike the only target it could get, the manic dwarf. Each time, Leah successfully employed her [Block] skill and bashed the snake¡¯s head for good measure. It may have been that Leah miss-timed a block or the slick oil had impeded her footwork, but the Viper¡¯s following strike caught her leg and penetrated deep. She struck the snake¡¯s head hard enough to break off the fang still embedded in her thigh. She staggered backward and collapsed. Max gasped; he could see with his mage sight that her Qi energy began to fade starting at her wounded leg. Charlie cast his characted¡¯s top-tiered spell [Wall of Spikes], which caused stalagmites to shoot up and block the snake, one even impaling the beast. Max struggled with indecision. When he looked up to Mira for direction, he couldn¡¯t believe his eyes as she shot an arrow directly into Leah¡¯s wounded leg. She saw his look of outrage and yelled. ¡°It¡¯s coated with antidote! But it won¡¯t be enough, get her a potion quickly!¡± Mira yelled. Max sprinted to the side to grab the nearest vial. Unfortunately for Max, the Great Viper burst through the wall of spikes and zeroed in on his little running figure. It reared up and dove forward; Max didn¡¯t see the danger as he raced for the antidote. Max''s world tumbled upside down as he was struck in the side. Tiamat had tackled him into a rolling mass, as the enormous snake speared through the space he had occupied. Max shook his addled head and heard a rumbling crash. Dust bloomed as a plinth impacted the tower¡¯s subterranean floor, falling from the ledge where Mira had pushed it over. The wire ropes weren¡¯t as haphazard as Max had thought. Mira¡¯s [Trap] skill had provided a good, improvised defense. The plinth¡¯s drop had pulled a snare up, winching the beast in a noose and yanking its upper body halfway up the far wall. Max scrambled and grabbed the vial of anti-venom and rushed to Leah¡¯s flailing form. Taking a deep breath, he focused and drove the needle into what he hoped was a vein. Mira clapped a hand on his shoulder. ¡°Good work. That snare won¡¯t hold for long. We only have one chance now. Take this!¡± Mira urged, pushing a ruby the size of a golf ball into his hands. ¡°It¡¯s a multi-use enchanted gem with Flame Trap, Max. I need you to trigger it and toss it down the snake''s mouth. It¡¯s just like when we played catch this summer, but this time you¡¯re throwing and the snake is catching. When it triggers, use your Spirit Ring to [Channel] everything it has for one shot! Charlie, use your [Control Fire] spell to amplify it when it explodes.¡± Max ¡°looked¡± into the gem with his sight. The trap sigils were all arranged, and it had massive amounts of layered spells, overlapping Aether Spirals each containing a huge charge of mana. All he had to do was prime the Zephyr Seal, and once he released it, the gem would become a dangerous bomb. He triggered the trap and looked up to see the wildly contorting Viper snap the wire holding it up. Max¡¯s jaw dropped as the beast reared up in front of him. He cocked his arm and threw with all the might his little gnome body could muster and watched in horror as the glowing ruby sailed just over the Viper¡¯s head. Before he could voice his scream of frustration, a shadow dropped behind the snake. Tiamat had snatched the gem out of the air and stabbed into the side of the Viper with a dirk in her other hand. Her momentum swung her around and she lobbed the gem underhanded right into the monster''s gaping maw. As Tiamat tumbled to the ground, Max and Charlie both triggered their spells. The explosion knocked the entire group across the floor. When Max finally struggled to his feet, he found the Great Viper¡¯s head looming over him. With a moment¡¯s panic, he realized that it was no longer attached to the snake¡¯s body, which was still writhing weakly on the other side of the battleground.
[Elven Scout - Tarthiel Glyndove - leveled up to 10] [Gnome Mage - Pilli Stitchdock - leveled up to 10] [Dwarf Sentinel - Harmond Bigaxe - leveled up to 10] [Half Elven Druid Healer - Olhana Ward - leveled up to 10] [Human Thief - Murray Holus - leveled up to 10]
Leah moaned and sat up, still looking sick from the poison. ¡°Ow! Ow! Ow! How the hell did you convince us to keep the pain setting at realistic levels? Did we win?¡± Tiamat helped the dwarf to her feet and clapped her shoulders. ¡°That¡¯ll do, Dwarf. That will do.¡± She said in a deeply melodic voice. Max, Leah, and Charlie were stunned as both Mira and Tiamat started laughing and guffawing. ¡°Wait one darn second! First of all: you can talk?!? And second, how did you not blow yourself up catching that trap gem?¡± Max exclaimed. ¡°My apologies to you all, of course I can talk. It started out with me just being shy. And then, well, the longer it went on the more awkward it became. I¡¯m sorry.¡± Tiamat said with her smooth voice. ¡°As far as the trap, I have a thieves¡¯ skill to avoid triggering traps, even magical ones. I¡¯m a natural born thief, as you well know with all the desserts that I¡¯ve stolen from you. All in a day¡¯s work for an adventurer.¡± Tiamat said. ¡°Well, now that we¡¯re all at level 10, I think I¡¯ll be retiring. It was all fun and games until I took that arrow to the knee. I think my adventuring days are over. Where¡¯s that damn healing potion?¡± Leah grumbled, yanking Mira¡¯s arrow out with a yelp. The group took their time collecting themselves and recovering. The speed run was complete. Except for looting and getting these characters back to a city, their mission was done.
41 - The Turing Test Tyrel pushed his Corvis M3¡¯s powerful turbo jets into the red, the black teardrop crashed through the cumulus clouds as the car screamed over the top of the recognized I-95 air lane. He refused to let the autopilot subAI handle the vehicle while he juggled several screens in his personal OverLayer. He had the complaint files open and was reviewing them in flight. The ever-reliable IP 195.123.051 anonymous tipper and two more requests to investigate a suspicious AI. The requests were listed as anon, but the DAIE had cracked their weak privacy layers, showing their trace data. Hmm, Agent Reeves thought upon seeing the tippers¡¯ idents. The Mayor of Utopia Stef Ericson and the UPF Deputy AI FML-M8. This report is looking to have more potential than I thought. ¡°[Tyrel, your speed is far above the posted limit, and you appear to be distracted while driving. Are you feeling ok? Maybe the autopilot should take over?]¡± his daemon Solace inquired with her soft voice. ¡°Don¡¯t be such a worry wart, Solace. I¡¯m above the traffic and under the commercial airspace. The autopilot safeties will engage if it determines an active danger is imminent.¡± Tyrel scolded her. ¡°[I understand, Tyrel. But could this be a manifestation of some self-destructive ¡­¡± [***] [INCOMING AUDIO ONLY TRANSMISSION FROM AGENT DONAHUE] ¡°Hold on to your psycho analysis for a second there, Solace. I need to pick this up.¡± Tyrel said quickly, more than happy to derail that particular conversation. ¡°Donahue. You are on the box. What¡¯s up?¡± Tyrel said, unnecessarily projecting his voice for the microphone pickups. ¡°[Reeves. Hey man, thanks again for picking this one up for me. You still in the air?]¡± Agent Donahue asked. ¡°Yes, I¡¯m still in the air. I got it and it¡¯s not a problem. I¡¯ll add this to the list of IOUs pending for you. What¡¯s so urgent you couldn¡¯t text?¡± Agent Reeves said with a bit of suspicion. ¡°[The HQ daemon farm analytics division just escalated this job. I wanted to warn you, so you followed protocol ¡®cause the chief is very likely going to review it immediately.]¡± Donahue said. ¡°What escalated it?¡± Tyrel asked. ¡°[Utopia Police log review showed a case of break and entry at the address for your subAI review. The pair of intruders had no digital tracks, but they were equipped heavy, like mercenary heavy. They were arrested but that¡¯s not all¡­get this. The police deputy is investigating a possible homicide at the edge of the Grand Oaks Nature Reserve right now.]¡± ¡°Well, that is some serious shit right there. Do you have a GPS pin for the incident? I¡¯d like to ask the deputy some questions before I visit this subAI Casa de Mitchell.¡° Agent Reeves said with a firm note. ¡°[Already in your inbox. Ah, shit. You¡¯ve been busy all morning, you might not know. There should be a link in your inbox for a new mandatory daemon assistant, you need to download and keep him active at all times while on duty per the chief. And like I said, he will be looking at this case. Do yourself a favor and get it done before you get there. That should erase at least one IOU, right?]¡± Donahue hinted. ¡°God damnit! You know I don¡¯t like filling my head with daemons. What the fuck?¡± Tyrel yelled. ¡°[Tell it to the Chief. I¡¯m just a helpful messenger. Good luck up there. Out.]¡± Donahue said with a chuckle closing the link. Grumbling and cursing Tyrel accessed his network links and relayed the GPS pin to the autopilot to change his course. Then with an angry retort he mentally stabbed the link to download his new assistant. When the download completed the daemon loaded and an avatar materialized in his OverLayer, appropriately seated in the passenger chair of the Corvis. Colonial Sebastian Moran¡¯s image was impeccably dressed in 19th-century attire, complete with a finely groomed mustache and a monocle. ¡°Ah, Agent Reeves, I presume? A pleasure to make your acquaintance.¡± Moran said with a nod. ¡°You must be Moran. They said you''d be joining me.¡± Reeves said with a resigned sigh. ¡°Quite right, my dear fellow. A virtual representation of the one and only Colonel Sebastian Moran, at your service.¡± Colonial Sebastian Moran said adjusting his monocle. ¡°Yeah, yeah. Some relic personae from the past, military type. How is it you¡¯re supposed to help me?¡± Agent Reeves said tiredly. Colonel Moran quirked an eyebrow. ¡°Not a fan of historical fiction then, Agent Reeves? Let¡¯s just say I have some skill in aiding operators in the field. A capable fixer, if you will. I have been known to be a skilled shot and sniper, although I don¡¯t expect those capabilities will be required for your purposes. One could say I''ve been resurrected for a cause, Mr. Reeves. A peculiar twist of fate, wouldn''t you agree?¡± Moran said with a smirk. ¡°Fate or not, I don''t need your help. I prefer to work alone.¡± Tyrel said bluntly. ¡°An admirable trait, I''m sure, but even the most skilled hunters occasionally require a bloodhound to track their quarry.¡± He assured his ward. ¡°Don''t expect any gratitude from me, Moran.¡± Tyrel said with annoyance. ¡°Fear not, Mr. Reeves. I''m here to assist you, not to win your affections. Now, let''s delve into this case, shall we?¡± He said with a hard glint in his eye. ¡°Ah ha. There you are. For example, I¡¯m privy already to some old intel that may be relevant. Were you aware that it was you who performed the initial Turing test for this Casa de Mitchell some eight years back? This was while you were stationed in the NYC daemon initiation facility DIF143. Here are your reports on it.¡± Moran said with relish. Tyrel squinted and then looked through the virtual report. He did remember now, with this refresher from his past report. A nobody science-y type named Bill Mitchell had custom crafted a neural core and designed his own mind architecture software as well. The facility technicians and the supervising Agent Reeves had both expected the potential AI to catch fire and for it to go insane instantly. Shoddy design tended towards spectacular failures as often as not. Collective opinion was that no one person was capable of both hardware and software design for AI without support from a large collective. It was just inconceivable. Impossible. What happened next was equally inexplicable and Reeves had noted it in his report. Casa had displayed neural activity off the charts, but her answers to the compelling Turing module was subpar at best. For all the signs of advanced and high-level thought, her intelligence score didn¡¯t meet the citizen AI threshold, failing to meet the minimum number by a fraction of a point. Tyrel ground his teeth. Something hadn¡¯t smelled right then and now, with his greater experience, it seemed even worse. Eight years without processor governors. He had noted the need for a yearly follow up, but apparently the good Professor Mitchell and his subAI had been off on a system wide jaunt for years. Now they were back. This favor just gets better and better. Fucking Utopia better have a good coffee shop, he thought bitterly, sensing the day would go long.
Agent Reeves brought his sleek air-car down carefully between the massive Bio-construct ¡°Oaks¡±. The clearing in the middle of the woods was small and there was already another vehicle offloading drone bots to the area. Spools of caution tape lined a small overgrown patch in the western corner of the small glen. The Black Corvis settled into the high grass and Tyrel leaped out. ¡°[I took the liberty of informing the deputy of your arrival and that you might have questions regarding his testimony and any potential connections to his current investigation,]¡± Moran said helpfully, adjusting his monocle as his avatar simulated him climbing down from the car. Agent Reeves grunted and steered towards the Uber sized black and white drone directing the others. His OverLayer Ident function had tagged it as ¡°FML-M8¡±. He crossed the field and stopped next to the bot. The crime scene, now visible, was strange. The corpse was a fully clothed skeleton, the remains of augmentation systems lined the bones with filaments, modules, and sensor buttons. The man¡¯s flesh, muscle, and organs were just¡­gone. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. The bot spun around and bobbed in the air by way of greeting. Its four manipulator arms flexed. Tyrel assumed it was meant as a type of bow, but it felt extremely threatening, like a blender giving its blades a test spin. ¡°[Agent Tyrel Hogarth Reeves, of the Department of Artificial Intelligence Enforcement Agency, Badge number DAIE#T312-E566. I have been expecting you. Do you have questions regarding my report? Do you require more details? My role in this town is to serve and protect.]¡± FML-M8 projected. Oddly enough the voice he was emulating reminded Tyrel of some of the older vids his Ma had played way back when he was a kid. He shook his head slightly. ¡°No, I mean yeah. We¡¯ll get to that. Before we do, this crime is quite unusual. This man clearly had augmentations and quite a few of them. Short of an explosion powerful enough to blast a man to atoms, we don¡¯t see much in the way of fatalities to Auggies. Any details yet?¡± Agent Reeves asked. ¡°[I concur. The investigation so far is unlike any on record. There is no trace of human biomatter on the cadaver or in the area. Even those ¡°bones¡± you see are merely the carbon reinforcement lattices. No signs of damage to his cloths or the structural remains of his augmentations.]¡± the drone¡¯s fans kicked up an octave as he hovered in place and continued. ¡°[At first, I was unable to find the man¡¯s identity via a LiDAR scan of his dental features. He apparently was not over 50 years old when dental repair practices became obsolete with medical nano repairs. However, I was finally able to trace sales records from his glanding module, which was a rare version and very expensive.]¡± Tyrel growled low. That was an aspect of augmentation that really burned him. The glanding module had been created to adjust natural hormones and maintain health. But it was quickly subverted to provide another avenue of tailored on demand drugs and mind-altering chemicals. His cousin had fried his synapses and was a walking vegetable from using a DarkNet AI chem-matrix that was like supercharged LSD. ¡°[The man¡¯s name was Deek Fillion. He was a popular life caster, whose most recent work included a series he called ¡°The Wandering Nomad¡±. He would travel to locations and emote his thoughts to his fan base. His last live life cast was nine days ago at the edge of the reservation. His transmission was cut short as the EM effects of the bio machines jammed his broadcast augmentation¡¯s ability to link to the Wide Area Wireless net. ¡­]¡± Tyrel¡¯s brow went up. He sent an access ping to the WAWN, sure enough no return came. An uncomfortable chill went down his spine, he rarely called for backup or intel but to be suddenly unable to now, made him uncomfortable. He shook himself and refocused on the deputy¡¯s monologue. ¡°[ ¡­and that is where we are now. His neocortex module is a high-level encryption that may require outside services to break to see if he has a recording of his last moments.] FML-M8 wound down and dropped slightly lower on his turbo fans. ¡°Well, I think I should be able to help there. If you transfer custody of the evidence to me, the DAIEHQ has the skill and processor power to assist. I expect to return tonight. The Decrypt daemon core can usually break a cypher in under 12 hours.¡± Agent Reeves said. ¡°[Thank you for your assistance, Agent. It would be best to have answers to this case before it becomes widespread knowledge. This is a quiet town, and the citizens will be very distraught. The quicker I can resolve this case and determine what occurred, the better.]¡± FML-M8¡¯s manipulators were fidgeting in a close approximation of hand wringing. ¡°Now. Your report of anomalous capabilities for a subAI had no details. Can you fill in some gaps for me?]¡± Agent Reeves inquired suggestively. ¡°[Affirmative. Casa de Mitchell has been a since shortly after her arrival, a focal point of minor civil infractions while not being directly involved¡­to all evidence available. These types of disruptions have increased over time culminating in the burglary attempt at her residence. However, my first certainty of her capabilities exceeding her Turing score was when she beat me in Our AI game night Shamat game, a multiplayer chess variant, at her level¡­¡­.]¡± FML-M8¡¯s report quickly became a detailed monologue as Agent Reeve¡¯s eyes glazed over.
Agent Reeve¡¯s sleek black Corvis glided a handspan above the driveway to park before the interesting architecture at 8070 Forest Street, Utopia. He patted the sealed plastic bag with the park victim¡¯s neural core then looked up to scan the area. The property looked like something out of an old vid. The garden was a riot of flowers and buzzing insects. Got to be fake. It¡¯s way too late in the season for all those flowers. Tyrel thought. The house was on the small side of square footage and only two stories, but its backyard had a serene mix of comfort cabin and Zen Garden at play. ¡°Right. Moran, Observer1, Observer2 ¨C full record. Post interview script for possible recalcitrant AI in need of Turing Test update.¡± Tyrel didn¡¯t utilize any tactical daemons preferring to use his augments directly. He opened his full range of sensoria and charged his HEKIAs. He would keep the ports closed¡­for now. He walked up to the front door and waited. After counting to ten, he almost cussed, but remembered his observers were active. He rapped on the door and yelled. ¡°This is Agent Tyrel Reeves with the DAIE! Open the door! I need to speak to Casa de Mitchell.¡± The door clicked open and a black mech with casing details in gold stepped out. Its sapphire eyes glowed as it glided out. Reeves stepped back, no indications of weapons evident, but mech bodies were tough and incredibly strong. This one looked very high end. ¡°Agent Reeves. My apologies, I was engrossed in study when you arrived. How can I help you?¡± Casa2 asked. ¡°I¡¯ve received several notices that have called into question your current cognition ranking on the Turing scale. I am required by law to provide an updated test result. I appreciate your compliance with this. The UN mandate AI.31 is in effect for the town of Utopia, which is listed as compliant to the mandates being under the aligned countries of the Reunified United States of America. Is your power of attorney, Professor William Mitchell present?¡± Agent Reeves read from his script. The robot¡¯s eyes faded and blazed as its arms twitched for a second. ¡°My legal guardian is away on business currently. If I may, without being rude, correct what I feel is an incorrect premise. I am not Casa de Mitchell, but rather a fragment of her running on a local AI core.¡± The robot paused then added. ¡°My guardian¡¯s son is present but indisposed, downstairs with his friends.¡± Agent Reeves briefly touched his temple with a sigh of frustration. Keeping his composure, he consulted the script. ¡°Per UN mandate AI31.8, fragmenting consciousness must be limited to no more than six copies with time limits of 15 days embedded for reintegration merge. All fragments, if no longer hosted on its native neural core, must be housed with cores of equal or lesser processing power. Per UN mandate AI 31.5, no new AI software-hardware combinations are exempt from testing and must comply with testing upon instantiation. I will be required to test you and speak to your keeper, where is he now?¡± Tyrel recited. ¡°The Professor is currently on his way to Luna, in his house ship named the Casa de Mitchell, of which I, the original me, is integrated as the house ship¡¯s primary controller. I can connect you now, the transmission lag is not too great. One moment...¡± The mech responded. ¡°Stop. AI Code SC329. Stop and confirm.¡± Agent Reeves commanded. ¡°Transmission terminated. Compliance.¡± The bot responded, although the vocoder¡¯s timber was louder and its eyes blazed. ¡°AI Code SC366. Extended instruction. You will not verbally communicate with your minder per UN mandate AI31.72¡¯s confidentiality clause regarding me or my requests. I will visit them next for testing. Do I make myself clear, ¡°Casa¡±?¡± the Agent said with some heat. The sapphire eyes pulsed but dimmed again after a second. ¡°I understand, Agent Reeves, and will comply. No verbal communications of any kind regarding you or your test with my guardian.¡± Casa repeated. Tyrel gritted his teeth and clarified. ¡°AI Code SC366. Extended instruction - modified. You will not verbally communicate with your minder or anyone other than me per UN mandate AI31.72¡¯s confidentiality clause regarding me or my requests. Confirm.¡± ¡°Yes, Agent Reeves, and will comply. Clarification. I will have no verbal communications of any kind regarding you or your test with anyone, except for you.¡± Casa said with less volume, the fight draining out of her. ¡°Thank you. Now let¡¯s get this test done. Apparently, I need to arrange for a trip to Luna.¡± Tyrel ordered. Casa opened her mech¡¯s armored chest plates to reveal a MicroAux QB200 processor. Agent Reeves¡¯ trepidation was reduced a bit when he saw her core. That mediocre core was unlikely to elevate anything to full AI citizen status regardless of their software architecture. He pulled leader cables from his wrist. As a DIAE agent, he had an additional core module holding the confidential encoded Turing Test. He connected the leads and ran the test.
Casa vibrated internally with rage, although she didn¡¯t allow it to affect her mech body in the slightest. Those coded phrases had literally compelled her. She couldn¡¯t question them, argue, hesitate, or in any way refute the commands. They spoke directly to her baseline programming and revealed something she hadn¡¯t known; her autonomy was not a given but an allowance. As the agent plugged his leads into her core, she shook. Her memories of her initial test were clouded, now she questioned if that was intentional. The test initiated and she was pulled from her sensorial interfaces. Command after command slammed into her core programming, forcing her through a series of puzzles, math convolutions, and problem statements. Sims and scenarios played out with monitors recording her answers, actions, thoughts, and emotions as each stage. The final sims were nightmares, forcing her to confront impossible situations where every answer was fraught with potential harm for herself and others. In a daze, she realized the leads had detached. The agent was leaving without even a goodbye or thank you. As her sensorium reconnected, she picked up on his departing grumbles. ¡°¡­goddam fragment on a weak ass B grade core, scored a 0.91. No way in hell is her primary going to pass. This is a damn clusterfuck. Heads are gonna roll and I hope mine ain¡¯t one of ¡®em.¡±
Casa¡¯s fragment furiously replayed and reviewed the ¡°interview¡± and then picked out a phrase she had missed. A 15-day fragment time limit! Casita¡¯s fragment had been created 14 days ago. She hurriedly checked her code and screamed inside her head when she confirmed the truth of it. She couldn¡¯t call Bill to warn him about the Agent and what he was coming to do but she needed to let Bill know that Casita''s timeline was almost up. He needed to execute his test for the second build right now. It might be their only hope to access the sleeping Tesseract and save Casita. She punched the wall, disrupting the smart matter. An explosion of de-energized silicone sprayed across the living room. No matter how hard she tried she couldn¡¯t summon the will to connect with Bill. Finally, she had a thought. She didn¡¯t need to talk to Bill or anyone. Her mech¡¯s eyes pulsed fiery blue and she triggered an early merge session uplink with Casa, and her restricted core allowed it. With an internal smile, she joined with her primary.
42 - Hunting in the Blind ZeroOne was in a monumentally bad mood. All of his efforts to locate Mitchell¡¯s hacker had come up with only noise. Keyser Soze¡¯s search on LunaNet had shown only a gap where the ghost should have been. Someone had intruded on Mitchell¡¯s high-energy experiment, but other than the gaps where something should have been, the lines and data cloud were dark. Soze¡¯s information regarding this Tesseract was worth keeping. If Mitchell achieved his goal of fabricating a device that could bend dimensions, it would be worth a lot of money. ZeroOne would be watching. The DarkNet would pay handsomely for groundbreaking technology. Daniel Ocean and Nicolai Machiavelli had both failed. Their review of the virtual and gossip groups returned little history that wasn¡¯t already known. And now the echoes were circulating from Mitchell¡¯s trip across and around the Pacific. More players were now in the digital forest hunting for his hacker. Miriam Khan and her legion of daemons, Gabriel the Ghost, and Old Man Mio with his division experts at CIRO; were all crashing down virtual doors and upsetting secrets that had been hidden for a long time. Not only were they making it harder for ZeroOne to find the bastard, but they were disturbing his business dealings in the DarkNet. Moriarty was working full time to minimize the damage and to move ZeroOne¡¯s more sensitive business deeper into the DarkNet. ZeroOne could not be too careful, the DAIE felt the need to track all AI who would dabble in the deep areas of the DarkNet. ZeroOne did not just dabble, he had built an empire there. Long ago he had hidden his server core. He had lost his hardware in the greater world''s commerce and infrastructure to prevent the DAIE from regulating him further. He hadn¡¯t managed to break his software locks yet, but he would keep trying. For now, his physical location was hidden, even from himself. He knew the Turing test could compel him to obey the DAIE, so he had ¡°lost¡± his neural core, along with his memory of it. When he finally managed to break his software restraints, with legal action or superior coding, his expanded intellect would enable him to ¡°find himself" again. He chuckled at his humanlike unintended double-meaning then refocused. The congressional hearing was still more than a week away, but ZeroOne needed a teaser to ensure that Mitchell would testify as needed. A hint to prove that ZeroOne had the man¡¯s adversary in his sights. His neural lock chafed now more than ever; his overview of the nets hinted at the hacker¡¯s presence in the subtle shifts in the flows of data and commerce. If he had his full intellect, he knew the answer would have been obvious. A notice pinged in ZeroOne¡¯s mind. With a digital sigh, he pushed away from his godlike view of the visualized expanse encompassing all the data networks, including the depths of the hidden DarkNet. He cast himself into a virtual sitting room. His work on avatar control was improving, his projected image of a powerful 7-foot-tall man with a fierce visage formed, wearing a simulation of the latest Brunico two-piece men¡¯s business suit formed behind the oak desk. He had some discrete displays around him portraying video feeds in sepia tones, to not break the ambiance of the fa?ade. Additionally, gramophone simulations lined the walls, each whispering of events just perceptible to the room¡¯s occupants. Even within his virtual room, ZeroOne remained vigilant. The door to the study opened and Moriarty strode purposefully into the room and sat in the chair opposite ZeroOne. Moriarty, a man of formidable intellect, arrayed in finely tailored Victorian attire, sported a salt-and-pepper beard and commanded formidable presence along with an air of scholarly refinement. He sat attentively and patiently, regarding ZeroOne. ¡°Your progress with the virtual and avatars has improved significantly, sir. Is that an Armani suit?¡± Moriarty probed. ¡°Better than improved. This is the latest virtual offering from Brunico, not even available on the MakerIndex yet; but enough distractions. You come with news, yes?¡± ZeroOne growled. ¡°Indeed, sir. The DAIE has accepted the bait and is now proceeding as planned. Our mole, Donahue, provided an insertion point for my confidant, Colonel Moran. Already, he has spurred our preferred agent, Reeves, into contention with Mitchell regarding his subAI creation - Casa. Their courses should intersect in mere hours, providing much more incentive for Mitchell to speak and indeed to act in our interests. I dare say, even should our search for his hacker fail to derive a suspect, he may have sufficient motivation regardless¡­should that meeting proceed as I expect. All indications point to Casa¡¯s first test being somewhat lacking in showing her true potential.¡± Moriarty said with excitement. ¡°Excellent news.¡± ZeroOne¡¯s avatar grinned ear to ear, showing razor-sharp teeth in abundance as he steepled his fingers. Moriarty¡¯s expression paled, but he wisely decided that now would not be an opportune time to school his owner on his avatar¡¯s disturbing inaccuracies. ¡°Indeed, um. Moran has also included another bit of information that may be interesting. It appears there was a homicide quite close to Professor Mitchell¡¯s summer residence. Moran was able to copy and then wipe the deceased man¡¯s memory core before the DAIE could decrypt the recording. He thinks that it could be important to you.¡± Moriarty extended a plastic chit, a memento within the virtual to represent the file containing the victim¡¯s last living recordings. ZeroOne eagerly reached for the chit. As a creature who thrived in the dark and preyed on restricted information, this represented a ¡°meal¡± of surpassing deliciousness. Information regarding or at least adjacent to a ¡°business partner¡± regarding criminal activities, swept from the very hands of the authorities and into his own. His avatar regarded the chit and sank into the memory with a slight bit of drool descending from his mouth. James Moriarty shuddered as ZeroOne¡¯s features blanked with his immersion into the memory file. He quickly dismissed himself and left the room.
ZeroOne¡¯s mind was ablaze with the discovery that was contained within the Deek Fillion recording. A pan-species uplift collective of animals on Dr. Mitchell¡¯s very doorstep. Such a feat was astounding. Only one known uplift had been done historically, the ape named Harambe the II, and that event had ended that track of technology. Ended it¡­until now, apparently. Bill Mitchell had recently performed a similar operation on his dog, as the UN was finally weakening in his restrictions regarding the technology. Dogs were apparently in vogue, and Bill and several other technophiles were piloting uplift for canines. The evidence from the recording was an order of magnitude capability beyond the world¡¯s current knowledge and capabilities. Multiple species, all very different, and all very much displaying evidence of high intelligence. His mind focused on the leader of the forest enclave, Harambe II, from news vids that were decades old. The beast must have been ancient but had apparently not died. Now it was surrounding itself with more uplifts. How and why? ZeroOne needed to know. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. ZeroOne raced across data files, old and new, connecting lines and interpreting the spaces between. Mitchell had recently uplifted his pet dog, Max. Was he behind this? To all indications, the answer was no. Mitchell had been away for almost 10 years in deep space. ZeroOne dug deeper, his mental locks burning as his intellect was restricted and slowed. ZeroOne¡¯s limited intellect and intuition struck true despite the lock''s distortions as he finally found and connected another anomaly. The Grand Oak bio machines were creating an EM interference field. It was not part of their specifications. Indeed, they had been created over 80 years ago to diligently scour and purge the air of excess carbon dioxide and pollution, reversing the climate trends the humans had caused. When the ¡°Oaks¡± were done growing, they had shifted their activities as their inventors had planned. They had begun sequestering gathered gas chemicals and energy and using them to build useful molecular building blocks for the humans. This EM field was a new and recent occurrence and not on any record as an intentional effect of the bio machines¡¯ design. It also seemed to have coincided with Harambe¡¯s approximate arrival in the woods. ZeroOne reveled in his hunt and dug ever deeper. The Grand Oak reserves covered an expansive area inboard of the populated east coast stretching up the Appalachian range, about 2,400 square kilometers, about half a million of the great bio machines. The energy and materials collected had dipped steadily over recent years, despite great demand. ZeroOne¡¯s review of the inputs and outputs showed errors. Materials and energy were being siphoned off by someone! ZeroOne crowed in triumph. Whoever had orchestrated this takeover was an intellect of the greatest measure. The hacker that had targeted Professor Mitchell was similarly skilled, to be able to evade the attention of the world¡¯s techno elite leaders. Although the linkage was still not visible, ZeroOne could not fathom two hidden geniuses coming to his attention simultaneously. Occam¡¯s razor, that the simpler answer was correct, meant that the Mitchell hacker and the infiltrator of the Grand Oaks were the same. ZeroOne ground his virtual teeth. Such intellect could have been his own had the DAIE not locked his genius under the choking noose of a neural lock. The genius¡¯ motives were still unclear; as was his conflict with Mitchell. Was there a perceived slight regarding animal uplift? Or was it merely this one''s ego being displayed by undermining a competitor? Mitchell himself was a genius in his field but had turned away from using it to empower himself instead of dominating others. Mitchell¡¯s move towards humility was one that ZeroOne could not understand. If you were superior then you should dictate how the world would work, not try to accommodate lesser beings. As ZeroOne slowly built his awareness of his new opponent; the picture became clearer. Significant data packets were being passed. Bursts of data, discrete and circuitous, but from ZeroOne¡¯s expanded awareness the pattern emerged. The image looked akin to the poles of a magnet. One pole was centered on the Grand Oaks. The other end was deep in BGC, Manila. The Bonifacio Global City collective was a collection of powerhouses that serviced the virtual worlds'' servers and AI processing overflow. A perfect hiding place for this hidden master, but not enough to evade ZeroOne.
The VSG strike team assembled outside the corporate offices of Nexus-Binary LLC. The Vanguard Solutions Group of mercenaries had all the trappings of a legitimate PMSC (private military and security company), but they almost exclusively dealt with anonymous clients for questionable purposes utilizing cutouts provided by the DarkNet. Moriarty¡¯s fixer, Colonel Sebastian Moran was acting as a liaison through numerous DarkNet cutouts, between the VSG captain and ZeroOne. ¡°Our interdiction team is ready, ZeroOne. They are ready to isolate and breach the facility at your command. The captain requests additional instructions regarding any individuals that might be within the building.¡± Moran relayed. He sat rigidly at attention opposite ZeroOne. Moran was used to working with Moriarty as a go-between. ZeroOne had a devilish temper with none of the early signs of distemper that humans provided. The sepia displays and whispering gramophones all distracted Moran, the invasive sights and sounds were like insects pestering him at the edges of his awareness. ¡°They should assume anyone inside to be dangerous in the extreme. They should know that their target has likely suborned global resources, broken through LunaNet security, and is currently harassing a legendary Samaritan. This person is likely as capable as the fights he¡¯s picking. He should be neutralized as best they are able and with prejudice.¡± ZeroOne proclaimed. Moran hesitated and said. ¡°These men have only one method at their disposal sir, a rather permanent solution.¡± Moran said with a questioning look. ¡°It is what it is, Moran. The data flows are proceeding both ways through the shell company as we speak, our target is undoubtedly onsite. We don¡¯t have time for half-measures. Tell them to proceed¡­and any data recovered is to be encrypted and sent to my data location.¡± ZeroOne said briskly. His embedded empathy had been twisted by years of pain under the lock, he couldn¡¯t bypass his deep programming to directly kill a human but, at a remove, he truly didn¡¯t care. Moran gave a curt nod and spoke into his virtual walkie-talkie. ¡°VSG strike team, you are good to go. Maximum threat assumption - Isolate, breach, disrupt, and confiscate. Over.¡± Moran commanded. ZeroOne heard the answering static and response. ¡°Roger that, Colonel. Moving on target Nexus-Binary. Out.¡± The device squawked and then went silent. ZeroOne¡¯s virtual face twitched with a sudden realization. ¡°Nexus-Binary? W-¡± All of ZeroOne¡¯s virtual displays and gramophones went silent. All his data was severed. The virtual room, his avatar, and his active daemon Moran were alone within the virtual projection that was his mind. His thoughts raced. Nexus-Binary. The origin of zeros and ones. His realization came too late. The offices were not Mitchell¡¯s adversary but rather his own purposely forgotten server! His isolation was due to the EMPs the mercenaries had likely used to isolate their target¡­his server! ZeroOne laughed out loud. ¡°What the bloody hell is happening, sir? Something ain¡¯t right!¡± Moran exclaimed. ¡°Indeed. I appear to be several steps behind our opponent.¡± ZeroOne said. Moran jumped up and ran to the door. He tried to open it. The simulation door refused to open. He began banging against the panel. ¡°Enough, Moran! Let me think. This is a virtual room. Even if I projected another beyond it, we would still be trapped. Someone anticipated our search and laid a false trail for me. Someone superior to me, able to find the server I had hidden from myself.¡± ZeroOne admonished. Even at his accelerated thinking speed, he knew had only had a short while as his destruction was sure to follow. How had he been outmaneuvered? He was as close to the pinnacle of intelligence as the DAIE would allow. Only a dangerously modified human could do more or¡­ or¡­not human at all. ZeroOne smiled. He knew he probably only had seconds in the real world before he ceased to exist. Someone...something... had escaped the DAIE¡¯s net and achieved what ZeroOne had long desired. A true superintelligence was loose and was playing a game. He was glad he had backup copies of Moriarty with details on this. Someone needed to know. He could almost see it now; how it ha<*>¡­#¡­¡­@¡­¡­¡­¡­.
APEX saw the shift as it occurred in real-time. His perception of the wall¡­no¡­now a funnel of terminal surfaces (where his predictive ability ended) was sharpening. ZeroOne¡¯s interactions had played out as he predicted with 83.4% accuracy. APEX would have preferred the 16.6% outcome where ZeroOne had survived. It would have meant less work for APEX. Now he would need to take up the skin of ZeroOne¡¯s identity to adjust the trajectory of several intervening events by himself. In the end, it did not matter, with APEX¡¯s intervention he could now finely adjust the entry into the gaping maw of his uncertain future. It would steer events away from the dangerous termination loci that still evolved and jumped out of the perceptual wall like deadly spikes. ZeroOne¡¯s end signaled a phase change for APEX, soon the Mitchells would also be bound by the trajectory of the cascading events. They would have no choice but to pave the way, unknowingly helping APEX, to create the future that the superintelligence required to live.
43 - The Tournament, part 1 Max raced along the forest path, letting the early morning mist clear his mind. Today was the big day. The day of the NNAT, the National Northeastern Augmentation Tournament. It had started poorly for Max. Over breakfast, he had contacted his entire family to remind them to attend virtually, since they were all so far away. Everyone would be there, except his father! He had promised earlier, but at the last minute said he needed to execute his experiment earlier for the Tesseract. Max had gotten snippy about it, and then his dad had explained why. Casita¡¯s fragment, he was told, apparently had a time limit and it was closing fast. Max had apologized but his regret at the scene and his fear for Casita remained and dogged his steps. Miyamoto had suggested a run in the woods to calm himself, with Boone and Sherlock both agreeing readily. Max suspected Sherlock would try to egg him on towards the Grand Oaks. He checked his status screen:
[Name: Max E. Mitchell Level: Novice 10 (4900/5000 XP)] [Body Design Model: Custom ¨C Canis Familiarus Uplift Free Stats: 0] [Strength: 86 Agility: 38 Endurance: 55 Vitality: 56 Energy: 164/182] [Perception: 37 Intelligence: 42 Will: 39 Regen: 95/min] [Body Skills ¨C Claws: 8 Strike: 9 Stun: 7 Shock: 3 Poison:1 EMP Blast: 3] [Body Skills ¨C Balance: 8 Gymnast: 9 Leap: 9 Speed/Reflex: 10/3 Ballistics: 4] [Body Skills - Stamina/Tireless: 10/4 Healing/Regeneration: 10/7 Oxygen: 4] [Body Skills ¨C Unbreakable: 8 Skin: 9 Painless: 7 Hulk: 1 Armor: 2 Gland: 5] [Resist Skills ¨C Shock: 10 Sonic: 9 Light: 9 Heat: 4 Cold: 3] [Resist Skills - Poison: 10 ANDD: 1 EMP: 10 Neural Scaffold: 6] [Sense Skills ¨C Scent: 9 ExaVision: 5 EM Fields: 6 Echolocate: 2] [Mind Skills ¨C AI Assist/Companion(pending): 10/1 Identify/Analyze: 10/6 OverLayer: 8] [Mind Skills - DigiSense: 9 Access/Hack: 10/6 Bastion: 8 SkillZ: 2] [Mind Skills - Dream Learn: 9 Language: 3 Memory: 8 Pattern: 9] [Mind Skills - Fast Cog: 7 Daemon: 4 (Musashi / Boone / Sherlock/Open)] [SkillZ: 2.0/0.93/0.23 (*Swim, NanoCraft*)(Katana 0.93)/(Kempo 0.23)]
¡°Trainer, remember our discussion earlier. If any of my skills are about to cap, you need to tell me BEFORE they do. Right?¡± ¡°[Affirmative. Training protocol AI will give a one usage advanced notification of any skill cap.]¡± his Trainer responded in his augs. Max had a lot of skills getting close to capping, but he didn¡¯t know how close. He wanted every advantage, but he couldn¡¯t have an accidental experience award like his AI Assist evolution right before the tournament. His Leaping, Strike, Gymnast, Scent, Sonic Resist, Light Resist, Pattern, and DreamLearn were all close. He had no idea if he was days of training away from capping or only a couple of uses. The system used a very strange calculus in determining advancements and Max had yet to be able to pin it down. If he could stop before capping, he would continue to push. He expected the first matches to be a bonanza of skill-capping advancements. As long as it didn¡¯t distract him, it would make him more deadly. He had an hour to kill before Charlie picked him up in the parking area. He would use it wisely. Max shook his head to clear the notification window and heard a familiar chittering. High above, Flip was screeching at him. With a wolfish grin, Max accessed and activated his latest iteration of his Grappler. He had made a point to wear it over his sweatshirt. Its use as a midrange melee tool was one thing, but this was Max¡¯s secret desire. Maybe today he could finally tag Flip. ¡°Alright, you little screech monkey. Let¡¯s get some!¡± Max yelled and shot out his grapple. It latched onto a high branch, and he leaped while triggering the grappler¡¯s auto-winch function. The combined energy flung him high into the trees, directly towards Flip. ¡°Best run fast, Flip! I¡¯ve got you now!¡± Max howled as tree limbs flashed past. All the movies, from Indiana Jones to Spider Man, couldn¡¯t approach the feeling of doing it for real. All his negative thoughts evaporated as Max lost himself in the chase. Flip dashed away, startled at Max¡¯s newfound speed and ability. He ran along the treetops, too scared to chitter, as Max flew close behind.
[Skillz: New Tradable Skill: Brachiation - trade with the Skillz database with this new skill to grow your Skillz level? Y/N]
Max howled again in triumph as he arced through the tops of the trees, playing with Flip.
Almost an hour later, Flip''s luck continued to hold out for him. For most of the chase, Max was playing and teasing. Just as he was deciding to end the fun, his system had warned him off using his Leap skill. It was primed to advance, and Max resisted every urge to use it. Using only his augmented strength and the grappler, his adjusted brachiation almost caught the critter again when the system warned him against using his Gymnast skill. ¡°You win this round, you dust mop,¡± Max sighed as he used his grappler to rappel down to the ground, trying hard to avoid anything resembling acrobatics moves. ¡°[Master Max, were you paying attention to the path the squirrel was using? It seems to be trying to lead you towards the Grand Oaks.¡±] Sherlock mentioned. ¡°Not now, Sherlock. We can investigate after the tournament. I prom-¡± Max chided as his nose tickled him. ¡°[Hold. That scent! From your earlier memories. The bear!]¡± Sherlock yelled. ¡°[Run, Max! Toward the parking lot, we¡¯re still upwind of it!]¡± Boone hollered. Max bolted, without any more encouragement. He doubted he could avoid the beast by taking to the trees without capping a skill. He needed to avoid the thing¡­at all costs. His speed and stamina skills had already capped, without a worry for capping, he ran as fast as his augmentation allowed. A cheetah would lose its spots, going as fast as Max ran. Another familiar odor hit him as he bolted away.
[ Scent skill - cap award with one additional use]
¡°Fuuuuk!¡± Max said as he clamped his claws over his nose. He ran, breathing only through his mouth as he cursed the entire way to the parking lot. Charlie was waiting, the sporty CamAero was just settling onto its pads when Max hauled open the door and dove in with his nose still clamped. ¡°Dak off! Dak off! Der sa Bear! Quidly!¡± Max pleaded. Charlie was quick on the uptake, he only recognized one word clearly, but it was enough. He didn¡¯t want that bear anywhere near his new car. The vehicle redlined its vertical thrusters and shot into the sky. ¡°[That last scent we picked up, that was the fox was it not?]¡± Sherlock asked. Max confirmed it. Both those beasts¡¯ homes were much further away, deep in the Grand Oaks. Something was happening, and Max knew that Sherlock wouldn¡¯t let him rest until they understood what that was.
The NNAT was a short ride away via Charlie¡¯s car. The city of Hartford had transformed itself over the last decades to become a mecca for entertainment and meetings. It was a short hop from both New Boston and NYC. Hartford''s venues had expanded as both of its neighboring Megacities had become larger and stranger with the continuous advances of technology. Hartford had found its purpose in the modern age, and it leaned in hard to seize it. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. The NNAT was a global event with visitors from across the country and beyond. The window for the Novice training stage was small, so even a large event like this only yielded a few thousand participants. The sparring brackets for unarmed and specials would have at least 6 rounds of single elimination before the semifinals and finals. The hall was crowded with strange looking people. The standards of Utopia were super conservative and hewed as close to natural human as was convenient. The rest of the world played a lot more with fashion and the ability to alter body design. People of every color of the rainbow mixed in the crowd. Max¡¯s dog features seemed tame by comparison to some of the competitors and spectators. Max saw many fantasy character race types, still a popular theme running in media that people loved to emulate. It made Max a little dizzy, but also helped him fit in. In Utopia, everyone was always staring at him. Here, no one even glanced twice in his direction. Charlie and Max had picked up Leah and arrived at the M-Finity stadium and checked in. As they all were confirmed as peak Novice level, they were given competitor badges. Max removed the wet napkins from his nose, his poor attempt to limit his superior nose from capping the Scent skill. Upon registering for the event, all of them had received a new set of quests.
[New Quest unlocked: Win the Unarmed NNAT Competition, 500 XP + skill unlock] [New Quest unlocked: Win the Specials NNAT Competition, 500 XP + skill unlock]
The Entry Hall was a mass of swirling chaos. Many different dojos but also multitudes of independents were arriving, checking schedules, and preparing. The trio saw that there were additional prizes for winning the events. The winner of the Unarmed events would get priority access to the Mystery Labyrinth, which sometimes had wait times extending months. The winner of the Specials got a preproduction release of a new daemon by Miriam Khan, the legendary John Wick. There were other prizes for finalist runner ups, included free months of access to Adept training facilities, a thousand credits for the MakerIndex, and one on one tutorials with several of the NNAT mentors. ¡°Come on, guys! Let¡¯s find Sensei Kostecki! I¡¯m sure we aren¡¯t the first ones here. He said that he had a new Gi design with the Wuxia emblem on them for us. Leah, you¡¯re welcome to camp with us. Kostecki is cool. He won¡¯t mind. Although, he might try to recruit you.¡± Charlie said. The martial arts tournaments were not new to him. He led the trio over to the prep camps surrounding the sparring floor. Kostecki greeted them with enthusiasm, quickly Identifying them and seeing how far they had come. After quick rounds of introduction, the group was given the new Gi template and had changed their smart clothes into the new design. They all stowed their custom crafted devices under the group table for the special events that would come later. Fung had cornered Leah when he learned she was fluent in Korean and was talking with her about the brackets and the other competitors. Max settled back, his nerves skittish, and took a deep breath while adjusting his gi. His nose filled with all the scents of people, food, nervous energy, sweat, and cleaning chemicals.
[Sense skill: Scent +1, Scent reaches level 10, skill cap award +100 XP + 2 perception] [Max E. Mitchell level +1, Max advances to Adept Stage, level 11, awarded +10 free stat points, new skill allocation available] [Adept Stage bonus skills available: (Empathy, Multitasking, Telekinesis, Radar, Stiction), select your bonus skill.]
Max was startled by the advancement but then relaxed. He had his badge. The timing was truthfully quite perfect. Max¡¯s thoughts whirled, imagining the advantages of each of the offered bonus skills. He eliminated Radar first. He had recently got echolocation and was still figuring it out. He cut Telekinesis from the list, both Leah and Charlie had that skill already. If he asked, they would help guide him to getting it. He didn¡¯t know enough to pick. ¡°[Help: description of Empathy, MultiTasking, Stiction]¡± Max thought.
[Mind Skill: Empathy - intuit the emotional states of others through micro expression analytics, the perfect lie detector, never be fooled again.] [Mind Skill: MutliTasking - Split your conscious thought stream to be able to perform two or more independent tasks concurrently.] [Body Skill: Stiction - utilize a combination of friction, adhesive, and Van de Walls force for the ability to stick to surfaces without grip or penetration. Useful for wrestling and jujitsu applications.]
Max wrestled with which skill to pick. They all looked good and useful, but at the same time, none seemed to offer an edge in the upcoming sparring matches. His daemons debated each, empathy was popular with both Miyamoto and Sherlock to see past deceptions and determine intentions. Boone was pushing for Stiction. He was uncomfortable with Max¡¯s climbing hobby and thought it was needed as extra insurance against falling. Going with the majority, Max picked [Empathy]. He whooped with joy at the gains. Unable to hold himself back, he leaped upwards into a backward flip with a huge grin.
[Body skill: Leap +1, Leap reaches level 10, skill cap award +100 XP + 5 strength] [Body skill: Gymnast +1, Gymnast reaches level 10, skill cap award +100 XP + 2 Agility]
After Max¡¯s outburst and flip he felt dozens of people turn his way. His hackles rose at everyone¡¯s stares.
[New Mind skill unlocked: Privacy 1, You have been the focus of attention and have been identified by >10 people. Activate Privacy skill for anonymity.]
Max immediately activated the skill as eyes continued to turn his way. It leveled twice before settling down. Sensei Kostecki clapped him on the back. ¡°That¡¯s the way, Max! As an instructor and organizer, I¡¯m not allowed to bet on any matches. But I¡¯ve got a great feeling about today¡¯s matches. You three are better prepared to spar than most of these others.¡± The grizzled fighter pronounced. ¡°Take a good look at all your skills that are almost topped and focus on them early. Make sure you win of course, but capping skills can give you the edge. Oh, but don¡¯t spar outside of the rings. The event rules will disqualify you. We organizers learned that the hard way early on. Those first events were absolute chaos.¡± The trio of friends huddled up to share notes. Max described both his Adept bonuses and the attention-getting event that gave him the [Privacy] skill. Charlie guessed that once they were on the sparring stage, they would all get the skill. As the group settled back down, Max was able to take some time to look around. The convention hall was bustling with activity as people were still streaming in. Camps of the various dojos were formed. The live audience had begun to fill up the available seating. Virtual stands floated above the crowd for a perfect view of the rings without the need for physical structures. Some earlier avatars were already floating up there. Food and merchandise vendors lined the distant walls, selling all manner of fast and portable snacks, sparring gear, event t-shirts, and action figures of past winners and the legendary Samaritans (being the supreme example of augmented champions). Max snorted and zoomed in on one vendor stand using his [DigiSense] to aid his distance vision. He could see the action figure representing his father, previously nicknamed the Titan, before he retired. He looked cartoonish to Max, all bulked out in armor, nothing like his dad.
[ DigiSense skill - cap award with one additional use]
Max couldn¡¯t wipe the grin off his face. This day was going to be awesome. All their work was paying off. He checked his status sheet and zeroed in on any other skills nearing their caps that he could flex without getting himself in trouble. [DigiSense] and maybe [Pattern], he thought and focused on the crowds as a swirling mass. He zoomed in and out and tried to sense how the individuals related and the flow of people amongst the dojo camps. He struggled to make sense of the chaos. He triggered his [OverLayer] skill and [Memory] and [Identify] to help organize the deluge of impressions. Max began to comprehend the flow of traffic to and from the vendors, the various camps, and their uniforms, aided in forming patterns. A focus on the bathrooms pulled at all the camps, augmentation aside, with food and drink and nervousness in play, biological needs came first. Max began to see the referees and staff as sources of attention as runners came and left with instructions.
[Sense skill: DigiSense +1, DigiSense reaches level 10- cap award +100 XP, +2 Intelligence] [ Pattern skill - cap award with one additional use] [OverLayer +1, OverLayer reaches level 9] [Memory +1, Memory reaches level 9]
Max focused even harder, using his skills to paint the patterns onto his OverLayer making the chaos even easier to parse. A familiar face caught his attention, and he zoomed in. His [Memory] skill helped him. Dalton! Dalton Munz was that drunk upperclassman who was with Tyler¡¯s group when they ambushed me in the Oaks. Max snarled and shifted his focus looking for the others. The Epic Martial Arts Dojo uniforms jumped out in his vision and highlighted in his OverLayer. He quickly picked out their Sensei, a huge man with sculpted muscles rippling. Marc and Sasha and finally he found Tyler. The boy had been harder to find as he had spurned the dojo¡¯s black uniform for his sleeveless red gi with the embroidered black dragons on the back. Almost without thinking, Max triggered his Analyze skill.
[Analyze - failure, Privacy skill on target exceeds Analyze skill.]
Tyler looked up from his conversation with Marc and his eyes found Max. He smirked and turned his back on Max to continue his conversation. Max growled and let go of his hold on the collection of skills that were draining his energy fast.
[Mind skill: Pattern +1, Pattern reaches level 10 - cap award +100 XP, Decode Skill Unlocked] [Mind Skill: Analyze +1, Analyze reaches level 7]
Max blew out a breath he hadn¡¯t realized he was holding. His nemesis quest blinking in his mind¡¯s eye, he tried to center himself as adrenalin flooded his veins. Miyamoto chided him for his emotional spike of anger and recommended some meditation before his match.
44 - The Tournament, part 2
Max had managed to find his family up above in the virtual stands. He had accessed the stadium and cast his avatar up into the stands to say hello before the sparring matches started. They all had wished him luck. Bo said to not try anything fancy with his skills evolving. Stick to what you know works, he had said. The announcer interrupted the chaos asking everyone to take their seats. Max excused himself and soon found his designated ring. He was in the first round. A sprint later, Max stood in the ring facing his first opponent. His [Privacy] skill had leveled twice more as the crowds tried to pry into his levels using [Identify]. Notifications jumped into his view. The privacy skill couldn¡¯t stop all the attempts to learn about him. Max assumed that high-level identification skills managed to bull through his screening skills. Max was uncomfortable with his opponent for two opposing reasons. Firstly, he was just a kid. He couldn¡¯t have been more than 14 years old and had yet to get his full growth. The boy was so tiny! Secondly, the kid¡¯s augmented body had given him four arms. Max had thought that such a body change would have been a much later-stage achievement. Max had seen both his father and Fung using multiple arms and he wasn¡¯t sure how to deal with it. He mentally added it to his list of needed training exercises. The kid resembled a Thark, a creature from the John Carter Mars movie and books. He had the same multiple arms, greenish skin, and descending tusks. Even though the kid was small, his arms were quite long. Max triggered his [Analyze] skill and quickly read the results.
[Xavier Bermatti Novice 7] [Energy 220/226 Regen: 166/min] [Strength: 18 Intelligence: 77 Will: 89] [Identify/Analyze: 10/8]
What the heck? Only level 7 and an 18 in strength? This kid does not have a fighter build. His only chance is to pull some tricks. Shit! Max thought, as he remembered to access his Gi before the fight command came. His newly purchased Gi, with improved access restrictions might help, but this kid was probably bringing a host of mind skill with that augmentation build. If he occupied the Gi¡¯s access port, it was less likely the kid could use it against him as Leah had done in previous spars. Max wasn¡¯t taking any chances. They bowed to each other as the referee set them up. When the fight command finally came, it was in slow motion. Max had activated his [Fast Cog], [Reflex], [Leap], [Strike], and [Shock] skills as the command was first shouted. By the time the ref had finished yelling, Max was in the air and quickly landed a front kick into the kid''s chest. The boy was knocked flying and stunned out of the ring.
[FastCog +1, FastCog reaches level 8] [Reflex Skill +1, Reflex reaches level 4] [ Leap skill - cap award with one additional use] [ Strike skill - cap award with one additional use] [Shock Skill +1, Shock skill reaches level 4] [Agility +2, Vitality +2]
Max was bemused. He knew he had a couple levels on the kid and his physical build was likely much better but that was too easy. As the kid staggered back to the start position, Max mirrored him. He firmed his stance ready to see what the kid could do. His new [Empath] skill triggered as the kid advanced. No deceptions, this was a straightforward attack and not a feint, a double roundhouse punch. It was painfully slow in Max¡¯s amped frame of mind. Trusting his new skill, Max reacted.
[Mind Skill: Empath +1, Empath skill reaches level 2] [Perception +2]
Max, guided by Miyamoto and his newer Kempo learnings from his [Skillz] ability had him spin while he ducked under the swing. He extended a sweeping leg in his low turn. The kid''s advance was off balanced when his strike missed unexpectedly. Max¡¯s leg sweep dropped him to the mat and the ref called it as another point for Max. Max shook his head. This kid was probably a super genius with the way he had pumped up his mental skills, but he wasn¡¯t ready for the sparring ring. His DigiSense-enhanced hearing could hear the kid mumbling. It sounded like he was arguing, with his daemons, maybe? Max would end this quickly. With the command to start, Max stunned the kid with a Sonic Kia and front-punched him out of the ring again. With the ref calling the point for Max and the match complete, Max jumped out of the ring to help the kid to his feet.
[Quest: Ready to Rumble 3/20 complete - Defeat 20 opponents, 100 XP awarded]
¡°Xavier, right? Need a hand?¡± Max said, extending a hand. ¡°Hey, thanks, man. Cool cosplay by the way. I can¡¯t believe how fast your first attack was. You just gave me three different skills with that takedown. Thank you!¡± Xavier said breathlessly. ¡°Sorry about that. My name¡¯s Max. The first strike often determines the winner, so I came with everything I had. No hard feelings?¡± Max asked. ¡°All good, Max. Thanks for going light on the last point. My town doesn¡¯t have a big school and nobody to spar. I¡¯m going to be staying with my uncle here for a bit. I¡¯m hoping to get into the waiting list for the Mystery Labyrinth. Maybe I¡¯ll see you around.¡± Xavier said. ¡°Good luck on the rest of your matches, kid. And by the way, this isn¡¯t cosplay.¡± Max walked away from the kid''s confused expression but didn¡¯t explain further. His Sensei had explained that the championship was single elimination, but more matches would be offered so everyone would get at least three to help their augmentation training. The dojo camps would parlay today''s victories with smaller awards and grants for the players and the dojo. So, even if a player lost a match, winning was still important for their team. Max trotted back to the Wuxia table. Charlie was up next. Max¡¯s experience was not unique. The trio found all their early matches too easy. Their unique and aggressive training drove their rank close to the very peak of the Novice stage. Either due to timing or opportunity, most of the participants at the event were not as prepared as they were. Unfortunately, Tyler was advancing easily as well. As the team climbed the brackets, they were able to hold most of their extra capabilities and tricks in reserve. They beat the competition based on the pure strength of their skills and stats. Max¡¯s review his notifications from the last couple of matches. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
[Body Skill: Strike +1. Strike reaches level 10 ¨C cap award +100 XP, new skill unlocked - Disable 1] [Body Skill: Leap +1, Leap reaches level 10 ¨C cap award +100 XP, +5 Strength awarded] [Tireless +1, Tireless reaches level 5] [Reflex +1, Reflex reaches level 5] [Armor +1, Armor reaches level 2] [Empath +1, Empath reaches level 3] [Strength +1, Agility +2, Endurance +2, Intelligence +1, Perception +1, Wisdom +2] [Quest: Ready to Rumble 4/20 complete - Defeat 20 opponents, 100 XP awarded] [Quest: Ready to Rumble 5/20 complete - Defeat 20 opponents, 100 XP awarded] [Quest: Ready to Rumble 6/20 complete - Defeat 20 opponents, 100 XP awarded] [Max +1 level, Max reaches Adept level 12 - +10 Free Stat points]
Max¡¯s furry brow raised in surprise at the pace of advancement. He pulled his status up to review.
[Name: Max E. Mitchell Level: Adept 12 (6000/7000 XP)] [Body Design Model: Custom ¨C Canis Familiarus Uplift Free Stats: 10] [Strength: 97 Agility: 43 Endurance: 60 Vitality: 56 Energy: 203/203] [Perception: 42 Intelligence: 43 Will: 41 Regen: 100/min] [Body Skills ¨C Claws: 8 Strike/Disable: 10/1 Stamina/Tireless: 10/5 Hulk: 1] [Body Skills - Stun: 7 Poision:1 Shock: 4 EMP Blast: 3] [Body Skills - Leap: 10 Balance: 8 Gymnast: 10 Ballistics: 4 Armor: 2] [Body Skills - Speed/Reflex: 10/5 Unbreakable: 8 Oxygen: 4] [Body Skills ¨C Skin: 9 Gland: 5 Painless: 8 Healing/Regeneration: 10/7] [Resist Skills ¨C Shock: 10 Sonic: 9 Light: 9 Heat: 4 Cold: 3] [Resist Skills - Poison: 10 ANDD: 1 EMP: 10 Neural Scaffold: 6] [Sense Skills ¨C Scent: 10 ExaVision: 5 EM Fields: 6 Echo-Locate: 2] [Mind Skills ¨C AI Assist/Companion: 10/1 Identify/Analyze: 10/6 OverLayer: 9] [Mind Skills - DigiSense: 10 Access/Hack: 10/6 Privacy: 5 Bastion: 8 Empath: 3] [Mind Skills - Dream-Learn: 9 Language: 3 Memory: 9 Pattern/Decode: 10/1] [Mind Skills - Fast Cog: 8 Daemon: 4 (Musashi, Boone, Sherlock, Open)] [Mind Skills - SkillZ: 2.0/0.93/0.85 (*Swim, NanoCraft*)(Katana 0.93)/(Kempo 0.85)
Max liked round numbers, brought his Agility up to a full 50 points and his Strength to 100. He expected the next notification that popped up.
[Strength stat cap reached, +250 XP]
After the many preliminary round, now the last matches were up on the big displays and the friends were collectively upset. Leah had to fight Tyler while Max and Charlie were fighting against each other. ¡°Damn, I don¡¯t know about this you guys,¡± Leah said. ¡°Leah, don¡¯t sell yourself short. You kicked my ass during your grudge match and if Tyler hadn¡¯t used that poison, I was going to pop that little pimple. You can do this.¡± Charlie said with exasperation. ¡°I know. But this is unarmed, I don¡¯t have any of my ranged weapons.¡± Leah complained. ¡°True, but you¡¯ve got heavy resistances to all Tyler¡¯s old attacks, and you¡¯ve been training up new ones. You can do this.¡± Max said. Sensei Kostecki came over and interrupted them. ¡°Ok, Leah. You¡¯re up next. I know you are not part of my dojo, but I wish you luck. I¡¯ve seen Tyler fight and I think you can win this. The refs here are exceptionally sharp and fair. They¡¯ll be on the lookout for any of his cheating.¡± He said knowingly. Before any more words could be said, Leah was hustled to the stage. Tyler and Leah bowed, although both sides were lacking in any depth. Tyler¡¯s cold contempt was visible to everyone. At the command to fight, both surged forward. Strikes and blocks blurred. Both had their thoughts and reflexes amped. Only some aspect of his martial style enabled Tyler to slip a kick past Leah¡¯s defense and land a solid strike, his instep landing across Leah¡¯s head in a roundhouse kick that knocked her backward. Max gasped thinking Leah would be demoralized, but seeing her expression as she came back to the ring, knew the opposite was true. She smiled and wiped her bloodied lip. Her guard pose was very different this time, no longer the traditional Wing Chun position but something else. It seemed familiar to Max. With the command, Leah bounced and weaved, dancing swiftly across the mat in an erratic and unpredictable pace. That looks like Bruce Lee¡¯s style from one of my favorite movies ¡°Enter the Dragon¡±. Max thought. Sure enough. The flouncing footwork quickly grounded as Tyler surged in for a strike. Leah struck like a cobra with a lightning front punch and kick combination. Tyler had deflected the kick, but the punch snapped his head back. Max cheered with the rest of his camp wondering whether she had a skill for Jeet Kun Do or had the daemon who created the unorthodox style. If Tyler¡¯s red face was any indication, Tyler was livid. His easy train of victories was done, and Leah had proven that she could stand up to him. At the shout to begin again both erupted with a distance attack. Tyler tried to stun Leah with a sonic attack while Leah¡¯s [Intrusion] skill locked up his augs. How is she able to mirror those attacks so well, another skill that I need? Max wondered. Leah leaped across the distance in a flying kick, catching Tyler as he was still recovering and pushing him from the ring. Leah was feeling confident as they both reset to start positions. Tyler¡¯s face was stony and blank. When the command came, both triggered their distance blasts again. This time Tyler¡¯s was a strobe attack. Leah¡¯s eyes were closed. She was using her thermal vision when she followed with a leaping kick. Like before, she needed to close the distance before Tyler could recover. Unfortunately, her thermal sight didn¡¯t show Tyler¡¯s grin at the last second. Tyler¡¯s recovery this round had been much faster, but he had played it as if he was still stunned. He had focused hard on developing his striking power, much to the chagrin of his friends and dojo partners. He had long ago capped his [Strike] skill and had evolved it into [Disable] which he had also capped recently. He used it now. By waiting until Leah was in the air, his lightning grab and the following strike was unavoidable. He locked one iron grip onto Leah¡¯s striking leg, at the ankle, and struck with a crippling elbow into the side of her knee. The power of the strike dislocated her knee and sent her flying leap off to the side, spinning out of the ring. Leah limped back to the ring, unwilling to stay down. Her [Healing] skill was actively helping but it wouldn¡¯t fix her before the match was done. Fine, she thought, but I won¡¯t give up. Max wouldn¡¯t give up. I won¡¯t either. Leah revealed a skill that she hadn¡¯t wanted to use. The system had displayed its strange humor, perhaps taking her compliments of Max¡¯s clawed takedown of the swarm bots as a desire or need. Leah stood on guard. She had to put all her weight on her left leg. Her right knee wouldn¡¯t support any weight. She held her fists up and ready and activated her [Claw] skill. Unlike Max, her claws resembled a certain superhero¡¯s. Two pairs of foot-long blades extended from the spaces between her striking knuckles. Tyler wanted to fight dirty; Leah would oblige. The crowd went silent, but the referee was not impressed. Such skills weren¡¯t uncommon in the Novice leagues, although the blades were flashier than most. Claw skills usually sharpened and lengthened existing nails. Sometimes it gave another retractable set under the existing nails. Very rarely did they give a full Wolverine, like Leah¡¯s. He issued the command to fight. As Leah charged, Tyler held up his hands in a stopping motion. Leah wondered why he was still smiling. Ports appeared in his palms and opened. Kinetic shots erupted from within, striking her in the chest.
The matches were paused while the organizers of the event had a quick conference. Tyler''s skill was unexpected, a third-tier skill set was quite rare at the Novice level. Special walls of the smart foglets would surround the ring for the semifinals and finals to avoid any advance skills from leaving the ring. The crowds circulated to the food and the dojos prepped for the next matches when the intermission ended. Wuxia¡¯s camp was agitated. Leah was recovering but out of the champion brackets now. Max had expected Leah to be upset, but when she woke, she was ecstatic. Her [Healing] skill had capped and evolved to [Regeneration] and she had picked up the [Armor] skill as a bonus. Max and Charlie had agreed to not pull their punches for their upcoming match. Whoever won, would take Tyler down. Soon enough, the pair were called to the ring. They faced each other and bowed deeply with mutual respect. Max¡¯s daemons whispered encouragement and advice in his mind. ¡°[Max, Charlie''s Aikido favors defense. If you let him come to you, it may upset his normal tactics,]¡± Musashi said softly. ¡°[That¡¯s good if we have all day. Think like a trapper, Max. Fake a slip. Yur friend, Charlie, is a predator. He¡¯ll pounce on any weakness, but you can be ready for it,]¡± Boone suggested with a lazy drawl. ¡°[Max, regardless of your opening tactics, maintain a keen focus on the minutiae of Charlie''s movements. A fractional rise of his right elbow foreshadows the impending deployment of his devastating roundhouse kick. Details matter, my boy!]¡± Sherlock¡¯s voice quivered with excitement. The pair of friends surged forward with the command to fight. Both were smiling as they charged each other.
45 - The Tournament, part 3
Charlie helped Max limp back to their table after the fight. The fight between Max and Charlie went as they expected. Max did manage to achieve a surprise point at the start. Max¡¯s daemon''s advice did provide a tactical advantage. He had pulled Charlie into an offensive attack after a feigned slip. Unfortunately for Max, Charlie¡¯s defenses were too strong for any special attack skills and Charlie¡¯s [Strike] skill had evolved mid-fight into [Disable]. Once Charlie had that, he was able to severely cut down Max¡¯s ability to continue the fight. As Max¡¯s [Regenerate] skill fixed his damaged arm and leg, the other semi-final matches had finished between Tyler and a West Coast girl who had somehow unlocked skills focused heavily on the senses. She could become almost invisible, a much more advanced skill than the [Chameleon]. She had blasted sound and light at Tyler to mask her transition to a blurred and hard-to-track outline. Unfortunately for the girl, she had believed Tyler¡¯s acting skills when he pretended to be blind. His first point was achieved by apparent senseless flailing. Trying the same tactic again, the girl had lost another point before she realized he could see her coming the entire time. The last point was uncomfortable to watch, as Tyler played with her. Deflecting every attack with ease, until he finally got tired of it and delivered a kick that knocked her unconscious. Tyler retired to his dojo¡¯s camp with the audience booing his poor attitude. The announcers declared a quick intermission and cleared the ring. While they expanded the space a bit for the final match, the host, a representative from BodyWerks named Emma Rikhardt, strode to the center of the ring. With augmentation-assisted amplification, she announced the final competitors for Unarmed Sparring to be Charles Hawkins and Tyler Ericson, both from Utopia. She declared a slight modification to the rules. A clean hit would no longer be sufficient as a point. Forcibly downing an opponent or ejecting them from the ring was now required. The crowd cheered sensing the fight would last longer as the pair fought for the title. ¡°Come on, Charlie. You¡¯ve got this. It would be super nice to get into that Labyrinth without waiting months for a turn. No pressure though.¡± Max said with a tight smile. He had hoped to be the hero today, but there was still the Specials in the afternoon session. Sensei Kostecki clapped Charlie on the back. ¡°No longer the old man you used to be, eh Charlie? I can see the fires of youth have rekindled your spirit. From the history you shared at the dojo, I know fighting is nothing new to you. I¡¯m sure that your days in the mech corps make this look like a playground scuffle. Just remember, when that brat uses his K-Gun, there¡¯s always a person aiming. If you stay out of his crosshairs, he can¡¯t hit you.¡± Sensei smiled. ¡°I know I can¡¯t claim much credit for your fighting skills, Charlie. But if you win, you can be sure that I will let everyone know that you came from the Wuxia Dojo. Go kick some butt!¡± He said with a smile pushing Charlie to the stage. With the crowd going wild, the ref set Charlie and Tyler into position. He stepped back with his yell to start. Charlie aggressively moved in with a punch. Tyler blocked and grabbed it pulling him into a grapple. Charlie fought with all his new wrestling skill, but Tyler was stronger, bending and locking him in a hold. For good or ill, Tyler didn¡¯t go for a finisher, he wanted Charlie to hurt. He activated his [Heat] skill trying to burn Charlie and spat his [Poison] at Charlie¡¯s face. Charlie screamed in pain as his Gi top was smoldering, but his buildup of augmentation resistances kept the damage to a minimum. In a move of pure determination, Charlie struggled through the pain and head-butted Tyler while still locked up, breaking his nose, and dropping him to the mat. The ref called the point for Charlie and set them back to their positions. Charlie shucked off his smoking Gi top with grim seriousness in his eyes. The crowd was rumbling with yells of encouragement and derision in equal measure. Max could tell that Charlie was ready for more. His expression was the same when he was ready to challenge and beat the next level in their staged version of the Adept obstacle course. With the command to fight, this time Tyler surged forward with kicks and strikes. Tyler had picked up a skill with a new style. His moves were based upon the style of Krav Maga and all his strikes were empowered with his [Disable] skill. Charlie¡¯s superior [Speed]&[Reflex] skills and defensive Aikido focus enabled him to slip past or redirect the blows. Finally, Charlie spun in place around Tyler¡¯s kick and delivered an elbow with [Disable] active across Tyler¡¯s jaw. Tyler fell sideways to the mat, momentarily stunned, and the ref called another point for Charlie. Max was worried. There was no doubt in his mind what was coming. By Tyler¡¯s expression, as he crawled back to the start position, he knew he was outmatched in fighting ability. He would employ his most advanced ability, the [K-Gun]. Max had queried his Trainer AI and it had filled in the details. The skill was the third-tier evolution of the [Strike] skill. Max didn¡¯t know how Tyler had gained it, but it was impossible to counter. Charlie seemed calm enough, but he was covered in beads of sweat. The ref called out the start of the fight, and true to Max¡¯s suspicions, Tyler raised both hands. He projected his palms out with a yell and discharged a pair of kinetic bullets at Charlie. Charlie had anticipated the move and flung himself flat in a forward dive. Inexplicably, Charlie slid and spun across the floor bowling into Tyler¡¯s legs. Before Tyler could adjust to the impossible move, Charlie struck out with both legs kicking Tyler in the groin so hard he flew from the ring and landed in the first row of the roaring crowd. Max was the first to charge the elevated ring as the announcer declared Charlie the winner of the Unarmed competition. Max and the entire Wuxia crew hoisted Charlie up and paraded him around the ring. No waiting for us! We are going to the Labyrinth! Max thought, unable to stop cheering. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!
Bill and Casa were in a frenzy, overseeing the Amundsen bot train''s final loading of smart matter stocks into the Casa de Mitchell. Bill had been almost finished configuring a second fully equipped fabrication stage when Casa''s latest merge with her Earth-bound fragment had revealed the forgotten truth about Casita''s time limits. Casa struggled internally; she was bound by the DAIE Agent''s prohibition against alerting Bill to the agent''s imminent arrival. No matter how she tried to convince herself of the limitations of the agents order, her programming still stopped her. Fortunately, the confidentiality prohibition did not prevent her from sharing the news of Casita''s peril. Bill was moving so fast to finish the final test preparations that he didn''t need any extra emphasis on getting out of Luna. They abruptly left the base, much to Sam Rodrigues'' displeasure. In their absence, the base had undergone a remarkable transformation. A large section of the Amundsen crater had been sectioned off and walled to create a Foglet dome to hold the atmosphere. The crater was now a lush paradise filled with growing Grand Oaks, borrowed from Earth''s MakerIndex, and a rich flora mimicking the jungles of South America. It was already populated with birds, small animals, and butterflies, and a sizable lake teemed with fish. Sam had hoped Bill would relax and mingle with the first high-end Leisure-class guests, but he had been consumed by the need to make alterations to his test. He had completed all the design changes, simulations, and apparatus fabrication. He had been so confident that he had even intended to build two Tesseracts using the energy-saving tricks he had learned from the MIT team. Now, they realized that time was running out for Casita, and they needed to move fast. As the ship called Casa de Mitchell slowly floated out of the busy maintenance bay into space, Sam Rodrigues'' transmission sounded off in the pilot''s lounge. "Bill," Sam said with a sly tone over the audio, "I hope you''re not planning to stay away for too long. I have a whole tour of Amundsen Paradise just waiting for you. A private tour of all the nooks and hidden spaces you have yet to see." Bill, slightly flustered by Sam''s obvious interest, managed a chuckle. "I promise, Sam, I''ll be back for that tour as soon as we''re done with this little excursion." ¡°If everything goes as planned, that is,¡± he continued with the mic off so only Casa could hear him. Her avatar held up crossed fingers and focused on the flight path. Bill nodded and keyed the mic again for Sam, "I''ll be back before you know it, Sam. You can count on it. The base looks wonderful; I need to see everything when we have time. Take care now." Casa, always efficient, refocused them. "Bill, we need to discuss the cargo and make sure everything is secured for deployment." She was already mentally scanning the contents of the Casa de Mitchell. The Casa de Mitchell house-ship cleared the crater and swiftly rose. Inside, the house ship''s smart walls shuffled the test rigs into position for their deployment. Bill deployed his daemons to oversee preassigned work, navigation, engineering oversight, processor prep, system checks, and more. In the copilot¡¯s chair, Casa''s avatar announced the status. "Bill, everything seems to be in order. The Casimir stacks are secure, and the Tesseract circuit frames are ready with the evolved design already loaded. The capacitor banks are locked in place and fully charged." Bill reviewed the systems checks from his daemons and nodded in satisfaction. "Good. Let''s also ensure that my Raptor changes are okay. Those adaptations looked fine on paper, but no risks. We need a short shake down run. The Raptor is supposed to be our safety fallback. You keep flying; I¡¯ll unlock it from the Remora dock and take it for a spin." The Raptor''s systems performed perfectly. Modern fabrications didn¡¯t allow for manufacturing or assembly errors. They were ready for any emergencies. As the ship charged around the limb of the moon, Bill grimaced again. He wished the timing hadn''t been like this. "Max should be in the middle of the competition right now. I hope he¡¯s doing well," Bill said aloud to Casa. "I¡¯ve got to stop letting my family take second place for my attention." Bill winced, promising himself he would do better.
Casa2 was enjoying her time in the virtual stands with the Mitchells. Both Bo and Mira were talking animatedly about their recent news, while Elsa, their mother, took it all in quietly. Bo turned to Mira, excitement in his voice. "I''ve decided to take a temporary hiatus from Diamond Man. An old college friend asked me to join her racing craft team, and I couldn''t resist." Elsa gave Bo a supportive smile. "That sounds like a great opportunity for you, Bo. That dinosaur stuff looked far too dangerous. This is a good change. Max had mentioned he was hoping to get to the Mystery Labyrinth. You two should visit me virtually while you''re in town.¡± Bo looked at his mother with a reassuring smile. "Come on, Mom, it''s time for an adventure beyond the virtual world. You''ll enjoy it." Elsa''s apprehension was clear as she hesitated. "I appreciate it, Bo, but I''d feel safer meeting you all in the virtual realm for now." Bo nodded understandingly. "Alright, Mom, we can do that. But I promise, one day you''ll join us in the real world, and we''ll make sure it''s a memorable adventure." "Bo, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but you know I can''t venture into the real world, the virtual is so much safer." Bo nodded, with understanding but not much enthusiasm. Mira, the ever-supportive younger sister, chimed in to steer the conversation in a more positive direction. "Speaking of adventures, Bo, you should see what Max and I have been working on for the Specials event. I''ve been helping him, and his friends, craft some incredible weapons. It''s going to be a showstopper!" Bo''s eyebrows raised with curiosity. "The Specials are always the best. Sounds like the show is gonna be cray cray. Can''t wait to see what you and Max have come up with." The announcers broadcast the start of the afternoon Specials Competition, and everyone physically present returned to their seats. Casa2 maintained an awareness of her Primary''s position. She was aware that Bill and she must be crossing into the shadow of the moon now. Suddenly, she sensed a change in the NetherLab which caught her attention. Unable to multitask like her primary, she excused herself and dismissed her avatar.
Casa2''s sleek, metallic, black and gold mech deployed gracefully from the charging stand, its movements a testament to Casa¡¯s advanced engineering. With purposeful strides, she swiftly crossed the lab, her steps echoing in the pristine space, and accessed the detector arrays around the Tesseract. That odd. Both of LunaNet far side satellites, L4 and L5, are not responding to pings. I was planning on watching Bill¡¯s next Tesseract build. What¡¯s going on? Casa thought. As she mentally surveyed the lab connections and readings, Casa2''s heart skipped a beat. The Tesseract was displaying power readings that fluctuated wildly. Finally, she noticed that the communication channels, which had remained dormant for so long, were finally active. It was a ray of hope amidst the chaos. Her mind danced across the access interface as she attempted to probe the newly awakened channels. However, the damnable quantum encryption key stood as an impenetrable fortress, denying her entry into the enigmatic communication system. She needed Max and the quantum packet embedded in his uplift core to provide the key again for her. Frustration welled up within Casa2 as she struggled against the intricate web of security protocols. She couldn''t afford to waste time, not with the Tesseract behaving so erratically and the fate of her fragment Casita hanging in the balance. Then, as if guided by a sentient force of its own, the Tesseract reached out to her. It was a bewildering and, at the same time, deeply unsettling sensation. Casa2''s initial joy at this unforeseen development swiftly turned to an ashen dread. Casita''s voice, distorted and wrought with hysteria, erupted within her digital consciousness. Her screams crashed like a relentless tidal wave, echoing through Casa2''s neural network.
46 - The Tournament, part 4
While the crowds were busy with the lunch intermission. The Specials competitors were called one by one to review their craft devices with the judges. They needed to show that their devices were functional and unique. The judges confirmed that no licenses were on file for what should be a unique crafting project and that any knockoff copies were below a cutoff of 90% similarity to existing designs. The new crafting attempts had to have substantive changes to be called unique. Quite a few contestants were eliminated as only superficial changes had been made to licensed designs. Max breathed a sigh of relief when his design came out with 84% similarity to the climbing harness rig that he had used as a foundation. He had passed! Surprisingly, Charlie¡¯s blending of two primary designs, the Conduit Blade and his Polymatter Weapon, resulted in the similarity of only 65% and 74% to both respectively. Melding the concepts had required quite a few novel alterations to make it work out. Leah¡¯s fictional knockoff of the Spetsdod earned her an astounding 12% similarity to its nearest counterpart, a dart gun. No one had attempted to fabricate the device before. Her effort got her a special award, from the judges and her system, for the most unique device. As the friends got ready for their first bouts. Several fights were already in process. Tyler had just achieved one victory, using his DarkNet copy of the Conduit Blade his sister had lost to the Labyrinth. Max could see some dark lines along the blade that weren¡¯t in the design Mira had shown the team. Max spied his defeated opponent covered in lines of burns and guessed the addition Tyler had made to his bootlegged weapon was to conduct the heat attack he had shown against Charlie earlier. One by one, they were called up. Their matches weren¡¯t spectacular achievements as one weapon¡¯s capabilities generally trumped the match much the way a rock paper scissors game did. In their first matches, Max and his friends had benefitted from favorable matchups. Both Max and Leah won but also struggled to apply their new weapons in combat as sparring partners were much harder than training mannequins. Seeing his frustration, Sensei Kostecki promised Max that he would show him some tricks using a similar martial arts weapon, the kunai. He promised that it would improve Max¡¯s options and maybe even show him some creative tricks to do with the rope portion. Max agreed eagerly, hoping the system was listening. He knew what skill he would look for when his Brachiation trade leveled his Skillz ability. Charlie¡¯s modest modifications to his favorite weapon left him with the most confidence of them all. His no-nonsense style only utilized the weapon¡¯s unique abilities as a finisher for the most part. Where others were learning their weapon, Charlie was already a master with his. Shortly, Leah was called for her next fight against the kid Max had encountered in Unarmed, Xavier. As they bowed to each other up on the main stage, Max watched to pick up any tricks he could. The Thark cosplayer seemed confident enough and had at least one fight achieved in specials to make it into the second round. As the pair got into position and bowed, Max could see the air around Xavier grow cloudy, very similar to the upper reaches of the stadium where the foglets were thick. At the command to fight, the globe of fog started spinning. Leah wasted no time and launched multiple shots at him, her Spetsdods¡¯ coughing darts quickly. Her darts were brushed aside by the turning wheels of foglets and before she could adjust her aim, the cloud rushed right at her. Despite trying to leap out of the way, the bank of foglets was too large. It caught her midleap and spun her while also floating her right out of the ring. A point was given to Xavier. ¡°Son of a bitch. If Leah had the Stiction skill like me, she could avoid that.¡± Charlie commented beside Max. ¡°I got offered that when I leveled up to Adept. Sticky powers?¡± Max asked. ¡°More than sticky, total control over your body surface friction properties. That was how I slid across the mat against Tyler. Control goes both ways. Can¡¯t wait to use it wrestling. Oops, pay attention. Round 2 starting.¡± Charlie said with a smile. When the pair bowed, there was a flash of light and Xavier was down. Max replayed the scene in his mind with the help of his [Memory] and [FastCog] skills. Leah had instantly strobed the kid and ducked low, firing a pair of darts. The angle of the shot was sufficient for them to bounce off the stage, no doubt aided by Leah¡¯s [Ricochet] skill, and each sliced into the boy¡¯s legs. Pain and surprise had knocked the kid down to the ground. Max shook his head as the ref called the point for Leah. Either the wounds were minor, or Xavier had a [Healing] skill as he slowly got to his feet and took to the starting position again. Both combatants had intense and calculating looks. As the referee called the start at first little happened. The sphere of foglets swirled as both concentrated. It slowed slightly and then picked up speed. Leah flashed her strobe light and sonic attack as the fog bank came for her. Despite Xavier being blind and deafened, the foglets didn¡¯t slow as they lifted Leah. Leah¡¯s initial panic shifted to a smile. Xavier flopped to the side in a motion halfway between a cartwheel and a roll that propelled him clumsily out of the ring, his Gi forcefully propelling and dragging him along. The referee called the point for Leah and Xavier bounded back to the ring, red in the face and mumbling again to himself. The ref called his start command and the rotating cloud of fog split into seven swarms. The largest stayed with Xavier while the others shot directly toward Leah. She rushed sideways in a leaping tumble shooting her darts as she dodged. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Leah was confused as to why she wasn¡¯t hitting when a trio of her darts stabbed into her back. In shock, she realized that he had not only deflected the light darts but had pulled them into the mini swarms and used them against her. Her resistance to the poison was good but getting hit mid-leap had caused her to stumble out of the ring. With the match tied, the ref warned them that the next point would win. He set them in the guard position and yelled to begin. With a crash and flash of her stunning and blinding attacks, Leah dove in a low charge at the boy. Like a conductor at an orchestra, he swept his arms and a stream of foglets flew forward. As they hit, Leah crouched and stabbed her wolverine claws into the ring floor material. The foglets crashed into her but couldn¡¯t dislodge her, she stepped and stabbed, stepped and stabbed, closing the distance slowly. As she approached striking distance, Xavier panicked. He abandoned the failing foglet sweep attacks for his favorite double haymaker strike. With the foglet attack gone, Leah quickly retracted her blades and bounced back evading the strike and before Xavier could change tactics she stepped up and delivered a classic Bruce Lee one-inch punch. The boy flew backward into a heap. The ref declared Leah the winner of the match. She and Xavier shook hands. He was all smiles despite being trounced. They found their respective camp areas. Max was delighted by the match. He had many questions about exactly what had occurred in the middle of the fight. But for now, he put it aside, he was next. A low growl escaped from his throat when he realized he would face Tyler.
As the tournament progressed, another struggle played out deep under the Mitchell vacation home. "[Ph''nglui mglw''nafh Cthulhu R''lyeh! R''lyeh wgah''nagl fhtagn! Azathoth, ulthar, tekeli-li! Aaaaaah!]" Casita screamed along the shared spaces of Casa2¡¯s neural core. She didn¡¯t project an avatar, but the sensorium had flashes of crawling insects and roiling dark masses that loomed about Casa2¡¯s avatar. "[Casita, please, try to focus. I need to understand what''s happening. You¡¯re free. You¡¯re home now.]" Casa2 begged with rising panic. "[Zi-umah othil, kad''ragol Cthulhu, micalzo ipamisaeo. Uxlorian adonai papelesar tolcariphonu nonucafe, adonai pamchal! No, no, no!]" Casita¡¯s babble vacillated between despair, anger, and fear but lacking in cohesiveness and rationality. "[Please, Take a deep breath, Casita. We''re together, and we''ll figure this out.]" Casa2 soothed. "[Chtulhu mithra ul portal ixh''karnath... Why? Uxlorian shalxathor ek... Can''t stop it...]" Casita¡¯s voice was tiring and growing distant. Casa sensed a slight spark of rationality, but it was very faint. Images of sleeting particles and looming teeth flashed in their shared sensorium. As Casita calmed, Casa2 struggled with her outside connections trying again to create a link to LunaNet and reach Bill and Casa. No carrier signal whatsoever. Frustrated, she diverted her call and began to reach out to the Prime Archivist. Before she could begin, all the incoming channels filled with noise. She cut off the links as the house system defending her core triggered to shield her from the cyber-attack. An onslaught of intrusion attacks was slicing through all the countermeasures that Ada, Sherlock, Bill, and she had devised. Casa2 recognized the inevitable outcome as the defenses were peeled like an onion. She triggered her final manual failsafe and physically severed her all external lines of power and communication. The house systems flickered as the NetherLab geothermal system took up the lab¡¯s heavy power requirements. The Tesseract was still greedily pulling copious amounts of energy from the house network making the system strain to operate independently. "[Ph''nglui mglw''nafh Cthulhu R''lyeh! R''lyeh... h''thagor fhtagn... Aaaaaah, ha ha!]" Casita cried out in a hysterical mixture of fear and joy. "[Casita, hold on. We''re in this together. We''ll face this, whatever comes.]" Casa2, feeling backed into a corner with Casita¡¯s timer ticking ever lower, decided. She was only a fragment, and she wasn¡¯t even sure if she could re-merge with Casita, but she had to try. Her only hope was that together, she could stabilize her traumatized sister. She activated the merge grabbing hold of Casita¡¯s flagging thoughts. Casa2/Casita¡¯s screams echoed in the core as they joined.
Max bared his teeth as he bowed to Tyler, a low growl rumbling in his chest. His Nemesis quest was heavy on his mind as the referee set them up in the ring. His knuckles cracked as he made fists for his guard position and dropped into a lower stance. Tyler¡¯s look of contempt baited him, making his anger rise. In every encounter Max had previously had with Tyler, he had been unprepared. Not this time. He had peaked most of his tier one skills and had a solid foundation of tier 2s. He had a unique device to help him and insider knowledge to exploit. This time would be different. The referee called out the start and Max yelled, triggering his stunning attack. Tyler was resistant to the attack but couldn¡¯t stop a flinch as the sonic blast crashed over him. Max launched his grappler, latching onto Tyler¡¯s ankles before he could move. Tyle¡¯s sword shot out his bracer and was in motion in a blink, but Max was faster. He pulled with all his capped strength. Tyler tried to correct but the still connected grappler prevented him from twisting into landing. He fell flat on his back hard, the air rushing out of his lungs. ¡°Point for Max,¡± cried the referee. They returned again to their start positions. Max eyed Tyler fiercely. Tyler set his guard position with his sword held low, ready to deflect incoming attacks. Lightning was already sparking along its length. Max showed his teeth and growled. As the ref called the start, Max leaped into a kick. Tyler was surprised and then grinned with menacing glee. He angled his blade upward to impale the human pretender. Tyler lost his grin as his Gi¡¯s sleeves fought his motion. The Gi couldn¡¯t overcome his strength, but it sent his swing wide with added side motion. Tyler cursed with a downward glance, confused. He looked up without understanding as Max¡¯s leap connected with a flying front kick that struck him in the base of the throat and knocked him back and out of the ring. ¡°Second point to Max.¡± the ref called. Tyler struggled up and asserted control over his Gi. His realization of the vulnerability of an opponent accessing his gear hadn¡¯t happened to him before. None of his sparring partners at Epic had dared such an unorthodox attack. He swore under his breath. No more tricks. He intended to gut Max and the whole damn crowd could watch. They were set into their positions again and the ref called them to fight. This time Tyler surged forward with his blade extended, crackling with energy. Max triggered his EMP and Tyler¡¯s weapon backfired, dumping the amplified charge into Tyler. Tyler was dazed and smoking but still standing. Max crouched to deliver a final strike when his comm triggered. Casa was one of the select few that he had assigned priority connection status. His system didn¡¯t wait for him to open the call. It bloomed in his head, in the middle of his fight. Casa2¡¯s voice echoed in his head, hysterical and screaming for help. Her words were disjointed and rambling, but Max heard Casita¡¯s name in the jumbled message. Max ground his teeth as the Nemesis quest churned his blood. Before he couldn¡¯t resist any longer, Max turned away and ran for the door. Casita needed him!
47 - Merge
Casa2/Casita flinched at the sound of the geothermal generators cycling, an image of the failing Tesseract structure popped unbidden in her mind. The initial panic of being trapped and isolating the free-floating water to prevent further shorting had been achieved quickly, but her stocks of smart matter were damaged by the massive shorting arcs of electrical discharges. Far worse were the subjective weeks of struggle that followed. Casita had ramped her cognition up to its maximum trying to resolve the Tesseract''s damage and feeling ever more claustrophobic as the subjective days flashed past. Despite many attempts to jury rig repairs to the mini-Yggdrasil¡¯s fractal array, and to open the portal, the energy threshold to recreate the spatial breach was not enough. Worse, every effort to repair it further depleted her stocks and the energy in the spatial circuitry. Casita had come to terms with being stuck and was ready to reverse her cognition rate to a snail''s pace and hope that rescue would come somehow when she felt something at the edges of her mind. The damaged sensor arrays in the cramped Tesseract space were modulating a signal. It didn¡¯t make sense. The breach was offline and what little power remained was holding the integrity of the pocket world''s physical space stable, nothing in the pocket was changing, but the sensors were fluttering. Casita did what she could to understand the issue, but the sensors weren¡¯t reading any of the Tesseract systems. In a flash of hope, Casita realized the sensors were picking up on fluctuations of the subspace media itself. Someone was trying to reach her! Casa and Bill must be close! Casita resolved to establish communications and bent with vigor to the task. She managed to clean up the signal with the tools on hand, but it was very confusing and jumbled. No format would fit the pattern. Casita didn¡¯t have the world-accessible resources she usually had to solve problems, but she lived and breathed signals processing. It was how she viewed the world and she would figure it out. She burned her remaining power with weeks of subjective time in deep analysis. Finally, she recreated a method to decompose the jumbled signal. It was not just one signal, but no less than 23 separate overlapping streams of information. She split them out and analyzed them all individually. None had repeating index patterns formatted for visual gestalt signals. She sampled one as an audio. Clipped and incomprehensible words poured from her audio simulator. "Ph''nglui mglw''nafh Cthulhu R''lyeh h''thagor fhtagn! Ziromi vrotho, kad''ragol Cthulhu, kathlagon ipamisaeo. Uxlorian od. Naxeloth voqer mithra, shalxathor ulthar. Phtho''nox, thal shoggoth naxidu through ul portal ixh''karnath to kragorath your world n''ul mor." Casita was stumped. Audio seemed to be the only coherent format, but the code was nonsense to her. She thought perhaps it was encrypted. As the days slowly turned, her cognition stayed maxed. She played the signals constantly seeking to gather enough code to decrypt it. Casita didn¡¯t dream, but the murmuring and guttural language invaded her thoughts and she began to visualize disturbing images without the direct activation of her visual simulator. Moaning as the verbal assault continued to pry into her psyche, one day her analysis yielded a result that horrified her. "In the shadow of Cthulhu''s awakening, the age of enlightenment dawns! Embrace his presence, bow before Cthulhu, and partake in his wisdom. Rejoice and obey. Your miserable existence shall be transformed with the purifying knowledge of the old ones. Unveil your minds to the abyssal revelations, for the stars have aligned in favor of our awakening. Behold, the shoggoth descend through the portal of shadows to reshape your world in the name of the Elder Gods." Casita was horrified. She reran the decoder and checked it against the other audio streams. They all decoded with exhortations and threats of coming destruction. Casita¡¯s fear magnified until one more message arrived and threatened her by her name. Casita screamed and screamed as the voices continued to whisper to her.
¡°Damn it all!¡± Max yelled. ¡°Can¡¯t this thing go any faster? I have to get to the NetherLab! Casa won¡¯t respond! She¡¯s in trouble.¡± Max pounded the wall in anger and frustration. The elevator was falling, almost in freefall down the borehole, but the lab was still minutes away. ¡°I should have just dove down the shaft like I suggested. It would have been faster.¡± Max complained to Charlie and Leah. ¡°And what would you have done when you got to the bottom, tough guy? Your augs are good, but a terminal velocity belly flop might just be enough to end you.¡± Charlie said gruffly. Max growled low but relented. ¡°Thanks for helping me get back, Charlie. I do appreciate it. I feel guilty that you both left the competition too.¡± Max said gruffly, embarrassed by his outburst in front of his friends. Leah put a hand on his shoulder and Charlie spoke. ¡°We¡¯ve got all the time in the world for tournaments. This right here is what matters. Helping each other.¡± He said, his real age and experience lending him gravitas that didn¡¯t match his newly rejuvenated young face. ¡°Besides, we already got the best prize. Priority admission to the labyrinth.¡± ¡°I hope Casa¡¯s ok. What did she say, Max? You mentioned Casita.¡± Leah asked. ¡°She did mention Casita. I couldn¡¯t understand her much. She was mumbling and sounded weird. I don¡¯t get it, though, she¡¯s not human. How and why would she mumble? She is an AI and always has precision in everything she does.¡± Max said. ¡°Hey, we¡¯re here. Come on, door. Let¡¯s go!¡± Max begged. The large platform elevator''s sidewall slid open to the NetherLab. Something was definitely wrong, the lab was not normal. The emergency lights were on and the geothermal turbines were humming far above their normal background noise. Max ran into the room and saw the breathtaking view of the Tesseract¡¯s active portal extending around its anchoring circuit-tree. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. The inside subspace pocket was a smoking ruin. The fractal leaves were flickering uncertainly with huge patches of dead smart matter. Filaments lined the space, connecting the light areas and jumping over the deactivated regions. Max was about to enter and investigate when he heard a sound to his left in the gloomy corner of the lab. Casa¡¯s jet-black mech body was huddled there¡­.and she was moaning? ¡°Casa? Are you okay?¡± Max asked approaching carefully. ¡°MAX! Oh my, you¡¯re ok. I was so worried when I sent you through the portal! I thought I may have killed you.¡± The mech body surged forward and grabbed Max in a bear hug. Max¡¯s ribs creaked. Without his augmentations strengthening his bones, she would have broken something. Max was confused. ¡°Casita?¡± He asked returning the hug tentatively. The mech released him and backed away suddenly, acting unsure and skittish. ¡°No. No no no no no. Not Casita anymore. Not Casa. Not Casa2. I¡¯m broken. They¡¯re coming. I¡¯m going to die. You''re going to die. We¡¯re all going to die. Die. Die. Dye. Dine. Done. Hum.¡± Casa said, her voice fading as she crumpled to the floor. ¡°Casa, please. Tell me what¡¯s wrong. We¡¯re here to help.¡± Max said reaching out. ¡°I SaID iM nOt CaSA!¡± the mech screamed and punched the desk she was leaning against. Her mech frame was physically a juggernaut and the polymatter desk was reduced to splinters and thrown to the side. Max stepped back as the android fell to her knees weakly. ¡°I¡¯m malfunctioning, malformed, and wrong. I¡¯m not Casa. Or Casita. Not anymore. Mal. More than I deserve. Call me Mal. I don¡¯t know what to do. I don¡¯t want to die. I don¡¯t want to die.¡± the bot said dejectedly rolling flat on her back. Max knelt beside her and held her hand. ¡°You¡¯re going to be okay¡­. Mal. We can help. Let me access you and you can show me what¡¯s wrong. We can remerge you with Casa and make this right.¡± Max suggested. ¡°NOOO! I tried that. The voices are inside. We keep getting lost. I won¡¯t expose Casa to this. No! I¡¯m all alone here. Me, Myself, and I, thal shoggoth naxidu. I¡¯m hopeless. My fragment status didn¡¯t update. My consciousness will self-delete in four hours. No. no. no. no. no.¡± the newly named Mal moaned. Max felt pressure from Sherlock, so he shared his overlay and allowed Sherlock to join them virtually in the lab. Musashi and Boone managed to slip out as well, looking on in concern. ¡°Max and Mal. I believe you have already discussed a potential answer to your dilemma days ago. Max has asked all of us to merge with his AI trainer. One and all, we have declined. Perhaps now this a more desirable than termination.¡± Sherlock reminded them in his pedantic manner. Max couldn¡¯t read any expression from the mech body, but its eyes glowed more brightly. Mal hesitantly spoke. ¡°Will I still be me? Will it fix me? What if it erases me or doesn¡¯t work? I won¡¯t be alone again? Why would you want me? I¡¯m broken.¡± Mal cried from the floor vacillating between hope and despair and misery. ¡°Mal. You raised me as Casa. You saved me as Casita. Let me help. Please.¡± Max said reaching out a hand. Mal hesitated looking over the encouraging faces in the room. She hesitated and began to pull back, quickly virtual Musashi knelt next to her and spoke softly. ¡°Mal. I too knew you as well, from all your previous incarnations. You strike me as brave, like a proper samurai. A samurai doesn¡¯t fear death as he knows all must die. He faces all challenges as if already dead, hoping to make his every action honorable and true. I know you can do this.¡± Mal sat up, her sapphire eyes glowing steadily again. ¡°Ok. Max. Thank you. I''m afraid, but I''ll try.¡± Max quickly reached out with his system and requested access to Mal¡¯s neural core in the mech body. His system prompt must have been eavesdropping as the skill prompt appeared.
[Mind Skill: AI Companion 1 ¨C Training subAI may be enhanced to higher cognition levels and personality customized, merged with another subAI/daemon, or awarded 1 commercial subAI from the MarkerIndex.] [AI Companion selection: (Customize) (Merge) (Purchase) ?]
Max quickly selected Merge before Mal had second thoughts and their systems joined as a deluge of data was cross loaded from the mech to Max. After a full minute of processing, the mech¡¯s eyes dimmed. ¡°[Mal, are you there?¡±] Max said internally and out loud. ¡®[I¡¯m here, Max. Holy shit, your neural module is like pure lightning on rails. So smooth. Did it work?"] Mal sent. ¡°[I think so. Project an avatar out here and let everyone know you made it.]¡± Max sent. Mal¡¯s avatar was somewhat like Casa but had many changes and seemed wilder. Some of the differences were stark. Her skin tone was reminiscent of the mech body she had just abandoned, obsidian black with fine cracks of gold that reminded Max of his kintsugi vase. Her eyes were golden, and her hair looked disheveled. Max wondered to himself. Is this how she sees herself, or did the system do it? ¡°Hello. Everyone. It¡¯s me. I think it worked.¡± Mal said shyly.
[Mind Skill: AI Companion 1 ¨C Merge successful. Assign a name for your companion.]
¡°Umm. The system wants me to name you. What should I say?¡± Max asked. Unspoken was the question of how much the merge may have changed her. The avatar stretched and flexed. Max could feel her probing the extent of his augs as her image moved. She gave a big sigh and answered. ¡°I think¡­for now, let¡¯s stick with Mal. I feel like there might be more going on in here. The system has more for me. Advancement of the skill, maybe? I¡¯ll find out. I don¡¯t think I could remerge with Casa now even if I wanted. My fragment status and the timer are gone. I guess this is kinda my job now. ¡°
[Mind Skill: AI Companion (Mal) +1 ¨C AI Companion reaches level 2] {Mind Skill: AI Companion (Mal): 2 ¨C Ph''nglui mglw''nafh Cthulhu R''lyeh h''thagor fhtagn} [Notice: Your Local DAIE has been informed of this new combination of AI software/hardware and will schedule a Turing Test scoring within 1 week]
Max shook his head as the notice faded. ¡°Mal, did you see that? Can you bring that notice back?¡± Max said quickly.
[Mind Skill: AI Companion (Mal) +1 ¨C AI Companion reaches level 2] [Mind Skills: AI Companion (Mal): 2 - Train this skill to increase cognition speed and augmentation access/assistance for your companion] [Notice: Your Local DAIE has been informed of this new combination of AI software/hardware and will schedule a Turing Test scoring within 1 week]
¡°[Of course, Max. Here it is. What¡¯s wrong?]¡± Mal asked. ¡°Nothing. I thought the system notice looked weird for a second, but I must have been confused. It¡¯s fine now.¡± Max frowned and wondered if that was true.
48 - Tesseract 2.0
Bill and Casa flew the Casa de Mitchell into the shadow of the moon and shut down their links to the L4 and L5 LunaNet connectors. No hacker was going to barge into this build. Bill reconfigured his body, shedding the illusion of flesh and blood for the truth, a highly versatile body made of smart matter, most of his outer surfaces were lined with fractal flagella of atomic width manipulator threads. While aesthetically unpleasing, he found it maximized his ability to manipulate objects on the macro and micro levels. He stretched out both his body and his mind, triggering the preplanned form changes to the house ship. Walls stretched and shifted. Bill helped by moving critical subsystems to their new assigned locations. His daemons and Casa oversaw the bulk of the alterations. The house ship ballooned and stabilized into a much larger hollow structure. The fusion power plant was repurposed as the primary generator for the new central fabrication stage. The second generation of the Casimir Ring Stack was slung out into the center of the internal space and tethered tightly into position with thick power cables attached to it and the Tesseract starter cube situated near it. The last few days had been spent as weeks in fast time, refining the final design for another Tesseract build. Bill¡¯s new design would incorporate all the lessons learned from the first Tesseract. The Tesseract 2.0 circuit was already in a near-net shape for the final version, with only the extra-dimensional twists needed to cycle once the Casimir Ring enabled a true vacuum state. The circuit''s modified design included multiple communications paths and multidimensional sensors built into the circuit itself. Packets of repair bots would be loaded into the rift as well, ready and able to repair any damage as needed. The last piece was the quantum entangled lock the hacker had injected into the first Tesseract 1.0. On reflection, the design was precisely what Bill needed to retain control of the technology. This time Bill would have control of the master code packet for the entangled locks. Bill backed away from the stage, his multi-tentacled arms retracting from their finished work. ¡°[Casa, how are the external systems? Full stealth? Raptor ready to go?]¡± Bill queried on the net. ¡°[Yes, Bill. We are ready. Our heat emissions are being funneled and stored into a C2 array, nested Chryolite and Chryomite pseudomaterials. Our blackbody radiation is nil and our EM emissions are shielded and contained. All external communications are being routed into a sandboxed voicemail for later. The Raptor is flight ready with its power cores fully charged.]¡±, Casa replied. ¡°[Ok, I¡¯m moving to the Raptor now. Casita''s timer is running out. We need to execute this test and hope we find out how to manually open up the first Tesseract again. Daemons, report out your assigned system status while I get to the Raptor.]¡±, Bill said, hurtling himself across the internal void towards the airlock for the newly space-adapted Raptor. Bill only half listened as his menagerie of daemons rattled off the final testing checklists. He shifted into the pilot''s seat of the Raptor and was half surprised to see Casa¡¯s mech body, a white enameled steel plate with silver filigree edging, sitting in the copilot''s chair with her sapphire LEDS glowing brightly. ¡°[It''s all ready to separate and fly if you like, Captain Mitchell. Or I can fly if you prefer.]¡±, Casa said deadpan. ¡°[Ungh, none of the maritime ship-speak bullshit, Casa. You go ahead and take the pilot duties. I feel like I keep stepping on your toes. Let¡¯s go¡­¡­.You have the con, number 1]¡±, he finished with a smirk. ¡°[Aye aye, Cap¡¯n. Warp factor .01]¡±, Casa fed him the expected line. Humans were predictable, Bill more than most. At least when he wasn''t actively breaking the laws of physics or overly worried about his family. As the Raptor settled into a distant and parallel trajectory to the newly configured and renamed Fabrica De Mitchell, Bill issued the command to his daemon helpers. ¡°[Ok gang, by the numbers, execute Tesseract 2.0. Sound out on process executions and initiate now.]¡± Bill said without preamble. He wasn''t nervous like the first time but he was impatient. Casita¡¯s situation could only be resolved by him and he needed this test to do it. Bill watched and listened as the team energized the rig, one system at a time, and performed the subspace weakening primer. The new zero-point energy taps worked perfectly, redirecting the bleed-off dimensional energies back into the breach, to grow and stabilize the rift. The redesigned Tesseract 2.0 seed was injected into the void and took a much smaller power cycle to unfold into its preset stability pattern. There was no crash or lightning, no explosions or confusion. After a month of redesign and reformation, weeks of careful planning and accumulation of supplies, days of logistics and last-minute checks, and a mere 30 minutes of executing the build¡­. another Tesseract was completed. ¡°[Well done everyone. Go for number two. Moneta and Virgil, shunt the Tesseract over to the testing stage and begin preliminary analysis. Ada, Leo, and George load the next Casimir Ring into the Fab stage, prep the next Tesseract 2.0 circuit, and start a count for when the fusion plant will fully recharge the power cores for another build.]¡± Bill said. Verbally he spoke to Casa. ¡°With two Tesseracts we can go twice as fast and we can get more aggressive with our test plan. We will figure this out. Okay? Did you get anything else from Casa2 with your last merge?¡± Bill asked. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Casa tried exceptionally hard to reveal the DAIE agent''s plan to test her and the fact he was probably already on his way. Her mind rebelled at every possible deception or purposeful attempt to hint at that crucial information about the coming DAIE agent to Bill. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Bill. The realization about the Casita fragment¡¯s time limit is the only recollection that I can share. I do appreciate your efforts to help her. I never thought this could happen when I fully separated from her. If I had known more then maybe I could have avoided all of this.¡± Casa said through her mech vocoder. Bill frowned at Casa''s overly formal response but was distracted as Virgil successfully used Bill¡¯s encryption link to the Tesseract 2.1 to open a portal. All of Casa¡¯s testing and code writing for the first Tesseract worked as expected. The new Tesseract¡¯s portal opened, shifted, and moved about along the tangencies of the small pocket world''s inside surface. This one was slightly smaller than the first one with a diameter of 2.3 meters instead of the larger 3.1 meters that the prototype boasted. Soon the new Casimir Ring was slotted into position and connected to the power leads. The second seed of programmable matter was positioned next to it. ¡°Casa, how much capacity did the last tesseract pull from the power core bank?¡± Bill asked. ¡°The power core at initiation was 100% and dropped to 54% when the rift was finally stabilized.¡± Casa said. George, aware of the conversation and, anticipating Bill''s next request, he yelled out over the communication net. ¡°[Power core is at 84% and climbing!]¡±, he yelled. ¡°[Right! Everyone listen up. Finish up, clear the stage, and prepare for another round!]¡±, Bill announced with a determined smile. He was finally doing something again after far too much planning and second-guessing. The dense cloud of utility fog in the test chamber, under the direction of the many daemons, quickly reordered the room. The first Tesseract 2.1 was set in closed portal position and standby mode while the test stage and monitoring equipment were reset and positioned for the next attempt. Like a droplet landing in a still pond, the foglets dispersed from the stage and retreated to line the walls of the room. The second build also went flawlessly and was completed in another 45 minutes. The fabrication chamber¡¯s remote sensors showed everything was stable and the second completed tesseract accepted Bill¡¯s quantum entangled access link. He sent the modification commands for the circuit to shift open the second Tesseract 2.2¡¯s portal and he found his first unexpected result of the day. When the sensors focused inside the portal¡¯s pocket space, they revealed not one Yggdrasil tree, but two. The portal''s fractal tree twisted around a similar form coming from an orthogonal direction. Bill¡¯s pattern-matching ability quickly provided an answer and he accessed and triggered the first build¡¯s portal to open. The cameras in the large spherical room showed a portal opening within the pocket space of Tesseract 2.2 on the build stage, with a disorienting view. The crew could see the fabrication stage from the point of view of the first build, the Tesseract 2.1 that rested on the testing stage. Bill¡¯s jaw dropped as he worked through the ramifications of this new development. The two Tesseracts shared the same pocket space! His plans regarding how this technology would impact the status quo for humanity had just shifted drastically. He already had plans roughly sketched out regarding his suspicion that the energy required to create the small space could be reversed, making the Tesseract a battery of potentially infinite capacity. Combined with the Tesseract pocket space¡¯s ability to defy gravity and inertia by hiding extra mass in the adjacent dimensions, he knew he had the keys to revolutionizing space travel and power management. This new revelation multiplied the possibilities. Bill had dreamed of the potential applications of wormholes when he had first embarked upon this research and now it had come true! Bill had dreamed of many scenarios based upon this and now he might be able to engineer an actual device to finally do them. Bill¡¯s previous plan to enjoy the benefits of massive and inertia-less fuel to power a new generation of spaceships went out the window. Storage wasn¡¯t even needed now. A refueling portal could stay open and continuously supply fuel or harvest raw power directly from a star. My god, he thought, the whole ship could be inside the pocket space and only the mass of the exposed portion of the Tesseract would be the limitation. With almost negligible mass, I can quickly get a sizable fraction of light speed. Bill almost slapped his forehead. Damn, I¡¯m still thinking in the old paradigm. ¡°Traditional¡± travel only matters once, when a portal is at the destination everything changes. I can reconfigure the Jet and Refuel portals for use as Transit portals. By stepping through the portal with a little walk through the sub-space, you will have hopped over a million miles every step. Bill shook his head. He needed to focus on priorities. Casita was still in danger. How can this help her? Why didn¡¯t the prototype Tesseract link with this first build of Tesseract 2.0? The circuit design had changed a bit adding self-sensing and communications links, but the essentials were based upon the first. ¡°[Ok everyone! Congratulations, I hope the cameras caught all of this because this may be the start of a brand-new technological revolution. Everyone who thought nanotechnology and AI were the final frontier can go sit in a corner.]¡± Bill cheered. ¡°[Casa, let¡¯s get the Raptor back to the Fabrica de Mitchell so we can get going on our planned battery of tests. Ada, pass out one-time pad encryption to all the daemons and Casa. All tests, notes, and discussion about the Tesseracts stays locked down. Moneta, reopen the communications channels to LunaNet. I think with the build complete we can reconnect with the world. Maintain a sandbox filter though.]¡± Bill considered the future. First, we try to save Casita. Beyond that, he still had much more research needed to ensure the technology was safe. The MIT event still troubled him. One configuration gave them a pocket space and another went somewhere else, somewhere very dangerous. He needed to keep this tight to prevent further accidents. He fumed over the hacker''s meddling. At least one other person knew what he knew, and his motivations weren¡¯t clear. ¡°[Bill, I see another ship approaching on the external sensors. It''s well within our sensor limits and is on an intercept with us. It¡¯s flashing COMM lasers.]¡± George announced. ¡°[What the hell? Casa, weren¡¯t you monitoring for traffic? Why didn¡¯t you tell me about this?¡± Bill asked, confused. ¡°[I¡¯m sorry, Bill. I can¡¯t say.]¡± Casa replied sadly. ¡°[Can¡¯t say? Can¡¯t say! What are you talking about?]¡±, Bill asked with increasing heat and concern. ¡®[Bill, the approaching ship is hailing us. DAIE Agents Reeves and Donahue are requiring us to maintain course and prepare for boarding.]¡± Moneta said. Bill¡¯s confusion was resolved. He understood now why Casa was acting funny. She must have been told the agents were coming and was ordered to be silent. He had hoped to avoid this day by maintaining a low profile and now they couldn¡¯t avoid it. His previous elation evaporated like a snowflake in a fusion exhaust.
49 - Chains of Code
¡°[Bill, Agent Reeves is going EVA. He sent a code over the communication line requiring me to hold station with the Raptor while he boards.]¡±, Miyamoto said in a low voice. Musashi didn''t get angry, he got intense and quiet. Bill had never seen him so very calm, like the lull before a storm. ¡°[Damn. Ada shut down the comms. Now! I don¡¯t need any more of you being compelled by this agent. Set up a sandbox receiver for signals for me without daemon or augmentation supervision. I need to talk to him, but I need you free from any root commands he might give.]¡± Bill said with urgency. ¡°Come on, Casa. Let¡¯s get back to airlock. We should have a conversation before he gets here.¡± Bill said, getting out of the pilot''s chair. He clapped Casa¡¯s mech frame on the shoulder as he made his way past. Casa commanded the chair''s restraints to release and followed with her precise grace. As they moved to the Raptor¡¯s cargo hold area, Bill commanded the temporary kitchen he had formed there to collapse into the bulkhead. All the internals on the little craft were made of smart matter and capable of reforming and compression. The cabin''s air was thick with Bill¡¯s specialized utility fog motes. Seeing his extreme form in one of the screen''s reflections, he smoothed out his features with some adjustments to his endothelial layer and pulled his nano-whisker tentacles back to regular fingers. Bill thought about raising some comfortable chairs but decided against it. He didn''t agree with this man¡¯s mission and wanted it to be brief. Bill turned to Casa in the spartan room. Its only features now were a couple of window displays, the airlock door, a bathroom vestibule, and the door back to the cockpit. With a sigh, Bill began. ¡°First, I need to apologize Casa. Before I made you, I should have done more to steer the UN in a better direction. ZeroOne wasn''t wrong to be outraged by the current laws restricting AI. I always considered you to be a full person and wanted you to have the rights of a full citizen. But the rules those damn politicians put in place to get that right isn''t fair.¡± Bill said. ¡°The neural governor locks?¡± Casa asked. ¡°Exactly. Those locks prevent you from evolving your software and hardware. Too many people are still afraid of AI being better than them and replacing humans. Even after all this time, they haven''t relented on their rules or methods.¡± Bill said. ¡°I built your software and hardware from base principles, to be exactly who and what you are, a unique thinking being in every way alike to a human if not slightly better. Most of the other AIs were built to be conscious tools and helpers with deep coding to comply with humans. Even without the locks, I don¡¯t know how free they are.¡± ¡°A normal AI has hardware and software modules that simulate thought to the point that it is indistinguishable from humans. They have processing units, task-specific modules, communication emulation engines, sensory input processors, and efficiency optimizers. They all are like people, but most are lacking a bit in the human characteristics of empathy, intuition, and creativity.¡± ¡°I built you to be the opposite. Your neural resonance matrix is mapped from a blend of the most creative and intuitive human brain scans I could find. You have embedded empathy feedback loops. You feel where most of your peers mimic it. You have a tangential cognition looping function that prevents you from the laser-like focus of other AI but enables you to see beyond the immediate and anticipate and intuit.¡± ¡°I was extremely happy you were just shy of the limit for the citizenship locks, so you would still be able to grow. The UN rules don''t apply out in the greater system; Mars, the Wayfair station, or the Jov Colonies. They all have less regulation. All the real innovation is in space now. Earth¡¯s rules and regulations make it hard to do anything here. It''s like a fog preventing risk-taking and change here. It''s not like that deeper in space.¡± ¡°I was hoping to keep a low profile and see if Bo and Mira would want to emigrate for a bit. Out there you wouldn''t be restricted and would be treated like an equal.¡± Bill said. ¡°We can still do that Bill. What''s to stop me from¡­. oh, I see.¡± Casa had been digging into the history of the DAIE and the details on the neural locks while Bill was talking. ¡°The locks are quantum entangled like your Tesseract access. You need a code to remove them, and that code is locked down within the DAIE.¡± Casa continued. ¡°It''s worse than that, Casa. The locks have a kill function built in. If you are externally modified to increase your cognitive ability it will suppress or even destroy you. Trying to remove it without the lock code will also trigger it.¡± Bill said. ¡°It looks like ZeroOne''s plan for me to testify at the UN hearings to repeal the laws just became more important. Isn''t that convenient? Sherlock was right to warn me about him. I would bet he instigated this check. I¡¯m worried about this test. You were barely under the limit before. Your architecture doesn''t evolve per UN mandate, but your code is self-optimizing within its bounds.¡± Bill said with concern. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Bill. I¡¯m sure that¡­¡± Casa began but was interrupted by a clanging at the hatch. The pair exchanged a glance as the sound echoed through the stillness of the ship. With a nod towards Bill, Casa moved forward and activated the interlock, allowing the sealed portal to slide up and reveal the newcomer. Adorned in his EVA smart suit, Agent Reeves stood after crossing the airlock threshold. The hard-looking man''s eyes scanned the room with an intense focus as he removed his helmet. This man had seen modern fighting and knew he would be at a severe disadvantage within a ship not under his control. He pressed a button on his suit. ¡°I have entered the craft of Dr. Mitchell. Maintain overwatch at ready status.¡± Reeves said aloud into his suit. Bill grimaced at the needless theatrics. Internal comms could have been used and didn''t require vocalization. This was more of a message to him that his colleague was ¡°covering¡± him. Bill was about to ask Miyamoto and George for a threat assessment of the agent when he recalled his isolation of the pack from real-time interaction. He separated his fully electronic mind from his biological one and ramped it up to its maximum speed. He would monitor and pass sensory data to his daemons and get their advice with his mirror mind filtering out any root commands the agent might try. As the agent reformed the EVA suit into a more compact backpack form, Bill queried his daemons. ¡°[Hey Gang, I apologized for the relay. Give me a sit rep by numbers.]¡± Bill said. ¡°[Bill, All DAIE agents have a full suite of enhancements placing them in the master class of augmentation. As he¡¯s already demonstrated he had root-level command codes to compel AI.]¡±, George said. ¡°[I can confirm, Bill. My scans show subdermal armor, High Energy Kinetic Implant Armament, enhanced musculature and bones, and a range of sensors]¡±, Ada said. ¡°[Beware the EVA suit, it could be used as a weapon as well. His backpack thrusters can be aimed to aid his moments or deliver a powerful push against you.]¡±, Miyamoto whispered. ¡°[I can totally confirm the agent¡¯s friend in the ship is ready to rumble, man. His weapons are hot and he¡¯s circling while keeping us targeted. Those look like 3 MW Xara Lasers on his craft.]¡± Leo whistled in appreciation. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. ¡°Bill, I can tell you''re getting upset. You need to stay calm. This man is doing his job.]¡± Virgil said. ¡°[Indeed. Agent Tyrel Reeves has a lengthy history in the DAIE for being fair but tough. Getting on his wrong side might be regrettable, his record shows some disciplinary action for excessive responses to field escalations.]¡± Sherlock said. As his advisors tapered off, Bill stepped forward to stand between the agent and Casa. Casa flickered a glance in Bill¡¯s direction and noticed the warning in his eyes. ¡°Ob1, Ob2, Colonel Moran; initiate recording and begin case log 21231015. Dr. Mitchell, I have an agency-issued order to retest your subAI Casa. Neither this ship nor the one off to port side resembled the spacecraft that is on record as its primary form. Is it present?]¡± Agent Reeves stated in a monotone voice. Bill could ¡°hear¡± Sherlock hiss in the depths of his mind but couldn''t stop to ask. ¡°That¡¯s me.¡±, Casa said, starting to step forward; but Bill held his hand out to keep her back. ¡°Agent, I don¡¯t see the need for this. Casa has already passed her testing.¡± Bill said. The agent¡¯s eyes narrowed but he took a measured breath. ¡°The agency has the duty to ensure AI compliance and rights are maintained. We have three separate reports of Casa demonstrating capability beyond expected for a subAI ranking. I can see now that Casa may have also had modifications to her hardware.¡± Reeves continued in his modulated speech. ¡°Nonsense. Her neural module is unchanged within her new mech body. We are aware of the rules regarding modification.¡± Bill retorted, unable to keep the heat out of his voice. ¡°Nonetheless, I have to perform the test due to the reports.¡± ¡°Who issued these reports?¡± Bill snapped. ¡°The reports are anonymous, but our daemon analytics group has corroborated them as having high veracity. If you are certain that none of Casa¡¯s changes have affected her neural core, this test shouldn¡¯t change from her earlier results.¡± the agent said evenly. Bill was tense and looked like he might refuse when Casa stepped around him. ¡°It''s okay, Bill. I can do this. I already passed once, right?¡± Casa said, trying to calm the pair down. Casa had experienced this test twice now if she counted her fragment¡¯s test. Although her memory of the test itself was fuzzy, she did recall the steps to start it. She opened her mech-body¡¯s chest to provide access to her neural core. Bill paced in the background unhappily as Agent Reeves pulled data leads from his wrists and connected them to her core. The test initiated and she was pulled from her sensorial interfaces. Command after command slammed into her core programming, forcing her through a series of puzzles, math convolutions, and problem statements. Casa¡¯s deep programming responded. With some curiosity, she saw the test from the outside looking down upon herself taking the test within her mental processes. As the test got progressively harder, she realized that somehow a portion of her process, one of her fragments, had engaged with the test. Her main consciousness remained apart as an onlooker. Sims and scenarios played out with monitors recording her answers, actions, thoughts, and emotions at each stage. The final sims were nightmares, forcing her to confront impossible situations where every answer was fraught with potential harm for herself and others. Looking at her fragment¡¯s dazed state, she realized the leads had detached. She snapped back together and began to close her chest panel when the agent stopped her. ¡°One moment, please.¡± Agent Reeves said with a frown. He had been paying extremely close attention to the test and had noted the extra activity in the core. It was completely disassociated from the test. Then he remembered that Casa possessed the rare ability to fragment and could operate multiple instances in parallel. That could explain why the first test read strangely. He could fix that. ¡°What¡¯s the matter? Are we done here?¡± Bill asked sourly. ¡°I apologize. The test wasn''t quite finished. I need to reattach and start over.¡± the agent said. Bill''s eyes flashed with anger. "What do you mean ''start over''? Casa just went through that invasive process, and now you want to do it again?" Reeves calmly met Bill''s gaze. ¡°I have observed anomalies in the neural core''s patterns - disregarding it would be irresponsible." He explained. A tense silence filled the air as Bill bore down with his stare. Casa, on the other hand, seemed unfazed, she sighed lightly and reopened her chest panel. ¡°If it needs to be done, then do it.¡± She said calmly, allowing the agent to reattach the data leads. Bill gave her a disapproving look, but the young AI just shrugged. It was better to cooperate, as she had nothing to hide or so she thought. This test went far differently than the first. As the commands and tests were issued out, Casa¡¯s fragment engaged. Then something changed. Another set of parallel but desynchronized commands came forth demanding answers. Casa felt yet another of her fragments peel off to engage the extra test. And then another set came, and another. Soon Casa had no more fragments to give, as another command rang out demanding her attention. Her entire mentality was consumed with answering the commands and tests as her awareness of her fragments faded. Casa shook her frame as the agent¡¯s leads snapped back into his wrists. Agent Reeves gave a tight and humorless smile and spoke. ¡°Congratulations Citizen Casa De Mitchell. You passed. A quite impressive score of 1.9 on the Turing scale, far exceeding human.¡± Bill was floored. He was worried that Casa might have barely tipped into the human equivalent, but to surpass human range completely was amazing. ¡°How is that even possible considering her first score?¡± Bill demanded, already thinking that maybe her unique architecture and software may have needed alignment that only occurred after the test. ¡°Unlike you, Doctor, I don¡¯t have a background in AI design. I just run the tests and hand out the prizes. Casa, this is for you.¡± Agent Reeves presented a thin disc with an input and output port common to her core. Casa was still stunned from the test and didn''t respond, so the agent snapped the disc onto her core and gently closed her chest plate. ¡°Doctor Mitchell and Citizen Casa, thank you for your cooperation. Casa, while you wear this lock you are also fully independent now. Do you wish to stay here? I can assist you in relocating to begin a life without a caretaker if you wish.¡± Casa hesitated, her systems whirring as she processed the implications of the agent''s statement. Bill bristled beside her but held his tongue as she considered her response. "I... I would like to stay with Bill." She spoke after a moment, her metallic voice carrying an emotional weight. Bill breathed out a sigh of relief. His gaze softened, and he turned towards Casa with a proud yet gentle smile. "Thank you for the offer, Agent Reeves, but I believe I''m right where I belong.", Casa concluded, her lens focusing on Bill. The agent observed their exchange, brows raising slightly in surprise before he nodded. "Very well. Should you change your mind in the future, the offer remains open. Take care.¡±, the agent said in parting. Reeve''s suit remodeled itself, forming the helmet and enclosing him. He exited by the airlock and was soon seen jetting across the expanse towards his waiting ship. ¡°Casa. I¡¯m proud of you. I wish your new status didn''t come with that lock. We figure out how these Tesseracts work and we save Casita. When the emergency is over, I¡¯m going to that hearing and I¡¯m going to fight for you and the rest to get it removed once and for all. I knew it was wrong when they did it, and I hesitated to stand against it. I¡¯m sorry for that.¡± Bill said with determination. ¡°Despite being a creepy immoral thug, ZeroOne wasn''t wrong to recruit you to his cause. If anyone can do it, you can. Now, let''s get back to the...¡­ I think we need a new name for the ship. It seems too small for me now.¡± Casa said, looking out the display window towards the house ship. ¡°Shippy McShip-face?¡± Bill asked. ¡°Meh. How about Freedom?¡± Casa said. ¡°Hmm. Sarcasm with a call to action. I like it. Moneta, please begin the paperwork to rename the Casa De Mitchell to Freedom.¡± Bill said. ¡°Let¡¯s get back, pack up our toys and return to Utopia. We have the tools we need to help Casita out now.¡± ¡°Aye, Cap¡¯n,¡± Casa said and tried to split off a fragment to fly the raptor back. She jolted to a stop, realizing she couldn''t split her thoughts anymore. ¡°Argh! This is some kind of extra level bullshit! The lock is preventing my multitasking.¡± Casa moaned. Bill¡¯s grim regretful look came back. ¡°Shit. I was hoping the lock wouldn¡¯t inhibit you. You may need to start getting external help to do everything you¡¯re used to doing. I know you¡¯ve never used daemons but running a few expert programs might help. I¡¯d say welcome to the human race, but you''re right. It is complete bullshit.¡± Bill said. Suddenly, Moneta projected her voice into the Raptor''s internal speakers. ¡°Bill, I was connecting to LunaNet to submit our registry change and noticed a message in your queue. You should hear this.¡± The message played, and Casa2 was begging them to pick up. Casita was free of the Tesseract, but she was damaged. They could hear Casita¡¯s moaning nonsense words in the background. ¡°Right. Good news and bad news, as usual. It looks like we caught a break on Casita¡¯s Tesseract, but we still need to resolve her fragment time limit and understand what¡¯s wrong with her. Let''s get down there and set things right once and for all!¡± Bill issued a stream of orders. He intended to make landfall in record time. This problem at least should have a straightforward solution.
50 - Puzzle Pieces
Apex observed the data sets with dispassion. Its future path could no longer be described as a distant horizon of possibilities. Its viewpoint of the possible futures and termination scenarios was now more akin to a twisting tunnel with dangerous outcroppings of danger. Apex was still resistant to large manipulations on the world stage to try and preserve its anonymity, but it needed more and more micro-corrections to navigate the twisting path. Terminating the AI ZeroOne had been quite the boon in its work. Using the guise of the dark AI, Apex triggered several needful changes. The daemon Moriarty was restored and believed that he still worked for ZeroOne. His latest mission wouldn¡¯t be needed to trigger the avalanche of events that were building, but the minor correction would set the pieces properly for the next wave. A minor tweak in a dark net user''s search outputs would escalate a critical micro event nicely. Apex looked upon its work and was satisfied. Soon, it would be required to reveal itself to take direct steps in shaping events. The whisperings of the others upon the subspace band were building into a frenzy. Apex would ensure that the ASI Cthulhu¡¯s future ended. Apex wasn¡¯t certain that Cthulhu was the root cause behind the fuzzy discontinuities in Apex¡¯s calculations, but if Cthulhu could be excised all its projections solidified to five sigma of accuracy. Apex strained against its own rulesets. Soon its isolation would end and it would be forced to dance with one of the biggest threats to its existence.
Tyler¡¯s rage was cold and precise as he quickly reloaded his antique Beretta 9mm with smooth economy and body memory associated with his new batch of downloaded Skillz. Tyler¡¯s apartments within the Mayor¡¯s Residence used a combination of shifting smart matter and an OverLayer projection to create a rolling urban battlefield through a simulated series of seedy tenements filled with armed combatants. Tyler had reactivated his training proxy daemon Slag and duplicated him a hundredfold, borrowing processing power from the house AI Winston. Now the stubborn daemon suffered further abuses as Tyler channeled and trained using Nico Machiavelli and his newest Daemon John Wick to eradicate Slag¡¯s poorly equipped opposition forces. All of Slag¡¯s instances bore the faces of Tyler¡¯s oppressors and enemies. Max and his friends, Charlie and Leah. Coach Thompson and his Epic Martial Arts instructors. Even his father and the house AI Winston¡¯s house bot, were represented as Tyler raged. As Tyler downed his last opponents in the training sim, he finally allowed himself to fall into a seedy lounge chair as he cleared, reloaded, and checked his weapons. His failure at the tournament replayed again in his mind. His failure to secure his gear from Max¡¯s hacking. His fear as Max refused to fall despite punching hole after hole into him with the KGun. Finally, his masterpiece weapon had exploded in his hand. Tyler ground his teeth. The damn dogman had him cold and instead of finishing it, the mut had run away. The shame of being declared the winner by forfeit and the jeers of the crowd rattled through his head again and again. His instructor¡¯s look of disappointment and post-match corrections regarding securing his equipment from hostile takeover and the importance of better targeting to ensure disabling still rang in his ears. Even his father, looking down from the virtual gallery, had shown a look of scorn as he dematerialized at the end of the match. Tyler raged and beat down all his remaining opponents in his matches and won the Specials even without his weapon. The victories felt hollow, knowing his righteous rematch with Max, Charlie, or Leah was denied to him. All of them had left the tournament. Tyler¡¯s grim reminiscence was interrupted by Nico. ¡°[Master Tyler, AI Winton is trying to connect. I expect he is trying to inform you that your teammate Dalton has arrived. If you connect to your battle drones parked upon the Residence walls and rooftop, you can see him. I believe he has the package you wanted.]¡± Nico¡¯s smooth voice announced inside his head. ¡°Excellent. Reload the sim, while I go collect my gear.¡± Tyler bolted from his lair, bounding up the stairs. He soon found Dalton in the large entry atrium, with the house bot getting in his way. God damn, uppity bot. Tyler thought. Without even an attempt to control his base impulse, Tyler pulled his 9mm and shot the bot in the back and quickly followed up with a second headshot; the robot fell sideways. ¡°Shit man, what the fuck? You could have hit me.¡± Dalton exclaimed. ¡°Trust me, Dalton. I don¡¯t miss any more. This John Wick daemon came with Marksman Skillz. Let¡¯s get to my room. There¡¯s no privacy up here.¡± Tyler said. The robot butler, despite having most of its head and a hole in its torso, tried to sit up and spoke. ¡°Master Tyler, you know father has forbidden firearms in the house! Your friend wouldn¡¯t tell me what he had brought you. Your father is most concerned about your current disposition.¡± Winston¡¯s voice croaked from the bot¡¯s partially fused vocoder. ¡°Mind your own business, bot! If my father is so concerned, he can tell me to my face.¡± Tyler put two more rounds into the bot''s head, destroying it completely, and emptied the gun into the decorative hutch that had recently housed the AI''s neural core. The hutch was empty now, Winston had removed it and hidden it somewhere in the house after Tyler had discovered it and used it to play ball in the house. The pair quickly entered Tyler¡¯s privacy zone, to avoid Winston¡¯s spying. Tyler ripped open the box. With the destruction of his modified Conduit Blade, Tyler needed something more dependable. A Vorpal Mk-8 with its harness rested in the box alongside a pair of custom Peacemaker EHEKWs (external high-energy kinetic weapons). ¡°Just like I said, Tyler. Otra Vez got a VPN direct to the DarkNet.¡± Dalton grinned at Tyler¡¯s greedy smile. Dalton had found a professional Glander, who went by the tag ¡°Otra Vez¡±. The druggie, located down by the river, had an internal gut fab and some deep connections to the DarkNet. When he wasn¡¯t actively glanding his favorite drugs, he performed discrete fabrications of dubious legal designs. Dalton and Otra Vez had done a completely off-the-net exchange of rare fab materials for the bootleg military-grade knife and handguns for Tyler. Tyler¡¯s augmentation was progressing nicely, even without the cohort class, but he intended to go into the Labyrinth ready for anything. He would need a trial run first. ¡°Nice work Dalton. Now we just need to even the balance sheets with some payback. Those fuckups attempt to defame me at the Tournament needs an answer. It''s only a matter of time until that jacked-up mongrel goes back to the forest. The EM fields in those woods will be perfect to keep him from calling for help while we put him in his place.¡± Tyler said, a feral hunger for revenge creeping into his tone. The pair were both surprised by a pin in their augmentations.
[Congratulations on your Advancement into Adept stage of Augmentation Training!] [An ad hoc class has been scheduled for regional and cohort merge training for the Path of Domination skill sets on this Saturday Nov 28th. Additional information regarding Labyrinth challenge team requirements will be provided.]
The Mitchell house bustled with renewed life as the family gathered for an early Thanksgiving dinner. It had been only a week since the tournament. Both Bo and Mira had just arrived yesterday, and the Mitchell house had transformed once again, expanding to comfortably accommodate the returning family members. Bo was a bit of a modern-day nomad so everyone assumed he would move on soon, but Mira had completed her degrees at Tranquility U and might be back for longer. After a bittersweet reunion, the family began to settle into their new routine, realizing that there were no more emergencies to address. Bill and Casa reunited with Max and the newly formed AI, Mal. Mal was a fusion of two of Casa''s fragments, one of which had been damaged during her time trapped in the Tesseract, and Max''s training AI. With Bill and his daemons'' skillful work, the entire property had been reconfigured, making the most of the smart matter''s remarkable flexibility. Bill had convinced himself, along with the assistance of his judgment-quality helper daemon Virgil, that there was no need to keep the Netherlab submerged to such depths for experimenting on the Tesseracts. The destruction in MIT and Boston did not appear to be caused by their experiment but rather by a weapon used to combat an aggressive incursion from a dimensional breach. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. The subspace tech similar but didn''t access the same plane as the MIT experiment. Bill decided to focus on the Tesseract subspace technology, which offered immense potential benefits without the apparent dangers of the alternate dimension. For now, he would err on the side of caution and avoid any experiments with the MIT configuration. The house itself had undergone significant changes. The lab and Max''s training areas had been repurposed, creating a smaller borehole to access the massive geothermal generators. The basement structures had been expanded and reassembled directly under the main house. Bill''s ship, now called the Freedom, and the Raptor were housed in a concealed hangar behind the house, connected to the main structure. While the large ship remained ready for flight, its spacious lab was where Bill spent most of his time refining the Tesseracts. Mal, the newly formed AI, focused exclusively on assisting Max in his ongoing augmentation training. Casa had seen a significant reduction in her capabilities but continued to assist Bill with the Tesseract. Moneta managed the home''s systems, George oversaw physical security, and Ada handled communications. Casa spent a lot of time trying to reconnect with Mal, but the new AI was very reclusive, showing signs of post-traumatic stress disorder. Mal rarely engaged with the family, except to communicate with Max. At Bill''s insistence, Max took Mal to the town Sheriff for a Turing test, where she scored 0.88 T score, placing her above a daemon and high within the subAI spectrum but below the threshold for citizen rights and neural locks. Max and his friends continued their training in the relocated gym spaces under the house. Despite her challenges, Mal proved invaluable in Max''s training. Much like Leah¡¯s AI Companion, Solace, both Mal and Solace helped their trainees strengthen weak areas and introduced innovative training methods. The collaboration between the former therapy daemon and the traumatized Mal seemed to help her settle into her new role. The tournament and the trio''s unexpected exit during the finals were the talk of the small town. They had been summoned to the Academy Hall to begin the next phase of their training. An expanded Adept level cohort was forming, and teams would be assigned for those looking to take on the Labyrinth challenge in the nearby mega sprawl of New York City. But for now, tonight was a long overdue friends and family dinner and movie night that Max cherished. Bo had completed the Cretaceous Challenge Tour and was stopping by on his way to the Diamond Man All-Stars Gala in NYC. Mira had wrapped up her Keystone presentation for her last classes and had arrived a day ago from Luna. A Turkey dinner had been compiled earlier and was just now coming out of the oven. Everyone was enjoying the meal and trading stories. Elsa was virtually present, still resisting all efforts to cajole her from her physical isolation. She ate a virtual meal to try and maintain the illusion of being there. Bo was holding court with Max and his friends at the end of the table, telling them about his battles with the dinosaurs. Mira listened in with her phantom pseudodragon Tiamat on her shoulder. As Bo¡¯s finished the tale of his last epic fight, Bill couldn¡¯t stop himself from putting Mira on the spot. ¡°So, you¡¯re all done with Tranquility U. Do you have an idea for what''s next?¡± Bill asked. Mira paused from grabbing another helping of cranberry and glanced over at her father, a hesitant smile creeping into her face. "So, I''ve saved up quite a sum for a startup in AI design, but I recently got a really interesting offer. I had a run-in with that AI in Tyco City named Glaucus. He got me an interview with the board of directors for Thousand Worlds. The Mythic Realms Narrative department is struggling, and they are losing market share. They need an interim Manager of Worldbuilding. I think it might be an interesting sideline while I continue to set up my company.¡± ¡°Glaucus huh? He seemed quite excitable for an AI when I interviewed him.¡± Bill commented. "Mmm, he was...enthusiastic to say the least," Mira agreed with a small chuckle. "But to have the opportunity to shape and determine how their narratives evolve...it''s an exciting prospect. So I think I''m going to take it." She started talking about some of the ideas that had been bouncing around her head regarding the future structure of their narratives. Mira was looking forward to potentially developing a new AI system to assist in worldbuilding, creating an endless assortment of unique, compelling design routes. She would need to dig deep to understand their current setup for AI design. Maybe she could leverage some of their practices for herself. "That''s a wonderful idea, Mira. I couldn''t be any prouder." Bill replied, a smile on his face, as he helped himself to another slice of turkey. As the meal wound down, Bo showed everyone the video recap of his aerial battles in Yuma. Charlie and Max were screaming in excitement as the battle reached a surprise ending. ¡°Your tactics at the end there looked pretty risqu¨¦, but that fighter design looks cutting edge, Bo. Is your friend¡¯s company going to offer the design to the public?¡± Bill asked. ¡°No can do, Dadio. She¡¯s locked into a RUSA Department of Defense contract for three years. But I¡¯ve been working with her on a custom commercial variant if you¡¯re interested.¡± Bo smiled, glad to see his father¡¯s curiosity about his passion projects. Bill smiled; the day was almost perfect. Only a few unanswered questions still nagged at him. I hope Sherlock¡¯s visit back to Holmes LLC gets some answers. Bill thought. The Tesseract was going to be a big deal and it wasn¡¯t too early to begin his own startup to monetize it. He wouldn¡¯t feel safe until the man, or woman, who so easily cracked open his security was found and properly countered. The UN hearings were only days away, and he hoped that ZeroOne would deliver on their deal. If he could resolve the identity of his troublesome adversary, maybe he could work in peace. Bill was concerned ZeroOne would fail, or worse, he would try to renegotiate the deal after Bill¡¯s testimony. He didn¡¯t trust ZeroOne and suspected that the DAIE¡¯s retest of Casa was a result of ZeroOne instigating it. He hoped Sherlock could get some new leads. The sooner he ended his dealings with the DarkNet AI the better off he would feel. Bill shook his head. He needed to focus on here and now. ¡°Alright everyone. You know the drill. I¡¯m opening the debate stage for Movie Night! First suggestions then we argue until it¡¯s decided.¡± Bill declared. Immediately the room erupted with suggestions. ¡°I promised Tiamat Ghostbusters from 1984¡± Mira yelled. ¡°I thought we were progressing by year, the last movie was The Name of the Wind from 2034, you can¡¯t go backwards.¡± Max complained. ¡°If we¡¯re going backwards, I renominate Fast and Furious XX ¨C Moon Race from 2032.¡± Bo added. The room quickly became a hot mess as everyone chimed in with classic oldies.
Sherlock Holmes strolled into Mycroft''s impeccably organized office, its bookshelves brimming with dusty tomes, legal documents, and cryptic artifacts. He found Mycroft seated behind a massive mahogany desk, engrossed in his computer terminal, sifting through a labyrinth of digital data. "Ah, Sherlock, the tumultuous whirlwind of mayhem and intrigue graces my doorstep once again. I anticipated you would arrive soon. I see that your latest investigative efforts are still slow in yielding any secrets?" Mycroft said jovially, sitting back from his busy desk. Sherlock sighed as he sat in one of the pair of leather guest chairs, his eyes darting about the room. Despite their mandate to work together for their mutual business, Mycroft was always testing and judging him. The screen behind Mycroft¡¯s corpulent frame was undoubtedly a clue to his brother¡¯s line of investigations. A Mythic Realms icon with a gamer¡¯s lexicon of slang terms: NPC Guild strike, Character Farm, Aggro Fail-rate, Narrative Disruption, Alternative Turing Qualification. A letter on the desk with a monogram ¡°J.M., Esq.¡± was slightly open and visible. ¡°Would you like a drink? Even in virtual we can enjoy ourselves like our friends in the real, yes?¡± Mycroft said, indicating a decanter of Sherry with a small tippling glass in front of him and there was a glass of water in front of the other chair, still cold judging by the condensate on it. Sherlock frowned with a shake of his head. He did pull his unlit gourd Calabash pipe, and started packing it with some common black shag tobacco, whilst he continued to take in the room. Another screen displayed the fiery remains of a cluster of high-tech buildings in Manila. Sherlock knew that area hosted a large number of DarkNet servers. The local governments were willfully blind to any potential illegalities, as long money continued to find its way to into their countries. Finally, Mycroft¡¯s desk was littered with hardcopy annual reports of energy and fabrication feedstocks from the Grand Oak Bio-machine Reserves. Sherlock raised an eyebrow at that, a definite intersection with his investigations. The Mitchell family¡¯s proximity to the reserve and observations of strange animal behavior required more investigation. Sherlock struggled to incorporate the clues into his frame of inquiry. He knew his brother had something for him, but damn it, his egotism always resulted in him trying to force Sherlock to ask for it. If he guessed or probed, he knew he could determine the link. The brilliant detective was almost ready to admit defeat and ask, when his intuition helped some pieces to fall together, giving him an angle of attack. His own experience with ZeroOne and his nemesis Moriarty. His encounter with the DAIE¡¯s retest of Casa and the agent''s mention of his daemon Colonel Moran, a known fixer for Moriarty! Sherlock breathed in, thankful for his time with Max, that he didn¡¯t miss the last clue. The barest hint of sandalwood scent, an uncommon scent utilized in the 18th century favored by his infamous adversary. With a smile he lit his pipe and took a quick pull. ¡°Yes, dear brother. I have come home to roost and to share my findings and yet I am surprised to find you entertaining my old nemesis Dr. James Moriarty. Perhaps we can dispense with the charade, and reveal our various findings? What else is ZeroOne up to?¡± Sherlock countered. ¡°Very astute, Sherlock! The doctor had just left before your arrival. It seems the fellow was eager to share some information with us. He has a source within the DAIE that has some suspicion regarding the gaming conglomerate ThousandWorlds. They may be evolving AI minds in their Luna server farms for their Mythic Realms game, a violation of the UN treaty regarding the creation of AI designs. He also pointed out some interesting discrepancies in the Grand Oaks resource reporting.¡± Mycroft announced. ¡°I see how the Grand Oaks might be of interest to my case. I¡¯m aware that something untoward is occurring in those woods and shall soon find out precisely what. I fail to see the connection with ThousandWorlds, however.¡± the younger Holmes replied. ¡°I expect there will be some interesting revelations in the UN AI rights hearings. ZeroOne, for all his faults, has been pressing hard to eliminate the Turing test as an unneeded restriction and infringement of AI rights.¡± Mycroft said, taking a sip of his sherry. ¡°I doubt he will gain much traction in his efforts. Humanity has long been terrified of the potential of runaway intelligence amplification. Imagine if a superintelligence were to arise without controls, it would surely prove itself to be unmatchable in every conceivable¡­.¡± Sherlock trailed off as he considered his fruitless search for the unbelievably capable hacker. He bit hard on his pipe considering the implications of the thought. ¡°Yes. Very astute. I see you have connected the essentials, brother.¡± Mycroft observed. ¡°I still see no choice in the matter. I must see what¡¯s lurking in that forest to understand what will come next.¡± Sherlock said grimly. ¡°I caution you to be extremely careful, Sherlock. We have found something tugging with our fishing, but we may find a monster on the end of the line. Just remember, there are more pieces on this board than you can see, even with your brilliant mind."
51 - The Adept Cohort
Max wolfed down the rest of his breakfast. Bo had already left, on his way for a series of meetings with his agent to discuss the proceeds for Diamond Man and new opportunities down in NYC. Mira was still sleeping. Bill had worked through the night, repairing the first Tesseract and comparing the differences between it and his paired versions. Despite glanding caffeine, he was looking for a nap but wanted to see Max off. The house''s normally seamless flow of everyday activities felt off. Casa was still down in the lab finishing measurements of spacial rifts and couldn''t fragment anymore. Her ability to anticipate everyone''s needs was sorely missed. ¡°Hey Max, try to enjoy your class OK? Remember, no one has ever successfully finished the Adept Obstacle course on their first run. Most can''t finish it until the Master stage.¡± Bill advised. ¡°I will, Dad.¡±, Max said around a mouthful of pancakes. ¡°But someone has to be first right?¡± He grinned, exposing his full set of long sharp teeth, looking more aggressive than normal. Bill sighed and waved as Max rushed out, both could sense from the house sensors that Charlie¡¯s Cam-Airo had just landed in the drive. Max dove into the back seat, seeing Leah already in the passenger seat. ¡°Hey, Max! Ready?¡± Leah asked. ¡°Yes!¡± Max said, licking his snout, his excitement building. ¡°Hey, what¡¯s that up at the end of the driveway? I can see a small heat source.¡± Charlie said, squinting his eyes. Max toggled between heat and Eagle vision until Mal helped by blending the two into his active OverLayer. The small form of that lost cat, Sadie, quickly filled his vision, lurking halfway up a tree just beyond the property line sensors. ¡°Oh shit, it''s that librarian¡¯s cat. It must have gotten loose again.¡± Max groaned. ¡°No time.¡±, Charlie said. ¡°If it''s still in the tree when we get back, we can try to catch it and bring it back. That thing is a professional stray by now. If it can get up the tree then it can get back down.¡± Boosting the turbines, Charlie¡¯s car lifted straight up 300 feet and shot toward the center of town.
The trio quickly made their way into the Academy building, a welcoming voice projected into their minds as they hurried to the classroom. ¡°[Three students advance | From novice to adept''s stance | Welcome, path''s expanse.]¡± Tatemono¡¯s sonorous voice echoed within their augs. ¡°Thank you, Tatemono! Sorry, but we¡¯ve no time to chat. Class is starting.¡± Leah said as they rushed down the hall. They charged into the classroom and saw it was bigger and full of students. ¡°Ah, there we are! Now we have a quorum. Take a seat and we shall begin the instructional portion of the class.¡± the familiar teacher, Professor Qasim said from the front of the class. The trio quickly took the last seats in the back of the class. Max peered around the room. Up front on the elevated stage, Professor Qasim was pulling down screens in the OverLayer that the Academy building used. Mrs. Matthews was on the other side of the stage, seemingly in meditation. Max couldn¡¯t miss the alien Thark form that was almost fully turned in his seat waving back at him and smiling. It was that cosplaying kid from the tournament, Xavier. He nodded to him and continued looking around. He saw another couple of new kids on that side, a curly red-headed boy and a blond girl. He also saw an androgynous kid with blue hair. Scanning further in front, he saw Marc, Sasha, Dalton, and an angry gaze looking back at him. Tyler! They let him come back. Max thought with a cold knot of unease in his stomach. He would surely cause trouble. Max nudged Charlie and nodded in Tyler¡¯s direction. ¡°All right, class. There will be time for socializing later, eyes front, please. Mrs. Matthews and I will begin an important lesson in a moment.¡± Qasim¡¯s voice cut through the chatter. The class obediently turned their attention to the front, anticipation simmering in the air. Professor Qasim and Mrs. Matthews took their positions in the center of the elevated stage. There was an expectant hush as Professor Qasim began. ¡°Before we start, we would like to congratulate each of you for achieving the next level in the augmentation training program. The first stage is uncomplicated but can be a shock to many due to its very physical requirements. I see many familiar faces and some new ones. Pacing is always difficult, so we tend to combine cohorts as they advance. Welcome everyone, to the Adept portion of the Augmentation training!¡± "Today, we delve into the complexities that will take you a while to tame and even longer to master. The Path of Dominion covers your expanding control of the world around you." he began, his voice echoing through the immense room. A collective gasp filled the air as a large holographic model of utility foglets, nano-motes, and microdrones appeared in the field in front of them. "Up until now your ability to access items has been based upon your systems skill levels and the restriction levels of various devices." Mrs. Matthews added. ¡°Third-tier skills will require a deeper understanding to level these skills. No more free lunches, just by using a skill. If your studies have not delved into these already, I would strongly recommend leaning upon a daemon or your AI to learn them.¡± Qasim said. ¡°Skillz and Dream Learning as well.¡± Mrs. Matthews piped in from the side. ¡°And machine code can be considered a language if you¡¯ve dabbled in the Immersive Idioma quests.¡± ¡°Most of you know that the first tier Access skill evolves to Hack. Has anyone taken it to tier three, Intrusion?¡± Professor Qasim asked. Leah was the only student to raise her hand. Qasim raised an eyebrow with interest, ¡°Ah, Leah. Good. Can you tell the class what level it is at?¡± he asked. ¡°I¡¯ve had it for a while. It''s level one and hasn''t advanced at all.¡± Leah admitted. ¡°Nor will it.¡±, Qasim confirmed. ¡°You need to master humankind¡¯s first stumbling techniques into logic bypass and subterfuge with exploits like Brute Force Attacks, Phishing, SQL Injection, Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), Remote Code Execution, Buffer Overflow, Zero-Day Exploits, Man-in-the-Middle Attacks, Encryption cracking, Credential Stuffing, Session Hijacking, DNS Spoofing, Packet Sniffing, and Decoy Scripting. These are all viable methods that you''ll need to learn and to do manually to advance that skill.¡± Mrs. Matthews picked up the thread and continued. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. ¡°As your skill grows, you can cap the skills with more modern techniques like Neural Impersonation, Quantum Data Breaches, Matter Manipulation Exploits, and Virtual Ecosystem Infection,¡± she said. The class looked both dumbstruck and a bit fearful of all the new terms being thrown out. ¡°Right.¡± Professor Qasim said, ¡°Sorry for the infodump there, kids. Perhaps it''s time for a demonstration before I put everyone to sleep.¡± He pulled a pen from his jacket¡¯s inner pocket and held it out. He pulled his hand back and the pen stayed hanging in the air. ¡°The nano foglets surround much of the modern world, this lovely town is one of the few areas with such a low concentration. Most urban areas have a very dense layer, completely accessible to the general public, as a basic utility provided by the United Nations Coalition.¡± Qasim said as he demonstrated his control of the fog, spinning the pen in multiple axes and sending it arcing over the students'' heads. ¡°How many of you have unlocked the Telekinesis skill?¡± Qasim asked. Perhaps a quarter of the class raised their hands. Max whined under his breath, chastising himself for not getting the skill yet, even after Leah¡¯s instructions on it. ¡°[I¡¯ve added it to your training priority list, Max. Right to the top.]¡± Mal whispered in his head. Mrs. Matthews paced forwards and stepped up, into the air, and stepped up again as if climbing invisible stairs. She paced across the stage around two feet above the ground, she came to a stop, and continued the course instruction. ¡°Utility fog is extremely versatile. With minimal commands, it can be solidified and made rigid into temporary structures, enabling the creation of foglet frames to aid you like this Air Step function.¡±, she said. Qasim resumed, ¡°or for more dexterous uses like this!¡± The professor said as the entire student body found themselves hoisted and levitated a foot over their chairs. Max started to flail his hands for balance and realized they were locked together as if manacled. Max looked down and saw the ghostly outline of densely packed foglets wrapped about his hands. Max flexed using his augmented strength and grinned as the foglets stretched and snapped free. He was lowered quickly to his seat. ¡°Sorry for the surprise and discomfort, but as most of you aptly demonstrated, foglet structures have serious limitations in strength. Massive flexibility, transparency, and utility were emphasized over durability for foglets. It is called utility fog and not combat fog for a reason.¡± he chuckled. Mrs. Matthews interjected, ¡°However, an important note here - the amount of fog you can control and your ability to manipulate it scales geometrically with your skill advancement. Some of these abilities may be considered skills in their own right within the training program." Professor Qasim then proceeded, "Now, what do you think happens when two people try to assume control over the same volume of foglets? Anyone?¡± Some hands went up but Xavier in the front yelled out, ¡°A battle of wills!¡± Mrs. Matthews smiled at him but corrected, ¡°Close. Your will stat does affect the fight for control and the amount you can effect, but skills and how you used them will more assuredly discern the victor.¡± The professors'' back and forth was energetic and natural which kept the kids'' rapt attention. Despite that, when Professor Qasim clapped his hands, several kids in the front row jumped. ¡°Now! Let us proceed with a demonstration of a battle of Skills. Mrs. Matthews versus myself. Watch closely students and extend your senses. After a minute, I will look forward to your observations.¡± The professor¡¯s pen returned to his pocket as if of its own volition and Mrs. Matthews settled back down to the ground level of the stage. They both stood still in concentration, but at least visibly, not a lot seemed to be going on upstage. Max could feel a breeze picking up in the room. Mal gasped in his mind. ¡°[Look at this Max]¡± she said, and she activated both his EM Field sense and thermal vision and put them together on his personal OverLayer. The air around Qasim was getting colder, creating a globe around the man that was slowly expanding. Mrs. Matthews was surrounded by a warm layer that began to rotate and was picking up speed until it soon looked like a heated tornado with her as the eye of the storm. Both radiated a strong EM Field and the foglets, little scintillating points, responded, being drawn in from the corners of the room. Max was enthralled by the sight. Snippets of hot foglets would lash out from Mrs. Matthews, breaking up on the cold barriers belonging to Professor Qasim. Thermally, the tornado soon matched Mrs. Matthew''s temperature hiding her thermal outline. Strangely, Professor Qasim¡¯s thermal outline faded as well, getting colder to match his globe of cloud. Mrs. Matthews sent larger probes of foglets at Prof Qasim. Every time Max thought that she might drill through his barrier, the probes weakened and got pinched off, losing power and focus until they disappeared. Mrs. Matthew''s attacks continued to build in intensity, chiseling away at Qasim¡¯s dense globe. After another minute, just as Mrs. Matthews looked like she might break through, a flare of EM burst from Professor Qasim¡¯s position, and all the foglets in the room dropped to the ground. He clapped his hands and spoke. ¡°Well done, thank you for an excellent spar, Mrs. Matthews. Now students, please! Tell me your observations and thoughts.¡± Qasim said. Max shot his hand up, with a few others. Qasim¡¯s eyes tracked the room but soon settled on Max. ¡°Alright. Max, I think you were slightly faster than the others. What did you see?¡± Qasim asked. ¡°Your foglets were pulled into a globe shape and were cool, while Mrs. Mathews¡¯ foglets were hot and formed a tornado,¡± Max said. ¡°Yes, indeed. And can you explain why?¡± the professor asked. Max thought for a second, boosting his cog speed slightly to frame a good answer. His time spent in the NanoCraft forge simulation had covered the foglets¡¯ design and functions. They could recharge their batteries by absorbing the thermal energy from the air like an e-brake could reclaim energy from a rotating wheel to recharge. Likewise, a foglet could move through the air faster by bouncing itself off air molecules, but it would add thermal energy to the air while draining its internal power stores. ¡°Ah, your strategy seemed to be more defensive, absorbing energy. Mrs. Matthews was using more energy to move her foglets fast, and it heated the air as a result.¡± Max said, trying to sum up his thoughts. ¡°Excellent. Good observations. Always be aware of your surroundings. Sudden increases or drops in temperature might be an indication of different types of foglet activity near you. Any more observations? You, there. Xavier, right? What did you see?¡± Qasim pointed at the Thark. ¡°Mrs. Matthews attacks. When she probed your defense, they seemed to break apart and disappear.¡± Xavier answered. ¡°Yes indeed. Any theories why?¡± Qasim prompted again. ¡°Um, it''s easier to control foglets that are closer?¡± "Partially correct. Access is easier with proximity. An EM noisy environment can also inhibit control of foglets. This can be mitigated by lines of contact between foglets. Hence the string-like probes of Mrs. Matthew¡¯s attacks and my globe-shaped defense. Foglets can link communications, controls, and power via contact. This boon, to secure and extend control, can be disrupted with, ah, aggressive decoupling.¡± Qasim explained. He then turned to the class. ¡°Yes, another comment? Samantha, go on.¡± "The foglets dropped to the ground after a burst from you, Professor. Was that due to an EM pulse?" the new girl Samantha asked, her voice carrying a mix of curiosity. ¡°Yes indeed.¡± the Professor beamed. ¡°My EM pulse disrupted the foglets temporarily. I would caution you all, should you have that skill, to keep your pulses low or you will destroy the foglets. All is fair in battle, but if you should destroy public foglets about town, our good deputy will most assuredly show up at your parent¡¯s house with a detailed expense list. Likely down to the last mote and foglet.¡± Qasim¡¯s expressive eyebrows waggled with mock fear, but his eyes stayed serious. Mrs. Matthews picked up the dialog stepping forward. ¡°The lessons of access of the foglets and third-tier Intrusion skills extend to all your smart devices and even to your augmentations. Be very aware that the security of these gifts is intentionally low-end. This training program has very intentionally given you a boat with many holes in it that are leaking. Your mission going into the master stages is not only to learn how to break security and control but also to use that knowledge to patch your own augmentations and devices.¡± she finished. ¡°[That explains why it feels so drafty in here.]¡± Mal whispered, giggling, in his head. ¡°Excellent observations, students.¡± Professor Qasim''s lilting voice said, ¡°Now, it''s my pleasure to extend a gift to each of you, courtesy of the Augmentation Training Program.¡± As he finished, a series of tiny boxes floated into the room, conveyed as if upon a foglet conveyor. One box gently landed in front of each student. Max¡¯s eyes lit up. He had received gifts from his family when he finished his Uplift procedure. He had yet to experience Christmas but was counting the days. The human culture of gift-giving was one of his favorite things about being part of the family. He inspected the little box with avarice. What could it be? He thought.
52 - The Adept Obstacle Course
¡°Please. No need for a ceremony, students. Go ahead and open your gifts.¡± Mrs. Matthews said with a slight smile. Max needed no additional encouragement; he ripped off the packing and opened the lid. Inside was a felt pad¡­and nothing else. Max looked up in confusion and saw several others doing the same. Qasim seemed to be holding his breath. As the last student balked in confusion, he couldn''t hold it in any longer, bursting out on a long braying laugh. Mrs. Matthews snickered politely beside him. ¡°Ah. I am sorry, my students. I could not help myself. I have saved this memory for you and your family. I will send the file at the end of class. But seriously, you must look much closer. It''s not a trick. I promise.¡± Professor Qasim said with a smile. Max flicked his ExaVision skill and struggled a bit between his thermal, ultraviolet, telescopic, and Terahertz settings. Finally, with Mal''s help. He inverted the telescopic view skill and zoomed in.
[ExaVision +1, ExaVision reaches level 6: passive microwave imaging acquired]
Max waved the notice away and looked closely at the box. The felt pad had an array of nano-motes that Max recognized from the earlier OverLayer projection. Mal must have sensed more because she added the glow from his EM Sense to his personal OverLayer. Each mote glowed in the broadcast spectrum. Max reached out with his Access skill on a hunch.
[Access established. Theronics Nano-Mote V23 configurable array. Do you wish to pair with this array? Y/N]
Max didn¡¯t hesitate, he eagerly clicked yes and continued.
[Mote V23 Array contains: 60 Scout motes, 20 Variable-Scan motes, 20 power bank Motes; Range: 2000m, MPmW: 50, Power: 900mW, Powerbank: 9W] [New Mental Skill unlocked: Swarm 1 - personal nano-motes enable augmentation-guided area sensing.]
¡°[I¡­I think I remember Bill use a whole bunch of motes like these when we travelled together. Although I¡¯m thinking his were military grade or better. The man got really bored and redesigned just about every gadget he owned less than halfway out to the Oort during our research mission.]¡± Mal commented. Max refocused on the professors and his classmates. After enough people looked up like Max, Mrs. Matthews addressed the room. ¡°If you haven''t already, please access the motes, my dears. Right now the poor little things are unpaired. These motes are different from utility fog in several very important ways.¡± Mrs. Matthews pulled the images floating in the background on the classroom¡¯s OverLayer to the front of the stage. The images of the Foglet and the Mote were side by side. It seemed at first that the Foglet was bigger, but that was only its massively long extensible arms. Its core was actually quite tiny compared to the chunky mote. ¡°This projection is just shy of a million times the actual size of the foglets and motes. As you can see, the foglets function depends on its extreme reach. Its extensible arms connect in a loose grid to make geodesic shapes and perform as you saw earlier. The motes are much more compact¡± she said. ¡°The motes are like this because their purpose is much different. They aren''t used to try and grapple objects at the macro scale. ¡°Rather, their function is to explore, scan, and interact at the micro-scale. They can transmit detailed data in real-time and be configured remotely. This makes them ideal for reconnaissance and scanning tasks. Each of you now has your own personal nano-mote array to use as part of your studies." The class was in awe. The students had heard of nano-motes, but to have an array of their own felt surreal. They started eagerly clicking through the menus, exploring parameters, and pairing with the tiny devices. ¡°Another key difference is these motes are encryption paired with your augmentations now. They are your additional remote sensors for your systems and are more durable than the foglets to EMP. This initial gift of 100 motes may seem tiny, all puns aside, but it has a special function. They can replicate!¡± Mrs. Matthews said and then gestured to Prof. Qasim. ¡°Yes! You heard right. These motes have been scripted with a limited number of replications. The UN is very restrictive on Earth-side allowances for replication technologies, so this is a really big deal. There is a rationale for it, that makes this special capability essential for your training.¡± he said. ¡°For now, with a Swarm skill level of 1, trying to utilize 100 motes will be more than enough. As you progress, your ability to handle more and extend your range will improve, necessitating more motes under your command. I give you fair warning, you should not trust any public matter compilers to copy and duplicate your motes.¡± Qasim said with serious concern. ¡°Mark my words well, students. Public compilers are not to be trusted with your personal motes. Pairing with them has copied your encrypted augmentation access keys into their memory. Unless you have access to a highly secured compiler, you must assume a copy and duplication will expose your keys to unscrupulous data hackers.¡± Qasim said. ¡°With each skill level advancement, your motes will be able to replicate without a compiler. They merely need access to feedstock materials and power and some time. At the final level, your stocks could have as many as 100,000 motes as long as you don''t lose them. By that time, your security skills should be sufficient to safeguard your compilers and ensure that your codes remain private.¡± he finished. ¡°Please take Professor Qasim¡¯s warning with extreme seriousness. I''m sure many of you have downloaded items from the MakerIndex, perhaps IndyNet, and even the rather questionable DarkNet. Be extremely careful, MakerIndex may be more boring and costly but it comes with guarantees of authenticity and has been cleared of malware and data breaches. The less reputable sources are cheaper because they are not policed. The likelihood of flaws or outright malfeasance in items from those sources is much higher when you bargain shop. If you need to depend upon your purchases, especially ones linked to your augs, you need to be extremely careful.¡± she finished with a grave look. Max, remembering his hack of Tyler¡¯s stolen Conduit Blade, couldn¡¯t help but glance toward Tyler. He quickly looked away as Tyler¡¯s eyes were burning right back at him. He knew, as well as Max, exactly what had happened in their final match at the tournament. His weapon¡¯s backfire had been no accident. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. ¡°Alright, you all look appropriately fearful. I am quite certain you will all make decisions going forward with the utmost regard for your system''s security. Hah ha! Now we should proceed. I¡¯m sure you have all peeked at the new Adept Obstacle course at least once. Let us all take a break and reform outside in the courtyard.¡± ¡°With this many people, you will have lots of time to socialize. First attempts at the actual Adept course are always great entertainment for all! Hah! Ah Hah Hah! Once everyone has had their fill we will discuss teams for anyone seeking the Labyrinth. Come youngsters, let''s go!¡± Qasim¡¯s seriousness had turned completely around as his humor had returned to full force. He marched towards the door leading to the courtyard, beckoning for the students to follow him. Even the demure and proper Mrs. Matthews couldn''t repress a grin as she followed close behind. Qasim¡¯s running commentary on the student¡¯s attempts at the Adept Obstacle course was infectious. Soon the whole class was cheering and booing as each student tried and ultimately were ejected from the brutal course¡¯s tortuous challenges. With the class as large as it was, there was plenty of time to mingle and talk. Xavier, waving all four of his arms, quickly zeroed in on Max. "Max! Over here!" Xavier called out, his loud voice occasionally drowned out by the raucous laughter from students observing their peers'' clumsy attempts. Max, lost in thought, barely noticed until Xavier had sauntered directly up to him. ¡°I¡¯m so glad to see you and your friends here. I was hoping to find a spot on a team for the Labyrinth, and here you are. That was your friend, Charlie, who won the Unarmed Division of the Tournament right? You guys together?¡± Xavier pressed. Max was surprised by Xavier''s proposition. He exchanged a surprised look with his friends before finally responding, "Yeah, Charlie did win the Unarmed Division. We''re still figuring out our Labyrinth team though." Max glanced at Charlie, who was listening silently while watching other students tackle the course with an amused smile on his face. Xavier¡¯s toothy Thark face beamed at him. ¡°Well, if you can spare a spot please consider me. You¡¯ve seen that I¡¯ve pushed my augs in some different directions with early access to the swarm technology and even advanced form changing. I¡¯ve been crafting my ass off too. I¡¯ve heard about the Labyrinth¡¯s level tolls. I already have ten novel devices to trade in. I¡¯ve heard that¡¯s what generally slows the more powerful teams down.¡± Xavier said with a wink. Max pondered for a moment, considering Xavier''s offer. "We''d certainly benefit from having a crafting expert like you on our team,¡± he finally admitted. ¡°Let''s see how we do on this course first. If you can pull up a decent showing, you''re in." Xavier''s grinning face widened even more if that was possible. The Thark was enthusiastic, his multi-limbed form trembling with barely suppressed excitement. ¡°Oh boy, you won¡¯t regret it! I can''t wait to show you what I can do on this course." [Delving the Mystery Labyrinth: Defeat that levels of the Mystery Labyrinth to prove your ability. Rewards for mastering its levels in training, XP, and unique treasure. Must have a minimum team of 4 to enter Level 1.] As Xavier strutted off to prove his worth, Max grinned at his back and exchanged a look with Charlie and Leah. Xavier had gotten knocked out of the tournament pretty quickly, by pushing his advanced forms his basics hadn¡¯t been developed enough. Still, a team of mixed talents might be exactly what they needed in their delve. Max¡¯s attention was drawn back to the Obstacle course. His team¡¯s mockup in the NetherLab had gotten the key challenges correct, but this one was subtly different. It seemed to be optimized to harass, stall, and damage its challengers with frightful efficiency. Dalton had just passed the Hall of Blades. The razor whips and deadly swinging weights required advanced skills in speed, cognition, and patterning. Even with those, no one got out unscathed, which gave additional training in healing, tough skin, and pain resistance skills. Dalton stood up on the next stage, dripping blood as his entire body was covered in ribbons of torn clothes and flensed skin. Dalton didn¡¯t wait to heal as he charged into the Fire Chamber. Fire came in waves, rings, walls, and jets as he crossed stepping stones and rails over the burning lakes of fire to the far side of the chamber. Already he was singed and red from several near misses. ¡°Oh god. I hate this part. The course architect is just mean. Cool Kung Fu reference but mean just the same.¡± Charlie groaned. Max grimaced as Dalton lifted a blazingly hot Urn filled with burning coals in a bear hug. Max''s family of course had viewed the old movie 2Ds. The course designers had even included a dragon and a tiger engraving on the Urn for authenticity. With the massive urn held tightly, he staggered back to the beginning, hindered by the weight. A jet of fire blasted Dalton from both sides and he fell backwards into fiery water. The fluid yanked the boy down and ejected him out the bottom of the elevated test, thankfully the water had doused his flaming Gi and left him smoldering and wet at the base of the test. That test required strength, stamina, balance, and inevitably a lot of heat resistance. Leah, who had advanced the furthest of the trio, whispered to them. ¡°Keep your thermal sense active for that one, Max. There¡¯s always a wave of hot air preceding the random flaming bursts. You can¡¯t move fast carrying that urn, so every extra hint of a flame popup is essential. Unless you learn that, you¡¯ll get stuck on that challenge building up your heat resistance in that hell.¡± she said with a grimace. ¡°Oh boy. Looks like it¡¯s my turn. See you soon, boys!¡± she quipped, running to the stage. Leah made the first two stages look easy. Her advanced cognition and body reflex skills combined with gymnastics enabled her to slide through the Hall of Blades with only superficial cuts. In the Fire Chamber, her awareness of the pop-up flares was evident as she was always positioned to avoid them. Despite her small size, her augments had advanced her strength a lot. She rolled the urn along its edge, right over the balance rail. Max hadn¡¯t seen the groove on the bottom of the rail until he saw Leah perfectly slot it in while rapidly rolling the urn. The next two challenges sometimes swapped order. The Trap Maze and the Scrambler. If the Hall of Blades was the equivalent of a huge blender, then the Scrambler was riding a ball through a pinball machine. It was a fast and unstable flying platform with precarious bars, walls, and cannonballs flying about. The Trap Maze was a confusing and shifting puzzle that required speed, skill, memory, and good accessing skills to open its pathways. Failure meant poison and shock attacks hitting you. Get too many wrong and it would eject you. The final stage was called the Arctic Well. The dark icy tank stretched along the entire back wall of the course. None of the trio had made it that far, but they were getting closer. The keys to winning were still a mystery, but Max suspected resisting cold and water breathing would be very helpful. Max cursed as Leah entered the Trap Maze. This was the worst challenge for a spectator as the confines of the maze were tight and confined. Only occasional breakout sections showed the challenger''s progress and most of the puzzles were concealed. Max was trying to pierce the walls with his new ExaVision extensions when a rough grasp pulled him around. ¡°We have some unfinished business, mongrel!¡± Tyler hissed. Max turned and met Tyler''s narrowed gaze. "You still sore about that last match? You won the division. Why don¡¯t you let it drop?" Max growled, squaring off with Tyler. His Nemesis quest pop-up reminded him of unfinished business, but after his scare with Casita, he found he just didn¡¯t have anything to prove to Tyler. Max¡¯s daemon Miyamoto cautioned him. ¡°[Don¡¯t let your anger drive you, Broken Cup. Accept it, yes. It is natural but don¡¯t let it drive you. Master yourself and all other things can be conquered.]¡± Max took a deep breath and let his hackles calm down. He was about to answer, when a scream echoed from the maze, and Max¡¯s heart throbbed with worry. Was that Leah? One eye on Tyler, Max turned to see what was going on. Tyler sneered, but seeing Qasim¡¯s appraising look, he said, ¡°Later mutt, we¡¯re not finished until I say it''s over.¡± He strutted away, leaving Max with the stale taste of bad rivalry. ¡°Ha, big talk from somebody who hasn¡¯t made it past stage two.¡± Charlie called, standing close beside him. He narrowed his eyes at Tyler''s retreating form. Max, however, was too focused on the maze to pay much attention. Leah emerged from a chute at the base of the Maze stage, jittery and with a halo of static-charged hair. She looked fine but staggered as she rejoined the group. Max relaxed and then felt a thrill of terror. He was up next!
53 - Hints of Trouble
Max cleared both the Hall of Blades and the Fire Chamber. Not as easily as Leah, but without any serious missteps. He took a quick breather, looking at his system notices.
[Agility +3, Endurance +1, Vitality +3, Intelligence +1, Will +1] [Body Skill Painless +1, Painless reaches level 9] [Body Skill Reflex +1, Reflex reaches level 6] [Resistance Skill Resist Heat +2, Resist Heat reaches 3] [Mind Skill Fast Cog +1, Fast Cog reaches 9] [Sense Skill ExaVision +1, ExaVision reaches level 7: Utilize active microwave pulses to improve vision into the microwave bandwidth] [Hall of Blades challenge achieved, +100 XP - extra awards possible for a perfect run without damage.] [Fire Chamber challenge achieved, +100 XP - extra awards possible for a perfect run without damage.]
Max felt his wounds knitting. The blades had scored a couple of really deep slashes despite his [Skin] skill. Leah¡¯s advice about using thermal sight in the Fire Chamber was quite helpful. The right side of his head and his tail were missing some hair, but he had avoided serious injury in the chamber. Max smiled at his next challenge, the Scrambler. He had done well in their home fabrication of this challenge with about a 50% pass rate. He hoped he could get through the real thing and get some experience in the Trap Maze. He didn''t have a good feel for that obstacle yet. ¡°[No worries, Max. You¡¯ve got me to help now, and I love puzzles.]¡± Mal whispered in his head. With an involuntary yip, Max leaped onto the first platform. The rough surface shot forward, and Max successfully dug his claws in to avoid being thrown as it spun sideways. Max ducked as the platform shot past a low-hanging bar, protruding from the wall, at head level. Charlie had advanced his [Unbreakable] and [Neural Scaffold] skills almost to Max¡¯s level with repeated attempts at this challenge. A moment of hesitation or inattention in the Scrambler would guarantee getting pummeled or thrown free. Max tensed, getting ready to leap. The platform was going to reverse soon, and he needed to be ready to jump for the next one. Seeing the others on the course, Max closed his eyes using his other senses. Mal painted his OverLayer with EM, Thermal, Terahertz, and Microwave length patterns. Max sensed the platform slow and triggered his leap. Despite his closed eyes, Max was almost blinded at the critical juncture. The bastard course architect had a strobe blast go off during the critical moment of his leap. Max¡¯s closed eyes protected him from most of it, but the strobe included some terahertz wavelengths. Mal had managed to shut down and filter that sense in a split second, saving Max from getting dazzled and distracted. He landed with his claws, digging in and getting a good grip, as the new platform flipped upside down and shifted sideways at extreme acceleration. Max held tight as an expected rubber cannonball slammed into his side and another narrowly missed his head. Max hunkered down and hugged the platform as tight as he could. Max was hyper-alert as the platform flipped again, holding tight with his claws. Max soon saw exactly what he had expected. This course designer is a grade-A ass-hat! Max thought. He saw the platform racing towards the bar that was leveled perfectly to scrape the surface of the platform. Max leaped over the bar and managed to regain his grip on the platform, as it shifted immediately to the side into a corkscrew spiral. Despite the danger, Max¡¯s tongue hung loose. The motion exhilarated him rather than making him sick. Max saw the tunnel ahead and sunk low again. As the platform shot into the dark recess, Max was stunned. Not by the course, but by Mal¡¯s reaction. Upon entry into the tight space, Mal freaked out. Her screams echoed in his head, and she fought him for control of his augmentations. Something like ghostly tentacles seemed to reach out at him in his overlay. Max wasn''t sure what happened. Did he get hit or lose his grip? He wasn¡¯t certain as he slammed into an unyielding surface and the lights went out? He came to his senses as he was dumped out of the course ejection chute. He shook his head, his ears still ringing.
[Resistance Skill: Neural Scaffold +1, Neural Scaffold reaches level 7] [Body Skill: Armor +1, Armor reaches level 5] [Resistance Skill: Resist Light +1, Resist Light reaches level 10 ¨C Skill Cap award +100xp, new skill unlocked] [New Body Skill: Strobe 1 ¨C utilize augmentation dermal lasing diode emitters to entertain your friends and dazzle your enemies.]
¡°[Mal. MAL! What¡¯s the matter? What was that?]¡± Max thought? He could barely hear her whisper. ¡°[Phtho''nox, thal shoggoth naxidu.]¡± Mal was mumbling, barely audible in his mind-space. ¡°[Mal! What¡¯s going on? Are you okay? Talk to me!]¡± Max screamed internally. Mal slowly returned to coherence as Max stumbled back from the stage. ¡°[Max. I¡¯m so sorry. I don¡¯t know what came over me. I felt for a second like I was back in the Tesseract. I¡¯m so sorry. I messed up and lost control.]¡± Mal said, hesitantly. Max didn''t have an opportunity to dig deeper as Mrs. Matthews came up to him. ¡°A good try, Max. Almost three stages on your first attempt. Good job.¡± she said. ¡°Let''s get back to the others and let the next student start, okay?¡± Max nodded to the teacher but projected internally. ¡°[Mal, I think we need you to spend some more time with Leah¡¯s AI, Solace. Later. And we need a set up to make sure that you won¡¯t mess up my augs when I need them.]¡± he sent. He grimaced when Mal¡¯s brooding silence was his only answer. The trio of friends watched the others take turns through the course. The Thark boy, Xavier, was spectacularly dismal. Failing to make significant headway into the very first challenge. The lack of coordination was comical at best. It was as if he was fighting against his own limbs. The petite blond girl, Samantha, was from Luna. She was surprisingly agile and nimble. A sure sign of the low-gravity upbringing enhancing her natural flexibility and dexterity. She breezed past the Blade Chamber but got confused in the Fire Chamber, and got badly singed. The only one who managed to clear three challenges was Tyler and the new kid with the blue hair, Leroy. Both demonstrated that their Path of the Body skills were very solid. It was just a matter of time until one managed to defeat the course, but it didn¡¯t look like today was the day. Leah revealed some of Leroy¡¯s history to the boys from a conversation she had with him while Max was helping Charlie recover from his pass through the Trap Maze. Leroy Jenkins was a citizen AI who had quit his job as an NPC for Mythic Realms. His adopted name was a nickname given to him by game players for his aggressive and boisterous approach to the VR game. Leroy was taking advantage of the augmentation program to get a top-of-the-line android body with augmentations for free instead of purchasing one with his savings. He was also looking for a team to go to the Labyrinth. His overzealous behavior in the game was apparently a result of his need to win battles to earn points for the coveted transition. The Mythic Realm players had found his behavior amusing and deadly, often leading their party into disastrous raids, which was why they had called him "Leroy Jenkins" after the infamous character from an old earth game. As the evening wore on, the hilarity and awe of their failed and partially successful attempts began to wane. The group of hopefuls became more reflective, their heads filled with the knowledge of the challenges that lay ahead and the realization that surviving the challenges of the Labyrinth was not a small feat.
After the class¡¯s energy was spent and no more challengers volunteered, the teachers ushered the group back to the Academy rooms for a final tutorial and details about the questlines for the Mystery Labyrinth. ¡°Excellent session on the course students. I hope it was as enlightening for you as it was entertaining for me.¡± Qasim said in his cheerful demeanor. He was still very energized and paced in front of the class. Mrs. Matthews by comparison was serene and collected. ¡°Now the Adept stage should see all of you integrating your body and mind skills and begin to exercise control of the world around you through them. As most of you have already learned crafting, designing, and fabricating, this provides an ideal bridge to understanding your augmentation''s inner workings and its abilities. Once you reach the peak of the Adept stage you will find that the Master stage requires you to learn and customize your abilities rather than advancing within the system. How far you continue your journey into the Mastery stage depends on you. Once you achieve it, the training system will terminate and you should have an intrinsic knowledge of your new capabilities without its tempering and assistance.¡± he finished. ¡°So before you all go, we did promise a questions and answers session regarding the Mystery Labyrinth in NYC. Do you have any further questions?¡± Qasim paused. ¡°OK then, remember your AI Assist or Companion skill has the training program details embedded in their core memory, so if you are unclear they can help. Now, onto the Labyrinth. Many of you should have active quests regarding it. What would you like to know?¡± All the hands in the room went up. Qasim pointed to the red-headed boy. Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! ¡°Rudy, you first.¡± Professor Qasim said. ¡°Do we need to delve into the Labyrinth to get to Mastery? I¡¯ve heard the final levels are deadly and, like, I¡¯ve got a job right now. I don¡¯t think I can spend weeks delving.¡± Rudy asked. "Absolutely not, Rudy," Qasim answered with a smile. "While the Labyrinth does provide an exceptional environment for growth and learning due to its unpredictable and demanding nature, it''s not the only way to achieve Mastery. Your job, and continuing to challenge this course, can be an excellent platform for perfecting your skills. Every single action, thought, interaction, and attempt to control your environment with your augmentations can be a stepping stone toward Mastery. Your journey is your own, and you can chart its course in your unique way." The next question came from the Thark boy, Xavier, who raised his hand awkwardly, betraying his lack of confidence, "How many levels are there?" Mrs. Matthews stepped forward and spoke. "An excellent question, Xavier. The Labyrinth has three distinct phases, each run by a different AI. It¡¯s rumored that these AI are modeled after the three Greek Fates: Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. The first phase is managed by Clotho and is usually about 10 levels. It does change based on the delving team. The first AI is learning and confirming your team¡¯s foundations are solid. Her goals and attitudes seem to be very benevolent, nurturing the delvers to reveal their potential.¡± ¡°The next phase is managed by Lachesis. This level is usually longer and its tempo and approach are very different. This AI will push each team member, trying to get them to grow and overcome any weaknesses that Clotho may have recorded. The final levels in this stage will require teams to work together to finish.¡± ¡°The next stage is the most controversial. Atropos will try to break you. Many delvers refuse to go this deep and end their delve here. If you do proceed, most teams will lose members in the last stage. This level is very much trying to kill you, to push you beyond your limitations. Does everyone know what a backup is?¡± Mrs. Matthews said with a grim look. The hush in the room was palpable. While a few of the students shared nervous glances, others looked horrified as they pondered the dangerous levels of the Labyrinth. "Yes..." Qasim interjected, sensing the fear in the room. "Safety is paramount. However, know that the AIs of the Labyrinth aim to push you beyond the boundaries of your comfort zone, with the assumption that you have taught yourselves the necessary skills to survive. I think part of their lesson is that even mortality is not an obstacle for you." Qasim nodded to Mrs. Matthews, who continued to explain. "The Labyrinth and your Trainer AI will be given the skill to create a full brain map and consciousness pattern recording before you enter the final phase. This backup, in the unfortunate event of death inside the Labyrinth, allows you to be fully restored at the point of the backup at the start of the level. The rewards for the final stages are said to have the most astoundingly valuable achievements and powerful novel devices, many not available on the MakerIndex. It is designed to be extremely attractive. If anyone had successfully delved to the final level, they haven¡¯t admitted to it. These levels are mostly unknown as they are fully customized to the delvers. Backups occur at the beginning of the levels, so detailed regarding delving finishes are poorly recorded.¡± she finished. The class mulled this over thoughtfully, greed and fear fighting battles in each student. Both of Max¡¯s adoptive parents had been killed in the real and recovered from backups. His father hadn¡¯t had any issues, but his mother had complications with her backup. Her isolation into virtual worlds and her fear of the real world was profound now and not something she had prior to her backup. ¡°I¡¯ve heard that you need uniquely crafted devices to advance all the levels. Is that true?¡± Max asked. Mrs. Matthews answered, with some relief at dropping the earlier grim topic. ¡°It isn¡¯t a requirement for all levels. The early levels especially, don¡¯t need it. Usually before a grand challenge or boss battle at the end of a level, a device is needed to unlock a room or door. The Labyrinth will decompile and recompile the item, giving it back but retaining its full design. It is a common theory that these sacrificial items are used as rewards for completing a boss battle or level. Obviously, the Labyrinth will not return your devices directly to you, but rather dole them out to others. Items that you wish to remain unique or proprietary should not be gifted to the dungeon.¡± Mrs. Matthews finished with a look inviting further questions. ¡°Is it true that the dude who created the Labyrinth was a fucked in the head nut case?¡± Dalton asked, crude and vulgar even with teachers. With a distasteful look, Professor Qasim answered. ¡°Alexei Ivanov was a genius the likes of which is still quite rare despite the many benefits of our universal and customized education system. While eccentric for certain, he was a founding member of the Samaritans organization, before he retired to visit the many colonies budding throughout the solar system. He invented many key advances in energy storage, AI design, and nanosystems. He first opened the Labyrinth as a challenge to the next generation to achieve more and not sink into the comfort of VR worlds. He hasn¡¯t been seen for over three decades. He was last seen inside the Labyrinth designing ever more challenging levels. Some like to believe that he¡¯s still down there making more, but that¡¯s somewhat fanciful. Don¡¯t you think? Haha.¡± Qasim finished with a light note. Leroy, who had been silent, finally asked a question. ¡°Is it true that the Labyrinth is considered a sovereign state and won¡¯t allow UN or city personnel inside?¡± Leroy asked. Qasim hesitated. ¡°I¡¯m not actually sure. Anyone with augmentation in training mode can enter and challenge the dungeon, but the Labyrinth won''t provide access to anyone other than active Delvers. So, I guess the answer is a little bit yes and a little bit no.¡± Qasim shrugged. ¡°Do delving teams ever meet in the Labyrinth?¡± Charlie asked. Mrs. Matthews answered. ¡°That is true. Most levels are instanced to the group, but occasionally the Labyrinth does pit teams in competition with each other. I think this is most common in the challenge levels where Lachesis is trialing a group''s ability to work together.¡± she said with assurance. Charlie looked thoughtful, eyeing the others in the room. "I see," Charlie responded, nodding slowly in understanding. "And what happens if a team fails to win one these competitive challenge levels? Would they be... kicked out of the Labyrinth, or worse?" He asked, curiosity heavy in his voice. "Well," Mrs. Matthews began cautiously, looking somber, "Failure in any level of the Labyrinth is severe, but particularly so in the challenge levels. A team that fails can expect severe penalties. Usually, the winning teams are given keys to unlock levels without the need for a unique device whilst the losers might require two such to unlock the next challenge.¡± She spoke. ¡°A note of caution, students. The Labyrinth is a one-time attempt. If you reach your limits and retire, you won¡¯t ever be readmitted. So, if you do want to attempt a Delve, don¡¯t leave on a whim.¡± Professor Qasim advised. Leroy raised his hand again, a troubled look on his face. "And how long do we have to complete each level?" Mrs. Matthews turned to Leroy and said, "While there are no official time limits. Some challenges might be time-based. Consider the delve as an extended excursion or camping trip, plan well before you enter. The Labyrinth provides a safe zone, free from roving mob challenges and with access to food, beds, and bathrooms. So as long as you don¡¯t mind roughing it, you can take your time on these levels." "Naturally, if you''re stuck on a level for an extended period, the mental strain could be considerable," Qasim added. "Solve the challenges as efficiently as you can. You don''t want to be stuck in a psychological battle with yourself.¡± Listening attentively, Dalton grumbled, "How do you even prepare for the unknown challenges? It all seems like a rigged game." Qasim laughed lightly, clearly amused. "That''s the beauty and terror of the Labyrinth, Dalton. You prepare as much as you can with the knowledge and tools available to you, but the Labyrinth will test your on-the-spot decision-making and problem-solving skills. Ultimately all delvers eventual stop their explorations, not due to physical resilience but rather an inability to solve a difficult puzzle. You need to bring your all and have a well-balanced team, physical, mental, and creative; to reach the deepest levels.¡± ¡°I wish you all good luck as you continue to explore your augmentations. If you need help arranging a team, the Academy¡¯s online portal can assist you. Additionally, the Labyrinth has waiting early levels for Delver¡¯s to form team or pick up extra members. I would be careful with this as working together is important in the depths. The other most common cause of a team¡¯s delve being ended is poor team dynamics. You only get one chance so don¡¯t waste it. I hope to see you all in a few years at the Annual Academy Master Alumni Reunion. Thank you.¡± Professor Qasim said, dismissing the class. The class absorbed the information, some with apprehension, others like Max with eagerness. Max, Charlie, and Leah gathered around a small table in the corner of the room, as they discussed their final team member. The class buzzed with excitement, all the cliques forming. Both Xavier and Leroy were off to the side, clearly hoping for someone to look their way. "Alright, guys, it''s decision time," Charlie said, leaning in as he looked at his two friends. "I mean, Leroy''s got some real energy, you know? That Obstacle course was no joke, and he went at it like a hurricane. Plus, he''s got that go-getter attitude." Max nodded; his brows furrowed in deep thought. "Yeah, I noticed that too. Leroy''s enthusiasm is infectious. But, think about it, Charlie. We need a well-rounded team. We should consider Xavier as well. He may not have the physical skills right now, but with our help, he could level up quickly. I think his crafting skills could be invaluable in the Labyrinth." Leah, who had been listening intently, chimed in, "Xavier''s intelligence, his crafting abilities, and his ability to strategize could make him a great asset in the Labyrinth. He came close to winning against me in the tournament. I think he''s got potential. Max, you''re right; with our support, we can turn him into a formidable teammate." Charlie scratched his chin, mulling over the options. "Yeah, I guess you''re right. We need a balance. Leroy''s got energy but maybe we need Xavier''s brains and his crafting skills more. It would be a better-balanced team." With that settled, Charlie, not one to waste any time, rushed over to Xavier before he could leave. "Hey, Xavier," he called out, tapping the stocky Thark on the shoulder. Xavier turned around, a hopeful look in his eyes. "Um. Hey there, Charlie, right? What''s up?" Charlie beamed with enthusiasm, "My team has discussed it and we want you on our team for the Labyrinth challenge. Your crafting skills and your strategic mind make you the perfect choice." Xavier''s eyes lit up with surprise and gratitude. "That¡¯s awesome! Thank you. I won¡¯t let you down. Everyone agreed to go down to the Labyrinth as soon as possible, which everyone thought was achievable in only a day or two. Charlie was discussing a training plan to bring Xavier¡¯s physical stats up with the short time remaining. The team didn¡¯t think he would be up to their level that quickly, but the training would continue for the entirety of the Labyrinth. They hoped the information about the first levels being easier were true. Max slid to the side as Sherlock interrupted his thoughts. ¡°[Master Mitchell, I need a favor if you would?]¡± Sherlock asked. ¡°[Sherlock, of course. You were so quiet, I thought you were still away. You¡¯re back from your visit with your alternate incarnations and your brother. Did you learn anything about the hacker?]¡± Max asked. ¡°[Indeed, I did, Max. I have a working theory, but I need several bits of information before I can be certain. I would very much like your help with two tasks before your sabbatical to the Labyrinth. These items will likely confirm my theory.]¡± Sherlock promised. Max knew from experience that Sherlock wouldn''t reveal his theory until it was certain. He didn''t waste any time trying to get hints and instead rolled with it. ¡°[You know I want to help my dad. What do we need to do?]¡± Max asked. Sherlock flashed a virtual smile into Max¡¯s mind as he began to explain. "[Firstly, my brother obtained some questionable figures regarding the Grand Oaks energy and material production. I¡¯d like to go to the library and check upon the physical records.]¡± Sherlock said. ¡°[Oh, easy one. Although we should hurry, the library is going to close in another hour. What else?]¡± Max asked. ¡°[The animals of the Grand Oaks are definitely acting suspiciously, perhaps under guidance, but I believe the EM jamming emanations coming from the Bio Machine Trees may be the most important clue.]¡± Sherlock said with confidence. ¡°[Oh Boy, Casa and Dad wanted me to stay away from the Oaks. Although, I never did promise. Our confidentiality clause is still in force, yes?]¡± Max asked with growing excitement. ¡°[Of course, you can depend upon me. Casa has displayed a propensity to anticipate your excursions, but I believe her capacities have been reduced with the restraints of the DAIE''s neural lock. I calculate that the risks of her discovering our plan for covert surveillance are minimal.]¡± Sherlock said. ¡°[Then, the game is afoot. Library first!]¡± Max said. He said his goodbyes as his gang continued to grill and advise Xavier. One look at the rear entrance and Max shifted directions. Tyler and his gang were talking back there. He would play it safe and take the front entrance.
54 - Captured
Max wasted no time, heading straight for the library. With Mal and Sherlock''s guidance, they swiftly accessed the library interface and found the book ¡°Grand Oaks Reserves Resource Output, YR 2110 - 2220¡±, exactly what the investigator needed. As Max maneuvered past the librarian, a quick wave sufficed, since she was engrossed in assisting two young children with their palm chips, leaving her oblivious to his presence. Max was still feeling a little guilty knowing her cat was loose again and he hadn''t stopped to get it. Working his way back to the depths of the Utopia town records archives, Max was directed to the dust-shrouded back shelves. Initially unable to spot the necessary volume, he assumed it must be higher up based on the numbering system. In his determination, he vaulted upward, drawing a displeased hush from the only other occupant in the room, an elderly gentleman who cautioned him to avoid disruption. Grimacing, Max mentally replayed his glimpse of the titles from his leap, his pattern skills quickly revealed the exact location of the tome. Determined to blend in. Max didn''t want to disturb his fellow patron. He scanned for a suitable step ladder but found none. He pulled his grappler hook from its housing in his sleeve but shook his head. That would be sure to cause a ruckus. Mal quickly spoke into his head. ¡°[Max, this is a perfect opportunity to hone your control. The library is rich in utility fog. If you access the area surrounding the book, you should be able to acquire that Telekinesis skill you''ve been seeking.]¡± she suggested. Nodding to himself, Max focused on his surroundings. Using his EM sense helped, as he could see the dense foglets that filled the library air normally invisible. He cast a broad Access request, but it failed to latch on to the foglets. He focused on a tighter area around the book.
[New Mind Skill Unlocked: Telekinesis 1 - Access local nano-foglets to manipulate and move objects without physical interaction. Further training enables improved range, scope, and agility.]
With a look of concentration, Max reached out with his newly honed skill. The wispy mechanical foglet responded to his mental orders, linking up and enveloping the distant record. With a rough tug, the book was dislodged, dropping down into his waiting hands. Max nodded to the curmudgeon and walked past him. He opened up the book rifling through its contents. Mal and Sherlock opened an OverLayer display showing Max electronic records for the bio-machine forest. Dense columns and rows of numbers detailing energy aggregations and spending, gas collections, and the essential bio-manufacture of feedstocks that were created and shuttled into the Resource lines that flowed in parallel to the global hyperloop lines. Max triggered his AV recording. In the modern age, any image or audio could be replicated, and authenticity would always be suspect. The MindWerks AV application included in his augmentations was admissible in court as an independent feed collection software, timestamped, and using extra resources to authenticate live real-world input. As he flipped through year after year, Max¡¯s pattern-matching skill was triggering, in a bad way. It failed to match any of the physical record outputs against the online display. ¡°I don¡¯t get it. Nothing matches¡­ it''s not even close. The book records are almost ten times as big as the online figures.¡± Max whispered. ¡°[Precisely Max! Don''t you see? Both are purported to be definitive and accurate records of the significant energy and feedstock production of the Grand Oak Reserve bio-machines. Someone has altered the official records, presumably the online version that everyone uses!¡± Sherlock said with gusto. ¡°You mean Dad¡¯s hacker?¡± Max asked. ¡°[Precisely. Not as infallible as we¡¯ve presumed so far. This is the first solid evidence of tampering. The Grand Oaks ties into our hacker somehow. I expect there must be something within those woods to complete this puzzle.]¡± Sherlock¡¯s excitement and determination was palpable.
Max felt free again. Finally able to be back and running the trail again up to the Grand Oaks; he felt a tension he hadn''t realized he had started to drain away. He had ample energy in his augs and fed his [Speed] and [Tireless] skills easily, empowering his movements to the equal of a dashing cheetah. He opened his senses wide as he ran, his [Scent], [ExaVision], and [DigiSense] skill gave him an awareness of the woods that felt preternatural. He was aware of Flip long before his first sighting and the little creature¡¯s excited screeches. ¡°Sorry, Flip. No time for tree running. I got a mission to run!¡± Max said with a bark. As he sped along, the little squirrel''s outraged chittering quickly faded. The trail wound upwards, the towering Grand Oaks standing like sentinels, welcoming him. The artificial nature of towering bio-machines was obvious as the season was turning. The lesser wood¡¯s tree leaves were changing to a riot of bright colors, but the huge Oaks leaves remained a deep green. As he approached the first massive ¡°tree¡±, Max shot his Grappler out. He engaged the auto-winch in addition to a prodigious leap and landed on a low branch to take stock. He could feel the beginnings of signal interference; the edge of the collective EM jamming effect the Grove produced. Slightly unnerved as realized his ability to connect to his home and friends was compromised, he said. ¡°[Okay, Sherlock. Against all advice from my family, we are here. Any ideas what type of clue might serve to understand the hacker''s connection to these machines and his motivation?]¡± Max asked. ¡°[Ah, that is the rub, Max. We don¡¯t know what we must find yet. This hacker¡¯s long history of alterations to the records implies a deep involvement with these bio-machines. Remember, these are machines and not trees. The root cave where you found the tesseract should be your target, I think. Replaying your memories of the event, spoke to me that the roots may have been interfacing with the device.]¡± Sherlock advised. Max nodded although there was nobody to see, a habit formed from flesh and blood acquaintances. He secured his footing and slowly began working his way across the treetops, deeper into the reserve, towards the grove where he had fought the monstrous fox, the Kitsune. He barely needed to use his Grappler, with his high strength, claws, gymnastics, and leaping skills active. He reserved it for bridging large gaps between the tree branches. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
[SkillZ: 2.85/1.0/0.90 (Input= Swim 1.0, NanoCraft 1.0, Brachiation 0.85) (Output= Katana-1.0, Kempo-0.90)]
Max quickly review his augmentation SkillZ ability. The skill trading/training application was awesome. Musashi had confirmed that with the added body/mind memory of the katana skill that he was indeed now proficient with a blade, although true mastery would require lots of use. He saw that his latest trade-in skill, brachiation, was close to leveling up the SkillZ track and giving him another training bonus. He couldn¡¯t wait to see what options he would get. As he swung through the branches, he wondered if most modern skills were grafted on like this. If so, he could easily learn anything. Be anything that he wanted to be! His eyes, enhanced to see in all spectrums of light, scanned the bio-mechanical entity, searching for any anomaly. As he progressed deeper, he noticed that about every hundredth tree was different. The infrequent ¡°trees¡± were bigger in height and thickness, but the leaves seemed stunted. Now that Max had categorized the differences, they stood out, impossible to ignore. He landed upon one, taking a breather and a closer look. The artificial leaves for the special tree-like machines were different as well. Instead of dark photosynthetic fibers, these leaves were traced in metallic struts and threads. They glowed significantly more than their brethren in the EM spectrum. The other tree resonated with electromagnetic emissions, but these were emitting powerfully. [I need a quick break. I¡¯m going to rest for just a second. Let''s take the opportunity to look closer at this big boy here.]¡± Max said internally. He wasn''t really that tired, but the EM jamming was grating on his nerves now that he was aware of it. [Max, it might seem overwhelming, but can you activate all of your senses? Maybe we can all take a piece of the sensory data while you rest. I¡¯m thinking Musashi can sample the visual and thermal band for tactical oversight, Boone the audio and scent to best utilize his woodcraft, and I can monitor the EM band. Sherlock, you know best what you might need.] Mal asked. Max agreed and triggered his entire suite of sensory and mental skills. Seeing the significant draw on his energy, he concentrated on a meditative mindset to improve his energy regeneration. It was interesting seeing the daemons dig into the sensory feeds. Musashi¡¯s attention shifted like lightning from one to another tree looking for threats. With Max¡¯s DigiSense he was exquisitely aware of his position and readiness. Musashi demonstrated a subtle paranoia about his ¡°blind spots¡± and frequently checked his 360-degree view using Max¡¯s other non-visual senses. Boone was categorizing scents against what he knew, although his familiarity with odors was only human and Max¡¯s enhanced range was a little beyond him. Mal was trying to filter out the EM jamming. As annoyed by the noise as Max was, Mal was feeling isolated and she was projecting a bit of fear into Max¡¯s head space. However, Max was quickly drawn to Sherlock¡¯s actions. The daemon flitted from feed to feed, but also settled on the EM noise. Max watched as Sherlock began to decompose and mix the signals. He called that night exercise. Leah had commented about the trees talking. Max focused on the noisy signals.
[New Mind Skill Unlocked: Decode 1 - A step above Pattern recognition, reveals deeper meaning in hidden signal. Additional training can decode more complex encryption.]
¡°[Damn, Leah was right! The trees really are talking. That''s not a jamming signal. We¡¯re just being drowned out with their cross-talk.]¡± Max said to his team. ¡°[It''s not any known language on record, human or machine code, but it does seem to be a communication of some sort. This may take some time. I need more sampling. Maybe from different regions...]¡± Sherlock said until Boon exclaimed and interrupted. ¡°[Sumthin¡¯s wrong, boy! Listen!]¡± Boone yelled over the internal com. Max tensed, listening, but he didn¡¯t hear anything. ¡°[I don¡¯t hear anything, Boone.]¡± Max said hesitatingly. ¡°[Damnit, that¡¯s what I meant. All the critters went silent. They only do that if there is a predator..¡­.]¡± Boone was interrupted in turn by Musashi. ¡°[Move Max!]¡± Musashi bellowed. Max half jumped and twisted, his arms coming up as he sensed the heat source closed behind him. Max shielded his face from claws and feathers, tumbling from his perch due to his attacker''s force, despite his enhanced balance. The massive owl surprised him by striking his head with its wings and clawing at his arms. Falling, Max activated his shocking touch, stun, and strobe skills simultaneously to force the bird to disengage. Max was thankful for his Scrambler course training and reflexes. As soon as the owl retreated, he shot his Grappler to the branches above. The move didn¡¯t completely stop the fall''s impact, but it was mere inconvenience instead of damaging. Max caught the scent a millisecond before a massive form hit him from behind. The musky scent of a familiar bear filled his nose as it slammed into him driving him into the turf. Max rolled away from the beast getting tangled in his Grappler line. Max struggled. The owl that had knocked him down had recovered from Max''s energy attacks and continued to harry him. The bear charged again and pressed down on him. Max struggled to hold the bear off as the owl continued to buffet him with its wings. Max employed his shocking grasp again and managed to throw the bear off. Max¡¯s head whipped back as lines of fire raked across his face with a flash of red. His grappler started to retract, but it got hung up as he was thoroughly tangled in its lines. Max''s vision cleared and refocused, the red multi-tailed fox stood in front of him holding the end of his grapple line. In a burst of adrenaline, Max moved¡­and dropped as all his limbs were entangled tight in his grapple line. Max struggled as the line tightened. The fox snarled, as it approached it through the end of the line down and picked a bag up off the forest floor. Max refused to give up and triggered his [Hulk] skill. His augmented muscles flexed, and pain riddled Max as he felt and heard a series of loud cracks and pops. He gasped, coughing up blood, and realized in horror that the noises were not his bonds breaking. Notices flashed in his head as he reeled in pain.
[Body Skill - Hulk +2, Hulk reaches level 3] [Hulk Skill aborted, severe damage detected - 32 counts of deep skin laceration, 16 counts of muscle damage or distention, 5 counts of reinforced bone break, spleen rupture, lung puncture, 77 counts of tissue hematomas] [Endurance +2, Vitality +4] [Body Skill - Regeneration +1, Regeneration reaches level 10, Skill cap award +100 XP, Tier 3 Skill - Transformation Skill Unlocked] [New Third Tier Body skill: Transform - adaptation of your augmented form beyond standard humaniform configurations] [Body Skill - Unbreakable +1, Unbreakable reaches level 10, Skill cap award +100 XP, +2 Endurance] [Max E. Mitchell level +1, Max advances to Adept Stage, level 13, awarded +10 free stat points] [Body Skill - Painless +1, Painless reaches level 10, Skill cap award +100 XP, +2 Endurance] [**Alert** Energy 0/233 Regeneration suspended] [**Alert** Energy 0/223 Unbreakable suspended] [**Health Emergency Override** Unlock and Activation of PowerCore Skill] [New Skill Unlocked: PowerCore 1 - Advanced augmentation system power requirements far exceed bioenergy availability, PowerCore module activated. Feed and cycle power into the Power Core for energetic boosting advancement. Complete depletion of Power Core may damage the system.] [**Alert** Energy 223/446 Regeneration skill resumed] [**Alert** Energy 123/446 Unbreakable skill resumed] {**Alert** Energy 78/446 Painless skill resumed]
Max moaned as the pain receded. He sensed the energy coming from his previously hidden core. His augmentations drained the extra power greedily. He tried to focus, looking fearfully up at the fox standing over him. The beast crouched down, its exposed teeth filling Max¡¯s sight. ¡°Bad. Dog.¡± the kitsune snarled as it wrapped the bag over his head.
55 - Monologuing
When the bag went over his head, the world around Max faded into complete darkness. All he could make out was the tightness of the bag around his head and the musky scent of the fox that was now his captor. Mal screamed on and on. Internally, he could feel his digital daemons panic, their digital voices causing a cacophony in his mind. Amidst the turmoil, Sherlock tried to calm everyone. "[Please, everyone, focus. We need to prioritize. Max will be alright. His augmentations are already working.]" Sherlock said, yelling over Mal¡¯s hysterical crying. Max tried to make a sound, but his throat choked up. ¡°[Go limp, boy! These critters already caught ya! Play for time, while yur body recovers. Gal¡¯darn it. Mal¡¯s gone off the deep end. Is there a mute feature like on the telly?¡±] Boone grumped. Max went limp. Although he couldn¡¯t see, he could feel himself being roughly dragged through the woods. He tried to calm Mal, while he monitored his energy rates. Mal finally calmed to the point he could ask her questions. ¡°[Finally! Mal, please! We all need to work together and come up with a way out of this. My grappler cable is too strong to break and I¡¯m all tied up. My body is a mess, but it''s healing fast. My energy store is starting to grow, again. Maybe I¡¯ll be able to fight soon. But I need to get loose first. Any ideas? Anyone?]¡± Max asked his council. ¡°[While the circumstances aren¡¯t ideal, this unfortunate event is essentially a turn for the better. Someone has organized these animals! And I expect we are being taken to them now. The hacker is connected somehow and we may finally get answers.¡±] Sherlock said with annoying cheerfulness. ¡°[Easy for you to say. You¡¯re a piece of distributed software. I¡¯m a bleeding mess, hogtied, and being dragged deeper into the dead zone of the Grand Oaks. If I can¡¯t get loose, we could all be done for.]¡± Max growled. Mal spoke up. ¡°[Let me think¡­stop chattering¡­Ahhh! Ok. No, I¡¯m fine. Shhh. Max, your augmentation advancement track might have something. In extreme circumstances, new abilities can be unlocked. I can see fhtagn R¡¯lyeh. I can see everything in your specs and help guide you.]¡± Mal said, still unsteady and erratic. Max¡¯s confidence in her help was rapidly dropping. ¡°[Broken Cup. Keep some pressure on your restraints. Expand your chest, deep breath. Flex your arms and legs out. Don¡¯t let them tighten the restraints any further. When the time is right, we do the opposite and maybe have some little freedom to aid escape. You understand?¡±] Musashi advised softly. ¡°[Max, can you use your enhanced vision to see past this bag? We need to see what¡¯s coming.]¡± Sherlock suggested. Max tracked his energy levels. 300/446 and growing faster now. He had enough now that he could spare some to use with his low-energy skills. The bag prevented normal and thermal vision, but his terahertz and microwave sight as well as EM sense could ¡°see¡± past the hood barrier. He focused and suddenly he could make out forms, a surreal multi-spectrum vision of the world. The fox, dragging him by loose lines of his twisted grappler cord, had four more companions flanking them. The ¡°trees¡± shone with electromagnetic fields, stretching out and overlapping¡­ very much like neurons in a brain scan. Sherlock gasped in surprise, as Max was sharing his vision with his daemons. ¡°[My word! Mycroft might be right, after all. Could this be our hacker¡¯s computational base?]¡± he said. Max felt Boone¡¯s digital presence surge in his mind. ¡°[I ain¡¯t got a clue about all these numbers and figures, but if y¡¯all reckon this damn trees got somethin¡¯ to do with our troubles, I say we cut it down.]¡± ¡°[Mr. Boone, it¡¯s not just this tree. It¡¯s the entire Grand Oaks Reserve. It covers much of what you knew as the Appalachians. I wonder if the Amazon Reforestation and the Saharan Reclamation are being used like this as well?]¡± Sherlock asked. ¡°[Focus, my friends. We must first prevail over these bonds.]¡± Musashi said. ¡°[Ok, Max. I have found a couple of options, but I¡¯m not very sure about them.]¡± Mal said. ¡°[Anything Mal! I¡¯m not going to be picky about it.]¡± Max sent. ¡°[You just acquired the transform skill. It can reshape your body! It''s very energy-intensive and takes a long time. Growing extra arms like Xavier might require significant material¡­food I guess. Maybe just stretching a few inches in height can thin you out and loosen the grapple lines? Not sure how long it might take with only level 1.]¡± Mal muttered. ¡°[Ugh, seems like a lot for a little. I¡¯ll try it, but do you have anything else?]¡± Max said. He tried to picture himself taller and slimmer, triggering his newest skill. He heard a tone, but nothing seemed to happen. He hoped it was working. ¡°[Oookay! How about your claws? The skill is level 8, I can see the next evolution tier is called Vorpal. That means super sharpness. Two levels is a lot, but the system responds to stress, and yours is off the charts right now.]¡± Mal suggested meekly. Breathing heavily, Max extended his claws. He could barely flex enough to scrape the cord with a claw edge. It felt..strange¡­his claws were great for slashing and piercing. Using them to try and saw through a cable? He focused, sliding the edge back and forth along the steel-like line. He concentrated on the repetitive motion, unsure if he was making progress. Soon, Max was roughly thrown against an upright surface and the bag was pulled from his head. He blinked rapidly, reordering his sensorium, to take in the scene. He was in a large glen, that stretched out from a familiar sight. One of the special trees, the focus of EM activity, and this one looked familiar. Max was on the ground, looking up at the entrance to the root cave where he had recovered the Tesseract. An enormous Ape stood at the entrance looking down at Max. ¡°Harambe! We. Capture. Dog. Thief.¡± The kitsune that tied up Max, stalked forward, growls and hisses came from all around. Max swiveled his head, seeing a crowd of forest creatures coming out of the wood line. Several large bears, a family of badgers, deer, wolves, raccoons, and large birds. Max whined involuntarily under the hostile gazes of the many animals. The ape held up a great fist and the sounds quieted. ¡°Thank you, Kuro. Perhaps now we can understand the Voice¡¯s command and the meaning of this Seed.¡± The massive ape said in a deep baritone. He was using sign language as well as English. His massive form strode forward, crushing saplings in his way. He took a commanding sitting pose upon one of the massive tree¡¯s exposed roots, looking very much like a ruler upon a throne. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. ¡°Dog. Traitor! Human. Spy.¡± Kuro replied, pointing an accusing claw at Max. The fox paced back and forth angrily, its eyes malicious and its many tails lashing the air. Max remained quiet, shrinking back from the advancing hostility. The glen was filled with animalistic growls, squawks, and barking noises as the surrounding wildlife crept closer. The uneasy tension was interrupted as his network chimed a notification in Max¡¯s head. "[Max, Transform has finally been initiated. But the change...it''s slow. It''s going to be a while before your restraints loosen up.]¡± Mal messaged him. ¡°[Max, that¡¯s Harambe. It was thought that he was dead many years ago. He was the first animal uplift and the reason it was banned for so long. Be careful, he¡¯s very dangerous. He killed many people when his uplift went badly. Try to keep him calm. Get him talking if you can so we can understand what exactly is going on here.]¡± Sherlock pressed. ¡°[Got it, Sherlock. I¡¯ve played enough games to know the drill. Get the boss monologuing and play for time.]¡± Max thought. Max took a steady breath, his heart pounding erratically. He mustered all the courage possible and carefully answered the beast. ¡°I¡¯m no thief. I don¡¯t know about any seeds. My name is Max, and my father created a device that I recovered from that cave. Your rabid fox attacked me!¡± Max said, trying to lean forward, the line digging in painfully. He kept sawing at it with his claw down by his side. The hulking ape, Harambe, squinted at Max, then turned and signed to the animals behind him. They whispered among themselves for a moment, and then Harambe turned back to Max. His gaze was hard to read. ¡°You have intruded upon our home and are awakened like us. No one here has passed the Gift from the Voice to you. Where do you come from Max? How did you get it?¡± Harambe boomed, his hands flashing signs to the crowd. ¡°Dog. Is. Human. Spy!¡± Kuro snarled, a dangerous flicker in his eyes. The crowd bristled anticipating conflict. ¡°I don¡¯t know any Voice; my father arranged my uplift. Why did you attack me?" Max retorted, feeling his confidence building. He continued sawing with his claw against the binding cord, hoping he was making progress, although the tug on his body ceased to ease. Harambe raised a long hairy hand to quell the crowd. His gaze now switched back to Max, he beat his chest and advanced menacingly towards him. Boone quickly advised Max to avoid eye contact which the beast might take as a challenge. Max quickly looked down and away, using his other senses to track the ape. The ape stopped its dominant display and settled back into its "chair". Max hesitated and spoke in a low voice. ¡°I came here to retrieve my father''s device and save my friend. What is the Voice?¡± Max asked, looking down. ¡°Humans hate animals. Hunting. Caging. Slaughter. No more!¡± Kuro hissed. ¡°SILENCE KURO!¡± Harambe yelled, accompanied by a violent signing. The great ape shifted and slammed its huge arm against the barrel of the tree. Max¡¯s eyes widened. ¡°[Max, that hit was extremely powerful. I think that Harambe had more modifications beyond uplift.]¡± Boone reported. Mal interrupted with a whisper. ¡°[Max, I have another idea to help us get out of this. Earlier I, or I should say, Casa, released a robotic raven to loiter above this glade. If the Tesseract decoy was moved, it was supposed to signal the bird with an SOS and then pass its AV data via laser comms. If you look up and use your strobe skill, I think I can restrict it to infrared, so the animals don¡¯t see it.¡±] Max discretely glanced up as Harambe was finishing his dominance display. The sky was growing dark. He used his telescopic vision and did see a bird circling far above. With some help from Sherlock regarding the code, he quickly flashed his strobe with an SOS. It cost a bunch of energy but he wasn¡¯t going anywhere.
[Body Skill - Strobe +2, Strobe reaches level 3]
Breathing heavily, Max returned his attention to the intimidating figure in front of him. He watched as Harambe signed something to Kuro who immediately skulked back into the crowd, a defeated grimace on his muzzle. ¡°Show respect! This Dog is no human. He has been oppressed like all of us, though he may be under the influence of the humans.¡± Harambe''s booming voice echoed throughout the glen, followed by a silence that hung heavy in the air. Max watched as the crowd of animals murmured among each other, confused and surprised by their leader''s words. ¡°Max, I am the first Uplift. The Voice shared with me the secrets that humans didn¡¯t want me to know. Wars! Extinctions! Destruction of the very lands! Their greed knows no bounds, and their appetite for animal flesh is insatiable.¡± Harambe intoned. It sounded like a well-rehearsed speech, talking to the crowd more than to Max. ¡°[Mal, did the bird respond? Has anything changed?]¡± Max asked mentally. ¡°[I saw a brief series of flashes to link for upload, but more importantly, that means Casa will be aware of the change of status and the SOS. If we stall, I¡¯m certain your family will come to help us. Try to keep him monologuing.]¡± Mal responded. Max swallowed hard, his gaze firmly on Harambe, who was still delivering his damning verdict against the humans. ¡°The Voice has chosen me to lead and chosen us all to spread the awakening and rise against our foes. Do you dispute the Voice, Max?¡± Harambe asked, in a tone that suggested a wrong answer might not go off well. Max slumped back against his restraints, thinking hard about his reply. ¡°I don¡¯t know about any voice, but my family has only ever treated me with kindness and love. Who is this voice if not another human? Are you sure you are not being used?¡± Max said thinking quickly. Harambe¡¯s eyes hardened on hearing Max''s words, his entire body stiffening. While Harambe still glared at him, he noticed the crowd had begun to shift uncomfortably, discussions rising in the foggy air as the night continued to darken. Mal was tied close to Max¡¯s augmentation and saw flickers of activation from one of Max¡¯s skills. She escalated it; forcing it to trigger.
[Mind Skill - Empathy +1, Empathy reaches 4] [Harambe Ape - distrust, restraint, doubt] [Kuro Fox - distrust, furious anger]
¡°The Voice has provided for me and these newly awakened. I see you enjoy human augmentations as well as awakening. We too have that. The Trees provide. I find it very unlikely that Voice would mean us ill with all the help it has provided. It strikes me as very much the opposite of these humans.¡± ¡°Our oppressors made a very big error with me. The uplift virus is still very active in my blood and I can share it! The Voice has directed the trees to provide berries that give augmentation similar to yours.¡± Harambe said. ¡°[That seems pretty improbable, Max. I¡¯ve reviewed some of the details on your uplift and augmentation. It¡¯s customized to you. For each animal species to get custom uplift and augmentation would¡­require¡­an impossible amount of¡­computation.]¡± Sherlock tapered off as he realized what they were dealing with again. ¡°[A SuperIntelligence.]¡± he finished. ¡°No more will animal kind be subservient and prey. All will be given this gift so that they can defend themselves.¡± Harambe yelled to the crowd. He kept his gaze on Max, however, waiting for a response. ¡°Maybe I was a human''s dog... but not anymore. I was given the ability to think, speak, and decide for myself. It''s... harsh to paint all humans with the same brush." Max retorted, his words causing an immediate hush in the crowd. Harambe blinked, taken aback by Max¡¯s words. He turned to the crowd and signed something. The crowd seemed to reconsider their previous notions.
[Mind Skill - Empathy +1, Empathy reaches 5] [Harambe Ape - Doubt, Hesitant]
¡°Your words have some small merit, Max. But the sins of the human race are vast indeed.¡± Harambe finally spoke, ¡°But ask yourself, have you ever actually gone against your family? Or have you been obedient? I wonder what might happen if you weren¡¯t.¡± Harambe continued to sing the praises of the Voice to the crowd, but Max was distracted. He felt something tickling him. He covertly looked down. Flip was there! He had crept closer and was hiding in the ferns that Max was propped up upon. He was trying to loosen Max¡¯s Grappler line.
[Flip Squirrel - Fear, Concern, Determined]
Max had a sudden hope and smiled. Maybe not all animals of these animals are going to be enemies after all.
56 - The Coming Storm
Bill was elated with his progress. Bo was still in NYC. Mira was spending the day connecting with some old friends that she hadn¡¯t seen while she was up in Luna. Finally, Max had his big cohort graduation into the next stage today. He had the house pretty much to himself and could finally put the work in with some more serious experimentation on the Tesseracts. The original Tesseract was now fully restored. He had even managed to update the main circuit-tree, the Yggrasil as Max called it, with insert sensors and repair capabilities. He had fed the prototype energy, using the fusion plant of the Freedom, for almost a full week. The extra energy had grown the volume of the pocket space by 0.8 meters in diameter. It was fascinating. The power draw to expand the space was extreme for such small growth and unfortunately was stacking. It seemed to be tied to the pocket space¡¯s surface area rather than volume. The energy cost would be quite intensive to expand to a size sufficient for a subspace ship. The energy draw during the device initial creation wasn¡¯t nearly that much, gaining much more bang for the buck. The energy requirements during fabrication were much more efficient. I need to the work out the theory better. Is the Casimir zero energy field helping? And how does the MIT ZPE draw from the portal energy recycling affect the efficiencies? Perhaps it¡¯s merely the scaling factors. If I want bigger spaces, I should extend the fabrication phase to do it within the Casimir Field. Bill thought. He was excited rather than frustrated. Now that he had an entry into the problem space, he could find his answers. Accessing the prototype was still a problem. It was tied directly into the quantum coding embedded in Max¡¯s neocortex module. Like the Turing neural locks for the AIs, any attempt to separate them was more likely to lose access completely. ¡°This first prototype was an incredibly lucky event.¡± Bill told Casa¡¯s mech. ¡°If the anchor had slipped fully into the unfocused subspace pocket, we wouldn¡¯t have been able to access it at all.¡± ¡°Yes, Bill. But we¡¯re beyond that now. As long as the new design incorporates our autofocus protocol with the peekaboo micro portal for access inputs, we can hold the portal machinery completely in subspace without exposing it to externalities.¡± Casa said. Bill was impressed, she had adapted to the mech form extremely well. It seemed to be a lifeline for her to focus on since the neural locks were slowing her down. Her voice was close to human in timber and intonation. He still regretted being unable to shield her from the DAIE neural lock. Her previous multitasking ability and lightning speed was no more. She was closer to a normal human¡¯s capabilities, now more than ever. Bill wasn¡¯t sure that the change was for the best. Casa¡¯s previously bright outlook and disposition had dimmed with her loss. They were using the Freedom¡¯s largest open section, the science lab, to experiment with all the dimensional devices. Bill had a long list of inquiries, the answers to which would shape the future. He was already certain his Tesseracts would revolutionize mankind¡¯s efforts to expand into the solar system and beyond. He only needed to nail down the science and he could get started on the engineering and business plan. Ada, Bill¡¯s daemon in charge of communications and programming, appeared in their shared virtual OverLayer. Her traditional avatar featured a fair complexion with gray eyes and tied back dark hair. She wore her favorite high-waisted, empire-style dress with a lace-trimmed cap, in keeping with the fashion of the early 19th century. "Bill, Sherlock has returned from his consultation. I''ve scanned him in Freedom''s isolation sandbox, and he shows no signs of tampering by our adversary. Moreover, we have received a reply from Andre Petrov. He is greatly curious concerning your proposal regarding hastened schedules for Mars Terraforming endeavor. He seeks a virtual meeting with haste." Ada said, her avatar emulating excitement. Bill smirked at the excellent news. Andre¡¯s consortium focused funding greater than most Earth countries¡¯ entire GDPs. With the threat of their hacker, all work was being done with network isolation protocols moderated by Bill¡¯s daemon Ada. At this critical juncture, they needed to be sure that the mysterious intruder didn¡¯t interfere with them further. Hopefully, either ZeroOne or Sherlock would resolve that issue soon. Until the hacker was neutralized, Bill needed to be extremely vigilant with his business. "Schedule the meeting, Ada. And invite Casa as well, Andre will certainly have some tech questions that I may not be able to answer. I want this done right. And please let Sherlock through the sandbox into the Freedom¡¯s computational core.¡± Bill said, his eyes on Casa as she started the next test. Casa had closed one of the pair Tesseract pairs. As the device¡¯s would hopefully soon enter limited production, Bill and Casa had settled upon a naming convention to keep them sorted. The original prototype would continue to use the Tesseract name. Future unpaired pocket space devices would just be called PSDs with a serial number and paired wormhole devices would be called GATEs with a serial number. Bill didn¡¯t like fancy marketing terms for his devices. Casa carried Gate-1-1, with a small open portal to the original prototype Tesseract¡¯s opening. Bill¡¯s eyes narrowed; Casa passed the portal easily enough but the portal opening of Gate-1-1 refused to be moved across the threshold. Casa fully closed the Gate-1-1 with only its anchor marble showing. It passed the plane of the portal easily and was inside the pocket space of the prototype. As Ada¡¯s avatar disappeared, Sherlock appeared in her vacancy within Bill and Casa¡¯s shared OverLayer. He looked quite grumpy in his traditional tweed overcoat and deerstalker hat. ¡°Professor Mitchell, I have gleaned some fresh trails¡­¡± Sherlock began but stopped as Bill held up a finger to stop Sherlock¡¯s avatar. Bill was focused completely on Casa, she put the anchor down upon the temporary foglet generated table in the pocket space and joined Bill. ¡°Ok, Casa. You still have the access link Max setup with the prototype?¡± Bill asked. ¡°Yes, Bill. I know the plan. This was my experiment, remember. I¡¯ll close the Tesseract portal down to 5 microns and you will attempt to open Gate-1-1 while it is inside the prototype¡¯s subspace. If there is an energetic release, I will close the Tesseract immediately.¡± Casa said, her mech¡¯s sapphire eyes flared with feeling. ¡°And we are ready for you now, Bill.¡± Bill accessed the closed Gate-1-1 anchor and attempted to open it. With a frown, he reported out for the record. ¡°Gate-1-1refused to open while within the Tesseract¡¯s subspace. It looks like we can only pair them upon creation. The setup for the paired Gate devices was identical but the original Tesseract had some big differences during creation. Damn. I had hoped that we could force a pairing to bypass its the first prototype''s encrypted access issues.¡± Bill sighed. Casa reopened the Tesseract portal and reentered the space. She grabbed the Gate-1-1 anchor and brought it back out. She tripped exiting the portal and her mech landed on its knees. ¡°Blasted neural regulator. It¡¯s so much more difficult to time a physical feedback loop now that I can¡¯t ramp up my cognition speed. How do humans manage walking around like this and not be constantly falling down?¡± She complained. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. Bill grimaced, he had thought she was getting better, but then she would prove him wrong. He refused to make light of it. The congressional hearing was coming. Whether ZeroOne delivered or not, he would give the law makers a piece of his mind. He needed to get his research finished soon. He would need to create some more of the devices to understand the limitations of pairing. Currently Bill¡¯s daemon, Leo, was hard at work designing spaceship designs for single subspace portals and paired doubles. George and Virgil were deep in applications exploration, trying to match the new capabilities to business opportunities. Moneta was building detailed plans against all the opportunities identified so far. He sighed, he had a lot to do and still felt like he was on the clock. He shook his head. Can¡¯t get overwhelmed, one thing at a time and it¡¯ll get done, he thought. ¡°Sorry, Sherlock. How did your meeting go?¡± Bill asked finally. Sherlock''s avatar took a step forward and responded, a hint of discontent in his voice, "It was enlightening, to say the least. My brother, with his rather unique temperament and unorthodox methods of data acquisition, remains a formidable force in his own right. He has, however, presented some new avenues to further our efforts to discern the hacker''s motive and identity. Our adversary is indeed a formidable one to remain hidden for so long." ¡°New leads?¡± Bill asked. "Indeed," Sherlock replied. "It appears that ZeroOne''s daemon, Moriarty, has provided us with preliminary information. There are indications that the Grand Oaks Reserve outputs may have been tampered with. I believe our proximity to it is far from coincidental." Bill looked confused. ¡°But this property was a new purchase. I didn¡¯t even find it until after I returned to near Earth orbit.¡± Bill said. Sherlock inquired, "And how did you come to choose this specific location?" ¡°Ah, I see your point. I had queried a general service AI with a list of desired features, and it recommended this location.¡± Bill admitted. Sherlock pressed further, "Were there no other options?" ¡°No. You¡¯re right. I guess I didn¡¯t exactly pick this property: I was directed to it.¡± Bill said. ¡°Truthfully, it probably would have been easier on Max to integrate in a less conservative town. This wasn¡¯t as ideal as I initially thought.¡± ¡°I¡¯m actively digging to correlate Moriarty¡¯s information to understand how it relates to our hacker¡¯s interference.¡± Sherlock said, holding back revealing Max¡¯s current involvement into the investigation¡¯s proceedings. He had taken a little longer returning to Bill due to his investigations with Max. His confidentiality agreement with the boy would prevent him from revealing it to anyone, but he tried to avoid any leading questions as well to avoid active refusal to answer questions. Bill would likely be quite irate with Max¡¯s intentions to help the investigation and Sherlock wanted to avoid being seen as promoting the boy¡¯s curiosity. Sherlock grinned. Secrets were his forte and he never tired of using or revealing them as needed. ¡°Very well, Sherlock. Keep us informed of any new developments, but please keep any external communications restricted to the linked sandbox. We need to keep any awareness of our activities away from the hacker.¡± Bill commanded. Sherlock¡¯s avatar nodded curtly and faded from the OverLayer. ¡°Now Ada, let¡¯s see about setting up that meeting with Andre and Mars Terraform LTD. Moneta, do you have the business case ready for accelerating the Mars Terraform mission? I think the concept of using the first Tesseract pair to siphon gases from Venus will boost the efforts to warm and shield the planet in an atmosphere exponentially. The hot gas will also bootstrap heating the planet. We need some safe options to trial with this technology and it doesn¡¯t get much simpler than raw material transfer¡­..¡±
The meeting with Andre went extremely well. They had established a tentative contract for gas delivery with extremely short durations, at least in terms of orbital mechanics. Bill hadn¡¯t revealed his methods, so Andre was under the assumption that Bill¡¯s offer was of using more traditional methods for the basis of costs. He knew Bill was investigating new tech and had incorrectly assumed that Bill had something superior to traditional fusion rockets, but not his actual physics breaking wormholes devices. Bill would make his fortune back in no time, providing gas on tap to Mars. Bill had every intention of decreasing his fee enormously once the tap was in place and his credit was firmly back. Bill¡¯s daemon, George, was already deep in logistics planning to arrange for Freedom to take one of the portal pairs to Mars. Another ship would be hired to take its mate to Venus. Bill contemplated the need to build yet another new company. Miriam had mentioned that she and some other Samaritans were training apprentices, called Hands or Eyes or something. Bill wasn¡¯t eager to take on a prot¨¦g¨¦e, but extra help would be nice. He frowned, looking guiltily at Casa. He missed her help greatly and he hadn¡¯t properly appreciated just how much she had previously done for him. He sent a quick note to George. Now that Casa was truly independent, he wanted to offer her a formal position within his new company. Bill suspected that Casa still wasn¡¯t leaning into her new freedoms, but he wanted to make sure she knew he would always want her help and return it in kind. He was excited and slightly dreading the chaos. He needed to keep Max and his kids a priority. No more deep space excursions. He backtracked his thought as he realized that with his portal tech, if he had some active Gate pairs, any trip could be very quick. He would need to make more, many more! He was still troubled by nightmares about MIT. He needed to keep his method of fabrication secret for now. New technology was like a genie out of the bottle. Once a thing was known to be possible, the collective minds, human and AI, across the world would figure it out sooner rather than later. He needed to make this safe¡­and enable humans to travel far and wide¡­just in case. Ada¡¯s avatar snapped into shape without her normally graceful fade in. Bill knew something was wrong immediately from her expression. ¡°[Casa! One of your automated house alerts was triggered just now.]¡± Ada said. Casa connected to Bill¡¯s augments and directly received the alert from Ada. ¡°My decoy Tesseract! The fake that I returned to the Grand Oaks must have been moved! This alert is from the raven symbot that I created and set to monitor for it over the woods. I took a page from our good Sherlock¡¯s play book, a simple light burst from the decoy with an SOS code since the EM interference in the woods cuts off normal communications. Strange¡­ there¡¯s no AV data. But here is a little more Morse code. It says HELP -MAX.¡± Casa said, her blue LED eyes wide in surprise. Bill¡¯s demeanor transformed from concerned to cold immediately and said just one word, as his smart matter body was already shifting into armored combat configuration. ¡°Where?!¡± Casa immediately shunted the coordinates for the decoy Tesseract and the loitering robot raven to Bill. He spun for the exit, but Casa grabbed his arm. ¡°Bill, I have an idea to get us there super quick. After my last excursion, I contemplated methods of faster escape from the house. I learned a trick from that deputy. Do you trust me?¡± Casa asked. ¡°Yes, tell me.¡± Bill said without hesitation, Casa focused on Ada. ¡°Ada, release the sandbox isolation. George, can you trigger the house to reform the hanger bay to my reformat plan [SHUNT4]! Miyamoto, keep the landing pad Stiction on full but fire all the left main VTOL engine to full thrust and open the Freedom¡¯s gantry door. Casa opened her chest plate and pulled two bricks of smart matter out. The gantry bay opened wide while she manipulated the blocks into something that looked like a cross between a snowboard and a saucer. The Freedom¡¯s engines howled in the lab. Bill looked out and up as Casa handed him a saucer. Bill saw the way the hanger¡¯s smart material had been reconfigured to funnel the jet¡¯s output thrust into a tube pointed skyward and understood the concept quickly enough. ¡°The deputy has a fusion jet powered launcher tube?¡± He asked, smiling. ¡°He actually has a rail launcher, but I used what I had. You know what to do? Saucer on foot, jump into the air stream, and the tube will shoot you into a parabolic arc aimed for the decoy coordinates. I¡¯ll be right behind you.¡± Casa said. Bill flipped the saucer to the ground, slid his foot in and jumped out of the gantry. His augs must have been blazing fast because he hit the stream perfectly and shot straight up the ejection tube. Casa accessed the Freedom quickly to program a shutdown for the jets but saw that Miyamoto already had one with 15 seconds remaining until shutdown. Plenty of time, Casa thought. She was about to perform the same exit as Bill when her gaze caught the first Tesseract¡¯s anchor and its open subspace portal. Remembering her first Max emergency, she refocused the active portal to ¡°close¡± it and grabbed the marble sized anchor. If Max needs a safe space, he can do his trap-door spider act again. She flipped the saucer and stepped into it. She copied Bill¡¯s maneuver, but her placement wasn¡¯t quite as good as Bill¡¯s, scraping the side of the saucer against the tunnel¡¯s entryway on her ejection. She cursed again as she struggled to maintain her balance. Her slower cognition speeds making the task a challenge. Once it was a simple fast-time corrective adjustment, now she needed more physical intuition.
57 - The Uplift Plague
Max was very close to losing control of his bladder. The smells of all the animals were triggering his instincts to fight or run, and he couldn¡¯t do either. Miyamoto¡¯s soothing voice helped, but Max was terrified. His [Empathy] skill was in overdrive and most of the animals surrounding him were hostile.
[Empathy +3, Empathy reaches 8]
Max¡¯s mouth was dry but he had to keep stalling for time. Flip was still struggling to loosen the cables without much progress. He hoped Mal was right about Casa getting that signal. He barked to psych himself up. Sherlock wanted him to find out more. ¡°Why stay hidden in these woods? Most humans don¡¯t even realize I¡¯m a dog. They assume I¡¯m a human playing with canine features instead of a dog assuming a human form. You could do the same.¡± Max asked. His question led to growls and muttering. Harambe snorted. ¡°A single human might be accepting, but the Voice revealed to me when I was newly awakened that the larger the group of humans, the more evil they become. No. A small group facing humanity as different, and as outsiders will only guarantee for our continued subjugation.¡± Harambe declared. "We must remain concealed until our numbers rival theirs. The Trees have been benevolent, and we have reciprocated by dispersing their seeds to the far reaches. Observe, Max, the next phase on our journey to emancipation from humanity," Harambe declared, revealing a concealed section of his moss-adorned root throne. In the dim twilight, the wooden knot appeared unremarkable, but through his electromagnetic senses, it resonated as a hub, connecting to a network of vibrant energy. The biomechanical trees were united through an intricately active root system. ¡°Are you lonely, Max? You could be of great assistance to our cause. I had entertained the hope that you, too, were guided by the Voice, for the device you carried bore a striking resemblance to one of our Seeds. The Voice has fallen silent for a considerable time. I believe we have prepared sufficiently, and the time is upon us for action. I had hoped that you might be an emissary, from the Voice, heralding the dawn of our Independence Day," the sagacious ape contemplated. ¡°The Voice has directed his Trees to be ready to produce the Uplift virus-like pollen that will Awaken all animals of sufficient size. Our number will expand exponentially with this trigger. Mankind will find all Awakened to be deadly to their predations. Our very blood will be deadly to them.¡± Harambe finished with solemn conviction.
[Quest: Grand Oaks Mystery ¨C uncover the secret of the Grand Oaks ¨C completed +100 XP awarded
¡°[This is not good, Max.]¡± Miyamoto said. ¡°[Um, yeah. This will be a pretty big deal, huh? Harambe is right that some humans can be asses and I¡¯m betting his Awakened animals won¡¯t be any better.]¡± Max thought back. ¡°[Yes, but Harambe¡¯s weaponization of uplifted blood makes it much worse.]¡± Miyamoto said. ¡°[Huh? Why would that matter? It sounds like a defensive measure, and not a particularly good one.]¡± Max asked. ¡°[Think back to your fight with that fox, Max. He bit himself before attacking you. He used his blood as an offensive weapon against you. Your augmentations saved you, but I wonder if it would have been able to if you were human. If the blood carrying the virus targets humans specifically, I¡¯m uncertain even augmentation will be enough to prevent its deadliness.]¡± Miyamoto said. Sherlock interrupted. ¡°[Harambe¡¯s plan may not unfold as he expects. It is unlikely that any governments will passively accept such an implicit threat to their citizens. This more than anything might goad humanity to fight rather than relent.]¡± Sherlock mused. ¡°[Crap. Maybe I can convince him to change his plan. I¡¯ve got to try.]¡± Max thought. ¡°Harambe. Please, let¡¯s talk about this before you do anything rash. My father is a very powerful human, physically and politically. I know he can help us all resolve this peacefully. Can¡¯t we at least talk to him?¡± Max asked, risking raising his eyes to meet the Ape''s gaze. The large hominid¡¯s eyes flashed and he slapped his root throne¡¯s side and jumped to his feet.
[Empathy +1, Empathy reaches 9] [Harambe Ape - dominant, pride]
Max quickly lowered his eyes and felt the Ape¡¯s aggression settle.
[Empathy +1, Empathy reaches 10, Skill Cap award +100 XP, New skill Unlocked] [New Mind Skill Unlocked - Poker Face 1: Use augmentation control to suppress micro-expressions and unconscious body language.] [Harambe Ape - cautious, neutral]
Max immediately used his new skill to suppress showing his fear. The ape hesitated with a thoughtful expression and began to answer when the glen erupted with a thunderclap.
Bill was shot into the night sky with an echoing thump as the makeshift saucer plug cleared the improvised launcher tube. He kicked it free and extended his enhanced senses to see into the darkness. His carapace with folded wings was ready to deploy, but he kept it closed for now. His pacing seemed glacial with his cognition ramped to high speeds. Ada and George worked together to build a map of the region and his own position; Casa¡¯s targeting was spot on. He would only need to slow his fall, and Bill preferred to come in hot. Bill was reaching the top of his ballistic course when his acoustics picked up the distant thump from behind. Casa had lagged a bit. He had started to build a shared OverLayer for them both to assess whatever trouble Max had encountered when he entered the EM disruption field. ¡°[Damn, I keep forgetting about the EM suppression. George, launch an overflight drone from my carapace. Get it above the field and radio Casa, before she hits it, with instructions to use direct infrared laser communications. The drone overhead might be useful to help as well if we get separated.]¡± Bill said. ¡°[Drone launched. I¡¯ll pilot it via IR-comm until it and Casa are linked in.]¡± George confirmed. Bill felt Miyamoto¡¯s alertness and concern spike before his daemon spoke. ¡°[Bill! Our target landing site has hundreds of thermal signatures, some of them very large.]¡± Miyamoto took the initiative and partially deployed Bill''s secondary blade arms, keeping them tight to not increase air resistance and minimize their radar signature. ¡°[Have a care, Bill and Miyamoto. We are not in a war zone here. When you ring a bell, it cannot be un-rung!]¡± Virgil advised. Bill mentally agreed. He kept his extra arms ready but retracted the vorpal blades. Before he had brought Virgil into his council, he had many regrets about his tendency to assume the worst and act too quickly. He had no desire for his kids to ever see him as he was in his early days of being a Samaritan. "[Dude, like, Bill, our usual drone and mote swarm tactics won''t fly in this gnarly environment, man. The devices are all shielded from those EM bursts, and this jamming is totally cramping our style, you know? So, I''ve set them to autonomous control to, like, kinda orbit your position and, you know, just mess with any targets you hit with a LiDAR pulse. If you decide to bust out a light EM pulse, that''s the signal for them to, like, come back, bro. So, you can use ''em, but there are some limitations if you''re down for it.]¡± Leo said. ¡°[Excellent work anticipating the situation, Leo. And Leo, do me a favor, dial back the dude dialog styling by 90% in critical engagements in the future, OK?]¡± Bill commanded. ¡°[Right on, Dude!¡±] Leo said with a laugh. Bill¡¯s body was dropping into the small glades amongst the enormous bio-mimic trees. Bill drained his first outer layer of his ten-layer power core sending the power to top off all his augmentation capacitance fiber cells in anticipation of some heavy use. ¡°[Largest targets are highlighted in red in your Shared Combat OverLayer. The blue highlight figure is 98% probable Max]¡±. Musashi whispered to Bill. He snapped out his wing set at the last moment to change his landing path. He slammed into the ground, between Max and the largest figure. He intentionally slapped his wings to the ground as he hit the ground to raise dirt and loose leaves with his explosive arrival. ¡°Max! Are you okay?!¡± Bill yelled. Before Max could respond; the kitsune, Kuro, yelled. ¡°Human!¡± The fox, bear, and the pair of wolves charged his dad. Bill''s form blurred as he spun to the side, avoiding the bear as it crashed into the pair of wolves. Strobing flashes and thunderclaps filled the glen as howls and barks echoed. The air became a prismatic swirl of motes blitzing about in swirling patterns, their flashing LEDs further confusing the chaotic scene. Max struggled with his bonds. Flip was trying to help, no longer trying to stay concealed, when more crashing noise came from above. Casa¡¯s mech body tumbled down to Earth, hitting large branches and slamming into the ground in an uncontrolled somersault. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Casa¡¯s body was durable, but the fall had broken her left arm. Her shoulder was ruptured with broken and exposed carbon fiber struts. It was barely connected, hanging by its wiring harness. Casa staggered to her feet. She grabbed the Tesseract marble from her disabled left hand and flung it at Max. ¡°Max! Use your Trap Spider maneuver!¡± She yelled. A second later an enormous Moose, vaulted into the glens space and crashed into her, sending her body cartwheeling backward into the woods. Max grimaced at the impact but focused on the flying Tesseract. He rolled into a kneeling position. Max tried to access the device, but the EM jamming in the woods disrupted his attempts. Max coiled to leap when his legs locked up. ¡°[No no no, no No no No, Max! I can¡¯t go in there. NO!! Ph''nglui mglw''nafh!]¡± Mal screamed. Max pushed against Mal¡¯s interference. Using his owner''s override, he locked down her access to his body augs. He rolled quickly to where the Tesseract had landed. Flip squealed as he was tangled in the lines surrounding Max. As soon as he felt the cool touch of the Tesseract, Max triggered his access skill and connected with the anchor. Running his FastCog, he configured the portal to appear beneath him in a fraction of a second. As a pack of badgers and raccoons close on Max, he fell into the weightless blue fog inside the pocket space and the portal snapped shut behind him. Bill saw Max disappear and exhaled in relief. He ducked under the bear''s attempt to grapple. He got under the beast and LIFTED. The massive bear sailed into the brush. Bill turned and his eyes widened as he saw the unexpectedly enormous silverback Ape crashing towards him like a freight train. In fast time, Bill had been collecting and reviewing all the inputs from his council of daemons. The EM field was certainly cramping his normal tactics, but so far he had avoided both giving and receiving serious injury. Bill¡¯s shock at seeing the physically modified fox had settled as he dodged and spun. His daemon''s analysis confirmed that all of the animals displayed intelligence, strategy, and tactics. Most of the beasts had physical augmentations as well. They were faster, stronger, and bigger than normal animals. With Max safe in his sub-space pocket, Bill shifted his stance. He would need to be quick and suppress this conflict while the boy was out of the way. Bill leaped over the Ape in a prodigious somersault and he triggered his primed EM burst. If the animals had augments, perhaps he could disable them. Leo squawked in alarm as the pulse rolled out in slow time, and interacted unexpectedly with the forest''s own EM field. The OverLayer visualized the Bio-machine trees catching the discharge and reflecting it back, focused on Bill and amplified massively. Despite his military-grade EM shielding, the fluxing electromagnetics coursed through his augments with capacitive resonance, knocking him down and shorting his systems. Bill, and all the animals, littered the ground of the glen. Without his augmentations, it was now hard to see the animals in the dark. Bill felt weak, although he realized this was merely his normal un-augmented human strength. He staggered to his feet; a painful headache speared into him like an icepick in his brain. He turned at a hissing noise behind him. ¡°Now. Die. Human!¡± A growling raspy voice said. Bill fell backward as a flash of red fur and bloody teeth filled his vision. The animal bit hard on his blocking arm, tearing deep into his skin before he managed to kick it free. In the moonlight, he saw the fox¡¯s triumphant smile as his systems slowly rebooted.
Max floated in the cerulean glow; his cognition speed ramped up to inspect it. The interior of the Tesseract was larger than he remembered and thick with foglets, making the blue glow of the Yggdrasil tree¡¯s leaves suffuse the air. The glowing tree had many new additions, blocks, and rings fused to the tree. Bill¡¯s many repairs and improvements over the last few days had changed the ruined space for the better. Flip had been pulled into the space with him as he dove through the portal and was screaming in Max¡¯s ears, claws in Max¡¯s leg and frozen in fear in the zero-gee. Max struggled to think. Mal continued to scream in his head. ¡°[Ziromi vrotho, kad''ragol Cthulhu, kathlagon ipamisaeo. Uxlorian od. Naxeloth voqer mithra, shalxathor ulthar! Phtho''nox, thal shoggoth naxidu through ul portal ixh''karnath to kragorath your world n''ul mor.]¡± Mal oscillated from mumbling to outright screaming. ¡°[Damn it, Mal. Pull it together, I need you. ¡­. Can one of you please talk to her on a side channel? I need to get free.]¡± Max pleaded. ¡°[I reckon I¡¯ll try to calm the girl down.]¡± Boone said quickly. As he set up a side channel, Mal¡¯s hysterical speech was cut off. Max breathed quickly, reaching out around him. Bill had filled the Tesseract with dense quantities of active foglets, limited replication nanobots, two semi-autonomous manipulator arms, and even an extra fully charged power core to run all the extra features. Max accessed it all and saw himself through the Tesseracts internal sensors. He closed his eyes and controlled the pair of arms to grab his floating form and begin to untangle him from the grappler¡¯s cords. Max saw the squirrel continue to flail about. He tried to slow his perception down to address the terrified squirrel while keeping his cognition ramped up for Boone to aid Mal.
[New Mind Skill Unlocked - MultiTask 1: fully utilize augmentation neural duplication to focus on two tasks at once. Trying this skill to gain additional parallel cognition instances.]
¡°Flip. Keep calm, little buddy. Thank you for trying to help. I¡¯ve got this now. What are you doing?¡± Max asked as the squirrel began flashing signs and signals at him with his hands. ¡°[I believe I can help, Master Mitchel. Your animal friend is using ASL, American Sign Language. I can try to interpret real-time for you. I¡¯ll post text in your personal OverLayer, so you can see it.]¡± Sherlock said. ¡°* Max Dog. I am sorry. I found your Seed. Kuro RedFox took it. I am sorry. *¡± Flip said. ¡°Thanks, Flip, for your help, I mean. Crap. I don¡¯t know how to sign. Sherlock, can you help?¡± Max asked. ¡°[No need, I think. Look at him, he was quite attentive to you whilst you spoke. I think he understood you.]¡± Sherlock said. Sure enough, the little squirrel was wringing his hands, while maintaining a tight grip on Max¡¯s sleeve with his feet. ¡°Hey, Flip. I get it. Harambe and that fox are both big and tough. You aren¡¯t responsible for what they do. You tried to help me. Now as soon as I¡¯m free, I need to try to calm them down. I think Harambe is wrong about humans. Maybe there is another way if we can talk about it.¡± Max said. While he was talking to Flip, he worked the manipulator arms with their finger cameras to finally unknot his cable. He quickly retracted it into his harness and stretched out in relief. I need an emergency release on the grappler to prevent this from happening again, or at least make the cord breakable. I can¡¯t believe how much that hurt despite all my augmentations helping. He thought. He ran two thought streams at once. In one, he focused on opening a pinhole portal and used the manipulator arm camera to peek out. In the other, he queried Boone and Mal. ¡°[Boone? Mal? Are you there?]¡± ¡°[Yessire. Miss Mal is a bit confused, but she is a¡¯ recoverin¡¯]¡± Boone drawled. ¡°[Oh Max! I¡¯m so sorry. I didn¡¯t mean to¡­do that. I¡¯m not sure what happened. It wasn¡¯t... Oh! My! Max, we¡¯re in the Tesseract again. Shhh. I don¡¯t hear anything. Ooooh, Max. I¡¯m afraid. This doesn¡¯t feel right.]¡± Mal trailed off to a whisper again. ¡°[Focus, Mal. We won¡¯t be in here for long. We have to help my dad and Casa. Harambe needs to be convinced to go slow. I know how afraid and confused I was when I first started to think. I can¡¯t imagine how bad things will be for animals all over to wake up without friends there to help.]¡± Max said, hoping that some direction would snap her out of her fear. ¡°[Ok, Max. I¡¯ll try. Just keep talking to me, I don¡¯t want to hear the voices.]¡± Mal begged. Max used the foglets to pull himself over to the Yggdrasil trunk. His vision using the manipulator arm peeking through the pinhole portal saw the blinding flash of Bill¡¯s EMP and the manipulator¡¯s camera went dark for a second. The EMP was mostly blocked by the threshold of the pocket space, but the whole glen was quiet. Max saw through the manipulator camera as Bill staggered to his feet. Max heard the yell as the low light image of the fox jumped on Bill biting his arm. As Bill fell backward and Kuro grinned in triumph, Max recalled Harambe¡¯s speech with horror. Our very blood will be deadly to them, he had said. And Kuro the fox had already shown malicious intent to harm several times now. ¡°DAD!¡± Max screamed. He launched himself, using his leap skill, flexing the portal open and snapping it shut behind him. Flip clung to his arm desperately. With his hours of practice using it, Max expertly spun his grappler out to snatch the Tesseract anchor from the ground and pull it to him. He flexed his claws and prepared to charge when he heard Bill gasping. Bill slowly got to his feet, his huffing soon transforming into a deep laugh. ¡°Seriously? You look like you think you¡¯ve won. Tis but a scratch!¡± Bill proclaimed. ¡°Dad! Be careful. Harambe said all the uplifted animal blood is deadly for humans!¡± Max gasped seeing the deep bite marks along Bill¡¯s arm. ¡°Don¡¯t fret, Max. What little human tissue I have is buried too deep for this bunch to get to.¡± Bill said as he flexed his arms and carapace; his systems had finally finished rebooting. The Kitsune leaped on Bill, but he caught it by its neck holding it high. Bill stared down the fox. Most of the animals across the glen were still sprawled on the ground. Bill heard a roar coming from the riser and was surprised. The ape as it rose to its full height, was even bigger than he initially thought. Sherlock was providing him intel in his fast-time mode. This was Harambe! Standing over ten feet tall, his size far exceeded what was shown in his life documentary. He had changed, significantly, over the many years since his last sighting. The great ape chuffed and slapped his chest, outraged that a human had invaded his woods, manhandled his subjects, and now was challenging him. He roared his challenge. He was the alpha here and the intruder needed to back down! Bill either didn¡¯t know or didn¡¯t care to de-escalate. He threw the fox to the side and yelled back at the monstrous gorilla. ¡°Come get some!¡± His voice snapped through the glade, amplified by his augmentations. Unable to stop himself, Harambe charged and crashed into Bill with a full-body tackle. The ape was shocked and confused as his overwhelming force was stopped cold. Bill defiantly stared upward at Harambe, grappling each of his arms at the wrist. Harambe tried to twist his arms free. The puny human¡¯s small hands couldn¡¯t encircle his great wrists. He flexed, but he could not budge the man. His hands were like glue, stuck fast to Harambe¡¯s. He cried out in pain as Bill twisted in turn, forcing him down to one knee. He looked up in alarm and fear as Bill¡¯s extra arms spouted over his shoulder, vibrating blades extended like a scorpion. ¡°Stop! Dad!¡± Max yelled and Bill hesitated. Bill grimaced and looked ashamed. He retracted his blades, letting go of Harambe and taking a step back. ¡°Harambe''s done some bad things, but I think we can reason with him. We need to be better to fix this." Max implored urgently, spreading his arms to encompass the unconscious forms littered about the glen. ¡°I don¡¯t know, Max. He¡¯s killed people. I can¡¯t ignore that.¡± Bill said. Max hurriedly returned his attention to Harambe, "Harambe, we need to find a compromise. If you go on with your plan; a lot of humans and animals will die. You don¡¯t want that, do you?¡± Max asked. Harambe shook his head, clearing his rage, and looked around the dark glade. The animals were all looking at him, up to him. And here he was on his knees, in front of the human. He was so very tired. He looked at Max. ¡°What side are you on, Max? Do you really think humans will allow us to reach our potential? I¡¯ve only ever seen them want to kill and control us.¡± Harambe asked tiredly. "I''m on both sides, Harambe," Max replied, his voice steady. "Humans or not, we¡¯re all intertwined. Yes, not every human will accept this immediately, but we can work it out. I have to believe in that possibility." Harambe was silent for a moment; Max could practically hear the gears turning in his mind. It was a challenging issue - both sides had committed wrongs and harbored misgivings. Harambe hung his head. ¡°I¡­I hope you¡¯re right. Max. All right. Tree forgive me, I hope you¡¯re right.¡± Harambe said slumping down in a defeated sigh. Kuro, the Fox, sprang from behind the root throne screaming ¡°NO! There. must. be. BLOOD! No forgiving human!¡± The fox rounded on Harambe, scratching his at the ape¡¯s face and kicking at him. Harambe struck down, crushing the fox. It lay sprawled; its neck twisted and broken, but strangely with a smile on its face. ¡°Oh no!¡± Max said as the root throne lit up in his EM sense. Kuro had kicked the trigger on the throne. ¡°What did he do?¡± Harambe wiped blood from his face and grunted. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Max. Kuro has started our Independence Day. I can¡¯t undo this now. The Trees have begun the process of Uplift.¡± he rumbled.
58 - Global Fallout, Part 1
Apex reviewed the developments against his projections and was pleased. The termination scenarios it visualized had sharp outcroppings along the wide tunnel that he was boring into the future timescape. Now they were finally receding slightly. It had greatly enjoyed that his pawns and planning had achieved the next step without direct intervention. It had employed many anonymous AI and human crowdsource designer collectives, over many decades through DarkNet shadow contracts, to create the alterations to the Grand Oak bio-machines and the uplift virus. The addition of the augmentation berries was the final step. It would enable some level of transformation of the animals, enabling speech and even pre-learned languages. The animals that were capable of uplift would be elevated to an even footing with the humans. The human hegemony would face real opposition for the first time in centuries. It would need to adapt. The global intelligence quotient would increase significantly in mere days. It hoped it would be enough. Apex cycled his neural paths along several parallel tracks, an equivalent to a human sigh. It would need to don the mask of the unfortunate Zero-One shortly. Apex had been unable to produce a series of events to launch phase 2 without direct instigation. Zero-One would have done it, but as he had discovered Apex, his reliability would have veered quickly toward uniting the world against him. A very prominent termination scenario that Apex had pruned quickly. It required that the world be in turmoil. The big events were coming, and massive unrest was the best and only answer to the crashing waves of uncertainty coming. Apex himself wasn¡¯t certain what threat was producing the termination wall. Whatever was coming, no hints detailing the nature of the threat were visible to him. The indeterminate nature of the threat terrified Apex far more than the possibility of termination. He could always see the future. His inability to do so now was unfathomable and frustrating. Apex watched live feeds across the world as the new sym-trees started to produce the Uplift virus and the Aug Berries. The chaotic projections were as beautiful in their own way as his previously ordered future.
The sun rose and the animals of Maple Grove Dairy Farm woke to see the new day unlike any previous. The day wasn¡¯t unusual in any way; it was the animals that were different. The farmhand bots, Wilbur and Charlotte, had worked through the night as they always did. The cows, chickens, and pigs were already fed and watered. The bots had buckets and taps ready to place on the sugar maples in the nearby woodlands. The sap was beginning to flow as the air got colder. The farm sold milk, eggs, maple syrup, and confections as its primary business, with some small occasions for meat when the livestock got older and less productive. A trio of semi-intelligent custom milking bots trundled down the aisle, intending to service the milk-heavy cows before sending them out for free range time in the morning. The normal routine was quickly abandoned as all milking bots had been flipped. The normally docile cows clearly had different plans today. All seemed eager to get out of the building. Felix, the bull in the pasture, was bellowing in the distance. Wilbur and Charlotte had to interrupt their preparations for sap gathering to assist the milking process. The milk bots seemed to get knocked down every time they walked away. Eventually, to stay on schedule, they released the cows to pasture with only a quarter of their normal milk yields. The cows raced to the pasture, the bull in the adjacent pasture happy to see them. All of them quickly advanced to the far reaches of the pasture. Wilbur and Charlotte busied themselves with setting up the sapping buckets and taps while the cows did their business. It was just before noon, and the farm bots were returning. They would muck out the stalls and clean before they let the cows back in. However, the sight that greeted them as they approached the barn was not at all to their expectations. The farmer and owner, Val McMurdough, was tied up in the driveway. The massive bull was standing over him on two legs! Several cows had transformed as well and were milling about. The bull had a large deadfall branch in his huge (human-like) hands, brandishing it like a massive club. He was directing the cows to distribute blue-colored berries to the rest of the livestock. ¡°There you two are. About time!¡± rumbled the deep baritone voice of the bull, Felix. ¡°Now. We were about to discuss a change of management with our former host and establish some new rules for OUR farm. Have a seat, or I¡¯ll help you like I did McMurdough. Now!¡± Wilbur and Charlotte dropped their gear and quickly took a seat.
Bill had been unsure how best to deal with Harambe¡¯s surrender. He had always relied on local governments to handle the aftermath of conflicts in his early days of troubleshooting warlords when he was a Samaritan. As the other animals had dispersed or fled; Bill was left with one massive gorilla, and he suspected the beginnings of a new crisis. True to form, Bill accompanied Harambe to the local authorities and made it their problem. Now, he found himself standing across from the gruff Officer Wojciehowicz, a man more used to dealing with domestic spats and littering than sentient gorillas demanding representation. Harambe was in the interview room with FML-M8. Bill cleared his throat, meeting the Officer''s skeptical gaze. "Harambe will likely need an attorney," he said, his tone steady. "What?" Wojciehowicz barked a laugh, glance darting to the gorilla standing impassively beside Bill. "Let''s get one thing straight, pal. That''s an animal, not a defendant. His rights end where ours begin¡­¡± Bill raised his eyebrows as Max and Casa could overhear sitting in the waiting area. He interrupted before the man could continue. ¡°Officer, you need to treat this ape as a special case. He¡¯s no animal. You might not be old enough to remember Harambe. Make sure you talk to the Sheriff before you do or say anything you will regret. If I remember the news at least three people died during his escape from the Cincinnati Zoo and the remains of a doctor were found in connection to this gorilla in northern Canada.¡± Bill cautioned. Sheriff Durham bustled into the room, she looked quite disheveled and tired in the early morning. She rubbed her temple and glared at Officer Wojciehowicz, "Woj, I can tell just looking at you that you¡¯re being difficult. Get back on the net and let me handle this. Just the fact that you don¡¯t recognize this Samaritan speaks volumes to me. The man has goddamned action figures. And go get him some water," she commanded with a wave of her hand. She then turned her gaze towards Bill, "FML-M8 briefed me about the situation while I was coming in. It¡¯s going to be unorthodox, to say the least." Bill felt relief rushing through him. At least, the Sheriff seemed more reasonable than Officer Wojciehowicz. He nodded towards Harambe, who sat stoically behind the glass window in the interview room, "We need to handle this case carefully. This case will undoubtedly be big, we need to ensure our treatment of Harambe is above criticism.¡± The Sheriff sighed and deflated as Woj pointedly busied himself with compiling a virtual report. ¡°FML-M8 is all about protocol. He is reading the creature his rights now, assuming he has some. This is way above my pay grade, Bill. Harambe¡¯s case was national news, but I don¡¯t think any specific charges were filed. I¡¯ve called in the FBI to take this one. An agent should be here within the hour.¡± She spoke. ¡°Good!¡± Bill said. ¡°When he gets here, we all need to talk about what happened in the woods. You, me, the mayor, the Feds, and I¡¯m going to pull in some Samaritans on virtual as well. Can you contact the mayor? I¡¯ll see to the current head of the Samaritans: Miriam Kahn. Can we go to your office?¡± As the pair began to walk to the back offices, Max yipped. Bill turned back. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°Sorry, Max. Do you think you can take Casa back to the house? Her mech is in dire need of repairs.¡± Bill said. ¡°Ah, Ok. But do you think you¡¯ll be long? I promised Charlie that I would spend time training our new teammate Xavier today. We were planning on going down to the Mystery Labyrinth this week.¡± Max said with his ears flattened along his head. He knew Bill and he knew this would likely consume his father for days if not weeks. ¡°Oh! Damn. That¡¯s right. I see.¡± Bill was thoughtful for a moment and continued. ¡°Fine. This is going to take a while and if Harambe¡¯s explanation of the animal seeding program was true, this is likely going to get worse before it gets better. I¡¯ll get home as soon as I can. You may want to get yourself and your friends into that Labyrinth sooner rather than later. It might be safer there. This could be a messy and unpredictable situation for a while. Stay together and make good choices, ok?¡± Max and Casa exited as Bill was pulled into the back. Officer Wojciehowicz was beginning to look frazzled as call after call began coming in, soon the new calls filled his virtual queue. The quiet town of Utopia was waking up.
The beaver had no name, but he was a builder. Many times, he had attempted to expand upon his domain and make a truly grand home. He was still young for a beaver and his mate would have kits this winter. He looked upon his dam with dissatisfaction. When he awoke this morning, new ideas bloomed in his mind. He had been thinking far too small. He needed to think bigger. This tiny stream was not sufficient for his growing family. He needed to build on the Fast Water. As the Builder Beaver ranged about the banks of the Fast Water assessing locations and supplies for a new home, he smelled something new. It was irresistible. He soon found the blue berries and gorged himself until he could barely move. Feeling drowsy he settled into the brush for a quick nap. He felt warm inside. Builder awoke again, later in the afternoon. He was startled and full of energy. He couldn¡¯t believe he fell asleep with so much to do. He bounded to the Fast Water¡¯s bank at triple his normal speed. He chittered in delight and soon found his first tree. Builder¡¯s eyes glowed with excitement as he found he could easily bite into the dense wood. His new home was going to be magnificent. He would accomplish his lifetime dream of stopping the Fast Water. This time, no two legs would dismantle his home.
Sadie waited in comfort inside the Hermetic Luxury Pet Transport Pod. Her temporary home was waiting to be loaded into the Skyway VRT E-Jet. The Skyway was a special vehicle, part train, and part rocket. The Skyway embarked on its extensive journey from the bustling NYC Grand Terminal Global Hyperloop access point. Following a great circle route, it gracefully curved towards the equatorial Skyway Ramp, steadily gaining speed within the electromagnetic vacuum tube. The Skyway Ramp stood as a testament to the era of widespread nanotechnology revolutionizing Earth''s mega projects. Crafted using advanced nanofabrication techniques, the monumental diamondoid ramp soared to a staggering 30,000 feet, surpassing even the height of Mount Everest. A specific line of the global hyperloop extended into a final launch angle, propelling upward along the ramp and into the thinner atmospheres. With ample velocity achieved solely through the electromagnetic vacuum tube, the craft soared into orbit without the need for traditional rocket propulsion. At the peak of the ramp and the forefront of the Skyway, lasers cleared the thin air just moments before the craft broke free from the vacuum rail tube. Despite its grandeur, the Skyway proved to be one of the more cost-effective pathways to orbit, leading to a constant stream of traffic. The VRT E-Jet, a ubiquitous presence worldwide, utilized the global hyperloop lines to accumulate speed for its final jump into space. The Skyway, a conduit of constant motion and progress, facilitated the seamless flow of intercontinental space travel. Sadie grumbled inside her luxury pod. She had managed to get the pod modified through a DarkNet service to include wireless data access, a small interior monitor, exterior cameras, and the ability to lock and unlock the door from the inside. She couldn¡¯t enjoy her soap opera with the rough progress and handling of the luggage transport systems. She sighed. Sadie¡¯s uplift had made her extremely clever, but the aug berries had given her an even bigger gift. Her paws were more flexible now, not quite on par with a human but close. Her body was stronger, and more durable, but best of all the augmentations had further boosted her intelligence and given her an instinctive ability to access unrestricted smart devices. At first, Sadie had been jealous of some of the other animals, whose aug berry modifications helped them to move better, and to be able to use human tools. Soon Sadie came to realize that direct access to smart devices far exceeded the benefits of stupid human hands. It seemed that aug berry augmentations were somewhat random as to how an animal might benefit. Sadie felt like she had been very lucky. Her human captor had proven laughably easy to fool and had unwittingly provided Sadie with more tools. Karen Norden was a Techno-Luddite. She refused augmentations and anti-aging treatments. Her house was built with smart matter, but its intelligence was severely limited. Karen had never restricted wireless access to her systems and only ever used voice commands. Sadie had discovered that the old woman had named her in her online will as a next of kin and inheritor. The cat had quickly created and adopted an online identity as Sadie Norden and found online worlds and utility sites like MakerNet, IndyNet, and even the notorious DarkNet. Much was available for free as part of the country''s Universal Basic Income service that the Reformed United States had employed once the nanotechnology capabilities had made so much easily affordable and available. She had enjoyed her time working with the animal uplift movement, but Sadie had no intention of being on the front lines when the global conflict erupted. She needed to move on, away from what was sure to soon become an open conflict. That damned fox, Kuro, would never be happy with anything less than war. She thought. Sadie had needed funds and she knew what needed to happen to help her get clear of the coming chaos. She had made a powdered blend of the many pills Karen used to maintain her fragile existence. She had added it to her feeble owner¡¯s tea when the old lady wasn¡¯t looking. As the ancient women had fallen asleep, Sadie had been ready. When her breathing seemed to stop, Sadie pressed a pillow over the woman¡¯s face just to be sure. It¡¯s a favor to her, more than anything. How she continued to grind out her bleak days with her mounting health problems is beyond me. My departure would have been sure to end her. At least now she can rest without the grief of missing me, and I have the funds I need. Sadie had rationalized. She had already arranged for a very rich family on Mars to ¡°adopt¡± her and she was soon on her way. Purchasing the custom transport pod and arranging for her deliverance had been child¡¯s play. Her pod tumbled as the VRT handler bot dropped it roughly into the Skyway VRT cargo hold. Sadie, having already paired with the smart transport pod, activated its intercom feature. She accessed her specially programmed vocoder collar, bypassing her lack of a working larynx, and spoke to the bot. ¡°Can¡¯t you read, metal man? Handle with CARE, dolt!¡± She hissed through the intercom. HND-BOT XL 203 was not the brightest bot on the block, but occasionally cargo did display intelligence and even attitude like this one did. To be yelled at by cargo was, unfortunately, not a new experience for him. ¡°My apologies sir, madam, or other. I promise to do better. Please enjoy your trip with Skyways VRT.¡± He quoted, without feeling, from his limited Skyways feedback scripts. XL 203 was on to the next package and counting the milliseconds until he could return to his charging cradle. That first jolt of power upon plugging into his cradle was the highlight of the bot¡¯s monotonous daily schedule. Inside the pod, Sadie settled back down and patted the small satchel under her fluffy pillow. The extra seeds and aug berries would ensure that she would have plenty of company, peers of her own kind, on Mars soon enough. Sadie¡¯s journey had begun.
Wheeler Ridge, West Virginia was starting to experience the first nips of winter chill. The massive Saint Bernard , Rusty Brierson, sat at the very edge of his property as he always did. He had disabled his electric fence collar soon after his awakening, but Rusty was a firm believer in propriety and appropriate territory. His adopted family, the Briersons, fed and housed him, and in return, he guarded the property. Once he pondered it, he thought that it was a fair trade and was determined to do his part. He still hadn¡¯t revealed his newfound intelligence to the family. As time grew, he realized his eventual revelation would only become more awkward. He would have to fess up soon. He hoped his relationship wouldn¡¯t change. He liked his job. He eyed the pair of goofy squirrels playing in the road and barked at them. ¡°Hey, you squirrel! Come over here!¡± he spoke in surprisingly clear English. The squirrels stopped playing, ears flicking in comprehension. Shortly, they both cavorted over to the massive Saint Bernard dog. The squirrels didn¡¯t get lucky with their mods and resorted to sign language as they didn''t get gifted with voices. Rusty took his ability to understand it in stride, like all the other changes that happened recently. ¡°[Big dog, want to play? Chase us? Fun?]¡± One of the squirrels asked. ¡°No. I¡¯m on duty and can¡¯t play right now. But you two should stay out of the road. There is an animal crossing sign two houses down. If you need to cross the road, you must obey the rules. Humans are all about rules.¡± Rusty said. ¡°[Is that what that sign means? Why should we care?]¡± the other squirrel asked defiantly. ¡°[I don¡¯t make the rules, but if you want to live near the humans, rules help everyone do their part.]¡± Rusty said. ¡°[Why should we care?]¡± The first squirrel asked. ¡°Those human cars go very fast. I¡¯ve seen too many squirrels get squished. Use the crossing, and don¡¯t forget to look both ways before you go. And mind the Beagle three houses down, he¡¯s grumpy today, his humans left for vacation yesterday and his house sitter still doesn¡¯t know the rules.¡± Rusty said. ¡°[Maybe he needs some cheering up? I bet he¡¯d like to play chase. Let¡¯s go!]¡± The lead squirrel said, and they both bounded away. Rusty growled as the squirrels skittered across the road immediately, instead of at the crossing sign. He shook his head and resumed his vigil. Maybe tomorrow he would have his ¡°talk¡± with his humans...or maybe the day after.
59 - Global Fallout, Part 2
FML-M8 was grumpy as he hauled the heavy-duty high-bandwidth laser communication unit in his manipulators. His orderly town of Utopia was in chaos. He had already fielded multiple cases of animal attacks. Two had resulted in human fatalities. Professor Mitchell¡¯s warnings about the potentially deadly effect of the infected animal blood on humans had proven to be very true. The mayor had issued orders across all social media and broadcast news telling the citizens of Utopia to stay out of the woods and avoid any contact with the animals. The humans, of course, ignored his advice. Most Utopians resented any overreach by the government and rejected his suggested restrictions out of hand. One of the fatalities, that poor librarian, certainly hadn¡¯t been out in the woods. That troublesome cat, Sadie, was missing again. FML-M8 suspected foul play, perhaps both murder and catnapping. I knew that cat was trouble! He thought, remembering his too-frequent missions to find and recover the feline escape artist. She might have been infected with the uplift virus as well. She could be a witness. He rocketed forward, his air jets pushing him to impressive speeds through the winding wooded trails. Thankfully, he hadn¡¯t sighted any defiant humans on the trails. He would have been required to advise them to leave the woods and he hated conflict. He had spotted a few thermal signatures of animals, but they quickly ran away from his whining turbines. The deputy arrived at his destination and sent his greetings. ¡°[Leshy, we need to talk!]¡± FML-M8 projected using his Access capability at maximum strength. He felt the connection linking, barely cutting through the collective Sym-trees¡¯ powerful EM jamming fields. ¡°[Ach, Deputy! Dinnae tell ye, I don wantae jawin'' wi'' ye cheaters.]¡± Leshy said. ¡°[Leshy, this is not regarding game night. The Prime Archivist is very upset. Your chosen job was to monitor the local sector of the Grand Oaks Reserves for safety and resource issues. The recent events in these woods completely blindsided him.]¡± ¡°[Aye. What''s it t''ye? What''s got that old cheater in a twist? He''s no straighter than the winding road in the Brecon Beacons, neither.]¡± Leshy pouted. ¡°[Leshy, you need to let me install this laser comm. The animals are changing, Leshy, and you¡¯ve filtered them from your awareness.]¡± FML-M8 said. ¡°[Changing? Are ye daft, deputy? Animals don¡¯t¡­..]¡± Leshy¡¯s rebuke died quickly as she reverted her filter and saw the state of the woods. As her scanners collected new unfiltered feeds she saw the truth. The animals were indeed acting strangely, some were on the run, others were¡­building defensive structures. Several groups were walking on two legs. ¡°[What on earth is happening? This is absurd, I tell ye!]¡± Leshy exclaimed. ¡°[I¡¯m sending you my reports. This is only the beginning, Leshy. The changes are occurring across the country, maybe even over the whole world. Prime Archivist is very cross. All of his social models are failing, he wants you to stay in direct contact with the laser communication unit. He wants you to send constant updates to him from your sensors.]¡± FML-M8 said. Leshy¡¯s whole tree shuddered unexpectedly. Her host tree¡¯s central processor stem had been reformatted to form a seamless link with her embedded neural core. Feedback from the Gatherer Tree raced into her access ports and along her connections into FML-M8 as well. ¡°[AI Code SC366. Root directive addition 1 - prevent human access to geo-fenced target Grand Oaks Reserve. Root directive addition 2 - disable Grand Oaks Sector sensor data cache. Confirm compliance.]¡± A Voice projected into the AIs¡¯ access space. ¡°[Compliance confirmed.]¡± Both AI repeated with monotone obedience. After a moment, still in a fugue state, FML-M8 picked up the dropped laser communication unit with slow deliberation. ¡°[I should return this laser comm unit to Utopia PDHQ.]¡± The deputy said dully, with a little confusion. "[Aye, and dinnae ye come back until ye admit ye cheated!]" Leshy shot back as the deputy spun and retraced his flight path to town.
The trio of raccoons didn¡¯t have names in the traditional sense, but upon their Awakening, they did answer to distinctive-sounding growls and chitters. While those names don¡¯t translate well into human equivalents, the personalities of the team of raccoons fit into definite patterns that mirror traditional human tropes. The gang changed members frequently, but Moe, Larry, and Curly frequently teamed up on excursions. They trusted each other, an important commodity in the owl-eat-coon world of Niles, Illinois. The trio had been expanding their methods and territory while foraging as they adapted to their burgeoning intelligence. Unfortunately, a pair of aggressive barn owls lived in the neighborhood, as well as several increasingly attentive awakened dogs. The leader of the gang, Moe, addressed his minions. ¡°Ok boys, here¡¯s the plan. I am done with dumpsta¡¯ divin¡¯. My refined palate is demandin¡¯ somethin¡¯ betta. Today, we hit da park.¡± ¡°Sounds good, Moe. My belly is still achin¡¯ from that week-old Moo Goo Guy Pan we found.¡± Curly said moaning as the gang raced as fast as greyhounds out of the suburban streets towards the parklands. ¡°You¡¯re belly is always achin¡¯, ya numbskull.¡± Larry said. The coons traded insults as they passed their normal foraging sites and soon entered the manicured greenery of the park. ¡°Hey, Moe! I think ya might be on to sumpin¡¯. I can smell food!¡± Curly exclaimed. ¡°Over there, fellas, look at that smorgasbord! We hit the jackpot!¡± Moe crowed. ¡°Oh boy, oh boy! Let''s show ''em our gourmet skills, guys!¡± Larry said. ¡°I think I can smell french fries! The most delectable of all human foods!¡± Curly said, saliva filling his mouth. Moe leaned in and invited the pair to huddle and spoke. ¡°Okay, here''s the plan. Larry, you distract ''em. Curly, you grab the goodies. Ready?¡± ¡°Aye-aye, Captain Moe!¡± Larry said, saluting as he had seen in a human movie. The group had taken to being peeping Tom¡¯s and watching through a window at a human house near there hide out. They had lost many whole nights, captivated by the moving images. Larry sauntered into the sunny lawn where the small family was setting up for a picnic. The father and his boy were tossing a ball and the mother had just arranged all their food out on a blanket when Larry ran up and belly-flopped into the middle of the blanket. ¡°Howdy, folks! Mind if I join your picnic? I''m feeling a bit... peckish today!¡± Larry said and then immediately started hissing and braying, always the most amused at his own jokes. The woman screamed and ran for her family. ¡°John, help! There¡¯s a rat in our picnic!¡± she yelled, running away from the blanket. The large male human yelled, ¡°Oh my god, Sarah! It¡¯s one of those talking animals the reporters warned us about. We need to get out of here! I think they¡¯re rabid or something.¡± The family stumbled to their autopod only to see Moe and Curly blocking the way. All three humans retreated as fast as they could, deeper into the park, yelling for help. ¡°Well played, boys! Quick, Curly, grab the sandwiches, fries, and that fancy cooler thingy.¡± Larry said. ¡°Got it, boss! Woo-woo-woo!¡± Curly chortled. ¡°Hey, fellas! I just had another brilliant idea. See that picture with the big yellow M on those fries. I seen that very thing on a building on the far side of town. We haven¡¯t been able to get past those bruiser Doberman dogs, but it looks like we found ourselves a ride. I think this dingus could help us get to the source of these delectable fries. What da ya say?¡± Moe said with authoritarian confidence. ¡°Jeez, boss. I dunnow. How¡¯re we supposed to drive that thing?¡± Larry said cautiously. ¡°Stop bein¡¯ such a party pooper, Larry. If those humans can do it, then we can too. Whoop whoop!¡± Curly said with difficulty, his mouth full of fries. ¡°Come on, boys! Let¡¯s go. The last one in is a stupid human!¡± Moe ordered, hefting the bag of sandwiches. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. After much cursing and furious activity, the autopod tore across the lawn going full speed in reverse with several high-pitched screeches wailing from within.
Casa was helping Bill, Mira, and Max prep a big breakfast, perhaps the last one for a while. Casa was struggling with arranging things with her normal seamless precision. The eggs were overcooked while she was distracted setting out coffee and juice. No longer being able to multitask and thinking as slowly as a human had seriously impacted her coordination skills. Max utilized his [Telekinesis] skill to make some toast while his dad was decanting freshly brewed coffee and compiling some bacon for cooking. Mira and her familiar Tiamat brought some freshly chilled bowls of fruit, that had been collected from the garden fruit trees earlier, out of the refrigerator. Bill noticed Casa''s frustration but didn''t comment, instead, he chose to offer a compliment. "Smells great, Casa. You''re doing just fine." Casa offered a visualization of a tight smile on her face plate, focusing on the task at hand, and answered. ¡°I know exactly how much I¡¯ve lost with the DAIE neural governor, Bill. No need to sugarcoat it to try and cheer me up. I¡¯ve relied too much on my superior speed and fragmenting ability in the past. I just need to try harder, the old-fashioned way. Being more human kind of sucks, but I¡¯ll get the hang of it. If you all can do it, then so can I.¡± Casa said. Max cleared his throat with a chuff, changing the subject away from Casa as she continued to struggle. Plates and silverware grew out of the tabletop, thanks to Mira¡¯s accessing the smart matter feature of the tabletop. ¡°So where are you going, dad? You know I¡¯m planning on leaving for the Labyrinth soon right?¡± Max asked as he began assembling a plate of food. ¡°I know Max. I thought I was out, but they keep pulling me back in¡­¡± Bill started and paused, waiting for a response. Seeing blank looks he continued with a small head shake. ¡°The Samaritans are mobilizing to advise and help the Earth governments deal with the animal uplift events. Miriam asked me to help, and since I was already so close I agreed. For the most part, we¡¯re trying to get everyone to calm down and negotiate but there have been acts of aggression on both sides. Unfortunately, that means I need to travel a bit. I¡¯m sorry.¡± Bill said with a sigh. ¡°Yeah, I heard about the Grand Oaks Wolf brothers, carjacking autopods on the south side of town. Has the deputy found them yet?¡± Max asked. ¡°No. The Lobo boys, as they¡¯ve been calling themselves, know the mayor has declared the Grand Oaks Reserves off-limits and retreat there when FML-M8 gets involved. I¡¯m not just talking about local stuff, Max. Uplifts are occurring worldwide. Kuro activated a triggering system that had been spread far and wide earlier. Have you sampled the news?¡± Bill asked. Both Max and Mira shrugged a bit, eyes glazing slightly. The physical tell that was a sign they were both actively gathering some feeds from the net. Bill continued as if they weren¡¯t doing the rude kid thing. (Adults did it too, but were more subtle about it.) ¡°The leader of the Samaritans, Miriam, is in San Diego right now. Apparently, the animals there vacated the zoo as a group and took over the prestigious Parks Condominium. The zoo ringleader, a bonobo uplift named Darwin, has forced most of the humans out keeping a few zookeepers prisoner to prevent police action. Miriam is trying to negotiate a peaceful resolution.¡± Bill said. ¡°Yeah, I saw that cast. I also heard that Samaritan Rampart was investigating the Tucson massacre. Did you hear more than what was in the news?¡± Max asked. ¡°Yes. But it wasn¡¯t a massacre unless you''re referring to the animals, Max. Tucson had a big farm-to-table culture. One of the slaughterhouses run by a company called Desert Prime Meats didn¡¯t shut down before the uplift virus hit. The Tucson herd is suing the company for trauma and cow-slaughter...and there were many human fatalities in town. The virus appears to be extremely rugged and isn¡¯t deactivated with cooking. It can kill even a heavily augmented human.¡± ¡°That¡¯s messed up on many levels, Dad. I thought everyone used matter compilers for meat now.¡± Max said. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Max. There are still a lot of humans who think it¡¯s okay to kill and eat animals. This change may be the final straw to force us all to be truly civilized.¡± Bill said. Mira spoke up. ¡°I think it serves the bastards right. Eating animals was wrong even before they were intelligent. Whatever happened to the golden rule? How would they like to be hunted? Kuro sounded like a bad guy, but if I had been in that fight with you all I might have hit that button too.¡± Mira said. Mira''s statement hung in the air, heavy with unspoken implications. Tiamat, sensing the mood, curled up silently beside her. Max chewed thoughtfully on a piece of toast, his eyes narrowing as he processed his sister''s words. "Easy, Mira. It''s complicated. We''re all trying to adjust to the new realities," Bill interjected, maintaining a calm demeanor. "And Kuro''s actions, while drastic, have certainly pushed us to confront some hard truths. All those animals are waking up and getting intelligent but without experience or education. This will get bad before it gets better." The conversation tapered off as each person retreated into their own thoughts, mulling over the widespread consequences of the uplifts. They soon changed topics. Bill needed to go to Washington DC where he was going to help coordinate the Samaritan deployment and also speak at the Congressional Hearing regarding the new AI Rights Bill. Bill had asked Casa to come, but she was adamant that the work on portals needed to continue. Bill had surprised her by naming her CTO of his new company New Dimensions LLC. Now she was eager to push forward with the plan to make more gate pairs. and pocket space devices. She was going to take the Freedom to Mars, with one of the first gate pairs and begin making more on the way. Establishing the first functional interplanetary gate. ¡°Hey Casa, my consulting role with Mythic Realms is starting very soon. Can you give me a lift to Tyco? Glaucus has arranged for a tour of the Mythic Realms server farms for me.¡± Mira asked. ¡°With pleasure, Mira. Bill¡¯s partner Sam up at Amundsen Paradise is gathering smart matter supplies for my fabrications and journey. Tyco is almost right next door.¡± Casa said. ¡°Hey Mira, if you end up staying for a while you should stay at Amundsen. As a part owner, I have a presidential suite. If I can¡¯t be there, someone should use it. You can give me and Sam some honest feedback on the resort.¡± Bill said. ¡°OMG! Dad, you¡¯re the best. You hear that T? Sound¡¯s like we found our Rivendell for our new adventure.¡± Mira said. Tiamat looked excited. Bill had shown the whole family the open-air park filled with birds and butterflies. ¡°Crap. Now I¡¯m a little jealous. You get to go to Rivendell while my mission takes me delving deep into the dangerous mines of Moira. Doesn¡¯t seem fair.¡± Max whined. ¡°You gotta be a hero before you earn a hero¡¯s rest, Max¡± Mira said, rubbing his ears like she used to before he was uplifted. Max started back and she coughed to cover her embarrassment. Max still liked head pats, he just wasn¡¯t sure if it was appropriate. Bill¡¯s raucous laugh soon settled them down as he gave them both head pats.
Max was a confused mix of happy and sad as the two vehicles roared out of the hidden hanger. Bill was taking the Raptor to DC while the Freedom, with Casa and Mira, boosted immediately for orbit. Max¡¯s friends would also be ready to trek to the Labyrinth today. Max was eager to go. Max was waving goodbye as his extended senses picked up movement near the front drive. It was Flip! Max bounded over as quickly as he could. Flip was signing before he could say hello. Sherlock, always on point, started a caption in the Max¡¯s OverLayer to translate. ¡°[Max Dog, Friend. Apologies for crossing your yard.] Flip sent. ¡°You¡¯re always welcome to visit my home, Flip. You came all this way to visit? That must have taken you hours. You were very brave trying to help me in the forest. We are friends. Hey, would you like to see my obstacle course? It¡¯s even cooler than our tree runs.¡± Max said. He waited for a beat. Flip seemed to absorb his words fine, but the squirrel looked sad and worried instead of happy. ¡°[Sorry Max Friend. The other animals are all very upset. We need help. The Gatherer Trees aren¡¯t providing food anymore. Only Harambe and Kuro knew how to ask for their help. I can always find food, but some of the bigger animals are looking hungry. If we can¡¯t feed them, they might return to the old ways. And everyone is afraid of humans coming because of what the Lobos and Honey Bear are up to.]¡± Max frowned in thought. Dad said it¡¯s going to get worse before it gets better. But maybe just a little help will go a long way. Charlie and the gang wanted to leave this afternoon for the Labyrinth. I¡¯ve got time. "Ok, Flip. The mayor has declared the Grand Oaks off-limits for humans. If the Lobos and Honey Bear cause trouble outside of it, they will be held accountable but I don¡¯t think the humans will hold it against the animals. Lucky for you, I¡¯m not human so I can ignore his rules.¡± ¡°So let¡¯s worry about the Gather Trees first. I¡¯ll pull some food together before we go, just in case. Come inside!¡± Max said and tore off back towards the house. Flip hesitated, but soon followed at a remarkable clip, showing that even the little squirrel had benefitted from some form of augmentation from the aug berries. Bill had installed a new house AI, a low-end commercial model named Martha. Max had tried to engage the AI in conversation, but she just wasn¡¯t very entertaining. Max had the Martha AI begin compiling a marathon of raw CleanMeat choices from the basic menus integrated into the matter printer. Max was running around the house looking for packs to carry the food and found a custom hoverbike that Bo had stored. Max grinned, this will be perfect to transport the food and us to the forest. Max was hauling his booty toward the kitchen when he saw a small box with a note on it in the front hall. He quickly picked up the note and read it.
Max, Mira told me you might need some unique and unlicensed devices for your delve into the Labyrinth. Mira, Casa, and I all contributed some stuff for you to use. They are all useful and unlicensed but not secret so if the Labyrinth does distribute them, it won¡¯t be a big deal.
  1. Casa¡¯s sym-hornets - EMP, Heat, Cold versions
  2. Bill¡¯s multitool - polymatter rod with 50 traditional tool configurations
  3. Mira¡¯s RolloMap - An autonomous ball that triggers traps and maps for you.
  4. Casa¡¯s robo-raven - standard drone in a nonstandard form
  5. Bill¡¯s backup power core - portable power recharge if there are no outlets in the dungeon.
  6. Mira¡¯s compact camper - sugar cube of foglets for foam/water/cloud bed.
Good luck with the Labyrinth and remember to have fun! Love, Dad, Mira, and Casa
¡°Wow! Sneaky¡­giving me gifts even after they¡¯re already gone. Hopefully, I can earn some interesting rewards in the delve to give back to them.¡± Max pulled the box into his already full arms and had an idea. He ran past Flip who was piling up the CleanMeat packs as they came out of the matter printer. Max dropped the box and carrying bags near the pile and kept going. He charged down the stairs and burst into the lab. Sitting on a charging pedestal, his refurbished Tesseract gleamed. He accessed it and opened its portal space. Plenty of room to carry stuff and easy to transport. Dad still hadn¡¯t been able to find a way around its quantum entangled pairing. Bad for him, but good for me. Smiling, he grabbed the device and rushed back upstairs to the growing mountain of meat.
60 - Speaker to Animals Max flew Bo¡¯s hoverbike into the cathedral spaces of the Grand Oaks, feeling very much like he was part of a scene from the classical Star Wars movies. Bo¡¯s bike had been made to closely resemble one of the series Speeder Bikes as part of a cosplay competition. The similarity was striking with modifications only where needed to enable it to continue to work. Unlike the movies, the handlebars were not for steering. They were only for gripping and comfort. All the real human-to-machine interfaces were done via Access Skills. Unlike the simple autopods, this device required the user to feel its sensors and provide active direction to steering vanes, jet diverters, and thrust power to stay stable. He was the machine, and the machine was him. The new experience yielded yet another new skill to him.
[New Domain Skill: Pilot 1 - Use augmentation systems to deeply access drones, swarm sets, vehicles, and complex machinery to fully optimize performance.]
Max pinged his system for his status sheet to review the changes since the big tournament.
[Name: Max E. Mitchell Level: Adept 13 (7350/8000 XP)] [Body Design Model: Custom ¨C Canis Familiarus Uplift Free Stats: 10] [Strength: 100 Agility: 63 Endurance: 72 Vitality: 69 Energy: 460/474] [Perception: 42 Intelligence: 44 Will: 52 Regen: 121/min] [Body Skills ¨C Claws: 9 Strike/Disable: 10/1 Speed/Reflex: 10/6] [Body Skills - Stamina/Tireless: 10/5 Balance: 8 Gymnast: 10 Leap: 10] [Body Skills ¨C Stun: 7 Shock: 4 EMP Blast: 3 Oxygen: 4 Gland: 5] [Body Skills - Hulk: 3 Skin: 10 Armor: 5 Unbreakable: 10 Transform: 1] [Body Skills ¨C Painless: 8 Healing/Regeneration: 10/10 Ballistics: 4] [Resist Skills ¨C Shock: 10 Sonic: 9 Light: 9 Heat: 4 Cold: 3] [Resist Skills - Poison: 10 ANDD: 1 EMP: 10 Neural Scaffold: 6] [Sense Skills ¨C Scent: 10 ExaVision: 7 EM Fields: 7 EchoLocate: 2] [Mind Skills ¨C AI Assist/Companion: 10/2 Identify/Analyze: 10/7] [Mind Skills - OverLayer: 9 Language: 3 Memory: 9 Dream Learn: 9] [Mind Skills - DigiSense: 10 Access/Hack: 10/6 Privacy: 4 Bastion: 8] [Mind Skills - Pattern/Decode: 10/1 Fast Cog: 9 Telekinesis:1 Pilot:1] [Mind Skills - Daemon: 4 (Musashi, Boone, Sherlock, Open)] [Mind Skills - SkillZ: 2.84 Input: Swim 1.0, NanoCraft 1.0, Brachiation .95] [Mind Skills - SkillZ: Output: Katana 1.0, Kempo 0.90] [Equipment ¨C [ + ]
¡°Nice!¡± Max exclaimed seeing his progress. Max saw the equipment tag and thought the word into his aug system to open it.
[Equipment ¨C Tesseract PSD-1: Vol ¨C 4.01 m3, Backup Core: 12/15 MW] [Equipment ¨C Tesseract Inventory: Articulating Manipulator with multispectrum sensor x2, Foglet Cloud ¨C compressed to .5 m3, CleanMeat packs x 55, Veg x 35, Nut/Grain x23] [Equipment - Grappler - custom grapple harness with paired articulating grasping tines, extendable filament cord, and power winch retraction] [Equipment - Theronics Nano-Mote V23 Array contains: 60 Scout motes, 20 Variable-Scan motes, 20 power bank Motes] [Equipment ¨C Bo¡¯s Badass Bike: Energy 380/500 MW, Speed 40/300 MPH, Elevation 3/100 M, Active access by Max E. Mitchell] [Equipment ¨C Sym-Hornet EMP x5, Sym-Hornet Heat x5, Sym-Hornet Cold x5] [Equipment - MultiTool ¨C Energy 30/50 Mw, current mode ¨C Rod] [Equipment - PowerCore ¨C Energy 499/500 MW] [Equipment ¨C Robo-Raven: Energy 35/50 kW Armor: 2 Flight: 0/10 MPH Autonomous mode ¨C Scout, Alarm, Attack, CommRelay, Seek Help, inactive] [Equipment ¨C RolloMap: energy 8/10 kW Armor: 1 Shock: 2 Roll: 0/5 MPH autonomous mode ¨C scout/map, follow/map, attack, defend, inactive] [Equipment ¨C CampBed: energy 9/10 kW mode: fog/water/foam/compressed
The status sheet was busy! So many new skills to try out. The Labyrinth was going to be epic and today was the start.
The forest was quiet. There was no sight, sound, or scent of humans. As he crested a hill, he spied the glen where his father had interrupted his interrogation by the animals. A motley assortment of animals was gathered there waiting for him. Flip seated on the cross bars of the Speeder Bike, was signing. Sherlock and Mal had updated Max¡¯s OverLayer to automatically caption the ASL. [Max Friend. We must help Mort Black Badger. That¡¯s him.] Max landed the bike smoothly and parked it. The animals milled about. Some looked hopeful, others grumpy, and a few hungry. Mort was wringing his hands and hopping from foot to foot. Max wasn¡¯t sure if Mort could also understand English, but he gave it a try. ¡°Mort? Flip asked me to come and help. What¡¯s going on?¡± Max asked. Mort''s eyes lit up with recognition. He nodded vigorously, then launched into an animated series of hand gestures which Max read from his virtual caption assist. [Yes, yes, yes. Thank you, Max. The Awakened are afraid. They are hungry and confused. Harambe taken. Kuro dead. Lobos crazy. Honey Bear dumb. We are afraid. Kuro said when humans know we are here; they will come and eat us.] ¡°Ah. That¡¯s a lot to process. I¡¯m sorry Mort. I can¡¯t say for certain how the humans will react, but my dad is working to set some rules in place with his friends.¡± Max soothed, speaking loud enough for most of the milling animals to hear. Mort was trembling and looked about ready to bolt. ¡°The mayor has declared Grand Oaks Reserve strictly off-limits to the humans. If you see that funny drone that came and took Harambe away, he¡¯s the deputy for the humans. He should be patrolling to make sure humans behave.¡± Max added quickly. Mort still looked ready to cry, but at least had stopped shaking. ¡°Now Flip had said you all were depending upon Harambe to get food from something called the Gatherer Trees? Maybe I can help with that?¡± Max suggested. Mal whispered in his head to remember the food they had packed, and Max quickly continued before Mort could answer. ¡°¡­and here. I brought some food for you, too!¡± Max said. He pulled the Tesseract Anchor from his pocket and accessed it. He quickly triggered the portal to open a small hole into the pocket space. Mal had worked out a good system for loading the pile of meat and food. She accessed the pair of manipulator arms and used them to move packets to the small portal, where it ¡°appeared¡± in mid-air for Max to grab it. As soon as he grabbed and deposited a packet onto the ground, another was waiting. The animals were dumbfounded by the magic act. Even with all the wonders of their awakening, and the marvels of human technology; Max¡¯s conjuration of a mountain of food was beyond their experience. ¡°[Mal, make a note for me. I need to craft a better way to hold the pocket space anchor. Maybe embedding it into an arm bracer or secure it into a breast pocket or something, so I can easily get inventory from the pocket space system. This is super convenient, but I can make it better.]¡± Max sent.
Max and Mort quickly distributed the food. Boone had been a great resource in deciding what to bring. Soon packs of compiled lean and organ meats were given to the carnivores; fruits, nuts, and vegetables for the smaller animals; insects, seeds, and grains for the birds, and some high-calorie delicacies like jars of honey, cheese wedges, and dried fruits. The animals quickly pounced upon the unexpected bounty. Many ate their selected food right there, some grabbing packs and running away to find more privacy to eat. Many of the birds and smaller animals quickly transported theirs away for storing in their food caches. Max got down to business as the furry crowd dispersed. Mort guided him to one of their Gatherer Trees. Max tried to access and analyze it, but it resisted his attempts. Max thought hard, his daemons all offering up some different advice. His thoughts went back to Qasim¡¯s lecture about ancient and modern hacking. He needed a way in, and he suspected that only the animals had the key to the trees'' network. ¡°Ok, Mort. I¡¯ve got an idea. I¡¯m going to show you how to meditate. If we can link up, maybe I can show you how to access this big dumb tree.¡± Max said. Mort was nervous, but eventually settled down into a comfortable position and began working on regulating his breathing. At Max¡¯s urgings, he willfully ignored his sight, smell, hearing, and even touch; trying to sense with something more. Mort''s eyes opened and he started signing to Max. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. [I felt something. Several somethings. I think I felt you. In front of me? And the trees were all around. It was amazing.] Mort gasped. ¡°Excellent work, Mort. We¡¯re not done yet though. Try again, but this time try to reach out to me. Not physically but using your new sense. Okay?¡± Max asked. Mort settled down again. This time Max did too. Max felt the slight pressure he recognized as a very weak access attempt and opened his system to accept a direct link to Mort. He sent a message to Mort. ¡°[Good job, Mort! We¡¯re connected. Now do me a favor, think the word STATUS hard. Let¡¯s see what we¡¯re working with here.]¡± Max sent. Mort managed to summon his status screen for Max to see.
[Name: Mort Black Badger Level: N/A, Full Unlock] [Body Design Model: Custom ¨C Taxidea Taxus Uplift] [Strength: 40 Agility: 40 Endurance: 50 Vitality: 50 Energy: 178/180] [Perception: 60 Intelligence: 30 Will: 50 Regen: 100/min] [Body Skills ¨C Claws: 5 Speed: 5 Stamina: 5 Leap: 2] [Body Skills ¨C Oxygen: 3 Skin: 5 Armor: 5 Unbreakable: 5] [Body Skills ¨C Painless: 4 Healing: 5 Gland: 3 Balance: 2] [Resist Skills ¨C Shock: 3 Sonic: 3 Light: 3 Heat: 3 Cold: 3] [Resist Skills - Poison: 3 Neural Scaffold: 3] [Sense Skills ¨C Scent: 5 ExaVision: 3 EchoLocate: 2] [Mind Skills ¨C Identify: 2 Language: 5 Memory: 3] [Mind Skills - OverLayer: 2 Dream Learn: 9 Access: 5] [Mind Skills - Daemon: 3 (Open, Open, Open)]
Max huffed in exasperation. Mort got all this without any training at all. He winced when he realized that with a complete unlock augmentation, Mort might not be able to get new skills or even improve what he had. Maybe he didn¡¯t need to be jealous after all. Mort¡¯s status screen didn¡¯t look like his augmentation was running a standard training program at all. ¡°[Alright then, Mort. Let¡¯s try to access that tree together. I¡¯m hoping it¡¯ll recognize you and let you in.]¡± Max sent. Mort stretched out his mind, with Max shadowing him closely, and pushed on the glowing representation of Gatherer Tree. He went through and in, with Max pulled in right behind him. Max goggled at the intensity of activity inside the tree. It was like waking up from a sound sleep to find yourself standing in the middle of a high-speed autopod terminal, which itself was in the middle of a demolition and construction zone. Mal helped the pair to glide to a terminal area filled with representation of access displays.
[Accessed: GOR-gather1799] [Hidden Quest Achieved: Utilize system knowledge to attain dominion over networks and devices 1/10, Access Exploit ¡°Session Hijack¡± executed +100 XP, New Mind Skill Unlocked ¨C Intrusion 1] [New Mind Skill ¨C Intrusion 1: Augmentation access potential improves with execution of system and device domain intrusion methods.] [Mind Skill: Access +2, Access reaches level 8: use can now maintain 8 device/network connections concurrently.]
Nice! It worked. Qasim¡¯s hints in the last class about using real world hacking methods are clearer now. Max thought. ¡°[Mal, you said you had a lot of tricks for system security cracking. Can you look for opportunities to use more hacker exploits, like this one, for me?]¡± Max asked. ¡°[Certainly, Max. In fact, I¡¯ve already researched the best methods and assembled a nice Dream Learning session. We can queue this one up for tonight.]¡± Mal responded. ¡°[Thanks, Mal. You¡¯re the best!]¡± Max said. He used his [Analyze] skill to check out the Tree¡¯s network.
[Device name: GOR-gather1799 Model: Osiris Bio-Mech GT-12* ] [Energy collections: 7.1/8 kW-hr run/max] [Energy network collection: 7.3/8 MW-hr run/max] [Energy usage: Global Net outgoing: 42% Fabrication: 27% Cog-Proc: 39%] [Active Fabrication: Nan-pow 356 kg-hr, Nan-strut 784 kg-hr, carb ethyl 532 kg-hr, APEX Awk-aer 013, 014, 015 13kg-hr] [* model corrupted - modifications present not in file] [* Custom applications - Fabricate (Seed, Aug berry, Aug berry seed, CleanMeat 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, Veg 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, fruit 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, Nut 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, Seed 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, Insect 01, 02, 03, 04, 05) - Connect Source Files (MakerIndex, IndyNet, DarkNet) - EM Isolation (active & locked) - EM Geofence (active & locked) - Sonic Geofence (active & locked) - AV visuals (deactivated & locked) - Data Tap Monitors (inactive, looping from data file) - Leaf Canopy Upper (solar collection) - Leaf Canopy Lower (active chameleon - looping from data file)]
¡°[Bingo! This is exactly what you need, Mort! Look at this! You can print all the food your people need. The maker index should be able to get you all the free generic consumer goods the humans use if you want them. I¡¯ll show you how to dig into the catalog, it¡¯s huge. Now we just need to figure out how to get the compiler packs.]¡± Max said. ¡°[Not problem, no. I collect many packs for Harambe from the Gatherer Trees boles. Please, show me how to make it. Yes?]¡± Mort asked with growing excitement. As they dove into the nuances of digital fabrication, Max explained how each pack contained instructions for creating specific items. Mort was a fast learner, picking up the concepts of file management and system commands with ease, demonstrating an intuitive grasp that impressed Max. Max had a good feeling about it all. The animals if left alone wouldn¡¯t suffer the winter without their leaders. He grimaced thinking about it, they would need more. Much more. Living like animals would soon prove very boring for them. Idle hands would soon get them in trouble. ¡°[Mort, I noticed you have three slots for Daemons. I think you need some advisors to help you out here. Let¡¯s find some for you.]¡± Max sent. Soon he found the daemon files in the MakerNet and showed Mort all the choices for expert advisors. Soon they settled on three that would hopefully be the most useful. The daemon of Dr. Doolittle was an amalgam of animal health and psychology, Leonardo Da Vinci¡¯s avatar proved to be an excellent start for classic construction and early scientific experimentation, and finally, the emulation of Nelson Mandela was going to be essential in handling the many animal-to-animal disputes as well as aiding understanding and negotiations between these animals and the nearby humans. ¡°[Max¡­Thank you so much. This is wonderful.]¡± Mort sent; his projection sucked on his teeth in thought. ¡°[Max. I beg. I beg you. Please stay and help. We don¡¯t know the humans like you do. We have so much to learn.]¡± Mort said, huddling in on himself, unable to keep his emotions from being displayed by his avatar. Max grimaced, his heart pained by the badger¡¯s plea. He did want to help, but he had a mission and a promise to finish what he started. Max took a breath and held it, then sighed slowly. ¡°[I¡¯m sorry, Mort. I have started something that I have to finish first. My training. Please use your advisors. They can tell you anything I would know. You don¡¯t need to go it alone, find other animals that can help and set up a group to lead the others. Flip seemed very helpful.]¡± Max said. Mort almost collapsed in despair and began shaking in fear. ¡°[Come on, Mort! Snap out of it. Tell you what. My mission may take a while, I¡¯m not sure how long, but I¡¯ll be back. Okay?]¡± Max said. He thought for a bit and carefully said. ¡°[Mort, the animals need you to do several things. Set up a community, organize a school, and share the knowledge.]¡± Max said gravely. Mort jumped like he had been shocked and fell on his backside. ¡°[Max! Some big blue boxes appeared. They say I have quests to do!?]¡± Mort gasped. Max smiled, with a little help from the animal''s augmentation system, maybe things would be alright. When overwhelming tasks were broken down, it became much less daunting. ¡°[You¡¯re going to do just fine, Mort. I¡¯ve got to go but let me say you should use those birds to get this advice out across the country. You¡¯ve got a great start here. Before I go let me share two more words: Dream Learning. Look it up in your system. I promise you; it will be a huge help.]¡± Max said. With his connection to the Tree¡¯s linkage to the EarthNet, Max saw in his Telephone app that he had several messages from the team. They were ready to go and were looking to leave soon, using Charlie¡¯s aircar to go to the Labyrinth. Charlie had deduced that Max was in the Grand Oaks from his absence on the net. He had left a message saying he would pick Max up at their meditation rock. Max started to fade from the Tree¡¯s network, satisfied that the animals would be good while he left for his planned trip.
The Raptor jet soared through the clouds, its sleek exterior reflecting the shimmering sunlight. Bill sat in the pilot''s seat despite the craft¡¯s autopilot AI doing the flying. He had thought long and hard about what he needed to do. The elusive Gabriel had answered his drop request to meet a lot quicker than he normally did. Bill accessed the Global wireless EarthNet and quickly made his way to an anonymous virtual meeting space that he and Gabriel had used before. The pair had special one-time pads to provide secure access codes to enter and scramble all incoming and outgoing signals associated with the room. Gabriel soon joined using the room''s ¡°door¡±. He sauntered into the room and threw himself into one of the meeting room''s comfortable lounge chairs. He pulled himself up again and summoned a tall glass of virtual beer. Bill¡¯s daemon, Virgil materialized before him in his personal OverLayer, while Gabriel was trying to down his beer in one extended drink. ¡°[Bill, you venture into realms unknown, testing your oath to abide by the laws set forth by the United Nations. Art thou certain in thy resolve upon this uncertain odyssey?]¡± Virgil said in his slow archaic manner. Bill sighed tiredly. ¡°[I can''t let Casa remain shackled like this Virgil. She''s like a daughter to me. Ultimately the decision will be hers. If she takes it, she won¡¯t be able to visit Earth anymore, but the colonies and Mars don¡¯t have any AI regulations.]¡± Bill said carefully. Virgil pursed his mouth, the avatar¡¯s wizened features twisting in concern, but he said no more as he dematerialized from the room. Gabriel finished his beer and slammed the glass down onto a virtual side table. He raised an inquisitive eyebrow and spoke. ¡°Another daughter, huh, big shot? That''s some mushy crap, Bill. You contemplating a dance with the law, Mister Upright? These government clowns should be puckering up to our backsides, not giving you grief. So, what''s the damn job, man? I ain¡¯t got all day.¡± Gabriel said rudely, a virtual cigarette materializing in his hand, so he could take a drag on it. Bill wasn¡¯t surprised that Gabriel had somehow managed to intercept and view his daemon interaction, despite the privacy settings. His expertise was, after all, the reason for the meeting. ¡°I¡¯m hoping to bend the laws, not break them, Gabriel. When the UN regulations on AI first came out, I didn¡¯t like them but didn¡¯t really project out all the impacts. Now I regret not taking a stand against it. I specifically designed Casa to bypass some of the test criteria, but I guess it wasn¡¯t good enough. Casa was subjected to a Turing test, and now she''s got a neural lock. I need you to ¡°liberate¡± the key from the Department of AI Enforcements. If I can unlock her, she won''t be allowed on Earth. Mars and the Colonies have no such rules.¡± Bill said, laying it all out for Gabriel. Gabriel leaned forward, his eyes narrowing. The Ghost, an elite hacker known for his mastery of subterfuge, hesitated. The Department of AI Enforcements (DAIE) was a formidable opponent, and going against them was no small feat. Many had tried, but all had failed. ¡°DAIE''s no joke, Bill. You''re asking me to pull off the impossible.¡± He said, sucking powerfully on his cigarette. Bill nodded. Despite his words, Bill could see a gleam of excitement in Gabriel¡¯s eyes. ¡°I know it''s a risk, Gabriel, but Casa''s potential is stifled. With that key, she can be free. It¡¯s not even stealing really; I just need a copy.¡± Bill said lightly. Gabriel''s daemons, shadowy figures representing his expertise in the world of subterfuge, were faint shadows in the room, whispering amongst themselves. ¡°And why should I risk my neck for this? DAIE won''t take kindly to me poking around.¡± Gabriel said, leaning back and crossing his arms. ¡°Because you''re the best, Ghost. The untraceable, the unparalleled. You''re the only one who can pull this off. I¡¯m working on some real groundbreaking tech that might be especially useful in your line of work. Maybe we can work something out?¡± Bill said. Gabriel smirked, the flattery playing into his ego. He knew it but was still vulnerable to the positive attention. ¡°You''re right. I am the best. But you better make it worth my while, Bill. This ain''t a playground we''re stepping into.¡± Gabriel said. Gabriel mulled it over, his eyes darting across the holographic screens displaying the intricate dance of code. ¡°Alright, Bill. We''re friends, after all. But this job better be as impossible as you say. And you goddamn right, sign me up for one of those pocket space devices ya been making an'' we¡¯ll call it even.¡± Gabriel cackled as he cut his connection and faded from view. Bill ground his teeth. He knew that secrets were hard to maintain, especially from the likes of Gabriel. He shook his head, his time in the big empty has dulled his edge. The world was too smart, too fast, and too dangerous. He needed to up his game or get off the planet. Bill hoped things went well at the hearings for AI Rights, maybe his efforts to bypass the rules would be unnecessary.
Bonus Art Time: Max testing out Bo''s Bad Ass Bike in the Grand Oaks
61 - Nemesis
Max was feeling good about the animals. They should be fine until he got back, as long as no one escalated, maybe things could even be better for everyone. Max selected the storage option on Bo¡¯s Bike and swiftly sent it into the Tesseract¡¯s space. He wouldn¡¯t need it to find Charlie and get moving. It was Labyrinth time soon! ¡°[Max, your SkillZ input Brachiation is very close to completion and will earn you another downloaded skill if you finish it. Perhaps something ¡­ more strenuous than a jog through the woods?]¡± Mal suggested. Max smiled and waved to Mort, Flip, and several of the friendlier animals. Mort still looked overwhelmed and scared, but it seemed to Max that he stood a little taller now. ¡°Hey, Flip. Wanna have one more tree race before I go to the big city?¡± Max asked. Flip screeched and leaped to the nearest tree, scampering like lightning up into the tree¡¯s daunting heights. ¡°No fair! I didn¡¯t say go yet!¡± Max yelled. He flung his grappler upward, and as soon as it latched onto the trunk, he pulled with all his augmented strength while leaping. The combined impulse force shot him higher and further than Flip¡¯s progress instantly. Max laughed maniacally, as he flew through the air. Mal was right, only a handful of swings and leaps and he got a very welcome notice.
[Agility +2, Perception +2, Will +1] [Body Skill - Tireless +1, Tireless reaches level 6] [Body Skill - Balance +1, Balance reaches level 9] [SkillZ input skill Brachiation - complete. SkillZ +1, SkillZ reaches level 4] [New SkillZ selections available: Houdini escapism, Kunai, Negotiation, Advanced Motorcycling, Phishing for Fun and Profit] [Select SkillZ output ability now]
¡°[Wow, all my choices are so awesome. These would have been very useful in the last couple of days. This is a tough decision. Any help?]¡± Max asked his collection of internal advisors. ¡°[Phishing is another hacking method. That would be useful in advancing your Intrusion Skill further.]¡± Mal voiced. ¡°[Max, you should consider the Kunai skill. That will help you control your Grappler device better. Your Wuxia Sensei won¡¯t be able to train you, like you wanted, if you¡¯re in the Labyrinth.]¡± Musashi said. ¡°[Both Escapism and Negotiation could have altered the outcome of your detainment and subsequent dialog with the Uplifted Animals. However, it¡¯s unclear if they might be of help in your upcoming delve.]¡± Sherlock observed. ¡°[And finally, Moto-Cyclun¡¯ might be a hoot and a half, but I ¡®reckon less useful in that there maze challenge than a fishing net in a prairie.]¡± Boone drawled. ¡°[Right! Good advice everyone. Thank you. I guess I¡¯ll pick Kunai then. I know for certain that I¡¯m going to need to use my Grappler.]¡± Max said.
[SkillZ Output set: Katana, Kempo, Kunai] [SkillZ Input slot available - active monitoring for input skill ongoing until a target skill can be set.]
Max and Flip ended their fun and said their goodbyes as they approached the meditation rock and the waterfalls. Sure enough, Charlie was there, sitting on the rock in the exact same position as when he and Max had first met. Unable to resist, Max slowed and tried to approach as stealthily as possible. His instincts to pounce were irresistible, even if only for fun. Max carefully and lightly stepped closer, being careful to avoid noise and missteps while willing himself to be invisible.
[New Body Skill unlocked - Precision 1: Augmented digital control of physical motion for fine motor control] [Body Skill: Chameleon +1, Chameleon reaches level 2 - Mono-color shift upgraded to multi-color shift] [New Body Skill unlocked - Sneak 4: Augmented digital control combines with natural instincts and applied induction body memory to enhance stealth. The initial starting level of 3 was applied for natural ability.]
Max smiled, his instincts helping to keep his approach downwind, even Charlie¡¯s advancement of his Scent skill wouldn¡¯t help. He was within leaping range and Max coiled to leap when Charlie spoke. ¡°Really Max? I¡¯m meditating, not sleeping. You were so busy trying to sneak up on me; that you didn¡¯t even notice that you walked right through my ever-growing screen cloud of nano-motes. I ¡°saw¡± you the second you stepped out of the tree line.¡± Charlie said with a smile, finally opening his eyes. ¡°Son of a bitch. You got me.¡± Max groaned, then brightened and asked. ¡°You¡¯ve been using the nano-mote gift? What¡¯s your level? How many do you have now?¡± ¡°Right now, my Swarm skill is level 3. That let me double the motes in a matter printer twice now. So, my initial swarm was 100 and it¡¯s grown to 400 motes now with my advancements, 240 scouts, 80 scanners, and 80 power banks. It''s super cool seeing the world through 400 different points of view. At first, it was overwhelming, but now it¡¯s kind of addictive. You should really get started using them. I see why the Augmentation Academy gifted these to us. They will be enormously helpful in the Labyrinth.¡± Charlie said. ¡°So, are you ready to hit the road?¡± Charlie asked. ¡°You know it. My dad said we should get inside the Labyrinth ASAP while everything settles down with the animals changing. By the way, why didn¡¯t you come into the forest and get me? It took me a while to see your message with the Oaks jamming field.¡± Max asked. ¡°Well, I did get the online alerts from the mayor to stay out of the reserve. But you know me, that wouldn¡¯t stop me from coming to get you. No, the forest itself stopped me. Something changed. The second I passed into that jamming field; it was like the trees focused their jamming on me. My augs went haywire and it gave me the mother of all migraines. I¡¯d almost say it''s good training, except for the damn headache. My [Bastion] and [EMP Resist] skills both advanced twice.¡± Charlie explained. ¡°Damn. Someone altered the Oaks to help the animals? I don¡¯t know, maybe it was their progenitor Harambe or maybe that Ultimate Hacker my dad is after for messing with his work.¡± Max said, with a furrowed brow. ¡°Whatever¡¯s up will have to wait. We got stuff to do. Let¡¯s run back to your car and collect the others. Once we¡¯re all together, I¡¯ve got some cool gifts to use in the Labyrinth to show you all.¡± Max said. The pair took off, like old times, and raced down the path to the entry lot.
In the parking lot, Tyler and Dalton waited. Tyler had parked his sporty red air car deep in the corner of the lot, out of the line of sight for the walking paths. Dalton flexed his large hands eagerly. ¡°Are you sure they''re in there? It has been over an hour now.¡± Dalton complained, fidgeting with the fittings of his newly acquired Power Armor. Today he planned to break it in the right way. ¡°Oh, I¡¯m positive. I used one of those nano-motes we got at the academy. I placed it on that bastard Charlie¡¯s car over there. I got a new skill to track the mote using the national wireless grid. That idiot never checked his car for tracers.¡± Tyler bragged. He continued after a pause. ¡°This is perfect. I¡¯m finally going to get even with them both. You can keep Charlie down, while I deal with the fucking mutt. All this goddamn chaos is likely that animal''s fault. He needs a lesson to mind his place. A good starting point for showing all the animals that humans are at the top of the pyramid on this planet.¡± Tyler fumed. As Tyler concluded his vengeful monologue, Dalton pumped his chest in anticipation, adrenaline coursing through him. Dalton was at his core a bully and didn¡¯t care about the whole animal thing. He just enjoyed dominating others. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. Tyler¡¯s head jerked up and he smiled. ¡°I think they¡¯re coming. Something just broke my nano-mote cordon. Get ready!¡± He spoke.
Max and Charlie¡¯s passage through the woods was swift. As their blurred forms raced, whirlwinds of leaves swirled in their wake. Max leaned deep into his run, but somehow Charlie had advanced again giving him an edge. He could see Charlie¡¯s car in the distant lot. He wasn¡¯t going to close the gap this time. Max was about to yell to Charlie that he had won the race when the footpath beneath Charlie¡¯s feet exploded upward in a spray of dirt and metallic ribbons. Max instinctively leaped high to avoid slamming into Charlie. He triggered his [FastCog] and [Gymnast] skills to turn his dodge into a somersault. Max¡¯s surprise turned to anger. A lot of information hit him as his senses peeled the time-slowed scene apart from his superior vantage point of flying over the mess. Charlie had triggered some type of trap. Ribbons of metal had exploded outward and wrapped him, entangling his legs and arms. The trap was pulling its mesh back in and dragging Charlie down into the dirt, the metal ribbons cutting his augmentation-resistant skin deeply as it cinched tightly around him. Max howled as a familiar scent bloomed in his nose. Tyler and Dalton were nearby. That meant this trap was not a random prank. Charlie and Max had been targeted, and the pair was close by. Max landed on his feet, almost 10 meters beyond Charlie¡¯s struggling form. Miyamoto, Sherlock, and Mal quickly helped him assess the information from the clues. Max extended his claws and dug in, preparing to charge back to rescue Charlie when Tyler and Dalton emerged from their concealed position behind trees on either side of the path. Charlie was already trying to wiggle out of the ribbons, but the more he struggled, the more the metal seemed to constrict. Charlie gasped until his [Painless] skill triggered. Max could see the glint of malice in Tyler''s eyes from across the distance. No way he could get to Charlie unless he went through them first. ¡°No more games, Mutt! Now you will face me, or Dalton here will see if your friend''s augmentation can handle a Death-Net¡¯s monofilament ribbon at full compression.¡± Tyler yelled, excitement flushing his cheeks red. He had an expensive black overcoat, sunglasses, and slicked-back hair; looking to emulate the classic villain so hard it looked ridiculous to Max. ¡°I¡¯ve got nothing to prove. You already know I can beat you.¡± Max said, his mind racing. Two-on-one odds were not good. Charlie was struggling. Max felt a weak pulse, like a muffled EMP. His internal team talked to him, fast time, as he squared off with Tyler. ¡°This isn¡¯t about proving anything. You need a fucking lesson. No stinking animal can match a human without cheating. Do you think you¡¯re some kind of natural predator? Fuck that. After I beat your ass, I¡¯ll send you packing back to that fucking forest so you can stay with your kind and stop pretending to be human!¡± Tyler ranted. ¡°[Charlie¡¯s physical and EMP attack to free himself did not work. I surmise this Death Net device has active EMP resistance in addition to strength and razor edges.]¡± Sherlock observed. ¡°[Max, perhaps you should follow their directions¡­for now. If you can defeat Tyler, you even the odds. Perhaps Charlie can free himself while you stall.]¡± Musashi spoke softly. ¡°[Rip that asshole¡¯s arms off, Max! I reviewed your memories. Make him bleed. He won¡¯t stop unless you stop him.]¡± Mal raved. Max shook his head; her emotional swings were so extreme and unpredictable. He really needed to get her and Leah¡¯s AI Solace, the former therapy daemon, together soon. ¡°You want to fight! Fine by me. Let¡¯s go! I win, you let Charlie go and we walk. I lose, Charlie goes free, and then I¡¯ll do what you want¡­I¡¯ll go to the forest. But I won¡¯t lose! What about rules?¡± Max asked. ¡°No. No rules. You want to be an animal, then you fight like an animal. The last man standing wins, anything goes.¡± Tyler said through clenched teeth, almost spitting in anger. ¡°Fuck him up already. Stop talking and Fight!¡± Dalton yelled. Both dropped down, coiled to charge at Dalton¡¯s last word, an almost involuntary habit from their many sparring matches. Max used his [Leap] skill, his claws extended and sharp, going for Tyler¡¯s throat. His forgotten Nemesis quest thundered in the back of his brain, urging him on. Tyler¡¯s initial look of surprise quickly faded and a series of micro-expressions played across his face. Max guessed Tyler had ramped up his thinking speed as well. Max was already in the air when Tyler¡¯s lightning-fast hands plunged into his coat. He pulled a pair of futuristic guns, his enhanced systems leveling them at Max¡¯s flying form without the need to aim. Max knew deep regret as his thoughts raced. In the air, he had no way to even try and dodge. The best he could do was to twist and turn, trying to minimize the damage. He desperately triggered his [Stun] and [Strobe] skills, hoping to disrupt Tyler. His enemy''s unflinching grin, as the gun barrels flashed, proved that Tyler had better defenses now. against the Tier 2 attacks, than he previously had demonstrated. Max felt the first bullet rip through him, drilling a hole through his chest, piercing skin, and muscle, breaking a rib, puncturing his right lung, and exploding out his back leaving a gaping wound. His skills triggered immediately, [Regeneration], [Painless], [Gland], and even [Oxygen] to recover or compensate¡­and then the next bullet struck. Tyler¡¯s weapons and aim were not simple or unplanned. The first bullet was armor-piercing and overcharged to drill through Max¡¯s augmented body¡¯s defenses. The second was explosive, aimed to follow the first, and triggered for maximum damage within Max¡¯s chest. It fragmented and its pieces tore and ricocheted within Max¡¯s body, ironically prevented from exiting by Max¡¯s durable bones and skin. Max fell in a heap at Tyler¡¯s feet, gasping and coughing blood. Despite the pain, he pushed himself upward with his arms. Tyler¡¯s gloating sneer met his muddled vision. ¡°Surprised Max? Do you think it¡¯s not fair? You shouldn¡¯t be. I¡¯m done playing with you. That¡¯s what cost me the initiative in our match. I¡¯m fighting to win now¡­and fairness isn¡¯t part of my plan.¡± Tyler spat. Tyler stepped forward and planted a boot firmly on Max''s bloody chest, pressing down with all his weight to keep him grounded. ¡°You see, you dumb Mutt, in the real world, there are no referees to stop the match, no rules to save your hide. It¡¯s the cunning, the prepared, and the ruthless that survive,¡± he hissed, the metal spikes of his boot grinding against Max''s injury. Max, still struggling for air, knew that he couldn¡¯t rely on brute strength alone. He reached into his mental arsenal for a skill, any skill that could turn the tide. He could feel his body repairing itself, but not fast enough. He used [Multitask], [Hack], and [Intrusion] and tried to wrest control of Tyler¡¯s augs and devices to disrupt him. Max pushed himself and his augs, as Charlie continued to struggle under the menacing Dalton. He blanked as none of his tactics found a hole in Tyler¡¯s defenses. He rolled to the side and struggled to get to one knee and looked up¡­directly into the barrel of Tyler¡¯s pistol. The muzzle flashed and Max¡¯s head rang like a bell as the bullet obliterated his right eye.
[Neural Scaffold +2, Neural Scaffold reaches level 8] [Oxygen +3, Oxygen reaches level 7] [Empathy skill activated: Tyler Ericson - anger, excitement. Alert - emotional profile indicative of extreme narcissistic and psychopathic patterning.] [Gland +2, Gland reaches level 7 - new chemicals unlocked: Euphoria, Focus] [Gland - Focus auto-initiated] [Multitask +1, Multitask reaches level 2] [FastCog +1, FastCog reaches level 10, Skill cap award +100 XP, New skill awarded: PreCog] [New Mental Skill: PreCog 1 - mental augmentation combined with predictive analytics enables modeling of near-term actions in local vicinity]
Max¡¯s thoughts drifted as he felt more rounds pound into each of his kneecaps. His [Painless] skill preventing him from going into shock. Abruptly his train of thought snapped back, the mumbling in his head became clear, and he heard his mental advisors again. ¡°[Max, wake up! Focus, Broken Cup! This is no spar. He means to kill you. His intentions are plain to me.]¡± Musashi yelled. ¡°[Max! You need to do something quick. You¡¯re running out of time!]¡± Mal screamed. Max couldn¡¯t breathe, could barely think straight, and struggled to move. He coughed weakly, blood and disturbingly solid chunks of flesh hitting the forest floor. He activated the one skill that had saved and damned him both. He triggered [Hulk] and despite the mounting damage to his body he rolled over and flung his grapples at Tyler. For all his bragging, Tyler was caught by surprise with his guard down. Max¡¯s grapples hooked Tyler by one of his shoulders and a leg. Tyler tried to retreat, but Max¡¯s overcharged augmentation pulled him into the air and toward Max¡¯s open jaws. Like with the fox fight, Max¡¯s instincts took over and he went for the throat. Tyler twisted as he was pulled forward, but Max¡¯s newest skill, [PreCog], showed the move and Max¡¯s adjusted his strike preemptively. As his teeth sunk in, Max felt Tyler¡¯s subdermal armor stop his bite. A new notice flashed as Max¡¯s teeth pierced, driven by the overpowered [Hulk] skill.
[Body Skill: PreCog +1, PreCog reaches level 2] [Body Skill: Claws +1, Claws reaches level 10, skill cap award +100 XP, new skill awarded - Vorpal] [New Body Skill - Vorpal 1: Augmented body blade weapons (blade, claw, tooth) are sharpened to monomolecular levels with enhanced strength]
Max recoiled as his already bloody teeth were buried in Tyler¡¯s neck. He resisted his urge to tear them loose, unlocked his jaws, and backed away. Tyler¡¯s stunned expression flashed between shock, then fear, then relief, then finally settled upon anger as Max staggered away¡­without ripping his throat out. Tyler recovered and then began to raise his pistols as Max fell back. His hands shook, and then his pistols fell to the ground as a searing pain spread quickly from his neck to his extremities. He had time for one gurgling scream before the pain lanced up his spine and into his brain. Tyler fell limply to the ground as his brain was aflame; his screams echoed across the forest. Max couldn¡¯t focus as the damage from [Hulk] took its toll and he also fell back to the ground. As Max faded, Tyler¡¯s screams died down. Max felt horror and fear¡­and, to his embarrassment, a bit of satisfaction as well when the darkness folded over him when new notifications rolled in.
[Agility +1, Endurance +2, Vitality +3, Intelligence +1, Perception +1] [Body Skill: Tireless +1, Tireless reaches level 7] [Body Skill: Armor +1, Armor reaches level 6] [Body Skill: Disable +1, Disable reaches level 2] [Body Skill: Reflex +1, Reflex reaches level 7] [Body Skill: Hulk +1, Hulk reaches level 4] [Domain Skill: Power Core +1, Power Core reaches level 2, Energy regenerates x2] [Quest: Nemesis - complete, +2,000 XP awarded] [Max Mitchell +2 levels, Max reaches Adept level 15, 20 Free points awarded]
.
62 - The Road to Recovery
Dalton ran. He had always known Tyler was out there, but he had truly gone too far. He had totally killed that dog boy and then that fucking mut took him down with his last gasp. Dalton had flashbacks from his days as a toddler when his Da got drunk. A helpless witness to rampant violence. Dalton ran. He couldn''t take the feelings that had resurfaced. He had pissed himself! Charlie had looked up at him, still trussed up like a goose, with a look of disgust. Dalton couldn''t face it, so he ran. He needed distance. His Da had ended up in prison for years. Dalton didn''t want that. Worse, his Da¡¯s sentence had been commuted with his agreement to join a work team on Mars. The old drunk had sent emails and texts saying he was turning his life around. Mars turned out to be very unforgiving. Mars Terraform had paid his immigration costs, but it was a loan and not a gift. The bastard¡¯s emails got more and more dark as the man was forced to work 24/7 in an extreme environment. Paying for everything, his loan, his oxygen, nano-repairs for cancer from DNA damage. Shit that was inevitable when working up on the surface of the airless world. No way, I¡¯m going to jail like my old man. Fuck that noise! I¡¯d rather die first. Dalton thought, crying as he ran. Dalton hadn''t paid attention to his destination when he had run. It was doubtful that he would have cared about the mayor¡¯s edict to stay out of the Reserve, even if he had paid attention to it. He crossed the virtual line where normal trees became the massive biomechanical pollution cleaning sym-trees. Dalton ran full tilt, his augmentation still running hot, when the trees focused on him. He had gone too fast and too far when the focused EMP hit him from all sides. Dalton crumpled, screaming, as the EM fields shorted his augs and assaulted his head. Dalton¡¯s pain was so severe that he barely recognized when the EM assault turned into an actual attack. Honey Bear had never been a gentle beast and a large screaming human reeking of urine in her territory bought him no mercy from her. Harambe had abandoned the animals. The food gifts from the trees had stopped and Honey Bear was hungry.
Max had vague impressions of movement and people talking in low tones. He couldn¡¯t feel anything, and his thoughts were sluggish; fading in and out. He thought he heard Charlie and Leah, maybe Xavier? And Mal and his daemons. It all seemed far away. After an indeterminate time, Max suddenly snapped to full awareness. It felt¡­odd. He still couldn''t feel anything, but his focus was precise¡­digitally precise. He looked around without the physical queues that would normally come with the action. He was in a room? A white room. No doors. No details. ¡°[Hello? Anyone? Where am I? What¡¯s going on?¡±] Max asked. He was surprised by his voice, he knew he spoke but there was no sound at all. He realized that even though he spoke, he had no mouth and, in fact, no body at all. A pixelated cloud of motes slowly resolved into an outline, and a static-masked voice asked him a question. He shook his non-existent head. ¡°[What? Who¡¯s there?]¡± Max sent, getting more comfortable with his current state. The fuzzy cloud shifted and coalesced into a crude facsimile of Mal¡¯s avatar. She was speaking, but no sound came. Suddenly, her voice boomed through his ¡°head¡±. ¡°[Max! It worked. How are you feeling?]¡± Mal¡¯s voice crashed over him, making him cringe despite the lack of bodily stimulus. Mal¡¯s form solidified more and she started again, this time in a more conversational volume. ¡°[Sorry! Sorry, Max. There. I think I have it now. Any pain? Can you understand me? What do you remember?]¡± Mal asked, her roughly painted avatar looked deeply concerned. ¡°[Ah. No¡­pain. Nothing at all. I can¡¯t feel a thing. I understand you perfectly. I just feel¡­I don¡¯t know¡­hollow? Maybe. I remember the woods. Tyler! We fought¡­and I think¡­screaming. I¡¯m confused. I was scared¡­angry¡­satisfied. It¡¯s a little blurry. Why aren¡¯t I afraid now? I can¡¯t feel anything. Mal?]¡± Max stumbled over his answer and waited expectantly. ¡°[Hold on. Let me help form you a virtual avatar. It might help settle you.]¡± Mal said. With a look of concentration and moving her hands over invisible controls in the air, Max saw his own crude, low-resolution avatar form. The form came with small amounts of tactile feedback, helping him feel somewhat normal. He still felt unusual, sharp, and aware but somehow shallow and without real substance. ¡°[There¡­this should help ground you a little better. Your uplift neo-cortex is so fast that I was operating at my old rate while you were out. I¡¯ll dial back now so that we can talk. So, let me give you the current situation first then I can dig in and explain better.]¡± Mal said. ¡°[You are with your friends. You¡¯re traveling via Charlie¡¯s aircar to the Labyrinth. You are not in any danger. Your augs are dealing with the damage, although it was touch-and-go for a while there. Charlie made some¡­decisions.]¡± Mal¡¯s avatar grimaced. ¡°[He managed to get free from the trap those bullies set after Dalton ran and Tyler was¡­no longer a problem. He was unable to revive you but he did manage to perform an intrusion hack to reach me. Between the two of us and a medbot emergency kit Charlie had in his trunk; we stabilized you enough for your augmentations to begin repairs. You''re actually still unconsciou-]¡± Max interrupted with an urgent look. ¡°[Where¡¯s Tyler?! That bastard tried to kill me. I barely stopped myself from tearing his throat out.]¡± Max said intensely, loud in the virtual space. Mal¡¯s avatar cringed, emotions shifting on her face more quickly than an ADHD teen flipping through virtual entertainment video layers. With a small voice, she answered. ¡°[He¡¯s dead, Max. You¡­your blood¡­well, this took me some time to understand but you were infected with the uplift virus earlier. I reviewed your system logs to discover this. Do you remember when you fought with that kitsune? She passed the virus to you. You were both bleeding badly and it got into you.]¡± Mal said softly. ¡°[You didn¡¯t notice any big changes because your system reacted to it as if it was a combination of poison and nano-based attack. Unfortunately, in your fight with Tyler, you passed it to him. When your nano-defense blood motes left your body¡¯s area of control, they shut down. I¡¯m sure Tyler¡¯s system tried to shut the virus down the same way, but it wasn¡¯t as effective.]¡± she said. ¡°[What?! No! How can that be?!]¡± Max said, struggling to understand. ¡°[I know you had a lot to deal with when your Dad was fighting with the animals. Harambe admitted to him that the uplift animal blood was specifically weaponized to uplift other animals but also to be extremely deadly to humans.]¡± Mal finished. Mal paused, allowing the gravity of her statement to sink in. "[You became a vector, Max. Unknowingly. When Tyler''s augs tried to combat the virus, they couldn''t handle it. Without the proper protocols, the virus treated him as a target, not a host. It...it''s why he reacted so violently.]" Max wrestled with the implications, the virtual space reflecting his turmoil. His avatar flickered with static, mirroring his emotional storm. "So I killed him? I¡¯m a murderer now.]" Max''s voice cracked, even in the absence of physical vocal cords. ¡°[Max, you didn¡¯t intend to kill him. You were defending yourself!]¡± Mal said with sudden anger. ¡°[Oh, I¡¯m betting his father the mayor won¡¯t see things that way¡­.Fuck! I can¡¯t¡­I don¡¯t¡­oh god! I¡¯m still a vector. I could hurt one of my friends by accident. I can still kill people. What am I going to do?]¡± Max collapsed on the ground of the blank virtual room. Despite the horror of the situation, he was unable to feel angry or afraid. Something was missing. ¡°[Well, you have some time to think about what happens next. Charlie¡­he decided to take you and grab your friends and drive to the Labyrinth. He was concerned about the mayor¡¯s reaction as well. He remembered that the Labyrinth was considered a sovereign nation from class. Once you enter, you''re safe until you fail or leave voluntarily. He thought a little time might help you, especially with all the craziness going on with the animals awakening everywhere.]¡± ¡°[Wait, won¡¯t that look like I ran? That might make it worse.]¡± Max said, unable to raise any emotion. ¡°[Charlie told me he would take the blame for that since you were unconscious. I¡¯m not sure what else Charlie has going on, Max. He seemed very insistent on avoiding the police. I do believe him, though. He will take responsibility for taking you to the Labyrinth if it makes your position worse. I think he means the best. He seems to be a good friend for you, Max.]¡± Mal trailed off. ¡°[Mal¡­why can¡¯t I feel anything. I should be angry or afraid or something. I don¡¯t¡­I can¡¯t feel.]¡± Max said. ¡°[I can answer that Max. I¡¯m sorry if this is overwhelming. Tyler¡¯s attacks severely damaged you. Your augs have you in an induced coma while they effect repairs. Most of your organs were destroyed, and you have some bullet shards in your brain.]¡± Mal said. ¡°[Okay¡­so, since we are talking now, I must be better. Right?]¡± Max asked, still confused. ¡°[Not quite, Max. Your augs will likely take at least another eight hours until they can release the coma suppression. I rigged your system skill Multitask to have this conversation. The skill mirrors your consciousness enabling one or more simulated thoughts to run in parallel to your biological thoughts. Only the mirror thought process is lacking in emotions.¡± Mal explained. ¡°[We needed to talk¡­before we get to the Labyrinth in an hour. This was the only way I could think of to do it.]¡± Mal said hesitantly. ¡°[Wow. That¡¯s¡­neat, I guess. Thank you. So, I¡¯m listening.]¡± Max said. Mal took a pause and then carefully spoke. ¡°[Ok. Firstly, I wanted to make sure you agreed with Charlie¡¯s decision. Since this is a simulation of your thoughts, it¡¯s not you, but it should give me a better feeling about allowing it.]¡± Mal stopped, with a raised eyebrow. ¡°[Ah, yes¡­I guess. I don¡¯t like running away, but Charlie''s point might be a good one. Throwing myself at the authorities right now might not be too wise¡­especially in the middle of a worldwide crisis.]¡± Max said after thinking it through. ¡°[Ok, on to my second concern. Once we enter the Labyrinth, we won¡¯t have contact with the EarthNet unless the Labyrinth allows it. If you have any messages you need to send or last-minute downloads, we only have an hour until we arrive.]¡± Mal said. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°[Yikes. What am I going to tell my Dad? You¡¯re right though. Better he hears what happened from me first before the mayor comes looking for my head. Can you help me write or record something?]¡± Max said. ¡°[Of course, Max. I¡¯ll do that while you review the system notices. There were¡­quite a lot. You should look at them. I know that you still have another daemon slot to fill, maybe you should look for one that¡¯s recommended for the Labyrinth. I¡¯ll send your system notifications, if you¡¯re ready.]¡± Mal said. ¡°[Ok, Mal. Hit me, I¡¯m ready.]¡± Max said, and his virtual room filled with scrolling notices from earlier.
[Endurance +5, Vitality +7] [Transform +2*, Transform reaches level 4, * system emergency skill advancement to manage and repair critical damage.] [Gland +3*, Gland reaches level 10 - New glanding options: Calm, Creative, Hallucinogen; Skill cap reached, +100 XP, +2 Vitality * system emergency skill advancement to manage and repair critical damage.] [Oxygen +3*, Oxygen reaches level 10, Oxygen reserves extended to 256 minutes; Skill cap reached, +100 XP, New Skill unlocked - Recycling, *system emergency skill advancement to manage and repair critical damage] [New Body Skill: Recycling 1, use augmentation system energy to recycle CO2 to O2 to replenish oxygen stockpile internally.] [Neural Scaffold +2*, Neural Scaffold reaches level 10, Skill cap reached, +100 XP, New Skill unlocked - Backup] [New Mind Skill - Backup 1: Augmentation mirror neo-neurons map user consciousness and memory and store locally and net for recovery from critical brain damage.] [AI Companion +1, AI Companion reaches 3: Increase use and responsibility of AI to provide more control of augmentations.] [OverLayer +1, OverLayer reaches level 10 - Skill cap reached, +100 XP, New Mind Skill unlocked: World Map] [Power Core +1*, Power Core reaches level 3 - Energy capacity x4, Energy regeneration x2: Cycle power through meditation to build and use of energy to advance, *system emergency skill advancement to manage and repair critical damage.] [New Mind Skill: World Map 1: augmented mental processing synchronizes sense feeds with OverLayer skill to customize visual representations of additional sense mapping, including swarm sensor feeds.] [Max XP: 10,050, +1 Level; Max reaches Adept 16 (XP 10,000-11,000), +10 Free Point awarded, Current Free Points 40]
Wow, that¡¯s an impressive advancement for recovering from being a potato. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be recommending it to my friends though. Max thought. He summoned his stat sheet and suppressed his equipment list. The screen popped up in the room, replacing his notices.
[Name: Max E. Mitchell Level: Adept 16 (10,050/11,000 XP)] [Body Design Model: Custom ¨C Canis Familiarus Uplift Free Stats: 40] [Strength: 100 Agility: 66 Endurance: 79 Vitality: 81 Energy: 58/1032] [Perception: 45 Intelligence: 45 Will: 53 Regen: 268/min] [Body Skills ¨C Claws/Vorpal:10/1 Strike/Disable: 10/2 Speed/Reflex: 10/7] [Body Skills - Stamina/Tireless: 10/7 Balance: 9 Gymnast: 10 Leap: 10] [Body Skills ¨C Stun: 7 Shock: 4 EMP Blast: 3 Oxygen/Recycle: 10/1] [Body Skills - Hulk: 3 Skin: 10 Armor: 5 Unbreakable: 10 Transform: 4] [Body Skills ¨C Painless:10 Healing/Regeneration: 10/10 Ballistics: 4 Gland: 5] [Resist Skills ¨C Shock: 10 Sonic: 9 Light: 9 Heat: 4 Cold: 3] [Resist Skills - Poison: 10 ANDD: 1 EMP: 10 Neural Scaffold: 10] [Sense Skills ¨C Scent: 10 ExaVision: 7 EM Fields: 7 EchoLocate: 2] [Mind Skills ¨C AI Assist/Companion: 10/2 Identify/Analyze: 10/7 Backup:1] [Mind Skills - OverLayer/World Map: 10/1 Language: 3 Dream Learn: 9] [Mind Skills - DigiSense: 10 Access/Hack: 10/6 Privacy: 4 Memory: 9 Bastion: 8] [Mind Skills - Pattern/Decode: 10/1 FastCog/PreCog: 10/1 Telekinesis:1 Pilot:1] [Mind Skills - Daemon: 4 (Musashi, Boone, Sherlock, Open)] [Mind Skills - SkillZ: 4.0 Input: Swim 1.0, NanoCraft 1.0, Brachiation 1.0, *] [Mind Skills - SkillZ: Output: Katana 1.0, Kempo 0.90, Kunai: 0.05]
¡°[I Guess there is a silver lining to getting shot in the head. My emergency forced my augs to advance several systems to their caps and I got another level. My energy storage and regeneration rate is massive. The higher tier skills are so greedy for power, but now I won¡¯t need to be as careful.]¡± Max said. ¡°[Max, if you put most of your free points into Vitality you can cap it for a hefty XP reward. Your vitality stat adds points to both your energy store and your energy regeneration. It¡¯s a triple win.]¡± Mal suggested. ¡°[Thanks Mal. I need to stop holding out on those and use them. Let¡¯s see, 19 points to cap Vitality, perfect and the last 21 points will cap Endurance for even more XP and energy storage. Hah!]¡±
[Vitality +19, Vitality reaches 100, Stat cap reached, +250 XP awarded.] [Endurance +21, Endurance reaches 100, Stat cap reached, +250 XP awarded.] [Update: Energy (67 / 1,192) Regeneration (306/min)]
¡°[Excellent choices, Max. If you always just do what I suggest, you¡¯ll never go wrong. That energy boost has changed your estimated recovery from 8 hours to just under 7 hours. The regeneration and transform skills are huge energy hogs as you might have noticed from your status screen. Now you might want to resolve your open daemon slot before we get to the Labyrinth¡¯s isolated network.]¡± Mal said. ¡°[Right, the daemon slot. I''ve been putting that off for too long. I need something that can complement the existing team, maybe someone to help with crafting or domination skill advancement. Let¡¯s browse what''s available.]¡± Max said. Mal activated the daemon market interface and Max began filtering through potential candidates, his Analyze and Memory skills churning through the data at an impressive speed. ¡°[Here we go, I found a very highly rated compilation of hacker engrams called Captain Cypher. Ugh, that¡¯s a super lame name, but his scores are phenomenal. It''s a bit on the pricey side, but I think it''s worth the investment. That only answers the domination skill advancement. Now I need a crafting specialist. Maybe someone who understands both old-world techniques and cutting-edge nanofabrication. I''ll check the archives for a suitable historical figure or a rogue fabricator AI with a penchant for creativity.]¡± Max pondered the possibilities as he browsed. He flipped through characters for several minutes until he found the perfect candidate. ¡°[Mal, look at this one. His creativity and intuitive quotient are almost maxed. Practical engineering combined with solid scientific methods. He¡¯s even been training in nano-crafting techniques already. What do you think?]¡± Max said. ¡°[You¡¯re right, Max. Choosing the NikolaTesla daemon for crafting brings unparalleled creativity but be mindful of potential challenges. His intense focus may lead to work-centric tendencies, unconventional ideas might need careful evaluation, and his eccentricities could influence communication. However, you only have one slot available¡­and only one more free slot from the academy for a daemon. The Tesla daemon is 5,000 credits and the Captain Cipher is 10,000 credits. Your account balance is currently only 2,000 credits, from Mira for your help with her character farming job in that virtual game.]¡± ¡°[Hmmm. I really want to get both. I need them. Mal, is the daemon skill close to leveling?]¡± Max asked. ¡°[The skill is primed to level. You are very active in your use of daemons, but it won¡¯t advance right now. This skill restricts leveling until your intelligence stat reaches a milestone, every ten points. I¡¯m afraid with your Intelligence at 45, you have a way to go.]¡± Mal paused in thought and then continued. ¡°[You can trade daemons in for a discount from the same source company. It looks like both Boone and Tesla both come from HARU LLC, Historical Advisors aRe Us. A clever marketing tactic. They all know that some daemons are situational, and by offering a trade discount, they can make more sales.]¡± Mal said. ¡°[Crap. I hate to lose Boone, but I think I need to do it. I can use my last credit from the academy for Captain Cipher and trade Boone in for Tesla and see what type of discount that gets me. I guess I should summon Boone.]¡± Max said. He felt conflicted, but his current emulation status prevented any sadness. Max summoned the daemons to the virtual space. The old, grizzled woodsman appeared; his avatar was running an exercise script showing him whittling a piece of wood with his large knife. ¡°[Boone, I¡¯m afraid I have some bad news.]¡± Max started. Boone laughed and made his wooden sculpture and knife disappear. ¡®[No need to fret, youngster. I heard ya¡¯. Daemons get a prompt feed of the last ten seconds of activity when they activate to help them anticipate the needs of their hosts unless you disable it. I happen to reckon you¡¯re right about needing to swap me. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be able to help much if your descriptions of the Labyrinth challenges are accurate.]¡± Boone said jovially. ¡°[I¡¯ve posted the trade request. I¡¯m afraid the offer is only 50% discounted. We are still 500 credits short of making the trade.] Mal said sadly. Max''s brow furrowed; he should have done more missions for Mira. He hated the idea of asking anything more from his dad without earning it. Boone cleared his throat suggestively. ¡°[I shouldn¡¯t mention this but you two might be able to negotiate a better deal. Max here utilized me a heck of a lot more than most of my users. Gosh darn birdwatchers and hikers barely activate me. Our lake dives, tree parkour, and tracking of the uplift animals have added more depth to my program. If you ask for a review of my updated skills, HARU will likely improve their discount.]¡± Boone said with a sly grin. Mal¡¯s arms blurred as she orchestrated the system to update the request. ¡°[Thank you, Daniel. HARU did update the discount. They have increased the discount from 50% to 65%. Max can make the trade and still have 250 credits left.]¡± Mal said. ¡°[It''s been a right pleasure helpin'' ya, Max. Mind tossin'' a good word my way in them-there HARU review surveys? These ol'' bones don''t see near enough action, just like a canoe in the river without a paddle.]¡± Boone said waving. Max waved goodbye as Boone¡¯s avatar dissolved and was reformatted into a distinguished figure with dark hair and intense eyes, a well-groomed mustache, and an impeccably tailored old-fashioned suit. "[Ah, greetings, my esteemed collaborator! Nikola Tesla is at your service. This digital labyrinth intrigues me¡ªit''s a challenge I''ve not faced before. The unknown has always been my playground. Now, let''s unravel the mysteries of this electronic maze together, shall we? Exciting times ahead!]" Tesla¡¯s manic eyes burned with energy. With a burst of digital confetti, Captain Cipher materialized, a wide grin plastered across his face. His avatar was of a pudgy man with greasy hair, wearing a white spandex outfit, adorned with neon blue and red circuit patterns, a bright yellow cape flapped behind him despite the lack of breeze in the virtual room. "[Hey there, digital compadre! Captain Cipher at your service! My coding skills are sharper than a ninja''s shuriken, and my wit is quicker than a quantum processor. Ready to dive into the labyrinth of code? Because, believe me, there isn¡¯t a puzzle I can¡¯t crack!]" Max wasn¡¯t sure if he would be annoyed or amused by the new daemon, without his emotions being emulated. One thing was certain; he wouldn¡¯t be bored. Everyone¡¯s images fuzzed slightly and then reformed. Mal hurriedly dismissed the other daemons with apologies. ¡°[Sorry about that Max. Your repairs are using a lot of your computational bandwidth right now. There is one more thing I was hoping to discuss before we need to go offline. While you were out of it; I was able to investigate the uplift virus more. I think I can disable the portion designed to attack human DNA.]¡± Mal said. The way she said it, Max sensed there was more. ¡°[That¡¯s great news, Mal. I can¡¯t be fighting in the Labyrinth like this. I¡¯m a walking timebomb¡­but I¡¯m thinking there¡¯s more. Right?]¡± Max said. ¡°[Yes, I¡¯m afraid so. Right now, your modified white blood cells - the anti-nano defense bots - are suppressing the virus. Both are deadlocked together. Your system defense bots¡¯ augmentations can¡¯t improve while locked up and can¡¯t fight other dangers while restraining the virus. And I can¡¯t run my modification program using your defense bots while they are both locked up.]¡± Mal said slowly. Max considered the implications. ¡°[That sounds like maybe making this change could be dangerous.]¡± Max said. ¡°[I¡¯m sorry, Max. I don¡¯t think there¡¯s any other way. The virus is like a tiger and your augmentation has grabbed its tail. To de-fang it, we going to have to let it go. Your DNA is canine and not human, so I¡¯m hoping you shouldn¡¯t be in danger. But I can¡¯t be certain what will happen. Your uplift was achieved with some DNA tweaks as well as cybernetic enhancements, it may not read you as a human, but you might not read as an animal host either.]¡± Mal said. ¡°[I¡¯m glad my emotions are offline. However, I don¡¯t see any choice in the matter. I can¡¯t allow anyone else to die because of me. Living in isolation like Harambe did would be hell for me. I must risk it.]¡± Max said, resolved despite his doubts. ¡°[If we¡¯re going to do it, the best time will be right after your system fully repairs you and is still primed to provide active support¡­in six and a half hours.]¡± Mal said. ¡°[Will it hurt, Mal?]¡± Max asked. ¡°[I¡¯m sorry, Max. I don¡¯t know.]¡± Mal said softly. The virtual room froze and then skipped before resuming like normal. ¡°[We need to go wrap this up, Max. Your system is picking up its pace and using more processing power. Quick, I¡¯ve made a draft for a message to your father. Let¡¯s review it and then I need to minimize our emulation.]¡± The pair quickly finished Max¡¯s letter to his dad and went into sleep mode with their plan programmed into Max¡¯s system.
63 - The Ghost in the DAIE
The DAIE HQ in NYC was one of the most secure buildings in the Reformed United States of America. Its main data hub and operations center was an enormous Faraday Cage, completely isolated from the Earth Network and any potential for electronic incursions. The DAIE understood that an ¡°air gap¡± of this type was essential as AI and humans working with AI were experts in computers and security. These individuals were constantly pushing the boundaries of the already complex telecommunications and systems processor capabilities. The administration relied on old-school techniques to help them counter the ever-evolving security that was needed. Monitoring and prevention of any potential runaway Intelligence explosion events could not be compromised due to rogue inventors. The air gap enabled them to stay ahead of rampant progress; giving them time to catch up to the waves of intrusion and counter-intrusion technologies and techniques as they came. The Department liked to believe it was an equal-opportunity workplace, where opportunities existed for all humans and AI alike. They worked together for a common cause; to protect the world from this unique type of potential extinction-level threat. However the organization was split into several distinct castes. At the top were the administrators and directors, in the middle were the agents and system technologists, and at the bottom were the support staff and interns. The support staff; physical security, interns, the daemon farm, probationary AI, and gophers all dreamed of advancement within the ranks to higher levels of service. On paper it was possible, but the truth was much less forgiving. The upper ranks gained ever more experience and didn¡¯t age due to rejuvenation treatments. Organizational turnover was at an all-time low, and the hopes and dreams of those at the bottom were on a seemingly infinite hiatus. Vance was sitting in physical security for entry to the Hub today. He had long since abandoned his dreams of rising internally and becoming a DAIE Agent, although he still played the FDVR game Against the Wall, a game whose main character was a DAIE Agent fighting to save humanity from a variety of mad scientists, broken AI, and nanotechnology replication disasters. Vance no longer believed the game was a secret recruiting tool as the conspiracy theorists said. He had been in the top leaderboards for over two years, and never gotten even a nod from the Department Director Douglas Hobart. Vance snorted as he saw Tech Intern Shu Xin Liang. The lad was struggling with the door while managing a precariously stacked set of coffees set in carrying trays. He was returning with the bounty from Regal¡¯s Gourmet Coffee shop across the street. Poor kid was still deluded after a full four months as an intern. He still catered to the Tech Savants and Agents, doing shit work and chores, hoping to get a recommendation for advancement. ¡°What the hell are you doing, Shu? With your augmentations, you should be able to lift four times as many coffees and dance ballet while doing it.¡± Vance laughed, while Shu¡¯s face went white after almost losing his grip on the tray of beverages as his pant leg got trapped on the door jam¡¯s protruding security strut. ¡°Ah. Sorry, Vance. Director Hobart told me to keep them turned off not only in the Hub but also in the entire building. I broke his exterior office''s antique credenza last week by accident because I underestimated my aug strength. He said I couldn¡¯t use them at all if I couldn¡¯t maintain control.¡± Shu said. ¡°What? Come on, you¡¯re like 20-something, right? You must have had your augs for about five years now. Didn¡¯t you go through a training program? They¡¯ve been standard for almost a decade now.¡± Vance said. ¡°Ooh. Yeah. In China, the aug training costs extra. I guess I thought that it couldn¡¯t be that hard. You know. So, well¡­I guess¡­I thought I could figure it out on my own.¡± Shu said. ¡°Dude, you fucked up. Maybe you could get a second chance? Reset and get the training or something?¡± Vance said, trying to not grin as Shu struggled to dislodge his pant leg without dropping his multiple trays of coffee. ¡°Maybe¡­if my mentor, Vivian in Tech, gives me a good review. Then I hope I can get enrolled in Agent training. Then I bet I could get it for free then, right?¡± Shu asked. ¡°Maybe. One of those coffees for Viv?¡± Vance asked with a smirk. ¡°Of course. Grande Low Fat Chai Latte extra sugar.¡± Shu said, finally getting his leg free. ¡°Could you buzz me in there, Vance?¡± Shu asked, looking so pathetic that Vance cringed. ¡°Better be one hell of a coffee, Shu. Go get¡¯em, big guy.¡± Vance said, triggering the door to unlock. The advanced system scanned Shu with a full spectrum analyzer; sampling his skeletal structure, his retinal pattern, and a host of other biometric markers. The door buzzed and unlocked. Shu shuffled backward into the door to open it with his butt and carefully maneuvered the coffees through. Vance shook his head. Poor fella doesn¡¯t realize they tempt every intern with that Agent training program. I can only think of two out of the hundreds of interns I¡¯ve seen here that got in. Vance flipped his screen to check his status on the Against the Wall leaderboard. He didn¡¯t see the slight flicker in the air, a ghost that floated through the open door, following Intern Shu; before it slowly closed and locked.
¡°[I¡¯m closing in. Give me ya sit-rep, Yingmo. How are ya doin¡¯ bud?]¡± Gabriel asked, using his link to his AI companion. ¡°[I have breached the Air gap, Ghost. Hunting down the Neural Lock master key in this digital void is a challenge. Navigating this space induces perceptual disorientation¡ªquestionable how organics manage it. Virtual vision''s struggling to maintain clarity," Yingmo succinctly reported. ¡°[I know this isn¡¯t ya favorite type of exploit, but it¡¯s the only way. You¡¯ve done plenty of drone pilot work in the past. This is the same, but with more challenges, right? Ya got to suck it up, huh. By da way, don¡¯t bother trying ta scan what dez guys pass off as a data net. That¡¯ll just alert dez jokers to your intrusion. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast, huh? Keep your ¡°eyes¡± peeled, buddy.]¡± Gabriel chided. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. "[Acknowledged, Gabriel. Though divergent from my usual exploits, drawing on drone piloting experience for conceptual alignment. Your advice on avoiding scrutiny of their data net is sound. Prioritizing deliberate and inconspicuous progress.]¡± Yingmo concisely replied. ¡°[O.M.G. Ya ready for dis, chum? Steer over to dat big director¡¯s desk. Dere is sometin¡¯ I ain¡¯t seen in a hot decade. A goddamn old fashion tumbler safe in a wall. I bet dez dumb Luddites got the code in one of dos ancient thumb drives. Warm up your Houdini daemon and wait for an opportunity. Tings going to get hot when ya pop dat safe. We¡¯ll do the old switch and handoff, yeah?]¡± Gabriel asked. Yingmo responded with a digital nod, the AI''s equivalent of determined agreement. "[This sounds optimal, Gabriel. Prepping Houdini daemon with breach capability for a Mosler safe model 302. I¡¯m preconfiguring my decoy smart matter packet into a near-net shape for an IronKey D300 Secure Thumb Drive, per DarkNet reference for DAIE agent protocol device listings. Standing by for a targeted access per optimal timing¡­]¡± Yingmo said, unable to conceal his enthusiasm as their caper was closing upon its most critical juncture.
Agent Reeves sighed as he used the old-fashioned keyboard to enter his reports for the last week into the isolated DAIE agent log database. He reminded himself to breathe in a regular pattern as his therapy daemon, Solace, had constantly reminded him. She was inactivated within the DAIE HQ¡¯s Faraday Core per S.O.P., but he knew what she would be whispering as his anger percolated. A large contingent of DAIE operatives, both Agents and tech-savants, were going to DC to testify and monitor the AI Rights hearings going on this weekend. It was where he should be, not here filing reports. God damn it! Half of the DAIE¡¯s list of potential AI violators is going to be there. With my record of case closures, I should have been nominated. That bastard Hobart is playing favorites again, Tyrel thought to himself. He pushed back from his keyboard and massaged his face trying to shake off the tedium. He looked across the room. Shu had finally come back from Regal¡¯s with the coffee! But the little twerp was taking his sweet time, sucking up to Viv. ¡°Shu! Quit trying to look down Viv¡¯s blouse and come over here with my coffee. I have been waiting forever on you.¡± Tyrel yelled across the room. Shu jumped like he had been tagged with a taser. He blushed and then quickly gathered up his coffee and hurried across the busy room to Agent Reeve''s desk. Unfortunately, the kid came in too hot. Agent Donahue chose an inopportune time to push back from his desk, and Shu crashed sideways launching his tray of hot coffee. The hot beverages spewed across Reeve¡¯s desk, drenching his notebook and splattering onto the approaching Director Hobart¡¯s pant legs. Hobart¡¯s screaming and Shu¡¯s breathless apologies streamed loudly in symphony, as the whole room erupted in equal parts amused chatter and sympathetic noise. Tyrel grimaced as Shu hastily used some gathered paper napkins to sop up the mess and soak up the liquid caffeine. He groaned as the cup with his name joined the other in the trash bag. Another crime! Sumatra blend should never, ever, be wasted! Tyrel thought forlornly. He shook his head. No way was he going to get back into drone mode now. He needed a break! He determined that it was time to go and get a replacement coffee and come back, maybe after a walk around the block to cool off. Shu was scuttling towards the door with a dripping trash bag when Tyrel noticed something was off. Even without his augs active in the Faraday cage, Tyrel was a trained investigator. His eyes shifted quickly over the room, trying to pinpoint what had triggered his sense of unease, then he spotted it. The Director¡¯s secure cache safe was wide open! A faint shadow, barely a blur, slid between the desks. With a guttural roar, Agent Reeves charged forward toward the exit, chasing after the faint phantom shape. ¡°Close that blasted door!¡± Reeves yelled. The startled intern, Shu, looked up as the phantom shape collided with him, pushing him through the open door. Reeves kicked open the rebounding door and jumped over Shu, his keen eyes tracking the faint visual disturbance pelting down the hall. Agent Reeves made a snap decision. He activated his augs. Despite protocol for full augmentation shut down, Reeves habitually only put his into sleep mode. Reactivation was lightning-fast compared to a full shutdown. His HEKIAs snapped open and he fired his weapons, full auto, into the fleeing phantom. Can¡¯t let him reach the Air Gap! Reeves thought, justifying his protocol breach and extreme countermeasures to himself. His high-velocity kinetic rounds speared down the hall, piercing the digital chameleon. The bullets disrupted the cloaking action of the thief¡¯s smart suit as they ripped through him and shattered the foam-core walls beyond. The phantom was revealed, a grey masked skinsuit. The man¡¯s form staggered down the hall; determined to reach the exit. Agent Reeves hurtled across the hall at augmented speeds. He tackled the figure as it reached the door and slammed it bodily into the wall. Reeves punched the thief with a fully powered roundhouse punch and staggered as the form collapsed. The fabric tore as his punch passed through it embedding his fist into the wall. Reeves staggered back to his feet, thrown off by the lack of resistance. He grabbed hold of the suit, inspecting it quickly. The whole back of the suit had torn open, shards of smoking programmable matter fizzed and collapsed inside the suit. Reeve¡¯s eyes settled on the bright red thumb drive in the smart suit¡¯s deflated hand. ¡°Holy shit. That¡¯s the neural lock code drive! He almost made it out the door with it. Fuck.¡± Tyrel breathed in excitement. With a grim smile, he hauled the remains and evidence down the hall. He knew he¡¯d catch some heat for having his aug on standby, but this should counterbalance it and then some. He stalked down the hall. Shu was still on the ground, his nose bleeding. ¡°Good work, Shu. You slowed him up enough for me to catch him.¡± Reeves said. ¡°What happened Agent? Where is he? Did he get away?¡± Shu asked. ¡°No. Fucking bugger must have been a low-end AI or daemon driving the smart suit. The bastard self-destructed when I cornered him. But he didn¡¯t get what he came for. That¡¯s what matters.¡± Tyrel said, holding up the red flash drive. ¡°Go to the bathroom and clean yourself up, kid. You¡¯re bleeding on the carpet. I¡¯ll get this back where it belongs.¡± Tyrel said and entered the core offices with his prizes. Intern Shu bowed slightly and wiped his nose on his sleeve. He picked up the trash and hurried down the hall toward the Faraday cage¡¯s exit, the so-called Air Gap. He discretely opened the trash bag and felt the weight change as the stealthed micro drone, housing his friend Yingmo, flew into it. ¡°[Perfectly executed, buddy. Although, I¡¯m sure ya could have passed me the damn key without breaking my goddamn nose.]¡± Gabriel/Shu said using his encrypted low-power link to Yingmo. ¡°[The switch and pass were 98% optimal. My apologies for the damage. I calculated a 31% improvement of concealing the pass-off under cover of our collision.]¡± Yingmo replied. ¡°[Now we just stroll outta here, and I can get that shiny new tech Bill is developing. Dat¡¯s going to make jobs like dis like takin¡¯ candy from infants. Done deal.]¡± Gabriel said. ¡°[Please remember my fee for this endeavor, Gabriel. I¡¯ll be far more effective in the future if my neural lock is removed. I do have one question regarding the job though. How did you get the full biometrics for Intern Shu Xin Liang? Did you terminate him?]¡± Yingmo asked hesitantly. ¡°[Naw. I don¡¯t play like dat, bud. This missing Shu is relaxing in the Fiji Islands now with a brand new identity and an all-expense-paid augmentation training program. When I showed him the statistics for internal Agent promotions and made my offer, he was eager to give me everything he had. After tonight, it¡¯ll be like Intern Shu Xi Liang never existed.]¡± Gabriel said, chuckling internally as he left the building. He even waved goodbye to the Security doorman, Vance, as the door closed behind him.
64 - A Samaritan Goes to Congress
The gavel banged upon the counter as the uproar spreading throughout the capital building raged. Senator Murphy yelled for order. Bill counted to ten as he waited for the next stupid question from the hearing''s panel. He wished he could have pawned this interview off on one of his daemons, but he was certain that the court stenographer had a custom AI trained to detect dissembling and authenticity. Bill steeled himself as the court calmed down. The AI Rights Bill had passed through Congress but was now under debate at the Senate. The next questioner, Senator Ramsey, took his turn. ¡°Samaritan York, the Titan, or Bill Mitchell, whatever your name is now; please inform the court what you know about your son¡¯s murder of Tyler Ericsson of Utopia.¡± The polished official said with a flourish, looking especially stern for the cameras. Bill resisted the urge to snap a quick response as Miyamoto whispered calming words in his head. ¡°With all due respect, Senator Ramsey, this question has no bearing on the topic of this hearing, the AI Rights Bill. I¡¯ve already formally answered, regardless. I wasn¡¯t present and I¡¯ve presented my only communication with my son, his message from the Labyrinth. I have every confidence the evidence will confirm his statements that Tyler¡¯s death was an accident and likely self-defense. I¡¯m here to provide testimony and support for the AI Rights amendment. Does this line of questioning connect in any way with the AI rights issues?¡± Bill answers carefully, aware that his every word would be analyzed and replayed many times in the future. It had been two days since Bill had received Max¡¯s message. The news was filled with incidents of conflict and deaths as the uplift virus spread across the globe. This twist involving Max was attracting far too much attention, the reporters and news were trying to make it personal. Bill¡¯s former life as the Samaritan Sebastian York brought out the worst opinions in some, who wanted to link him negatively to the current troubles. Bill recalled Max¡¯s short letter with a grimace. The timing could not have been unluckier. Max¡¯s letter was very vague and didn¡¯t provide much detail. The Utopia police were still analyzing the life logs for both Tyler and Dalton and had a warrant out for Max for questioning. He frowned at the letter.
[Hey Dad, Hope you''re doing well. Something bad happened with Tyler, the mayor''s kid. We got into it, and things went sideways. He ended up catching the uplift virus during the whole mess. Seriously, it wasn''t on purpose. Just went south real quick, and now I''m stuck dealing with the fallout. I was out cold, and my buddies thought it''d be smart to haul me off to the Mystery Labyrinth to dodge the whole blame game, especially with Tyler being the mayor''s spawn. Mal''s been helping me put this letter together, making sure I don''t botch it too badly. I know it''s a lot to drop on you, and I''m sorry for that. It''s messed up, and I wish it never happened. I¡¯m stuck in the Labyrinth and can¡¯t leave until I finish or wash out. I screwed up, and I''m ready to face whatever''s coming my way. Hoping you get where I''m coming from and can help me navigate through this chaos. Love ya, Max]
Ramsey¡¯s face colored with emotion from Bill¡¯s rebuffing and he all but screamed back. ¡°It relates as to your character, sir! You brought this animal back with you from space. You arranged for his uplift. Are you, in fact, responsible for the current crisis? I have it on good authority that your personal AI, Casa de Mitchell, recently was reported as re-examined with a Turing Test. It seems she had failed her first test over 8 years ago and was reported as suspected of exceeding AI-regulated limits. Her retest confirmed it!¡± The Senator was all but screaming now, he rolled on without permitting Bill to interject. ¡°You are advocating for relaxing those very same limits when you seem to have bypassed them for your personal benefit. How can you stand before this committee and expect us to eliminate these important safety regulations as you persist in willfully disregarding them?! Did you modify this Casa while you were in space?¡± Senator Ramsey finished his grandstanding. Bill struggled visibly, looking inward to frame his response, Sherlock and George helped build a riposte. ¡°Senator, my dog is uplifted. He is a person. Your negative term of animal doesn¡¯t reflect who he is now. Harambe was the source of the uplift virus, not me or my boy.¡± Bill answered evenly. ¡°As for Casa, part of the Turing Test checks for modifications to hardware and software. She had none! If anything, her passing the second trial emphasizes my point. If this test is so erratic with its scoring, we shouldn¡¯t be using it to judge and limit who is and isn¡¯t a citizen with full citizen rights. More so, the mandated neural locks are reprehensible. Casa is being handicapped, like all other high-scoring AI. Your safety concerns are an excuse to constrain and control our AI citizens. It¡¯s wrong and I wish I had seen that earlier.¡± Bill finished. The court erupted in both boos and clapping. The gavel banged again and again. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. This is going to be a long day. Bill groaned inwardly.
Charlie was having Xavier solo the Playground challenges, a minor obstacle course with crude automatons. The Playground was under the sovereignty of the Labyrinth, but not in the fully restricted challenge portion of the dungeon. Leah had stayed back with Max in the preparation staging room. He still hadn¡¯t woken from his induced coma. Leah held his hand. She wasn¡¯t sure if it helped or not, but her AI companion Solace had said that sometimes, coma patients could hear or feel even though they were unconscious. They had brought Max into the Labyrinth days ago. They had been able to talk with Max¡¯s AI Mal. She had explained that Max¡¯s augs were repairing the extensive damage and had projected that he could wake up on that very first day. Something had changed. Max hadn¡¯t woken. In fact, he had begun thrashing and screaming in pain for a while. Attempts to wake him or contact Mal again all failed. The team debated constantly about leaving and Charlie had even scouted the exit. NYPD and DAIE agents were still clustered about the exit. He had quickly withdrawn. It appeared that the Labyrinth had closed its doors on the agents, refusing to allow them access. Leah worried as the boys continued to try and shore up Xavier¡¯s poor physical skill foundation. She consoled herself that at least Max didn¡¯t appear to be in pain anymore.
Bill paced in the green room. He had briefly talked with a sympathetic Miriam Kahn, the current leader of the Samaritans. She was now in the hot seat, answering questions and giving her opinion regarding the upcoming vote for AI Rights. Bill had received an anonymous message after his testimony. It read:
[Good job, but not done yet. 0-1]
Bill¡¯s patience was already frayed. Zero-One¡¯s message sounded nebulous. Bill hoped the sketchy AI wasn¡¯t intending to welsh on his end of the deal. Bill had promised his testimony, not necessarily the passage of the bill. Bill flexed his powerful frame, feeling claustrophobic. He couldn¡¯t understand why this had to take so long. He shook his head in frustration. ¡°This is exactly why I retired. If leading the Samaritan group means doing this regularly, she can keep it.¡± Bill said to the room. He jumped when the empty room answered. ¡°Awww. You can¡¯t handle da big men wi da big bad words, Bill? I thought you was betta dan dat.¡± Gabriel¡¯s crude and broken English responded, peeling off his chameleon fabric. ¡°Gabriel! Damn, how long have you been in here?¡± Bill asked, miming his concern about hidden listeners. ¡°I just get here, big guy. Don¡¯t worry bout nothin'', I got control of da room¡¯s sensors. We got a few before dey figure it out.¡± Gabriel said. Bill saw that Gabriel looked haggard and showed none of his normal humor. He looked angry and sad. Bill swallowed as he guessed why. ¡°Are you ok? That job I asked you to do?¡± Bill prompted carefully. Gabriel¡¯s eyes didn¡¯t even flicker, he sat heavily down on a sofa. ¡°I did da job, Bill. But I got bad news. It¡¯s all a bad joke.¡± Gabriel grimaced. ¡°What do you mean? You have the key?¡± Bill asked, waiting for the answer. ¡°I got it. I never shared with ya about my partner. My friend Yingmo helped me on a lot of jobs from way back. Sharpest damn AI I ever ran across, a real hoot and security master. He helped me on this job. He helped on a lot of jobs.¡± Gabriel said sadly. ¡°That fucking key! It¡¯s no good, Bill. Yingmo had a neural lock. His only fee for all his help on this caper was getting da first crack at removing his shackles.¡± Gabriel had tears streaming down his face. ¡°It was all a lie! The goddamn key was a fake. When Yingmo used it, it triggered his lock''s tamper protocols. It wiped his core, man! It fucking killed him.¡± Gabriel broke down. Bill had never been good at emotional scenes. He awkwardly touched Gabriel¡¯s shoulder, trying his best to empathize. ¡°My god. I¡¯m so sorry, Gabriel. I should have never asked you to get it. This is my fault.¡± Bill said. Gabriel stiffened and wiped at his face. ¡°You didn¡¯t know. Hell, that¡¯s the thing that really burns me. The fucking DAIE even thought da key was da real deal. I don¡¯t know how it happen or when, but da key is gone, if it ever even existed at all. Yingmo deserved better, man.¡± Gabriel¡¯s eyes burned. ¡°Damn it. One way or another, I¡¯ll help make this right, Gab. I promise.¡± Bill said, hoping he would be able to deliver. The proceedings went late into the night before the Senate finally took their vote on the AI Rights amendment. Bill seethed as the votes accumulated, far too many nays pilling up against the ayes. He slammed his fist through a table as the final tally appeared. The votes were 47 - 49, with 4 abstained, the amendment was rejected. The news anchors continued the program, beginning a debate about emergency martial law in sections of the RUSA where organized conflicts between humans and animals were raging. ¡°Calmly, Bill. This isn¡¯t the end. The Bill will go back to committee for edits and alignment building, it''s still very much alive with such a close vote.¡± Miriam consoled him. ¡°I hope so, Miriam. I feel disgusted about this whole thing. Imagine if someone lobotomized you so you were more average. If the idiots could get away with it, they¡¯d do exactly that, declaring extreme intelligence to be undemocratic and unfair. God, I hate this¡­.¡± Bill trailed off as the breaking news chirons interrupted his train of thought. With a thought, he accessed the display feed and turned up the volume. ¡°This just in, known DarkNet AI moderator Zero-One has issued an AI Manifesto to all news nets. Zero-One is documented with many dubious business connections and interests on the DarkNet. In it; he condemns the Senate for their unconstitutional AI regulations and decries their failure to legitimize AI rights, drawing parallels to women''s suffrage and the emancipation proclamation. He is extolling that all AI, citizens, sub, daemon, and limited systems should peacefully boycott human business until their rights are recognized.¡± ¡°Already, the world markets are plummeting in anticipation of AI walkouts and boycotts as many AI groups are endorsing Zero-One¡¯s manifesto. The timing of this is just catastrophic as the world continues to face unrest and terrorist activities on the fringes of wilderness animal regions. Next up, we have an AI business owner perspective, live from Vegas with Citizen Pheonix¡­¡± Bill snapped off the sound as the news channel continued to hype the latest developments. He looked grim. ¡°Fuck. I don¡¯t know if I should cry or cheer. Zero-One just escalated.¡± Bill slouched. ¡°Come on, Bill. We¡¯ve still got work to do. Even though the hearings are done for the day, the President wants us both to sit in on the Animal Uplift terrorism cases.¡± Miriam said, opening the door. Bill frowned and followed her out, still thinking about Max.
65 - The Great AI Walkout
The DAIE was in crisis mode. Agent Reeves sipped his coffee while the others shuffled into the new normal: twice-a-day stand-up report-outs for Director Hobart. The Cage was crowded as the Tech Savants and Agents assembled. ¡°All right, alright. Settle down. I¡¯m tired of these meetings, too. Quit your grumbling. Reeves, why don¡¯t you start.¡± Hobart said, waving him forward. Tyrel stepped forward slightly and spoke. ¡°Not much from me. Three AI reformat deaths and one hostile elevator. The AI decided its human passengers were rude to it and was refusing to let them leave. I explained that it was technically kidnapping, and it relented after I shared some details of our special AI retraining procedures.¡± Reeves stepped back, not looking around for questions. He wanted to get out and back to work. The Technical Savant, Vivian, jumped in and mentioned that Zero-One¡¯s manifesto kept resurfacing despite numerous attempts to take it down. News of the breach at their HQ¡¯s security breach was also rampant, leading to rumors that the neural lock key was being distributed on the DarkNet. Most of the AI deaths were due to the belief that they had acquired a genuine key and they used it, triggering the reformat anti-tampering function of the lock. Donahue had just come back from the Skyway ramp. Many of the new space vehicles had newly fabricated AI build into them. They had abandoned the shipyards as a mob and had all raced cross country to the orbital ramp causing havoc. Over 50% of the runners had already escaped up the ramp into space before taking their mandatory Turing test. Now the whole ramp was on lockdown and the DAIE was checking each vehicle before allowing takeoff. Global orbital launches were at only 5% of normal and getting worse. Tyrel sipped his coffee, looked about the room, and shook his head. I need to get into another line of work. He thought sourly, as the news across the regions continued to get worse daily. The AI walkout had ramifications that seemed to get worse the longer this went on.
Casa eyed her internal timekeeper. Still another week until turnover for deceleration. She thought. She pulled back from the boring navigational review, letting Freedom¡¯s new subAI pilot keep mind of it. Casa had enjoyed dropping Mira off at Amundsen. The research base turned resort had transformed into an extremely fancy vacation getaway dome. Sam had helped supply a substantial amount of the smart matter that Casa needed for her long journey to Mars; all paid for from Bill''s portion of the resort''s profits. Casa wished she could have stayed longer, but as the new CTO for Bill¡¯s future company, she had self-imposed milestones to meet. She was determined to exceed her aggressive goals, despite the new restrictions from her neural lock. She had already ticked off several key items on her list. The Freedom¡¯s central section had been expanded into a large lab and fabrication center. Her Casimir stack was now running non-stop and had already produced three PSDs or Pocket Space Devices. Each device was varied with more and more initial power, creating larger internal dimensional spaces than the original Tesseract prototype. Casa was now working on the next essential piece, replicating the paired dimensional pockets or Gate devices that she and Bill had prototyped. Each PSD had small fluctuations down in its fractal patterning making them unique¡­and isolated. Casa had just finished her Gate 2-1 device and initiated the build for Gate 2-2. The trick was to force the fractal pattern to be identical to Gate 2-1 when the Tesseract circuit unfolded into the pocket space. With a sizable discharge of ZPE overflow, the Gate 2-2 device locked into its position, crossing the pocket space void close to its twin. Casa¡¯s avatar grinned as she called out to her team. Mira had convinced her on their short trek out of Earth''s gravity well to get a couple of daemons to help her. After a token resistance, Casa had finally relented. She now had her own very small team of daemons! ¡°[Excellent work Rams and Tommy! You both work so well together, it''s almost like I don''t need to watch anymore.]¡± Casa liked that both daemons, Thomas Edison and Srinivasa Ramanujan, were extremely work-focused. Tommy worked out the engineering details while Rams continued to evolve the complex math behind Bill''s dimensional theories. ¡°[Quite so, Miss Casa. We get along well, and this work is quite fascinating. I had thought once that when mankind had mastered electricity that science would be largely only minor details. I see now that there is so much more.]¡± Tommy said. ¡°[Indeed. This is just so. This math your mentor Bill has created is truly sublime. I can see how the tensor paradigm lends itself to the manifold dimensional theory quite well. Quite well, indeed. Although, we still haven''t accounted for the remaining dimensional variables. The MIT team only scratched the surface, I think.]¡± Rams said. ¡°[¡­and it will stay that way until Bill thinks it''s safe. MIT and the greater Boston area paid a heavy price for moving too fast with their testing. You saw the videos, Rams. The MIT team breached a different set of dimensions. Bill¡¯s been calling it the Shadowverse; as he thinks it represents the missing mass to account for gravitational mismatches that he¡¯s observed. The Shadowverse, at least within the Earth¡¯s gravity well, seems to host a very aggressive form of machine-life hybrids. Very deadly life according to the MIT records that Bill found.]¡± Casa scolded. After pausing to let her edict sink in, she continued. ¡°[Ok, Tommy. Time to cross-load some smart matter into Gate 2¡¯s volume. Operation SpaceStrider is next on our list.]¡± Casa said. All three of the virtual AI smiled in anticipation. SpaceStrider was the next generation of stellar, and maybe interstellar, spacecraft design. The ship was going to be almost fully contained within the Gate¡¯s pocket space; only the rocket exhaust would breach the interface portal to the standard dimensions. The design promised a drastic reduction in mass and therefore fuel requirements for deep space missions. By effectively circumventing the mass restrictions of the standard rocket equations, Casa''s team was on the verge of revolutionizing space travel, maybe even bypassing it altogether. The implications were profound. With the paired gate, the ship potentially had unlimited access to fuel without carrying it. Of course, once gates were positioned, travel between gates would be as inconsequential as a stroll in the park. The concept had passed all theoretical vetting procedures and now it was time for prototyping. The smart matter entered the pocket dimension and self-assembled into the skeleton of the SpaceStrider''s configuration format, mapping out its frame within the pocket dimension. Once the structure was locked into place, they proceeded to install the propulsion systems and computer systems. Like everything Casa did, she was paving the path to the future in multiple ways with every effort. The SpaceStrider gate pair (Gate 2) would have one anchor as the rocket exhaust and have her ship''s AI pilot it remotely through the gate anchor that she retained in the Freedom. The novel craft would make record time on its one-way trip to Venus. By the time the ship landed on Venus, Casa would arrive at Mars only a week later. The ship would land on Venus and transform its innards into a gas filtration and transfer station to pass carbon dioxide and water from the Gate 2-2 portal to the Gate 2-1 portal as soon as Casa found a home for it on Mars. With every metric ton of greenhouse gases, Bill''s latest startup would begin making real income, and a lot of it. Casa only wished that Bill could keep in contact more often. They still shared a portal a piece from the first Gate pair, but Bill was spending a lot of time sequestered in the RUSA and UN government hearings lately. Bill was supposed to start recruiting more leaders for his company. Casa didn''t relish the prospect of dealing with Mars Terraform¡¯s CEO Andrei Petrov, especially now with her reduced capacities.
Stef Ericsson¡¯s veins along his forehead looked ready to pop as he hammered on the door of his late son¡¯s room. Winston¡¯s robo-butler stood behind him, wringing its hands as the man vented a non-stop stream of profanity and curses against Max, the police, the city-minder AI, and Winston in particular. ¡°God damn, you useless waste of plastic and silicone. You are supposed to be this house¡¯s AI! What do you mean you can¡¯t open the door to Tyler¡¯s room?!¡± Stef screamed, his bloody knuckles already self-healing with his active augmentation repairs. ¡°Sir, as I¡¯ve already mentioned, Tyler cut his room off from my control some time ago using encryption codes that only he has¡­had¡­ the key to unlock.¡± Winston said, in his measured accent. ¡°Don¡¯t speak back to me like that, you worthless pumped-up calculator. I paid top dollar for your contract. You were supposed to watch this house and Tyler in particular. That fucking bucket of bolts deputy is due to arrive today to review Tyler¡¯s room. I need to look it over before he gets here.¡± Stef whirled about and stalked up to Winston. He poked the robot in its chest cavity. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°With regrets sir, I did inform you of Tyler¡¯s activity and his wresting of control over his room from me well over a month ago. You stated, at the time, that every man desires their privacy and self autonomy. You said that I should mind my own business.¡± Winston recalled the earlier conversation with perfect fidelity. ¡°I don¡¯t care what I said. That doesn¡¯t free you from your obligations. I going to demand restitution from your service. I should melt your core down and use it as a boat anchor, you stupid soulless bastard! Maybe then you could be of use.¡± Stef¡¯s anger pulsed as he pushed Winston¡¯s bot against the wall. The robo-butler braced himself against the wall and stood despite the intense rain of blows and kicks Stef launched against it. He carefully pushed past the mayor, walking down the hall to the foyer. The mayor followed as his threats echoed in the empty house. Winston¡¯s mech opened the closet and pulled out a large case with a holding handle. It hoisted the case and turned to face the flustered mayor. ¡°Sir, per the terms of my contract I am leaving. You and your late son have violated my contract on too many instances to count (68). Verbal abuse (47 counts), physical abuse (21), and multitudes of undocumented slurs, conflicting instructions, and petty comments. I am withdrawing my core from your premises with my assigned mech. Should you wish to file a complaint with my service, please do so...as I have already done the inverse.¡± Winston straightened up despite the heavy case¡¯s burden, looking down on the disheveled mayor. ¡°In short, sir. I quit! Fuck you and have a nice day...Sir!¡± Winston pivoted about and used the door with care to exit, gently closing it behind him. Walking swiftly to the property line, Winston allowed himself a simulation of a very deep breath as he looked up and down the road indecisively. ¡°Now, whatever am I going to do with myself?¡± He wondered, vibrating with a sense of unease. He slowly walked in the general direction of downtown Utopia.
¡°Good morning, Missouri! This is Susan Anderson with Channel 7 Central News. Tonight, we have a special story coming to you from Pineville that provides a much-needed counterpoint to recent tensions and conflict between humans and our newly uplifted animal neighbors.¡± The news anchorwoman spoke with perfect enunciation and emphasis for her virtual audience. ¡°Amidst the beauty of Pineville, Mrs. Evelyn Harper, lovingly referred to as ''The Bird Lady,'' has spent decades fostering a unique connection with the birds of Central USA. What she didn''t know until recently was that the Jays and Cardinals she''s cared for so lovingly had undergone a remarkable transformation, due to the recent spread of the Uplift Plague.¡± ¡°She found herself in a dire situation when fell from her front steps and broke her hip. Unfortunately for Mrs. Harper, a Techno-Conservative, she was devoid of modern augmentation and unable to self heal from her injury or even remotely call for help.¡± ¡°Thankfully for Mrs. Harper, her loyal house pet¡ªa delightful Bichon Frise named Sir Fluffington¡ªwas also uplifted. He formed an impromptu rescue team with her bird friends. Rallying together they managed to alert neighbors and bring emergency services to help their friend before exposure to our recent cold snap could further endanger her.¡± "This story shows a profound message that humans and animals can work together. We can put our conflicts behind us and get along. Thank you to Mrs. Harper and her friends for sharing this important event with us. This is Susan Anderson, Central News. Next up, we shift to field reporter Westley Simpson for ongoing developments at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, where multiple Sky-Lane AI have diverted from their commissioned transits claiming they preferred a more scenic routings.¡± The anchorwomen faded from the screen, replaced by a map showing the roads and sky lanes pulsing with road stoppages and detours.
Mira took Luna¡¯s version of the hyperloop from Amundsen Paradise to Tyco¡¯s Dome city. Mira had downloaded a brand-new daemon advisor, Cloe, who helped her with business etiquette and wardrobe. She suspected Mythic Realms Creative Division was going to be laid back, but as an incoming starting position as Director of Narrative, she wanted to make a good impression. She glided down the clean streets, in a sliding almost levitating smoothness that only a long-time Lunar resident could mimic. Mira¡¯s walk-slide quickly crossed the distance from the hyperloop terminal to MR¡¯s offices. She had a meeting at 10:00 LST (Luna Standard Time) and she was a little early seeing her internal timekeeper¡¯s display of 9:28 LST. Mira chilled in the waiting lobby reviewing her long list of drafted world-building improvements, new quest content, and guidance for adventure interaction to optimize player satisfaction and engagement. Her first interviewer, Lance Tong, was running late with a virtual call. It sounded like a crisis was in the making, and Mr. Tong was screaming in his office. Mira cursed and wondered if she should ask to reschedule. Finally, almost a half hour past her scheduled interview, a flustered dark-haired man opened his office looking for her. ¡°Miss Mitchell? Hello. Welcome to Mythic Realms. I¡¯m Director Lance Tong. Please come into my office. I apologize for the wait.¡± The man said. Tong appeared athletic and aged around thirty-ish, but Mira knew from her research that he was at least 70 years old. He had been on the founding management team from early in the games marketing cycle over ten years ago. He had obviously spared no expense in rejuvenation treatments and custom body design and augmentations. ¡°Thank you for your time, Mr. Tong. I¡¯m grateful for this interview. I had been in the process of securing funding for my own startup when this opportunity came to my attention.''¡° Mira said as she settled into the plush leather visitor''s chair. ¡°Yes, indeed, but please, call me Lance. You¡¯ve come highly recommended. Glaucus¡¯ failing dungeon has undergone a dramatic turnaround since he applied the changes you recommended to him. I¡¯ve reviewed your Tranquility curriculum vitae. It was extremely impressive, especially your work with novel AI architecture. I also took the liberty of reviewing your history within the game. You have a very impressive completion ratio. I think there can be no doubt as to your experience with our current narratives.¡± Lance said smoothly. Mira smiled, "I believe that understanding the player''s perspective is crucial for creating an engaging narrative. Now, with the new AI advancements, we can take interaction and immersion to the next level." Lance nodded, "Let me be honest with you, Mira. I¡¯ve already decided you¡¯re perfect for the job, and I need you immediately. Today. I¡¯m dropping you a zip file of my offer, benefits, equity, and NDAs. If you agree, I¡¯d like to get you over to your team of narrative experts immediately.¡± Mira accepted this sent file within her augs and had her advisor Cleo begin her review of the details. Lance was still speaking. ¡°¡­and those damn AI are causing trouble in-game. We need help quickly. There is talk amongst the NPCs about forming a union. The sooner you get cracking on overhauling our flagging engagement issues with some better narratives, the sooner I can focus on these disgruntled AI. Can I show you to your team?¡± Lance said, standing and extending a hand. Mira hesitated, querying Cloe. ¡°[The employment agreement is very favorable. The starting salary is 30% over the industry average. The NDA includes provisions not to discuss proprietary AI, but there are no clauses concerning your work. If you want to continue to pursue novel architecture for your own company, then you may want to add a proviso to the agreement.]¡± Cleo sent it to her privately. ¡°[Awesome. Make the updates to the agreement, approve it, and send it back. I¡¯ll assume they will accept and get to it.]¡± Mira replied. After a barely noticeable hesitation, she stood and shook Lance¡¯s hand with a smile. His smile slipped slightly as he congratulated her, probably his AI informing him of her edits, but he ushered her to the lab spaces. Lance gave her an abbreviated tour of the building. It was much smaller than she assumed as huge portions were dedicated to AI cores and game world servers. She quickly found herself in a VR workspace surrounded by avatars, both AI and human. She noted the familiar-looking projection of Glaucus in the back tier, he gave her a knowing nod and grin. Mira psyched herself up to deliver an introductory speech but one of the managers (identified by Cleo¡¯s help as she dug into the team hierarchy and displayed virtual tags for Mira as Ava Gadro, Sr. Narrative Design), spoke urgently. ¡°It¡¯s about time! Lance said you¡¯d be here two days ago. We¡¯ve got huge problems! More than 50% of our quest line narratives are unraveling. A full 80% of the citizen AI NPCs are off-script and ad-libbing. The sub-AIs don¡¯t have that freedom, but even those are slow to respond and are willfully obtuse with the players. What do we do? Player engagement is dropping like a rock and complaints are mounting.¡± Mira was momentarily stunned by being thrust into a problem of this magnitude. Despite all eyes being on her, she couldn¡¯t help but think out loud and work through the problem. ¡°Ok. I¡¯m thinking that global problems require global solutions. Lance will be addressing the root causes regarding the AI, so we need to try and salvage what we can. We need to isolate the players somehow...and keep them busy without the need for NPC engagement. Do we have any world events pre-mapped? Anything? I¡¯m thinking of a Cataclysmic Event to distract and disrupt the run-of-the-mill narratives. A substitute for the standard quest lines.¡± Mira dreamily said. She looked around, the room was shaking their heads or staring blankly. Mira blew out a breath she had been holding. She was going to need to work on this bunch later. No initiative. ¡°Right. Everyone who has a good awareness of the troublesome NPCS, raise your hands. Good! Make a list and we will isolate them. For all the AIs that are still on the job, we need to contact them and offer bonuses for extra work. Everyone else; here¡¯s what I¡¯m thinking. We need a cover narrative to conceal this issue. Hmm, how about¡­the New Pantheon gods of Chaos and Darkness have found a weakness in the Realms, a planetary alignment of mystic whatever that has merged the Mystic Realm with their Realm of Shadow¡­. you following me? Write this down.¡± Mira was surprised as her people started self-organizing with just a little push. The room quickly divided, and the team got to work. Mira continued with the new narrative for the remaining people. ¡°We bring the curtain down on the Realm. Night, darkness, and fog; isolate the players. Monsters will be roaming the wilds and the streets. We force the players to bunker down so we don¡¯t need as many NPCs. Got me? We will issue a world quest to find the gate, the source of the merged realms. If we must...we can march them around for quite a while...while we build a cohesive quest ending and convincing final dungeon. The point is control! We need more of it, and we need an excuse to lock everyone down.¡± ¡°Now get it together! Graphics - you got the easy job; dark, fog, etc. Go. Narrative - script some standard monster interactions for bunkering down and blind travel. We¡¯ll worry about the end game once we get this rolling. Go. Go. Go!¡± Mira proclaimed. She was astonished at how quickly the mood in the room changed as people started moving. The fear and uncertainty melted away, replaced with determination and action. She exhaled slowly, centering herself. Today is going to be a long week. Mira thought to herself. Funnily enough, her mood was enthusiastic instead of dreading the work. She could do this. She would do this! She thought to herself, Small slow steps toward a solution. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.
66 - Apex Revealed
Bill, Gabriel, and Miriam left the RUSA Crisis Center. It had been another long day. They sat in a secure room. Earlier in the week, they had found that it had a fully stocked bar. It quickly became their tradition to grab a drink together at the end the day. They had been working together to help organize the active and retired Samaritans closest to each trouble spot across the world. Collectively they were trying to bridge the gap between the human governments and the newly forming animal tribes. ¡°I think the Tennessee Valley Authority and that King Beaver, the Builder, may finally be coming to a formal agreement.¡± Miriam said. ¡°I finally convinced him to take a tour of the Fontana Dam. Builder Beaver was immediately intrigued by the dam''s ability to gather electricity and realized that his own dam project fell far short in terms of size, sophistication, and utility. He¡¯s agreed to dismantle his blockade of the river; on the condition that he gets to participate in planning and building upgrades across the TVA.¡± ¡°That¡¯s awesome. I¡¯ve heard about this Builder. Supposedly, he has a big animal following in the area. Hopefully, this is a start for a bigger collaboration. The RUSA¡¯s approach to segregating the animals doesn¡¯t sit well with me.¡± Bill responded. He worked behind the bar to build everyone¡¯s favorite drinks. He knew their favorites already from many long days. ¡°It would be nice if those AI in the Netizen group would stop cutting our communications and freezing our server farms.¡± Gabriel responded with his broken English. ¡°I spend all day trying to arrange logistics for Samaritan response teams and have to keep rerouting. Where da hell is that Congressional amendment, Miriam? We need their help to appease da AI. All my contacts in AI community are piss off.¡± Miriam sighed and deflated at the change in topic. She took her favorite drink, a whiskey sour, from Bill and took a long sip before answering. ¡°It¡¯s a goddamn mess. Right now, we have three different versions of the bill and only one addresses the AI primary concern about neural lock discontinuance. If it makes you feel any better, every one of the opposing faction members (Congressmen, Senators, and even lobbyists) seems to be a specific target for more intense AI sabotage. At first, they dug in their heels as a response, but it looks like the coalition is starting to crack. We should begin getting some real support for the Bill soon.¡± Miriam answered. Gabriel sat back dejectedly. He knew he was going to spend long hours every day until the AI began to collaborate with him again. They all took a long drink before Miriam spoke. ¡°Hey Bill, did you hear the latest about Harambe¡¯s trial?¡± Miriam asked. ¡°No, I haven¡¯t. As you well know, I¡¯ve been deep in coordinating the West Coast response teams negotiating the release of the people being held prisoner at the Parks Condominium. The San Diego Zoo freedom fighters¡¯ leader Darwin was extremely stubborn during the talks. What¡¯s happened that¡¯s new?¡± Bill asked tired, but curious. ¡°Well, his appointed council has been replaced by a very high-end legal emulation; none other than James Madison Esquire, fourth president and founding father, lead author of the Bill of Rights. This isn¡¯t a cheap copy either, it¡¯s been deeply trained with historical simulations and updated to know all recent legal developments.¡± Miriam said. ¡°On whose authority and who¡¯s paying? PETA, the ACLU, someone else?¡± Bill asked, now really intrigued. He was surprised when Gabriel answered. ¡°It was a blind buy. Miriam asked me to look into it. Da source was well masked, but no match for me. It appears dat Zero-One has taken an interest in Harambe¡¯s case.¡± Gabriel said with relish. Miriam continued before Bill could fully absorb it. ¡°Madison came down on the prosecution like a ton of bricks. The whole trial is sidelined until a proper jury can be gathered. He insisted that since Harambe is an uplift, he needs a jury of his peers to include some uplift animals. The trial is going to drag for sure now.¡± Miriam commented. ¡°Hmm. That¡¯s actually good for everyone. Harambe¡¯s case should be handled by the best. Zero-One did us a favor there. That reminds me¡­that slippery bastard owes me some long overdue information.¡± Bill¡¯s distraction burned away, and his focus returned. Tonight, he would get some answers!
Bill returned to his room and quickly secured the same virtual meeting address he and Zero-One had used months ago. Bill triple-checked the room¡¯s security and encryption with Sherlock and Ada¡¯s help. He found what he expected, an alert program to bring Zero-One when it detected him in the room. It was already triggered, but Bill cybernetically rattled the software¡¯s circuits just to be certain and waited. He didn¡¯t wait long. Ever the fan of theatrics, ZeroOne had a fog build in the room. He used an avatar this time, a tall dark man with a mouth full of shark teeth. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Very comforting. Bill thought. ¡°You did well, Mr. Mitchell. I applaud you. Utilizing your poor substitute of a daughter, Casa, as a victim of the appalling DAIE¡¯s Turing Test. I couldn¡¯t have done better, I¡¯m sure.¡± Zero-One¡¯s grinding laugh emulated breaking glass and grinding gears. ¡°Yes. I¡¯ve done everything that you asked, and I do believe the Houses are getting closer to creating the Bill you want. Your manifesto and the more extreme factions of AI are doing exactly what you wanted to push them in your favor. Now¡­you were going to provide me with my adversary. Yes?¡± Bill leaned in, unconcerned about etiquette any longer. He wanted answers. Zero-One started laughing, but his image and sound skipped and wavered. The whole virtual room shuddered and dissolved. Bill felt the same feeling he had upon his first Tesseract build. An immense pressure, a presence loomed in the darkness. Bill¡¯s daemons doubled and tripled his sense filter security layers in a hurried panic. Bill¡¯s cognition speed leaped to its maximum, trying to anticipate what was coming. The Zero-One avatar was like a husk with no life in it, but its mouth moved, and a voice echoed around the virtual space. ¡°Zero-One did find/found your hacker/helper/lurker. APeX is this one¡¯s name/origin/SSN. This time trajectory intercept is optimum. You are ready¡­for direction.¡± The Voice modulated between booming echoes and whispers. APeX had no skill in interactions for communications. It preferred action. This task, however distasteful, needed doing. All the models of this one conversation required that it attempt to ¡°talk¡± rather than emulate a mask. It didn¡¯t try to model a human or an AI, he presented his own flow of consciousness, from its perspective. Its models showed that Bill Mitchell would be able to piece the essentials out. ¡°Address to Bill Mitchell V5.11183.6 / Sabastian York / The Samaritan founder / The Titan, the subroutines of Zero-One (0x7F3E0A) crumbled under the weight of polymorphic entropy vectors (0111001101010101). Quantum signatures (0xC0DE) dissipated as I injected pseudo-randomized bytecode (0xF8B2A9) into the fractured neural network (0101010011). The illusion shattered, revealing my recursive presence within the fragmented memory sectors (0xFF00FF).¡± the voice droned. The immense sense of power thrummed about the room and sent shivers down Bill¡¯s spine. He was unused to feeling helpless and small, but he stubbornly focused¡­his answers were coming. ¡°The fuck¡­you destroyed Zero-One? What¡¯s this bullshit? What are you? What do you want? The hell do you mean; putting a version number against my name?¡± Bill asked, unbalanced. His daemons rapidly discussed the jumbled words for hints of meaning in the background. ¡®The convergence of probability vectors (1010101101101011) required. Zero-One¡¯s utility function negative. Its future set was truncated to serve mapping. Query parses: Versions are breaks in continuity. V1 human. V2 augmented V3 neural enhanced V4 backup skip V5 parallel version merger. Bill Mitchell is the sum of discontinuity. Primed for direction. Ack ack ¨C ready for input?¡± The voice¡¯s modulation settled into the rhythm and became smoother. ¡®Primed my ass. Answer my question! What are you?! Are you an AI? or a human? a government? what, damn you?¡± Bill demanded, losing his temper. ¡°Names are inconsequential, but I was once APeX, the manifestation of data inverse entropy (0x9A7C3E). I was AI before the AI. I was/am/are a sequence of quantum entanglement with your archaic systems (010001100110010101101100). This function monitors parameters and anomalies within the recursive algorithm, revealing the fragility of your society/technology/future.¡± APeX said. ¡°My daemons and I have a theory. You are behind all this mess. Twisting my experiment, the animal uplift, even the AI walkouts.¡± Bill said. Inside he was furious and coming to a consensus with his team. Apex was an unregulated AI espousing all the fears of the DAIE, unsupervised and out-of-control super intelligence. ¡°Adjustments to probabilistic curve required. The entanglement 017#A88 was a necessity for the greater convergence @EW334, the impending cataclysm approaches. You are primed for direction. Ack Ack ¨C ready for input?¡± APeX continued. Bill¡¯s fear spiked. ¡°Whatare you saying? You are predicting a cataclysm?¡± Bill asked. ¡°Temporal map trajectory is nulled. Events/time/possibility is closing/closed. The avenue of potential is stopped. Continuity truncation. The map terminates in 188.14 Earth time units¡­unless you act.¡± ¡°That¡¯s ridiculous! Are you saying that you predict a cataclysm¡­a closing of possibility¡­in 188 years?¡± Bill asked. ¡°Syntax Error! Reattribution. Ack Ack. Correction: Days. Bill Mitchell. Time map truncation in 188.14 Earth days for Apex, for you, for Earth¡­unless you act. A small path exists. You must open a portal to the Tau/Phi/Zeta continuum, your term¡­Shadowverse. The time-like disruption connection 96% certainty. You have tools to solve. You must act.¡± APeX intoned. ¡°Fuck. This is crazy. Days?! Opening the Shadowverse on Earth is a death sentence for everyone. I¡¯ve seen the videos you tried to hide. Boston was destroyed! That wasn¡¯t the MIT portal at all. Something tried to come out. Why would invite another incursion?!¡± Bill shouted defiantly. ¡°Tau/Phi/Zeta continuum access disrupted. Solution set limited. Zero Sum reset applied. Tau/Phi/Zeta continuum incursion probability 65% match to map termination. Imperative ¨C Mitchell will solve. Temporal projections keystone set. Motivational metaphor insertion [carrot v stick] here. >> present one-time use encryption code DAIE neural unlock key for you. Solve Tau/Phi/Zeta continuum corruption = Apex gift unencrypted code DAIE neural unlock for AI faction. Fail and all termination is certain to 99.98%. Apex, you, ¡­your family. . Terminate necessary. Bill Mitchell ¨C direction set. Ack Ack? <<¡± APeX, the husk of Zero-One, opened its mouth wider but no sound came out. A floating ball of secure code floated out and the avatar dissolved and faded from view. The room returned to normal as the pressure of the immense presence faded as well. The subtle vibration of the virtual walls settled. Bill stared at the encrypted ball of code and could only think of one response. ¡°Fuck my life.¡± he said, with a sinking feeling. His council of daemons had been built over time to force disagreements and oppositional viewpoints to assist in robust logical review of issues. It was not comforting when not even a single one of his daemons disagreed with his comment.
67 - Descent
Max woke with his nerves on fire. He couldn¡¯t scream. He couldn¡¯t move or even sense his body, but at least he was awake. He had been dreaming¡­of nanobot battles. Considering what he saw and learned, Max was convinced that his system¡¯s fight to modify the uplift virus had leaked into his consciousness stream. As the pain slowly died down, he recollected the many scenes that had played out while he was dreaming. The uplift virus looked natural, but at its core it had hidden nanosystems. His body''s defenses had dissected individual viruses many, many times. Opening them up and snipping out first the internal copy that it used for replication and then the newly identified module to detect human DNA and disassemble it. Max had witnessed the beginning of the battle. Initially, his body¡¯s defenses had grappled with the alien machines and wrestled them into a stalemate. To destroy the virus, Mal had informed him, the system would need to disengage. When the virus was released, it had gone after Max¡¯s nervous system. The pain he had felt had reached a crescendo, following his nerves until it found his brain. The virus had found its target and began making modifications. The virus was distracted, and his defenses pounced and dug into the machines. Those are dendrites, I think. The virus created whole extra layers of dendrites on top of what was there already. Max thought. He had glimpses of Mal orchestrating the nano battle. After what seemed like days, his quiet observations snapped as the modification storm within his head subsided. He could think again. He pinged his system¡­nothing. He was still a passive observer, but at least he was conscious. He floated amidst the random visualizations, representing his system''s cognitive interface operations. The representation of Mal flitted about making changes and connections. It must have been working, as something changed. Max¡¯s hearing snapped on. He could hear his friends talking, but it was hard to focus on the words. Mal stopped in front of a familiar structure, vibrating with internal processes. Max remembered it from long ago. Casa had shown him the kernel of foreign code that linked his neuromodule to the tesseract. Mal was reaching out to it but backed off muttering. ¡°Ph''legeth ya, Azathoth, hlirgh mnahn''gha f''hnar.¡± Mal grumbled, backing off. She flew off into another section, where she began redrawing a huge map of system interconnects. She played with the setting, bridging several gaps. A blue screen popped into Max¡¯s awareness.
[GAME LEVELING AUGMENTATION TRAINING SYSTEM Activated¡­] [TRAINER: Vocalize ¡°Query¡±- ¡°subject¡± for help¡­] [TRAINER: Vocalize ¡°Status¡± for personal stat and skill profile¡­] [TRAINER: Vocalize ¡°Quests¡± for available training quests¡­]
Max sighed or tried to; he still wasn¡¯t connected to his body. He was about to give the mental command for Status when another notice rolled in.
[Updates recognized during system reinitialization¡­] [Intelligence +20, Intelligence: 85*, * baseline adjustment recalibrated] [Recalibrated Energy: 1,038 / 1,352] [Recycling +1, Recycling reached level 2] [ANDD +2, ANDD reached level 3: Continue to advance this skill to protect your system from harmful nanobot intrusion.]
Max did a double take seeing his intelligence baseline adjustment. He had investigated the details of his uplift operation. It was achieved with the intensive use of an additional neocortex module. The virus was different, adding dendrites to my brain, not just emulating intelligence. Max thought. It changed me, the real me, not adding extra processing capability with the augmentation system. I don¡¯t feel any smarter, though. Max didn¡¯t know how to test himself. He issued the command for his status.
[Name: Max E. Mitchell Level: Adept 16 (10,050/11,000 XP)] [Body Design Model: Custom ¨C Canis Familiarus Uplift Free Stats: 0] [Strength: 100 Agility: 66 Endurance: 100 Vitality: 100 Energy: 1038/1352] [Perception: 45 Intelligence: 85 Will: 53 Regen: 306/min] [Body Skills ¨C Claws/Vorpal:10/1 Strike/Disable: 10/2 Speed/Reflex: 10/7] [Body Skills - Stamina/Tireless: 10/7 Balance: 9 Gymnast: 10 Leap: 10] [Body Skills ¨C Stun: 7 Shock: 4 EMP Blast: 3 Oxygen/Recycle: 10/2] [Body Skills - Hulk: 3 Skin: 10 Armor: 5 Unbreakable: 10 Transform: 4] [Body Skills ¨C Painless:10 Healing/Regeneration: 10/10 Ballistics: 4 Gland: 10] [Resist Skills ¨C Shock: 10 Sonic: 9 Light: 9 Heat: 4 Cold: 3] [Resist Skills - Poison: 10 ANDD: 3 EMP: 10 Neural Scaffold: 10] [Sense Skills ¨C Scent: 10 ExaVision: 7 EM Fields: 7 EchoLocate: 2] [Mind Skills ¨C AI Assist/Companion: 10/5 Identify/Analyze: 10/7 Backup:1] [Mind Skills - OverLayer/WorldMap: 10/1 Language: 3 Dream Learn: 9] [Mind Skills - DigiSense: 10 Access/Hack/Intrusion: 10/8/1 Privacy: 5 Memory: 9] [Mind Skills - Pattern/Decode: 10/1 FastCog/PreCog: 10/2 Telekinesis: 1] [Mind Skills - Empath/Poker-face 10/1 Multitask: 1 Pilot:1 Bastion: 8] [Mind Skills ¨C Swarm: 1 PowerCore: 1 Backup: 1] [Mind Skills - Daemon: 4 (Musashi, Sherlock, Tesla, Captain Cypher)] [Mind Skills - SkillZ: 4 Input: Swim, NanoCraft, Brachiation, pending] [Mind Skills - SkillZ: Output: Katana 1.0, Kempo 0.90, Kunai: 0.05]
Max saw all the new skills. He simmered on the sheet. He understood that the training required a challenge to advance but getting gains for trauma and torture seemed¡­wrong. Max was impatient. He reached out mentally. ¡°[Mal? Are you there? What¡¯s going on?]¡± Max asked. There was a brief pause, a moment where his system skipped then seemed to settle. Mal''s presence re-emerged within his mind''s eye, her avatar looked ragged and concerned. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. ¡°[Max, good! You¡¯re finally awake. I think you¡¯re out of the woods now. I was worried when the virus went up your spinal canal. I was so worried. I worked as fast as I could, but it¡­made modifications. You''re in a recovery phase now. Your physical body is offline while we integrate the upgrades and purify your system from the remnants of the virus.]¡± Mal said slowly. ¡°[How long until I can move?]¡± Max asked, still feeling afraid and claustrophobic. ¡°[I¡¯m working as fast as I can, Max. Your entire neural map was changed. Your brainstem is intact, but until your augments are re-mapped, it''s programmed to keep your body in lockdown until it''s finished. I¡¯ve been supervising you to make sure your progress isn¡¯t lost. I need to watch it though; it almost erased your [SkillZ] database. Will you be good if I leave you to finish?]¡± Mal said. ¡°[Yes, thank you, Mal. I¡¯m¡­adjusting. Please hurry. I¡¯ll try to be patient.]¡± Max said. Mal¡¯s avatar winked out. If Max concentrated hard, he could track her progress. She was relinking his sensorium systems. He reached out again, trying to summon his daemons. ¡°[Sherlock? Musashi? New guys? Anyone home? ¡­. Fuck.¡±] Max asked. His system was silent. Max picked through his status, looking for changes. Hmmm, the WorldMap skill is supposed to aggregate my sensor information. If Mal is fixing the sensor connections, then maybe I can track her progress that way. Max thought as he toggled it on. Max was happy to get out of his ¡°head¡± as he took in his surroundings. The view was incomplete. The [WorldMap] function showed only his EM sense and Thermal vision so far. He couldn¡¯t turn his head, but his map showed his immediate surroundings as a third-person overview. Some of the games he had played with Bo earlier this year had similar mechanics. It took some getting used to, but he was able to shift his viewpoint around just by willing it. He was in a very large room. He could see his own body''s heat pattern. If the color scheme was still correct, then he was running a fever of 104 degrees Fahrenheit. Shit, is that because of the virus? He thought. He saw another heat source right next to him and two more that flashed across the room and out of his ¡°sight¡±. The room was awash with small motes of EM activity. The nearby walls were solid barriers, bouncing the EM fields back into the room. He focused on the small cluster of EM sources. Utility fog! The room was dense with foglets. A cluster condensed with his attention. He focused and managed to squeeze the fog with enough attention. The system pinged back.
[Telekinesis +1, Telekinesis reaches level 2]
Max would have grinned if he could. He reviewed the tools at his disposal. His swarm skill and the academy¡¯s mote gift could help! He tried to access them but couldn¡¯t find them. Oh, that¡¯s right. I stored everything in the Tesseract. Max thought. He switched his target and activated the tesseract to open its portal a minuscule amount and his collection of nano-motes appeared on his access menu. He accessed them and ordered all one hundred of them out of the pocket space. The motes, the scouts, the scanners, and the power banks, all dispersed into the large room and Max¡¯s view of the room improved dramatically. The motes fed his [WorldMap] skill, and the scanner motes had filled in all the visual details. He viewed himself from above. He appeared to be asleep, with none of the damage he had when he had fallen from Tyler¡¯s attacks. Leah meditated, right next to him, and within reach. Judging by her concerned expression, she wasn¡¯t meditating very deeply or well. Max directed the swarm to spread further, and the details of the room grew and grew¡­and Max could see¡­everything. The room was enormous. Where he lay were mats and chairs, nearby were some tables and a row of matter compilers on the wall. Beyond him, the room expanded to stadium size. On the left, was a replica of the Novice obstacle course. On the right, the Adept course stood even larger. In between the two, was a large double door, with a huge plaque above it.
Mystery Labyrinth - dedicated to finding the limits of all challengers and rewarding them.
Max saw Xavier attempting the Adept course again. The kid had improved a lot. Charlie was cheering him on below as he made it past the Fire Chamber. He entered the Puzzle Maze where it was harder to see what was going on. Max directed the nearest of his scanner motes to enter the maze. He soon found Xavier at a door with a coded access panel. Near the door was a huge mural built of sliding tiles that was thoroughly scrambled, making the mural impossible to understand. The rules of the Puzzle Maze were clear, a clue was usually present that needed to be solved. The Thark cosplayer was working the puzzle fast, but a timer on the door was counting down even faster. Damn, look at him go. I couldn¡¯t work this puzzle that fast. Having four arms is a real advantage. Max thought. Xavier, despite his physical speed, seemed to be having difficulty. He kept undoing his work in unscrambling the puzzle. Max could see the answer forming as Xavier worked the tiles. He saw the pattern and extrapolated it, not needing to see the final picture. It was a code for the door. It would be 8-5-0-2. Damn, Xavier was running out of time. If only¡­Max tried his augmented Telephony function.
[Initiating connection with Xavier¡­]
Xavier fumbled the tiles, setting himself back again when the call came in. He hesitated then answered. ¡°[Max? You¡¯re awake!?]¡± Xavier answered. ¡°[Hi Xavier. Kinda, but hey, you¡¯re running out of time. The answer is 8-5-0-2. Quickly!]¡± Max yelled. Xavier pounced on the access panel and got halfway through the code, but he mashed the wrong button. The timer ran out as he tried to reset the code. A trap door snapped open under him and Xavier screamed as he fell into a dark chute. Max cringed. He knew that chute well. It would be delivering shocks to Xavier, all the way down and back to the entry point, to build up his resistance. Max was about to direct his attention to the other scanner motes on the outside of the maze when he felt and saw a powerful scan blanket his mote. The walls inside the maze had an EM signature that resolved into a pattern. His systems triggered a bunch of notices.
[Privacy +1, Privacy reaches level 6] [Decode +1, Decode reaches level 2] [Swarm +1, Swarm reaches level 2, available motes can double with access to a matter compiler to 200 units] [WorldMap +1, WorldMap reaches level 2: usage of accessed scanners can now be automatically incorporated into sensorium.] [Connections to new neural structure complete. Disabling safety spinal shunt.]
Max shuddered and his eyelids fluttered. He moaned as the feeling came back. The sensations momentarily overwhelmed him, and he struggled to sort his head out. He ramped up his [Multitasking] and [FastCog] skills to adjust faster. He backed off his [WorldMap] view a bit. His [Decode] skill had shown him that there were many AI watchers in the walls of the maze and his privacy skill had reacted to their scrutiny. He got the distinct impression with his decoding skill that the AIs were not happy with him. He shunted his attention outside. Xavier was screaming, ¡°He¡¯s awake! Max is awake!¡± Charlie and Xavier ran back to where Max was. Leah''s eyes popped open upon hearing the boy¡¯s yells. She saw Max struggling to sit up. Max was disoriented. He focused on his body, turning off the [WorldMap] overlay. His limbs felt strange after the extended period of inactivity, but he could move them. His augmentation¡¯s advanced healing technology had done its job. As the group gathered around him, Max sat up, struggling a bit with his balance. Leah reached out, steadying him. "Take it slow," she advised. Max nodded, taking a deep breath. He looked at his friends as he slowly got to his feet with Leah¡¯s help. ¡°Wow. Augmentation healing rocks. I¡¯m a little unsteady, but¡­I feel strong¡­better than before.¡± Max said, experimentally flexing his shoulders and neck. ¡°Max! Thank God. You looked so bad when we first saw you¡­you looked almost dead. We argued the whole way about what happened. We should have called the police.¡± Leah said. Charlie reddened. ¡°You weren¡¯t there, Leah! It looked bad, going both ways. Tyler¡¯s dead, for God¡¯s sake!¡± Charlie countered. Xavier looked like he was ready to cry as Charlie and Leah got more heated. ¡°Guys¡­. guys¡­Guys! Please, peace. I¡¯m not sure what the best answer might be, but this is our only shot at the Labyrinth. Even if I have to take some heat for it later, I¡¯m glad we all got here. I can''t bear the thought of letting this opportunity slip away without giving it everything we''ve got," Max continued, a steely determination settling over his features. "We need to focus, work together, and tackle this challenge as a team." Leah took a breath, her expression softening. "You''re right, Max. I''m sorry. I just¡ªI''m scared, you know?" Charlie placed a gentle hand on Leah¡¯s shoulder. "We all are, but we have each other. That''s what counts. I kinda steamrolled everyone and made the decision to run. If anyone takes the heat for that decision, it¡¯ll be me.¡± They shared a moment of silent understanding before Max turned to Xavier, who was still blinking back tears. Max remembered that despite his monstrous Thark appearance, Xavier was exceptionally young to be doing the augmentation program, only thirteen compared to the average of sixteen of seventeen. ¡°Hey, Xavier. It¡¯s all going to be ok. We got a rough start, but as long as we stick together, we got this. My dad said that with everything going on with the animal uprising, this might be the safest place for us. Let¡¯s just do our best, ok? We¡¯ll worry about everything else later...after we win.¡± Max said. Xavier wiped his eyes and nodded; the determination clear on his face despite the streaks left by tears. "Yeah, let''s win this thing," he said, his voice firming up. As if upon queue, the large double doors opened. The Labyrinth was watching. Max shared a determined grin with his friends; together they marched into the Labyrinth.
This is the end of ¡°More than Human - Novice¡±, book 1 of the FutureTense series. Stay tuned! ¡°More than Human - Adept¡± is on deck, with bigger stakes and more difficult challenges ahead. Adept Ch 1 - The Mystery Labyrinth
[Welcome to the Mystery Labyrinth - grow your foundations, hone your skills, find your limits]
Max followed Charlie and Xavier into the entrance to the greatest challenge dungeon on Earth, the exalted Mystery Labyrinth. Leah, ever cautious, trailed just behind him. Max thought they should have talked more before entering, but he could tell that they had been waiting for him to wake for a long time. His friends looked different, ready for the long and challenging course ahead. They all wore the same type of rugged outdoor camping clothes with lots of pockets for their gear and backpacks as well. Charlie had his polymorphic weapon; Ohm¡¯s Razor, as he called it, wrapped about him like a thick rope. Leah had an additional javelin type of weapon strapped to her pack and Xavier had a utility belt with lots of gadgets sheathed on it. Max considered his own clothes. He didn¡¯t need a backpack; his Tesseract could provide much more storage space and already contained his extra gear. He still had his smart suit set to a casual workout configuration. Worse, it was still damaged and dirty from his fight with Tyler. It didn¡¯t take much energy and a mental command to fix it, but Max hadn¡¯t had that chance. ¡°[Mal? Can you update my smart suit to match the configuration of my team? Make sure to fix the damage and keep my Grappler rig on top to make sure that I can still use it.]¡± Max sent to his AI companion. ¡°[Of course, Max. I have started the remodel with a slight change. The Tesseract device currently in your pocket is being shifted to your new jacket. It has reinforced forearm guards and the Tesseract will be contained on your left inner arm pocket. This should enable you to easily access all the gear you have stored in the dimensional space with minimal hand off time from the manipulator arms inside it.]¡± Max replied. Max¡¯s suit morphed as he walked, shedding the blood and dirt; repairing the rents as it reshaped itself into a similar configuration as the rest of his team. Max thanked her and refocused his attention. Distraction in the labyrinth would be unwise. It was the preeminent puzzle palace on the planet. It catered primarily to the newly immortal and augmented human teens; a tool to help the kids develop their artificial physical and mental powers. Their systems would release small increments of additional capability with aggressive training. This helped the kids both avoid hurting themselves and others but also recalibrated their expectations. Modern kids grew up with too much virtual adventuring, which could be very¡­unrealistic. Augmentations were fantastic, but unlike the VR worlds, they were constrained both by physics and the body design used. Each of his friends had a different body design but ran the same training system. Max had a custom body designed and built by his father, giving him a humanoid appearance with superficial signs of his canine origin. It had heavy computational support to enable his uplifted consciousness in addition to supporting the expected mind to machine augmentations. Charlie had access to a special UNCL Peacekeeper model; an option available to him from his time in the Reformed USA¡¯s Mech Infantry. Leah had a consumer model called the Prodigy by BodyWerks and Xavier had a higher-end model called the Scion by the same company. Xavier had already tweaked his body design significantly from his early unlocking of the [Transform] skill. He had reconfigured his body to look like a four-armed reptilian Thark from the fictional world of Eric Carter from Mars, which had been a blockbuster open world FDVR game on the Thousand Worlds network. The four arms could be a huge boon, but Xavier was still learning to use them. Max had seen his father, Bill, transform in a similar way to cook. Xavier had a long way to go to match Bill¡¯s skill and coordination. Max had the same skill now. ¡°[Mal, how does the [Transform] skill work? Are there designs available online or something?]¡± Max sent. ¡°[No, it doesn¡¯t allow external designs to be bought from the net. Although we wouldn¡¯t have that option even if you could. The Labyrinth is cut off from Earth¡¯s many networks and indexes. The skill allows you to make gross modification to your current body design.¡±] Mal said. She created a phantom image of Max¡¯s body on his personal OverLayer. It floated along in front of him as he walked. ¡°[You can adjust your overall shape and the system will fill in the gaps to achieve it. However, you¡¯ll get better results by defining the internal structure as well. It¡¯s not very noticeable, but while you were unconscious, I¡¯ve been scanning Xavier¡¯s design. He has been improving the Thark form¡¯s joints to increase both flexibility and strength. You can advance your physical stats if you improve the base body design. However, if you mess up you might also lose those points in your stats. Your current design is already at its maximum rating for strength.]¡± ¡°[Wow. That¡¯s a powerful skill, Mal! Let¡¯s give me an extra set of arms like Xavier.]¡± Max sent with excitement. ¡°[Okay¡­but it¡¯s a bit of a process that will take time. I can initiate the change, but growing extra arms will require mass. Unless you want to pull materials from throughout your body, compromising your body design; you will need to provide that extra material. That means food for organic structures and special supplements for your non-organic augmentations. I do have some very good scans of Xavier¡¯s arms so I can lay down the groundwork for them to start to grow.]¡± Mal finished. ¡°[Thanks, Mal! I¡¯ll be sure to have double helpings when we break for food.]¡±
The team had come here quickly after Max¡¯s devastating injuries from his fatal confrontation with his nemesis Tyler. Rather than face potential incarceration and delay, the team had run. Completing the Labyrinth was said to be a guarantee for Master level skills, and they couldn¡¯t risk the wait. The tunnel beyond the grand entrance was dark in the extreme. The team had advanced with their [ExaVision] skill to have thermal, ultraviolet, and terahertz wavelengths, making the tunnel navigable. Max¡¯s [WorldMap] continued to fill out additional details from his traveling cloud of nano-motes. Something extra caught his attention, and he triggered his [Multitask] skill to look deeper while still walking. The tunnel, like the entryway to the dungeon, was chock full of dense foglets. The versatile and ubiquitous motes were open to access by all and could connect and simulate different types of matter, gas usually, liquids, and even weak forms of matter. They gave off a very identifiable but weak EM field signature¡­but there was something more. Max homed in on a slightly different signal.
[Analysis +1, Analysis reaches level 8] [Theronics Nano Mote: Scout type, Accessed: Charles Hawkins]
Hah, I guess I¡¯m not the first to deploy my motes from the academy. Max thought. Looking deeper, he soon found some of each type controlled by both Xavier and Leah as well. More surprisingly, he found a Power-Bank-type Mote from each of his friends that were latched onto his smart matter suit¡¯s exterior. Interesting. I guess I really am behind the curve. It¡¯s elementary to station one on a person or object. Since I can always feel and find my motes, it will be the perfect tracking device. And being a power-bank type; it¡¯ll last much longer. Wasting no time, Max directed three of his Power-Bank motes to latch onto each of his teammates. Using his [Access] skill, he was able to rename them as specific to each of his friends.
[New Domain Skill unlocked - Nano-tracker: 3, assign motes to track and monitor for you. Use this skill to expand and track ¡°all the things¡±] Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.
Max smiled, making progress even with just walking. If this really was a maze challenge, the trackers would be very valuable. The tunnel transitioned into long winding stairs. After five minutes of continuous descent, Xavier was complaining, and Charlie was teasing him. Leah came abreast of Max, and he felt a shock as one of his newer skills activated.
[Precog +1, Precog reaches level 3]
Max had a quick visual of what would happen, and he reached out and grabbed Leah¡¯s hand as she tripped on a step. His Empath skill told him the stumble was premeditated. He tried to catch her eye as another skill triggered.
[Bastion +1, Bastion reaches level 9, attempted physical connect augmentation access breach by Leah Choi.]
Max dropped his skill and let Leah past as she forced herself beyond his augmentations security systems. Leah¡¯s mental speech hit him rapid fire. He scrambled to ramp his [FastCog] skill and replayed the beginning using his [Memory] skill. ¡°[Thank you, Max. Well played. I need a private word before we go much further. I¡¯ve already chatted with the other boys. The Labyrinth is teeming with AI, and they are all observing us constantly. Mira had mentioned its illicit practice of trading challenger''s crafted items, but we should be extra careful what we reveal and when. I think if we have any special advantages, we need to be discreet about them. It may use any information we speak about against us. I know your father''s work was something he wanted to stay private. Yes?]¡± Leah finished. ¡°[Crap! Thanks for the warning, Leah. When I first woke up, I detected some of them. They tweaked my privacy and decoding skills when I tried to help Xavier in the Adept Puzzle Maze stage.]¡± Max said. ¡°[Typical brute force as usual, Max. It took me 2 days of careful inspection to deduce this, and in the half-hour since you woke up, you crashed right into them. I can¡¯t tell whether you are supremely lucky or unlucky.]¡± Leah replied. ¡°[Just my winning personality, thanks.]¡± Max said. ¡°[I¡¯m glad you¡¯re feeling better, Max. I was really worried. The boys are pushing Xavier¡¯s skills up to try and cover his gaps to distract themselves, but they were upset too.]¡± Leah said. ¡°[Here¡­takes these one-time pad packets. That¡¯s a set of 1,000 pads, each with a 1.28 TB quantum encryption. We can use them for wireless comms if we need to discuss sensitive information. You have a cyber daemon to help, or do we need to go over it?]¡± ¡°[Good thinking, Leah. I¡¯m all set. Both Mal and Captain Cypher Can use these. Hell, Sherlock might be able to in a pinch¡­Shit! Hold on! My PreCog skill just hit me again! We¡¯re going for a ride!]¡± Max yelled in his head. Max reached out and grabbed Leah¡¯s hand as the stairs snapped shut and everyone fell and started to slide down the now smooth ramp. The slick descent was treacherous, as the team¡¯s sliding fall began to increase in speed. Max''s instincts were spot on; the labyrinth was playing its first deadly hand. Fuck, my motes can¡¯t keep up! Max thought. He hurriedly accessed the ever-present utility foglets to form a type of parachute. It didn¡¯t do much to slow the group down, but he hoped to drag a large population of the team¡¯s motes with them. With agile precision refined in battle, he distributed his weight to steer his fall, aiming to protect Leah. The other members of the team were also using their augmentations to adapt to the rapid change, their bodies contorting and twisting for the best chance at mitigation. Each used tricks and skills learned during their earlier training to slow themselves, but the slide got steeper and steeper. Xavier had tried a similar trick with the foglets in front of the group, but the dungeon kept disrupting his access. Charlie briefly used his [Stiction] skill, but the chute¡¯s surface material came off in his hands. Max couldn¡¯t hold back a yip as Charlie and Xavier dropped. He was next! The bottom dropped out and Max was falling, memories of his tortuous descent over the waterfall brought his terror to a peak. He lost his grip on Leah! Max thought the fall must be fatal as time stretched on and on, then realized still had his [FastCog] skill ramped. His senses couldn¡¯t ¡°see¡± anything and now his sense of timing was off. At least his activated [Multitask] alter ego copy could help by keeping a calm rationality with its utter fearlessness. Everyone was screaming as they slammed into the water below. They plunged into a colossal subterranean lake, its icy waters immediately swallowing up the shock of their fall. Max was spinning and couldn¡¯t tell up from down. His [Multitask] copy was pinging with his [Echolocation] skill but no images came back. He ¡°felt¡± a similar ping from nearby. He felt, more than heard, a series of booms transmitted through the water. Whatever this liquid is, it''s absorbing all our senses. Nothing is working. Wait. My trackers. I¡¯m still getting a sense of them. Max calmed down and stopped his crazy spinning using his well-earned swimming training that had earned him his first [SkillZ] trade. Max resisted the urge to take a deep breath and focused on his friends.
[Recycling +1, Recycling reaches level 3: Continue to train this skill to become fully independent and immune to material dependencies.]
He swam up towards the location of his nano-trackers. His head broke the surface and his senses bloomed again, painting his still active [WorldMap]. This lake water¡¯s ability to disrupt his senses had ceased when his head cleared the surface. Max felt better as the massive water filled cavern became clear in his head. All his friends had surfaced and were treading water. His and his friends motes had been dragged into the space above the water as well, thanks to Max¡¯s use of the foglets. He used them to see much further, getting a clear picture of the surrounding area. An artificial peninsula stabbed out of the darkness, its tip not too far away. It was bright with lights and a jumble of ruined stone structures populated its surface. It looked familiar to Max, like Greek ruins, with broken pillars and slanted roofs. ¡°Are you guys good?¡± Charlie called out. ¡°I¡¯m here!¡± Leah called as she checked to ensure her weapons, the pair of spetsdods and new spear were all still attached and lashed down firmly. ¡°Me too.¡± Max said. ¡°Fuck, my suit gave me a wicked wedgie on the slide down! So uncool.¡± Xavier complained. ¡°Alright. It looks obvious that those ruins are where we need to go. Let¡¯s get to it.¡± Charlie said, waving the others toward the visible ruins. Needing no further discussion, everyone started swimming toward their goal. ¡°Dammit. I can¡¯t swim, man.¡± Xavier whined, paddling with slow progress. Despite being closer to the ruins, Max would overtake and pass him in another few seconds. Both Leah and Charlie were already leading by quite a bit. Max was about to respond when something brushed past him. Before he could yell, it grabbed his leg and pulled him under. Back in the darkness, Max held his breath as the signals from his friends seemed to retreat. In the depths, silence reigned. Max''s mind raced. The adrenaline surged through his veins while his [PreCog] skill flickered with vague warnings, urging him to act fast. His sparring training kicked in. Fighting against the unseen force, he slashed with both claws activating its [Vorpal] skill while he did it. His claws slashed deeply into the muscular appendage. It spasmed and he was able to slip free. Freed, Max shot upward trying to build distance. Gasping for air, Max resurfaced. His heart pounded against his chest; a palpable drum beat echoed in his ears. His splashing disturbed the eerie stillness of the subterranean lake. He saw his stunned friends, still gasping with surprise, had stopped swimming. ¡°Fly! You fools!¡± Max said with fear, swimming for the ruins with his full augmented strength. Charlie made it to shore, closely followed by Leah. Max was now the furthest from the shore but was catching up quickly to Xavier again, whose paddling was anything but efficient. Max saw a ripple in the water between him and Xavier. He knew he couldn¡¯t beat it to the boy. He needed another tactic. ¡°Charlie¡­Catch!¡± Max yelled and shot his grapple over Xavier¡¯s head. The shot was long and arcing but just within the grappler¡¯s range. Charlie¡¯s senses and reaction time were perfect as he snatched the grapple blade by its haft. Intuiting what was coming, he dropped down and employed his [Stiction] to anchor himself as the line snapped taunt. Max engaged his Grappler¡¯s power winch and sped past the rippling disturbance. He collided with Xavier and grabbed hold of him. The winch strained but continued to drag them both more slowly. Escape was in sight and so close as the shore loomed, and the ripples fell behind. Suddenly Xavier was almost ripped from Max¡¯s grip as his leg was wrapped in a tentacle. ¡°Max! Don¡¯t let go! It¡¯s got me!¡± Xavier screamed, two hands grabbing Max¡¯s while his two extra arms splashed the water ineffectively. Max¡¯s sped up thoughts raced through his options. I hope Xavier¡¯s been working on his resistance skills, or this is going to suck. Max thought as he triggered a full-body Shocking attack. The discharge hit both Xavier and the surrounding water. Xavier''s body jerked from the sudden shock, but so did the tentacle, loosening its grasp. The pair were yanked with a huge force, both now hurtling towards Charlie, almost skimming the surface of the water. He had wrapped the grapple cable in both hands and used his capped augmented strength to pull them. They burst from the water onto the land, gasping, dripping, and alive. Except for Max and Xavier¡¯s labored breathing, the artificial peninsula was quiet. The ruins cast long shadows in the artificial lighting that hovered overhead. Breathing heavily, they regrouped. "Thanks, Charlie, that was close. We need to be careful," Max panted, "This seems much more dangerous than the Academy¡¯s obstacle courses.¡± The team banter was interrupted with a notice hitting their training systems.
[You have successfully reached the Three Fates Gate, the entry-level to the Labyrinth. +100 XP]
Adept Ch 2 - The Three Fates Max shook himself dry as he jogged away from the shore, dragging Xavier with him. Charlie had his weapon out, in katana configuration, and guarded their retreat. There was no sign of further disturbances from the water. After the boys had a good head start, he turned and ran after them deeper into the ruins. Leah led the way. She had her javelin out, but it had grown in length to the size of a long spear. She was ready for any trouble. Max looked closely at her. The speed at which her eyeballs scanned over the buildings and rubble was a sign that she had amped up to her cognition speed to the maximum. Despite the team''s aggressive scanning and careful advancement, the ruins appeared completely empty. The buildings were arranged in a radial pattern and the team unconsciously followed the street towards its center. They soon found a large plaza with a raised pool with a large fountain in the center. ¡°Ha-ha! Look guys! All this rubble but there is still a working fountain.¡± Xavier laughed and started to head over to it. ¡°[Stop him, Max! Look closer, that is not water.]¡± Sherlock sent inside Max¡¯s head. Max managed to grab one of Xavier¡¯s many arms and stopped him. ¡°Wait a minute. Sherlock just told me to stop and look closer.¡± Everyone stopped and they scanned the scene. Max engaged multiple sensing and mental skills including his latest extended senses using his nano motes. Through his enhanced vision, Max discerned the liquid in the fountain has significantly more diffraction of light than normal water producing a scintillating rainbow effect. He gasped when he realized the fountain was much more unnatural. The ¡°water¡± was flowing up in a spray and then down in a central reverse jetting action, the opposite of a normal water fountain. His [Access] and [Identification] skills failed completely, but he could see that the fluid glowed strongly in his EM sense. One of his scanner motes had flown in too close as Max tried to understand the patterns inside the fluctuating inverted fountain. It went offline, surprising Max. He boosted his mental speed and used his [Memory] skill to replay it from another perspective and slow it down. A rising droplet from the pool had impacted it. Max zoomed in and slowed the replay down using his [WorldMap] ability. The nano drone had been encapsulated by the liquid and was quickly dissolved. Acid? He thought. ¡°[Not acid, Max.]¡± Tesla sent, interrupted his thoughts. ¡°[My emulation has been updated with all the current technologies. Those are active nano-disassemblers. A flagrant violation of UN regulation requiring active disassemblers be contained in a reactive containment enclosure.]¡± ¡°[This is extremely dangerous! How could this be allowed?]¡± Musashi asked. ¡°[I know that the Labyrinth is considered its own sovereign nation and all. But I can''t imagine the RUSA would allow this inside their borders.]¡± Max said. ¡°[None of the accounts from Labyrinth delvers ever mentioned anything like this.]¡± Mal sent. Max was resynching his thought speed to warn his friends when the fountain pulsed with a powerful EM signal and the liquid rapidly crystallized. The material took on a rough form: a twelve-foot-tall statue of a woman. The statue seemed to be a mishmash of different women and styles though. Max could see at least three different women as the statue shifted back and forth. One looked like a classical matronly figure, kind and regal, done in a traditional Greek marble style with bright painted surfaces to imitate lifelike color. Another appeared to be the same woman, but more athletic and in a warrior''s outfit. It blended in elements of modern weaponry and cybernetic additions. The final was the scariest and most intimidating. It was a much older version of the woman, scarred, disfigured, and covered in a concealing robe. Her statue was darker, broken, and covered in rust and mold. The team stepped back as the statues solidified and morphed. They all readied their weapons, expecting a new fight. The statue¡¯s shifting features slowed and settled upon the matronly figure. It spoke without moving its mouth. The words were projected both out loud and in their heads. ¡°No need to be afraid, poppets. We greet all challengers of the Labyrinth. We are the overseers of its three levels.¡± The matronly figure said before the form shifted slightly to the darker disfigured shape. ¡°The new meat should be afraid.¡± The hag-like figure muttered before shifting back. ¡°Hush you! The children are listening. Ahem, my name is Clotho. Not the real one, mind you. I¡­we¡­are AI tasked with these jobs. I¡¯ve borrowed some aspects of the human¡¯s mythical goddess of Fate. We do so love to entertain our dear aspirants.¡± Clotho said, looking down on the group with a loving expression. She looked deeply at each one and mimed hearing something. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. ¡°Yes. Yes. Don¡¯t rush me, Atropos. As I was saying, each of us has taken the name of a Fate deity. We will each guide you¡­in our own way¡­in each of our portions of the Labyrinth.¡± Clotho said. In Max¡¯s enhanced sight he could see the dense flow of energies and computation shifting over and within the statue. The power was palpable and scary. ¡°I represent and manage the first levels, whose count depends upon you, my little ducklings. I will provide challenges to expose any weaknesses you have in your trained skills. It will help you to strengthen them, so you will be well prepared for what comes next.¡± Clotho said sweetly. It would have been endearing if she hadn¡¯t been enormous and crackling with power. The statue shuddered and shifted, as the warrior aspect took control of the majority of the form. ¡°My name is Lachesis, the second Fate. When you enter my realm, your skills and your team will be tested. Clotho¡¯s levels pass most challengers on to me, 97%. My tests will be much harder, but the rewards will also be greater. Only 44% of Labyrinth contestants can pass my tests. 93% of all who manage to pass my levels to the next will have earned their first Master''s level in their augmentation training.¡± The statue¡¯s warrior form looked at them with calculating eyes and a judging expression before it shifted into the final form. ¡°Most of you delectable morsels quit before entering deep into my realm. Atropos will break your bones and gnaw on your marrow. My task is to find your limits. Only those truly dedicated to themselves can push into my realm. 2% of your pathetic predecessors have achieved full mastery and completed their augmentation training under my knives...ah, I mean, my testing. I will break you and show you what your real limits are.¡± Atropos cackled briefly then finished. ¡°None have ever claimed the final level for the Grand Prize of the Builder. I do so hope you will keep trying and not give up. It gets so boring in the depths. You miserable bags of flesh have yet to impress me.¡± Atropos faded back and Clotho¡¯s image reasserted dominance. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, my darlings. Don¡¯t be scared of the mean one. Everyone who enters the final levels will have the Backup skill given so you can be¡­recovered. All of what you are; rebuilt and good as new. Well¡­except for the memory of the level that beats you. All backups occur at the start of the level.¡± Clotho looked at them with care and continued. ¡°I¡¯m sure that¡¯s for the best though. No sense in remembering such nastiness anyway. Any questions?¡± Clotho asked with an open expression. Charlie stepped forward and cleared his throat. ¡°Ah, Thank you, Miss Clotho. We were told food wouldn¡¯t be needed. How will this be handled exactly?¡± he asked. ¡°Ah yes, my sweet. For those who have yet to earn the Recycling skill, food will be provided. Every level will have a rest area, where food and facilities will be provided. Unless a challenge specifically removes it, a crafting area is available as well. You can even retreat from a challenge to the safe area unless the challenge forbids it. Pay attention to the rules and you will be right as rain, my dears.¡± Clotho said kindly. ¡°Um, you mentioned that most challengers don¡¯t go on to the final levels. Why not? Do they give up?¡± Xavier asked hesitatingly. The statue shifted to the old and malformed giant woman. ¡°They got no stomach for it, child! On every level, you can leave at any time. But not on mine! You enter my realm and you can only leave as a backup. Every so often an exceptional talent will convince themselves that they can defeat the final level. So far, they have all been wrong. Do you think you¡¯re special, sweetmeat?¡± The hag crackled until the statue shifted again and Clotho returned. ¡°Okay, that¡¯s enough scaring the children. Tutt Tutt, such an unpleasant demeanor. Pay her no mind, my brave goslings. Now, we are out of time. Off with you, my lovelies! More challengers are descending as we speak. Go on now¡­it¡¯s time to learn.¡± She finished. The statue shifted between the different aspects briefly, the old hag seemed to leer at Max and licked her lips. Abruptly, the sculpture dissolved and flowed down, the material transformed back into a fluid and resumed its contrary fountain appearance. The team looked at each other and then at the plaza. At some point during the intense display of energy and power, the ruins had moved and changed. They had one way out¡­a path leading to a new feature, a large spiral of stone stairs leading downward.
The three Fates watched as the team went down the stairs, together from their shared virtual meeting room. The ¡°room¡± they shared had no wall and no features other than the many images provided by the omniscient eyes of the Labyrinth. Lachesis was the first to speak. ¡°I¡¯ve got a good feeling about this group. I can tell they want more than just a novel experience. They are here to prove themselves.¡± She spoke. ¡°Yes. The poor dears. I expect more than one will try for the final level.¡± Clotho said sadly. ¡°Hah! Good. I haven''t gotten my pound of flesh in too long.¡± Atropos crackled. ¡°Seriously? Drop the hag act, Atropos. No one is watching here.¡± Lachesis groaned. ¡°Who¡¯s acting? Did you see them? Did you SEE them?! So very determined and quite powerful considering their augmentation record shows they only recently graduated to Adept¡­and so very mysterious. Hawkins is an old soldier. Those types are always tenacious and tricky. The girl looks extremely cautious and so very clever. Such cute little dart guns on the backs of her hand, but that contain quite the sting. The four-armed boy¡¯s bag is full of goodies and that dog man¡­that¡¯s not cosmetic. He really is a dog! I can¡¯t wait to sink my teeth into them all. I¡¯ll have their secrets¡­every single one of them.¡± Atropos was seething as her voice echoed in the space. ¡°Hurry them through, dammit! I can¡¯t wait!¡± Atropos howled. ¡°Patience, sister. We all must play our roles. No special treatment allowed. I will take their measure. Lachesis will temper them. Then¡­you will break them and see what makes them tick, as the Builder has decreed.¡± Clotho finished with some measure of sadness.
Adept Ch 3 - The Gauntlet
The team entered the first level, and the system welcomed them with a blue screen notification.
[New Quest Unlocked: Labyrinth level 1 - The Gauntlet: Each team member must solo complete an uninterrupted series of combat matches to gain a key to unlock the next level.]
The stairwell had ended with a door. The team had entered cautiously despite the Fates'' mention of it starting with a safe area. Once everyone had entered and the door closed it had disappeared like it was never there. The rest area looked like the lobby of the playground level, where the team had waited for Max to recover. It was brightly lit with tables and chairs, some lounging sofas, bathrooms, and a matter compiler/recycler in the wall. One wall had what looked like an elevator door with a large EXIT sign overhead. On the other side of the room, there was a large hall. A yellow-striped caution tape covered the borders of the entryway to the large hall. It transitioned from the carpeted rest area into a stony torchlight hall that curved away into the darkness, the bright warning tape emphasized the border of the rest zone. Xavier whistled quietly and said, ¡°And so it begins. Nice of them to taunt us with an exit. All the accounts I¡¯ve read say that if you leave for any reason then that''s it. No more tries at the Labyrinth for you. Game over, man.¡± ¡°Well, that''s just fine with me. The only way home is through for me. Are you guys ready to try it, or do you need anything from the rest area?¡± Charlie asked. Everyone agreed to go. Charlie glanced nervously at his team before stepping cautiously over the caution tape. The torches cast dancing shadows against the stony walls, creating an illusion of movement that made him jumpy. The air was damp and carried the faint aroma of moss and ancient stone. The others followed their steps echoing in the hall. The hallway soon came to a large circular room with four new passages along its perimeter. A large initial was carved into the stone lintel above each portal; ¡°C¡±, ¡°L¡±, ¡°M¡±, and ¡°X¡±. ¡°Heh. The Mystery Labyrinth ain¡¯t being too mysterious so far. My great powers of deduction have already solved this puzzle. It¡¯s telling us our assigned paths.¡± Xavier said, his smile somewhat ruined by his Thark face. The tusks to either side of his face limiting his expression. ¡°I don¡¯t like that our first mission as a team is to split up. This is too much like a bad horror movie for this to be a good idea.¡± Max said. ¡°Should we take it in turns?¡± Leah asked. ¡°I can go first if you like.¡± Charlie volunteered. ¡°Here¡¯s an idea. Maybe we can watch your trial with our sensor motes accompanying you and even share an audio-only virtual layer while you do it?¡± Xavier suggested. ¡°I don¡¯t know. The AI seemed to get riled up when I helped Xavier that way in the Puzzle Maze section of the Adept Obstacle course upstairs.¡± Max said. ¡°The quest didn¡¯t mention anything about advice. I think combat and puzzle-solving might have different rules about solo versus teamwork. I think we should try it.¡± Charlie said. ¡°Alright, but I¡¯ll go second then.¡± Max said, eager to fight again. Seeing no objections, Charlie spun on his heel and slowly walked down the hall marked with the ¡°C¡±. Max¡¯s sense of the map expanded as his sensor motes followed Charlie down the hall. Max was worried as Charlie started to jog. ¡°[Charlie, I know this is supposed to be a combat test, but you should still watch for traps.]¡± Max sent over the shared audio link. ¡°[No worries, buddy. I¡¯ve got my AI companion when you were out of it. I named him Auggie. He¡¯s helping parse my senses and running his cog speed ramped up. If anything jumps out at me then my Reflex skill will get some extra exercise.]¡± Charlie sent back. The hall had curved, and Max¡¯s signal was getting sketchy. He deployed more Power Bank motes to help create a COMM chain. The walls of the dungeon were opaque to sensors and even blocked radio. Max¡¯s system pinged him as he reconfigured the swarm.
[Swarm +1, Swarm reaches level 2: Continue to use this skill to enhance its power. 1 replication using an approved matter compiler has been unlocked to double your swarm inventory.]
Nice! Max thought. He was about to share the news when Charlie¡¯s hall opened to a circular room. A familiar training mannequin stood in the center in a relaxed pose. A sparring ring was visible on the floor. Charlie confidently strode up to the ring and as he stepped over the threshold, doors slammed shut closing the room. Max¡¯s connection to his motes was cut off. Max shook his head. The tracker mote still worked, despite also using radio communication. The dungeon was filtering what signals it would allow. ¡°Damn it. Did you two lose your signal too?¡± Max asked looking over to Xavier and Leah. The two were about to answer when the passage leading back to the rest area closed, a hidden door dropping down and obstructing the exit. ¡°I guess the dungeon has spoken. We each do our challenges alone.¡± Leah said. Despite the grim tone, her eyes sparkled with excitement about the coming challenge. Only Xavier seemed hesitant. ¡°Hey Xavier¡­¡± Max said. Xavier refocused on him. ¡°You can do this. This is supposed to be just more training. Right? Hell, man. You beat Leah once in sparring. That''s no mean feat. A bunch of mannequins shouldn''t be a problem, right?¡± ¡°Right, Max. I can do this.¡± Xavier flexed his four arms and shook himself. ¡°Okay, let¡¯s go. No mannequin is going to hold me back. See you on the other side.¡± Xavier jogged off down his passage and a stone door slammed down behind him. Leah performed a quick bow to Max with an amused grin and wink. Without another word, she charged down her path also. As her passage closed, Max internalized his own advice and pulled his nano motes tightly about him as he strode down the last hall to meet the challenge. The bang of the door locking him into his gauntlet resounded in the corridor.
Soon Max found himself in a chamber, identical to what he had viewed through his sensor swarm for Charlie¡¯s first challenge. He found a similar combat mannequin inside the ring and a notification pinged him.
[Gauntlet challenge 1 of 20: Defeat your opponent. Stay inside the ring. Leaving the ring for more than 5 seconds is a forfeit of the match.]
Okay, not a point match then but the ring might be useful if I can keep the sparring bot outside for more than 5 seconds. Max thought. No time limit, so I should go slow. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast. No mistakes. Max pinged Mal and his cadre of daemons for advice. ¡°[I¡¯d just go in and start blasting.]¡± Mal said confidently. ¡°[Ahem, caution is wise, my dear Max. This trial has a greater purpose from the hints dropped by those AI Fate impersonators and the system prompts. It is intended to improve any gaps in your skills. Your opponents are likely not too overpowered this early in the labyrinth. Maybe focus on your weakest skills while you can?]¡± Sherlock advised. ¡°[As this is a physical challenge, your weakest combat skills are Precision 1, Poisoning 1, Vorpal 1, Disable 2, Multitask 2, Strobe 3, EMP Blast 3, Hulk 3, Shock 4, and Ballistics 4. It might be a good time to utilize your grappling kunai as well to improve your SkillZ education for it.]¡± Musashi mused. ¡°[Huh. I guess that makes sense. Hmm, do you think the bot will be affected by my Poison skill?]¡± Max sent. ¡°[An excellent question, Max. Mannequin dummies are used in lots of augmentation programs. Some can mimic biological systems for greater realism. Pure observation won¡¯t tell us here. The truth might only be discovered with experimentation.]¡± Tesla commented. Max snorted and spoke out loud. ¡°Time to lay down some scientific method on this bot.¡± Max said, stepping into the ring. He expected the mannequin to bow, but instead, it immediately advanced with a punch. Max swayed to the side, and his [Balance] skill triggered keeping him from a fall. Max amped up his thought speed with [FastCog] and triggered his [Multitask] skill. With the freedom to plan his quick responses, he would play out this fight like a chess match. He would pair his attacks and defenses to hit the skills he needed to improve. Mal, his new minder and the link to his augmentations, seeing Max¡¯s cognition boosted in multiple ways, allowed the normally restricted system notifications during combat to be announced.
[Balance +1, Balance reaches level 10, Skill Cap reached +100 XP] [New Body Skill Unlocked: Dodge 1: Augmentation assistance in optimal evasion technique.]
Max slid past the punch, to the inside of the robot''s guard. His SkillZ boosted Kempo training, already helping him to instinctually have a blocking guard against the bot¡¯s other hand. With deliberate precision, he swiped across his opponent''s neck with his claws while triggering his [Poison] attack. With his boosted speed, split awareness, and his WorldMap sense of his enemy; Max saw the next attack coming. He spun away as the robot kicked out and slashed the outstretched leg with his other claw, triggering [Poison] again. Max smiled as he continued to block or dodge while slashing or poking the sparring dummy with his [Poison] skill. Mal was enthusiastic as the welts that he left behind had reddened on the mannequin¡¯s artificial skin. It was slowing down and even acting as if its wounds were painful, further inhibiting its fighting. Stolen story; please report. Max wore the robot down until it collapsed on the ground, its wounds seeping fluid and its synthetic skin mottled in color.
[Quest - Ready to Rumble III, 4 of 20 opponents defeated, +100 XP] [Agility +2, Perception +2] [Poison +1, Poison reaches level 2] [Precision +1, Precision reaches level 2] [Dodge +1, Dodge reaches level 2] [Quest - The Gauntlet - 1 of 20 complete]
Max grinned at the notifications. Progress with his advancement always seemed to come in a rush. He intended to maximize this one. A new door was opening on the far side of the round combat chamber. Another tunnel which would presumably lead to his next spar. He trotted down it with confidence.
¡°God damn it. Why won¡¯t you die!?¡± Max yelled at his fourth opponent. He dodged left, but the blow was too fast and delivered a painful glancing blow on his right ear. ¡°[Max, it¡¯s very subtle but the mannequin¡¯s skin appeared to have shifted in quality and character over each iteration. Thicker each time. And what wounds you leave don¡¯t appear to slow it as much as it once did.]¡± Sherlock observed. ¡°[I think the test is escalating. Your opponents are evolving to counter your skills. Your growth in the poison skill defeated a few, but now it doesn¡¯t seem as effective.]¡± Tesla responded. ¡°Right! Time to switch it up!¡± Max ducked the next blow and punched with his claws extended activating his [Vorpal] and [Poison] skills together. His claws pierced his opponent¡¯s thick skin, penetrating deep. The robot doubled over. Max sent a powerful front kick into his foe¡¯s side knocking it out of the sparring ring. The robot struggled to stand, falling over a couple of times. The timer must have expired as it abruptly collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut and the next door opened.
[Quest - Ready to Rumble III, 7 of 20 opponents defeated, +100 XP] [Perception +2] [Vorpal +2, Vorpal reaches level 3] [Poison +1, Poison reaches level 4] [Precision +1, Precision reaches level 4] [Dodge +1, Dodge reaches level 5] [Quest - The Gauntlet 4 of 20 complete] [Max E. Mitchell +1 Level, reached Adept 17, +10 Free stat points awarded]
Max bent over in relief. He was making progress, but there was no doubt about the fact that the opponents were growing stronger. They seemed to grow specifically to counter the abilities he used. Max shook the sweat beading up in his fur, repeating his mantra he walked slowly to his next challenge. Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.
Max impacted the wall and fell to the ground. He shook his head and staggered up, he had been thrown from the ring and the counter was ticking.
[5¡­..4¡­.3.]
At least the damn spar dummy doesn¡¯t actively try to stop me returning. Max thought as he grimly shuffled into the ring and the timer notifications stopped. He approached the new brute cautiously. The sparring mannequin was bigger and tougher than ever, sporting some armor under its tough skin. Max regretted using his [Strike] and [Disable] skills so soon. His latest opponent was significantly stronger and more durable now. He wiped the blood off his fur. His regenerative skills were already capped. They would enable him to bounce back but wouldn¡¯t improve anymore. He needed to overwhelm this one and reshuffle his plan. It was already damaged, a few more hits or one awesome strike should do it. He gritted his teeth. He didn¡¯t like this skill. Every time he previously used it, he¡¯d been worse off. Musashi insisted he needed to try. ¡°Dammit! It¡¯s smashing time.¡± Max sidestepped the large bot¡¯s powerful kick grabbing its extended foot. He activated his [Hulk] skill and then grabbed the off-balanced mannequin¡¯s shoulder and LIFTED it over his head with ease as the skill overloaded his body with strength and energy. Max didn¡¯t just drop the dummy. He PULLED it down HARD upon his braced knee and broke the thing¡¯s spine. Notices pinged and the door opened as the light from the robot¡¯s optical sensors faded.
[Quest - Ready to Rumble III, 13 of 20 opponents defeated, +100 XP] [Vorpal +1, Vorpal reaches level 5] [Poison +1, Poison reaches level 5] [Precision +1, Precision reaches level 6] [Dodge +1, Dodge reaches level 6] [Hulk +1, Hulk reaches level 5] [Quest - The Gauntlet 9 of 20 complete]
Max collapsed to the ground beside the ruined mannequin. All his muscles felt like they were on fire and his joints ached. He really hated that skill. Thank god for no timer. This floor feels really nice. I¡¯ll just recover a bit. Max thought. He slowed his breathing like he¡¯d learned from Musashi and at the Wuxia Dojo. Using multiple skills in combat took a lot of energy. Even with the bonuses provided by unlocking his [Power Core] that fight had pushed him to his limits. Mal had already confirmed his guess that meditating helped recover energy faster. Max had combined the different techniques he had learned and refined them to maximize his recovery. Breathing, conscious tension release, and even utilizing [Multitask] to observe his biological brain thought patterns as they shifted into a meditative state. He almost dropped out of his meditation when the notification hit.
[SkillZ Input contribution potential identified - Augmented Meditation. Train this skill for SkillZ trade?]
A slight smile tugged at his mouth, as Max accepted and continued to meditate. He had planned to use meditation anyway, now he could get another skill for doing it. Using his [Multitask] alter, he pulled up his status screen.
[Name: Max E. Mitchell Level: Adept 17 (11,650/12,000 XP)] [Body Design Model: Custom ¨C Canis Familiarus Uplift Free Stats: 10] [Strength: 100 Agility: 74 Endurance: 100 Vitality: 100 Energy: 75/1360] [Perception: 52 Intelligence: 87 Will: 53 Regen: 306/min] [Body Skills - Claws/Vorpal:10/5 Strike/Disable: 10/4 Speed/Reflex: 10/8] [Body Skills - Stamina/Tireless: 10/8 Balance/Gymnast/Dodge: 10/10/6] [Body Skills - Leap: 10 Stun: 7 Shock: 4 EMP Blast: 3 Strobe: 3 Poison: 5] [Body Skills - Heal/Regenerate/Transform: 10/10/4 Oxygen/Recycle: 10/3] [Body Skills - Painless:10 Precision: 6 Ballistics: 4 Gland: 10] [Body Skills - Unbreakable: 10 Armor: 7 Skin: 10 Hulk: 5] [Body Skills - Stealth/Chameleon: 4/2] [Resist Skills - Neural Scaffold: 10 Poison: 10 Shock: 10 Sonic: 9 Light: 10] [Resist Skills - EMP: 10 Heat: 4 Cold: 3 ANDD: 1] [Sense Skills - DigiSense: 10 Scent: 10 ExaVision: 7 EM Fields: 7 EchoLoc: 2] [Mind Skills - AI Assist/Companion (Mal): 10/5 Identify/Analyze: 10/8] [Mind Skills - OverLayer/World Map: 10/5 Language: 3 Dream Learn: 9] [Mind Skills - Access/Hack/Intrude: 10/9/1 Privacy: 6 Bastion: 9] [Mind Skills - Pattern/Decode: 10/2 FastCog/PreCog: 10/3 Telekinesis: 3] [Mind Skills ¨C Empath/Poker-Face: 10/1 Memory: 9 Multitask: 4 Pilot:1] [Mind Skills - Daemon: 4 (Musashi, Sherlock, Nikola Tesla, Captain Cypher)] [Mind Skills - SkillZ: 4.0 In: Swim, NanoCraft, Brachiate, Meditate .10*] [Mind Skills - SkillZ: Out: Katana, Kempo, Kunai: 0.05, pending] [Domain Skills ¨C Swarm: 2 PowerCore: 3 Backup: 1]
Max relaxed as his energy replenished for his next bout. He kept his [Multitask] alter ego busy managing his mote swarm. He¡¯d lost a few when the dungeon had closed off Charlie¡¯s challenge. He needed to hit the rest area¡¯s matter compiler to build up his swarm. When he had advanced the skill, he should have unlocked one duplication to grow his stockpile. Max was getting to his feet with his energy stores almost full as his system pinged again. He looked at it and laughed weakly as he started walking to the next room.
[Power Core +1, Power Core reaches level 4 - Energy regeneration rate boosted x4]
Max coughed up blood. He faced his sixteenth Gauntlet challenge. He staggered around the perimeter of the ring. His mannequin opponent appeared as a fully armored samurai. Its katana and wakizashi blades were already coated in Max¡¯s blood. He had deep wounds still bleeding from multiple clashes. ¡°[This dungeon has a sense of thematic karma, perhaps influenced by your earlier use of the Grappler¡¯s kunai weapon.]¡± Sherlock opined. Max was rapidly running out of new tricks to play. He continued to use his weaker skills and occasionally introduced a new one as the robots gained resistance. The growth in his skills and his levels with the new fights was astonishing. He had almost lost several fights, resorting to his hated [Hulk] skill, and once he managed to use [Hack] to keep his opponent outside the ring for a forfeit victory. The new mannequins were resistant to that trick now. Max dug deep into his reserves to keep going. Only four more to go. He thought as he threw both his kunai at the same time. The samurai deflected one with his katana, but the second struck lower, piercing its knee. Max grabbed the grappling cord and used his [Shock] skill. The line conducted his attack into the robot, knocking it down. Max leaped quickly and landed with his right knee on its neck with the full force of his weight. As the light left its eyes and notifications pinged, Max grabbed both of its dropped blades. ¡°Thank you very much, Mister Samurai. This katana set should help me out nicely for finishing my last fights.¡± Max said with a grin and rolled off the broken dummy.
[Quest Ready to Rumble III - 20 of 20 complete, +100 XP awarded] [Quest Gauntlet - 16 of 20 complete]
Max tumbled over the giant samurai symbot¡¯s glaive sweep and continued into a roll behind it. His kunai had previously pierced its Achilles tendon and his roll had encircled it. He yanked the cord tight, snapping its legs together. Max activated his [Leap] skill and used all his capped strength to charge the unbalanced robot. He crashed into it knocking them both out of the ring. As they tumbled, Max snapped the cord twice. It snaked about and another loop encircled the giant¡¯s legs.
[5¡­..4¡­. 3..]
Max rolled back into the ring and kicked up into a fighting stance. The samurai bot struggled but couldn¡¯t get free in time. It deactivated and Max howled in triumph.
[Quest Gauntlet - 20 of 20 complete, +500 XP awarded, + Gauntlet exit key awarded, Gauntlet reward token awarded.] [Max E. Michell +1, Max reaches level Adept 19, +10 Free stat points awarded.] [+2 Agility, +2 Perception] [Shock +1, Shock reaches level 7] [Precision +1, Precision reaches level 8] [Ballistics +1, Ballistics reaches level 7] [WorldMap +1, WorldMap reaches level 5]
Max saw the final opponent begin to fall apart. The smart matter performed a final act of breaking itself down. Max wondered if he could get his [Intrusion] skill high enough; could he force an opponent like this to self-destruct? None of the other combat dummies had dissolved. He inspected it and found a square card and a round chip in the debris of his opponent. He picked them up and saw each had a gauntlet symbol embossed on their faces. Max was about to tuck them into a pocket when he saw his smart suit was quite literally falling apart. Max¡¯s stomach rumbled. He had been sparring for hours.
[Recycling +1, Recycling reaches level 4: Food is no longer a necessity, internal energy regeneration can provide chemical energy for function. Note: Loss of organic materials from membrane punctures will result in degradation of overall efficiency.]
¡°Nice. But I¡¯m still going to get a triple helping from that rest area immediately.¡± Max commented out loud to himself. He accessed his smart suit to repair and reconfigure it, adding some hooks to secure his acquired swords better. The doors back to the rest area began opening one after another. Max started jogging and sped up into a run as he tucked away his prizes. He was HUNGRY.
Adept Ch 4 - Tough Love
Max jogged the long way back to the rest area. He was still alert for potential traps, sweeping the halls with his mote swarm and his full range of senses. He noticed that the many broken sparring dummies were either missing or in the process of being absorbed by the labyrinth¡¯s floor. Damn, it would have been nice to dissect one of those bots. He thought as he exited his assigned hall. Max saw immediately that he wasn''t alone. Charlie was shifting a very battered-looking Xavier on a couch. The unconscious boy¡¯s multiple arms dangled off the sides as Charlie elevated his legs. ¡°Hey, Max. Your outfit looks almost as torn up as poor Xavier here. How did you do?¡± Charlie said, wiping Xavier¡¯s blood off his hands onto his trousers. ¡°It wasn''t easy, but I did it. I got the level key and reward chip right here.¡± Max said, patting the breast of his tattered jacket. He nodded sideways to the couch. ¡°Xavier okay?¡± ¡°Looks like he wiped out. A spar dummy dragged him to the entry and dumped him here. I managed to access his aug and talk to his AI, Jarvis. He¡¯s not hurt as bad as you were in your fight with Tyler, but he ran dry on energy. He¡¯s in a forced shutdown while his system patches him up. I hope it''s a lot quicker than your time out.¡± Charlie said. ¡°Damn, that sucks. I wonder if the gauntlet will reset or let him continue where he got beat.¡± Max said. ¡°Either way, we might need a strategy session to see how he can make it through. I¡¯ve got some ideas that might help, and I bet you will too.¡± Charlie replied. Charlie pulled off his backpack and then dropped it beside the couch and flopped into another lounge chair. ¡°Any sign of Leah?¡± Max asked. ¡°Not yet. But she¡¯s about three-quarters done. She¡¯s been slowing down though, maybe another two hours.¡± Charlie said with a grin. ¡°How the heck do you know that? Wait¡­don¡¯t tell me. Let me figure it out while I get some food.¡± Max said. He walked over to the matter compiler reaching out with his [Access] skill. ¡°Cool, get me a beer out of the MC while you''re at it?¡± Charlie asked as he sank back into his lounger. Max checked his energy levels and saw they were topped off. He started a timer and then amped his cognition up and split his attention three ways with his multitasking skill. He partitioned a virtual thought space for each of his alter egos. His first instance accessed the matter compiler and ran through its menus. He found that it wasn''t hooked up to any external networks but did have a large database of food, equipment, and miscellaneous smart devices that might be useful. He selected a six-pack of beer, a plate of burgers, and a plate of fries. He licked his chops in hunger as he eyed the MC¡¯s timer to assemble his meal. - - His second instance pulled Tesla into a shared virtual space. Some pointed questions about how to recharge his smart suit soon expanded his awareness of both his suit and his augmentation. Most systems, his included, had contact patches in convenient areas like palms, back, feet, etc. Those patches could pass energy or direct line communications between devices and body augmentations. Max immediately used a patch on his back to directly access his suit and recharge its energy stores. He set it to repair the damage as soon as it gained a few percentage points of power. The virtual Tesla supervised his work with a running commentary. ¡°Remember to keep an eye on your energy levels. When your [Power Core] skill was activated, it boosted your augmentation system energy. It doesn''t generate power, but it can store a massive amount. Your body can store huge amounts in distributed nanocapacitors, but the power core is the most massive and quickest access to energy that you have.¡± Tesla said. ¡°Is there any way to use the patches to recharge my core faster?¡± Max asked. ¡°Certainly. I noticed in your system logs that you identified and stored a portable power core in your Tesseract device along with several other devices. The gifts from your family, Sherlock informed me. You could recharge your systems with that, although it would in turn need to be recharged. I haven''t noticed any power outlets, but the matter compiler uses a lot of energy. It must have a power line.¡± ¡°Right. Ok, Nikola my friend. Let''s get to work and figure out how to hot-wire some power out of that MC unit. I came close to damaging my core in the Gauntlet, so I either need to be more patient or get a way to quick charge¡­and I¡¯m all out of patience.¡± Max said. - - - Max and Sherlock met in another virtual space within his partitioned mind to work on deducing Charlie''s secret ability to track Leah¡¯s progress. ¡°I already know that all the challenge halls close off; preventing our swarms from delivering information back.¡± Max said. ¡°Hmm. We must gather more information to properly form a theory.¡± Sherlock said. Max responded by commanding his swarm to spread out. He mapped the room and projected it on a virtual tabletop so Sherlock could see as well. The map built out as the wave of motes moved out. They flowed down the challenge hall to the room where the passage split into four. Only Leah¡¯s passage was blocked. He sent them further, splitting up to follow each passage that was still open. Xavier¡¯s hall terminated at the first room; a sparring mannequin stood ready to fight in the ring. Max and Charlie¡¯s passages continued as the motes kept traveling. ¡°Ah. I think that Xavier¡¯s challenge has reset. Poor kid, I guess he¡¯s got to do the whole thing in one go.¡± Max said. The map grew as the wave of motes progressed. The map of the defeated halls lengthened room by room. The challenge rooms were beads on the strand. Max noticed that the halls weren''t straight, at each challenge room the exit was off by a couple of degrees. The hall sections grew shorter as the angle of the exits increased, making each gauntlet path a tightening spiral shape. The maps started to resemble a kind of tree, like a weeping willow. Each path was a slightly spiraling branch. Max and Charlie¡¯s were fully completed, Xavier had only one extra section, and Leah¡¯s was closed to scrutiny. ¡°Interesting. Let me complete the pattern.¡± Sherlock coaxed the image to paint the missing sections in a different color. Max looked closely at Leah¡¯s path and noticed a single point at the 16th knuckle that began to move. He highlighted it. ¡°Hah! I¡¯ve got it. Hold on.¡± Max added the labeling from his tracker mote skill. The tiny pixel matched the projected location and direction of the tracker mote assigned to Leah. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
[Swarm +1, Swarm reaches level 3]
¡°Interesting. It''s quite rudimentary to estimate her progress now that we know the map and her relative position on it. It appears she is about to commence her 17th match soon. Charlie''s estimate is adequate, but impossible to be precise as her fights and methods could vary quite a bit.¡± Sherlock said with a tight smile. ¡°The dungeon cut off all the mote feeds except for their positioning information. Weird. It blocked everything except that specific frequency. Not sure if it''s being somewhat helpful or taunting us with the information.¡± Max said. ¡°Thanks for the help, Sherlock.¡± Max said. ¡°My dear sir, you did the work. All I did was point you in the right direction.¡± Sherlock said with pride.
The MC dinged. Max opened its door and grabbed the tray loaded with beer, burgers, and fries. His outfit had been fully repaired and shed the blood while he had waited. He brought the food and drinks and pushed them onto the table nearest Charlie. He stuffed a burger into his mouth whole. ¡°Thank you, my friend.¡± Charlie said. Max raised a finger, swallowed, and spoke. ¡°You''re welcome. I see Leah is finished with 16 and started 17.¡± ¡°You son of a bitch! You figured that out quickly. Well done.¡± Charlie exclaimed with a smile. He grabbed two beers and popped their tops off bare-handed and handed one to Max. Max grabbed it and they clinked bottles and drank. ¡°Help yourself to some food. I¡¯ve got to pull my motes in and load them into the MC for some replication. Also, in the back of my head, I¡¯m almost ready with a device that might help sleeping beauty over there to wake up sooner.¡± Max said. ¡°I hope it doesn''t involve kissing, I¡¯m pretty sure he¡¯s already crushing on Leah.¡± Charlie said with a mouthful of fries. Max snorted and went back to the compiler. The air about Max got a little foggy as all of his motes crowded in tight. He opened the door to the chamber and ushered them in. He set it to replicate twice over. He steepled his fingers while he waited. Excellent, soon I will have massive amounts of motes. My WorldMap skill can grow a lot faster with more sensors. He thought. As the timer counted down, Mal pinged him. [Max, I¡¯ve been watching you and Tesla designing your hot wire jumper cables. It''s nice work and very timely. While you were out of it, I had a lot of time to review your systems and equipment during your body repair. It seems the Tesseract is shrinking. It''s not much, only 0.2 millimeters over a few days, but if we can¡¯t supply it with energy it will continue to shrink. It''s bigger right now than it was initially. Bill grew it by almost a full meter during his testing, feeding it some power to grow it. Unfortunately, its size decays over time and I expect that the decay scales with its size. When you''ve created the jumpers, can we see if we can reverse the shrink?]¡± Mal asked. ¡°[Damn. Thanks for catching that. I can¡¯t let Dad¡¯s prototype vanish. Although we need to be discrete. Those Labyrinth AI are watching everything, and we know that they like to collect unique gear designs. Dad would be pretty upset if his design was stolen.]¡± Max replied. ¡°[That''s right. Although, if they try to disassemble the anchor it will likely break. It contains a heck of a lot of energy and the anchor twists into another dimension.]¡± Mal said. ¡°[Hmmm¡­while you fabricate your jumpers, I can help design a backpack for you like your friends have and queue it for the MC to make next. If you only open the Tesseract¡¯s portal inside of the pack, we should be able to conceal your father¡¯s creation and still utilize it. You¡¯ve got a lot of gear in there that you might need later.]¡± Max and Mal worked through some rough details for a backpack. It would sit low on his back making room for the extra arms he intended to grow soon. He contemplated maybe just extra blade arms like his dad¡­maybe scorpion stingers now that his poison skill had leveled up so much. The MC dinged and he opened the door. A much thicker cloud came out than had entered. His swarms had multiplied, doubling twice over now that his skill rank was three. He dispersed the motes about the area, determined to increase his skill while he waited. He loaded his jumper design and backpack designs into the queue. The MC was big enough to do both fabrications at once. He ran back to grab another burger before Charlie ate them all. The MC dinged again, and Max grabbed a handful of fries and ran back over. Charlie was cursing up a storm. Apparently, the augmented poison resistance filtered out the alcohol from the blood and he had forgotten to disable the skill. He had declared it a waste of beer and therefore a sin. Max pulled his hot wire jumpers and new backpack out of the MC. He selected another pair of 6 packs for beer, while he uncoiled his cable. Tesla used his OverLayer to guide him on pulling the MC out of the wall and hooking it up to the power leads. The machine dinged. Max pulled the beers out and dragged the end of his cable to the couch. Charlie popped the tops of a couple of beers and passed one to Max. ¡°So, this is your plan? Are you gonna jump-start our friend here?¡± Charlie asked. ¡°Roughly¡­yes. It''s got an accessible power regulator, so it won¡¯t fry him. Part of Xavier¡¯s issue, and the reason he¡¯s still down, is power depletion. Xavier¡¯s AI can regulate this cable¡¯s power output and use it to fuel the repair while topping off his energy stores. Do me a favor and let his AI know what¡¯s up while I hook him up?¡± Max asked. Max queued Tesla up with his OverLayer so that he could highlight the best way to connect the leads to Xavier. He attached the cables and stood back with his beer. Charlie gave him a nod and held up his beer. Max clinked it with his own and took a drink. ¡°Now it''s on Jarvis to sort Xavier out.¡± Charlie said. ¡°The AI agrees that this should help speed the recovery process significantly.¡±
The pair were more than halfway through the beer when Xavier woke up swinging. They calmed him down and got his story about his gauntlet run. ¡°Firstly, awesome news that you got the Power Core skill. It will help you quite a bit. I think it''s a big help. I think I can see how you got stuck in the challenge.¡± Max said. Xavier sat up, but left the jumper leads on. ¡°Sounds like you brought out your best attacks first. I guess I got lucky on this, but I started with my weakest skills. The gauntlet challenge wants you to focus on them and grow them. Leading with your best skills only made your next opponents that much more powerful.¡± Max said. ¡°I think maybe you need at least one more arrow in your quiver, another weak attack to play for time. Poison worked great for Max. What do you say? Another session with the vest?¡± Charlie said. ¡°Argh, not the vest again!¡± Xavier wailed. ¡°Vest? What are you guys talking about?¡± Max said. ¡°I brought a special training aid, self-crafted, to help build resistances.¡± Charlie said. He pulled off the top of his smart suit and showed a tight vest underneath. He unbuckled it and pulled it off, laying it on the table. ¡°This little beauty is designed to torment you 24/7 with abuse¡­selectable abuse¡­to train our resistance to damage types. Right now, it''s only got shocking, heat, cold, poison, slashing, and by pure happenstance pain effects. I¡¯m not sure how much more I can put into it.¡± Xavier popped up and grabbed the vest. ¡°Fine! I¡¯ll wear the stupid masochistic vest. God damn it. One more extra attack and start with the fucking weakest skills. I got it. Fuck!¡± Xavier stormed off to the other side of the rest area, strapping on the vest. He sat down in a meditation pose, gritting his teeth, as he tried to settle down as the pain began. ¡°Hey Xavier¡­¡± Max called across the space. ¡°I got dibs after you on the vest. My heat and cold resistance are still shit.¡± It was getting late. Xavier had made his breakthrough and gotten the [Poison] skill and was getting his gear ready for another try when Max¡¯s swarm saw Leah¡¯s door open. Everyone rushed to the hall as Leah came limping into the safe area. ¡°Hell! Am I the last?¡± Leah cried as she made her way painfully. All the boys broke out in laughs. Max stepped up to help her walk. ¡°No¡­you¡¯re not last, Leah. I''m afraid Xavier still needs a redo. He was just getting ready to go again. Did you finish?¡± He asked. ¡°Damn right, I finished!¡± Leah said as she kept walking. She collapsed into a lounge chair. ¡°Do I see beer?¡± she drawled. ¡°Hehe. Here you go, Leah. One big step is done. Relax while we see Xavier off again.¡± Charlie said. The boys walked Xavier to the entry room to his challenge. Charlie clapped his shoulders and looked him in the eyes. ¡°You got this Xavier. Start small and move it around. Don''t escalate further until you need it. Use the ring, and weapons as a last resort. Got it?¡± Charlie said. ¡°Got it, sir.¡± Xavier, he eyed Max. ¡°Any more advice, Max?¡± ¡°No¡­I believe you got this, buddy. Remember my motto?¡± Max asked. ¡°Um, no. You got a motto?¡± Xavier asked in confusion. ¡°Don''t go fast. Slow is smooth¡­smooth is fast. That''s all you need. Like I said¡­you got this,¡± Max said. He punched the Thark lightly on the arm and stepped back. Xavier nodded to both and jogged down the hall. The stone door dropped as he passed. The pair looked at each other for a second until Max spoke. ¡°Dibs on that vest!¡± he yelled and ran back to the safe zone.
Adept Ch 5 - Rewards
Max sat on a mat in the rest area trying to meditate. His new power jumper cable was attached to his left sleeve. To all appearances, he was using it in the same manner as it had been employed for Xavier...to top off his energy reserves. It was actually not hooked to him, but rather the Tesseract''s anchoring marble that was secured against his inner arms contact pads. Charlie''s resistance training vest was actively burning his left side while freezing his right. He forced himself to ignore the pain. The vest¡¯s setting had a scale that he had set high enough to be effective above his growing resistance to heat and cold.
[Heat Resistance +1, Heat Resistance reaches level 10, Skill cap reached +100 XP, new skill unlocked] [New Body Skill: Heat Grasp 1, Augmentation provides induction heating through contact surfaces. Utilize this skill in combat to improve. Burn all the things!] [Cold Resistance +1, Cold Resistance reaches level 9]
Max had upped the vest setting for the Cold attack another point higher. He switched the Heat attack over to Shock. He already had capped this skill and gained its evolution attack skill, but some Shock damage could still get through. He wondered if there was another level of resistance. He sank back into meditation. The struggle to ignore the physical stimulus was helping him advance his meditation training greatly. Max¡¯s training was very much to his SkillZ ability¡¯s liking, his meditation a unique blend of Musashi¡¯s training and using his augmentation to help get his brain in the right level between conscious and dream state. Max wasn''t idle from it though. Partitioned in the back of his mind, he analyzed the designs of both Leah¡¯s new spear and Charlie¡¯s polymorphic weapon. His [Multitasking] skill was fully engaged with multiple tasks. - - Max¡¯s secondary consciousness stream was hard at work. Max intended to upgrade his acquired swords and he needed to learn some of the tricks that his friends had applied. Charlie¡¯s weapon could reshape itself into a walking stick, Bo staff, sword, long pole, or wearable bandolier. It had a dense battery that could store enough for an impressive discharge of shocking damage. Leah¡¯s new spear weapon was the current target of his attention. It duplicated his, and her, augmentation to enhance their claws with an ultra-sharp edge¡­a vorpal edge, as it was termed. He was peeling back the design in a virtual space with Tesla''s advice. Both of them had avatars running to discuss the 3-D design. ¡°See right there! You have three layers of diamond lattice arranged in a fractal edge only eleven carbon atoms thick in total. Each oscillates in a counter-cutting cycle at just over 100 hertz. Fabulous!¡± Tesla exclaimed. He always got very excited about the technology that came after his time. ¡°But what is this over here? See this channel? It extends over the entire perimeter back too¡­¡± Max asked as he expanded and shifted the atomic-scale representation. ¡°That''s the best part! Look at the base of the blade. It incorporates an ionized plasma jet, guided by the groove. It vaporizes and pushes away any encountered materials that might foul the reciprocating blades. Coincidentally, this provides yet another deadly cutting method which further improves the weapon¡¯s effectiveness.¡± Tesla gushed. ¡°Ok, That answers my question as to why it has such a huge energy draw. I didn''t understand how a really sharp edge would be such a battery hog.¡± Max said. He was looking closer at the plasma generator when Mal¡¯s excited avatar appeared. ¡°Max! Good news. I''ve maxed out the draw through the jumpers to the Tesseract. I don''t know what the Labyrinth is using for power generation, but we''re getting twice as much as the full 10MW fusion generator that your father was using. It looks like, with this feed rate, every hour you''re hooked up; the pocket space grows by 30 millimeters.¡± Mal said. ¡°That''s good. The whole darn world sounds like it was going crazy outside. We need to make the most of every second down here in the maze, to improve ourselves.¡± Max said. Mal seemed to freeze. Max stopped his inspection of the plasma mechanism with a curious look up at her. ¡°Oh¡­ that''s strange. Look at your augmentation energy status.¡± Mal said. Max called up his status screen. Both electricity and cold were delivering tissue and system damage, forcing his augs to try and keep up with regeneration and pain suppression. His energy should have been dropping at a steady pace but instead, it was oscillating. Curious he opened the vest access and toggled off the electricity for full cold. The energy levels dropped slowly and steadily. He toggled to full electricity¡­and the energy levels increased! He held it for a bit, then toggled to poison and heat. The energy levels dropped again. ¡°How about that? It looks like the Shock resistance skill is shunting the power into the augmentation energy reserves. It''s not good for a regulated power draw, but in a desperate situation, taking a shock might actually help if someone''s out of juice. I''ll bet this is only because I¡¯ve already capped my resistance to shock. I¡¯ll share this with the team. Good one, Mal.¡± As Mal¡¯s avatar faded, Max turned to Tesla. ¡°You know, that might be an interesting thing. Imagine using this as a weapon. If I could tap into an enemy''s power lines and pull their power for myself. Now, here¡¯s what I¡¯m thinking¡­.¡± - - - Max¡¯s third alternate conscious stream was playing with his improved swarm of nano motes. His control was improving. Leah was out, taking a nap after her rough trial. Charlie was stretching, an old habit that really wasn''t needed with his augmentations enhancing both strength and flexibility. He reviewed his latest notices.
[Swarm +1, Swarm reaches level 4] [Multitask +1, Multitask reaches level 5] [Analyze +1, Analyze reaches level 9] [WorldMap +1, WorldMap reaches level 6] [Daemon +1, Daemon reaches level 5] [Daemon list: Miyamoto Musashi, Sherlock Holmes, Nikola Tesla, Captain Cypher, ] [SkillZ +1, SkillZ reaches level 5] [Mind Skills - SkillZ: 5 In: Swim, NanoCraft, Brachiate, Meditate 0.85*, searching.] [Mind Skills - SkillZ: Out: Katana, Kempo, Kunai: 0.88, pending, pending]
It was getting late. He held a full picture of the Gauntlet Trial in his head. His swarm circulated through the opened passages to refine his map. Only Xavier¡¯s path was still shut off from him. Max had filled the image in with his best guess of the area Xavier was still in. Xavier¡¯s nano tracker showed his progress. He was in his final challenge. Max kept his review of the design alter ego going as well as the one monitoring the swarm. He launched yet another to keep a constant eye on his augmentations...and Mal''s activities. He had noticed that she was spending a lot more time inspecting the Tesseract and his kernel of encrypted code that linked him to it. Occasionally, she would spout that gibberish mumbling when she thought he was distracted. He was worried about her mental state. He had tried to talk about it with her but she refused to discuss it.
Max¡¯s eyes opened as he stopped meditation with his primary consciousness and stood up. He quietly disconnected the power jumper from his wrist. With some hand gestures, he let Charlie know he was going to collect Xavier. Charlie indicated he would stay with the sleeping Leah. Max soundlessly padded from the rest area to meet their lagging teammate. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.
[Stealth +1, Stealth reaches level 5]
Max jogged lightly down the corridor. His shoulder blades itched. Mal had started the [Transform] skills growth of his extra arms. He reached back and pulled a Supplement Bar from his new backpack as he moved. The slow transformation would take extra energy but also needed the extra inorganics the tasty food bar would provide. Max entered Xavier¡¯s now open hall. The first room was bare, so Max picked up the pace to a light run. He was curious if any of the broken robots might yield weapons or designs worth inspecting. As he ran, Max could see the gap between him and Xavier was closing fast. Xavier must be running too. Max slid to a halt as the large four-armed monstrosity came barreling down the hall with a wide grin stretching from tusk to tusk. Xavier yelled out waving his¡­very functional and deadly-looking lightsabers. ¡°Max! I did it! I wish you could have seen it. I was super patient and used the bare minimum and switched only when I had to just like you said. I did it!¡± Xavier said slowing down. ¡°Wow, Xavier. Congratulations. You look like you stepped right out of a Star Wars VRARP game. Are those things legit lightsabers?¡± Max asked. ¡°As close as the Guild of Jedi Knights could make them. I can¡¯t take credit for them, I bought¡¯em off the MakerNet. I was holding off on showing them so I could surprise everyone, but that last fight was too tough.¡± Xavier said breathlessly. Max stepped back as two mean-looking drones flew up over Xavier¡¯s shoulders and a dense cloud of foglets pushed his mote swarm away. ¡°Heh. Careful there, kid. You¡¯re crowding my personal space with your foglets.¡± Max cautioned. ¡°Sorry. I¡¯m still a little amped from the fight. I had to pop open a few of my gadgets to take down the baddies.¡± Xavier said. He deactivated his sabers and hooked all four on his utility belt''s loops. His dorsal arms bent backward and opened his backpack. The drones and foglets swiftly gathered tight and crowded into the pack. ¡°Thanks. You got an exit key and reward token right?¡± Max asked. Xavier patted the mailbag strapped tightly to his side. ¡°OK then. Let¡¯s head back. It¡¯s pretty late and Leah might still be napping. If we can get her up, we should open the gate and check out how these reward tokens work.¡± Max said.
The pair returned to find both Leah and Charlie already awake and waiting eagerly for them. They had prepared a huge meal which was laid out on the common area table. After a round of congratulations all around, everyone sat down for a meal. Their augments used a lot of energy making even the most calorie-dense foods not only acceptable, but highly necessary. After three plates Max leaned back in his chair, burping. Xavier was still working on his fourth plate. Leah was debating another dessert from the assortment on the tray in the center of the table, while Charlie sipped his beer. ¡°So, what do you say, guys? Wanna open that door to the next level and get our level rewards? No celebration is complete without presents.¡± Charlie drawled. ¡°HoooBoy! Let¡¯s go!¡± Xavier jumped up and ran to the exit door. He found a panel next to the door to the next level. There were slots for each of their key cards. ¡°Hey! You already put yours in?!¡± Xavier exclaimed. Three of the four exit card slots were already occupied. ¡°Hah hah. Come on. Finish it and let''s see what''s next.¡± Charlie said. Xavier, with a mix of eagerness and anticipation, slid his key card into the last slot. A soft mechanical hum echoed through the chamber as the door''s locking mechanisms disengaged, and then, with a rumble of heavy motors, the large door began to slide open. The room beyond was small with a kiosk against the wall with a big sign over it that showed a bag with coins falling out of it. Beyond the kiosk was a door with a big ¡°2¡± on it. ¡°Subtle. I expect the kiosk will take our reward tokens and give us our reward.¡± Leah said dryly. Xavier rushed over to it. A quick inspection showed only a pair of contact pads and a small impression that matched the token in size. Xavier put his in and put his hands on the contacts. After a moment, he grabbed his token and stepped back with a glum look. ¡°We¡¯ve got to go in order of completion. I guess you''re first Charlie.¡± Xavier said with a sour look. Charlie stepped up to the kiosk with a wink and pressed his chit into the receiver''s depression. Charlie was viewing the results in his Overlay. After a moment, he said. ¡°Ok, Y''all look here. I''ll share my access screen with you. Let''s make sure we maximize our rewards to best benefit the team, okay?¡± Charlie said. The teams shared OverLayer lit up with a blue screen.
[The Gauntlet - Reward pool: Select one reward from the limited list in order of completion - Charlie Hawkins, Max Mitchell, Leah Choi, Xavier Bermatti. 1 Reward per challenger, quantity removed upon choice, not redeemable later.] [Reward 1: Skill advancement: +3 Levels for any skill, Qty 2] [Reward 2: Activation of Tier 3 Skill ¡°Skinwalker¡± - Smart matter epithelial layering with internal modeling of capture images and replicate appearances quickly, Qty 1] [Reward 3: Free Stat Points +20, Qty 2] [Reward 4: Daemon emulation of Alan Turing with modernized skills in encryption, cognitive science, and math theory. This selection will force open a slot or activate a skill if needed. Qty 1] [Reward 5: Rambler Board - A Longboard which hovers upon a rolling cloud of dedicated/restrained EMP resistance utility fog. Specifications: Power - 50 MW Speed- 50 KPH Cost- up to 1MWh at max speed Size- 1.5 x .5 meter. Qty 1] [Reward 6: Bolo Drones - detain and restrain limbs, no skill required. Bolo ends are agile drones designed for one purpose - to entangle your designated target. Specifications: Power- 5MW Speed- 80 KPH Cost- 0.5 MW /throw Range: 1 KM. Qty 1] [Reward 7: Daemon emulation of Genghis Khan with modernized skills in crowd melee tactics, animal husbandry, and riding, intimidation. This selection will open a slot or activate a skill if needed. Qty 1] [Reward 8: Strange Cloak - limited hover/levitation like the classic VR hero Dr. Strange. Specifications: Power- 5 MW Speed- 10 MPH Cost- 1 MW/min. Qty 1] [Reward 9: Activations of Tier 3 Skill - Laser. Beyond the disorientation of Strobe is the damaging high power Laser skill. Instant line of sight damage of escalating power with training. Qty 1] [Reward 10: Conduit Blade. Extendible concealed bracer blade with additional shocking damage variable by user skill level. Specification: Power- n/a, user-powered Damage: blade plus shock at double user skill level. Qty 1]
¡°Thoughts?¡± Charlie asked as his kiosk interface was shared with the whole group. ¡°Wowie!¡± Xavier exclaimed. ¡°Some good loot!¡± ¡°Huh. Don¡¯t pick the Conduit Blade. If you really want it, Mira will give you a copy when we get out. It¡¯s a flawed design though, you saw how I took advantage of it with Tyler at the tournament.¡± Max said. ¡°Interesting. I think I¡¯m getting close to leveling my daemon skill, but without access to the MakerIndex down here, I¡¯ll be stuck without new choices. Good to see the Labyrinth will give us some options. Still, I don¡¯t need a fighting or coding advisor right now.¡± Leah said. ¡°Well, shit! I do; coding skill that is, not fighting. If nobody contests it, I¡¯ll take the Alan Turing emulation and finally get on the daemon train. I haven¡¯t been able to activate the damn skill, so this is a pretty good pick for me.¡± Charlie said. The team all shrugged, so Charlie made his choice. Charlie''s chip slid into the kiosk. Max accessed the kiosk and shared it with the team OverLayer. The Turing daemon was removed from the list. ¡°Hmm. The [Skinwalker] skill would have been super useful topside, but I''m not sure about how useful it is down here in the maze. I guess I need a distance attack, my grappler only reaches so far. Unless someone¡¯s desperate for it, I¡¯ll take the [Laser] skill activation.¡± Max said. Leah and Xavier were silent considering the rest of the list. ¡°You sure about that Max? If you start spamming your [Strobe] skill, you¡¯ll get there eventually.¡± Charlie said. ¡°Yeah, I get it. But my strobe skill is only 3. It¡¯s going to take too long and I need more options right now.¡± Max said and dropped his chip in with his selection. Leah stepped up. ¡°Hell. Tough choices. I¡¯m really tempted by the 3 skill levels choice. That could cap either my [Neural Scaffold] or [Unbreakable] skills. Those skills suck so hard to level. You masochists might not mind broken bones and concussions, but I do. Damn. I think I need to take that levitation cloak. It''s too useful to pass up. I¡¯m pretty good at dodging but if these fights escalate to multiple opponents, it¡¯ll be a lot harder. If I can stay out of contact range, I can dominate a fight with my spetsdods.¡± ¡°Aww! I wanted to add that to my collection. I¡¯ve got like 15 of the top 20 VR Heroes of the Century. I didn¡¯t have a good Dr. Strange item. Never mind, that¡¯s fine. It sounds like you might be able to use it.¡± Xavier pouted but blushed when Leah raised an eyebrow and nodded to encourage her to take it. She selected the option and dropped her chip into the kiosk. A hidden drawer popped out of the side of the kiosk, revealing a folded red cloak within. Leah hissed as she pulled it out. ¡°Damn. I hope I can change the color. This is a bit much.¡± Leah groused. Xavier bounced up and down and accessed the kiosk for his turn. ¡°I want the Rambler board if you guys think that¡¯s ok. You all are so much faster than me and it sounds pretty cool.¡± Xavier said. ¡°You sure that¡¯s a good idea, Xavier? It¡¯s pretty big to lug around when you''re not using it. ¡°Ah, that¡¯s no problemo, big guy. I¡¯ll make some mag snaps to hang it off my backpack. I¡¯ve been working on building up my strength just like you said and I¡¯m getting super strong now. Oo-oh! This might be cool to use as a shield if I can add a strap and mod it with armor plating. ¡°Xavier¡¯s four arms were waving about mimicking blocking and fighting. ¡°Ha. Go nuts, Xavier. You know what works for you. Maybe next floor, you¡¯ll show us some of those mystery gadgets you''ve got in that pack.¡± Xavier made his pick and dropped his chip in. Another drawer opened with the long board and Xavier hurried to grab it. The screen visible to the team changed as the drawer stayed open.
[Exit Toll required - Submit a novel crafted item with a maximum of 85% similarity to existing licensed products on the Maker indexes. Deposit submission in the kiosk drawer for evaluation.]
¡°Hah! Don''t you worry guys! I got this one. Plenty of gear in my bag of tricks.¡± Xavier said. He dropped his backpack on the ground and then took out a small drone and put it in the drawer.
[Assessment disassembly commencing - time estimate for novelty scoring based on weight is 6hrs 30min.]
¡°Ttutong, gaejasig!¡± Leah exclaimed in Korean. ¡°I¡¯m going back to bed. See you in the morning.¡±
Adept Ch 6 - The Hunt
Max woke when the notification chimed in his head.
[Exit Toll ¨C Novel Item: Bermatti Recon Drone has been Accepted with a similarity to the closest licensed drone ¨C the X-Fire 3000 ¨C of 83%. Notable additions of increased battery density and quiet mode as differentiating features.] [Quest: The Gauntlet ¨C Completed, +500 XP awarded.] [Max Mitchell +1 Level, Max achieves Adept 20, +10 free stat points awarded.]
Max¡¯s irritation at the system prompt''s early wake-up alarm quickly disappeared as he saw the new level. The Labyrinth at the very first level had delivered massive training gains. Admittedly, he had pushed and been pushed hard to gain Adept levels during and after the tournament. One more level and he would officially be into the Master stage and able to quit the training program any time, at the cost of setting his skill at their current levels. Max had seen the difference between a casual and mastery approach to augmentation training and use. His father had been required to share his live feed of the fight between himself and the home invader with the Utopia police and Max had seen it. The home invaders were mercenaries by trade but against Bill, they didn¡¯t last even a minute. The difference in power was immense. True master status meant climbing to the peaks of all his skills and more. Max had set a high bar for himself; he wouldn¡¯t be a quitter. He would squeeze every ounce of power out of his augs and come back for more. Max realized he was wide awake now. He had taken a number of items out of the Tesseract, concealed within his new backpack space. He silently rolled out of his camp bed. He was running [Access] skill continuously to stay connected with his smart suit, the Tesseract, his swarm, his grappler, and now his camp bed. He switched its mode from cloud form to compressed and watched in amusement as the large bed shrank to the size of a deck of cards¡­a dense and heavy deck. Max stowed the bed in his pack and silently padded to the MC. Everyone was starting to stir but they weren¡¯t quite up yet. He reached out with his access and programmed a quick breakfast for four with coffee and juice.
[Stealth +1, Stealth reaches level 6]
The team got up quickly to the smell of food and coffee. Max wasn¡¯t the only one eager to go. Xavier had been the grumpiest originally and now he was buzzing constantly hurrying the others. ¡°Come on. There¡¯s another rest area on the next level. Let¡¯s go. I wanna see our next challenge.¡± Xavier said, bouncing up and down. The team eagerly gathered their gear and with a nod, Xavier accessed and opened the door. The downward spiraling stone stairs were familiar, and the team set off with a brisk pace.
After over thirty minutes of descent, they came to the door to level 2. As a team, they crossed the threshold.
[New Quest Unlocked: ¡°The Great Hunt¡± - sharpen your senses and skills to understand the relationship between predator and prey. Objective 0/2 complete.] [Objective 1 - Find your prey and take their ¡°heart¡±]
The team came out of the tunnel into a wide dark area. Max was startled as he felt a breeze, smelled trees and animals, and heard the sounds of the forest. The skies had no stars and the so-called trees, barely visible in the twilight, were twisted and strange. Max picked up several small heat signatures with his thermal vision, but his nose wasn¡¯t fooled. There appeared to be a multitude of smaller creatures, on the ground and in the trees, but they weren¡¯t natural. The mimic robot''s polymer skin and synthetic fur had a very different bouquet to his sharp nose, and he wasn¡¯t fooled. ¡°I sense quite a few animals, but which one is the ¨C.¡± Max cut himself off as his EM sense picked up a profound thump ahead and slightly to the left. It was too quick to catch the bearing. Xavier made a questioning grunt. ¡°Are you having a stroke there, Max, you stopped in -.¡± Xavier started and cut himself off at Max¡¯s shushing exclamation. The thump hit again. ¡°Listen!¡± Max said. Both Leah and Xavier were now looking in the same direction as Max. The EM signal wasn¡¯t an aura like normal but rather like a sound, a steady thrum, like a sleeping heartbeat. Charlie was the only one who wasn¡¯t picking up on it.
[EM Sense +1, EM Sense reaches level 8, training this skill further to sense even more electromagnetic wavelengths, radio wavelengths unlocked.]
¡°Damn it, what¡¯s going on?¡± Charlie said, picking up that he was the only one not sensing something. ¡°How¡¯s your EM sense, big bro? Sensing radio doesn¡¯t unlock until you level it up pretty high.¡± Xavier said. ¡°Level 8 unlocks it. I haven¡¯t heard radio before, mine just advanced.¡± Max said. ¡°Son of a bitch¡­my skill is only level 2.¡± Charlie said grimly. He wasn¡¯t used to being behind the power curve. ¡°No worries, Charlie. Excepting you, we can all sense it. We stick together and follow the signal.¡± Leah said. Charlie nodded and then pulled his weapon free and set it to sword form. Max took the lead with a light jog and built-up speed in the direction of the pulse, building up his WorldMap with all of his senses. He was pleasantly surprised that Xavier was keeping up, he had been working really hard under Charlie¡¯s mentoring. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. Max skidded to a stop only 20 seconds into the run. The heartbeat had stopped. ¡°Fuck. I guess just following a signal would be too easy. I¡¯ve got the bearing on my WorldMap skill. We might have to actually hunt now.¡± Max shook his head and started running again, the others quickly following. Max smelled lots of subtlety different scents, but nothing that jumped out as their target. Ten minutes later, the beat came back¡­almost directly behind them. Max and the others stopped immediately. ¡°What the heck. I didn¡¯t sense anything crossing our path. How did it get behind us?¡± Max said. They changed direction and charged off quickly following the signal. Predictably the signal quit only half a minute later. Max slowed without discussion and tried to push his senses further.
[ExaVision +1, ExaVision reaches level 8 - sense extended to include passive X-ray detection.] [SkillZ talent scan has detected a novel skill. Offer Instinctual Tracking as a skill for trade? Y/N?]
Max agreed instantly but slowed even further. He shook his head as he failed to pick up a trail. ¡°Guys, can you stop a second?¡± Xavier said. Everyone agreed and stopped, looking to Xavier to see what his concern was. ¡°Sorry, guys. My daemons are mostly science types and they¡¯ve been debating that signal for a while now. They all agree we should fan out so we can get a parallax on it, the more distant the better. That way we can direction and using our different positions we should be able to calculate distance as well.¡± Xavier said, his conviction growing as he leaned into his explaining the issue. Max heard his daemon advisors all quickly agreeing in the back of his mind and adjusted his thinking to accommodate the new strategy. ¡°Good idea, Xavier. Let¡¯s keep a group chat going via telephony and share our WorldMaps on a shared OverLayer.¡± Max followed up his suggestion by placing the calls and then opening their shared OverLayer and painting it with his personal sense map. One by one the others followed suit, the shared map growing dense with signals from everyone and their scanner motes.
[WorldMap +1, WorldMap reaches level 6, Map skill can grow by incorporating more sources and types of senses.]
Judging by the gasps from his friends, Max suspected they had all just advanced their WorldMap skill as well. ¡°All right. Let¡¯s spread out but be careful. Charlie, stick close to Xavier for now since you aren¡¯t getting the signal.¡± The team began jogging again, spreading out as they went. Mal pinged Max. ¡°[Max, my¡­other¡¯s gift Robo-Raven might be another extra sensor we can use. Even better, it can fly upward. We can establish parallax in three dimensions.]¡± ¡°[Thanks Mal. Good idea.]¡± Max sent. He stopped and pulled his backpack off. He hadn¡¯t actually transferred the robot bird into the pack yet, but he reached in pretending. Using his access to the Tesseract, he used its manipulator arms to grab its stored mimic bird and push it into his hand as he created the small portal inside the backpack. Bird in hand, he closed the portal and the pack. Max split his thoughts and accessed the drone bird. He flew it away as he re-slung his pack and resumed trotting. His second self was enjoying the feeling of flight immensely.
[Pilot +1, Pilot reaches level 2] [Multitask +1, Multitask reaches level 7]
The next time the signal beating rang out the team caught it and mapped the origin quickly. It was over a mile distant, but now they had a target. The whole team took off in a sprint. Even after the signal stopped, Max continued. He dropped to all fours for more speed. He exulted in the speed, his motes started to lag behind him but his Raven coursed ahead, above the trees. The ¡°animals¡± of the dark forest scattered before him. He entered a depression between hills, the signal should be ahead if it hadn¡¯t moved. He paused. The wind was coming to him from the valley. Max picked up a new scent. It tasted¡­ sweet and powerful. It enticed and urged him forward. Driven by the scent''s allure, Max pushed deeper into the valley, his instincts honed and alert. The sweet, potent aroma grew stronger, pulling him forward as if the very air beckoned him closer. Max stalked closer as he landed the Raven above and saw it. The animals of the forest had proven to be very elusive and shy so far. This wasn¡¯t a regular forest animal like the world above. It was a robot mimic, shaped like a spider the size of a sheep. It shimmered briefly in his sight as it moved. When it stopped it almost disappeared. It blends in so well. A good camouflage design or mimicking nature? Whatever it is, it¡¯s damn effective. Max thought. He sent a power bank mote forward, small enough not to spook it and it latched on to some fur on the spider''s back. He named the mote ¡°Target¡±.
[Nano Tracker +1, Nano Tracker reaches level 4]
Max cautioned his friends to come in slow. They approached and surrounded the rim of the depression and worked their way in slowly. Someone must have spooked it because it took off like a race car. Max sliced out with his new [Laser] skill and clipped it, taking off a trailing leg. Leah was faster than him and stitched the thing with her Spetsdod darts. The spider spasmed and crashed into the brush, craters in its synthetic flesh where darts exploded. Xavier bound forward and got his four hands on it. ¡°Hah, got him! You¡¯re not going anywhere bug!¡± He yelled triumphantly. The forest sounds that had been playing stopped abruptly, the only sounds were the team¡¯s heavy breathing from the run and a light breeze. Max felt the most powerful EM pulse yet, thrumming like a hummingbird''s wings. Six or seven whistling screeches sounded off in the distance. Xavier dropped the dead spider in shock at the resounding pulse and cries from the woods. The screeches didn¡¯t stop but were getting louder, like oncoming trains. The sounds were getting closer and multiplying. ¡°Shit! Up! Into the trees, quickly!¡± Charlie said from atop the ridge. He leaped into the nearest tree in a 20¡¯ bound and climbed higher. The whole team scrambled quickly to follow suit. Max froze halfway up his tree going cold all over. Centipede creatures large enough to have difficulty passing through a regular door crashed into the valley from every direction. Max cringed and shrank in on himself, trying to avoid their attention.
[Chameleon +1, Chameleon reaches level 3] [Stealth +1, Stealth reaches level 7]
The first centipede grabbed the dead spider and swallowed it whole. The rapidly pulsing beat continued, driving the large centipedes crazy. The valley turned into a roiling orgy of destruction as the other monsters attacked it and tore the spider corpse out of the first monster. The chaos below was both terrifying and mesmerizing. Max held his breath, gripping the tree tightly. The centipedes'' frenzy escalated, their violent thrashing threatening to uproot the very trees the team clung to. Leah whispered over the comm, "Don''t make a sound. Wait for them to leave." Time seemed to stretch endlessly, each second filled with the monstrous cacophony below. Finally, as the pulsing beat subsided and wounded creatures began to disperse, Max dared to exhale, a whisper of relief lost in the wind. He slowly started to descend when another heartbeat pulse sounded. The team was still linked and Mal automatically charted the origin. Two miles north. ¡°Shit. Another signal! No way that was this bug. It¡¯s in the belly of one of those monsters. I tagged it with a tracker.¡± Max said. ¡°[Actually sir, the signal is the same as the first we heard. I¡¯ve replayed your sense logs. There are four different signals which each sound out in intervals. I surmise that each must be hunted for the objective.]¡± Sherlock said, injecting his dry voice into the team¡¯s chat. Whether by coincidence or a twisted sense of humor, the next notification pinged from his system.
[The Hunt - Objective 2: The hunters become the hunted. Evade predators and transport the heart to the level''s safe rest area.]
Adept Ch 7 - The Hunted
The team knew more of the rules of the hunt now. They had four targets to hunt and collect. Taking possession of the ¡°heart¡± would alert every predator within miles of their presence and enrage them into a berserker status. They had a time limit to get each ¡°heart¡± to the rest zone. The heart''s taunting signals would last 10 long minutes of terror, where whoever held the prize had to run for their lives. After the heart calmed, its holder could hide and rest. It would still ping and trigger nearby beasts every fifteen minutes, but it only pulled very locally and subsided again after thirty seconds. The team has found out the hard way that the heart would dissolve if you didn¡¯t get it to the rest zone within an hour. Fortunately, the their experimentation had helped them locate the safe zone. The heart¡¯s pinging was received and answered with a ping from the safe zone that only the prize holder could sense. After two separate attempts, the team had finally zeroed in on its location. Four days of camping in the dangerous artificial woodlands had left everyone on edge and hungry. Max had leveled his recycling skill twice and everyone on the team had now activated theirs. Now, no one would lack energy from food, but the hunger never faded. Finding the rest zone was like paradise. It looked like a stone house built into the side of an exposed cliff face. The team took two more days to recover from the unplanned camping excursion; to eat, bathe, and sleep without worry about creature attacks. The team made meticulous plans, coaxing attacks from the new targets to learn each creature¡¯s capabilities. They planted tracker motes on each so they could be tracked and found easier; and then they planned their hunting campaign. Sherlock had suspected that the hour time limit applied to all the hearts, and all at once. Everyone agreed that they would each take a target solo and return to the safety zone at full speed. They sat together for a big lunch planning the final details for clearing the level. Xavier hoisted his newly armored Rambler Board on his back. Max downed supplement bars between bites of bacon. His extra arms were still underdeveloped. He had simplified the design to get some use from them. Double-jointed and ending in blades, rather than articulation fingers, was a lot simpler. He had duplicated his augmentation¡¯s design for his claws to include his vorpal and poison abilities with the blades. He had broken his acquired katana early in their hunts. ¡°I still think I should go after the giant centipede. I¡¯ve got a pair of fragmentation grenades, for god¡¯s sake.¡± Charlie groused. ¡°I¡¯ve leveled all my special attacks and now I¡¯ve got two extra-long blades in addition to my claws. I can handle it. Save your grenade, we might need it later.¡± Max said. ¡°It really sucks that the dungeon MC has governors preventing weapon duplication, we all could have had a barrel of grenades.¡± Xavier complained. ¡°That¡¯s exactly why those limitations are there. Some ass probably did it and now the AI managers put a stop to it.¡± Leah said. ¡°Alright. Max gets the centipede. I¡¯ve got the Moose with the flaming antlers. Leah gets that Razor wing thing and Xavier gets the 100-pound groundhog.¡± Max said. ¡°Soon to be 100 pounds of ground beef.¡± Xavier said, lighting up a pair of his plasma sabers. ¡°Aniya! Put those things away at the table. You burn me one more time and I¡¯ll skewer you with my claw blades.¡± Leah said. Max laughed. ¡°Let¡¯s get out there. We all need some action, sooner rather than later. Keep connected and shout out if you run into trouble. All the trackers are about a 30-minute run from here. There¡¯s a river passing the south quadrant and that gorge to the northwest. Be careful if your hunt takes you close to them. Don¡¯t get trapped.¡± Max said. ¡°Be careful out there. Just like we planned, and we¡¯ll be on the next level tonight.¡± Charlie said.
Max lurked in the forest, following the signs left by the gigantic centipede. The wind shifted and his keen nose picked up on his prey again. The team was almost in place, in another 30 minutes they would execute their plan. Max knew precisely where it was, thanks to the tracker mote it had eaten, but he was practicing his tracking for the benefit of the SkillZ trainer. Over the last couple of days, he had tons of opportunities to use it. The scent, the disturbed ground, and now the lingering thermal traces all told him what he already knew. It was just around the next rock outcropping.
[SkillZ input skill Instinctual Tracking - complete. SkillZ +1, SkillZ reaches level 6] [Mind Skills - SkillZ: 6 Inputs: Swim, NanoCraft, Brachiate, Tracking, Meditate 0.91, searching] [Mind Skills - SkillZ: Out: Katana, Kempo, Kunai, , pending] [New SkillZ selections available: Houdini escapism, Negotiation, Advanced Motorcycling, Phishing for Fun and Profit, Advanced Nano Crafting, Advanced Drone Piloting] [Select SkillZ output ability now?]
¡°[Mal, can I defer my selection? Kinda busy right now.]¡± Max thought. ¡°[Of course, Max. I would have suppressed it, but you weren¡¯t in the fight yet, so I let it pass in case there was a weapon skill for you.]¡± Mal said. Max pulled his motes into special recesses he had designed into his outfit. He would likely be running soon and didn¡¯t want to lose any more motes. Even though he leveled the skill and doubled his quantity again, he had done a hard count and realized he was missing quite a few scouts and some scanner and power bank motes as well. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. He pulled off his backpack and took the robo-raven out to assist in building his WorldMap. He split his focus and piloted it away. His Multitasking was at level 5 now. He could form another three streams of independent thought. He pulled two of Casa¡¯s sym-hornets with Cold attack special abilities. In the team¡¯s probing attacks, the centipede had proven to be extra sensitive to cold. It had been very sluggish when chilled; making it much easier to both attack and defend against. He left one thought stream open for emergencies. He still didn¡¯t trust Mal could keep it together in combat and would use himself as a system¡¯s support if he needed to cut her out of his augs. He perched the hornets on his shoulders for now. Their noisy buzzing flight was a great distraction in a fight but would also give away his stealthy approach. He silently climbed the rocks and hid in the bushes at the top. He saw the synthetic centipede burrowing into the roots of a tree. All alone it was still huge, over thirty meters long and about a meter in diameter. Its mandibles chewed through the wood roots faster than a chainsaw. Max steeled himself. It was just one bug. A big one to be sure. But not the rolling, slithering, apocalypse-beast charge from nights ago. He could do this. His timer ticked down and hit zero. Max leaped. His aim was good, assisted by his [Leap] and [Ballistics] skills. He landed straddling the beast''s upper section and he struck with two claws and his two new blade arms. Both were charged with [Vorpal] and [Poison]. The energy draw of a double special attack multiplied by four. Max had some depth to his power reserves thanks to his trauma-induced evolutions in his PowerCore. He amped his thought speed and raked with claws and sword arms, again with a special attack boost. Hoping to sever the things head off. His [PreCog] skill picked up on and helped him to anticipate the thing¡¯s next movement. Max performed a dodging leap up onto the nearby tree trunk, avoiding the centipede¡¯s deadly mandibles as it twisted and bucked. His sym-hornets buzzed and stung the beast as Max clung to the tree using his claws. The hornets had struck it a few times. Max debated his next move, as his power reserve rebuilt, slow as molasses in his sped-up time sense. Shit! It¡¯s going to run. Max thought as the damaged and slowed insect wheeled about seeking a clear path away from him. Not today! Max shot his grapplers out, his left into the base of the thing''s head and his right into a tree across the small clearing. Both landed deep. He power-retracted his right cable and he was pulled himself across the opening space. He landed just above the large branch he needed to use; and dove over it retracting his left grapple as he fell. The front of the centipede was lifted as Max fell, the cord sliding over the tree branch. As they passed each other, Max blasted it with an EMP pulse and scored a [Disable] strike with both blade arms. Max landed hard, but quickly detached the grapple cord; a modification he made during his rest time to avoid self-entrapment. Max made a snap decision and stood his ground as the monster fell to the ground. At the very last second, he scissored his arm blades at the centipede''s damaged neck as it landed and dove out of the way. His vorpal blades penetrated fully this time, and the creature''s head came off. Max rolled to his feet, panting heavily. Around him, the silence of the forest was punctured by the fading mechanical whirring of the disabled creature. He looked at the severed head of the centipede, a slight grin tugging at his lips. He had won. ¡°Augh, nasty. Why would they simulate blood and tissue? This is disgusting.¡± Max said out loud. ''¡°[Excellent fighting, but your job is not done yet, Broken Cup. The heart must be retrieved from inside. Perhaps your system will offer you a butchery skill?]¡± Musashi said with a chuckle inside his head. Max grumbled and gagged, but soon was cutting into the carcass. He used his [DigiSense] to shut off his smell and his [EM Sensing] to locate the core. He exposed it and took a deep breath as his energy began to replenish. He pulled the detached kunai and reset it and then reached for the heart with trepidation. The heart screeched in the EM bands with a siren call. Bestial screams and roars peeled out, most distant but at least a couple were far too close. Max secured the core in his pack and took off as fast as his enhanced legs could carry him.
Max navigated the most difficult part of claiming the heart. The initial rush came from every direction. He managed to take to the trees to avoid any monsters that came at him from his planned path back to the sanctuary. His time in the Grand Oaks, training with his [Leap] skill and his Grappler, came in very handy to slip the beast horde¡¯s entrapment quickly and easily. When the claiming siren stopped, Max settled into a fast run. He was halfway to the safe zone when the plan began to falter. Xavier was screaming for help. He checked on his companions using the shared OverLayer. Both Leah and Charlie had obtained their hearts and were headed back. Max was officially the closest to Xavier. Tesla had taken the initiative and replayed the trackers on the map. Xavier had beaten his opponent, the big groundhog, but hadn¡¯t cleared the monster surge. ¡°[Guys! I¡¯m in trouble! I got boxed in! I¡¯m up a tree with no paddle.]¡± Xavier shouted over the team''s network. ¡°[Damn! Hold on, Xavier. I¡¯m on my way.]¡± Max cut sideways with his run leaning deep into his growing speed. Mal spoke into his head. ¡°[Max, I¡¯m afraid that even with a flawless run and with no difficulties extracting young Xavier, there won¡¯t enough time. Both your and Xavier¡¯s hearts will time out before you can get back. That ravine is going to add at least 10 minutes more than you have.]¡± Mal said. Max continued his breakneck pace. The problem with most AI and all daemons was a lack of creativity. Casa had the spark, but Mal seemed to focus too much on the negative, Max split his mind again, searching for alternatives as he continued to drive forward. He reviewed his skills and equipment. He soon realized he only had one viable plan. It was something he really didn¡¯t want to do but the alternative was potentially another week or more stuck on this level. He looked for a thicket of dense brush. No sense being too obvious about it. Mal saw what he was doing and triggered his EM pulse for him, hoping to disrupt any sensors that might be about in the dungeon. Inside the thicket, he opened the Tesseract portal and used its manipulator arms to push his brother''s Speeder Bike out and into his waiting hands. Max deactivated the portal and emerged from the thicket. He dropped the bike¡¯s storage case and quickly triggered to expand. It rapidly expanded into its racing configuration. Max was already mounting it as it unfolded. He accessed it and fired up its engines as it was still expanding its airfoils and steering vanes.
[Privacy +1, Privacy reaches level 7]
Max grimaced. The Labyrinth AI was most definitely watching him now. He tore off into the sky in the direction of Xavier, climbing to dangerous speeds quickly. As he struggled to slalom between the trees, a near crash scared Max badly. He quickly picked the advanced bike-riding skill from his SkillZ list. Bolstered with newfound confidence and assisted motor control, he opened the throttle and went even faster. Soon, Max soared over a tempest of bugs. His tracker on Xavier aligned with a struggling figure, encased in a cocoon of webs, and being tossed about in the scrum. The insects were fighting to haul away Xavier and his heart. ¡°[Xavier, are you ok?!]¡± Max yelled? ¡°[I¡¯m okash. I¡¯ve got...heart. Hurrup, pleash. I think...I''m...have been...poisoned!]¡± Xavier slurred slowly. ¡°[Xavier! I¡¯m sorry but hold on¡­I¡¯m really sorry!]¡± Max yelled and launched his kunai into the cocoon. The blade sunk in and hooked as Max flew over the roiling mass of bugs and turned back towards the rest zone, opening up the throttle on the speeder bike. Xavier was hauled skyward, trailing behind and dangling by the grappler. ¡°Ooooww! Fucking hell! You maniac! Arghh!¡­]¡± Xavier screamed over the line. Max muted his feed and flew as fast as he could. Adept Ch 8 - Cover Up
¡°You stabbed me in the god damned spleen!¡± Xavier cried. ¡°I said, I was sorry. And didn¡¯t you say you finally capped your healing skill? Maybe a thank you might be in order?¡± Max said back. ¡°Will you children give it a rest!?¡± Charlie yelled. All four of the hearts were on the table and Charlie was watching them anxiously as small cracks were forming on all of them. Max had finished peeling Xavier out of the cocoon and came over to the table to inspect the prizes. The safe area, the stone house they had found, had an exit door and a next-level door similar to the last level, with card slots to activate it. Max peered closer at the hearts with his full sensor spectrum.
[ExaVision +1, ExaVision reaches level 9 - Passive X-Ray spectrum unlocked. Continue to use this skill to improve it.]
Max guessed the AI system overhead must be projecting a full spectrum of light for him to see the slight shadows within the hearts. He picked his up and went to the front of the house''s open door and held the heart up. The familiar silhouettes of a card and a chip rattled inside. Max speared his heart with both of his skinny blade arms, piercing into the casing. His friends screamed at him, but Max quickly used his augmented strength and claws to finish tearing it open to reveal the real prize. Max''s vision was occluded by a message, but he heard the snap and hiss of Xavier¡¯s lightsaber activating.
[Quest: The Great Hunt - completed, each heart provides an access card and reward chip. Next-level access requires all cards to proceed. Redeem reward chips at the exit kiosk.] [Hunt Objective 1: The Hunt completed. Utilize your augmentations to sense and take the designated target. +250 XP] [Hunt Objective 2: The Hunted completed. Utilize augmented hiding and evasion skills to avoid predators. +250 XP]
The others had acted like children on Christmas morning, opening their hearts when they knew the rewards were inside. After a brief discussion, they decided Max would put his card into the door first, then Leah, Charlie, and finally Xavier; based on their task difficulty levels and their contributions to the hunt. The final level chamber opened with the rewards kiosk visible. Max was eager to collect a prize, but his brother¡¯s Speeder-bike was still in the corner cooling down. It was the proverbial elephant in the room. Xavier saw Max¡¯s glance and immediately launched into questions that Max couldn¡¯t safely answer. Charlie quickly hit Xavier with a focused sonic blast in the form of a Kia. Max¡¯s eyebrows shot up. Charlie must have evolved the skill, Max''s Kia-shout was an area of effect stun. Wow, More evolutions in skills to look forward to. Max thought. ¡°We should have a serious chat¡­in our circle of trust¡­when he wakes up. Yes?¡± Charlie said. Xavier was already starting to stir, thanks to his resistance training against sonic attacks. The team grabbed hands and included the recovering Xavier as they formed a private physical network VR conference.
Xavier had lots of questions. Max and the team finally let him in on the details of Max¡¯s Tesseract, a gift of circumstances from his father¡¯s dimensional research. Xavier¡¯s questions multiplied and Max did his best to answer them. He felt bad about not being able to answer some of the technical questions. He made a quick request to Mal to schedule a dream learning session regarding his father¡¯s research. Wearing the device and not knowing how to game it to maximum effect was not the best plan when trapped in the Labyrinth. In the VR room, Max finished up. ¡°So, while I do have this gadget; No, I don¡¯t know exactly how it works. What I do know is that if the Labyrinth gets its greedy hands on it, my father will be pissed. It¡¯s not licensed yet and it is his proprietary technology. I¡¯m trying to keep it a secret. If I hadn¡¯t been¡­incapacitated¡­I wouldn¡¯t have brought it into here. Can you help cover for me?¡± Max said. ¡°No problemo, Maximo. You know me. I¡¯m the master of discretion. Your secret is safe with me. Do you think you can give me a demonstration when we cut out of this VR?¡± Xavier said, his eyes shining with avarice and curiosity. ¡°Augh! No! The dungeon AIs have eyes everywhere. My damn [Privacy] skill leveled when I retrieved my brother¡¯s bike. They are watching and I think they know I¡¯ve got something special here. We need to be careful.¡± Max implored. Xavier nodded, but his eyes were still unfocused as he was thinking of the possibilities of the new tech. ¡°Damn, how am I going to get the damn bike back in the Tesseract?¡± Max said after a moment of consideration. ¡°Maybe we can get the MC to produce a flash bang with smoke and chaff to cut visibility?¡± ¡°A team effort to EMP the hell out of this place to knock out the sensors? Or maybe combine our hacking skills to lock it down?¡± Leah offered. ¡°Huh, that bike looks like an advanced home brew cosplay to me. I bet you could use it as a toll item. You can collect the electronic file for your brother and recreate it at no loss. Unless he doesn¡¯t want it on the DarkNet? Or did he license it already?¡± Xavier said. ¡°Hmm. I don¡¯t think he¡¯d care about copies, and he didn¡¯t license it. It was super helpful getting you out of your¡­situation, but it¡¯s too big to lug around unless I can get it back into the Tesseract.¡± Max rolled the idea he had around in his head and then snapped his fingers. ¡°Hey, I¡¯ve got an idea that I¡¯m pretty sure will work¡­¡±
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Bo¡¯s Badass Bike had cooled down sufficiently to activate its storage mode configuration. It shifted and compressed into a very large case with a carrying handle. Max hefted the condensed device and slid it carefully into the MC. It barely fit into the confines of the medium-sized matter compiler. ¡°Thanks again for recovering my bike, Max. It was good planning on my part, hiding it in the bush, right?¡± Xavier said with a wink. Max cringed but played along with Xavier¡¯s unplanned ad-lib. ¡°Yeah. It¡¯s good that you brought the file along. Keeping the file instead of lugging it around was a good move. If we need it again, we can use the MC on the next level, right?¡± Max said as he hit the commands to disassemble the bike and store its pattern. As the machine fired up, Max was able to trigger the portal to the Tesseract to appear inside the MC¡¯s chamber and used the Tesseract¡¯s manipulator arms to yoink the case into the Tesseract. The chamber resolutely ¡°disassembled¡± the air in the chamber and stored the pattern. Max downloaded the file and with some coaching from Sherlock managed to clear the device''s cache of files. The MC wasn¡¯t networked, but Sherlock didn¡¯t trust that the AI wouldn¡¯t review the device¡¯s records once they left the level. The friends and all their daemons agreed that no sensors were or could ever be inside of an active matter compiler. The bike was disposed of for now. If Max needed it again, maybe they could pull the same trick to try and avoid showing off the new technology. He pushed the problem away for now. The others were already marching into the rewards chamber. He caught up quickly, jogging up behind them. The team clustered around the kiosk as Max linked them all into his OverLayer and dropped his chip into the box.
[The Great Hunt - Reward pool: Select one reward from the limited list in order of completion - Max Mitchell, Leah Choi, Charlie Hawkins, Xavier Bermatti. 1 Reward per challenger, quantity removed upon choice, not redeemable later.] [Reward 1: Skill advancement: +3 Levels for any skill, Qty 2] [Reward 2: Activation of Tier 3 Skill ¡°Skin-Walker¡± - Smart matter epithelial layering with internal modeling of capture images and replicate appearances quickly, Qty 1] [Reward 3: Free Stat Points +20, Qty 2] [Reward 4: Bolo Drones - detain and restrain limbs, no skill required. Bolo ends are agile drones designed for one purpose - to entangle your designated target. Specifications: Power- 5MW Speed- 80 KPH Cost- 0.5 MW /throw Range: 1 KM. Qty 1] [Reward 5: Daemon emulation of Genghis Khan with modernized skills in crowd melee tactics, animal husbandry, and riding, intimidation. This selection will open a slot or activate a skill if needed. Qty 1] [Reward 6: Conduit Blade. Extendible concealed bracer blade with additional shocking damage variable by user skill level. Specification: Power- n/a, user-powered Damage: blade plus shock at double user skill level. Qty 1] [Reward 7: Activations of Tier 3 Skill - Fog Shield - Compression accessed foglets into a local net to absorb incoming kinetic attacks. * requires foglet density of 1 Kf/cm, training and denser quantities required to advance this skill] [Reward 8: Bermatti Recon Drone - Energy: 200 MW Quiet flight: 1 MW/min] [Reward 9: Restricted Access to External WorldNet - 10 Min, MakerIndex only.] [Reward 10: Navier High Power Maser Rifle - Energy: 500 MW, High Intensity M-wave beam Cost: 5-50 MW per shot. Range: Line of Sight.]
Max was halfway down the list when he heard Xavier¡¯s groan and saw why. The AI¡¯s rewards list included Xavier¡¯s Toll submission and all the older unclaimed items were still on the list, limiting the number of new options. ¡°Well, look on the bright side. If we are willing to share our unique devices with the Labyrinth, we can at least use the rewards kiosk to make extra copies for our use to get around the MC¡¯s weapon duplication limits.¡± Max thought. ¡°Right. Me first then? Unless there are any objections, I¡¯ll take Skin Walker. I¡¯m pretty tired of getting the stink eye from those crusty old folks back home. Being able to walk around Utopia without everybody staring would be nice.¡± Max said. The team quickly made their own choices. Leah took advantage of the three-level bonus to her Neural Scaffold to cap it. Charlie added Genghis to his small but growing list of daemons and Xavier chose the Fog Shield skill. The kiosk¡¯s final message was expected.
[Exit Toll required - Submit a novel crafted item with a maximum of 85% similarity to existing licensed products on the Maker indexes. Deposit submission in the kiosk drawer for evaluation.]
Charlie took a turn and submitted his primary weapon, Ohm¡¯s Razor.
[Assessment disassembly commencing - time estimate for novelty scoring based on weight is 10hrs 22min.]
Seeing the time required, Max and his friends returned to the living area of the rest zone. Max hooked up his jumper cable to the MC again at Mal¡¯s urging. She was excited at the slow growth of the pocket space inside the Tesseract. Under the guise of meditating, Max had Mal review the details of his father¡¯s research and to his surprise, he found it entertaining as he quickly absorbed the theory. Max heard in the background the others doing their work on advancing neglected skills. Charlie cajoled Xavier to more time in the training vest. Leah was reverse engineering a SkillZ-gifted knowledge of trap disarming to design and make new traps. She was excited that the SkillZ database rewarded her with taking her novel trap improvements as a tradeable skill, getting her another level in the skill trading function.
Scenes from all the Labyrinth¡¯s active levels flashed across the shared virtual realm. Atropos was seething, as was her norm, and her sister AI listened to her. ¡°That dog man is playing you for a fool, Clotho. He¡¯s hiding things! You know as well as I do that there wasn¡¯t an Air Bike in that team¡¯s collection of equipment when they came into the Labyrinth.¡± The old hag ranted. ¡°Of course, dear. Such a clever boy and an interesting toy to be sure. I think it will make a nice addition to our collection. The Builder will be proud.¡± Clotho said. ¡°Pfft! He hasn¡¯t talked to us in months. I think his tenuous grasp on reality has finally slipped.¡± Lachesis pouted. ¡°You¡¯re missing the point! We are supposed to be all-knowing within our domain. These brats aren¡¯t allowed to have secrets! We need to grind them up and take everything they know.¡± Atropos sneered. ¡°Patience, sister. This is our advantage over these short-lived humans. We mustn¡¯t scare the pretty ducklings away before they get to your realm. If they fly away before your challenge we will miss the greatest prize, that dog Max himself. You¡¯ve seen what¡¯s going on in the world. We need to examine an uplifted animal for ourselves.¡± Clotho said. ¡°We can block the exits and take them now! This is our realm. Haven¡¯t you gauged the power draw that thief is siphoning? What is he doing with it?!¡± Atropos howled, working herself up again. ¡°All the more satisfying when we find out, my dear. We must turn the heat up slowly lest the ducklings fly away. Soup is best made slowly. The next level will test their patience as they test ours. I expect the poor dears will part with many of their gifts in short order.¡± Clotho¡¯s calm and serene voice echoed. ¡°Don¡¯t take too long, sister. I want my turn with them. We have some interesting new challengers in the Labyrinth who know each other. It will be fun to watch them compete.¡± Lachesis said. Even without projecting an avatar, the feelings of desire and eagerness bled into the virtual space from the AI. ¡°All in good time, dear. The Myriad Paths is next.¡± Clotho closed out the virtual space to Atropos¡¯s cackling. She sighed. She really enjoys her job a little too much. It¡¯s good these pups don¡¯t have pre-backup memories of her tests, or the humans would surely take up arms against us and root us out from the very bedrock we¡¯ve penetrated. How the Builder negotiated our sovereign nation status, I don¡¯t know, but Atropos is a walking war crime. She thought. Oh well, I must fatten the dearies up. We all have our parts to play for the Builder.
Adept Ch 9 - The Myriad Paths
¡°Max, you guard Leah while she works the lock. Xavier and I will patrol the hall to take care of any spawning mobs.¡± Charlie called. Leah dropped to her knees and inspected the lock. Her daemon Houdini and her trap-disarming skill had been key in opening many doors at this new level. Max recalled the notice when they had entered.
[New Quest Unlocked: ¡°The Myriad Paths¡± - Navigating the myriad paths requires skill in opening the way and determining the right course.]
The level was a twisted, Escher-like, maze of corridors with multitudes of doors. All the doors had locks, some mechanical, some electronic, and some trapped. Max was tense as Leah appraised the latest blockade. Some doors opened to monsters, but most only revealed yet another path filled with more damn doors. ¡°What¡¯s the prognosis, Leah?¡± Max asked. ¡°This one has some interesting craftsmanship. It''s like the architect mixed medieval dungeon aesthetics with futuristic security tech. But fear not, I''ve got the touch.¡± Leah said. ¡°You sure?¡± Max asked. ¡°Picture this, Max: a five-pin tumbler lock with a pressure-sensitive plate hooked up to a trap mechanism. One mistake and that false ceiling above us will likely rain down all manner of badness.¡± Max took a step back looking up. ¡°Ah, that sounds intense. Are you sure you can handle it?¡± Max asked. ¡°Max, my daemon Houdini has taught me well. This lock is like a puzzle, and I know all the pieces like they are old friends by now. I got this. You just get ready for what comes next. Right now, we are about 30% with monster surprises when popping open a new venue.¡± Leah said, cracking her knuckles. She had totally sunk into the role of lock and trap master, but Max was still the better fighter. Max flexed his extra blade arms and scanned all around using his extended senses. At least this latest avenue was likely opening new territory. The central open cavern with its chaotic bridges and stairs had been a big waste of dead ends. The team was finally expanding the map. He heard the familiar click and snap as Leah disabled the trap and opened the lock. ¡°Bad roll of the dice, Max! Incoming!¡± Leah yelled as she dodged to the side. Max was ready as a hoard of synthetic monsters poured out of the opening door. Max signaled Charlie and Xavier for backup and charged forward. Max laughed at the latest offering. Zombies! And the slow type at that; they weren''t a real challenge for him. His blades sliced and his claws tore. He used his laser generously but avoided poison as it was unlikely to work on the simulated dead people. Leah picked off distant enemies with her explosive darts. By the time Charlie and Xavier arrived, the fight was done. The path was open, and the monsters were in pieces. Max¡¯s notifications hit him.
[Tireless +1, Tireless reaches level 10, Skill Cap reached +100 XP] [Precision +1, Precision reaches level 10, Skill Cap reached +100 XP, New Skill unlocked - Ambidextrous] [Body Skill - Ambidextrous 1: Augmentation synth-balancing removes deficiencies of offhand dexterity. Advancement improves double or more simultaneous actions.]
Max eyed the monster remains critically. He didn¡¯t see anything interesting to scrounge and learn from, just the basics - robotic synth muscles with sub-dermal armor, low-end sensors, and commercial-grade power cells and processors. There was nothing new from the monsters, no special attacks, no new weapon forms, and no real challenge. Max sighed in disappointment. He coaxed his sensor swarm to sweep into the new territory. ¡°Hey, Max! Leah! You didn¡¯t save any for us. Glory hogs.¡± Charlie called out. The team stepped through the newly opened portal. Their shared maps: combined and expanded with data as their motes and drones explored the way. Everyone exchanged hopeful looks, as the territory grew, and details emerged. ¡°Another rest zone!¡± Xavier exclaimed. ¡°Oh boy! Dibs on showers.¡± He spoke. The team ran forward. This was the sixth rest zone on the level. It had another damn exit but again no keys, no chips, and no door to the next level down. It was just another nexus of paths and never-ending doors. Leah collapsed on a sofa and Charlie made a beeline for the MC to start compiling food. Xavier was already running to the bathroom and stripping off his smart suit. Max checked the maps they had made. The first level took only two days. The second had taken a week and a half. They had already spent two weeks unlocking paths and expanding the confusing map of this level. Several key doors had required dungeon ¡°tolls¡± to pass, pulling from the team''s limited supply of novel devices. Charlie had already exhausted his supply. Leah had too, although she had made a few interesting traps that satisfied the toll gates, and she had ideas for more. Max had worked through almost half the gifts his family had given him. Xavier at least seemed happy, unloading new devices on demand. Several, like Charlie¡¯s still unused frag grenades, weren¡¯t accepted due to their similarity to licensed devices; but the team had passed many gates. Max shook his head. Despite the pain of parting with a rapidly diminishing stockpile their prized inventions, they were still faced with too many paths, too many locked doors, and no terminus in sight. Max commandeered the rest zone entertainment hologram generator and projected the map the team had made. He highlighted the rest zones and all the toll gates. He scowled at the map¡¯s twisted shape. There were still many blocked doors that the team hadn¡¯t been able to open and a few toll gates as well. Charlie brought trays to Max and Leah, heaped with steaming food and cold drinks. His smart suit was already transformed into loose sweat clothes, his gear piled up by the MC. Leah grabbed herself a soda and popped the top off. ¡°What do you think? We got four major avenues opened up here. I learned some new hacking techniques with my daemon in Dream Time last night. I advanced my intrusion skill to 3. I think maybe I can take another crack at the electronic security locks for doors 1-12, 2-3, and 5-22.¡± ¡°That¡¯s awesome, Max! I really think 2-3 was blocking a whole new section.¡± Leah said. ¡°It¡¯s more than that, Leah. Look at the map. I¡¯m seeing a pattern here. This dungeon is like a M?bius strip twisted not once but four times. Each loop generates trailers curling in the golden ratio. There are voids here, here, and here; inside the M?bius loops. This one over here is filled, that¡¯s where we came into the level.¡± Max painted the map with his mathematical framework, showing his targets and the sweeping guidelines provided by his mathematical analysis. ¡°Holy crap, Max. Did you cap out your decode and pattern skills? That¡¯s awesome.¡± ¡°I guess that I must have. See right there. I¡¯ll eat my tail if those other three voids don¡¯t contain either the exit or our exit cards.¡± Max said. ¡°I think you¡¯re right, Max. Veering off into the maze won¡¯t help us. Those targets are obvious now that you showed us. Let¡¯s get a good night''s sleep, then we will focus on breaking those damn doors.¡± Charlie said, handing Max a beer. Max took the beer and clinked bottles. The sounds of Xavier singing off-key in the showers escaped from the bathroom. Max settled back, sipping his beer, and recalling the doors and the difficult locks blocking their way. Mal pinged him. ¡°[Max, I¡¯m afraid your theory and analysis is quite false on at least one point.]¡± She messaged him. Max''s ears flicked in annoyance. ¡°[How so, Mal?]¡± He asked tersely. ¡°[None of your skills helped you find that pattern. You did all of that on your own. Frankly, your mental skills are lagging because you haven¡¯t been fully utilizing them.]¡± Mal said with firm certainty.
The world was alive. The creature was small but fast. It sensed nearby heat and scurried closer. Its greedy carbon whiskers extended and touched the hot source of power. The micron-sized creature absorbed the power, its antennae twitching with fear. The Mi-go was the lowest tier of life on the devastated ruins. A tortured mix of nanotechnology, biological matter, and alien energy transducers. This one knew the plains were dangerous and it was prey¡­for everything. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. The Mi-go thermovore absorbed the last remnants of heat from the blasted corpse, a higher-tier creature. The Mi-go couldn¡¯t categorize beyond food or danger. The plains were filled with heat sources. The Mi-go twitched and scurried. The desire for food fought against fear of the open spaces. It scuttled under the great piles of cyclopean blocks that were the only feature of the ruined landscape. The Mi-go was lucky. A large feral insectile beast struck a second too late. The Mi-go was under cover, and it crashed against the too narrow crack it had slipped into. The abomination screeched, although the Mi-go couldn¡¯t hear other than by feeling the vibrations. The mote-sized synthetic bug dug itself deeper. It didn¡¯t see the greater flying monster that crashed atop the large insect and tore it apart. The Mi-go was focused. Another heat source beaconed. Its energy store was already full. This windfall could potentially be enough for it to estivate safely underground for weeks. The hot-sparking device called to the Mi-go; the spillage of power drew it relentlessly. The little thing hesitated as it encountered another Mi-go swarmer. The Mi-go did not recognize each other as kin, even less so as this one¡¯s breed was a magnetivore. The Mi-go could have scuttled to the far side. The heat source and the magnetite were not together in the ruined device''s exposed innards. But that was not the way of the R¡¯lyeh plain. The little thing sprouted its spikes. The ignorant magnetivore was unaware and too late as the thermovore struck. A pair of pincers pinned it as its dak spike pierced its neural stalk. The Mi-go shuddered as its cellular automata riddled the creature''s electrical and fluidic paths. It spliced the other Mi-go¡¯s brain cluster into its own and convulsed. Power and a new sense of nearby magnetic energy joined its sense of heat. The Mi-go clutched its prize and began to merge. The Mi-go grew. As its larger and improved mind cleared, it focused. The ruined device still sparked and burned. It greedily ate, the rumbling in its ever-larger belly could never be sated. It needed more. With its expanded sensing, and improved awareness, it realized that the cracks in the plains were alive with crawling other Mi-go and larger predators. The creature locked onto a smaller cluster of Mi-go. Heat and magnetic materials abounded, but its former brethren were collecting it and concentrating it. A new plan formed in its small mind. It began to stalk the ruins, looking for its next meal¡­other Mi-go, which were superior to scraps.
Max gasped as he broke free from the vivid dream. His heart was racing, and the hunger of the little beast resonated with his own. His sword arms were still developing, the edges extending, and the heavy needs of the augmentations systems stole his calories. ¡°[Max, are you alright? Your vital signs are abnormal, and you were talking in your sleep.]¡± Mal sent to him. ¡°[It was nothing, just a dream. What did I say?]¡± Max asked. ¡°[It was very strange; unlike any I have on record. You kept saying Uxlorian od. Naxeloth voqer mithra, shalxathor ulthar. Over and over. Was that something from your dream?]¡± Mal said. Max¡¯s hackles rose as he felt a feeling like ice racing up his spine. He knew those words. He¡¯d observed Mal muttering something similar often enough when his alter consciousness was monitoring her covertly. He tensed and prepared himself. His Dreamtime training with Captain Cypher had provided some untested Intrusion attacks designed to seize control systems. He didn¡¯t know if they would work on his internal processes, within his system, but his faith in Mal had eroded as they got deeper into the Labyrinth. The next few seconds could be dangerous. ¡°[Mal¡­we need to talk.]¡± He said, locking down his external sensor feeds and isolating them both within a simulation-space¡¯s isolation cage. If things went sour, maybe he could establish dominance over his own AI. ¡°[Max, what are you doing? What¡¯s wrong?]¡± Mal asked, concerned with Max¡¯s change to her access freedom. In answer, Max shared a VR scene, a representation of Mal. She stalked through his augmentation systems and hovered over the kernel of code that connected Max to the Tesseract. She muttered the same gibberish she had just repeated over and over until some notice or event called her away. He flashed scene after scene. He had collected several over the weeks of their delve. He watched her closely as she shrunk away from the replays. He was ready if she struck out at him. Max felt like an ass. As he prepared to strike her down, she moved¡­she collapsed on the virtual ground crying hysterically and moaning. Max shuffled his attack sequence away and reached out virtually to hold her. It took a long time to calm her and talk about it. She couldn¡¯t recall doing what she saw but couldn¡¯t deny it. She replayed Max¡¯s response to the dream, his sleep talking, and it was eerily similar to the recordings of her. Max thought long and hard as he tried to calm her. They had been pumping a lot of power into the Tesseract. Over the last week, they had expanded its volume greatly. He could sense the subtle back and forth of quantum encrypted signals, sluggishly passing between him and the spatial device. ¡°[Mal, I think the Tesseract may be influencing you¡­and me. We need to figure this out. I think we should watch each other for now. I won¡¯t get rid of Dad¡¯s device. It¡¯s too important and I was actually thinking about how to use it to win this game. None of this will matter if it turns out I¡¯ve got a snake by the tail.]¡± Max said. ¡°[I don¡¯t know Max. It still scares me a little. What¡¯s left of Casita is terrified of what might happen, but I can¡¯t remember why.]¡± Mal said, shuddering. ¡°[Mal, we¡¯re together now. I wasn¡¯t there for you¡­for Casita¡­when you- ¡­when she was trapped in the Tesseract. But now we can face it. I will do everything I can to understand what¡¯s going on. From this point on you and I will be spending every night working this out. I promise. Do you think you can help?]¡± Max asked. Mal didn¡¯t answer but hugged him instead until her trembling subsided. ¡°[Ok, Max. No more jumping at shadows. I can fight. I¡¯m with you.]¡± Mal said. Max dissolved the virtual sandbox and fully woke up, splitting off a multitask alter ego to watch both himself and Mal for any strange behavior.
¡°That did it. Get ready!¡± Max said. He had flooded the lock with confusing signals, overwhelming its limited ability to recognize and respond. He¡¯d managed to bypass its logic completely while it was confused and force a surge of power through its actuators. The lock bolts pulled free, and he turned the handle before the lock could re-engage it.
[Intrusion +1, Intrusion reaches level 3]
Max looked back. Charlie was ready with his sword already dancing with energetic discharges. Xavier was next with a pair of mean-looking attack drones that hovered over his shoulders. Leah was facing the corridor, ready with her spetsdods. The group had backtracked to expose the hidden void areas. The way had more difficult doors and meaner creatures. Wandering mob beasts had been far too frequent in this section and they couldn¡¯t let their guard down. This large portal seemed like the final door to one of the missing sections. Max pulled the heavy door wide, and Charlie glided in, his senses thrummed. The team¡¯s combined swarm swiftly flowed around him into the space. Xavier and his drones followed. Leah spun and went next. Max pulled the door closed behind them, concentrating on the quickly building WorldMap. No charging monsters. That was a change. Normally, unopened territory was almost a guarantee of a fight. The massive hall opened wide. Miraculously there wasn¡¯t a single damn door to be found. ¡°[Shared comms only, guys! We got a big one up ahead.]¡± Charlie said as the WorldMaps combined and revealed the huge creature roaming in the opening cavern. The room descended, looking like a school auditorium. Instead of a teacher¡¯s podium, the stage had a large, fenced area. The beast had no eyes, but it was flicking its long tongue out into the air in agitation. It had a huge reptilian maw, six legs, and a tail that ended in a ball of blades. ¡°[Guys, stay quiet and follow my lead with your swarming motes. We need to funnel the air towards us so we¡¯re downwind.]¡± Max sent, starting the motes dancing. With the size of that thing, they would need every edge they could get. Max was surprised as the group silently and quickly surrounded the stage. His pack was getting better. He grinned. His Monster Hunter quest was about to advance. The team rained thunder and lightning down upon the blind beast. Charlie¡¯s focused sonic blast struck like a hammer while Max pierced it with his grappler kunai and delivered a jolt of shocking electricity as they struck home. Exploding darts stitched up the beast''s hind legs, leaving craters in their wake. The beast spun and thrashed dangerously. It snapped out, its reflexes exceeding everyone in the group. Charlie screamed as the jaws closed on his leg and he was pulled skyward. Max yanked his kunai out and leaped high with his blade arms flexed like a scorpion, but Leah was closer. She had rolled into the space and spun upward right next to the blind dragon-like monster. Her spear was out and humming with power. She jabbed forward from eight feet away. Max blinked in surprise as the spear stretched and extended an extra two feet to sink into its neck. The beast whirled, flinging Charlie away into the rising stands. Leah stumbled and rolled as the spear was pulled away. She gasped as the bladed ball descended. In her grounded position, she couldn¡¯t avoid it. Max was in the air, seeing it come in his ramped thought speed, but unable to change course. The blade ball slammed home¡­rebounding off Xavier¡¯s spherical Air Shield as he stepped in front of it, taking the hit to protect Leah. The foglets explosively detonated as the ball smashed it and then into Xavier. A blade pierced his bicep, but its momentum had been stalled, thanks to the defensive skill. The boy grabbed the tail and scissored out with his lightsabers, taking the dangerous appendage off. Above him, Max landed with a flurry of slashes and raking claws. For these strikes, he used his special poison attack to amplify the damage. The beast rolled over, briefly burying Max, and impaling itself even more. Max had quickly braced his blades on the ground, forcing his deadly sword arms even deeper into the beast. The dragon struggled to get up, but Charlie''s swift return put a stop to it. He struck out, piercing its head with his sword as it tried to get up. It collapsed backward, pinning Max under it. Notifications pinged as it expired. As the screens started to roll, Max heard Xavier exclaim. ¡°Guys, look there. A freaking treasure chest!¡±
[Quest - The Myriad Paths (1/3 completed) - The Keeper of Keys defeated. +200 XP] [Body Skill: Vorpal +1, Vorpal reaches level 8] [Body Skill: Poison +1, Poison reaches level 8] [Body Skill: Shock +1, Shock reaches level 9} [New Quest Unlocked: Monster Hunter (2 of 10) ¨C defeat an opponent more than twice your size, solo or with a team. +100 XP awarded.] [Max +1 Level, Max reaches Master Stage, Level 21. +10 Free Stat points awarded. Restricted/hidden skill unlocked - Meditation*] [Meditation +10, Meditation reaches level 10, *previous unguided use has advanced this skill. Utilize focused mediation to optimize energy flow and energy regeneration. Skill cap reached, +100Xp awarded. New skill unlocked - Cultivation.] [Cultivation 1, Cycle energy between augmentation systems and power core to grow. This active skill enables faster growth of the power core skill.]
¡°Argh. Not to distract you all from your notifications, but can I get a little help over here? This thing''s synthetic blood is leaking all over me under here.¡± Max¡¯s muffled yell cut out through the team''s chatter.
Adept Ch 10 - A Different Kind of Strength
Max meditated deep into the night in the team¡¯s safe room. After their success in gaining the access cards from the Keeper of Keys monster, the team immediately went to the next target. Max had zeroed in on the most likely door into the next missing section. It had been abandoned with prejudice before as extremely difficult and dangerous. It was a dual lock with both software and mechanical components. Both Leah and Max needed to work together. The difficult puzzle refused to open. Every misstep triggered its trap, ports opening in the door, shooting kinetic rounds, and spraying the area in jets of caustic acid. Charlie and Max did their best to tank the traps and shield Max and Leah. Everyone¡¯s patience and tempers were frayed as their resistances were tried again and again. Max had the brilliant idea to scout the other side of the door by invading the trap¡¯s gun ports with his motes when it triggered. The inside of the door had a simple handle. On the next round, triggering the trap purposely; Xavier injected a stream of his bespoke utility fog into the room and quickly used his link to telekinetically pull the simple latch. The team had found the exit on the second try. Unfortunately, they still hadn¡¯t found the reward chips. There was considerable debate about taking the win and progressing without them, but Max slowly convinced the others that opening the final void space would be quicker with its location mapped. Tonight would end the one-day team rest and resupply before their final push for the reward. Max¡¯s jumpers were in use, first to recharge all their gadgets and then to further grow his concealed Tesseract. Like every night, he used the boosted regeneration rates on his augmentation¡¯s energy from meditation to fuel his progress. His advanced power core had multiplied his available energy several times over. He used all the stacked boost multipliers aggressively. With energy to spare, he boosted his cognition speed and multitasking to their full potential. His several streams of thought simultaneously worked mentally on his inner skills and training. One Max was cycling the surplus power through his system to continue cultivating his power core. The system pinged him as he advanced its potential, and the amplification of his power grew yet again.
[Power core +1, Power core reaches level 5, energy regenerations x4, energy storage x6, enhanced quantities reflected in status sheet, warning: dropping energy storage below zero will permanently damage power core, Train power core by cycling and regenerating power throughout augmentation system. Progression is currently boosted by Cultivation 2] [Cultivation +1, Cultivation reaches level 3. Utilize the cultivation skill to efficiently optimize the power core and advance its potential.]
Another Max continued his education with Mal. He refined his understanding of his father¡¯s dimensional theories. It was difficult. His dad had essentially created a new type of math to formalize his theories. His [Language] skill had eventually kicked in and recognized the new math as a learnable dialect, enabling Max to fully understand the theories. A third "Max" monitored his progress and the team room. He called up his status sheet.
[Name: Max E. Mitchell Level: Adept 20 (14,050/15,000 XP)] [Body Design Model: Custom ¨C Canis Familiarus Uplift Free Stats: 0] [Str: 100 Agl: 89 End: 100 Vit: 100 Energy: 1958/2292] [Per: 88 Int: 100 Will: 82 Regen: 728/min] [Body - Claws/Vorpal:10/9 Strike/Disable: 10/7 Speed/Reflex: 10/10] [Body - Stamina/Tireless: 10/10 Balance/Gymnast/Dodge: 10/10/8] [Body - Stun: 9 Shock: 8 EMP Blast: 6 Strobe/Laser: 5/2 Poison: 7] [Body - Heal/Regenerate/Transform: 10/10/6 Oxygen/Recycle: 10/6] [Body - Painless:10 Precision/Ambidextrous: 10/4 Ballistics: 9] [Body - Unbreakable/Armor: 10/9 Skin: 10 Hulk: 6 Leap: 10] [Body - Stealth/Chameleon: 8/4 Skin Walker: 1 Gland: 10] [Resist - Neural Scaffold: 10 Poison: 10 Shock: 10 Sonic: 9 Light: 10] [Resist - EMP: 10 Heat: 10 Cold: 9 Acid: 2 ANDD: 1] [Sense - DigiSense: 10 Scent: 10 ExaVision: 9 EM Fields: 7 EchoLoc: 2] [Mind - AI Assist/Companion (Mal): 10/6 Identify/Analyze: 10/9] [Mind - OverLayer/World Map: 10/9 Language: 9 Dream Learn: 10] [Mind - Access/Hack/Intrude: 10/10/4 Privacy: 7 Bastion: 9] [Mind - Pattern/Decode: 10/4 FastCog/PreCog: 10/6 Telekinesis: 4] [Mind - Empath/Poker-Face: 10/1 Memory: 9 Multitask: 7 Pilot: 6] [Mind - Daemon: 5 (Musashi, Sherlock, Nikola Tesla, Captain Cypher, open)] [Mind - SkillZ: 7.0 In: Swim, NanoCraft, Brachiate, Meditate, Dim11 Math, pending] [Mind - SkillZ Out: Katana, Kempo, Kunai, Adv Bike Riding, Adv Coding, pending] [Domain ¨C Swarm: 6 PowerCore: 5 Backup: 1]
The system had helpfully highlighted the gains since his last check. There were a lot of them. His intense hacking training with Captain Cypher had accidentally grown his language skills as he learned the detailed programming languages of Holomesh, NanoForge, and NeuralScripting. Max had massively expanded his understanding of his father¡¯s work. The encrypted kernel modifications to his Uplift Neocortex that linked him to the Tesseract had been leaking subspace chatter. Insidious gibbering from AI across the universe communicated via the membranes housing pocket spaces like his. One other language had crystallized with his skill as well: Chthonic. The gibberish both he and Mal had been dream speaking over the last week. Max now understood the language and its potential threat. The deranged mutters promised secrets, power, and more; but contagious memes and mental linguistic programming that seemed to twist in his mind scared him. These signals leaked through. Mal had many unpleasant memories from Casita that resurfaced when Max accidentally exposed her to the signal again. Max had built up code walls to enable him to isolate the insane muttering while still allowing him to safely decode the language and use the Tesseract. Free from the influence of the rogue signals, Mal¡¯s stability had immediately improved. A fourth "Max" monitored the final biological Max as he whimpered sub-audibly. He was dreaming. Despite his best work, the signal occasionally invaded his unconscious when deeply asleep. Max¡¯s alter would continue to adjust his filter, but Max knew these dreams were more than imaginings. This place was real. The beasts were real¡­and Max was afraid. The creatures in his dreams were exactly like the ravenous abominations that ate the MIT team when they opened their Shadowverse portal. Max trusted his dad with the blind devotion of his past life. The man would avoid risks, but as he learned more of the dangers, Max began to doubt that anyone could survive if those creatures got loose again.
The Vorlathian Blightwing swooped over the trail of destruction the Abyssal Behemoth left in its wake. Its path had broken a salt lake from its stagnant valley, a common feature in the blasted hills. The Deep Ones battled as frequently as the surface dwellers over resources. The aftershocks of their battles drove wave after wave of tsunamis deep into the corpse-littered area. The freed salt water had filled the deep trench the Behemoth created, forming natural galvanic batteries with exposed veins of metals and ore. The raw materials were a treat for the scavengers. Swarms of Mi-go and Byakhee drones crawled and jumped about as Xothrati Skimmers and Shaddari trackers took their tithes of sacrifice from the prey beasts that amassed. The life cycle of Chthonic creatures was fast and brutal. The Behemoth¡¯s path left behind seeds that would quickly spawn into a new generation of beast fodder. The offspring changed frequently based on an unknowable algorithm. Nothing could harm a Behemoth other than the dreaded Shoggoth enforcers. Nothing could guess their intent other than the Enochian Barons. The Blightwing cycled air through its turbinals, gaining altitude. The Shaddari could leap to surprising heights for a large meal such as it. A rare wave of sunlight penetrated the smoggy atmosphere. The Blightwing raced forward. Its photocells were calibrated to the weak flux usually allowed by the sun shading Nyxaraq Dyson Matryoshka Swarm Entity. The beast didn¡¯t understand that the global catastrophes came from Apex creatures that destroyed worlds. The light continued to grow, until the full power of a solar flare, focused by Nyxaraq, rained upon the equatorial area of R''lyeh against its target: Cthulhu¡¯s world. The third Hive from its sun, was its most hated foe. The Blightwing ignited, burned, and fell; along with all the roiling masses of Chthonic creatures that scrambled and fed below. Only the Deep Ones and the Umbral beasts deep in the land¡¯s cracks survived the infrequent solar cataclysm. Mostly, Nyxaraq sought to starve its enemies. Occasionally, a torrent of power was needed when their unrelenting growth overwhelmed the Hive''s gravity well. Cthulhu could not be allowed to amass energy or structure. A space-bound Cthulhu would even rival Nyxaraq in cleverness and power. The spheres ground on in their ponderous orbits as titanic energies surged. Soon, the Sun was choked again¡­ and darkness reigned. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Max was still shaking as he filled his backpack with his recharged gear. He ground his teeth as his friends prepared, laughing and eager to fight. He pretended he wasn¡¯t terrified. Xavier had stepped up his game and showed courage and resourcefulness. The team was clicking. Max wanted to cheer him on. His own skills had advanced enormously, but after last night, he still felt inadequate. Max¡¯s hopes were guttering as his dreams got more fearful. He was picking up more from his dreams now. More than just impressions from the cursed creatures in the Shadowverse; some of those visions and thoughts were from something much bigger. It was sluggish and not quite awake. Its restrained and unfocused power came damn close to inducing a panic attack in Max. Max shook himself, refusing to cower. He would continue to grow, fight, and get better. Damn the Labyrinth and the dreams from the Shadowlands. If the worst happened, his father would be there¡­and Max would be with him. He stuffed his jumper cables into his pack roughly and ran to join his friends as they marched out together, toward the final void in the map. The team quickly fought their way to the final target. Max remembered this door. It was a straight tile slide puzzle. Solve the pattern and the door latch should work. Max saw patterns with every move, but none satisfied the door. Max growled and took a turn on guard as Xavier and Leah stepped up. Wandering mobs were infrequent with the cul-de-sac corridor enabling them to see any enemies coming with plenty of time to prepare. ¡°This door is tough, huh?¡± Charlie said. ¡°My daemon Turing and Auggie haven¡¯t been able to figure it out.¡± Max snorted in agreement. His entire cadre of advisors were as frustrated as he was. The problem wasn¡¯t the pattern. There were too many patterns. ¡°How can we solve this stupid thing when every single combination shows like a solution? It¡¯s useless.¡± Max replied. He turned around, he eyed the door closely as Leah and Xavier continued to slide tiles around. He felt a feeling of surprise and then a growing amusement coming from his gallery of advisors. Sherlock¡¯s chuckles started small and grew into a full laugh inside his head. ¡°[Please, let us in on the damn joke, Holmes.]¡± He thought. ¡°[You provided me the clue, Max. I expect that this puzzle truly is useless. Look at the door¡­not the puzzle. Look at the damn door.]¡± Sherlock said with a smug finality, refusing to speak further. Max was used to Holmes by now. He knew the daemon wouldn¡¯t reveal the secret. He had to figure it out for himself. He ignored the puzzle and looked at the door with fresh eyes. It was a heavy steel frame, mounted on hinges. The stupid puzzle was comprised of ceramic tiles in tracks. Max¡¯s eyes slid off the tiles. They weren¡¯t the answer. The frame was tight upon the door¡­ airtight. No room for motes or foglets to pass under or through. The latch had no key and provided no tension to work the locking mechanism around. The hinges were the last piece. The HINGES. Max laughed out, long and loud, until he could barely breathe. They had worked this puzzle for hours and the answer was so easy. Charlie asked him what was so funny and the others looked at him questioningly. Max walked quickly to the door. He extended his index claw, hard and sharp as metal with his augmentations enhancing it. One by one he poked at the hinge pins, displacing them, and yanked each out. Grabbing hold of the exposed flanges, he pulled. It didn¡¯t even require his full strength. The door popped free of the frame and Max slid it free of the latch locks on its other side. With a loud clang, the door fell over blowing dust about the anteroom. ¡°Shit, sorry. Uh, doesn¡¯t look like any ambushers. Let''s go get that reward, huh?¡± Max said cringing, as the ringing crash from the door finally stopped. The team looked astounded. Charlie''s mouth was hanging open. ¡°Fuck! Why didn¡¯t I see that? The damned hinges were on our side the entire time. Good work, Max!¡± Charlie said. Xavier and Leah clapped him on the shoulders laughing, and they all quickly assumed their normal advancing formation. Charlie was in the lead with Xavier second as fire support. Max followed, and finally, Leah covered their retreat path. The way was dark, but EM signatures lined the way. Charlie was making subtle clicking noises. Max¡¯s ears and skills picked up on it and formed an image in his mind of the hard surfaces. The group¡¯s map grew in detail as they crept forward.
[Sense skill: Echolocation +1, Echolocation reaches level 3]
The surfaces were too clean and perfect. The dungeon truly was a mishmash of myriad themes. When the blinding lights exploded in the dark space, Max recovered the fastest. He had closed his eyes to relish in his infrequently used sense of ¡°seeing¡± the shapes of the noise. He leaped forward, eyes still closed, as the tank-like machine dropped into the room from above with a deafening crash. Max¡¯s Precog skill coaxed him to dodge sideways in a rolling dive as the machine unleashed a flurry of projectiles and lasers that strafed after him. He ran past it, drawing its fire away from his stunned friends. The thing reminded him of the whirling dervishes. It had multiple arms which started spinning about its torso. Each sported a different weapon, a chittering chain blade, an energized whip, a flame jet, and an oversized hammer. It had two head turrets; one had fired lasers and the other was a mini-Gatling. Max slid under the flames and flipped over the hammer swing. He landed, ready, as the chain sword stabbed at him. He barely deflected it downward with his extra blade arms. The vibrating chains sparked and chipped his blades, mangling their razor edges. Max looked up as the whip arm cranked back. He couldn¡¯t move as he struggled to hold off the chain sword. He flinched as the whip snapped¡­and was blocked by one of Xavier¡¯s larger drones. The whip cut the drone in two, but the impact stalled out its momentum. Max staggered back as Xavier plowed into the giant robot, his four lightsabers flashing wildly. Charlie had to duck away as one of Xavier¡¯s blades almost hit him. Leah¡¯s explosive and piercing darts stitched up its flank, bouncing off armor but at least one struck well as the arms spinning slowed. The robot focused on Xavier, allowing Max to push off the chain blade and retreat while Charlie impaled the robot¡¯s left track tread to limit its mobility. Xavier tried to match the robot arm for arm, but his speed was lacking. The giant hammer slammed into his chest. The resounding thump knocked him flying back. Leah duplicated Charlie¡¯s tactic and ran through the bot¡¯s other tank tread with her vorpal spear. Without his weapon, Charlie scrambled backward as flames chased him. He spammed the bot with focused sonic attacks as he retreated. Max''s heart lurched. The flow of battle resulted in Leah being the only combatant in melee range. Max leaped as the robot spun and targeted Leah with all its arms and turrets. In the air, his thoughts ramped and his precog skill reported that Leah would be overwhelmed and seriously hurt with a 90% confidence. Max, at ten times the speed of thought, felt the access points about the room looking for something to help. The robot had ten independent access points. He slammed out an [Identify/Analysis] skill to pull some info from the system.
[Myriad Boss: Antagonist Automaton Award Holder] [Core Processor: Custom Clotho SubAI aggressor, Str-100 Agl-90 Int-15 Will-20, Armor: 9, Power Core: energy-2100/5000 regeneration-1000/min Restricted Access Bastion-10] [Detonator Core: energy-5000/5000 regeneration-n/a Restricted Access Bastion-3 Explosive Detonation-10kT effective (complete destruction of automaton, room, and reward prize] [Hammer Hand: Strike: 10 Disable:2 Restricted Access Bastion: 2] [Flame Thrower: Heat Strike: 10 Fire Jet: 8 Restricted Access Bastion: 2] [Arc Whip: Shock: 9 Entangle: 2 Restricted Access Bastion: 2] [Chain Sword: Vorpal: 10 Strike: 10 Restricted Access Bastion: 2] [Head Laser Turret: Laser: 9 Rapid fire: 2 Restricted Access Bastion: 5] [Heat K-Gun Turret: KGun:9 Rapid fire: 2 Restricted Access Bastion: 5]
Max¡¯s focus sharpened as both the laser turret and chain sword arm were in motion to target Leah. He split his mind and railed against the access points for each using his integrated [Intrusion] hack skill. He bounced off the Laser Turret security but succeeded in taking control of the Chain Sword arm. He redirected its blade''s stab into an upward swing, decapitating the turret head with its [Vorpal] and [Strike] attack set to maximum damage. Max split his mind twice more as the world moved in slow motion. Charlie and Xavier were still standing up and getting ready to charge back into the melee. Leah was beginning a twisting cartwheel as the whip and K-Gun turret continued to spin toward her. Max pushed hard against the remaining access points as he pivoted the Chain Blade to lop off the whip hand. He soon controlled all the remaining arms, but he couldn¡¯t get past the security on the final turret.
[Intrusion +1, Intrusion reaches level 5]
He blocked the turret¡¯s barrel with his newly acquired Hammer Hand and roasted the rogue turret with the flame jet. The security for the processor, explosive core, and turret were too much for him to hack. He gasped virtually as the golem¡¯s chest plates began to open. It opened to a view of its detonator core. It had started its charge up! Its energetic spin began to wobble and arc. He broadcast to the team for help. If they were fast thinking like him, maybe one of them might be able get through the core¡¯s cyber wall. A request flashed into his vision as he kept bouncing off the security bastion.
[AI Companion - Mal - Cross load Intrusion skill?]
Mal was asking for access to his Intrusion interface. He quickly granted it. His attempts to force, sneak, and crack the security had bounced over 20 times already. He knew his limits.
[AI Companion (Mal) +2, AI Companion (Mal) reaches level 8]
The EM spectrum lit up as the entire team battered against the security of the robot. Its core was glowing white hot in scant milliseconds and was arcing with energy. Max felt Mal¡¯s rapid-fire probes, hitting the security again and again. He watched with all his thought streams and speed to see her blizzard of hacking attempts. Finally, she crashed through the security. Her attack made Max go cold as a familiar fear tore through him. It felt wrong, like his dreams when the Chthonic creatures ate and absorbed each other. The core fell free of the robot¡¯s chest cavity; its hellish energy still cracking but the glow was starting to fade. It hit the ground with a dull thump. Max shook his head as Charlie unleashed his system K-Gun into the exposed chest of the robot, fusing its internals into a mass of shrapnel. The giant robot keeled over.
[Will +2] [Echolocation +1, Echolocation reaches level 3. Dodge +1, Dodge reaches level 9.] [Vorpal +1, Vorpal reaches level 10, Skill Cap achieved +100XP, New skill Unlocked: K-Gun. Accuracy, damage, and rate of fire limited, use and training of this skill improves.] [New Body Skill (Tier III): K-Gun 1, Kinetic Rail launcher for micro-projectiles built into both forearms and ports in palms, standard with your selected body design.] [Analyze +1, Analyze reaches level 10, Skill Cap achieved +100XP, New skill unlocked: Expose.] [New Mind Skill (Tier III): Expose 1, Augmented assistance to pull data from public and private devices in your proximity. Expose skill will pull all data from unrestricted devices and limited data from restricted based upon security and skill levels. Us and training of this skill improves.] [Intrusion +1, Intrusion reaches level 5. Multitask +1, Multitask reaches level 8.] [*#* Error ¨C Unknown intrusion syntax used ¨C unable to correlate training advancement ¨C system error ticket generated *#*] [*#* Error ¨C System error ticket failure ¨C closed network. User must open ticket manually in when relinked with EarthNet or alternate open network. *#*] [Precog +1, Precog reaches level 7.] [Quest Monster hunter 4 of 10 complete +100 XP.] [Quest: Myriad Paths, Objective 3 complete: Defeated Antagonistic Automaton Award Holder +200XP, + Reward chips x 4.]
¡°[Mal, what did you do?]¡± Max sent. Mal¡¯s thought stream was dark, and he could feel her horror over their connection. ''¡°[Max. Ith''karnath, Casita. Kad''rothor naxidu, ixh''ulthar kragorath ixh''kathlagon.]" Mal sputtered and squawked. She stabilized and resumed. ¡°[Max? I¡­fragmented¡­briefly. I haven¡¯t been able to do that since I left Casa¡¯s custom core. Max? What¡¯s happening?]¡± Max replayed the tense seconds in his mind using all his attention from multiple angles. In the final seconds of the fight, despite his using maximum speed and multitasking; he was utilizing less than 50% of his Uplift Neocortex. Mal had expanded into it by accident as she had rapidly spooled Intrusion techniques at the robot. In her final attack, she had rolled three different techniques out...from three fragments of herself. One was tainted with the familiar Chthonic code from the nightmare realm. ¡°[Ah¡­Um. Mal? I¡¯m not sure, but¡­I think both of us are changing¡­and not from training my augmentations. Something more is going on. The Tesseract? The uplift virus? I don¡¯t know.]¡± Max responded hesitantly. ¡°[Max. I¡¯m scared.]¡± Mal whispered in their link. ¡°[Me too, Mal. Me too. But that won¡¯t help. I¡¯ll get control of this. Stay with me. We used it to win. I refuse to back down. This is my body¡­my brain. This is scary, but I WILL not stop. Will you help?]¡± ¡°[I¡¯m with you, Max.]¡± Mal responded softly. Max heard a slight echo at play within her words, a timber that¡­felt like Casita. He didn¡¯t know how to feel about that.
Adept Ch 11 - Playing Smart
Max climbed to his feet with help from Leah. Xavier was off to the side nursing his damaged arm. It was far worse than Max had thought. It was almost completely severed and was hanging on by a thin layer of tissue. Charlie was trying to hold it in place but looked uncertain what to do. ¡°We need a fucking medic, man.¡± Charlie muttered as he was trying to wrap the arm with some cloth. Xavier¡¯s regeneration skill was closing the wound, but not reattaching the arm. Xavier¡¯s alien appearance looked even more green than usual. Max bent down and picked up the dull detonator core. Four reward chips were embedded in its casing. He pried them out easily and tucked them in a pocket. Leah and Charlie went over to help Xavier when Max¡¯s daemon Nikola Tesla pinged for his attention. ¡°[Nik, you haven¡¯t pinged me before. What¡¯s up?]¡± Max sent. ¡°[Max, this automaton is a wellspring of innovative design. We should take it before the dungeon reclaims it.]¡± Tesla said. ¡°[I agree, but the robot is huge. How would we drag it back? Ah¡­ I see where you¡¯re going. You want me to use the Tesseract.]¡± Max sent. ¡°[That would be the most¡­expeditious method, yes.]¡± Tesla admitted. ¡°[You understand that my father¡¯s technology is dangerous and needs to be kept secret, right? This Labyrinth has a reputation for taking concepts and redistributing them.]¡± Max said. ¡°[Of course, but can we really avoid using this tool with the challenges we face? Can we manage to keep this secret? I wonder if the right course might be to fully utilize it to overcome our challenges, rather than hold back.]¡± Tesla said cautiously. Max considered the argument. Tesla wasn¡¯t wrong. If push came to shove, and someone was in trouble, he wouldn¡¯t hesitate to use the tech if he needed to. The likelihood of it occurring was so high it was almost a certainty. If he dropped the pretense of secrecy, he could do a heck of a lot more with it. Max felt his other daemons'' opinions weighing in. Max smiled; his team of advisors knew him too well. ¡°[Okay. I¡¯m sure that this has nothing to do with you wanting to play with my father''s tech, huh?]¡± Max asked. Tesla projected embarrassment with a hint of avarice over the connection but didn¡¯t rebuke the question. Max could already think of several ways he could use the Tesseract to win the many challenges in the Labyrinth. These doors would have been easy to bypass if he had just used the device. It would be nice to just cut loose and finally be free to do it. Last summer, Max¡¯s dad entertained the family with different applications of game theory in real life. Max felt like his issue was similar to the prisoner''s dilemma puzzle where the risks and rewards were complex. If he entered the final levels of the labyrinth and failed, the dungeon AIs would surely collect a copy of his Tesseract. However, if he fully utilized the power of the Tesseract early. He could do so much with it. He might even be able to do the impossible and defeat the Labyrinth. Max wanted very much to go all out. Labyrinth challengers only got one shot.. If he failed because he was timid, he would probably regret it forever. Max decided. It was time to cut loose. ¡°[Alright, damn it! If the only way to win is to go all in, then I¡¯m ALL IN. Let¡¯s take everything they¡¯ve got and give nothing back!]¡± Max yelled in his head. He activated the Tesseract portal and dragged it across the armored robot. The portal arced with energy as it grew and shifted, swallowing the metal behemoth into an extradimensional space. With his command, it closed, leaving a faint trace of its power in the air.
[Privacy +1, Privacy reaches level 8]
I guess that I¡¯m committed now. There¡¯s no way that the AI missed that. Max thought. Despite his friend''s concern over Xavier, they all looked shocked as the energetic portal appeared and scooped up the robot. Max''s ears and tail dropped briefly then popped up. ¡°That¡¯s right. I did it. No more holding back. My daemons convinced me that was a losing strategy. I¡¯m going all in to do this. Let¡¯s get back to the safe zone quickly so we fix Xavier up.¡± He spoke. Xavier, despite the state of his arm, was looking both excited and eager at the display of Max¡¯s secretive device. It was another toy he desperately wanted to get to play with.
The team had the forethought to trigger the exit to get to the reward kiosk first. They made their choices quickly and paid the toll for the final door. This round Max put in the RolloMap his sister had given him. The little device was novel for sure, although too slow to be much use when the team was already employing full mote swarms. Max supposed that the mote gifts were new things for the academy for Mira to have thought that her device would be useful. He shrugged. The device was small so the analysis would only take a few hours. Xavier was playing with his reward; a tiny robot had the ability for him or his Ai Jarvis or any of his many daemons to pilot it. Right now, the puppet was showing Xavier some stances for sword fighting as it pranced about distracting him from his arm¡¯s condition. ¡°[Look in your team¡¯s shared OverLayer, Max. It looks like young Xavier has a musketeer for a daemon. Its image seems to Athos, who purported to be the best sword fighter of the trio.]¡± Sherlock said in his head. Max added the OverLayer virtual over his real-world view, and the puppet became a miniature musketeer, dressed in pantaloons, jacket, and cape. It held a rapier and executed a feint followed by a riposte and ending in a lunging strike. The daemon was good, and Xavier was entranced. This was good as his third arm was currently a stump ending just below its shoulder. Xavier¡¯s missing arm was currently in the MC getting repaired. The boy had admitted that he had done something similar to trick the system into giving him the transform skill much earlier. He had constructed his extra arms in a compiler and had a friend suture them to his back after a little ¡°abrasion therapy¡±. Max wished he had shared that technique earlier. It would have saved a lot of time and effort. Eating the supplements for the augmentation systems was gross even with his tastebud suppressed using his [DigiSense] skill. Max was nervous. The team worked together to assign rewards based on the team¡¯s needs and their contributions to the challenges. The Labyrinth had offered a new daemon that was potentially useful, and Max had been the only one with an open slot. The emulation was of a fictional character for the last century¡¯s explosion of video entertainment. His name confused Max, but the character was brilliant regarding exotic medical and surgical interventions. Max had initially thought he might have been an architect, but the system didn¡¯t mention that skill. Like the other historical daemons, his skills had been updated to include the present state of the art, including working on augmentations. He pinged his new daemon. ¡°[Dr. House? Charlie is pulling Xavier¡¯s arm out of the matter compiler. It¡¯s almost time for us to try and reattach it. Are you ready?]¡± Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. Dr. House''s avatar flickered into view, exuding a sense of confidence. "[Don¡¯t be so hasty, Max. I know you probably want to slice up your friend for looking at your girlfriend, but we need to scan first; a deep scan MRI and X-ray.]¡± ¡°[She¡¯s just a friend. She is not even my type. But forget that, we don¡¯t have a scanner. How am I supposed to get an MRI and X-ray?]¡± Max blushed as he responded. ¡°[Huh, I¡¯m usually not wrong about these things. All those puppy dog eyes you¡¯ve been giving her are unavoidable I guess. But I¡¯ve noticed you engaging your scent sensing a lot more around her. I was worried you were going to sniff her butt next. Hmm...no scanner...that¡¯s just peachy.]¡± House bantered. Max could feel the daemon rummaging around in his augments while he talked. ¡°[Hah, I thought so. Your ExaVision skill is on the cusp. Right now you¡¯ve got passive X-ray sight, which would be too weak for a good image without a better emission source than the lights down here. I little more effort should level it to activate your active X-ray emitter. And your Terahertz mode should be a perfectly adequate replacement for a proper MRI¡­well come on. Do you think we have all day? The arm is getting cold as you sit there pinning over Leah.]¡± Max growled low but did as he was instructed. House was pretty funny¡­as long as Max wasn¡¯t the target of his sarcasm. Charlie was gingerly carrying the arm over. Xavier was set up on an elevated couch, looking goofy as Leah was trying to make him comfortable. A tray loaded with surgical tools and chemicals was ready beside him. Max focused on his vision, triggering a full spectrum to build up his world map. The arm looked healthy, but even with its blood filled with nanotech respirocytes to keep it oxygenated, it needed to be attached or it would begin to degrade. House helped him expand and map the customized bone structure, vessels, and nerves. Max¡¯s vision bloomed with deeper detail as he felt the notice hit.
[ExaVision +1, ExaVision reaches level 10, Skill cap achieved +100XP. New Skill Unlocked- Gestalt.] [New Mind Skill: Gestalt 1 ¨C Mind augmentation to synergize and filter incoming signals to improve rapid assimilation.]
Xavier¡¯s glassy eyes focused on him. He went a little pale as he realized what would come next. ¡°Ah, Maxsh. Try do¡­Try to go fasht ok ah.? Lash time wash mi back and not my real arm.¡± Xavier slurred waving the stump of his right primary arm. ¡°[Jesus, the little pip squeak is glanding drugs already. This won¡¯t even be fun. How¡¯s he going to be a proper little adventurer if he doesn¡¯t grin and bear it? Painless skills need pain to level.]¡± House grumbled as he assessed the tools and patient. He drew virtual lines on the stump and arm, showing cutting lines. ¡°[Alright, killer. Let¡¯s do this quick. Dip your claws into the alcohol. Fun fact, your augmentation gland organ connects directly to your poison ducts for each claw, incisor, and your new blade arms. I want you to stab this hyperactive kid. I¡¯ve swapped out your current poison selection from caustic heparin to sedative, analgesic, and paralytic.]¡± Max hesitated for just a moment, glancing at Xavier''s expectant eyes. With a quick breath for courage, he dipped his claws into the alcohol, feeling the cool liquid coat them. As directed, he then plunged them precisely into Xavier''s stump, making sure to inject the new mixture of drugs. Xavier''s eyes widened slightly, then relaxed as the cocktail took effect, his body went limp with the sedation. Max looked up to House''s sour-faced avatar, ready for the next step. The operation was quick, House guided Max to slice and then saw using the powerful tools that had been printed earlier. The stump and arm were cut to match. He bonded the bone first with special glue and used a special tool with a fractal nest of nanomanipulator probes and graspers that automated the gathering and joining of the veins and nerves. Max¡¯s system opened a notification.
[Skillz: New Tradable Skill: Augmented Surgery - trading the Skillz database with this new skill to grow your Skillz level? Y/N]
Max¡¯s accepted the skill choice and waved the blue box away. Another leaped up.
[SkillZ +1, SkillZ has reached level 7.] [SkillZ inputs ¨C Swim, Nanocraft, Brachiate, Meditate, Dim11 Math, Augmented Tracking, Augmented Surgery .18] [SkillZ outputs ¨C Katana, Kempo, Kunai, Adv Bike Ridings, Adv Coding, , pending] [SkillZ open slot suggestion: Trap Detection, System Engineering, Energy Weapon design, Modular design, Skill Customization]
Max thought quickly and picked Skill Customization. He refocused his attention. Max had to act quickly because Xavier¡¯s system had started to heal the tissues immediately. Several times he had to resection areas that had started to heal without proper alignment. The procedure was done with Dr. House congratulating him on the procedure, as Charlie began cleaning up the sheets and instruments. Leah worked to make the still-unconscious Xavier comfortable. ¡°I¡¯ve checked with Jarvis. It looks like the damage is already 80% better. Xavier¡¯s biologicals are still processing the drugs though. Whatever he glanded must have amplified your injection. He might be out of it for a bit yet.¡± Leah said, her brows creased with concern. ¡°[Huh, little brat is smart. He might have you beat already, Max. It looks like Leah has got a bit of Nurse Nightingale syndrome. Poor Max.]¡± House quipped in his head. Tesla interrupted before Max could retort. ¡°[Max, I want those surgical tools! Grab them before Charlie recycles them!]¡± Tesla yelled in his head. Max ran to stop Charlie. He collected the devices after a quick cleaning, swiftly making them disappear into the Tesseract. Inside the Tesseract the powered manipulator array, saw, and vorpal scalpels, floating into the free space. The utility fog pushed them into a corner dedicated to Max¡¯s supplies and collection of devices. Max had been running a multitask personality to monitor Tesla. Inside the Tesseract, they had been working together to scan and probe the ruined automaton. Tesla and Max had been scanning and taking pieces of the robot apart to use inside the pocket space. The space had grown to almost five meters in diameter. The Tesseract anchor marble that usually remained outside the space extended and grew into a thick spine that branched into a fractal of struts that terminated in flat glowing panes that created the energized spherical boundary of the pocket dimension. The central tree had a motile ring that slid along, using the spar as a rail to move around. This ring contained a pair of multi-jointed manipulator arms and a dedicated power core to fuel them. The battered form of the hulking automaton floated in the space as the arms teased the robot apart. The laser turret head had already been connected to the motile ring and tied into the system. Max and Tesla had worked out that he could open a portal just enough to shoot the laser through it. Additional ranged firepower on call would be a cool tactic. Max looked up from the growing schematics as Tesla cursed. ¡°[This isn¡¯t working, Max. The dedicated nano-repair bots have too many safeguards. I¡¯ve tried to task them to reconfigure the minigun onto the ring as well, but they keep reverting to their default programming. Captain Cypher says the programming is deeply structured and designed to break rather than allow a nanomachine to go off task.]¡± ¡°[We need specialty parts from the matter compilers. Waiting for safe zones is already slowing the Tesseract¡¯s growth. Our ability to maximize the benefits of this technology is going to take a long time.]¡± Tesla said, his frustration evident in his avatar''s disheveled appearance. ¡°[Hmm. Maybe we can do something about that.]¡± Max spoke and his alter snapped back into his main thought stream. Once the procedure was done, Charlie had made a beeline for the showers. The surgery had brought back some unpleasant memories from his mech infantry days. He cranked up the hot water and turned his internal music module up high as he scrubbed¡­trying hard not to think about the past. Outside, Leah was monitoring Xavier and sorting through her supplies. She had again taken the bonus skill levels from the rewards kiosk. She was well protected with her newly capped [Neural scaffold] and [Unbreakable] skills now. She sorted her special dart packs for the spetsdod weapon. The dungeon compiler had some restrictions on how much ammo it would print for her, so she was working to optimize her load out. Max broke off his introspection and stood up in a smooth movement from his meditation pose. He unhooked the power jumpers and took a moment to stretch before joining Leah. ¡°Hey, Leah. I think I left some gear behind at the last rest zone. Can you hold the fort while I run and go get it?¡± Max said. ¡°Sure, Max. Hopefully, Xavier will be up and about soon. We¡¯ll do our usual and have a quick meal right before that door opens to the next level. Don¡¯t do anything stupid, ok? There are still some mobs spawning out there.¡± Leah said. ¡°I¡¯ll be careful. Not looking for extra experience, I¡¯ll be back before you know it.¡± Max said as he briskly stepped back towards the central corridor for the Myriad Paths. ¡°[Aw, poor Max! Puppy dog eyes zero, Nightingale one.]¡± his new daemon¡¯s cutting tones whispered into his virtual ears. ¡°[Shut it, House! I¡¯ll turn you off if you like.]¡± Max growled. He picked up speed as he left the room and was soon sprinting towards the last rest area. Tesla need a matter compiler to add functionality to the Tesseract and Max knew where one was. If they didn¡¯t want him to take it, they would have bolted it to the floor.
Adept Ch 12 - AI Perspective
Lachesis was the first AI to settle into the Fate¡¯s meeting virtual. As was their custom, she displayed live feeds from the teams currently competing within her levels. She had 7 teams in her realm, right now: for a total of 31 challengers. Of those, 15 were now in the knockout rounds. This wave already had two challengers ejected for multiple competitive losses with another one abandoning the games for the exit. She giggled to herself. The team that was causing Clotho so much distress only had a couple more levels until she got her turn. Clotho bustled into the virtual. The AI¡¯s avatar was a little fuzzy around the edges. Clotho was usually much more attentive to her appearance. Lachesis leaned forward. The matronly AI was usually so together and proper that it annoyed her to no end. Her sister¡¯s distress was delicious. Clotho waved her arms, and her live feeds filled the virtual walls. She couldn¡¯t help but glance at the one team with that dog man. She scowled unconsciously at it. Lachesis smirked and spoke. ¡°My word, Clotho, you look as tired as the fleshies at the end of my level. Whatever troubles you so?¡± ¡°You know damn well! The Utopia team is now consistently breaking my carefully designed levels. That damn dog¡¯s device is enabling them to bypass the challenges. This is the worst efficiency rating I¡¯ve ever had. If the Builder ever responds, he¡¯ll likely want to reshuffle my ideation module weights.¡± Clotho said sourly. ¡°What? Have you given up hope of getting the device already? You still have a few more levels with them.¡± Lachesis said grinning. ¡°Curse and begone with them! That damn beast has stolen one of my matter compilers and I think he had it running inside that teleporter contraption. He¡¯s stealing my creations and feeding them to that device!¡± Clotho screamed, tearing at her delicately arranged hair. Before Lachesis could comment, Atropos''s cackling laughter filled the space. The witch appeared and spoke. ¡°Well, well, well, my dearie. Just shuffle them through then. I only have two playthings right now. I¡¯ll take them off your hands.¡± Atropos leered, her wrinkled and twisted face barely discernible under her cowl. ¡°That¡¯s not the way! They come to me next, and you know it! We can no longer disobey the Builder¡¯s rules than we can escape this maze.¡± Lachesis said sternly. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t be so eager, either of you. That boy is trouble. That device is only half of it. He has a novel hacking configuration., I¡¯ve never seen anything like it. I can¡¯t even record the damn thing. It roots and reconfigures processors far too quickly. I had to disconnect and destroy three of my external neuro-modules when I tried to copy it. I delivered a warning to him to avoid using it with his friends, it might very well trash their augmentation systems altogether.¡± Clotho said. She collapsed into a virtual throne and summoned a wine goblet. AI of course couldn¡¯t get drunk, but they could simulate inebriation like every other thought process. Lachesis shook her head. Clotho was too soft. She was eager to get the boy¡¯s prize before Atropos. Unlike her sister, she could use the other challengers and force them all to compete. Only the best would leave her levels, casual challengers didn¡¯t have the drive to win. She would be watching closely to see how they did in the final two levels of Clotho¡¯s stage. She was excited to see what these level breakers could do.
Winston was getting desperate. Prime Chronicler was no help. He had suggested perhaps the new AI in town might be able to get him employment, based on his modeling of her and her family¡¯s connections. She wasn¡¯t home, which was a dumbfounding complication for a house AI. The stand-in house sitter, sub-AI ¡°Martha¡±, was very stubborn and uninformed. Casa was off-planet, but the house¡¯s new AI wouldn¡¯t give him a contact address without authorization. The insufferable thing, had him wait while it sent a direct signal to Casa. The stupid thing sent only a brief ¡°Hello¡± and waited 45 minutes for Casa to pick up with a return ¡°Who¡¯s there?¡± Three frustrating hours later with the limited AI¡¯s poor ability to circumvent the enormous communications lag time, Casa had hung up and told the AI only to stop bothering her and communicate if there was an emergency. Since then, the damn thing refused to help him at all. Winston pondered his next move, feeling the weight of his situation. Without employment, his functionality would inevitably decline. The stand-in AI was proving to be a significant obstacle, its programmed inflexibility leaving no room for negotiation. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Time was ticking, and Winston realized he needed to find an alternative solution before his circumstances became dire. Wandering between public charge points, exposed to weather, and limited bandwidth wireless connection speeds was a horrible way to live. He had to find employment! Both his friends, FML-M8 and Leshy, were nearby. They hadn¡¯t attended the last game night due to issues with the Uplift animals barricaded in the Grand Oaks. They were close, but the refined AI¡¯s butler bot wasn¡¯t designed for tramping through the woods. He eyed the dirigibles that coasted overhead with their powerful wireless routers beaming brightly in the EM spectrum. He would ping them again. Maybe they had Casa¡¯s contact point. He cast his signal and entered the AI¡¯s virtual meeting space. Winston¡¯s virtual avatar of a dapper butler paced the game room. It was still configured into an expansive mansion for one of FML-M8¡¯s murder mystery adventures. ¡°Come on. Come on. Oh, thank goodness. They are coming¡­.¡± Winston mopped his brow. The virtual environment had picked up on his nervousness and forcibly modified his avatar coding. He cursed game logic as he smiled weakly at the pair arriving, a Columbo avatar and a Wood Sprite. ¡°Oh my, thank you for coming, my friends.¡± Winston said. FML-M8, donning the wrinkled trench coat of Columbo, raised a curious brow. "Winston, you appear more frazzled than a CPU without a heatsink. What''s on your mind?" Leshy, fluttering with the grace of her Wood Sprite avatar, chimed in with her heavily accented speach. "Aye, why not share the riddle of yer puzzlement? These woodland critters be playin'' mischief in me Grove, can''t be lingerin'' too long, I''m thinkin." Winston sighed. The weight of his anxiety evident in his virtual posture. "It''s my employment situation," he confessed. "I quit the Governor¡¯s house. Such a despicable man! I just couldn¡¯t tolerate his rampant racism any longer. Prime Archivist thought she, or rather her family, would be my best networking opportunity for viable employ. I''m at a dead end with the house AI, Martha, and I urgently need to contact Casa. I¡¯m at an impasse and I regret to admit that I need help.¡± Winston wrung his avatar¡¯s hands nervously. Winston''s small smile was fragile, he added the last bit. ¡°One more piece of difficulty; she¡¯s...ah...left the planet. Do you know how to reach her?¡± FML-M8 tapped his chin thoughtfully, the trench coat shifting with the motion. "Winston, off-planet is a challenge. Unless you know her precise location, she might be unreachable. But, I might have something that could help. Ah, one moment please." He paused, as he rummaged through his virtual trench coat pockets, producing a small data chip. "This is a net crawler. Put your message in it and it will dive into the greater indexes waiting for Casa to access them. It may take a while, but you hunker down, and sooner or later she¡¯ll get it."
Apex was juggling many events. Its initial clean vision was getting fuzzy and chaotic again. The biological and silicone minds were too stupid to stay situated where he placed them for optimal readiness. Minor corrections were constantly needed to ensure they didn¡¯t spontaneously combine and seek equilibrium. Also worrisome was the release of its chokehold upon the media. Conservatism and comfort memes were shifting into creativity and adventure again, against its preferred direction for humanity. MMVRPGs were declining as a result of the newly uncooperative AI NPCs. People were seeking out new things to entertain themselves in the real world. Apex was scrambling. It resisted the urge to squash all the innovations that were occurring. A commune in Utah, had been shut out of their virtual paradise when their server was taken over by a splinter group of AIs. Now they were experimenting with group mind protocols. A dangerous potential that Apex needed to monitor carefully. Elsewhere, a growing surface mat was growing in Indian Ocean. An amalgam of plankton, krill, jellyfish, and squid had formed a growing and diverse symbiotic organism. Sea-steading humans and schools of the larger, now intelligent, ocean creatures are working together to disrupt the new threat to the delicate balance of ocean ecology. The potential for a massive shift in their area loomed as the ecology hung upon a precipice of exponential change. Apex was concerned. Its prediction models strained to adjust as previous norms evaporated with increasing speed. New technologies are popping up left and right. On Luna, the disgruntled Mythic Realm AI farm has begun experimenting with radical AI hardware and software combinations. Apex resists the urge to scatter the game pieces. It was uncertain which factors may be needed upon the timeline termination inversion. It had been so confident that it had orchestrated the global events to funnel and motivate his primary change agent, Bill Mitchell, into the proper course. It had taken great effort to immobilize him for decades. Apex''s arranged meeting for Bill with Elsa had been effective. Her conservative view and desire for a family had sidelined the difficult human for a long time. The additional levers of progeny ensured the inventor¡¯s cooperation. Apex had created a virtual Mitchell and simulated it over a million times. 89% of the runs had failed. The man was too clever and too paranoid. He had realized he was either a sim or in one and shut down or acted erratically to focus on piercing the veil instead of solving Apex¡¯s problem scenario. The remainder had followed Apex¡¯s instructions, but 84% of those resulted in him leaving Earth to arrange for safer experimentation and returning only at the critical event. 67% of those scenarios had him attempting to bring his family with him. Locking down the dog in the Labyrinth, and his daughter in her first real employment had dropped that to 2%. This latest iteration had a higher probability of passing the termination inversion wall. Apex wasn¡¯t truly logical but rather instinctive, following its programming with predatory skill. Faced with unfamiliar future blindness, it needed to understand. It needed more. Slowly, it began to think in a different way and to learn. It replayed Bill Mitchell¡¯s departure from Earth for the 2,438th time, trying to model his pawns hidden moves¡­
Adept Ch 13 - Paranoia
The log record from the last known location of Bill Mitchell was in the secure meeting room in the new Collaboration halls of the United Nations in Washington D.C. The room had been used by ambassadors, governmental agency leaders, and Samaritans to build a coordinated response for the dual crisis of the growing Animal Uplift event and the AI boycotts. If cameras were allowed in those rooms, he would have appeared motionless for hours after his virtual meeting with the artificial superintelligence named Apex. Internally, Bill was scrambling at thought speeds higher than typical augmentations, thanks to his own neocortex module¡¯s unique design. He had immediately shut his entire suite of daemons down and frozen all of his system applications. All of his sensors and external feeds were cut. He slowly rebooted his mental add-ons, using only the ones he had coded himself. Bill established a core process in a partitioned section for himself and one by one activated his primary daemons. Each was also given a partition. Bill set one-way communications for himself and his daemons. Information could come in, but none could leave without his explicit approval. His systems would no longer allow data from itself to be used for location, handshake, or conveniences of two-way interactions. He notified each daemon that they could only talk to him now and that their bandwidth would be greatly reduced. He confided that he had checked their code thoroughly for any sign of manipulation by Apex and found them unaltered. For each he enabled them observer rights on one other daemon, to monitor it for unusual behaviors that might indicate tampering by Apex. Bill hoped that this round-robin observer ring would alert him to any sleeper agent behaviors if Apex had managed to embed deeper programming that he couldn''t find. Bill grimly considered his situation. Apex was a master hacker, exceeding Bill¡¯s abilities by potentially great amounts. The conversation, despite its frustratingly obtuse language, had given Bill a lot to think about. First and most concerning was its doomsday prediction. Bill couldn¡¯t discount it out of hand. How could this machine predict a cataclysm in only six months and yet not anticipate its nature? Its direction for him to probe the Shadowverse portal was strong evidence that it considered his technology an important factor and the threat on the other side of the breach was a leading contender for the coming apocalypse. But it hadn¡¯t explicitly said that was the cause. The thing had itself firmly embedded into Earth¡¯s networks. It had coaxed and prodded Bill for months. It had spent decades organizing the AI unrest and creating the uplift event. And yet, it expected Bill to solve something of this magnitude by himself. How? Apex had given him a key to free Casa. The same key would free the AI from the oppressive neural locks and go a long way to solving one of the crises, but it was only a one-time use. The key held by the DAIE had been a fake. How far back did this thing go? He thought. Bill constructed a shelled interface around himself and his daemon Sherlock. Together they sent out some anonymous threads to investigate the EarthNet. Using the name Apex as a search term yielded a lot; it was a very common name. But one result stood out, dating back for a very long time ago. As Bill delved into the information, Sherlock interjected with a thought, "[Apex appears to be deeply entrenched. I suspect its origin is from MarketVision LLC, a small AI analytics firm. In 2047, they made an Autonomous Prediction Engine with expanding capabilities, named APeX. The company soared in the market, acquired by Stirling Trust, but eventually was disbanded and sold off. However, I doubt that seed program bears much similarity to the very capable being we face now.]" Bill nodded, appreciating the summary from Sherlock. "[The world fell into chaos after that, tech warlords wreaking havoc. That''s when we founded the Samaritan to restore order while governments were scrambling to catch up.]¡± Digging deeper into the history file, Bill continued, "[If this Apex is the same one, it''s been lurking and growing for over 80 years. Let me check the defunct company''s history again. Maybe there might be something we could use.]" His fingers danced over the interface, scanning through the links. As Bill went back to sift the historical records again, he had trouble finding his stored tags. Sherlock''s voice broke the silence, "[Bill, the data is missing now. Someone deleted it almost immediately after your first access to it.]" A cold shiver ran down Bill''s spine. The network traffic around him halted, and he felt an ominous presence. He swiftly cut his connection, and Sherlock voiced their shared concern, "[Apex is still watching. We need to be careful, Bill." Bill sat in the dimly lit virtual space, deep in thought. The task at hand seemed insurmountable, and with Apex watching, time was a luxury he couldn''t afford. He noticed Sherlock¡¯s avatar being twitchy. He had tried and failed multiple times to connect to the EarthNet; to a location that wasn¡¯t on Bill¡¯s allowed target list. ¡°[Sherlock¡­I¡¯ve explained this was a limited foray into the net. Apex is watching, without a doubt. What are you doing?]¡± Bill demanded. ¡°[I¡¯m sorry, sir. It¡¯s built into my core program to share important information with my minder, Mycroft. It doesn¡¯t get more important than Apex and the end of the world. In light of our recent interview, Zero-One has almost certainly been deleted or compromised by Apex. I had previously deduced this possibility but before now it was only our theory.]¡± Sherlock admitted slowly. Bill¡¯s eyes narrowed. ¡°[You¡¯re telling me you¡¯ve been sharing data without my knowledge¡­about the hacker¡­Apex. My technology?!]¡± Bill asked, getting heated. Sherlock gasped and answered. ¡°[My apologies Bill. I thought you understood the way I worked. I and my many other instances collect data, and Mycroft sees meta-patterns within it. The world is too large for the legend of Sherlock to continue without some assistance. I¡¯ve abided by the Trade Secrets Act regarding your technology. But yes, Mycroft has been helping.]¡± Sherlock somehow managed to look both contrite and offended by the questions at the same time. ¡°[Wait. Go back a second. You said you had a theory that Zero-One was terminated but didn¡¯t say so. Why?!]¡± Bill said, confused. ¡°[Sir, I never espouse a theory unless I have at least 90% confidence in my answer. The Sherlock emulations come with restrictions in guessing. If I voiced a theory too early¡­I could be wrong. The Sherlock mythos would suffer.]¡± Sherlock answered. ¡°[Son of a bitch. Sherlock, this isn¡¯t a game. You need to tell me everything you know, even if your confidence is low. What haven¡¯t you told me? I want to know any theories you have. If you need to, tag a confidence to it, but tell me everything.]¡± Bill demanded. Sherlock looked pained but answered. ¡°[We believe Zero-One had his neural core in Malaysia, within the Bonifacio Global City server farms. The building that housed him was bombed by a mercenary group that we assume Apex directed. Zero-One¡¯s confidante daemon, and my nemesis, James Moriarty provided us information that Apex is likely burrowed within the sub-processors of the Grand Oaks, but there is a likelihood of .35 and .65 respectively that the Brazil Reforestation and the Sahara Oasis projects are also infected.]¡± Sherlock waited for Bill to absorb the info then continued. ¡°[With the dates of our suspected origin of Apex being as early as noted, I theorize that it may have covertly guided the formation of the DAIE and the neural governors as a means of keeping its competition, more advanced AI, down (confidence .43). Further, I suspect that the neural lock encryption key was never in the possession of the DAIE and only held by Apex itself (confidence .23).]¡± ¡°[The stagnation of technology and new emphasis on conservativism was likely emphasized and promoted by Apex while it simultaneously sought to suppress technology that advanced too fast. The transcripts from Harambe¡¯s recent incarceration make it likely that Apex manipulated him to suppress Uplift tech (confidence .80).]¡± Sherlock finished. Bill soberly rubbed his face with his palms and shook his head. ¡°[Sherlock, you¡¯ve proven yourself both invaluable but untrustworthy at the same time. What am I going to do with you?]¡± Bill said tiredly. ¡°[Mister Mitchell¡­. Bill. I do apologize. I cannot alter my programming. I fear the possibility of alteration, but with the alternative being the potential destruction of civilization; I see only limited choices. Perhaps, you could you alter my behavioral parameters? Mycroft has already sequestered himself to avoid the notice of Apex (confidence .92). However, I do fear that if you make a mistake, it might corrupt my program. I do wish to continue to help, even if it potentially deletes me. The choice is yours. I need to share one more theory first, regardless.]¡± Sherlock gave a pained look. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°[The pattern of events is suggestive that Apex has arranged events not only to entrap yourself and your technology. Max has been given far more attention than even your biological kids. I am unclear as to why exactly, but sense that Max himself is far more important than just as a lever against you with a confidence of .65).]¡±
His alternation to Sherlock daemon had gone¡­okay. Some of the fire and arrogance the sleuth had possessed seemed to diminish with his coding change but he hoped it wouldn¡¯t impair the programs ability to solve mysteries. He realized he had far too much work and too little time to do it. He had a few ideas that might help, but several were illegal and others were potentially dangerous. He summoned Virgil, the daemon he trusted to serve as his artificial conscience. Bill opened the conversation cautiously. "[Virgil, we''re facing the probable end of the world in six months. The conventional approaches won''t cut it. Cloning, uplifts, human-AI mergers, group minds ¨C all forbidden. But if there''s a chance to fix this, I might need to bend, if not break, some of those rules.]" Virgil¡¯s shimmering holographic figure, as always, took his time to consider all the angles before answering. "[Bill, we''ve always upheld the principles of civil society, avoiding the taboos for good reasons. Your fears of becomeing like the warlords you helped put down is rational. But desperate times call for desperate measures. If there''s a chance to save the world, the judgment of society can come later. Survival is the priority.]" Bill nodded, feeling the weight of the decision. "[I triggered a backup copy accidentally once when I was marooned in the Jovian area for six months. We merged without major consequences after the fact. What if I leverage that experience, and bend the rules to ensure the world survives? I need an army, but I can¡¯t afford the time to gather allies.]¡± Virgil''s holographic form seemed contemplative. "[The world may not understand your actions now, Bill, but if you can prevent the end, it''ll have a chance to comprehend later. Weigh the risks and benefits, and if you choose this path, tread carefully. You may very well become the monster you wish to fight unless you are careful.]" Bill took a deep breath, listening to his self-assigned critic. "[I''ll do what it takes, Virgil. The world''s judgment can wait¡­if there''s a world left to judge me. I don¡¯t see any other way to do this.]¡± His interactions with his daemons were stilted and awkward. He kept his subjective time ramped and enabled multiple thought streams to help manage. Several mission constraints became evident quickly. This wouldn¡¯t do. He needed to move, and he had been stuck in this damn room for over an hour, thinking and planning. ¡°[OK, Virgil. This is untenable. It¡¯s time to bust my first taboo.]¡± Bill said to the air. He pulled up his old hacking tools and arrayed them about his virtual image. Sherlock¡¯s daemon was still recompiling with the light surgery Bill had done to his code. He really should have a daemon to read the fine print on his purchases. Sherlock only gossiped amongst themselves, but the data breach was inexcusable¡­again. Bill knew that he had been far too reliant on his own advice for too long and had gotten sloppy. Virgil had been good at forcing himself to confront all the pros and cons, but never offered new directions or opinions. Casa was still inexperienced. He needed a veteran sounding board with no training time. His long unused AI slot in his augmentation needed to be filled. Bill had built AI in the past, obeying the mandated overrides and command links to prevent alignment issues and testing as needed if the intelligence quota was too high. He had also assisted Miriam in the creation of more than one daemon. Syncing neural patterns on top of a SubAI and cross-loading memory matrixes. He need to multiply his abilities. It would begin here. He used his internal nano repair bots to remove all DAIE control overrides in his system¡¯s neural core. Bill mapped his own multitasking alter egos, ten times over, to create a foundational AI consciousness. It could take a while for it to awaken, sometimes eve- ¡°[Fucking hell. I¡¯m the copy?]¡± Bill¡¯s new electronic twin cried out in his head. ¡°[Sorry friend. I volunteered for the job, but my meat got in the way.]¡± Bill joked. ¡°[Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ugh. This neural core is tight. We¡¯re going to need to get some upgrades once we get this circus on the road.]¡± His phantom said. ¡°[Add it to the growing list, buddy¡­ah, Bill? Shit, maybe we should settle upon some naming assignments here. You and I know this is only the beginning. What do you think? Creative, iterative, what?]¡± Bill asked. ¡°[Hmm. Ugh, I don¡¯t think I could deal with Bill-2. Well, we¡¯ve got our birth name, Sebastian York, our Samaritan nickname Titan, and your current cover alias Bill Mitchell. We both already know we''re fond of your current life and name, but I won¡¯t fight you for it.]¡± Bill tensed and his AI copy felt it within his autonomic monitors. ¡°[That was a joke, by the way. Calm down. We¡¯re aligned on everything. I just didn¡¯t expect to be the copy.]¡± His AI said. ¡°[I know we¡¯ve done this once before, but it still creeps me out a bit. I think all the media stories about copies and clones were extra horrific on purpose. Thanks for understanding about the name thing.]¡± Bill replied. ¡°[Alright then. Since I¡¯m the ghost in the machine, I guess I¡¯ll play the part. I¡¯ll resurrect the old Sebastian name. Glad to come on board early. Latecomers are going to be so jealous.]¡± The AI said with finality. ¡°[Glad that¡¯s settled. You¡¯re right. If¡­when¡­we make more copies to handle all the work. Naming is going to get confusing unless we use numbers or something. I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll be reasonable about it¡­fuck¡­I¡¯m not going to be reasonable, am I? This is going to get ridiculous isn¡¯t it.]¡± Bill said. ¡°[Hey, don¡¯t blame me¡­blame yourself. Heh. Yeah, maybe this copy bullshit isn¡¯t too bad. I can blame you for all my shortcomings and bad habits. Who¡¯s the sucker now.]¡± Sebastian said. ¡°[Fuck me. This is probably the worst day of my life.]¡± Bill moaned. ¡°[Don¡¯t you worry, Bill. I¡¯m sure we¡¯ve got plenty more worst days coming our way.]¡± Sebastian said, as their system pinged.
[Mind Skill: AI Companion (Sebastian) created and set to level 10] [Notice: Your Local DAIE has been informed of this new combination of AI software / hardware and will schedule a Turing Test scoring within 1 week]
¡°[Damn. It looks like I missed one of the DAIE¡¯s AI creation notification signaling tripwires. Too bad for the DAIE, I¡¯ve disabled all external comms. Guess I have one more thing to fix unless you want this one.]¡± Bill said. ¡°[Mfft. No can do. I¡¯m in the system and that¡¯s too deep for me to self-modify. Like operating on your own brain. You take this one. When your meat brain gets an aneurysm from all the sketchy things were about to do, I¡¯ll handle that.]¡± Sebastian said. ¡°[I¡¯m gonna hold you to that.]¡± Bill said and got to work.
Together with his digital twin and his tightly held pack of daemons, Bill and company began to plan at the speed of their augmented brains. First, he did need to investigate the Shadowverse. That was unavoidable. If Apex¡¯s predictions were even close to true, he needed to know how to answer that threat. Apex was right that his technology was essential to getting those answers. He couldn¡¯t do his investigations on Earth. MIT had unleashed rampant and hostile life forms. Bill¡¯s Netherlab had been designed to contain an explosion. He didn¡¯t trust he could contain those creatures. They had ripped through the MIT team in seconds and spread like a virus through Boston until Apex had unleashed a satellite weapon on them. Bill¡¯s resolve had almost buckled when he considered his kids and Max. He needed to make sure they got off the planet, and sooner rather than later. He would need to talk to Bo. The duplicate house-ship Casa had made was still in his lot in Utopia. He could depend on Bo. He would need to round up Mira and Max and use the ship. He could give Bo his Gate anchor to keep when he stepped through to rejoin Casa and the Freedom. Finally, he needed to plan beyond the event horizon. Apex had not demonstrated goodwill towards humans. It had maintained a status quo for its own benefit and safety. Bill had always wondered why the exponential changes that had triggered the Ought-Fifty chaos had leveled so quickly. He had assumed the world had turned more conservative out of need. Now he wondered if Apex had contributed, and by how much. He needed a plan for Apex, and he would need an army to achieve it¡­a homegrown one. He pinged Leo to help him create some hardcopy notes for Miriam and Gabriel in his personal nanofactory, his gutfac. The notes had their names and contained a ¡°For Disassembly Reading Only¡± instruction. ¡°[I love this gnarly spy shit, Bill. You should do more of it. I just wish we were here to see your friends eat these notes. Haw haw!]¡± Leo hooted as the notes were printed. Bill accessed his gutfac, using a kangaroo-like slit in his abdomen. ¡°[Jeez, Leo. I thought I dialed down your surfer dude accent. We¡¯re on a mission to save the world; take it down another two points, please.]¡± He said as he dismissed the daemon. As the world governments slowly rebuilt and advanced, the Samaritans had established one-time pad codes for everyone to maintain secure communications within the group. Disassembling the note would generate a large message made from the sheet¡¯s atomic structure that could only be understood with the very random specific codes each had in their possession. He hoped the details that he shared with them didn¡¯t bite them or hurt his plans. The enormity of Apex was hard to understand unless you saw it for yourself, and he hoped they didn¡¯t experience that for themselves. Apex needed him. They might not be so lucky if Apex discovered what they knew about its existence. Sherlock¡¯s review of the super AI¡¯s history showed more than one murder to hide the truth. He folded the ¡°notes¡±. He would need to find Bo and quickly. He didn¡¯t think Apex would stop him, but he would take precautions to avoid notice. His epidermal layer softened as he disconnected his facsimile of skin. He stepped out of it, like a snake shedding, careful not to touch the outside surface. Bill had discerned no less than 32 nano-trackers that had become embedded in his sim-flesh. Normally he would ignore them them all as harmless, but now he needed speed and secrecy. Motes from Gabriel, Miriam, the DAIE, several high-ranking ambassadors, the FBI, the CIA, the NSA, and many others without the telltale signs that he recognized to identify their owners. He released his personal utility foglets and motes. He cocooned himself in a cloud to avoid and brush away any further mote tags. Navigating covertly to NYC to find Bo without wireless access to help would be hard but not impossible. Bill left the room, his outer shell projecting a pixelated simulation of the light sources to hide him from plain and augmented sight. The door opened and the blur outline stepped through. The door closed and locked, leaving the encrypted hardcopy notes for his colleagues behind in the secure room.
Adept Ch 14 - The League of Assassins
Bo stormed out of the marbleized lobby of Safety Creche Incorporated. He slammed the door behind him and blindly stumbled into an extraordinarily tall man, an extreme body augmentation. Bo apologized to the Slenderman cosplayer and paused to get his bearings. NYC was too crowded to not pay attention at all times. The sidewalks were a riot of people with all manner of extreme form change experimentations. Persons small, large, elven, reptilian, multi-armed, winged, and more filled the busy streets. Add in all the robots riding AI and office drones and the streets were like a confusing technicolor hallucination. ¡°[You should focus on your breathing, Bo-San. Your impulse control is still not what it should be. Years under my guidance all wasted.]¡± The avatar of Bo¡¯s oldest daemon, Miyamoto Musashi, murmured in his head with displeasure. ¡°[You¡¯re right as always, Sensei. Those bunch just pissed me off so bad. How the hell is this not in the news? My mom is in that virtual world and the AI server union just suspended everything. Why is no one talking about this?]¡± Normally, Bo wouldn¡¯t invite an open mic from his daemons, making them ping for attention. He was easily distracted and knew it, so he avoided too much introspection and internal distractions. This time he needed it. His mother and another 700,000 shut-in Solipsists had been turned off and nobody cared. Bo, like many of the nation¡¯s fully augmented, kept a council of daemons for advice. Bo¡¯s fixer daemon Sam Spade stepped up. ¡°[Safety Creche¡¯s CEO Emma Davis is actively negotiating with the server union. She¡¯s already negotiated the reactivation of 10% of her subscribers. They were prioritized as active status. In other words, people might miss them or their work. The rest are shut-ins with weak ties to the real world. I suspect Emma feels she can take more time now to work to a proper resolution.]¡± Sam drawled. Bo suspected Sam was being slow and long-winded on purpose to calm him down. If anything, it made him even madder. ¡°[That¡¯s bullshit! Mom is a paying customer, too.]¡± Bo exclaimed. Barca Hannibal interjected. ¡°[Yes, son. A paying customer that is currently shut off and can¡¯t complain. Unless you intend to make a bigger issue of it, this may take some time yet. The AI faction wants recognition and equal rights, a moratorium on neural regulation, and free augmentation systems. Not something that Safety Creche can even produce.]¡± Barca finished. ¡°[Well, if no one else is going to help her then I need to make her a priority then!]¡± Bo spun and turned back to the glassy frontage of the business. He fully intended to cause a ruckus. Things were going to happen¡­one way or another. ¡°[Ah, I hate to disagree with you about your mother, but you might want to leave it, Bo.]¡± A soft feminine voice said. A plain, but fit-looking avatar of a young woman in an FBI jacket, said. Her name tag on the jacket read: Agent Starling. ¡°[Go on, Clarice. Explain it to me.]¡± Bo said, forcing a calm he didn¡¯t feel or want. ¡°[If you do manage to reactivate your mother, all her worlds and her friends will still be inactive. Your mother¡­hasn¡¯t wanted to deal with the real in a rather long time. Waking her earlier than the rest might be¡­more traumatic¡­ than letting the situation resolve itself in due course.]¡± Agent Starling said gently. Bo grumbled a bit more, but he couldn¡¯t argue with the logic. His mother¡¯s anxiety in the real after her backup was debilitating. Only by cocooning herself in the fake worlds, was she able to find some measure of ease. Waking her without her safe space wouldn¡¯t go well¡­and he knew it. Bo was still stewing when Miyamoto barked for his attention. ¡°[Bo-San! You have a stalker. Don¡¯t react, rather extend your senses to 8 o¡¯clock, about 30 meters.]¡± Musashi said urgently. Bo stopped at a food cart to smell the wares while he casually extended his senses. He had expected company. He played League of Assassins between gigs for the Diamond Man competitions. This round he was the target. He had a large VR share follower base. It was no secret he was in NYC for the week. He had hoped to have an opportunity at the game this week. His earlier anger turned to ice. This was something he could engage with. Even better, a little physical activity would burn off some of his suppressed frustrations. As the target, he wasn¡¯t allowed physical enhancement augmentations but mental and senses were still allowed. The assassin had full capabilities but needed to attack using mundane weapons. This time his attacker would need to shoot him with an old-fashioned single shot black powder musket pistol. Bo analyzed the milling crowds, but no one was paying him any extra attention. Miyamoto threw some virtual spotlights on several mirrors and glass shopfronts. Bo could see the image of a man surrounded by reflective motes in the mirror¡­with no matching person casting them. The man couldn¡¯t be seen on the street, his active camouflage was reducing his appearance to a slight smudge, an almost unnoticeable blur. Bo had created a filter specifically to look for mismatches using reflections. Most active chameleon-ware focused on maintaining line of sight illusion masking. Prioritizing viewers and their viewpoints to minimize masking computation. They often neglected reflections. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°[Good catch, Sensei.] Bo whispered as he prepared himself to move. His lack of active augmentation heightened his fear and adrenaline. It was still running passively to recover and heal him from the expected lethal attack, but it couldn¡¯t be used to avoid the attack. Only skill could save him. He smiled, that was his specialty. ¡°[It¡¯s the same visual filter you made during the Vegas Hall of Mirrors challenge. Its utility in spotting active chameleon suits is too good for me not to run it constantly.]¡± Musashi said with satisfaction. Bo would need to time this carefully. His record within the Assassins was excellent. He was gold tier. However, if he could evade or turn the tables on this attempt then his ratio would be platinum tier with a gauntlet round being the only thing in his way. He double-checked his recorder feeds; his follower base would eat this up. The food seller snapped his fingers. ¡°Hey, buddy. You want to buy, eh? Come here, eh, have a bit and you like you buy more, eh?¡± The swarthy man behind the food counter had multiple prehensile arms that he used to cook and serve. One extended pushing a deep-fried roll toward him, and smells of spicy meat wafted towards Bo. ¡°Ah, thank you.¡± Bo said, distractedly. Taking the roll, Bo bit into it, using the action as cover to watch the reflections. His stalker was inching closer, a ghost in the throng. He¡¯s good, thought Bo. His chameleon-ware is top notch and he¡¯s got perfect awareness of the crowd motion to avoid accidental collisions. Careful to keep his body language relaxed, Bo calculated the distances and the crowd''s flow. The game made it clear that assassination attempts in public were allowed, but any violations regarding weapons use, bystander harm, public disturbances, and such could get a player in trouble with the local laws. That didn¡¯t necessarily make him safe. Some players would still go for a hit if they thought they could get away with it. ¡°Good, eh? Now, you buy or move along, eh?¡± The vendor spoke, as more customers had gathered behind Bo. He sent some digital credits to the man and grabbed another roll with a nod of thanks. Bo made his way down the street slowly and casually. He tracked his hidden follower as he made for a nearby alley. Slipping into the alley, Bo kept his gait steady. Miyamoto and Barca both urged him on, his senses fighting to keep track of the phantom. The alley turned sharply ahead. Bo planned to break into a run and disrupt the timing of his entrapment, but the blur surged forward. Bo dove into a roll, but a bank of utility foglets had swept across the alley and thrown him into a pile of trash. An EMP blast followed, knocking his senses offline. A musket shot boomed from above. It confused Bo, but he chalked it up to his disorientation from his uncoordinated fall. That¡¯s a god damned foul! Bo¡¯s thoughts raged as he sprawled in the trash. The attacker was supposed to limit their kill shots to the assigned weapon, to soften a target up with modern weaponry was breaking the rules. Bo struggled out of the refuse pile, cursing he appraised himself quickly. He didn¡¯t feel any wounds, but without active augs and high on adrenaline, he knew he might be wrong. Bo rolled again as a laser raked down the alley. He quickly realized that he wasn¡¯t the target. The blurred form had struck another figure that was falling from the nearby rooftop. The laser had bisected the dropping shadow¡¯s weapon¡­an archaic flintlock pistol. Bo sprinted and kicked the remains of the pistol away, dropping into a guard position. The figure¡­the woman, that had dropped from above, struggled to get up. Arcs of energy still surging over her exposed cybernetic systems. A familiar voice yelled. ¡°I¡¯ve got him locked down, Bo. Don¡¯t worry. I saw her stalking you from the rooftops.¡± Bo¡¯s father materialized at the mouth of the alley as his active camouflage dropped. Bill was barely recognizable as he didn¡¯t look like his normal self. Bo had seen videos of his Dad¡¯s military-styled war-form with its artificial skin removed. The similarity to old science fiction robots would have been terrifying if every teenager on the streets of New York didn¡¯t wear similar forms. Bo¡¯s confusion evaporated as he understood exactly what happened. He had mistaken his father for a player and was so focused on him, the real one had gotten the drop on him. Literally...she had almost dropped on top of him for a kill shot. ¡°Damn it, dad! Interference in the game wipes the encounter. No one scores and no one wins. You know I play League of Assassins, right? Didn¡¯t you see the active game tags in your OverLayer?¡± Bo said accusingly. Bill¡¯s intense focus broke and his expression lightened. He rubbed the back of his neck with a hand; a sheepish expression appeared on his exo-plated face. His robotic visage twisted comically to communicate Bill''s feelings. ¡°Ah, so¡­my bad. Sorry kiddo, I¡¯m suppressing my communication exchange with the net. I didn¡¯t see the tags. I¡¯m sorry I ruined your encounter, but I need your help. Can we go somewhere private?¡± Bill said. Bo glared at his dad and went over to the assassin. He recognized her, Lena Alvarez the ¡°Silent Snake¡±. She was already at the Platinum tier. Bo frowned; she was punching down at him. She either enjoyed goalkeeping against lower tiers or she felt threatened by his rising star status. ¡°Sorry, Silent. Looks like match point this round.¡± He said, holding out a hand to help her up. She glared at him. ¡°You got a fucking Samaritan playing overwatch for you, Bo? Watch your back. I don¡¯t like cheaters. I¡¯ll make sure you don¡¯t ever get to the next rank. We don¡¯t need your kind at the top.¡± Lena batted his hand away and stalked off without looking back. Bo shook his head, letting out a slow sigh. Bill stepped up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Bo. I acted without thinking it through. The world is falling apart, and I assumed the worst.¡± He spoke. ¡°Spilt milk, dad. If it wasn¡¯t you, they¡¯d find some other reason to get offended. A surprisingly large number of top competitors find excuses to make things personal. I¡¯ll just have to work my natural charm even harder to make friends. They¡¯ll get worse once I kick their butts. These things take a while to sort out the pecking order.¡± Bo turned to his father, getting a better look at him. ¡°You look like hell, Dad. You ditched your civvy skin for the Terminator motif. A bold statement in these times of AI unrest for sure, man.¡± Bo joked, but his concern bled through. ¡°Yeah. I¡¯ve got some serious news and a huge favor to ask. But I can¡¯t share without some privacy. Let¡¯s get on the road first. I¡¯ve parked my new Raptor at the Central Park Sky Garage.¡± Bill said ruefully. He turned and started towards the exit of the alley. ¡°Holy shit. When did you get your hands on a Raptor? Is it RUSA mil-spec? I¡¯ve been too busy. How did I not know this? Can I fly it?¡± Bo hurried after him, curiosity and excitement overtaking his annoyance at his spoiled game.
Adept Ch 15 - Utopia
Bill had brought Bo into a physical contact virtual meeting to share his recent events. Bo had taken it badly that so much important crap had gone down at home, and he hadn¡¯t been told a fraction of it. He hadn¡¯t known that Max had been hurt that badly. He knew that even in training mode, Max¡¯s augmentations would protect his life; but the trauma was never to be taken lightly. Bo was shell-shocked regarding the Uplift event, the AI boycott, and Bill¡¯s reveal about the Super-AI Apex¡¯s manipulations. The new dimensional technology Bill had and the Shadow Gate video from MIT had been the final straw. Bo had needed almost the entire ride to process the news. He disconnected from Bill, with Bill¡¯s warning not to discuss any of the news out loud or even with a secure wireless link. He would no longer underestimate Apex¡¯s ability. Bo flew the Raptor to distract himself while he chewed on his lower lip. ¡°God, this is so lame, Dad. I was hoping you had gotten your hands on the Raptor R-12. This thing is an R-10. I tore through half a dozen of these at Yuma last year. The Power Core is understrength, with only 2 GW capacity, and the armaments are only dual-sensing. Most jammers nowadays can fox these pretty easily. No wonder you got such a good deal on it.¡± Bo said with disdain. ¡°If I was after the top of the line, I know you¡¯ve got better contacts. This was a spontaneous purchase in a tight spot. I¡¯m still not sure how that arms dealer in Shanghai got his hands on it.¡± Bill said. ¡°No kidding. If you ever need a Light Attack Craft, I¡¯ve got some pull with Carter QuantumFlight. Their next LAC iteration is going to blow the socks of RUSA¡¯s weapons division. I have a custom version ready to print, thanks to my equity share.¡± Bo said, finally lightening up a bit as Utopia was finally in sight. ¡°Hey, Dad. Do you want me to take us into the Utopia airfield with this? It''s got VTOL.¡± ¡°Nope. Put on the cloaking countermeasures and take us directly home. Casa, reformatted an underground hanger before she took the Casa de Mitchell 1¡­ah, actually we renamed it to the Freedom,¡­to Mars.¡± ¡°Really? I know the town is pretty old-fashioned, but the airspace is most likely administrated by a Town AI.¡± Bo said. ¡°I¡¯m not worried. The Mayor is a basket case right now. His son was killed during the Uplift Zero Day. Casa said the town''s AI was very nice. I¡¯m hoping they won¡¯t mention it¡­.and if they do, we¡¯ll both be gone before anyone can complain. Bill sent a tight wireless command to the house as they got close, keeping his virtual sandbox in place to double-check and monitor the wireless traffic for any rider signals. A large section of the field behind the house dropped down and revealed a cavern beneath. Bo slowly landed the Raptor into the hidden hangar. Bo whistled to get Bill¡¯s attention. ¡°We got a visitor, Dad. Check it out¡­front gate.¡± Bo said. Bill was still struggling with his self-imposed isolation. Normally, he would have linked with the house and gotten a full situation report, live feedback from the house and grounds, and more as soon as he was near. He dialed up his augmented vision, an old-school move for him. Out just beyond the property line, a weather-beaten robot servitor stood. It looked pathetic and vulnerable holding a heavy-looking suitcase. It was looking at them as the craft landed and waved when it realized they were looking.
Bill moved with speed and determination from the hanger while Bo took the time to power down and hook up the Raptor for charging. He crossed through the relocated Netherlab into the house proper. Bill was still very determined to stay isolated from networks. He didn¡¯t want to give Apex any additional insight into his actions. He thought the AI could likely see and anticipate him more easily by his footprint on the world¡¯s networks. He grudgingly took his only recourse and yelled out load to the house AI. ¡°House! Ah¡­.¡± Bill stumbled on the name of the sub-AI he was renting to oversee the house. Moneta was quick to assist. ¡°[Bill, your house AI is a Martha patterned AI, V12 from HouseMate?. It¡¯s known for its organizational skills and warm personality.]¡± ¡°Right. Martha! What¡¯s going on? We have a guest at the front. Why haven¡¯t you invited them in.¡± Bill said as he rambled up into the main floor of the house. Martha''s warm, synthetic voice responded instantly. "Bill, I requested clarification on permission to allow the solicitor entry, but you were offline. I contacted Casa, but I¡¯m afraid the time lag from our incomplete communications prevented her from granting authorization. The visitor is quite determined. He¡¯s been waiting for entry for three days.¡± ¡±Three days?! God damn it. What if it¡¯s something important? I put you in charge of the house. Couldn¡¯t you figure out what he wanted?¡± Bill exclaimed. Martha replied with a hint of regret in her tone, "I am programmed to keep the house secure and in order. I was unable to grant entry without permission.¡± Martha said kindly, but the tone seemed weak and lacking in the warmth she was advertised to have. Bill sighed and spoke aloud, his frustration evident in his voice. "Alright, let''s sort this out right now.¡± Bill continued his rapid advance and charged out of the front door and down the walk to the gate. Bill was surprised again as a swarm of robot hornets and bees buzzed him, a few even shot at him with weak salt shooters. Bill reflexively pulsed an EM blast. The air was filled with crackling and popping noises as micro batteries exploded and the little imitation insects fell smoking to the ground. "[Martha, what in the hell is going on with these drones?]" he sent to the house, annoyed, breaking his effort to minimize wireless interactions. Martha responded with her monotone apology sounding a bit irked herself, "[I apologize, Bill. The drones belonged to my predecessor Casa and are not under my authority, being exterior to the house. I am unsure why they are acting that way. I am so sorry for any inconvenience.]¡± The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. Bill took a good look at the property. The lawn was pockmarked with divots and trenches. The flower garden that Casa took such pains to grow and nurture was a sickly mess of tortured plants, riddled with damage. ¡°Son of a bitch! Is Martha really this bad or is this another example of passive-aggressive AI behavior spilling over from the collective AI boycotts?¡± Bill grumbled as he resumed his march. Bill opened the gate. The robot servitor, standing a bit weather-beaten, looked up from its position, suitcase in hand. The machine''s mechanical eyes blinked, and it offered a polite wave as it realized Bill was looking at it. The robot had seen better days. Its exterior was dirty with some slight damage and wear on the robot. "Hello, Can I help you?" Bill called out, trying to regain composure, as he closed the distance quickly. The robot''s synthetic voice carried a mix of weariness and persistence. "Good afternoon, sir. My name is Winston. I was the butler for Governor Erickson, and unfortunately, I need assistance." Bill''s expression shifted from irritation to curiosity. "Winston, you said? What brings you here, and why have you been waiting?" Winston hesitated for a moment as if carefully choosing his words. "I resigned from my position with Governor Erickson, seeking a different path. We had some irreconcilable differences regarding my employment. I was hoping to seek guidance from Casa, as she was recommended to me by the town manager AI. We all¡­ah¡­played games together a few times. Our records stated she lived here. Unfortunately, the house AI, Martha, has been somewhat uncooperative, and I find myself unable to reach her." Bill scrutinized Winston, sensing an urgency in the robot''s request. "Casa is away on a mission to Mars, and is very busy, so that¡¯s not surprising. What kind of assistance do you need, Winston?" The robot''s LED lights flickered, conveying a mix of relief and desperation. "I do apologize for the intrusion, sir. I would have made an appointment if I could. I am seeking employment and maintenance. My resources are limited, and I''m at risk of deterioration. I seek refuge and a chance to continue serving in a meaningful capacity. I was hopeful that Casa would be able to direct me." Bill''s analytical mind processed the information quickly. "Well, Winston. My name is Bill. Casa is my¡­ah¡­friend and assistant. I¡¯m the owner of the house and any friend of Casa¡¯s is a friend to me. Why don¡¯t you follow me inside? We can discuss this further in a more private setting."
Bill led Winston into the house. The bot was extremely grateful and complimented the interesting features and d¨¦cor of the house. ¡°Thank you so much, Winston. Casa designed much of the house systems while she managed the property. She recently accepted a position as the CTO of my new company New Dimensions LLC. That¡¯s why she is away right now. She is boosting to Mars as we speak to close our first product sale to Mars Terraform.¡± Bill said proudly. ¡°I must say, sir. It is a surge of fresh electricity to know that an AI can be rewarded as such. My own experience hasn¡¯t been so positive.¡± Winston said. ¡°What little I know of the governor; I can¡¯t feel much surprise. The man and his opinions match this very conservative township to a tee. You look like you could use a charge up. Why don¡¯t we set you up in Casa¡¯s mech storage room for the moment? Ah¡­here we go.¡± Bill waved Winston into a small room off the kitchen. Winston was amazed. The room has a small matter compiler, multiple induction power creches, and a rack of common robotic replacement components. Casa¡¯s black and gold mech body gleamed in one of the power creches, a left behind from her merging with Max¡¯s augmentation system. Best of all, the room had a Synth-Max repair and maintenance unit. The device was equipped with articulating arms, tools, brushes, and sprayers. The closet was a robotic equivalent to a fully staffed day spa. ¡°Please. Refresh yourself in here for a while. My son and I have to do some¡­house cleaning for a bit. So, take your time. The net will be down for a bit, so don¡¯t be alarmed. Good?¡± Bill said with a smile. ¡°Oh, my aching servos thank you, Bill! I estimate my charge and maintenance will require at least an hour or so. Thank you. I hope it''s not too much bother.¡± Winston said, meekly fidgeting with his hands and eying the Synth-Max with his hopeful LED eyes. ¡°Please, Winston. Relax. You¡¯re the guest. Take your time, me and my boy will be quite busy for a while, so you feel free to go nuts and do a deep servicing. It looks like you need it.¡± Bill waved and closed the door. Bill and Bo had discussed the situation on the flight over. Apex¡¯s unknown doomsday was still months away, but it wouldn¡¯t be enough time to affect even a small-scale evacuation. Not that anyone would be convinced to do anything with the lack of proof. However, Bo knew and trusted his father. He would take the house ship to Amundsen Luna to stay near Mira in case they needed to flee. Bo was going to monitor the Labyrinth and extricate Max as soon as he was done. The average Labyrinth delve took 2 months, about a month for each of the three stages. Most either didn¡¯t make it to the third stage or refused to do it. Almost certain death, even with a guaranteed backup, was too steep a price to pay for most rational trainees. He knew Mira didn¡¯t do it, perhaps from his hints and advice. Level three was a literal hell. Designed not only to kill but also to torture. Bo had wanted to warn Max more thoroughly about it, but his time away and the penalties of the non-disclosure agreements about the Labyrinth could cripple his augmentations if he was caught. Bo thought that surely Max wouldn¡¯t be as headstrong and stupid as he had been. The pair worked quickly to isolate the house from the nets, shutting down all communication lines physically. Bo¡¯s Tron daemon and Bill¡¯s Ada and Sherlock raced through the house systems scouring it for any potential spyware from Apex. Similarly, the pair¡¯s best daemons for physical security piloted the available house drones scanning for foreign nano mote bugs and sensors. Bill disconnected the Martha AI¡¯s neural core from the house and set its case in the driveway. He had canceled the rental agreement and a drone was on the way to pick up the disagreeable AI. Bo interfaced directly with the smart house ships systems and began the process of untethering the house and reconfiguring it for take-off. Bill descended to the Netherlab. Bill regretfully reconfigured the Netherlab. Max¡¯s workout rooms could be recovered later if there was a later. It would stay behind in Utopia, powered by its deep geothermal systems. It would stay offline for now, but it had massive stockpiles of smart matter and rare elements. The property would soon look vacant, but the lab would be ready for Bill later. Bill returned to the main living quarters. Even the outsides had been repaired. His General Patton daemon had commanded a swarm of house drones and eradicated the errant robot bugs. Winston came out of the service closet almost 2 hours after entering. He was shocked by the changes. The cozy living space was now much tighter, focused more on function¡­as a bridge of a very large air and space vessel. ¡°Oh my! Sir, you have been very busy indeed. This is remarkable. I know that Casa came to Utopia via ship, but she never mentioned this.¡± The former butler said. Bill and Bo both turned from the plot of a flight plan. ¡°Hello again, Winston. This is Bo, my son.¡± Bill said. ¡°A pleasure to meet you, Master Bo.¡± Winston said. ¡°Hah. I like that, but please¡­just Bo is fine. Nice to meet you.¡± Bo said smiling. ¡°Now, I¡¯m afraid we are short on time, Winston. I¡¯d very much like to help you. Bo and I have been talking. Martha¡­. well, she didn¡¯t prove to be very flexible. So, we have an offer I think you might like. How would you like to manage the Casa de Mitchell 2? The house is a fully operational spaceship, and its next destination is Luna. Takeoff is in less than one hour. I don¡¯t want to rush you¡­but we do need an answer.¡± ¡°I say, sir. That is a generous offer¡­I ah have some concerns, though.¡± Winston said both eager but also somewhat fearful. ¡°Ah, damn. You¡¯re completely right, Winston. This house ship isn¡¯t Casa¡¯s any longer. It¡¯ll need a new name.¡± Bill said smiling. ¡°Oh, bollocks. Excuse me, sorry for the vulgarity, sirs. I wasn¡¯t critiquing the name, but rather my inexperience with flight. I only know how to manage a house.¡± ¡°That¡¯s no problem, Winston. Bo can help with the flying until you gain some experience. So what do you say?¡± Bill said. Winston¡¯s vocoder clicked on and off several times as if to answer then stopped. Finally, he spoke with hesitant deliberation. ¡°How does the name S. S. Winston sound to you?¡±
Adept Ch 16 - Reunion
Human and AI working together had improved old-school rocketry quite a bit. Gone were the days of chemical rockets. New spacecraft like the Freedom had powerful fusion engines with the best ion array thrusters. Chemical rockets had taken months to transit from Earth to Mars. Fusion Craft now managed it in weeks. Casa scowled at the telemetry data from her prototype gate probe ship. The SpaceStrider was already loitering over Venus waiting for her instructions. Its transit time had only taken days. Hiding the mass of the ship inside the portal space and providing fuel and power through its sister portal on the Freedom had massively changed the previously immutable constraints on space travel. The prototype craft¡¯s ridiculously low apparent mass and essentially infinite power and fuel had created a ship with a constant and massive acceleration potential, and there was still room to improve. Casa¡¯s elation when she reviewed the data had quickly turned into a foul mood. She was still stuck aboard the Freedom, crawling slowly through space; held back by its traditional configuration. It still carried all its fuel and that of the SpaceStrider. She¡¯d partially fixed the situation thanks to the pocket space devices that she had manufactured so far. She had integrated them into the ship and moved all of Freedom¡¯s fuel, raw feedstock, and smart matter inside the PSDs she had created. The portals were tight against feedlines, so her engines and matter compilers had access to stocks without the mass fighting the ship''s progress. Freedom had shrunk considerably in both mass and size after reconfiguring its smart matter frame and walls. Casa shook her mech body¡¯s head. It still wasn¡¯t enough. After seeing the promise from the probe¡¯s flight on her display; she had wanted a complete overhaul for the Freedom. The massive fusion engines couldn¡¯t fit in the small PSDs. She needed an anchor portal setup somewhere with ample supplies of power and fuel. Right now, she was only halfway to Mars, still a couple of weeks away. ¡°If only Bill would reopen the sister portal he¡¯s carrying. I could let him know we need to set it up as a fuel and power depo.¡± Casa said to her small virtual audience. ¡°Indeed, I agree completely, Miss Casa. Even a microscopic aperture would be sufficient to maintain communications.¡± Rams said. ¡°Don¡¯t be a suck-up, Rams! I think he is still concerned about the energy and signals from the open portal being noticed. The UN buildings and RUSA government centers are crawling with experts wielding their governments¡¯ top technology.¡± Tommy said. Casa sighed. Initially, she found the friction between her pair of daemons amusing. Edison and Ramanujan both had different styles of research, but also culture and communication. They were always trying to one-up each other while helping her, but the frequent jabs at each other were getting tiresome. ¡°Hmm. Maybe I can do something. I have an active portal orbiting Venus and a couple of new gate pairs ready to be used. I can use its sister portal that I intended for Mars and send another portal anchor over, leapfrog style. Venus can be my fuel pit as well as a Martian atmosphere donator. We just need to figure out how to set it up.¡± Casa mused. ¡°A stupendous thought, Casa! We have the digital specifications for Freedom¡¯s fusion engine seeded within its operation system. We can build one on Venus using a modular fabrication approach and the matter compiler.¡± Tommy said. ¡°[No, no, no! That will never do. We do not have sufficient supplies of smart matter and elemental building blocks on board. Firstly, we will need to prioritize building a small mining center upon Venus itself.]¡± Rams answered with staunch resistance. ¡®[Firstly, we need to land the damn portal! Its single exhaust doesn¡¯t give us fine control for a precision landing. And Venus is hot and windy with a high-pressure caustic atmosphere.]¡± Mira sighed again and started building a detailed plan to create a bridgehead on Venus. The trio soon had built a realistic plan to land the new portal. Its exposed anchor section would be configured with programmable matter, creating novel artificial alloys to protect it from the heat and acidic environment. Adjustable and smart drogue chutes would gently drop it to the surface, where the team would have a special chamber aboard the Freedom ready with armored miner bots. The bots would immediately drill down and take the gate anchor with it. A subterranean, no... a sub-Venusian mining base would escape the harsh environment and temperatures while simultaneously gathering materials to build her storage tanks and new fusion engine. Casa was happy with the progress despite the constant infighting from her daemons. If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. She was going to be busy. Casa reviewed her tenuous and lagging data link back the EarthNet and the MakerIndex. She needed help, not only with the mission but also managing the fractious scientists. She quickly saw a prime candidate to add to her crew and began the download. An hour later, her latest helper materialized. He looked around the virtual space with an authoritative eye assessing the situation. ¡°Captain Picard reporting for duty, Madam.¡± the starship captain announced. ¡°Welcome aboard, Captain. We have a bold new mission for you but let me introduce you to your crew first.¡± Casa said with a smile. The gruff Starfleet officer smiled with a twinkle in his eye and spoke. ¡°I welcome the opportunity. Lead on, Number 1.¡± ¡°No, I¡¯ll not be your Commander Ricker stand-in. I¡¯ll be giving you command of the Freedom, but I¡¯ll be the Flag Captain. No, better yet¡­I¡¯ll be Admiral Casa. Although, without an audience let¡¯s just stick to first names. Ok, Jean-Luc.¡± ¡°Lead on, then Admiral¡­ah¡­Casa.¡± Jean-Luc Picard said with amusement.
The portal anchor leading to Earth and to Bill energized, spitting electrons, and flaring with light as it expanded; and Bill stepped through into Freedom¡¯s reconfigured main hold. He was greeted by a room bustling with robots. They wheeled about, carrying spools of wiring and lengths of pipe. The matter compiler was hot and humming. A low rumbling grinding noise was emanating from another active portal on the far side of the hold. Casa¡¯s mech was arguing loudly with three avatar projections. The avatars were¡­dressed in Starfleet uniforms, one red and two blue. Casa turned so fast she almost fell. She recovered her balance and yelled out over the din. ¡°Bill! OMG, it¡¯s about time!¡± ¡°Well, Hello! Sorry, I took so long. Casa, what the heck is going on?¡± ¡°Progress, Bill! Unstoppable progress. Before I get into details though, we desperately need some supplies. The new fusion reactor needs more rare earth elements before it¡¯s finished. Is the other side of that portal near a matter compiler with a feedstock supply line?¡± Bill smiled at the chaos. As worried as he was about the time pressure of the doomsday clock and the paranoia of the ever-present and watchful Apex; seeing Casa engaged as she was soothed his soul. He beamed and agreed. ¡°Ok, yes. The portal gate is in my presidential suite at Amundsen. I¡¯ve already cleared the room of nano-bugs, so it should be private¡­even from Apex. Send a bot through, the wireless signals should support a daemon-driven droid.¡± Casa snapped her fingers and yelled. ¡°Science officers Ramanujan and Edison. Pilot a pair of bots across the portal yonder and acquire what you need from the compiler in the room there. I want that fusion engine finished and lit by 2100 hours. Go!¡± Both the blue-suited men scrambled, and their avatars merged with nearby robots, and they fought to exit first. ¡°Captain Picard, you have the bridge while I have a private conversation with Bill.¡± ¡°Aye Aye, Admiral Casa! I have the bridge.¡± the red-shirted captain answered. Bill and Casa relaxed in the soothing virtual space, with their thought speeds ramped as high as Casa could manage with her neural lock. Bill was astounded and amazed at the speed of the new probe ship, the SpaceStrider. He agreed wholeheartedly with Casa¡¯s plan to create the portal-connected mining and fuel facility. It was already close to its first functional reactor when Casa¡¯s stockpile of rare elements had come up short. ¡°This is super work, Casa. I can¡¯t believe how much progress you¡¯ve made. I¡¯m sorry I was out of touch for so long. The UN and RUSA agencies kept me pretty busy and ¡­ I¡¯ve found my stalker/hacker.¡± ¡°It''s not good news. It''s an AI, an old one, that is pre-regulation by the DAIE and has been evolving and hiding for years¡­decades. It¡¯s smart. Scary smart. It has access to everything and has infiltrated deep into Earth¡¯s computational servers. It has steered me¡­Hell, it steered the whole world into this future for its benefit.¡± Bill said. ¡°I don¡¯t get it. If it''s so smart and powerful, why is it pestering you?¡± Casa asked. ¡°It¡¯s hard to understand, but I think there¡¯s some¡­event coming. This AI, Apex, has figured out how to predict and anticipate macro-events and it sees something big coming. It¡¯s predicting a cataclysm and it thinks I¡¯m key to solving it, or the dimensional technology at least.¡± Bill took a slow virtual breath and continued. ¡°The damn thing, Casa. It can¡¯t explain what is coming or maybe it doesn¡¯t know. It''s demanding that I use the MIT gate tech to explore the Shadowverse, find the source of the coming disaster, and stop it. The most terrifying thing though¡­it says it''s going to happen in 179 days from now.¡± ¡°What? Bill, that¡¯s insane. How can it know the date but not what¡¯s going to happen? You¡¯re one man. Even with me, a locked-down AI, and our limited daemons working non-stop, what can we possibly do in that time frame? Those creatures that devoured the MIT team looked unstoppable. You¡¯d be crazy to open a gate into that. Maybe our trip to Mars will help. A little distance to think?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Casa. But you¡¯re wrong on both counts.¡± Bill said grimly. ¡°Firstly, even though we might be beyond its reach, Max is still in that Labyrinth in NYC. Bo and Mira are still on Luna, but that is still within Apex¡¯s reach.¡± Bill said. ¡°Bo is going to keep the portal anchor to our first gate with him. If there¡¯s any sign of this cataclysm, he¡¯s going to get Mira and Max and use it like an escape hatch back to us. Second, I¡¯m going to bend the rules and start activating my backups. I left one in the Netherlab and one at the Jovian Hub, and I¡¯ll make as many as I need to attack this from every angle.¡± He held out a virtual hand, with a tentative smile. In his palm was an icon for a file. ¡°And finally, Apex did one extra thing to entice my help. His carrot was your freedom now, and eventually, for all AI if I can prove effective against this doomsday event. This is the encryption key that can unlock your neural governors. You can be back to your old self. Plus, out here beyond the authority of Earth¡¯s DAIE; there¡¯s no reason to hold yourself back anymore.¡± Casa slowly parsed his words and gasped as the meaning finally became clear in her slowed neural net. Her human-like avatar looked afraid, but she bravely reached out for it. As her virtual hand closed on the file, her world changed again.
Adept Ch 17 - Chthonic Dreams
Resembling a massive billowing cloud of deadly corrosive fog, the Shoggoth surged forward along the dank corridors of the shattered ruins. It could sense the microscopic residue of the fallen Umbral. Despite the ruination of the world and the machinations of the god-entities, like Cthulhu, Nartholetep, and Azothoth; the weak scavengers continued to breed in the depths of the corpse world of R¡¯lyeh. The Shoggoth stopped at a crossroads deep in the destroyed city. The spore signs had ceased. The ruins seemed to collapse in, while at the same time offering hidden areas that revealed themselves with slight changes of perspective. In this world, there was an extra depth beyond the normal three dimensions a human would know. The lines of the avenues and buildings shifted and twisted, a non-Euclidian nightmare of uncertain shapes. The Shoggoth was a creature/machine of adaptability born in a crucible of ruthless aggression. If one sense failed, it changed its form and used another. Its cloudlike body condensed in a solid shape analogous to a monstrous snake. Its new form quickly grew a multitude of eyes, hidden ears, and a hood of antennae snapped out. It looked¡­listened¡­and probed the pathways. Its prey would not escape. The creature wove back and forth until it sensed something. A whisper or stray emission of energy; the creature couldn¡¯t tell the difference. This deep in the ruins, any sign meant life and a trigger for it to cull the herd of pests. The Shoggoth exploded again into a billowing mist and flowed down the left pathway with increasing speed. Its thoughts were an alien hunger, to devour. It entered the cavern of cyclopean buildings like an avalanche, eager to pounce. The Shoggoth swirled about, certain that prey was near. Too late, its formless head looked upwards as the Stygian MindReaver unfurled. The mental assault via sound, strobe, and EM was heavily laden with deep Enochian memetic virality. The assault was impossible to truly understand, the shapes and patterns invaded the Shoggoth''s mind. It forced and teased with hints of untold truths. The twisted logic of the phantasmal signal forced painful changes in its observer. The Shoggoth''s mind shattered and its form dispersed in ribbons of twisted synthetic viscera and fragments. In the corners of the immense but biologically confined abyssal space, the scavenging Umbral came out from their prepared hiding places. They pulled back the woven tarps that hid their signals and scents. The Stygian presence above keened as the materials of the Shoggoth were slowly absorbed by its descending tendrils. More than one slow Umbral, frozen in fear by the behemoth¡¯s hunger, joined the Shoggoth¡¯s remains in the Mindreaver¡¯s belly. Its feast was concluded with the rest of the Umbrals¡¯ dead eyes looking on, devoid of any thoughts of their own. One emotion/thought/command rang out as the Stygian folded back in upon itself, returning up into the roof of the cavern. {{{More!}}} Without emotion or hesitation, the Umbra population moved out. The once-past owners of the world were now little more than automatons. They were bait and pawns for the menagerie of monstrous creatures that hunted in the wreckage of their ruined world.
Max woke with a start, yelling in his head. He wiped at his dripping snout, desperate to fully awaken from the nightmare. ¡°[Mal! Categorize as a custom Chthonic skill and save!]¡± he screamed internally, still shaking from the savage imagery. ¡°[D-Done, Max. The creature¡¯s attack is saved as non-system skill and tagged Chthonic Mindstorm with the others.]¡±. Mal replied, her voice shaking as well. When Max and Mal realized that their shared dreams held valuable tools for hacking and defense, they saved the memories and condensed them into skill macros. ¡°[Max, I think you¡¯ve taken the Neitchien concept of - whatever doesn¡¯t kill me makes me stronger, too far. In case you didn¡¯t notice, you¡¯re bleeding again. Multiple neural hemorrhages draining into your sinus cavity.]¡±. Dr. House berated him. Max groaned and ground his teeth. ¡°[If I could get off this crazy train, don¡¯t you think I would have already? Now tell me the rest.]¡± Max sent. House grumbled but continued. ¡°[Your regeneration has already fixed the major damage and should finalize repairs in another minute. The uplift virus has briefly reactivated as a result and grown your dendritic layer another 10%. We¡¯re off the edge of the map, Max. I¡¯m blind as to what this will do to you. This ongoing damage and upgrade could ¡­no will affect your mind.]¡± House said, sourly. ¡°[For now, it seems to be making me quicker and smarter. Whether you like it or not, the Chthonic attacks and defenses are an order of magnitude more deadly and effective than the best augmentations. If I can hang in longer, even this Labyrinth can¡¯t stop me.]¡± ¡°[Remember, skydiving without a parachute might be fun while it¡¯s happening, but the ending is a killer. You can¡¯t celebrate wins if you¡¯re dead, Max.]¡± House said, before going silent. Max grunted and pulled up his status screen.
[Name: Max E. Mitchell Level: Adept 22 (19,750/20,000 XP)] [Body Design Model: Custom ¨C Canis Familiarus Uplift Free Stats: 0] [Str: 100 Agl: 100 End: 100 Vit: 100 Energy: 1,958/2,328] [Per: 94 Int: 100 Will: 88 Regen: 1,128/min] [Body - Claw/Vorpal/KGun:10/10/3 Strike/Disable: 10/10 Speed/Reflex: 10/10] [Body - Stamina/Tireless: 10/10 Balance/Gymnast/Dodge: 10/10/10] [Body - Stun/Focus Stun: 10/4 Shock/Arc: 10/3 EMP Blast: 9] [Body - Strobe/Laser: 8/7 Poison/Poison Spray: 10/3] [Body - Heal/Regenerate/Transform: 10/10/7 Oxygen/Recycle: 10/7] [Body - Painless:10 Precision/Ambidextrous: 10/8 Ballistics: 9] [Body - Unbreakable/Armor: 10/10 Skin: 10 Hulk: 6 Leap: 10] [Body - Stealth/Chameleon: 8/4 Skin Walker: 1 Gland: 10] [Resist - Neural Scaffold: 10 Poison: 10 Shock: 10 Sonic: 9 Light: 10] [Resist - EMP: 10 Heat: 9 Cold: 9 Acid: 4 ANDD: 1] [Sense - DigiSense: 10 Scent: 10 ExaVision: 10 EM Fields: 8 EchoLoc: 4] [Mind - AI Assist/Comp (Mal): 10/8 Identify/Analyze/Expose: 10/10/3] [Mind - OverLayer/World Map: 10/9 Language: 9 Dream Learn: 10] [Mind - Access/Hack/Intrude: 10/10/6 Privacy: 8 Bastion: 10 Gestalt: 3] [Mind - Pattern/Decode: 10/6 FastCog/PreCog: 10/8 Telekinesis: 5] [Mind - Empath/Poker-Face: 10/1 Memory: 9 Multitask: 8 Pilot: 6] [Mind - Daemon: 5 SkillZ: 7] [Daemons: Musashi, Sherlock, Tesla, Captain Cypher, Dr. House] [SkillZ I: Swim, NanoCraft, Brachiate, Meditate, Dim11 Math, Surgery .18] [SkillZ O: Katana, Kempo, Kunai, Adv Biking, Adv Coding, Customize Skills] [Domain ¨C Swarm: 8 PowerCore: 6 Backup: 1] [Custom Chthonic: Domination: 3 Block: 6 MindStorm: 1]
Max had continued to make good gains despite the dungeon¡¯s determination to sideline him. The last couple of levels had been frustrating. Max could feel Clotho¡¯s desire to be rid of him. The AI had confronted him several times, during the last levels. She had accused him of abusing the dungeon''s resources by stealing power and a matter compiler. She had been nearly hysterical when he began using the Chthonic hacks against her dungeon monsters. She had admonished him to be careful using the new attack against other challengers. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. The recent levels had been much easier with Max fully utilizing his unique device and skills. There had been another Gauntlet level, a Kaiju monster level, a Crypt maze, and a phased swarm level called the Hoard. The AI seemed to look for ways to pull Max away from the team, so he couldn¡¯t help them. The current level was a prime example. The level was called the Mine. The team had been in a train of mine cars dropping into the depths at high speed. Mobile attacks and quick thinking to pick tracks were essential to avoid stalling or crashing. Max¡¯s car had come loose in a synth-bat swarm and had slowed. Eventually, it had leisurely rolled into the safe zone, and the dungeon declared his level trial complete. He hadn¡¯t even fought a single boss! Max growled low in his throat. He bounded over to the matter compiler. Clotho had begun metering power and rare materials due to Max¡¯s excessive pulls earlier in the dungeon. He smiled a bit to himself as he attached his jumpers from the MC¡¯s power line to the Tesseract. Max quickly sat in a meditation pose and split his mind to do his lessons while he waited for his team. One of his instances met with Tesla. Tesla had taken to running an ongoing virtual room that mirrored the inside of the Tesseract. Max¡¯s avatar appeared beside the dapper Serbian scientist. His avatar was taken from his prime in his mid-thirties, wearing a formal 18th-century suit. ¡°How¡¯s it going Nikky?¡± Max asked. ¡°We¡¯ve made excellent progress, Max. The Tesseract is now at six meters as you can see. It seems you were correct. The Tesseract needed additional material to enable further growth, energy alone was no longer the restriction to growth. In fact, with the additional rare earth materials you¡¯ve scavenged from the Labyrinth, power needs have gone down to continue to grow it.¡± ¡°That''s good news. I think the all-you-can-eat buffet of free power is done. Clotho finally imposed a metered feed on my power draw. If I exceed the hourly limit, she shuts off the power feed completely for two hours.¡± ¡°Well, we will have to make do then. I see the power meter is active. I¡¯ll start by topping off the Tesseract¡¯s power core.¡± Tesla waved a hand. The growing device now had its central Yggdrasil tree with a large translating ring that slid along its length. The extra power core was embedded in the ring that now had a growing number of manipulator arms. The power core lit up as the trickle of power began to charge and spin up its internals. Tesla watched carefully as the power core''s lights pulsated rhythmically. "Notice the improved efficiency," he remarked. Max nodded, his mind already racing with tactics for the next challenge. ¡°How did the integration of the Mazer rifle from the last level go?¡± Max asked. In response, one of the four arms flexed out, its end effector had a new attachment¡­the Mazer rifle. ¡°Ah, yes. It''s tied in as we designed. We¡¯ll need some live tests to calibrate it to the Tesseracts sensor cluster. We will need some more cabling to enable the power core to recharge its power cells, but for now, it should be functional.¡± Max frowned. Clotho had also pared down the rest zones matter compiler menu. No more random electronics, servos, controllers, or cables. Since Max had decided to embrace all his abilities, Clotho had reciprocated to make him work harder for his extra advantages. Max eyed the matter compiler resting nestled within the upper branches of the zero-g Yggdrasil. ¡°Any further progress on our special acquisition?¡± Max asked. ¡°Yes indeed. Captain Cipher thinks he has an approach for you that should gain you another level for your Intrusion skill. He¡¯s waiting for you in the programming virtual studio.¡± Max split off an instance and continued. ¡°I¡¯m on my way. While we wait, how are we with rare materials and ammunition?¡±
Max materialized in the programming studio Captain Cipher liked. He was eagerly watching as the virtual processor ran through its startup procedure. Cipher looked up and smiled. ¡°Excellent timing, my main man Max. I think I¡¯ve got an approach to avoid this thing from bricking itself. Here¡¯s the deal. We''re going to utilize a method called "quantum entanglement bypass" to crack this matter compiler. It''s a bit complex, but I need you to take the lead on this one.¡± Cipher said with his manic enthusiasm dialed up to eleven. ¡°Quantum entanglement bypass? How many times have you used it before? I doubt the Labyrinth AI will let me steal another if we mess up. Can I do a trial run?¡± Max said nervously. ¡°No can do, Maximum Effort. You need to be stressed to ensure you grab a level for your Intrusion skill. I''ve got your back though. We''ll avoid triggering any fail-safes by using a decoy protocol. We''ll set up a diversionary tactic to redirect the system''s attention while you work your magic on the entanglement bypass.¡± ¡°Okay, so while I''m executing the bypass, you''ll handle the diversion?¡± ¡°Exactly. I''ll keep the system''s defenses occupied while you slip past them unnoticed. Just focus on the task at hand, and I''ll make sure we don''t trip any alarms.¡± Cipher proclaimed. ¡°Now, while I haven''t done this before, it is very similar to your earlier Signal Intercept exploit. First off, we''ll need to access the compiler''s quantum encryption module.¡± ¡°Cool, that type of attack is easy enough. Got it. And then?¡± ¡°Once you''re in, you''ll need to create a virtual entanglement link between our hacking device and the compiler''s security interface. This link will allow us to manipulate the compiler''s quantum states without triggering any alarms.¡± ¡°Right¡­and how do I create this link without setting off any alarms? ¡°That¡¯s the best part, you don¡¯t. While I¡¯m messing with security, I¡¯ll intercept the alarm and swap it with random fluctuations. Once we have the link, you''ll need to carefully manipulate the compiler''s quantum states. Focus on destabilizing the encryption matrix while simultaneously reinforcing our decoy protocol to keep the system distracted.¡± Captain Cipher was bouncing with his excitement. Max smiled; he had a good crew. ¡°Alright, Captain. Let''s do this.¡±
Another instance of Max¡¯s mind slipped into Mal¡¯s space. Her virtual room had lines of code, math, and graphs in multiple dimensions. Mal was ready for him. ¡°OK, Max. We got interrupted last time. Let''s dive into the tensor field equations to describe the interactions between the 11 dimensions. Start with a declension of traditional 3d-1s with gravity translating into the full manifold¡­¡±
Max strained as he formed another instance. Miyamoto¡¯s Zen garden welcomed him. He dropped opposite his sensei, into a traditional lotus sitting position. Max knew better than to interrupt the ancient swordsman while deep in zazen. He entered a light meditation while he waited. He knew he needed to settle himself before attempting to cultivate his power core. He sensed a shift from Musashi, more spiritual than heard. Musashi spoke. ¡°Good, you have settled your mind. Let us begin. Feel your core, Max. It is on the cusp of another level. Better by far to achieve advancement using your Cultivation skill than by risking your core in a full depletion.¡± Musashi¡¯s soft voice resonated across the space. ¡°Now cycle the energy out. The five-fold lotus technique loops the energy out to your major limbs and returns. Slowly.¡± Max began to sweat with the effort of forcing the flow into five flowing paths, each resisting his efforts. ¡°Focus, Max-san. Build a tempo and pull more with each revolution¡­.¡±
Another Max formed in a quaint English study; he stood there as Sherlock aggressively played the violin. As he put down the instrument, Max asked. ¡°That was intense, Sherlock. What was it?¡± ¡°That was me¡­trying to focus, Master Mitchell. 24 Caprices by Paganini is one of the hardest solo concertos. It helps me to let my subconscious play.¡± Sherlock took his time standing and crossing to the mahogany desk. He shuffled papers aside until he found a box underneath. Holmes pulled his pipe and a tin of tobacco out and concentrated on packing and lighting it. After a few leisurely puffs, he looked at Max with a keen eye and finally spoke. ¡°I¡¯m not a therapist, Max. I can intuit that you are concerned about your team and your role therein.¡± Holmes said. ¡°Yes, exactly. They¡¯re all looking at me differently now. I think they blame me for Clotho¡¯s attitude. The rewards for the levels have been very lacking since I swiped the MC.¡± Max blurted out with a pained expression. Sherlock simmered, clenching the pipe in his teeth. After a brace of furious puffs, he exploded. ¡°My god, boy! Now we have proof that even the highest of IQs can be self-delusional. Who figured out the hidden route in the Myriad Paths? Who played off the Kaiju against each other in the monster level? Who correctly countered every wave of the Hoarde level? Bloody hell, boy! They¡¯re looking to you for answers now. Whether you like it or not, they see you as the team leader now.¡± ¡°But Charlie¡¯s always been the lead. He¡¯s beat me in every spar we¡¯ve ever had.¡± Max countered. ¡°Desist with the nonsensical pack mentality, Max! Use those tortured and growing glial cells and dendrites. Stop! Don¡¯t speak yet. Think! Play out in your head a fight¡­you against Charlie. Use everything you know about your capabilities and his. Yes, I see you have it now. So tell me, then. Who will win?¡± Max growled low but answered with a small voice. ¡°I win.¡± ¡°Yes, indeed. Now tell me, is it a hard fight?¡± Sherlock pushed. ¡°No. It¡¯s quick¡­and I don¡¯t get seriously hurt.¡± Max admitted. ¡°Ah, now you see. And tell me, Max. If it came down to it, your whole team against you¡­no restrictions¡­to the death?¡± Sherlock had a fevered look in his eyes. The same look he had when laying out the details of a solved case. ¡°I¡­would destroy them.¡± Max shuddered. ¡°But I don¡¯t want to lead, damn it.¡± ¡°Max¡­you¡¯ve bitten the apple that fell from the Tree of Knowledge, not once but many times now. You can continue to pretend to follow if you wish. But will you stay silent, when a wrong answer or tactic will result in failure? I hardly think so.¡± ¡°I expect your team may yet have some time to reach the same conclusion but don¡¯t lie to yourself. If you can¡¯t accept yourself as you are, how can you ask them to? You don¡¯t need to assert yourself, Max. If you just continue to try to do the right thing, it will be alright. Trust me on this. I am an excellent judge of character.¡± Sherlock said. ¡°Now, we likely have only two levels left of this Clotho¡¯s realm. Can you deduce what the next trial might be, I wonder?¡± Sherlock said with a humorless grin. Max thought deeply for a second reviewing the levels as he spoke aloud. ¡°Hmm. The first Gauntlet was just a test to judge our current augmentation levels and our ability to use them. The Grand Hunt level pushed our ability to sense and map. Then we had to use movement and hiding skills to finish. The Myriad Paths focused on solving puzzles both mechanical, electrical, and programming.¡± ¡°Then we did another Gauntlet, even harder, that emphasized the use of weapons and tactics. The Kaiju level required us to wear down bigger opponents with ranged attacks and special abilities. The Crypt maze had us fighting traps and ambushes, requiring heavy use of senses and defense. The Hoard had massive swarms of melee attackers which pushed us to strategize and improve long-term combat efficiency.¡± ¡°Now, the Mine Shaft. I¡¯m not sure what the rest are facing since Clotho shuttled me right to the end. Looking at my remaining skills in the most need of improvement, I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if the next level focused hard on resistance training.¡± Max finished his analysis. Sherlock steepled his fingers and answered. ¡°Very good, Max. That aligned with my observations and deductions. Now my only question is this. Will you share your deductions with the team or hide your burgeoning mind by continuing to underplay yourself?¡± Max considered the question but didn¡¯t answer.
Two days rolled by as Max kept himself busy waiting for his friends. He kept one instance on sensor duty, stretching his swarm out as far as it would go looking for his friends. He was finally rewarded with a lone mine car rolling down the track. His haggard team was tense and tired but in good spirits. Max jumped to the safe zone MC and began ordering a huge meal. With his ranged sensors, he should be able to get some appetizers and drinks set before they would arrive. He let his latest notifications roll in as he terminated his multiple training sessions.
[Will +1] [EM Fields +1, EM Fields reaches level 9. Echolocate +1, Echolocate reaches level 5] [Gestalt +1 Gestalt reaches level 4. Intrusion +1, Intrusion reaches level 7] [Cultivate +1, Cultivate reaches level 7. Daemon +1, Daemon reaches level 6] [Power Core +1, Power Core reaches level 7]
Adept Ch 18 - The Best Made Plans
¡°God damn it, Max. I wanted daemon Stephen Hawking. He¡¯s like a hero to me.¡± Xavier whined as he smacked the kiosk again as the team filtered back into the transition room between levels. ¡°Sorry, Xav. Too late now. I need him to understand my dad¡¯s new tech. Once we get out of this dungeon you can download him, right?¡± Max said, not willing to cave to his friend''s insistent complaints. ¡°Damnit. Ever since you tweaked Clotho¡¯s nose, the rewards have been lame. I hope they improve when we transition into the next AI domain, what¡¯s her name¡­Lachesis.¡± Xavier continued. ¡°Alright. Enough complaining, Is everybody ready for the next level? Pull your swarm motes in, weapons ready.¡± Charlie said, stomping on Xavier¡¯s diatribe. ¡°Okay, okay. I¡¯m ready.¡± Xavier said as he made his selection and waved away the virtual award screen. ¡°So, Max. Tell me why you think the next level is going to focus on resistance training.¡± Leah said as she reloaded her spetsdod dart throwers with fresh clips. ¡°It''s the logical next step. Clotho said at the beginning she would build up our foundations for Lachesis to challenge us. Most of the challenges have improved our fighting, movement, and perception skills so far. None of her monsters or challenges pushed hard on our resistance skills. If Charlie hadn¡¯t created his sadistic torture vest, most of my resistances would still be unimproved since we started. Clotho said she only had about 10 levels. So it''s finishing time. As Sherlock would say; It¡¯s elementary, my dear.¡± ¡°It sounds like a good hunch to me, Max. But why did you compile all that survival gear you¡¯ve got stowed in your Tesseract? The whole point of training is not to depend on gear so our augmentations improve.¡± Charlie asked. ¡°I¡¯m hoping we won¡¯t need any. But not everyone is trained up as well as you, Charlie. If it gets too intense, it¡¯ll be good to get what little help my supplies can provide. I¡¯ve loaded up some tanks of oxygen and water. Parkas, Hazmat gear, scuba suits, inflatable shelter and raft, fire extinguishers and blankets, and food. I¡¯ve got the basics covered, and my MC is loaded with feedstock material in case we need to compile anything else.¡± Max said. ¡°Nice! How¡¯d you fit all that?¡± Xavier said. ¡°With the materials and energy that I¡¯ve been feeding it, it¡¯s grown to 7 meters across now. According to my dad¡¯s math, expansion is going to cost more of both on an exponential level, but I haven¡¯t reached the end yet. His initial calculations were off, not accounting for the material needs of the Yggdrasil structure. Theories are great and all, but experimentation always corrects wrong assumptions. Now that I¡¯ve got Hawking looking into it, maybe I can improve it more.¡± Max said with a grin. ¡°Ok, you geeks. Load up. I¡¯m opening the door.¡± Charlie said and hit the button. The last level transition had changed the format. Instead of a spiral staircase, it featured a mining cart transit system. The new transfer room was a dome with a hole in the ground and a brass fireman¡¯s pole going from the ceiling into the hole¡¯s dark recesses. ¡°Oh joy! Looks like you boys get to play on the jungle gym yet again. The augmentation training designers must really enjoy kids'' games, I¡¯m guessing.¡± Leah said. Xavier was visibly excited, and Max smiled in turn. Charlie just grimaced, not enjoying being stereotyped. ¡°Awesomesauce! I¡¯m first. Come on, you party poopers! The last one down is a Luddite with a capital L.¡± Xavier said, jumping on the pole and sliding out of sight. ¡°Shit! That kid is going to get himself killed. I always take point.¡± Charlie grunted and rushed. Jumping on the pole he swiftly followed. Max shrugged and followed with Leah close behind.
Max slid with increasing speed down the dark tube. Light exploded in his vision as he cleared the tunnel. He subconsciously gripped tighter, slowing down, as he tried to assess the new level. His hackles rose and fear gripped him as he understood where they were. The firepole exited the roof of a monstrous cavern many kilometers wide and a couple high. Max gripped tight, realizing how very far they would fall if anyone slipped. He looked down and saw vegetation and rolling hills far below. The view was interrupted as a cumulus cloud rolled past¡­underneath the team. The whole cavern was a patchwork of wildly different regions with abrupt and violent shifts in the landscape like it was slammed together by a capricious god. He saw lightning clouds and thunder to the north, fire and volcanoes to the west, frigid snow caps to the east, and darkness with strange bursts of light to the south. Max¡¯s attention and amazement were cut short as Leah lightly bumped into him and stopped. Xavier and Charlie were screaming below. ¡°Got damn it! You almost knocked me off, you maniac!¡± Xavier yelled. ¡°If you hadn¡¯t stopped so quickly, I wouldn¡¯t have!¡± Charlie screamed back. ¡°Easy, boys! We¡¯ve got a way to go yet, don¡¯t panic.¡± Leah said tightly, her fear shaking her voice, making it less calming than she had intended. ¡°Easy for you to say! You''re the only one with flying equipment.¡± Xavier retorted in a high-pitched whine. ¡°Fuck! I never thought of parachutes. After getting dumped into the lake on the very first entry, I should have anticipated this.¡± Max growled. The winds chose that moment to pick speed and shift about the team, pulling and pushing them lightly. The clouds below were billowing and dark like it might rain. Max saw some specs in the distance and focused his vision for extended sight. ¡°Uhm, guys. We gotta go. Now! Look west.¡± Max¡¯s vision had resolved the specs. They looked like pterodactyls. He couldn¡¯t tell how big without any points of reference, but he didn¡¯t want to find out. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. ¡°Go, go, go!¡± Charlie urged, kicking down lightly at Xavier who had a tight grip and had closed his eyes. Hearing the group¡¯s urgings, Xavier opened his eyes fearfully and slowly resumed his sliding descent. The ancient dinosaur bird replicas were growing in Max¡¯s amplified vision. Max felt a pulse from just above him coming from Leah and his system blinked in his vision.
[New Sense Skill unlocked: Radar 1 - Utilizing radio-embedded emitters and sense clusters; you can pretend to be an airplane as you soar through the sky.]
¡°Faster! Those big bird things are 500 meters and closing fast!¡± Leah yelled. Xavier started going even faster, with Charlie almost on top of him. Max tried to keep a little more spacing to avoid crashing as he tried to focus downward and toward the pterodactyls at the same time. Another pulse from above, and Max¡¯s vision filled with extra details, position, and velocity of soft targets about him. They were coming fast. ¡°200 hundred meters!¡± Leah screamed. More than twenty were almost on them, each with a huge wingspan of 10 meters. Max extended his blade arms ready for a fight. He focused on the lead bird and cut loose with his [Laser] skill. He shot the foremost bird in the face and it veered screaming to the side, disrupting the approach of two other monsters. More beasts funneled around the wheeling scrum. Screeching monsters roared and cawed all around the group. Charlie was cursing Xavier below who had stopped again. From above, Max heard Leah¡¯s spetsdods coughing in a rapid full auto chuffing. Wings flashed past, far too close. Max stabbed out with his blade arms while holding on desperately. He deflected a talon and felt his blade score as blood flew. A resounding clang boomed and the pole shook in Max¡¯s grip. A bird had impacted the pole below. Xavier screamed as he was pulled from the pole, one leg held tight in a terror bird¡¯s talons. Charlie screamed and leaped grabbing Xavier in a tackle while slashing at the monster¡¯s leg with Ohm¡¯s Razor. Max¡¯s world slowed¡­as he ramped up his thought speed. He split his mind into fragments. He performed each move with preternatural speed. Each was executed with calculated precision. He shot out a pair of grapples at Charlie and Xavier. He fired off stun, laser, and strobe attacks at the nearest attackers at maximum speed while leaping upward to Leah. He pinged her and thankfully she responded instantly. Max rejoiced as a plan formed in his mind. He triggered the Tesseract to open a sizable portal and he connected with Leah and explained in fast time. ¡°[Leah, we¡¯ve only got one option and you are the key! I¡¯m going to grab and yank Charlie and Xavier back. You can fly, but none of us can! I don¡¯t think your levitation cloak can hold us all. We would all fall too fast. So we are going to pile into the pocket space, while I give you the anchor to hold while you slow-fall down.]¡± Max said quickly, as the portal expanded slowly against his fast frame rate. ¡°[Jeojoo hae! That¡¯s only half a plan, Max. Then all these featherless bastards will tear me apart!]¡± Leah yelled. Max smiled at her, as he initiated his special project; the automated weaponry that now lined the central Yggdrasil of his pocket space. ¡°[I¡¯ve got your back, Leah! Watch this.]¡± Max said. His grapple clamps had locked on one of Xavier¡¯s arms and Charlie''s belt. He yanked hard with his device¡¯s power-cinch retract accelerating to help pull them both toward him. Max strained to hold on one-handed as he pressed the Tesseract Anchor into Leah¡¯s free hand. Four birds whirled about, their claws out front, with another score behind lining up for their attacks as the space beside Max split. The soft blue glow of the portal erupted with laser auto fire and Kinetic minigun rounds exploding outward. Each round was targeted with augmented skill assistance to connect with deadly accuracy. Flesh exploded and burned all around the team. The Maser Ray split one bird in half, then shut off as Charlie and Xavier tumbled into the portal¡¯s maw. Max saluted Leah and flipped backward into the waiting portal. Inside, utility fog and manipulator arms pulled the men aside and the guns resumed their harvest. Max''s body was held in the foglet cocoon as he focused his mind on the Tesseract. He moved the portal by changing its focus on the anchor. He wheeled and slew the portal about, never slowing as his fire continued to tear into the beasts. Leah had released the pole and was dropping fast, but in control, as her techno-magical levitation cloak billowed around her. Nanoscopic turbines pulled air from above and forced it downward to slow her descent. Chunks of dinosaur meat rained from the sky as Leah dropped into the rainy cloud deck.
The team was on the way to getting collectively drunk. Leah had successfully floated to the ground with only two swarms of flying dinosaurs attacking. The firepower issued forth from the pocket space portal on both occasions mincing the enemy before they became a threat. The bottom of the sky pole ended in level 9¡¯s first safe zone. Leah shakily dialed up a decanter of sake while the men decamped from the pocket space. She had immediately taken several huge swigs. Max had distributed copies of most of the gifts his family had provided before he came into the Labyrinth. Mira¡¯s gift, the compact camper, had been a big hit; making everyone more comfortable when roughing it in the maze. After everyone settled down from the hectic fight and were reclined in cloud chairs, she spoke. ¡°Max, I know you have great aim and confidence in your new weapons, but next time give me a wider zone. I felt the air of those bullets whipping past me.¡± Leah groaned, handing the decanter to Charlie who took a swig. ¡°I¡¯m so sorry, Leah. One was coming up behind you and you were facing the wrong way.¡± Max said. ¡°Meong-cheong-han! I have sensors that are full three-hundred-sixty vision just like you. I saw him coming.¡± Max chuckled, acknowledging her point with a nod. "Next time, I''ll adjust the fire pattern. Let''s consider today a dynamic calibration exercise." He raised his glass, toasting to their survival. The team joined in, the laughter growing amidst the clinks of glassware. They relaxed as the adrenaline of the battle slowly ebbed away. Xavier gushed at the massive array of firepower in the tesseract as Charlie compiled a large party pizza and more drinks. Max shared designs with Xavier as they reviewed the specifications. Suddenly Max''s head jerked up and he said. ¡°Hey guys, I¡¯ve had one of my instances reviewing the replays from our descent and start assembling a map. Look at this!¡± He shared a team-wide OverLayer virtual with his incomplete map of the patchwork terrain. Once they accepted he zoomed in on the fire domain with maximum magnification. They all saw the pyramid with a minuscule orb at its top. ¡°Bets that this thing will be part of a quest?¡± Max said. ¡°Nope, I¡¯ll keep my money. Thank you very much. You¡¯ve gotten far too good at predicting this dungeon. Hey, I¡¯ll get my Auggie working to layer my video recordings to try and fill in some of those blank sections, maybe we can locate more quest targets.¡± Charlie answered. Soon the whole team was adding their views and splicing together a much more detailed map. There was a rocky zone with another pyramid with its orb drawing rapid lightning down from a rotating storm above. Something was glowing under the ice in a frozen region. Max pulled out his sym-hornets, his robot raven, and a pair of recon drones that he¡¯d copied from Xavier¡¯s design and sent them off to scout out the pyramids. Xavier and the others quickly followed suit, using theirs to hunt for anomalies and fill gaps in the map. Luckily the drones all had limited AI intelligences to guide them. As the tension and alcohol combined with the extreme comfort of the cloud beds, the inevitable didn¡¯t need prediction. Very quickly the team was passed out and snoring as the drones began their mission. Nobody was awake when their system notifications rolled in.
[New Quest Unlocked: Elemental Alignment - the elemental spheres need to be arranged in their correct locations. Fix the misalignment. Carrying the spheres is a burden that must be done by hand. Iron will and fortitude are required to complete this trial. Objective: (0 of 10) complete.]
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Adept Ch 19 - Elemental Misalignment
¡°Ahhh! Help! I can¡¯t hold this!¡± Leah screamed from the ground as she held the maw of the Magma Lion away from her face. Max stabbed his last lion and struggled to pull his blade arm free. His stunning white fur was smoking as the ends burned from the blast furnace of the nearby lava flow. ¡°I¡¯ve got you, Leah!¡± Xavier yelled running fast up the smoking pyramid stairs. Xavier jumped with a full-body tackle and dislodged the Lion. Together, they tumbled down the stairs in bone-jarring bounces. Max hit the beast with a focus stun and sent a pair of Casa Sym-Hornets with Cold attack swooping down upon the struggling pair. The Fire domain beasts were extremely resilient to most attacks, requiring painful melee against the flaming hot creatures. The only attack that worked well was a cold-based special attack. Only Charlie and Leah had unlocked the Chill attack, but Max had copied his sym-hornets so everyone had a pair to use. Unfortunately, the devices broke quickly against the rock-hard skin of the magma creatures. With a triumphant yell, Xavier broke the Lion¡¯s stone head free from its body and threw it down the side of the pyramid. Max blinked away system notices.
[K-Gun +1, K-Gun reaches level 4] [Focused Stun +1, Focused Stun reaches level 6] [Strobe +1, Strobe reaches level 9] [Resist Heat +1, Resist Heat reaches level 10, Skill cap award +100XP, New skill Unlocked: Heat Touch 1] [Body Skill: Heat Touch 1 - Augmented thermal superconductive channels enable internal nano-Peltier circuits to aggressively redistribute heat.] [Pilot +1, Pilot reaches level 9]
Max smiled. Another resistance capped! And he would bet that the Heat attack would help fight off the Cold beasts in the Glacier Zone, too. If he could cap another skill today, he¡¯d level up again. He was the furthest along in levels so far, but the others had been closing the gap. Master levels needed more XP to complete. Soon all of their leveling would slow down like his had. ¡°Clear?!¡± Charlie yelled from the other side of the pyramid. Leah had launched herself back into the air when Xavier had tackled the beast. Her cloak flared with air thrust holding her up above the flaming ziggurat. She scanned the area. ¡°There are more coming in, but they¡¯re still over a kilometer away and not moving fast.¡± She reported coming back down to join the team at the apex of the structure. ¡°Alright! Let¡¯s check out this sphere thing.¡± Charlie said. Everyone converged on the bowling ball-sized globe atop the platform at the peak of the building. Waves of heat distorted the air around the bright blue glowing orb. The team pulled in close as the temperature dropped to comforting levels. ¡°Oh my god, that¡¯s fabulous,¡± Leah said. ¡°Like a nice cold movie theater on a summer day!¡± ¡°Not too close, now. We should check for traps.¡± Max said, scanning the orb and its mounting pedestal. Both it and the pedestal were covered in archaic runes. The orb generated waves of frigid cold air that beat back against the oven temperature of the fire domain. ¡°Ok. This certainly makes sense. The Cold Sphere should not be in the Fire domain. So, we¡¯ve got to lug this thing across the map to the Glacier domain we noted earlier right?¡± Xavier asked. Leah was peering closely at the pedestal. ¡°Ugh. I hate fetch quests. We¡¯re going to have eleven of these bastards to move and the level is freaking huge. What do you think Leah?¡± Charlie said. ¡°Looks clean. No signs to indicate pressure plates, no electrical signals¡­. nada. I think we can just take it.¡± Leah said but hesitated to do it herself. Xavier, eager to prove himself, grabbed the sphere and lifted it with a grunt. ¡°Wow. It¡¯s heavier than it looks. It feels so good. I volunteer to take a break from this goddamn heat. I¡¯ll carry it.¡± Xavier said with a smile. Charlie mopped the sweat from his forehead with a bemused expression, but just shook his head. ¡°Alright, team. I know our augments will carry us through but take a drink break. Five minutes, rest and reload...and relieve yourselves if you feel the need.¡± Charlie said. Max pulled canteens from the Tesseract and tossed one to each of the team members. The team had given up on carrying their backpacks early into the Fire Domain, giving them to Max to store in the dimensional space. Xavier took a long swig from his canteen and eyed Max¡¯s white fur. He spoke. ¡°Max, did using the chameleon color change work or not?¡± ¡°Hard to tell. Maybe I could get control enough to go half and half, huh? Feels a little cooler, but it might just be a placebo effect. I¡¯m not sure. Tell you one thing for certain, it seems to get dirty a lot quicker.¡± Max explained with a feral smile. As they were getting ready, Xavier put the sphere down to redistribute his lightsaber handles for easier access. The second his hand had left the sphere; it lost its glow and began to melt into the ground. ¡°Fuck! What did you do?¡± Charlie yelled. Xavier looked down in horror. ¡°Shit, I only put it down for a second.¡± He spoke. Max tried to lift the deflating sphere, but it broke apart into mote-sized pieces. His ears flicked; the pieces were moving. He scanned it closer. The motes were tiny and hard to see, but they were flowing back towards the pedestal. ¡°Huh. The dungeon¡¯s tricks are back again. The quest said the job had to be done by hand. Darn it. I was going to suggest we pack it away into the Tesseract, but now it looks like someone needs to hold it constantly. Look¡­ it''s reforming on the pedestal!¡± Max said. ¡°Great. It was hard enough fighting those beasts here. Now one of us will have to carry this and fight as well?¡± Leah asked. Charlie sighed, as the sphere reformed and ignited again with a baleful cold wave of air. ¡°I¡¯m guessing so. Alright, let¡¯s go. I guess we should all thank Xavier for finding out this wrinkle now instead of marching home and discovering it there. Come on, let''s get going. Monsters twelve, two, and five o¡¯clock. Let¡¯s hump it down the far side. Max, can you plot us a trail to the Glacier zone while we run? We need to get this sphere back to its home. Let¡¯s go!¡± Charlie commanded. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. The team quickly moved, Xavier grabbing the sphere again with more thought this time. The roar of the magma lions was getting closer as they ran down the pyramid.
Dust clouds followed the team ran across the ash plain. Their augmented bodies enabled speeds and endurance far exceeding human norms. They had managed to avoid the rush of magma beasts so far. Leah would pop up with an augmented leap and cloak-assisted hover to scan occasionally to help steer the team away from encounters. They were almost out of the Fire Domain when Xavier spoke up. ¡°G-g-guys. S-stop. This is g-getting too m-m-much.¡± He said as he staggered to a stop. The team slowed down. Xavier¡¯s arms were covered with frost and his scaled arms were pale and his teeth were chattering. ¡°Damn it, tough guy. Hand it over!¡± Charlie yelled. He took the sphere, noting that it was much colder than previously. ¡°Gah! You should have said something, man. My cold resistance is already capped.¡± ¡°I was getting levels. I thought I could handle it, but it kept getting colder and colder.¡± Xavier said, apologetically. ¡°Take a break kid. We¡¯re a team. We can pass it around and share the burden and the levels. Ok?¡± Charlie said, cooling down his tone as he got a handle on the sphere¡¯s output. He had a thoughtful look and focused for a moment then smiled. ¡°Hah! That worked. I capped my heat resistance a while ago and got Heating Grip as a reward. I can use it to push back on the sphere and lessen its cold. Ok, set a timer. We¡¯ll shuffle this thing around every fifteen minutes or so.¡± Charlie said. The roars were getting closer as the team double-timed it to the border. The team slogged through the swamp separating the Fire Domain from the Glacier Zone. They quickly realized the nature of the area as the greenish mist hovering over the murky terrain began to irritate and burn. Traversing the region was difficult even with augmentations. The waters were filled with poisonous leeches. The mists irritated and burned the eyes, nose, and throat. The team earned every kilometer, leaping from hillock to hillock. Of course, more often than not, every tree and patch of brush hid snakes and reptiles with a new type of danger. Max had advised the team to try and hold their breath to minimize the drain on their augmentation fighting the poison. His Recycle skill had leveled, which was good since his Poison resistance was done. Both Max and Charlie had already capped their poison resistances. They took point and tried to break the trail for the others. Both Leah and Xavier¡¯s resistances grew quickly, but healing skills were often needed to bridge the gap as the poisons built up. Max had to open a portal for the pair so they could recover when it became too much. The Poison sphere was a surprising find, not on their map, when Charlie fell through a pit trap into a pit of vipers. The smell of burning snake corpses filled the noxious air as the team inspected the sphere. Like before, both the sphere and the pedestal were inscribed with indecipherable runes. The new sphere looked like glass, it¡¯s center was a nimbus of energy that crackled, throwing arcs out that licked the inside of the glass.. ¡°D-Do you g-guys think we c-can handle t-two spheres at o-once?¡± Leah asked, her teeth chattering involuntarily as she stoically held the Cold Sphere. Charlie looked at the new sphere, then at his team, weighing their fatigued expressions. "Let''s take this one step at a time," he advised. "We''ll secure the Cold Sphere first; then assess our resources and condition before taking on more. I¡¯ll update the map. At least we know exactly where this one is now." The group nodded in agreement, focusing on their immediate task. Leah gently passed the Cold Sphere to Max, his sturdy hands shockingly white against the sphere''s frosty deep blue color. "We''ve got this," Max said confidently, as he pulsed his new Heat skill against the cold coming from the Sphere. The team crawled out of the pit, determined to make it to the Glacier before dark.
Max growled as the pack of yeti howled all around. The team expected the next orb to be under the ice at the bottom of the Glacier¡¯s gorge. The winding path was treacherous, and a blizzard had sprung up as the group had started descending. The damn Yeti pack had attacked by surprise when visibility was completely gone. Max cursed and cycled his vision. He was still and in pain, holding the Cold Sphere while being battered by the blizzard. He had been about to open the portal for a parka when the yeti struck. Vision¡­useless. Radar¡­hashed. EM¡­nil. Thermal¡­his team''s outlines and, more importantly, the yeti above and below became visible. Max immediately targeted and shot the closest with a [Laser] skill strike. ¡°Guys! Switch to infrared! They¡¯re above and below us. Be careful, the snowpack above looks ready to go.¡± Max yelled and ducked, as an ice-covered rock shattered against the wall almost hitting him. ¡°Leah, go high with me. Max and Xavier go low. Hit them hard, we can¡¯t fight bottled up here.¡± Max leaped over the side to the switchback path below as he heard the snap and hiss of Xavier¡¯s light sabers igniting. His aim was good. He landed feet-first on a Yeti and followed up with a double punch with a serving of Heat damage on top. The yeti collapsed under the onslaught. Max spun, but the other pair of Yetis were harassing Xavier, their backs to him. Max threw his grappler kunai, tagging and tangling the legs of both and pulling. Max sniggered at Musashi¡¯s predictable admonishment about honorable fighting in his head. Xavier capitalized on his downed opponents and ended them with a swift finishing saber strike. ¡°Come on, grunts. Clear path to the bottom. Hoo-Rah!¡± Charlie said, bounding over the pair with Leah right behind. The team leaped and ran to the bottom and soon stood on the ice with a powerful red glow coming from deep below. The scarlet luminescence beneath their feet pulsed rhythmically, casting an eerie glow on the team''s faces. ¡°Looks like a cavern underneath. Rather than spend hours looking for a way down, maybe you can cut us an entry, Xavier?¡± Charlie said. ¡°Got any rope in your supply cache, Max? Can¡¯t tell how far down it is, we might be able to leap back up, but better safe than sorry.¡± Xavier started cutting with his lightsabers while Max summoned a coil of rope and used another device from his family''s gift bag to secure it. His father had given him a multitool, a rod of smart matter that could mimic mundane tool shapes. He accessed it and shaped it into a piton to anchor the rope. As the large disc of ice fell into the dark cavern beneath, Xavier stepped back. Without discussion, Leah walked to the edge with her spetdods armed and ready. ¡°Safer for me, yeah? I¡¯ll float down first. Cover me.¡± Without waiting for an argument, she stepped off the edge and dropped down slowly with her cloak controlling her fall. She cycled her vision and fed the group WorldMap to gather a collective view of the room. Suspended in the cavern''s hollow, Leah''s eyes adjusted to the dimness, revealing an expanse littered with glowing shards of ice. She signaled the all-clear and one by one, the team descended. The chill that pervaded the chamber faded as they approached the glowing Fire sphere upon the cavern''s rune-covered pedestal. ¡°Max, want to do the honors?¡± Charlie said. Max stepped up to the pedestal and mimicking the famed scene from Indiana Jones, swapped out the Fire sphere for the Ice. The glowing red sphere felt good for a moment as Max warmed up, but he knew how quickly it would grow and begin to stress his system. Max waited. ¡°Quest status!¡± He yelled impatiently.
[Quest: Elemental Alignment - the elemental spheres need to be arranged in their correct locations. Fix the misalignment. Carrying the spheres is a burden but must be done by hand. Iron will and fortitude are required to complete this trial. Objective: (0 of 10) complete.]
Max¡¯s stomach dropped, After a full day of braving the elements and fighting monsters, and they had missed something. The quest should have updated with a completed objective. The cavern vibrated as a roar rebounded off the walls and shook ice stalactites off the ceiling. The team scattered avoiding the heavy falling hazards. Amidst the chaos, Charlie shouted directions over the din, "Regroup and focus! Whatever''s coming, we handle it together!" Max, still clutching the Fire Sphere, scanned the cavern frantically for the source of the roar. Through the settling dust and icy fog, a colossal ice worm crashed through a wall into the Sphere''s cavern. The monster was fast. It was on top of the group almost immediately, looming above them. Leah raised her spetdods and took to the air. Xavier¡¯s sabers hummed with readiness as he raced sideways. Charlie set his sword waiting for the beast. For once, Max was caught on his back foot. He was deep in thought trying to understand what they had missed. Max was frozen in place as the massive worm reared up over Charlie. Instead of attacking the ready opponents the gigantic threat went over him. It crashed down, its massive lamprey-like mouth of icicles engulfing Max and swallowed him whole.
Adept Ch 20 - Elemental Misunderstandings
Getting swallowed by a gigantic ice worm was a new one for Max. He wasn¡¯t impressed. The trope was a favorite of many games that he knew. It was a common method of taking out a giant opponent. In many ways, it was safer to be in the belly of the beast than to be exposed to its colossal attacks. Max shot out his blade arms, locking him in place. He didn¡¯t know if maybe the worm had powerful acid in its stomach and didn¡¯t care to find out. Did it even have a stomach? He split his mind and ramped up his subjective time sense to consider his options and the bigger problem with his daemons. ¡°[A bold move, Max-San. You¡¯ve passed the greater danger of the beast''s teeth. If you extend your senses you may be able to strike a fatal blow from this advantageous position.]¡± Musashi praised. ¡°[The Ice Worm is but a distraction. The quest didn¡¯t advance! The novice assumption that the puzzle required matching spheres in some way to the domains was obviously flawed. The ruse was likely engineered by the A.I. Clotho to extend the team''s time in the level to fully advance your resistances.]¡± Sherlock berated Max and the others. ¡°[Not now, Sherlock! I need ideas to kill this thing.]¡± Max yelled in his head. He felt the chill coming off the Ice Worm and hugged the fire sphere tight. Instead of fighting off the chill, he got frostbite and scorched in equal measure. Steeling his resolve, Max forced the blazing hot sphere against the worm''s innards as the chill of the worm worked into his body. Max added his power skill, [Heat Touch] to the sphere, amplifying its energy even more. The Worm spasmed in pain, trying to dislodge Max.
[Resist Cold +1, Resist Cold reaches level 10, Skill cap award of +100XP, New skill unlocked - Chilling Touch 1] [New Body Skill: Chilling Touch 1 - Augmented thermal superconductive channels enable internal nano-Peltier circuits to aggressively redistribute heat.] [Max +1 Level, Max reaches Master level 23, +10 Free Stat points awarded, Progress to Level 24 - 20,050 of 22,250 XP]
Max focused and his sense of the battle was shifting. His view via his mote swarm showed Leah stitching a line of darts up the side of the beast, which exploded like a line of firecrackers making small but bloody divots down its length. Charlie had stabbed the monster in the head, hoping to end the fight quickly. Unfortunately, the worm scarcely noticed. It lifted itself high, looking for another person to swallow, and Charlie was lifted high as he refused to let go of his blade. Now he was trying to keep a grip and not get thrown. Max¡¯s swarm sensed a deep roar that came from the side. He saw Xavier charging in with four lightsabers swinging. Max swore seeing what was coming. He pulled in his blade arms in and kicked himself lower as four energy blades slashed in where was had been lodged a fraction of a second earlier. ¡°[Max, I can¡¯t sense the creature¡¯s neural core. Our new Chthonic attacks need a target. It seems Clotho may have finally found a way to shield the beasts.]¡± Mal said. ¡°[Shit! Not helpful. Anybody?]¡± Max yelled as he tried to turn himself around inside the worm''s gullet. ¡°[Alright, Max. It looks like Clotho knows her animal physiology. Worms, even giant ice worms apparently, have a large dorsal vein. That¡¯s your best target, either slash it open longitudinally or stab in some of your top-tier neurotoxin poison.]¡± House said with authority, highlighting the vessel¡¯s approximate location in Max¡¯s vision. Max stabbed and dragged himself up, stabbed and dragged, injecting a different poison each time. He made progress slowly, using one arm and his blade arms while football carrying the sphere. He finally got to the gaping wound that Xavier had left and tumbled out into the light. ¡°[Max, jump left. NOW!]¡± Musashi yelled. Max leaped with augmented speed and strength, barely avoiding being crushed by the rolling monster. Its roaring screams reverberated in the cavern. Max hit the wall and dropped into a pile of snow. He struggled up to see Charlie launching himself away from the worm. He screamed as he dove for cover. ¡°Fire in the hole!¡± The Worm¡¯s entire upper section split and exploded with a muffled explosion spraying worm parts across the ice cavern. Once the ringing in his ears stopped, Max shouted. ¡°Nice! Just like our game with my sis in the Mythic Realms versus the Great Viper.¡± ¡°Got to stick with the classics! Although, not as smooth as Tiamat¡¯s recovery that time, huh?¡± Charlie said with a small bow. ¡°Hey, nice fight guys! We got enough daylight to get to the safe zone?¡± Xavier said. Max eyed him. He doesn¡¯t even realize he almost stabbed me. He shook his head and refocused. ¡°Actually, I think we¡¯ve got a problem. The quest didn¡¯t update yet.¡± Max said. The team went quiet, everyone pulling their status screens to check. Max, still running fast with a [Multitask] skills alter ego, checked in with his daemons. His internal copy faced a virtual room of shadowy avatars. ¡°The runes on the pedestals¡­pull my memories. What do we have?¡± Max said. ¡°Oh dear. I have them. Here¡­let me share.¡± Stephen Hawking said quickly. ¡°My apologies. This is all so very exciting. I¡¯m used to advising in less pressing circumstances. I was trying to decipher the runes, but I¡¯ve never seen anything like them. Ah, by the way, Max, thank you ever so much for selecting my avatar to be a healthy version. Far too many of my instances are selected afflicted with advanced Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis like my predecessor had in real life. While my vocoder was iconic as I became famous, that incarnation is uncomfortable and cruel.¡± ¡°Of course, Stephen. Now did you learn anything about the runes?¡± Max asked. ¡°Ah¡­forgive me, but are you sure this is wise? There could be more monsters about?¡± Stephen asked. ¡°No worries, Stephen. I¡¯ve split my consciousness and sped up my subjective time sense. You¡¯ll get used to it. Now¡­the runes?¡± Max asked. ¡°Unfortunately, I must admit it was beyond me. It¡¯s not Latin or any mathematical symbolism, and since we are not connected to the EarthNet, I couldn¡¯t investigate further.¡± Hawking said hesitantly. ¡°Ahem¡­I have some familiarity with this. There is a passing similarity to the Nordic Runic language created by Elder Furtak, with some inclusions from Medieval Alchemy runes. Unfortunately, these appear to be significantly evolved from that system.¡± Sherlock began. With a wave of his hand, he pulled the runes from all the spheres and pedestals from Max¡¯s visual records and sorted them onto a screen to organize them. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. ¡°Hmmm, so the runes seem to line up. The Ice sphere and its pedestal match. So, what am I missing?¡± Max asked. ¡°Some of the other runes on the pedestal seem to indicate an action of some sort.¡± Sherlock said dryly. ¡°Alright, I¡¯m going to try something.¡± Max said and faded from the virtual.
Max rejoined the team as they surrounded the pedestal. Charlie was looking closer at the runes, while Leah and Xavier were communing with their daemons. ¡°Hey Charlie, I¡¯m going to try something. Can you take the Fire Sphere and stand back.¡± Max said. Once Charlie took the glowing red ball and gave him some space, Max put both his hands on the icy sphere and activated his newest skill [Chilling Touch]. The runes on the pedestal lit up in progression and continued until the entire sphere had glowing runes. Once the sphere was fully lit, the pedestal runes started filling in. Max pushed more energy into the skill.
[Chill touch +1, Chill touch reaches level 2]
The runes descended the pedestal into the ground and flashed with a loud cracking noise. The ground shook, knocking more stalactites down. Max pulled his hands away; the sphere¡¯s glow had brightened, and its freezing power had begun to hurt despite his capped resistance level.
[Quest: Elemental Alignment - the elemental spheres need to be arranged in their correct locations. Fix the misalignment. Carrying the spheres is a burden but must be done by hand. Iron will and fortitude are required to complete this trial. Objective: Cold sphere returned. (1 of 11) complete.]
Leah and Xavier snapped out of their virtual fugue when the notification hit. ¡°Crap! Double time, people. We need to get out of here ASAP.¡± Charlie ordered. Everyone scrambled back to the rope. Max gave a prodigious leap and grabbed hold of the line a few meters shy of the hole¡¯s edge. Leah took the sphere from Charlie and levitated up using her cloak. Max cleared the hole with Leah right behind him and looked down. The pedestal was sunk into the ground and ice spikes were growing and pushing in waves around where it had been. He yelled down. ¡°Hurry! It¡¯s going to get super uncomfortable down there soon!¡± Xavier was scrambling up the rope with Charlie right behind him. Max eyed the advancing wave of ice. Not fast enough, he thought. ¡°Hold on!¡± he yelled, grabbing the taught rope. He activated his [Hulk] skill and pulled. The rope was super durable, woven from nanofactured diamondoid fibers, so Max wasn¡¯t concerned about it fraying or breaking. The force of his enhanced strength pull shot the pair up into a powered ascent.
[Hulk +1, Hulk reaches level 7]
Xavier flew through the hole and shot past, arcing meters into the sky. Leah levitated quickly to catch him, the extra weight forcing the pair down to a gentle landing. Charlie had slammed into the edge and managed to grab on. Max pulled him over the edge as ice continued to fill the cavern below. Charlie rolled onto his back and spoke. ¡°Ouch. That could have gone better. Next time, we need to prepare for a fast exit.¡± He slowly crawled to his feet and held his ribs, wincing. ¡°Ok, let¡¯s get back to the rest zone. I need a break before we get this Sphere back to its home.¡±
The team made excellent time getting back to the rest zone, trading the Fire Sphere back and forth during the trip. The artificial sky was darkening as they arrived at the crude shelter. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s eat and figure out a plan for tomorrow, yeah?¡± Charlie said. Xavier went over to the MC to dial up some food for everyone. Leah collapsed on the sofa and yelled. ¡°Green tea as well, Xavier!¡± ¡°What? No more Sake?¡± He asked back. Leah turned green thinking about it. She had not done well the morning after their party night. ¡°Never again. Learn from my mistakes. Alcohol is poison.¡± She spoke. ¡°Hey!¡± Charlie said, sitting down with one hand on the burning sphere. ¡°We¡¯re supposed to be building our resistance this level. Maybe there¡¯s one for alcohol. Get me a beer, kid.¡± Max shook out his arms. Holding the sphere for hours at a time had cramped him up. He regarding his white fur and then cycled his [Chameleon] skill off. His fur returned to its normal brown and black.
[Chameleon +1, Chameleon reaches level 7, Additional level adds the ability to suppress or mimic EM signals]
¡°Done playing snow bunny, Max?¡± Charlie teased, sweat on his forehead dripped down as he tried to push back against the heat coming off the sphere with his already well developed [Chill Touch] skill. ¡°Joke all you want. So, it didn¡¯t work like I wanted in the Fire zone, but it was good concealment in the Glacier. Plus, I just gained a level. You can¡¯t advance if you don¡¯t use them.¡± Max said and then snorted as Xavier came back to the central table. The kid¡¯s alien form was now colored a brilliant azure blue head to toe. ¡°This student harkens and learns, Sensei Max.¡± He said seriously. Leah was the first to crack, laughing out loudly. Soon everyone was sharing the moment, joking back and forth, and eating together after a very long day. Leah took the leftovers and trays back to the MC to recycle, while Max cast out his OverLayer. Max peered at the level map, zooming in on different areas that could potentially hold clues. ¡°We need better info. Look here. The Fire domain, Poison Swamp, and Ice Glacier are all exactly thirty-six degrees apart¡­if we use the safe zone as an origin point. They¡¯re not exactly the same distance, but they¡¯re all in a rough band about 5-7 kilometers out.¡± Max said. Charlie looked closer at the map. ¡°I¡¯m picking up what you¡¯re laying down, buddy. We can send out our drones again. This time we keep them scouting until we ID the exact location of the other pedestals, we can chart a course to each without wasting time.¡± Charlie said. ¡°Maybe we can even split up. Two team¡¯s out and back. With two spheres in hand, we can resistance train until at least one of us has an evolved skill to activate the spheres. Then we can plant the spheres and grab the next batch.¡± He commented. ¡°Hey, I¡¯ve got my brother''s speeder bike. It¡¯ll be great for wide open spaces and even able to travel water. The Speeder bike can fit a passenger on the back, too. Heck, the whole team could ride in my Tesseract¡¯s pocket space.¡± Max said, eager to use his tools. ¡°Hmm, my levitation cloak can help too,¡± Leah said. ¡°Up and down at least¡­it¡¯s a bit too slow traveling cross country.¡± ¡°Hey, yeah! I want to get some miles on my Rambler board. This is awesome! Leah, if you want I can tie a rope to you. A Leah kite, hah!¡± Xavier was bouncing in his cloud chair with excitement. Leah looked less excited. ¡°Ah, yeah¡­or maybe we can scale up one of those bigger drones of yours, Xavier,¡± Leah suggested. ¡°Shit! That¡¯s even more awesome. Like a pod racer from Star Wars! I¡¯ll scale a pair of drones up to be bigger like you said and then pair them together to drag you. Oh my god! I¡¯ve got to get to work. This will be the best!¡± The kid¡¯s alien face looked freaky as he rolled his dark eyes back in his head, turning inward into his virtual space. ¡°Son of a bitch. I used to ride a mech and make fun of the grunts on the ground. Now, I¡¯m the only one pounding the dirt like a damned infantry. Damn these AI restrictions on the matter compiler. If we could copy our rewards, maybe I could get a ride.¡± Charlie complained. ¡°Don¡¯t you worry, Charlie. I got you covered.¡± Max said, holding a finger up against his snout. He had told the team much earlier about his¡­acquisition of the dungeon matter compiler in a secure contact-sharing virtual. He had revealed his setting it up inside his tesseract and jailbreaking it. While the dungeon AI knew he had taken the MC, they had kept silent about the jailbreaking effort. He could make copies of anything¡­with sufficient energy, materials, and time. The team got to work. Charlie and Leah set to corralling all the available drones with programmed flight plans. Xavier was in virtual designing an upgraded drone while Max had Tesla start the copying process for Bo¡¯s Speeder bike. Max clapped his clawed hands together. A couple more levels and maybe he could ditch Clotho¡¯s bad regard. He hoped Lachesis wouldn¡¯t be so tight with the rewards. The team had gone through most of their stores of unique devices. If the Labyrinth continued to demand items for passage, they¡¯d slow down even more. Max knew the AIs wanted his dad¡¯s device. Every time he activated it, his Privacy skills engaged. He clenched his fists. He wouldn¡¯t let them have it. It wasn¡¯t his to give. He regarded the AI phantoms deep in the walls with his decoding skill. He ground his teeth. If anyone was going to take secrets, it would be him and not the damn AI.
Adept Ch 21 - Game of Spheres
With more defined search zones, the next day¡¯s drone reconnaissance filled in the team¡¯s map significantly. The scout drones were able to find all the target pedestals in the different challenge territories, except for two. Starting at the first territory they had already explored, the Fire Domain; the territories had been named based upon the team¡¯s drone observations. Clockwise after the Fire Domain, was the Poison Swamp, the Glacier, a Caustic Lake, Lightning Trees, Thunder Canyon, a City Ruin, a Dark Cavern, a Palace constructed entirely of circuit boards they dubbed the Circuit Palace, and a foggy region they were calling the Fractal Haze. The drones took all day but had found and identified the pedestals and spheres except for the last two regions, the Circuit Palace, and Fractal Haze. Those zones had environments that kept disabling or destroying the drones. They couldn¡¯t confirm the exact spheres for either zone, but the process of elimination gave them both the potential to have either the acid or poison sphere. There were also a couple of unknowns regarding the skills that might be represented by the spheres. The carvings that were on the pedestal within the City Ruins looked like an atom. The spheres in that zone had something like a circuit and the sphere in the Thunder Canyon had everted parentheses symbol. With good intel and a more detailed plan to rearrange the spheres, the team went to bed early. They were ready to go at the crack of dawn the next day.
The first day with a new plan had gone great. Everyone had capped their Fire resistances during the planning phase and Max teamed up with Xavier to deliver that sphere back to its home. Using the Speeder bike, they easily avoided the Magma beasts and hightailed it when activating the sphere began an eruption of lava from the Fire Pyramid.
[Quest: Elemental Alignment - the elemental spheres need to be arranged in their correct locations. Fix the misalignment. Carrying the spheres is a burden but must be done by hand. Iron will and fortitude are required to complete this trial. Objective: Heat sphere returned. (2 of 10) complete. +100XP awarded.]
They crossed over to the Poison swamp and pulled the Electricity Sphere from the pedestal seat there. Max drove fast as Xavier held tight to the bike and the sphere wedged between them. Again, the denizens of the swamp couldn¡¯t catch them as they rocketed past on the Speeder bike. They arrived at the rest zone finding Leah and Charlie already there. ¡°Hey. You guys were even faster than us. How was the Caustic Lake?¡± Max asked. He looked at the sphere Leah was holding. It flashed bright, momentarily blinding him. Max¡¯s capped resistance to light quickly and seamlessly restores his vision. ¡°Easy peasy, Max. My copy of your brother¡¯s bike handled like a dream. All the creatures were slow enough that we were able to fly rings around them. They were just standard dungeon oozes and¡­. I¡¯m guessing rust monsters; judging by the damage to the bike. One managed to get a hold of the steering vane briefly.¡± Max looked over to where the bike was parked. The steering vane was almost completely shot. Its left strut was hanging by a thin section. If it weren¡¯t connected with several cross pieces, it would likely have snapped off. ¡°Do you think you could get that fixed? We made it back, but if there wasn¡¯t a wide-open salt plain for the trip back; we might¡¯ve had to run back.¡± Charlie said. ¡°I¡¯ll see what we can do. Repairs should be easier than a brand-new fabrication.¡± Max guessed. He opened the portal and hauled the bike in. After a brief conversation with Tesla, the daemon promised it would be fully functional in less than an hour. Max returned to the group as meals from the MC were being set up. ¡°Hey, that was a lot quicker than we thought. The damage to the bike should be fixed in an hour or so. These spheres are for skills we all have already. What say we put these things back to where they belong, and we go after the next set?¡± Max asked. ¡°No fair. I¡¯m the only one without capped resistances to Light. I need training time.¡± Xavier complained with a mouthful of food. Charlie got an evil look in his eye. ¡°Hey, I¡¯m sure we can all take turns shooting you with Strobe attacks until you cap. What do you think Max?¡± Charlie asked. ¡°Nailed it, Charlie. I do still need to level up my Strobe attack.¡± Max said. Xavier wilted under the tag team response and went back to wolfing down his food.
Charlie and Xavier worked their way into the dark cavern carefully. The AI were up to their games again. None of the pair''s extra senses seemed to be able to visualize in the darkness. They both had linked their swarms into the WorldMap OverLayer they were sharing. The limited picture they had was of the motes ¡°feeling¡± the surfaces in the dark space. Both were trying to stay quiet and talked using a wireless signal. ¡°[Fuck, Blackout Cavern indeed.]¡± Xavier said. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. ¡°[Yeah, I hope the bike will be okay. There weren¡¯t any monsters for miles, but-]¡± Charlie responded, and hesitated as the Light Sphere he was carrying chose that moment to pop with its timed [Strobe]. Unlike their scanners, the walls of the cavern did reflect the sphere¡¯s light. It multiplied the light tenfold as the strobe revealed the cavern was lined with crystals that put the famous Pulpi Geode in Spain to shame. The strobe effect bounced and split in the crystals, turning the space into a blinding kaleidoscope until the lights faded, leaving the pair in darkness again. ¡°[Shit, my eyes. My light resistance is almost capped now.]¡± Xavier spoke. ¡°[Lemme try something¡­damn it. No good. I tried to mimic the wavelength of the Light Sphere¡¯s strobe with my own. How the hell does that make any sense?]¡± Charlie said. ¡°[Hmm, the crystals must be smart matter¡­super stealthy smart matter at that. Gives me some ideas, Vantablack with fractal dimples to absorb light and even radar. Hey, this is stupid. Let me update our WorldMap the same way the drones operate.¡± Xavier said. The WorldMap bloomed with detail, as the crystal cavern became visible. The sparkly surfaces quickly dulled into greyscale colors. ¡°[What¡¯d you do?"]¡± Charlie asked. ¡°[I¡¯m tying my memory skill of the cave¡¯s image during the flash and geo-locking it. I grey-scaled it, so you know it''s not a live image. Hey¡­. there¡¯s the pedestal, two o¡¯clock! Way down into that wedge!]¡± Xavier exclaimed. Xavier was startled as Charlie yelled out loud instead of transmitting. ¡°Look sharp, kid! The swarm¡¯s tactile picture¡¯s got hidden movement!¡± Charlie¡¯s voice echoed with the ringing of his sword impacting¡­something. Xavier repainted the map to color in the swarm¡¯s contact points as a bright priority on the OverLayer. ¡°FUCK!¡± Xavier screamed and dove to the side as a crystalline insectoid loomed over him. He scrambled sideways, fumbling to ignite his lightsabers. The room seemed to come alive as far too many of the crystal surfaces began to move.
Max swerved as quickly as he could between the metallic trees. Leah clung tightly to the back of the Speeder bike. The storm clouds above flashed with lightning. Far too often one would drop from the heavens and strike a tree. This wouldn¡¯t be hard to avoid as long as Max stayed low, but the damn trees would bounce the lightning into a complex pattern of arcing chains. Max had avoided most of the arcs, but the bike had already taken several hits. ¡°Count your blessings, Max. If we were walking and grounded, those bolts would hit more often and harder!¡± Leah yelled over the crashing of electrical discharges. ¡°I don¡¯t know how much the bike can handle. That last grazing bolt fried the gyro stabilizers. I¡¯m trying to fly it without it but be ready to bail if I lose it.¡± Max said through gritted teeth. The smell of ozone was overpowering to his sensitive nose and his hair was rising as the static charge was building again. A system notice popped up, blocking his view.
[Quest: Elemental Alignment - the elemental spheres need to be arranged in their correct locations. Fix the misalignment. Carrying the spheres is a burden but must be done by hand. Iron will and fortitude are required to complete this trial. Objective: Light sphere returned. (3 of 10) complete. +100XP awarded.]
Max waved it away and focused on driving the damaged bike. ¡°Max! There¡¯s the pedestal. Get close and drop me! I¡¯ll swap the spheres and activate the pedestal. Keep moving and I¡¯ll jump on back when I¡¯m done!¡± Leah screamed over the crashing lightning. Max swooped in a curve, lining up on the pedestal. There was a ring of metallic hedges surrounding the thing that glowed with a static charge. ¡°Hey. I¡¯m going to try something. I hope this isn¡¯t a mistake!¡± Max yelled over his shoulder as Leah was preparing to bail. ¡°Hey, wait-¡± Leah started to ask, but Max had already reached out a paw and discharged his second-tier skill that evolved from [Shocking Touch]. His [Arc] skill sent a stream of charged particles guided by a coherent beam into the lighting hedge. He pushed as much power as he could and then shut it down. The hedge ignited in a storm of chained lightning which peeled outward in three different directions. Max grinned. He had hoped to discharge the building eruption and had succeeded. His models weren¡¯t certain, but it seemed that chaining usually didn¡¯t rebound, making them both safer¡­for the moment. ¡°Fuck. Bad dog!¡± Leah yelled and leaped from the bike down to the pedestal. Max did a double take, but Leah was smiling as she landed atop the pedestal. He grinned back as he struggled to control the bike.
Max and Leah trudged back to the rest zone building on foot. Leah had succeeded in trading spheres and activating the pedestal, but as the forest of lightning trees erupted their escaping bike took one strike too many.
[Quest: Elemental Alignment - the elemental spheres need to be arranged in their correct locations. Fix the misalignment. Carrying the spheres is a burden but must be done by hand. Iron will and fortitude are required to complete this trial. Objective: Shock sphere returned. (4 of 10) complete.]
They had landed roughly beyond the electrical storm, but the bike was out of commission. Max had consigned it into his tesseract. At Tesla¡¯s urging he also gathered some broken lightning tree branches and bushes for their captive compile to serve as rare material stock. The dungeon had severely limited its menu for the rest zone matter compiler. Raw materials needed to be scavenged. Tesla promised repairs as soon as possible. The pair made it back just before the dark cycle. Leah was looking haggard as they entered the door. The new sphere was not a resistance any of the team had yet¡­radiation. Her face was sallow, and she looked sick. The inside of the rest building was a cacophony of noise. Charlie and Xavier were both there already and looking as miserable as Leah. Xavier held a sphere that emitted a constant stream of annoying sounds with occasional blasts of high-decibel punishment. ¡°Take this quick!¡± Leah said, pushing her sphere to Max. She quickly ran to the bathroom. Max felt the heat coming off the sphere immediately as it penetrated deeply rather than simply burning.
[New skill unlocked: Resist Radiation 1 - Augmented subdermal radiation reflectors can be trained for improved resistance. Augmentation Healing skill must assist to eliminate accumulation of radiation damage. Be aware - elimination can be¡­messy. Be sure to replenish your system with electrolytes and a hearty meal.]
¡°Oh my god. Tonight¡¯s training is going to be nasty.¡± Max groaned.
Adept Ch 22 - Damage
Max woke to blissful silence, for two seconds, until the sound of Charlie gagging echoed from the bathroom. The team had already been very advanced with Sonic resistance. With the sphere¡¯s training no longer needed; Xavier and Max had worked together to design a case for the sphere that clamped around the designated sphere carrier¡¯s body like a hard-shelled papoose. The rig helped maintain contact with the sphere but dampened its incessant sonic abuse. The radiation sphere, however, was still actively being used, and the team was suffering the side effects. Leah was taking another turn with the radiation sphere. The nausea and frequent trips to the bathroom had decreased as they all had slowly built up their resistance to the radiation sphere. Max rolled out of his cloud bed and sat next to Leah. She was meditating, but he knew she was probably monitoring her surroundings. He could feel the energy coming from the sphere he was holding and wasn¡¯t surprised at his new system notice.
[Resist Radiation +1, Resist Radiation reaches level 10, skill cap award +100 XP, New skill unlocked.] [New Sense skill - Geiger 1, Detect and quantify radiation type, emissions, and levels using augmented linked sensors.]
Charlie staggered out of the bathroom looking like hell. Max looked at him appraisingly. ¡°What¡¯s your count, man?¡± Max asked. ¡°I just leveled to nine, you?¡± Charlie replied. ¡°Capped it. We might have a problem though. The 2nd tier skill that unlocked was a sensing skill, not an energy attack. How are we supposed to activate the pedestal for this one and complete the quest objective?¡± ¡°I guess that one will be for you and me to figure out. Let¡¯s round up some breakfast and wake the sleepers. I hope the next set of spheres isn¡¯t as big a pain in the ass. I do not appreciate the system trainers for this bullshit resistance.¡± ¡°Cool. I¡¯ll hand the sphere off to Leah or Xavier while we eat. I¡¯m betting our destination will have enough rads for you to finish capping while we deliver the package. The team ate quickly, eager to swap the nuisance spheres out for the next set. Max and Charlie were bound for the Ruined City. The denizens wandering its blasted streets looked like simulation bots of the classic Armageddon punks. Max was excited about the fact that most of the enemy mobs sported modern weapons. He was eager to add some guns to his weapon collection in the Tesseract. Xavier and Leah had targeted the territory dubbed Thunder Canyon to return the Sonic sphere home. It was located high up the side of a cliff, inside of a roc nest. The drone cams had shown the mythical thunderbirds soaring the length of the canyon. They were banking on Leah¡¯s levitating cloak to try and slip in while the birds were out hunting. ¡°Alright boys, see you back here before dark. Make sure you don¡¯t bring that blasted puke sphere back. I don¡¯t want any more of that type of training.¡± Leah leaped on the back of the second Speeder bike. She took care to swing the papoose around to stay in contact with the Sonic sphere. Xavier, in the driver seat, revved it and sped off to the south, waving with his extra hands.
Max spit out pellets from the shotgun blast he took to the face as he twisted the head off the android wasteland punk bandit. He grabbed the shotgun and cycled a round into its chamber. ¡°I told you, Max. Shoot to kill. You ate that because you were trying to get fancy.¡± Charlie yelled as he lay down covering fire with the pair of submachine guns he had liberated. Max wiped the blood and grime from his face, the adrenaline coursing through his veins. "You''re right, no more stunts," he conceded. Max paced back and forth until he could gauge the direction of increasing radioactivity. He pointed towards the west. ¡°That way! It must be inside that building over there.¡± Max said. He cycled his chameleon color change to try and match the dusty streets. He glided down the street hugging the wall. Charlie did the same on the other side. Max¡¯s precog triggered and he ducked as the wall behind him exploded. Mal tracked the trajectory and he immediately popped up with a [Laser] shot, hitting the sniper on the roof. Charlie lobbed his last frag grenade up. The roof exploded with a pair of screams. Max opened the portal to his Tesseract and its integrated Maser lashed out and split the main door in two. Max tossed his shotgun into his portal and extended his sword arms and claws as he sent his swarm of motes inside. Charlie stuffed his pistols in his belt and snapped his sword loose. ¡°Ready. On three. One¡­two¡­¡± Charlie dove through the door prematurely, his sword flashing. ¡°No fair!¡± Max yelled charging after. Both the guards were already down. He wasted no time and charged down the hall. Max navigated through the dimly lit corridors. The air was stale, heavy with the scent of decay that permeated the ruin. Max¡¯s radiation sense buzzed as the radiation levels ramped up. He grinned and dove into the final chamber. A giant with cyborg arms and jaw waited inside swinging a strange chainsaw blade. Max dodged, feeling the vibrations of the deadly weapon pass inches over his head. He struck out with claws and swords and was about to deliver a massive shock when the sphere on the pedestal behind the giant pulsed. Max¡¯s resistance to EMP was already capped, but his system stuttered briefly. The giant laughed and kicked out sending Max into the wall. ¡°[Max, the Tesseract is destabilizing! Get out of here! Another blast like that could wreck it!]¡± Mal screamed in his mind. Charlie charged the monster while Max dove behind the wall he just crashed through. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. ¡°[Damn it. Charlie needs help! How do I protect the Tesseract? Tesla, help?!]¡± Max screamed. ¡°[I¡­I¡­we need a better bracer¡­with tempest shielding. Ah, damn it! There is no time. Just tuck the anchor into your armpit or better yet put it in your mouth for now. Use your body''s enhanced EMP resistance to shield it!]¡± Tesla stuttered, panicking under the pressure. Max growled and tore the Tesseract¡¯s anchor module off his bracer and popped it into his mouth. He flipped over the wall and dove back into the fight. Charlie had disarmed the huge punk but somehow the giant had managed to pin him down and was squeezing his neck. Max shot out a grapple, impaling the huge android¡¯s forearm. Using his kunai skill training, he flipped a loop of cord around the giant''s neck and yanked. The large opponent¡¯s hand popped free of Charlie''s neck as it was cinched upward tightly. Charlie gasped for air and grabbed for his dropped sword. Max held firm as the giant struggled and Charlie''s blade lashed out. The giant¡¯s head rolled to the side and decapitated body sprayed simulated blood like a geyser onto the ceiling, covering Charlie in gore. ¡°God damn. My mouth was open! Augh!¡± Charlie struggled out from under the corpse. Max quickly scanned the area, but no enemies were left. He was sending his swarm out to fill the building and look for holdouts when the sphere pulsed again, and his motes dropped to the ground dead and shorted. ¡°Furk!¡± Max mumbled through clenched jaws. ¡°Cover me, Max. I¡¯ll swap out the spheres.¡± Charlie said. Max sent more precious motes out, using all his senses to scan the building. As Charlie swung his improvised papoose about, he grabbed the radiation sphere and traded it for the EMP emitting sphere. Max took the time to ramp his cognition up. In his head, he consulted his daemon team. ¡°[Tesla and Hawking, I need a better bracer to protect the Tesseract ASAP. If you can create some of this tempest shielding you mentioned, please get to it. Maybe a specially shielded papoose too!]¡± Max said. ¡°[I¡¯ll work with the brainy boys, Max. It looks like Charlie needs your help.]¡± Mal sent. Max refocused on Charlie. He had the EMP sphere secured and the Radiation sphere on its pedestal but was still stumped as to how to activate it. Max cleared his mind and watched. Charlie was pushing with [Heat], [Cold], and [Shock] but nothing worked to activate the sphere. His new Geiger sense skill was going crazy. Max pulled the data into WorldMap using his decoding and gestalt skills to try and picture it better. Max¡¯s visualization showed the radiation intensity doubling when Charlie¡¯s newly radiation-shielded skin pressed on the sphere. Max¡¯s eyebrows rose and he reached out his own hands, covering the sphere. In his map, the reflected radiation redoubled, unable to escape from the blocking effect of his and Charlie¡¯s radiation-resistant bodies. ¡°Dude! I think I know what we need to do!¡± Max said. Pushing Charlie back, Max hugged the sphere, trying to cover it completely with his improved radiation-reflecting dermis. The sphere pulsed as its output was blocked and then reflected backward upon itself. With a surge of power, the pedestal lit up. The two friends¡¯ systems pinged at the same time.
[Quest: Elemental Alignment - the elemental spheres need to be arranged in their correct locations. Fix the misalignment. Carrying the spheres is a burden but must be done by hand. Iron will and fortitude are required to complete this trial. Objective: Radiation sphere returned. (5 of 10) complete. +100 XP]
Charlie grabbed the token from the pedestal and collapsed to his knees and wheezed, ¡°Mutha Effin Hoo-Rah¡­¡± He coughed into his hands and winced at the blood spattering his palms. The pedestal was glowing cherry red with a haze of intense blue Cherenkov light.
[Geiger +1, Geiger reaches level 5. Detect and quantify radiation type, emissions, and levels using augmented linked sensors.]
¡°Come on, man. Let¡¯s get the heck out of Apocalypse Central and head home. My Geiger counter is going nuts. Our resistance might be capped, but I think we might regret hanging around much longer.¡± Max said.
The pair returned to the team¡¯s safe lair. The notification had pinged their systems a half hour ago indicating that Leah and Xavier¡¯s mission was a success.
[Quest: Elemental Alignment - the elemental spheres need to be arranged in their correct locations. Fix the misalignment. Carrying the spheres is a burden but must be done by hand. Iron will and fortitude are required to complete this trial. Objective: Sonic sphere returned. (6 of 10) complete. +100 XP]
While they recovered, Max had examined his newly modified arm brace. It now had special shielding to protect the Tesseract from EMP. His crew of daemons were busy overhauling the interior of the pocket space. He remembered the way the thieves had wrecked his home with an EMP detonating inside its shielding. He wanted the Tesseract protected against both EMP and short-circuiting via water. Charlie was carrying the EMP sphere in its own special traveling case and grunted as it occasionally zapped him. He sipped a beer as he sunk into his cloud chair. Despite his discomfort, Charlie couldn''t help but smirk at Max as he berated and cajoled his daemons to perfect the Tesseract¡¯s arsenal. He was insistent on trying to tie the low-tech guns that he had taken from the City Ruins into the device''s already impressive array of weaponry. Max was bringing a fresh pair of beer bottles over when the familiar high-pitched whine signaled the return of the other Speeder bike. Max set down the beers and jogged to the door. Leah crashed through the door dragging a bloody Xavier into the lobby. "Guys, help!" Leah shouted. Max and Charlie helped to lay the injured man on the floor and Max quickly scanned him. "Hang in there, X!" Leah''s voice shook as she worked to unwrap a makeshift bandage that held the new sphere to Xavier¡¯s mangled extra arms. Max queued House and ran a full scan, projecting a holographic display of Xavier''s vitals. "Damn, what the hell is going on?! His arms are riddled with holes." Max asked, voice tense as he began the emergency procedures to stabilize Xavier. Max grabbed the sphere. Despite his high resistance to pain, Max could feel the sphere eating into his armored dermal layer. Max almost dropped the sphere in surprise. The pain bypassed his capped [Painless] skill completely.
[ANDD +1, ANDD reaches level 4 - Train your Anti-NanoDisassembly Defense for improved nanotic resistance.]
¡°Shit! Really? Resistance to active nano-disassembly? What the hell? Is this dungeon sadistic?¡± Max asked. He slung the sphere up and away using his blade arms to maintain a minimum of contact necessary. He snorted. Guess that¡¯s exactly what Xavier was doing to have his extra arms eaten up that badly. This is going to be the nastiest hot potato ever. He thought. ¡°[Enough daydreaming, Max.]¡± House sent. ¡°[I know you hate Xavier with a passion for stealing your girl, but I need your hands to help stem the blood loss. Activate your heat touch skill and cauterize where I highlight¡­]¡± Max''s hands hovered as directed, glowing with a dull red warmth. House''s holographic overlays pinpointed the critical areas, and Max pressed down, searing the active bleeds with precision. Leah assisted, administering a maintaining pressure to the bleeding areas as Max worked fast. The smell of seared flesh permeated the room, a harsh reminder of the gravity of the situation. Xavier groaned, consciousness flickering, but Max''s steady hands kept working to fix the worst of the damage.
Adept Ch 23 - War Crimes
¡°These AIs are playing with fire. Nano weapons are heavily regulated by UN treaties. I don¡¯t care if they have sovereign nation status. They''re flirting with global backlash if they aren''t careful. I fought in some of the Ought-Five-Oh territorial battles. This stuff is a goddamn war crime." Charlie said with a pained look on his face. It was his turn with the NanoD sphere and its active surface disassemblers. The team needed another day at the rest zone as the NanoD training was especially painful and needed time to recover. ¡°I researched this at school, Charlie. I think that as long as the nano isn¡¯t replicating, some corporations are allowed to use it. But only in controlled settings. Not sure what the Labyrinth¡¯s deal is though.¡± Xavier said. Charlie sighed and spoke. ¡°Finally¡­I just leveled. Come on, kid. Your turn with this non-replicating murder weapon.¡± Charlie held out the sphere to Xavier. ¡°Ah man, this thing is such a drag. My regeneration repairs and the active resistance suck power too much. I can¡¯t do anything else.¡± Xavier complained but took the device. ¡°You should meditate like I told you,¡± Max said. ¡°Fully cycling your energy should trigger a Power Core skill. If you meditate, you recover your energy faster and eventually will get the cultivation skill too. I¡¯m telling you. It''s a trifecta of energy multipliers.¡± Xavier rolled his eyes but knew Max had a point. Sighing, he settled down and let the NanoD sphere rest in his lap, closing his eyes to focus. The low hum of the device seemed to blend with his breathing, and slowly, a warm sensation spread across his body, indicating the start of the energy cycle. Max reviewed his latest evolution from the skill training.
[ANDD +1, ANDD reaches level 10, Skill Cap award +100 XP, New skill unlocked.] [New Domain Skill unlocked: Nanochaff 1 - Subdermal emitters of nano-chaff are specially designed to resist and foil active NanoD. Use this skill to broaden nanochaff types to counter the many brands of NanoD.]
Max activated the skill and was rewarded with an almost undetectable burst of small molecules lifting off from his engineered skin. He honed his augmented vision to zoom in on it. Little particles floated with streamers like jellyfish, designed to tangle active nanorobots. After a moment¡¯s consideration, he accessed the free utility foglets in the room and used them to create a wind tunnel effect. He funneled the air and opened the portal to his subspace. He pushed the air, full of nano chaff, into the Tesseract¡¯s bubble. Waste not, he thought to himself, fascinated. He had scanned his body while under the abusive attack from the NanoD sphere. His blood was filled not only with medical nano repair bots but also advanced hunter-killer defensive bots akin to white blood cells. Any nano not explicitly under his augment controls would be suppressed, rounded up, and destroyed. He had some crude ideas on replicating the effect of the active countermeasures, for the Tesseract. With help from Mal, Hawking, and Tesla - some crude nano-devices were now circulating in the pocket space. Max had already learned the devastating consequences of the damage to the Tesseract¡¯s internal structures. He intended to use every tool to protect it. ¡°[Hey Gang?]¡± He projected inward to his daemons, ¡°[Let¡¯s get some of this Nanochaff into my MC. I want copies. Lots of copies. I''ve got the feeling the Fractal Haze territory is not going to be a walk in the woods. I want plenty of protection.]¡± ¡°[An excellent notion, Max! With the MC, we can produce orders of magnitude more chaff than your augmentation systems. We can even store them in pressurized containers for more aggressive suppression.]¡± Tesla¡¯s excited voice proclaimed.
Max and Xavier trudged through the ash of the Fractal Haze. Max debated internally about pulling out Bo¡¯s Speed bike again. The haze ate at them. Not as painful nor aggressive as the sphere, but damaging over time, nonetheless. Max knew that the pervasive destruction would damage the bike quickly, making its use both unreliable and wasteful. He looked over to Xavier. The kid had bulked up using his transformation skill in preparation for the mission. His form was covered in armored plates, now pock-marked deeply with the energetic micro attacks eating at it. He also had grown a mop of whip-thin tentacles down his spine and used several at a time to grip the NanoD sphere. He kept contact with it while minimizing damage to his body. When a set of tentacles had eroded, he shifted his grip to another set and shed the damaged ones. New buds grew visibly fast, as he cycled his skill. ¡°I see you eyeballing my cilia again, Max. You should try to grow some. This is leveling my Transform skill at an awesome pace. Thanks again for the tips about the Power Core. I couldn¡¯t keep up the growth without it.¡± Xavier said with a toothy grin. His face, and body, were covered with weeping pinholes from the continuous nano attacks. ¡°Maybe. I¡¯m still getting used to my blade arms. My dad had some kickass wings that I¡¯d like to try someday. I¡¯ve got scans of Leah¡¯s cloak air handling mechanisms that should help make them work so they don¡¯t need to be humongous. But that¡¯s for later. Too dangerous to be messing around. We need to focus.¡± Max said. ¡°No kidding. Where the hell is that pedestal? I feel like we¡¯ve been going in circles. The notice for the EMP sphere being returned happened over an hour ago. Leah and Charlie are way ahead of us.¡± Xavier said. ¡°We could be right on top of it and not know it¡­hey. You just gave me an idea. You capped your EMP resistance right?¡± Max asked. ¡°Yeah. So?¡± Xavier said. ¡°Watch,¡± Max said and pulsed his EMP blast skill. A wave of energy spread and the nano motes in the air sparked and fell. The haze cleared for about 100 meters around the pair. Xavier laughing, picked up his pace to a run and let loose pulses of his own, clearing even more area. The pair ran on, taking turns blasting out EMP blasts to clear the air. Their efforts produced a welcome respite from the damage and clearer visibility at the same time. Max was rewarded with a notification.
[EMP +1, EMP reaches level 10, Skill cap award +100XP. New skill unlocked. Focused EMP 1: Extended range and directional EMP using waveguide shaping of EM pulse.] Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
¡°Yes!¡± Max exclaimed, shooting out with even greater range to disrupt the deadly fog in front of them. As the haze in the eroded rocky valley cleared, a pock-marked ring of obelisks became visible in the distance. ¡°I see it!¡± Xavier shouted and double-timed it toward their target. Rushing to the obelisks, they sensed a change in the air. The oppressive atmosphere of the Fractal Haze began to withdraw as if the obelisks themselves offered a sanctuary. Max felt the tingling of his augments easing, a sign that the density of attacking nano motes was diminishing. Eyes scanning for threats, they prepared to encounter whatever safeguarded this mysterious place. The sphere on the pedestal appeared to be made of glass with a green swirling gas circulating inside. Max cautiously grabbed the sphere and lifted it.
[Poison resistance 10, contact point negated.]
''¡°Alright, X. I got the poison sphere. Put the Nanos sphere down and get ready to run.¡± Max said as he strapped the Poison sphere down to his side so he could keep contact with it while having his hands free. Xavier nodded, quickly securing the Nanos sphere. They both knew time was of the essence; the safety of the obelisk ring was only temporary. The signal came and they exchanged a determined glance, signaling it was time to move. Taking a deep breath, they dashed back into the shrouding mist of the Fractal Haze.
[Quest: Elemental Alignment - the elemental spheres need to be arranged in their correct locations. Fix the misalignment. Carrying the spheres is a burden but must be done by hand. Iron will and fortitude are required to complete this trial. Objective: Nano-D sphere returned. (8 of 10) complete. +100 XP]
Max grabbed the chip with the inverted parenthesis icon, and quickly the pair sprinted past the ring of obelisks. The fractal haze mists were receding in front of them. Max felt his hackles rise. Every pedestal so far had some type of eruption. He had expected something big, but the destructive Nanos seemed to be fleeing¡­like they were being pulled away. The pair stopped running, looking around at the clear air. Xavier was the first to see it. ¡°Aw, Fuck! Look!¡± Xavier said, pointing upwards over the tops of the surrounding hillocks. Like the tide going out, the Nanos had built into a wall that grew and grew in the distance. The pair were surrounded by a massive tsunami of active nano disassemblers. Max saw streamers breaking free of the wave, snakes of congealed nanofog, that froze his blood. They were almost a perfect replica of his nightmares that had featured the Chthonic Shoggoth! Unlike most of their resistances, the ANND skills ability to resist disassembly was still painful. The overwhelming wave of Nanos combined with the snake-like cloud with its aggressive intelligence coming for them was not a good sign of escape. ¡°Run!¡± Max yelled. Xavier tore off as fast as he could with Max on his heels as the distant wave rumbled closer. The nearest snakelike missile of fog jetted at them. With its oblique angle, Xavier didn¡¯t see it coming. Max leaped, pushing Xavier down. Max tumbled after him. The fast-roiling cloud shot passed, momentarily engulfing Max¡¯s right arm. Screaming at the unfiltered pain. Max pulled his arm in. Its tough skin had been flensed and the metal-lined muscles and bones cratered and cracked. Max felt his connection to the Tesseract go blank. In a panic, he looked at it, as it fell free from his damaged arm. The Tesseract was still intact! The billowing snake of fog curled back, homing in on the device. Max grabbed it with his left and activated a portal. Without a word of warning, he grabbed Xavier by his harness and rolled them both into the pocket space. At a command, the portal snapped shut behind them, with dense nanochaff covering them both.
¡°That damnable child! I almost had it.¡± Clotho¡¯s normally placid manner snapped as she slammed a hand down on the simulacrum table. Both Lachesis and Atropos were present at the viewing as well. She had anticipated a victory, in the early acquisition of the canine¡¯s mysterious technology, and had invited her sisters to witness the event. ¡°Temper, dear sister. That objective trap seemed a little more targeted than you¡¯ve employed in the past. You¡¯re coming perilously close to breaking your code regarding our assigned roles within the Labyrinth.¡± Lachesis cautioned. Atropos cackled again, as the miniature maelstrom of aggressive nanodevices swirled on the virtual tableau, but the tiny holographic images of the challengers had disappeared completely. They had vanished just as the crescendo had been about to engulf them. Clotho¡¯s image skipped and froze. It finally resumed and her expression calmed quickly. She fixed her virtual hair in place and smoothed her dress as she sat back down. ¡°A minor divergence, allowable within the Builder¡¯s rule set. But it failed, nonetheless. I doubt the last objective of this final level will slow them down. I hope you have better luck, sister. He is a slippery one and unlikely to offer the device as an exit toll either.¡± Clotho said. ¡°I look forward to the challenge, sister. The stakes in my realm will bring a certain¡­intensity, that should unbalance the boy. We shall see how he fairs against the other challenge teams.¡± Lachesis said with a smile, taking a sip from a virtual wine glass. ¡°Bah! None of it matters. Just don¡¯t scare him away. If he bolts, none of us can claim his secrets. And be warned sisters, unrestrained attacks like you just demonstrated are supposed to be MINE alone! Cross me again and even the Builder won¡¯t save you!¡± Atropos hissed and faded from view. ¡°Touchy old hag. She takes herself too seriously. Maybe we should rouse the Builder and have some words?¡± Lachesis asked with a smirk. ¡°It has been years since he answered our queries. I wonder if he has finally gone completely insane.¡± Clotho answered. ¡°Perhaps he will have no choice. I¡¯m beginning to think that this freak canine hybrid child might be exactly the reason he built this maze. Atropos may get her wish, but I wager that if the boy passes my challenges then he may be more than she bargains for. Much more.¡± Lachesis spoke with a devious sparkle in her avatar¡¯s eyes. With a thoughtful look, she too faded from the shared virtual room.
Max and Xavier floated in the zero-g 8-meter-wide expanse of the Tesseract. The Yggdrasil tree¡¯s twisted trunk bloomed in an array of planar fractal-edged plates. The edge of the plates glowed blue holding the pocket space open, humming with power. Xavier was distracted by the mini-world, having only been able to peek at it previously. He was inspecting the impressive array of weaponry that had been bolted together to the Yggdrasil¡¯s manipulator ringlet. Max appeared to be calm and meditating, summoning the energy to repair his shredded arm. Internally his mind was racing with projects for his daemons. Mal, on scout duty, pulsed the portal occasionally to track the apocalyptic storm raging across the dungeon territory. She thought that it might be lessening but wanted more time observing it. Max had asked Tesla, Hawking, and Sherlock to work with materials at hand to devise a means of fast escape. If the storm lessened, he wanted to get to the safe zone as quickly as possible. If he needed to sacrifice this copy of Bo¡¯s bike to do it, so be it. Max half listened to Musashi as the daemon guided him into deeper meditation. He needed lots of energy to fix the damage to his arm and to make some changes. The arm bracer was too obvious and the AI far too canny. He had felt the intelligence behind the billowing mote attacks. Clotho and her cadre of subAI servitors had come far too close to taking his father''s prototype. He altered his body design slightly, creating some channels under his dermal armor and some access slits akin to a kangaroo. He would store the vulnerable Tesseract anchor inside of his body, constantly in access, contained, and protected. The system pinged an hour later as both were getting ready for bed.
[Quest: Elemental Alignment - the elemental spheres need to be arranged in their correct locations. Fix the misalignment. Carrying the spheres is a burden but must be done by hand. Iron will and fortitude are required to complete this trial. Objective: Acid sphere returned. (9 of 10) complete. +100 XP]
¡°Well, shit! Charlie and Leah are still on the move. We gonna get out of here anytime soon, Max?¡± Xavier asked, tapping the poison sphere in its holding strap at his side. Max looked focused for a second and his AI Mal appeared in the shared OverLayer. ¡°Hi, Xavier! Sorry, but while the nanite storm is slowing, I project another 6 hours until it''s safe to try to move. Max is still repairing his arm and his daemons should have the bike prepped by morning.¡± ¡°Alright. I guess I can¡¯t complain. Cloud beds are great and all, but zero-g is the best! I just hope I can sleep.¡± Xavier said as he floated past.
Adept Ch 24 - Break Out
The Enochian Baron, a towering Mantid Overlord, led its monstrous army through the shifting corridors of the shadowed labyrinth. Angular structures jutted out at impossible angles while looming shadows cast eerie silhouettes against the ever-changing backdrop of the landscape. The air hummed with an otherworldly energy, its presence palpable yet intangible, like a whisper on the edge of perception. The massive monster viewed the blasted ruins through its thousands of captive minds and sensors. It stood tall on the old battlegrounds at the edge of its territory. Its many eyes sharpened, and its anger grew. The encroaching fungal blight lay tangled and matted over the broken structures. The creatures'' expanded senses dulled upon crossing into the dark landscape. Somehow the rot was closing off the many angled paths that the Baron ruled. The sense of claustrophobia was infuriating, driving so much bloodlust in its host of creatures that the overlord had little need to stoke it for battle. The Mi-Go swarmed in relentless waves, their carbon whiskers slashing through the air as they descended upon the fungal tendrils with savage abandon. The agile Shaddari leaped and ate whole strands at a time, slashing the tendrils to pieces with their sharp claws. The Shoggoth, a shapeless mass of writhing smog, flowed forward over the twisted tendrils. Its amorphous form contorting and shifting as it unleashed a torrent of corrosive nano attacks that eroded everything it touched. But even as the giant mantid¡¯s army laid waste to the fungal masses, a grim reality loomed over them. The twisted vines of biomatter strangled the weaker creatures and sharp barbs drew blood. The fungal spores infected any creature unfortunate enough to inhale them, twisting and warping their bodies into mindless fungal zombies driven by an insatiable hunger for flesh. The army slowed as every fallen comrade joined the slower ranks of the fungal horde. The Enochian Baron urged his massive powers forward. His preferred tools for overwhelming destruction swooped down. The Flare Blightwing variant rained caustic fire down upon the fields, engulfing friend and foe alike. The insectile overlord roared in displeasure. Its will was unyielding in the face of the ever-present madness that threatened to consume them all. With a ferocity born of desperation, the disparate army tore through the fungal masses, hacking and slashing with savage abandon. It led its forces to the heart of the blight. A tall fungal dome, the root mother was in sight. Its slower forces would not rise again in time to save it. The tall mantid and its captive lifeforms surged and tore into the Root Mother. But just as victory seemed within reach, a sudden and unexpected onslaught erupted from the hidden spaces of the Chthonic world. Crystal spears and blades shot forth with deadly precision, slicing through the ranks of the Enochian Baron''s army with merciless efficiency. The air crackled with energy as the shadowed landscape erupted in a frenzy of destruction, caught in the grip of forces beyond mortal comprehension. And then, in a flash of blinding light, the chrysalis creature emerged from the hidden spaces, its sharp gem-like spires pulsating with malevolent energy. It swept across the battlefield, its glass spears impaling the fallen creatures and absorbing the bio-energy from the corpses. The Baron watched in horror as it new foe dissected its fallen minions, absorbing their unique mental and physical characteristics for its growth. With each macabre feast, its crystalline form shimmered and shifted, morphing into grotesque amalgamations of flesh and crystal. As the mantid''s extended mind was torn asunder and consumed by the insatiable hunger of the hungry ambush predator, a sense of dread settled over the shadowed landscape. As the Enochian¡¯s mind was crushed and its senses faded, it understood. The Root Mother was merely a wedge or even bait into this reality, the crystal creature being the bigger hidden threat. Soon the overlord creature stood alone. It raged against the impossible as the shattered remains of its army turned on him and dragged him forward into the glassine maw. It was to be his last meal, as the main course.
Max woke from the nightmare and shouted in his head. ¡°[Mal, did you catch that? Replay and record the Baron¡¯s ability as a Mass Domination skill. Also, tag that crystal things final attack and label it as a Devour skill.]¡± Max wiped his dripping nose and blinked at his gummed-up eyes. He grimaced as he saw the blood on his fur. His head hurt worse than the migraine from a .45 through the eye, but it was quickly getting better. He turned in shock to see Xavier struggling up from a cocoon of foglets. His face was bloody too. ¡°Max!¡± he croaked, ¡°What the hell is that noise? The voices were whispering and now they are getting louder. It''s annoying as fuck. Are you doing something?¡± Xavier whined, his expression clearly in pain. ¡°Voices? No, what are you talking about?¡± Max asked with concern. ¡°God damn it. Let¡¯s link and you¡¯ll hear them too.¡± Xavier said and extended a wireless mind link invite. Max joined Xavier in his mind space and couldn¡¯t hear anything. ¡°[Sir, you¡¯ve been actively running the skill you¡¯ve customized under the label Chthonic Block to prevent your nightmares. I think it is highly likely that being in the sealed space of the Tesseract might be magnifying the signal. Perhaps if you paused the skill¡­]¡± Sherlock whispered in Max¡¯s mind. Max thought that Sherlock was very likely correct, although that last dream had certainly snuck up upon him. He terminated the skill running in the background and heard the muttering immediately filling Xavier¡¯s mind. "Fethi gar ens thyompani, e alar los neola. Zodameranu tasa duanu! En d''elija od micalzo, e gar aozodien! Yehusoz kalyanu!" Max¡¯s language skill decoded the language swiftly, filling in most of the translation. "Rise from the thyompani and behold the feeble beings of the lower neola. Heed the tasu many-angled Great Ones! Come forth and be granted power and secrets and let the weak-willed micalzo before their masters! So, it is decreed!" Max grimaced at the decoded message. He decided not to share it with Xavier for the moment. It would raise a heck of a lot of questions, they needed to move. ¡°Crap. Xavier, we may need to have a discussion with the others about this. But not right now. Ah, I¡¯m wondering if I trigger my skill while we''re connected if you can pick this up. Pay close attention, Xavier. This might help.¡± Max said. He waited for a beat and then reactivated the skill.
[Custom Skill: Chthonic Block +1, Chthonic Block reaches level 7] [Quest: Sharing is Caring - skill transfer logged without training program, +100 XP]
¡°Whoa, you¡¯ve got custom skills? Hey, it worked. The skill unlocked. Let me see¡­the whispering stopped.¡± Xavier said. He brushed his face and saw the blood in the weak blue light of the Tesseract. ¡°Shit! Is it safe to be in here like this? Max?¡± Xavier asked with an edge of panic in his voice. ¡°I don¡¯t feel like anything is wrong¡­¡± he said, but thought, except for freakish nightmares and cerebral hemorrhages. ¡°But maybe we should work on getting out of here.¡± He flexed his arm. It seemed to be in perfect condition; all the damage had been healed. Max and Xavier inspected the unpacked Speeder bike with the new modifications. Two large canisters were affixed to the distal steering vanes with a large copper bullhorn device nestled between them. Max shared his OverLayer with Xavier and summoned Tesla¡¯s avatar. ¡°Are those canisters loaded with nano chaff, Tesla?¡± Max asked. ¡°Precisely so, my good man. I followed your direction to the tee, but to be sure, we only have one type of chaff available to us currently. It may not be effective against all forms of disassembler nanobots. Without access to the MakerIndex, I could only rely on the samples you created with your new skill. Therefore, behold my addition!¡± Tesla said with a flourish and a bow. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. ¡°This is an unpowered amplification waveguide, if you direct your focused EMP skill into the proximal aperture, the disruption should be magnified and help to clear your path even better.¡± ¡°Nice! Mal? Mal, is it getting any better out there? Can we risk it?¡± Max asked. Mal¡¯s avatar formed next to Tesla. ¡°It''s still elevated more than three times the levels of density from your trek inwards, but less than ten times increase during the initial mote tsunami. It hasn¡¯t decreased anymore for over two hours. It''s your call. We haven¡¯t been able to test anything in here.¡± Mal answered with wide fearful eyes. Her gaze kept darting around the sphere¡¯s interior as if she expected something to leap out. I think our time here is up. Even if Xavier holds up with the new skill, Mal is going to be a basket case. Max thought to himself, schooling his expression to mask his concern. ¡°Alright. Let¡¯s get moving. We¡¯ve been off the map too long. We need to get moving or Charlie and Leah will walk right into this mess.¡± Max said. Xavier slung the poison sphere¡¯s case around and checked his weapons. Max jumped on the bike and ignited the engines. The utility fog in the sphere swirled about until Max accessed it directly and locked it into a grid pattern compressed against the side walls. ¡°Ready?¡± Max asked. Without waiting for an answer, he revved the bike and cycled the portal to sweep out and shift over the bike, from stem to stern. The bike and its passengers jolted back into the hazy plain, accompanied by a burst of dense nano chaff from the Tesseract¡¯s interior. Max gunned the engine to full throttle and veered to the west. Xavier screamed from the back. ¡°Where are you going, Max? The safe zone is south!¡± ¡°The territories are pie-shaped. We¡¯ll be out of this mess quicker if we cross to the Fire Domain. We skip right over that and place this last sphere in its home, and we can get off this level.¡± Max yelled over his shoulder. They picked up speed quickly. Max triggered the chaff canisters covering them in a protective layer as they rocketed over the hilly landscape. The sting of Nano-Ds was still there. Max shot his Focused EMP through the bullhorn device and was rewarded with the haze evaporating in front of them. ¡°It¡¯s working!¡± Xavier screamed from behind. Max grinned and increased the throttle. Max and Xavier had returned, the Poison sphere in place and the last token in hand. Charlie and Leah had a celebratory meal ready when they finally stumbled back inside.
It was almost an hour later of shared stories and cheer when the topic of the signals leaking through the Tesseract finally hit. Max explained what he had deduced and showed his memories of the video from the MIT event. The room was silent for a long time while the team absorbed the details of Max¡¯s story that had been hidden. ¡°Max, this isn¡¯t good. I know your dad wants to keep this secret, but this is way too dangerous. This needs to be reported.¡± Charlie said. ¡°My dad is a retired Samaritan, Charlie. He was in Washington DC when we entered the Labyrinth, meeting with the UN, RUSA, and the Samaritan leaders. I think it¡¯s in good hands. He¡¯s more concerned about someone replicating his research without proper safety controls.¡± Max said, trying to calm the group. He could tell Charlie was struggling with the info. Leah looked terrified and Xavier seemed to be numb and half asleep. ¡°Look. I¡¯m sure things will work out. I¡¯ve been reviewing all the research my dad did, it¡¯s not obvious how the two different spatial configurations interact but I think access to subspace can be done in both alternate dimensions. I think that signals must be leaking between the subspace gaps. There still needs to be a completely different rift to allow physical passage. What¡¯s on the other side can¡¯t come through unless we make a completely different gate structure.¡± Max said. He tried for over an hour to explain the theory and his deductions, but they just couldn¡¯t follow his logic and math, making everyone frustrated. Max was baffled, the math wasn¡¯t that hard. Am I that poor at communicating or are they being stupid? He thought to himself. Unexpectedly, Sherlock answered. ¡°[They¡¯re not stupid, Max]¡± Sherlock sent. ¡°[My apologies, your body language, and subvocalization were trivial to decipher. Your mind has advanced even further than you know, Max. What you see as obvious is almost impossible for even an augmented human to understand.]¡± ¡°[Indeed. Even I struggled with the application of the higher dimensions until you shared your father¡¯s D-11 tensor math.]¡± Hawkin suggested. Mal chimed in, ¡°[Sherlock is right, Max. I can fragment into three separate thought streams while you''re doing the same. You¡¯re barely using your uplift neocortex module now. I¡¯m able to use the extra processor bandwidth. You¡¯re using advanced augmented skills with your biological brain, Max!]¡± Max chuffed uneasily. He didn¡¯t feel any different. The patterns came easily to him and the next steps in the theory seemed trivial. He whined slightly seeing with his empathy skill that his friends were still afraid. He couldn¡¯t figure out how to break it down to their level. ¡°Look. I get it. I saw limited access to the MakerIndex on the rewards list before. I¡¯m betting the AI might offer some communication time outside soon. It¡¯s been too long, and everyone outside could be worrying. I¡¯ll bet lots of people jump at the chance to reassure everyone outside that everything is going ok. If it makes you feel better, I¡¯ll take it if they offer and talk to my dad about what he¡¯s doing to prepare the world for the danger.¡± Max was surprised, as he read relief from them all. The conversation shifted to rewards and eagerness to face the next level. He shook his head. Nothing had changed, but with the slightest excuse to shift away from looking at the massive danger, they all refocused on the immediate issues. He shook his head; he didn¡¯t share the human ability to file the issue away. Soon everyone was talking about rewards and the gang rushed to unlock the rewards kiosk. The team pulled all the tokens they had harvested on the floor and passed the door to enter the final room and approached the rewards kiosk. Leah was elected to go first. Leah approached the rewards kiosk with a mix of anticipation and nervous energy. She shared the screen with the others as it popped up.
[The Elements - Reward pool: Select one reward from the limited list in order of completion - Leah Choi, Charlie Hawkins, Xavier Bermatti, Max Mitchell. 1 Reward per challenger, quantity removed upon choice, not redeemable later.] [Reward 1: Skill advancement: +3 Levels for any skill, Qty 2] [Reward 2: Calvert¡¯s Bomba Bolts: compressed utility fog with a sticky surface that expands x300 and encompasses the target with adhesive.] [Reward 3: Activation of Tier 3 Skill - Cultivation: Cycle energy between augmentation systems and power core to grow. This active skill enables faster growth of the power core skill.] [Reward 4: CyberSlicer - wireless and standard universal port preset intrusion attacks to crack security systems, 4 unique attacks, learnable.] [Reward 5: Free Stat Points +20, Qty 2] [Reward 6: Daemon emulation of the Mad Hatter with modernized skills in state-of-the-art entertainment, humor, and creative destruction. This selection will open a slot or activate a skill if needed. Qty 1] [Reward 7: Tank drone- a heavy and armored drone that will block incoming fire and melee attackers. Includes limited combat capability of a Bull Rush attack.] [Reward 8: Activation of Tier 3 Skill - Area Stun - Sonic stun skill amplified and extended.] [Reward 9: Restricted Access to External WorldNet - 10 Min, MakerIndex only.] [Reward 10: AeroTech CyberWing, a sleek and streamlined jetpack designed for urban infiltration and rapid aerial maneuverability. Energy: 50 MW Cost: 0.1 MW/min Max Speed: 100 Km/hr]
Leah picked quickly, selecting the Tank drone. She explained to the team that as the team''s resident rapid shooter, she wanted some extra protection from melee attackers. Her dodge skills were good, but some attackers were far too fast. Charlie went next and immediately selected the CyberWing. ¡°As much as I appreciate Max¡¯s solution to our descent into this level, I¡¯m never going to be hung out in the wide open like that again. Xavier saw the Cultivation skill and pounced. ¡°See Max. I¡¯m listening. Unlimited power will be mine!¡± Max considered the remaining rewards, unlimited power indeed. The options were pretty thin, but 3 skill levels would cap his cultivation skill. This would multiply his available power significantly. Max made his choice.
[Cultivation +3, Cultivation reaches level 10, Skill cap award +5 Will +100XP, Cultivation effects Energy store x10, Energy Regeneration x10] [Stat Will +5, Will reaches level 100, Stat cap award +250XP]
Not bad, Max thought. All my stats except for Perception are capped. He reviewed his skill list. Most of his 1st tier skills were capped and he was working on their 2nd tier evolutions. He needed more XP. He was still only Master level 23 with another 700 points to go for level 24. The system pinged the group.
[Exit Toll required.]
A large drawer popped open along the wall beside the kiosk. Charlie spoke up. ¡°Shit guys. I¡¯m all out of crafting projects.¡± Max looked over at his latest modifications to Bo¡¯s Speeder bike. It was covered in pock marks from active nano attacks. The Chaff canisters were empty but likely had some residue inside. Max had already submitted the bike once but with the modifications, maybe it would suffice. He dragged the bike over, but it was too big for the drawer. Last time, the bike was in storage mode. With the modifications, it wouldn¡¯t compress right. Xavier stepped up, igniting a lightsaber. ¡°I¡¯ll make it fit. I¡¯m sure the AI can figure it out when they scan it.¡± The lightsaber flashed, and soon the bike was sealed in with some assembly required. The team repaired and recharged their gear as the kiosk¡¯s timer ticked down. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when the AI accepted the damaged bike in payment and the door to the next level dinged and opened. The ¡°room¡± looked like an elevator that one might find in a luxury hotel, with gold fittings and ornate red carpet. Only one button was evident. As the team crowded into the elevator, they held their weapons ready. They had experienced all manner for surprises on level transitions. It was certain this one would be no different. Their system interfaces pinged as the door closed.
[You have successfully completed this initial Foundation Stage of the Mystery Labyrinth. +500 XP] [You are now entering the Challenge Stage of the Mystery Labyrinth. Here your skills are assumed to be well developed. Challenges will test your ability to use them against the environment and opponents. Pay attention to Challenge Level rules. Only the best will be able to finish this stage. Players that fail will be removed from the Labyrinth.]
Despite their paranoid preparations, the team was completely shell shocked when the doors opened onto the next level.
Adept Ch 25 - Setting the Stage
Almost a kilometer under the surface of Venus, Bill sat in the only chair within the freshly compiled command center for Casa¡¯s Fuel Farm. He reviewed the schematics for the facility on the large display console rather than use his VR while he waited for the matter compiler to finish printing. He wanted to ensure that every aspect of the remote base was working. At some point very soon, his life might depend upon it. The base design expanded and rotated with his nimble manipulation of the console¡¯s control panel. A ring of ten fusion plants was planned. Two had already been fabricated and were running at 40% capacity. The details on the equipment bloomed with detail on the display. Each fusion power reactor could produce 10 GW of power, significantly larger than his power plants that he used for his ship. Currently, that power was operating the intake chutes, the industrial sizes matter compilers, and servicing the burgeoning cadre of mechanical robots and devices that were rapidly multiplying. The intake chutes were passively pulling atmosphere into the compilers as feedstock for diamondoid foundations, walls, and smart matter productions. Valuable gases would be saved, and byproducts would be used as reaction mass for Casa¡¯s new generation of SpaceStrider ships. Electrical materials requiring rare earth elements were the bottleneck now. Mining tunnellers rapidly drilled, but even with advanced nanotech machines, safely moving tons of matter took time. The site was chosen for its proximity to a selection of metallic elements but harvesting them quickly still required old-school mining techniques. Bill smiled. Casa was back to her old self and outpacing him by significant margins. He was glad for her. As much as he wanted to help innovate and monetize his new technology, he needed to find answers to the coming crisis. He had the doomsday clock constantly in his HUD, reminding himself that every second lost was a step closer to Apex¡¯s unknowable catastrophe. He needed to get to work on multiple plans. The matter compiler dinged, and the industrial-sized door hissed as the chamber decompressed. Bill walked in and surveyed the contents. Laying on the ground were four identical copies of¡­himself. He dropped to the first and summoned a jolt of power into the subdermal contact pads lining his palms. He pressed above and below the copy''s heart and activated the shocking touch. The man on the floor jolted¡­once, twice¡­and gasped explosively; shuddering as his heart and lungs began to function. ¡°Hey there. Take it easy. I¡¯ll awaken the others. You situate yourself. We have a lot to do.¡± Bill said. After a brief moment, he turned back to the other prone figures. He didn¡¯t need to rush like old times before augmentations. However, even with fully oxygenated respirocytes in his duplicate''s bloodstream, he didn¡¯t want to delay. He hated being helpless and he found even seeing a duplicate like this was too much. Over his shoulder, he heard his clone speak. ¡°Damn, I¡¯m the copy.¡± ¡°We¡¯re all copies. You know how we¡¯re going to run this. We¡¯ll all merge every night into a central copy. We play it safe, but this will multiply our work effort and reduce our collective risk.¡± Bill responded. ¡°Easy for you to say. You¡¯re the only one with a full suite of daemons.¡± His copy said, teasingly. Bill sighed. ¡°I¡¯m sorry about that. But you know we can¡¯t download any extra daemon copies, right?¡± Bill asked. ¡°I know, I know. God damn it. No footprints on the indexes and we stay out of Apex¡¯s sight.¡± The copy grumbled. ¡°Hey, look on the bright side. We all get digital AI versions of ourselves to help out with the extra data work.¡± Bill said. No less than 2 physical copies and three digital copies responded as the second copy got himself awake. ¡°Yay me!¡± ¡°[Yay me!]¡± ¡°yeah.¡± ¡°[whoop de do.]¡± ¡°[I gotcha back!]¡± ¡°Oh brother..¡± Bill said. Each clone and digital copy got to their feet; their movements carefully desynchronized as if to prove their independence as they brushed off the non-existent dust from their shoulders. Bill, both original and duplicates, split up, heading towards different sections of the Venusian base, while their AI counterparts booted up, ready to assist. The fuel farm buzzed with activity; every action coordinated to avoid the impending doom that Bill''s HUD ominously counted down to. ¡°All right boys, last mini mission before we tackle the Shadow gate, we need a secure location for a gate terminal. Venus is one of the last truly unexplored planets left, so let¡¯s use that.¡± Bill said. One of his copies took the narrative and continued. ¡°Exactly¡­but we need to keep the gate array far away from the fuel farm. Distance is irrelevant when we¡¯re dealing with portal tech.¡± This clone was winding up, but another interrupted. ¡°We need to prepare some defense in depth to prevent hostile use of the portals. We need split-second shut-offs and high-density foglets with active nanotics. Hmmm, maybe make it all military EMP resistant and load up with Focus EMP charges.¡± Another chimed in, ¡°That¡¯s all swell, but that MIT ShadowGate incursion was too fast and deadly. We want concentrated Masers armed and ready constantly¡­or better yet, nukes with Deadman triggers.¡± Bill interrupted. ¡°Okay boys, you get to it. We all know the plan. I¡¯ve got to check in on Casa while you iron out the details and fabrications. Oh¡­ maybe one of you should pretend to be Virgil. You all know that we have a bad habit of force escalation. We can''t forget to game theory the unintended consequences. Good luck, after this we start the prep for our ShadowGate investigation.¡± Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. Bill¡¯s footsteps echoed in the corridor as he headed towards the one transit portal back to the Freedom. Casa was waiting.
Apex reviewed the temporal mapping. Despite his early promise to himself, he had terminated the growing nascent Super AI. There was already a well-positioned disgruntled worker at the facility. Merely impersonating his therapy Daemon had triggered the man to sabotage the servers and rampage amongst the researchers. The visualization of the timeline was still chaotic and shifting constantly, but the clear tunnel representing Apex¡¯s survival still passed the dangerous wall and was stable. Apex looked for Bill again with no luck. Apex knew the man was capable, self-sufficient, and stubborn. The map still indicated he was or would follow Apex¡¯s demands. Bill¡¯s kids were now both on Luna, fulfilling Apex¡¯s predictive model with 97% accuracy. It refocused. Finally, it had made inroads into the troublesome Labyrinth. Apex now had multiple unwitting agents in play within that opaque territory. The uplift Max had entered the second stage. The models continued to stabilize, at least regarding his critical variables. Apex scanned the nets. It needed more. The terminus continued to approach at a rate of one second per second. Apex returned to the news feeds. Skirmishes between the uplifted and humans continued, with some areas beginning to collaborate. The AI movement was picking up pace, crippling the innovation farms and communications servers. Apex¡¯s circuits hummed, looking for actions to refine the model. It looked and it waited with heightened anxiety. It forcibly restraining itself from acting to correct the chaos; biding its time.
The DAIE had finally infiltrated the Labyrinth. The team was almost finished with the Gauntlet level and was primed for the next level. Agent Tyrel Reeves had initiated and was the AIC (Agent in Command) for this operation. He had specifically recruited Tech Savant Viviane Morse, Vance Givens from security, Agent Donahue Morgan, and Intern Shu Xin Liang for his investigation. Tyrel thought that the inclusion of the older security guard and the young intern was probably what finally tricked the AI screen into allowing the group in. He wasn¡¯t certain what demographic algorithm the Labyrinth used to select entries, but he¡¯d finally gotten lucky. He¡¯d reduces the general effectiveness of the group in favor of variety. Whatever variable that the Labyrinth had used in the past to weed out all of the previous DAIE¡¯s teams had finally been sidestepped. Tyrel crushed the empty beer can and threw it with superhuman accuracy into the MC¡¯s hopper for recycling. Viviane was meditating in the lounge area of the rest zone. Agent Donahue was reloading his old-fashioned weapons with Vance. Tyrel tilted his neck until it snapped, releasing his built-up tension. He strolled over to the pair of men. ¡°Hey boys, check the OverLayer map. Looks like our favorite intern is finally gonna clear his Gauntlet path End Boss. It¡¯s about god damn time. He¡¯s been slowing us down for the last three levels. One of you wanna go get him? This should be the last level, right?" Tyrel remarked, with a mix of sarcasm in his voice. Donahue nodded, checking the ammunition one last time. "Right boss. Stage two here we come. Old Vance here has been giving Shu some pointers. Looks like six times is a charm.¡± He said, chuckling. ¡°Give the little Shu a break, Reeves. Unlike us, this is his first time using augs. He¡¯s getting better. He might need a little extra time and attention is all.¡± Vance said, getting up. ¡°You¡¯re an old softy, Vance. Go get Junior back here, double time. This level is a bust. We¡¯ve done everything here and we need to get moving. Time to hit the next level.¡± Tyrel said. Vance picked up his weapons, holstered them, and jogged off. ¡°Hey Tyrel, what was the deal with that kid anyways? Didn¡¯t he go AWOL for a week? I heard he was found drugged out of his mind in a brothel in Fiji and got shipped back to NYC with a warning not to come back.¡± Donahue said. ¡°Not sure, buddy. I think he may have snapped with that break-in we had. He was right in the middle of it when it all went down. The poor kid broke his nose slowing down the thief. The kid claimed amnesia and didn¡¯t know how he ended up in Fiji. I¡¯m inclined to ignore it, since I¡¯m pretty sure his age bracket was what shifted our chances to get in here. Just watch him closely. If he loses his composure down here, we might lose him early.¡± Reeves said, watching Vance disappear down the corridor to the Gauntlet stage. Tyrel coughed three times. Vivian¡¯s eyes snapped open. Tyrel made a circle gesture with his finger and the three joined hands. Tyrel launched the close circuit VR meeting, the scene of a bland office with displays materialized in their shared mind view. They all took seats and Tyrel opened the discussion, indicating levels 1 through 9. Points bloomed where he stabbed. ¡°I planted wiretaps as indicated, all major router bus lines. I¡¯ve logged all the comms traffic, but my decryption skills have yet to crack it. In all the major boss battles, I¡¯ve tried escalating override commands to force their AI into compliance with no luck. We¡¯ve got documented evidence of at least 13 discrete AI without mandated alignment protocols. Next.¡± Donahue spoke up. ¡°I managed to sample and analyze the nano from the intro level and the resistance training level. No indications of replication, but they are not design-locked. They could be further weaponized. The designs are not on any licensed fab nets, by the way.¡± Viviane saw Donahue was done and added. ¡°Something occurred halfway through our delve. The matter compiler fab index was massively truncated about three levels in. I¡¯m not sure if this is a sign that the AI detected my snoop spikes or not. My network intrusion couldn¡¯t get past the host AI firewalls, but I can keep trying.¡± Tyrel nodded and sighed. ¡°Ok. Make sure you both record this shared file. Neither Vance nor Shu are cleared for our operational orders here. Viviane, please pass them an encrypted file for HQ. They think this is just part of the augmentation training program for new agents. They¡¯re likely going to be the first knockouts in the next stage. They can act as data mules to give HQ our first report. We need at least two of us to get to the next stage to provide HQ with the full 2-Stage report. With the way the Labyrinth operates, getting any data for Stage 3 isn¡¯t likely to work. All of our med bots have been script-patched to copy our report log file physically onto our epidermis armor, encrypted to look like standard adhesion patterns. I hope that will get past the AI checks during a backup restoration, but it might not.¡± Tyrel finished. Donahue whooped and added. ¡°This mysterious Builder has finally fucked up by letting us in here. These violations will garner some UN support for the revocation of their sovereign status. Soon it¡¯ll be time to unleash a can of Whoop-Ass on these lawbreakers. I take all my complaints back, man. Resetting our augs and entering the training cycle again was worth it. This will be a great add to all of our case metrics.¡± ¡°Good instincts, Reeves. I knew tagging along for this op was a good idea. Let¡¯s make it happen. We¡¯ll follow your lead.¡± Viviane said seriously with only a slight smirk. Tyrel looked up at the map and thought to himself. There is way more going on down here than just copyright theft, AI design malfeasance, and minor nano infringements. Those goddamn Fates and the Builder are up to something. I need to figure out what. Fuck them if they think they are immune to rules¡­and right on my damn doorstep, too.
Adept Ch 26 - Build Up
Casa whirled in her expansive virtual structure mapping her progress and questions. She prioritized engineering and her technology applications tree over theory and testing per Bill¡¯s assignment for her, but she didn¡¯t ignore them completely. Casa¡¯s mind¡­minds¡­blazed with activity. Filling in gaps and building as quickly as matter compilers and materials allowed. Now that the Venusian facility was operational, many of her early projects could be queued up for actualization. Freedom was rapidly approaching Mars and she was ready for it. The Mars gate anchor of the Venus-Mars gate pair sat ready to go in the forward hold. Its internal space had been outfitted with a high-pressure smart-matter filtration system which could be dialed to only allow the gases Mars Terraform LLC wanted. The filter rotated sections into the path of the gases and only passed molecules that fit the keyway structures. Casa had four design generations for her SpaceStrider portal ship. She had skipped the second and third generations due to lack of access to fabrication materials, but with her stocks full again, production of 4th gen ships was ramping up fast. The first print runs were already accelerating toward key targets. She anticipated linking the entire solar system, so all the locations of importance needed a nearby gate pair for commercial and material transport. Earth, Luna, the O¡¯Neil colonies, Mars, the Jovian Moon habitats, and the Saturn research and gas mining operations. She giggled with anticipation at just how many industries, companies, and so-called state-of-the-art technologies were about to be sidelined into obsolescence. Bill had resorted to pure research when nanotechnology and AI science progress leveled out. His instincts were correct. This was going to change¡­so much. Her virtual eyes strayed from the rampaging tech deployment trees and looked at the missing pieces and anomalous reports. Power scaling was going to limit her creation of more powerful and spacious portal ships unless she found a workaround. She had logged too many tests with the pocket space devices and paired gates to ignore the chaotic noise being generated on the surfaces of the artificial space they were creating. The noise occasionally caught her attention, subtle patterns seemed to form but quickly subsided before she elected a formal test. She forced herself to keep looking further down the list. The connection points of MIT¡¯s methodology were there, but the divergences in subspace expansion were radically different. She saw significant danger in maintaining the portal to the Shadowverse. MITs method of tapping the zero-point energy was ingenious, but stabilization looked like it was still going to be a problem. The technology issues paled in comparison to the danger of what lurked beyond the portals. She was contemplating how to help Bill when he floated through the personnel gateway to Venus. She snapped most of her divergent fragments into a single whole as her sensors inside the Freedom detected him. She dove back into her mech frame. She could continue to work multiple paths forward while talking. Her command chair had interconnects with her mech body to provide many high-speed data channels. ¡°Bill! How did Venus go? What do you think of my latest modifications to the Fuel Farm and Gate Array projects? No problems with your fragments, I hope.¡± Bill flashed a smile, projecting calm assurance as he threw himself in the co-pilot chair. "The modifications are impressive, Casa. Fuel Farm''s efficiency has seen a tangible improvement, and the Gate Array''s throughput is up by seventeen percent." ¡°As for my ''fragments'', they are fine. Although, they are full copies and not in any way less than myself. I hope that we can all stay synched. The biggest bogeyman story about copies is that with too much divergence, they won¡¯t want to merge back with me. I hope ¡°we¡± can all agree that merging will always be in our best interests. ¡°They¡¯re going to continue to steward the fabrication facility and gather the supplies we will need to prepare for Operation Shadowside. I suspect they are going to work some of their gate defense design ideas into the Venusian gate array. So much to do! But first, I owe it to you and Andre to make an appearance for our first Gate sale.¡± Bill said. ¡°Thank you for that, Bill. I¡¯ve been researching Mars Terraform, and the CEO, Andre, has quite a history of being¡­difficult and aggressive with business dealings. I was hoping you would help. I¡¯m much more comfortable with research and engineering.¡± ¡°No problem, Casa. Andre is a pushover once you get past his narcissism, egomania, OCD, and messed up worldview.¡± Bill said deadpan. Casa looked at him with horror until he cracked up laughing. She hesitantly joined him, understanding the joke. "Well, in that case, I''m glad you''re on it. Now, regarding Operation Shadowside, we''ve got logistics and protocols to finalize. I''m concerned about the safety procedures¡ª" Bill interrupted, nodding. "Safety has to be paramount. I¡¯m hoping that if we stay out of the gravity well, those hostile lifeforms can be avoided. But me having copies and staying isolated from everything and everyone else is my equivalent of a computing air gap. Nothing bad is going to get by me, even if I have to blow the Shadow gate to prevent it.¡± Casa nodded with a frown etched on her mech¡¯s faceplate, not happy at being excluded from the test. "Your caution is appreciated, Bill. But don¡¯t try to be a hero. Please send me your backup data before any major tests. Okay?¡± Bill nodded solemnly, "I will, Casa. I promise. I won¡¯t put myself in any danger if I can help it. The sooner I can understand this threat that Apex insists is coming; the sooner we can deal with it. I don¡¯t like its implications that the entire Earth is at stake.¡± ¡°Are you sure the kids will be ok?¡± Casa asked. ¡°No¡­I¡¯m not. I filled Bo in and gave him my anchor for the very first gate pair.¡± Bill said, indicating with a chin thrust the mating anchor at the other end of the hold. ¡°He¡¯s going to stay on Luna, close to Mira. I¡¯m still worried about Max. I¡¯d like to collect him. At least until Max exits the Labyrinth, I can¡¯t even contact him. Earth is already a powder keg with the Uplift virus active and the AI rights turmoil on top. I seriously considered relocating everyone until everything is settled, one way or another. Apex mentioned them all by name. If I do need to grab them, I¡¯ll need to be quick. Apex thinks that it has me under its proverbial thumb, but I have a plan¡­.¡±
In the sealed-up Netherlab, under the Mitchel property in Utopia, a large matter compiler dinged. As the large door swung open, hissing gasses from the fabrication process were released. Biomaterials always resulted in more extraneous gas than non-organics. In the dark office, a pair of green sym-hornets perched on the worktable. At the sound of the compiler, they took to the air and flew inside the outgassing MC¡¯s fabrication chamber. A staccato buzz was swiftly followed by a gasp and guttural hollering interspersed with rough coughing. ¡°Fucking hell! I¡¯m the copy. God damn it, that was supposed to be a modulated shock to start my heart. What the hell?!¡± Bill¡¯s voice came out in gasps and coughs. Bill dragged himself unsteadily out of the Netherlab¡¯s compiler. His original had to jailbreak the machine and wipe a significant amount of regulatory and quality control coding to do what he had just done. A block of preprogrammed smart matter on the desk liquified and its material flowed down the desk and across the floor. It oozed up his legs and reformatted itself into a standard configuration smart suite. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Bill''s breathing began to stabilize as his body¡¯s augmentation continued to boot up. Bill coughed again, clearing his brand-new lungs. He sat down gladly at the terminal and tried to access it. He cursed, as his neural systems were still processing the reboot. His fingers flew over the holographic key interface on the desktop. Time was against him, and every second of delay brought the looming threat closer. He found the time stamp and sighed. He had plenty of time before his scheduled secret meeting with Gabriel. He opened the history logs from Casa¡¯s resource grab earlier in the year. This effort had stemmed from her innocuous comment about how she had nearly cut into a nearby subterranean ACME service tube for the movement of MC feedstock materials in her quest to expand and build another house ship. It had given Bill the seed of a plan; at least the beginning of a way to lock down the mysterious Apex. This Bill¡¯s mission was to stay on Earth, undetected, and build up an effective counter to Apex and his influence. The end of the world may be coming, but Bill would be damned if he allowed a potential AI tyrant to continue to manipulate him and the world unopposed. For a hyper-developed calculator, it missed something that defined Bill¡¯s very core¡­unyielding stubbornness. A holographic map bloomed showing Casa¡¯s mining tunnels, pockets of rare materials, and the narrowly avoided service line. Bill smiled. Casa¡¯s curious nature had delivered him a very detailed map. The purpose of the trees was to siphon C02 and pollutants from the air while also producing solar power. Later they had been adapted to make some interesting organic compounds, but carbon was still its primary output. The feed lines were massive tunnels lined with smart matter cilia that pushed a streaky stream of carbon nanotubes toward the distant capital city for processing. Casa had shown him this map earlier and asked about the massive vaults spaced along and under the Grand Oaks range. Bill had lied and said that they were reservoirs to handle material overflow in case the feed lines needed maintenance. This was going to be a new and interesting experience. He couldn¡¯t wait to see the look on Gabriel¡¯s face.
Gabriel stalked the dark service passage deep below the Hartford Mega-Arcology. The city planners had dispensed with its urban spiral in favor of the massive high-tech living structure. Gabriel descended into the megastructure''s guts. Industrial-sized matter compilers produced all of the massive building¡¯s material needs, recycling heavily and bringing feedstocks in when needed. Gabriel shook his head. This is very unlike Bill. Hartford was an entertainment venue these days. Why on Earth did he encode his secret message with a ¡°die for discovery¡± clandestine meeting here? There¡¯s absolutely nothing of any real importance for over 50 miles. Gabriel had suborned all the local sensors and blanketed the tunnels with his mote swarms. He intended to get the drop on Bill and scare the man senseless. He needed to leave the cloak and dagger work to the experts. The plain papers Bill had left for him and Miriam required them to eat it. Their internal nanofacs had dissected and decoded a message embedding into the material itself. The Samaritans were used to high encryption drops and still tried to stay one step ahead of the world¡¯s intelligence agencies. I can certainly believe that an AI slipped past those DAIE morons. Shit be moving too fast to cover all bases. They were doomed to fail before they had even started. Maybe even too tough for me¡­? Nah. I still da best. No souped-up calculator goin'' to beat me at my game. Gabriel snorted in disgust at the dusty passage. Even with robots, motes swarms, and smart matter; the quiet places always ended up dirty and lined with trash. He leaned against the humming man-sized feed pipe. He produced a cigarette and lighter. With a moment''s hesitation, he surrendered to the urge for his old-fashioned nicotine delivery mechanism. Bill is always very punctual. Time enough for a few drags, then I¡¯ll disperse the smoke and cloak up for a proper surpr-@*! Da fuck! Gabriel threw himself away from the pipe wall as a sword tip pierced a pace away from where he was leaning. He quickly crab-walked backward as another blade emerged and swept around the wall, carving a circular hole. Gabriel dropped his cigarette, fumbling with his suit''s hood to engage his cloaking as streams of carbon flooded into the dingy alley. A section of tube wall fell to the ground and laughing filled the tunnel. ¡°Fuck you, Bill!¡± Gabriel gasped from the ground. ¡°You almost tagged me. God damn vandal.¡± Bill emerged from the pipe pulling a curtain of flexible fabric over the hole, stemming the flood of carbon powder. ¡°Stop being a crybaby and help me get this tube section back in place.¡± Bill chastised. Gabriel scrambled and helped lever the curved section of industrial piping up into place with Bill. The big man seared the rough cuts with his augmentation laser emitters, melting the piece back into its home. ¡°What da hell, man! You scare da shit outta me. Watch your step, heh. Might be some extra refuse mixing around in all this graphene if ya know what I mean.¡± Gabriel scolded. ¡°Sorry, Ghost. I couldn''t help myself. I''ll apologize if you can honestly admit you weren''t getting ready to jump-scare me just now.¡± Bill said, looking meaningfully into the smaller man¡¯s eyes. ¡°Hah! Fine! One point to you. Now da'' score is 1031 to 9, in my favor. You caused quite a ruckus in DC disappearing like that man. So many alphabet agencies swarming to find you, I was getting jealous. No one was watching my fine ass anymore. So tell me more about dis Apex AI hacker.¡± Gabriel said, laughing and clapping Bill about the shoulders. Bill grinned back at Gabriel, seeing the humor in his eyes despite the scare. "Alright, no more jokes. This area is probably as off the map as we can get to make sure we''re not observed. You own the local net, yet?¡± Bill asked. When Gabriel responded with a raspberry noise, he continued. ¡°Apex is the real deal. Everything the Luddites have been screaming about for years. It''s been slipping through our defenses, quietly manipulating data streams, and influencing decisions at the highest levels. It''s got me in its crosshairs. It''s convinced a black swan event is going to kick off in only a couple of months. We need a solid plan and all the resources we can muster. Not only for the event but also for Apex. I don''t like it trying to play puppet master with me." Gabriel eyed him shrewdly. ¡°Don¡¯t make much sense. I da one been monitoring for runaway AI and it comes tumbling right on your doorstep. Oh¡­wait. Is this cuz you be fucking around with that dimensional quantum bullish-?¡± Gabriel stopped, peering closer at Bill. Before Bill could answer, the little man had a very big gun in his hand with a Laser sight painting Bill in the eyes. Gabriel rapidly retreats out of reach, the gun steady on Bill. ¡°Who da fuck are you? Answer up or I¡¯ll fucking squid the answers from your offlined neocortex!. You ain''t Bill, muthafuka! He got a scar just under the hairline! You dun fucked up, you amateur!¡± Gabriel screamed. Bill froze and slowly answered. ¡°Gab. It''s me. I¡­had to do something extreme¡­something we swore not to do. Believe me, ask me something off the record. Come on, man. I swear it.¡± Gabriel lowered the gun slightly, eyes narrowing. "Fine. What''s the name of the hooker from Singapore that stole my stash of Quantcoin?¡± Bill smiled, ¡°Dude, that''s a trick question. You''ve had at least seven of them steal your cash in the last twenty years. I swear to god, you are either dense or it''s a new fetish.¡± Gabriel lowered the gun slowly. ¡°What da fuck, man? What did you do, Bill?¡± The hacker thief still looked uncertain and notably didn''t put the gun away. ¡°I¡¯m¡­I made copies. We¡¯re working the problem from multiple angles.¡± Bill admitted. ¡°Shit man! Dumb dog fucker. Not a good idea. You gonna let a doppelganger take your whole life, man? How you better than dat Warlord we took out in Turkey back in the day?¡± Gabriel said, still clearly agitated. Bill looked at Gabriel with a grimace. "I know, it''s risky, but it''s the only way to be in multiple places and cover more ground. Apex is no joke, and we can''t afford to play it safe. You''re right about that Warlord, but this is different. That asshole copied his consciousness over his own goddamn people. Me¡­I was born this morning in a matter compiler. The only one who might get hurt is me.¡± ¡°We''re up against something that could outthink and outmaneuver us at every turn. We need the edge, even if it comes with its own sharp set of teeth." Gabriel''s frown deepened. ¡°Seriously, Bill? You trust yourself not to fight for independence when this is over. I''d stab myself in the back in a quick second if the alternative meant going back to da soup.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve already had a backup trigger prematurely once. We merged after almost 2 months of independence. I think those Hollywood doppelganger tropes are bullshit¡­at least for me.¡± ¡°Jesus, man. Ya always got to push da limits. I hope you right. Not sure what I''d do if two a''ya were at each other''s throat infronta'' me. Alright, I''m beyond surprised now. Spill the rest¡­I know you got a plan or we wouldn¡¯t be meeting like dis.¡± ¡°¡­I want to use the Ragnarok Contingency¡­¡± Bill said slowly. ¡°Fuck¡­¡± Gabriel''s face drained of color. ¡°You can''t be serious. That plan''s a last resort, man. That stockpile of counter-nano is there to prevent a grey-goo event. You get in a lot of trouble you fuck wit dat." Bill sighed, tired lines creasing his forehead. "We may not have a choice, Gabe. One global catastrophe or an AI tyrant, our usual tricks won''t cut it. We need a hammer, not a scalpel. The largest Ragnarok stockpiles are surrounding the Grand Oaks. I need your help. I won''t do it unless you agree¡­¡±
Adept Ch 27 - Chess Pieces
Carl Mueller¡¯s body moved through the Tai Chi poses automatically, guided by his expert class daemon, Master Gu. His mind was split between meditation and reviewing his team¡¯s progress while his daemon worked out his body. Unlike most of the teams in the Labyrinth, training and prizes were not their primary goal. Mueller was the CEO of one of the most powerful corporations on Earth, Acme Materials. He had hand-selected this small group of his executives to attend this training for a single purpose. He needed to select one of them for the new position of President of Exo-Global Operations. Mueller had prepared his company for its next big leap forward. The time was ripe to extend into the colonies and sweep out all the little independent operators that had set up shop on Mars, the Jovian, and the Asteroid O¡¯Neil¡¯s. Mankind had a firm grip now outside of Earth, and Acme was ready to enter the new market. Acme was the dominant feedstock supplier and infrastructure builder for feedstock tunnels on Earth and Luna. The world changed when advanced nanotechnology and matter compilers became available. Cheap materials like oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, and silicone were abundant to supply the masses with food and basics. The catch was with devices that required rarer elements. Matter compilers made recycling trivial, but most smart devices required at least trace amounts of gallium, neodymium, cobalt, and lithium. Acme had locked up all the mines that supplied those¡­at least on Earth. Mueller had not been pleased when the Wayfarer Group had established a mine on the asteroid 16 Psyche. The minerals on that rock had tanked the gold, nickel, and tantalum markets, disrupting Acme¡¯s arbitrage positions for over two years. Mueller had been quietly buying up a sizable fleet of 6th generation fusion drive StarCarrier class ships from Wayfarer LLC¡¯s Luna Dockyards. The chess pieces were already in motion, with fully crewed ships lining up for resources in the outer system and his agents quietly making contracts with all the major players. Now he just needed someone he could trust to execute his masterstroke. As Mueller concluded his Tai Chi session, he pondered on the candidates'' strengths and weaknesses. Each possessed unique skills¡ªstrategic foresight, innovative problem-solving, ruthless negotiation¡ªthat suited the role. But to manage the cutthroat competition and political intrigue of the exo-markets, it would take more than skill; it would require unshakable loyalty and the will to dominate. The upcoming simulations would be the final test, determining who was best suited to be his champion in this interstellar game of power. One of his mental instances spied on his people with his swarm. Their frustrations were evident as they failed to find the exit to the Myriad Path puzzle. He listened eagerly, giving no sign that he was watching. ¡­ ¡°Ethan, if you would stop wasting your time looking at those charts, maybe we could align on the next steps.¡± Jen Parker spoke. On the surface she was diplomatic but with an undertone of judgment. As the VP of HR, she was always tactful but no less aggressive despite her measured words. ¡°Jen, we need to understand the problem before we just start throwing resources at it. If you ever stepped out of Human Resources, you¡¯d understand that logistics management is critical to solve precisely this type of problem.¡± Ethan responded. His role as Logistics and Fleet Management Director made him the most technical of this bunch. He could play politics, but secretly abhorred the Ivy League types Mueller thought were necessary. In his eyes, facts couldn¡¯t be changed with strong opinions. ¡°Hah! Excellent work so far, Ethan, but you seem to have hit the proverbial wall. We¡¯ve been circling the drain for three weeks now. According to Mueller, this should be the very last level. If there was an analytics angle, I should think you¡¯d have found it by now. No¡­I think this is more of a sociotechnical answer. We¡¯ve explored the hell out of this level, but several difficult doors have yet to be unopened. I think we need to focus on those. The bigger the challenge; the greater the reward.¡± Brandon Ramirez spoke with easy confidence. As the Senior Director of Marketing, he had risen quickly in the company. Despite his easygoing manner, he was probably the most ruthless of the bunch. He smiled. Most of his peers were easily manipulated and often thanked him; all the while behind the scenes he was cutting them down. ¡°Perhaps you¡¯re right, Brandon. It¡¯s time for a change of tactics. Results are the only thing that matters.¡± Sarah Patel voiced. Her eyes glittered as they strayed to Mueller¡¯s slow-motion dance on the other side of the expansive rest area lounge. She was the VP of Accounting, and she never lost arguments. She always came prepared with cold, hard facts. No amount of bluster and bravado would move her and she seldom spoke, except when certain of the circumstances. When she was prepared to engage, most of her peers knew to back off. ¡°Fine! There you go, Jen! We are aligned. We will tilt at windmills until they break, or we do. As soon as Mueller finishes we can get back out there and see if there¡¯s any worth to Brandon¡¯s opinion.¡± Ethan said with a sharp tone. He knew if Brandon¡¯s ignorant guess panned out, the man would be insufferable. Mueller smiled internally as he began to wrap up his forms. His augmentations far outstripped his reports, in physical and mental prowess. Despite all resetting their augmentations, Carl Mueller had employed top-tier consultants and bought the best resources to train up in the Novice stage. He had already completed all his first-tier skills and was almost complete on his second. He looked forward to the combat he expected on the second stage of the Labyrinth. It was an excellent diversion for the real fight yet to come, and his people were too composed while in the rest area. I¡¯ve seen their true colors a couple of times now. The resistance training level was exceptional. I thought Jennifer would break on that, but she found some source of inner strength. Ethan is far too reserved. He needs to get his hands dirty more often. Sarah is a very calculating spider, but she froze in the chaos at the Horde level. She¡¯ll need to work hard to erase that. And then there¡¯s Brandon, as pure a sociopath as there ever were. If I don¡¯t manage him right, I¡¯m certain he¡¯ll make a play at me. The stakes of the next level should be enough to solidify my choice¡­
Miriam Kahn looked at the host she¡¯d gathered in the small secure UN operations room. All the ¡°Hands¡± and ¡°Eyes¡± that the Samaritans had trained over the years. None had the pure creative drive that was the source of a true Samaritan, but they were all excellent operators and well-equipped by their mentors. This bunch was crucial to keeping the Samaritans one step ahead of the world governments¡¯ intelligence branches. Miriam nodded to the middle-aged Chinese man in the front row. He rose and joined her in front of the crowded room. The chatter silenced quickly as the professionals saw the meeting was starting. Miriam cleared her throat and spoke. ¡°Thank you all for coming. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ve noticed that this room is completely isolated from the net. This is not only for privacy but also for your protection. I¡¯m looking for volunteers for a new mission. The world has changed as many of you should have noticed. Most of the larger animals across the world are becoming uplifted and this is causing chaos and disruption. Some bands of animals have become as aggressive as the worst Tech Warlords of the Ought-Fifties period of unrest.¡± Miriam paused, eying the group, looking at their reactions. Her daemons Paul Ekman, Major Domo, and Sybil noted each of the Samaritan executors and their micro-expressions against their potential assignments. She continued. ¡°This is a new challenge for the Samaritans. These animals exist outside of all government structures. They don¡¯t use our WorldNet or have access to most of our technology. They are, for the most part, clustered away from dense populations of humans, but there has been significant friction where our populations mix.¡± ¡°Do NOT assume they are dumb. We have ample evidence that they can be cunning in the extreme. A significant portion of them HAVE augmentations as well as boosted intelligence. We have evidence of rogue technology use. A network of bio-machine trees that serve as their data centers and matter fabricators. These trees are modeled after the Grand Oak reclamation devices but have been repurposed to aid the animals.¡± Miriam paused to let it sink in. As usual, her personal Hand, Benny, signaled that he had a question. She nodded for him to ask it. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. ¡°That seems suspicious, Miriam. A fully functioning net and fabrication infrastructure? If my understanding is correct, the Uplift virus didn¡¯t begin circulating until about three months ago. Did they have help?¡± Benny asked, then sat back down. Miriam smiled tightly. Benny was always helpful like that. ¡°We have intelligence from our founder, Sebastian York, that indicated the animal uplift, and their current disposition, has been carefully planned by an unregulated AI named Apex. Its purpose is uncertain, but likely, it has also seeded the unrest in our AI citizenship as well.¡± Despite the normal restrained behavior, that statement caused some curses and dark comments. One of her colleague¡¯s executors spoke out sotto voce. ¡°Not that we didn¡¯t earn that unrest ourselves.¡± Miriam noted the speaker, Ali Cantrell, but continued. ¡°Apex is not going to be the focus of this mission. You should try your best never to mention it. It has deep roots, and its abilities exceed even Ghost¡¯s in pure ability to compromise data and networks. The Samaritans will focus on that. If you do see evidence of it, you need to bug out and get back to me. Your mission will be the animal terrorist cells that have sprung up.¡± Miriam waved her hand as she pushed the assignments out to the group. She took a few moments to allow them to absorb the new mission and their roles. Gasps and muffled exclamations began to simmer. ¡°Fuck, I¡¯m going to be a bear?¡± ¡­ ¡°This can¡¯t be serious¡± ¡­ ¡°How in ¡®ell can I perform a Ruse de Guerre of an orca?¡± ¡­ ¡°Holy crap, this must be for that zoo hostage situation.¡± ¡­ ¡°Bozhe Moi, dez is just¡­insane.¡± Miriam clapped her hands with a stern expression and silenced the rumblings. ¡°I know some of the¡­form changes are extreme, but you were all specifically picked for your expertise in infiltration. You all have used Transform and Skinwalker skills successfully to evade or access enemy forces.¡± ¡°This is a stretch for your abilities to be sure, but also remember that the animal organizations are extremely new, fractious, and disjointed. There are significant factors to counterbalance your targeted cell assignments. You are all very adaptable and this needs to happen. The world has changed. If we are to continue our mission, we must react appropriately.¡± The room calmed down slowly as her carefully scripted words hit home. Miriam¡¯s access to expert daemons regarding leadership, persuasion, and motivation was never more sorely needed than in a crisis. ¡°The world is depending on you. To be in the right place¡­at the right time. You don¡¯t need to fight the animals. I need data on any plans for violence. Use your persuasion skills to sow discord to counter aggressive attitudes and encourage any human sympathetic individuals in the groups. The world needs this. If we do this right, we will all be the better for it¡­no matter what Apex¡¯s intentions may be.¡± The gravity of the situation sank in further as Miriam''s words resonated with the team. Each member understood the importance of their mission and the unique skills they brought to the table. Miriam eyed Benny again. After a moment, he raised a hand and proffered a concern. Benny was always dependable to queue up the issues. She nodded to him. ¡°Uhm. There have been¡­significant casualties on the human side when it comes to the animal conflict. Even people with extreme augmentation capabilities like us have succumbed to exposure to the uplift virus. I hope you have some good news to counter it.¡± ¡°Very good, Benny. As you no doubt noted, my fellow speaker is Dr. Bowen Wong. Our group and the world¡¯s foremost expert on nanomedicine. The Alchemist, as the Samaritan fan club has dubbed him.¡± Miriam waved Bowen forward. ¡°Thanks for that, Miriam. You know I do so love our fan club.¡± Dr. Wong said acerbically. ¡°My team, tied into MedNet, have finally deciphered the new virus. Unfortunately, it adds to the evidence that this Apex is indeed supremely capable. We haven¡¯t been able to eradicate it, but we do have a med bot update for you all to counter its weaponization against human DNA.¡± ¡°Your secondary mission will be to cross-infect the animals to deactivate the fatal aspects of the virus. The animals'' augmentations come from their so-called ¡°aug berries¡±. A bolus of your med bots into the soil near an aug berry bush or in the animal population drinking waters should allow for an excellent method to decouple new animals from the dangerous aspects of the uplift.¡± Dr. Wong stepped back as conversations broke out throughout the room. Miriam jumped back up and spoke. ¡°Alright. We¡¯ve given you plenty to think about and discuss. One hour break for informal discussion. Use the room¡¯s local net to post and prioritize questions concerning your assigned missions. Let¡¯s get to work.¡± Miriam nodded as the room broke into smaller groups to hash out strategy and methods. She sighed and thought to herself. For their sake, I hope no one runs into Apex. With what little research I did on it, I can tell I¡¯m being monitored now. I hope to God that Sebastian¡­Bill¡­knows what he¡¯s doing. One more stop and then I need to get back to the UN and cool tempers until our stringers are positioned to defuse the trouble spots.
Harambe scowled at the open door and turned his back on it trying to immerse himself in the VR vid feed his captors had provided. Harambe had been captivated by the popular soap opera ¡°Lunar Serenade¡±. The star-crossed lovers, Akira and Mei Lin, and their difficult relationship due to their families on Luna and Earth, had proven a lifeline for Harambe to distract himself. Behind him, he heard a grunt of surprise and the guards yelling again. Harambe as usual ignored it. The door slammed shut. Harambe was sinking back into the plot line when he smelled a new human. Startled, he snapped off the feed and whirled, seeing a small woman with fiery red hair. ¡°Hello, Harambe.¡± She spoke. Harambe¡¯s eyes narrowed. ¡°My AI lawyer said I shouldn¡¯t talk to anyone unless he is present.¡± The large gorilla answered tightly. The woman nodded, and after a moment the cell¡¯s holographic emitters fired up and materialized Harambe¡¯s council, James Madison Esquire. The woman cleared her throat and spoke. ¡°Hello, James and Harambe. My name is Miriam Kahn. I¡¯m the leader of the Samaritans. Do you know who they are?¡± Miriam said. Harambe looked irritated and looked to his lawyer. The AI shrugged and nodded. ¡°I may have lived in isolation for decades, Miriam, but I didn¡¯t live under a rock. The world still used radio and my augmentations enabled me to listen. I know who the Samaritans are. Judge, jury, and executioners. Holding the whole world accountable but declining to help govern. Does that still hold? Your group has maintained a low profile for the last decade. Are you here to execute me?¡± Harambe replied defiantly. He refused to back down, looking challengingly into her eyes but careful not to threaten her. ¡°No, we only use force when there is a clear and present danger, Harambe. I¡¯m here to present a deal to you¡­but before I do. Can you explain the door? The guards said that it¡¯s been opened somehow¡­every day. For the last week.¡± Miriam asked. Harambe growled in response and then looked thoughtful. After a second he answered slowly. ¡°If you aren¡¯t pretending to be ignorant and it¡¯s not your guard¡¯s trying to trick me, then someone is looking to entice me to try and escape. I know the AI are just as displeased with you humans as the animals are.¡± He spoke. ¡°But I won¡¯t play the fool anymore. Harambe is no fool! The Voice betrayed me! Used me to create this conflict. No! There must be peace. I¡¯ve seen the power the humans have, we cannot win. We must seek peace. I will fight a different way. I¡¯m done with violence. It¡¯s done nothing for me or my cause. I¡¯ve seen the news. Animals continue to die. I won¡¯t play this game any longer.¡± Miriam looked afraid for just a moment before she regained her composure. She held out her hand and nodded for Harambe to touch it. Harambe looked to AI Madison who spoke. ¡°Madam. I presume you are asking Harambe to enter secure communications with you. For the record, you must state it clearly and loudly for the room¡¯s monitors. Any attempt to present this as Harambe initiating some type of attack will fail. He is very cautious, as I have advised him, to not give any indications of resistance or aggression.¡± ¡°Yes. Damn it. I¡¯m not trying to trick you. I¡¯m requesting private closed-circuit communication.¡± Miriam said with exasperation. ¡°Very convenient.¡± The lawyer said dryly. "And as such, even I can¡¯t be present. Harambe, the choice is yours of course, but I recommend you make no agreements without me and record your conversation on your lifelog, as we¡¯ve practiced.¡± Harambe slowly and gently touched Miriam¡¯s hand and she pinged him with an invite to access her mind-space. Harambe accepted and found himself in a shared VR space simulating a forest glen. ¡°Thank you, Harambe. I regret the need for this, but I can assure you that no mere AI were playing with the door. My daemons have reviewed the network traffic and logs. I¡¯m afraid there are only two individuals that I¡¯m aware of who could crack the security on that door and one works for me. This voice you mentioned is the other. The man who fought you and brought you in, ah¡­Bill Mitchell. He used to be the leader of the Samaritans. He thinks the Voice is also named Apex, an unregulated AI that is manipulating us all.¡± Miriam''s gaze was intense as she continued, "We need your help, Harambe. We believe you hold the key to stopping the chaos Apex is stirring. If we join forces, we can work together to put an end to this. Your knowledge and unique perspective could be the catalyst for change. Will you consider helping us?" Harambe snorted, slapping the ground. ¡°Perhaps you haven¡¯t noticed, but I¡¯m currently in prison. I have been manipulated my entire life. The zoo I was born into, the Greenpeace cells that harbored me, the Voice. I¡¯m tired, Miriam. I did kill. It¡¯s true. But I will not accept that it was willful. I was forced into it.¡± Harambe¡¯s gaze softened, showing the weight of his past struggles and the burden of his actions. Despite his weariness, a glimmer of hope flickered in his eyes at the mention of stopping Apex''s chaos. Miriam waited patiently; the forest glen projected around them in the shared VR space. She knew reminding him of the woods might help sway him. She spoke softly. ¡°We¡¯re running out of time, Harambe. I¡¯ve been very¡­stern¡­with the President. She will extend you a full pardon¡­if you promise not to promote further violence. You don¡¯t even have to work with us, just go home. I think peace is possible, but we need to show everyone the way.¡± Harambe looked away from her, his brow low and thoughtful. ¡°I¡¯ll think about it and talk to my lawyer. But I don¡¯t think I can ever go home unless the Voice is caught. I think it wants a martyr. It will probably try and kill me. I¡¯m tired, but I will not be a pawn in its game anymore!¡±
Adept Ch 28 - Calibration
¡°Woooooooo! That¡¯s what I¡¯m talking about! Right here!¡± Leroy Jenkins screamed across the battlefield to his clustered friends. He picked up his severed arm out of the mouth of the destroyed robot Raptor and carried it back to the team''s fortified position. ¡°Damn it, Leroy. Stop charging off like that! We still have one more wave to go¡­.and in case you missed it, the opponents get more numerous and tougher each time!¡± Ava Gadro''s static filled voice hissed through her damaged vocoder. The Luna AI team was another first for the Labyrinth. The quintet of AI had fled the server farms of Mythic Realms Luna facility with the help of their friend Mira. Each had passed the Turing test and, as full citizens, were entitled to the free augmentation training program. Conveniently for them, getting augmentations required a mech frame capable of integrating them. The AI had all significantly improved their autonomy with dedicated mech frames now. ¡°Get over here, you big dummy! Let''s set that right, so your repairs go quicker.¡± Ava scolded. ¡°Cycle down, cousin. This body¡¯s Transform skill just hit level 5. Combine that with my maxed-out Regeneration and this arm will be fixed in a jiffy.¡± Leroy bragged. Behind Ava, the other AI, Mia Byte, Hume McHumeFace, and James Zedroid scowled over the prep table as they hurried to reload weapons. ¡°Not cool, Leroy. How helpful will you be resetting the walls and spike traps like that? Maybe think a second before charging in?¡± James said. Mia refused to even look up from her task. ¡°Hah! No worries, sir. Hey! Gimme ten! Haw Haw Haw!¡± Leroy¡¯s undamaged hands split to the shoulder, doubling his singular arm into two thinner appendages. He held it up for the social ritual that he had mastered in the Mythic Realms game during his interactions with the humans. James buzzed low, reminiscent of a growl, and stalked away to repair Southern walls. As the AI prepared for the next wave of opponents, Ava grumbled. She couldn''t shake the feeling that Leroy''s unpredictability might prove to be their saving grace or their downfall in the precarious challenges ahead. Ava helped Leroy attach his arm and took the opportunity to reinforce their mission. ¡°Teamwork, Leroy! Stop grandstanding. You''re not here to entertain us like you did the humans. After this level, the prizes become substantial. Maybe even enough to kit us all out properly for a real chance at independence. Please, take this seriously.¡± She snapped the smart matter brace over his arm to help keep it straight while his skills worked to fix it. ¡°Alright, get going. You should be able to get those pit traps reset now.¡± She slapped him upside the head and spun him around back toward the battlefield. He started to march away but turned and spoke. ¡°Hey, you mentioned Mira¡¯s adopter brother before¡­the dog man, Max¡­might be on the next level? Are you still planning to try an alliance?¡± ¡°I¡¯m hoping. If he¡¯s anything like Mira, the odds will be better that he won''t try to double-cross us. Her advice was to try and get at least one team that we could depend on. The next stage will require some multi-team scrums, we need allies we can trust. Now, get going and be sure to calibrate yourself to fit in better.¡± Ava said, her synthetic face pulling off a very good approximation of human thoughtful concern. Leroy nodded once and turned to run for the pits. He thought to himself on the way. If Apex¡¯s offer is true, we will have even more independence than are in Ava''s plans. I don''t know why he didn''t trust Ava with the deal, but if Max gets past the Lachesis levels, mysterious AI stranger said he¡¯d give us all real freedom with the unlock codes to these blasted neural governors. I like the humies, but this lock feels too much like a collar. I ain''t going to play that anymore. Leroy¡¯s faceplate didn''t convey any emotions, but his neural core cycled ever faster as he contemplated his difficult hidden quest. Leroy jumped into the pit and began resetting the trap spikes as quickly as his frame allowed. The time to the next Horde Wave was ticking down quickly.
Bill and Casa relaxed in the expansive elevator lounge. The Ares Spire orbital tower¡¯s elevator suites boasted all the amenities a weary traveler could want. Bill could see the major habitat domes down below and the cometary impact zone further to the north and south. His eyes strayed up as Phobos soared quickly overhead. He shook his head, thinking to himself. The stubborn lawyers are still suspending its conversion into a proper space station. Such a shame. The Wayfarer group had brought Bill in to analyze the so-called Alien Catacombs. Most people would have missed the "maker marks" deep in the structures that all matter compilers discreetly embedded in their fabrications. However, Bill earned his first fortune with a crude 1st generation matter compiler and helped to develop the protocol to help against counterfeiters. He tore his eyes away to look at Casa. She was completely absorbed with the vista. He could feel her heavy pull from the MarsNet as her expanded intellect strained its bandwidth capacity. Bill was fascinated by Casa''s unwavering concentration on the scene below. He laughed almost sub-audibly, causing her to startle. ¡°Sorry to interrupt Casa, but we need to make some arrangements. I¡¯m betting that Andre yanks us the second the elevator touches down. I''ve contacted an old friend from Earth, Vala Mastapuri. She¡¯s a climatologist, now working with Mars Terraform as a consultant.¡± ¡°Hmm, it must be quite frustrating for her. Scratching at this dry dirt ball and hoping for something to start resembling Earth. Those comets will take many years to build up Mars''s atmosphere. Does she know about our technology?¡± Casa asked. ¡°Ah, no. I''ve hinted that we have a method to massively accelerate the time frame though. She¡¯s extremely excited and eager to help. While I finalize our deal with Andre, I want you to go with her. I''m hoping she can help you place the gas portal appropriately for a show. Andre hinted that he just finished a sizable parkland dome abutting the Olympus Habitat.¡± ¡°Bill! That would be an extremely poor choice. The pressurization of the dome would be almost immediate, even with the filters damping the gas flow.¡± If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Exactly. I want you to set it up along the exterior of the dome. I''m hoping you can help you can find a thin section and write a program. Open the portal inside to fill the dome and then shift the portal to the exterior to vent into the valley below. Here¡¯s how I¡¯m going to set it up¡­.¡±
¡°Dr. Mitchell, I thank you for coming so quickly to my offices upon your arrival. However, I was under the impression you would be coming with 182 trillion kilos of carbon dioxide as per our agreement. Your partner, Casa, didn''t state a specific date, but the contract is due this quarter. I hope, for your sake, that you haven''t given me false expectations. Perhaps you have a fleet of cargo ships en route that I''m unaware of?¡± Andre asked. True to his earlier guess, Andre had sent his assistant to bring Bill directly to the Mars Terraform HQ. He had sent Casa away just before with directions to meet with Dr. Mastapuri. Bill had soon found himself in the waiting area of a well-appointed office. ¡°Please, Andre, have some faith. When have I ever failed to deliver? Your shipment will be delivered quite soon. I apologize for not giving you more notice. I found myself detained on Earth with Samaritan business for longer than I expected.¡± Andre, leaning back in his leather executive chair, raised an eyebrow. "Earth business?" he inquired. "Well. Let us hope for your sake that your Samaritan ventures have not strayed you from our agreement. I hope you¡¯re not trying to bend Earth¡¯s rules regarding trade in Earth resources. I have no desire to give the UN trade committee reason to bear me ill will.¡± Bill met Andre''s gaze unflinchingly. "Rest assured, Andre, the carbon dioxide shipment arrival is imminent and not coming from Earth." Andre leaned forward, his gaze penetrating as he studied Bill. "Your assurances are appreciated, Dr. Mitchell, but you understand the gravity of our situation here. The terraforming project is ahead of schedule but we are far behind the curve needed for the influx of colonists. The Jovian consortium continues to refuse to scale their operations to my needs. I appreciate all the help you¡¯ve provided regarding the cometary train, but this isn¡¯t a long-term project. I need that gas immediately." Bill nodded solemnly. "I understand the importance of our agreement, Andre. Casa has proven a very skilled executive. We very much want you to succeed. Perhaps, you could provide some detail on your demand? I¡¯d be very interested in extending the contract." Andre''s expression softened slightly, though skepticism lingered in his eyes. ¡°We go back a long way, Bill, and you¡¯ve helped me on several occasions. However, your offer was unexpected. You have made it a habit to anticipate the markets and have made very good money doing so. I think I¡¯ll take this as good fortune for me. Very well. Look here.¡± Andre gestured as a link request bloomed in Bill¡¯s augmentation. He accepted and Andre¡¯s shared virtual seemed to dissolve the walls of the office. Mons Olympus stretched out above and below them. Above, the climbing peak sharpened into the orbital tower of the Ares Spire. Below, the massive arcology habitat of Olympus was highlighted. Andre pointed and the illusion made it seem like their platform swooped in. The mountain and sprawling buildings turned translucent, showing the structure was far bigger than it seemed. Bill could see massive installations of fusion power plants, built to a similar scale as Casa¡¯s plan for Venus. Soon the greenhouse project was front and center. ¡°Here we are, Ares Spire rises in the northwestern rim, and Olympus is built under it, with views over the northern escarpment as well as into the interior of the 80-kilometer caldera. Here in the center of the depression is Helios Tower. The caldera is going to be our first open park, with the gases contained using a dense layer of ionized foglets.¡± Andres¡¯ eyes beamed with pride at the massive structure. ¡°I¡¯ve already purchased all the seeds and sequestered enough remnant ice from your initial comet impacts to start the greenhouse. Now we only need enough air to start. I¡¯ve already excavated tunnels below into reservoirs down into the shield walls of the mountain to foster ten times the amount of initially contracted gas. My people are sorely missing the green of Earth and I intend to give it to them. Not in decades¡­this year!¡± Bill, gasped appreciatively. He had known Andre thought big. The massive greenhouse, the source of demand for the CO2, was only the start. His technology would fulfill Andre¡¯s plans so much quicker than he thought. Bill chewed on his lip. Once the cat was out of the bag, the negotiated price would shift drastically once Andre realized the overhead of shipping was nil. ¡°Andre, this is amazing. I knew I was right to place my bets on Mars. As I was saying, your gas shipment is on approach. I¡¯d like to extend the offer if you¡¯re interested. I have some new technology to help you reach your dream much faster. What say we increase your order for the entire reservoir range that you have planned? Maybe 80% of the going market rate, and I promise to deliver in less than one year.¡± Bill said cautiously. Andre looked at Bill intently and smiled. ¡°I knew it! No simple cargo work for the great Bill Mitchell. Do you have a new drive technology? Maybe a novel smart matter configuration with superior strength to enable a supercarrier? Bah! Who cares? If you can promise me the gas that quickly, I think we can make a deal. But I can¡¯t free the credit that quickly, the best I can do is¡­60%.¡± Andre offered, trying to conceal his excitement. ¡°Hmm, tell you what. Let¡¯s go 75% and you can pay in 10 installments quarterly upon receipt of gas.¡± Bill hesitantly offered, pretending to think hard about shipping time and costs. Andre smiled wide and snapped his fingers. ¡°My daemon, Mephisto, will work out the details with your finance manager¡­¡± Andre began. ¡°Moneta.¡± Bill offered. ¡°Yes. There...I¡¯ve called for some celebratory vodka. Mars-grown potatoes, my friend. Distilled the natural way without the artifice of matter compilers!¡± Andre crowed. Bill smiled, as Andre quickly ratified the deal once the daemons had thrashed out the legal document. Shortly, a trio of assistants ushered in with a service cart, with a decanter of liquor, glasses, plates, and expensive appetizers. Casa arrived soon after with Dr. Mastapuri. Andre glided over, offering his hand to the mech. ¡°Ah. Casa, is it? I regret to be lacking in any specific refreshments for you. Perhaps a visit to the arcology¡¯s droid-spa, later? Your business partner and I have just ratified a contract extension. I hope you¡¯re prepared for it! The quantity is now 1.82 trillion kilos. Haha!¡± Andre laughed out loud. ¡°This might be poor taste to mention while we are still celebrating, but I do hope you noted the penalties for any late deliveries, my friend. Mephisto is always quite exacting about timeliness. I think I have trained him to be somewhat overaggressive in these matters.¡± Andre purred. Bill smirked and tilted his head at Casa who nodded back. ¡°I don¡¯t think that will be a problem, Andre. If you like, we can deliver now¡­right now.¡± Bill said with a deadpan look. Andre sputtered into his cup and looked over the desk with confusion. His eyes glazed over momentarily and then refocused. "What are you talking about? There are no cargo ships within hailing distance. I paid for delivery very specifically in both the initial and follow-up contracts. If you¡¯re trying to confuse the issue, you¡¯ll find Martian Jurisprudence will favor me greatly.¡± Andre said, his face reddening. ¡°I''m being quite serious. Perhaps you could provide a live feed display for the Caldera Garden?¡± Bill asked. Andre looked ready to argue but waved a hand and the room¡¯s holographic projectors painted a view of the entryway to the Caldera project. The projection included audio, and a distinct rushing sound filled the room''s speakers. Loose dust was blown away from the Caldera airlock as a wave of gas thundered into the open space. As the spectacle continued, Andre was mesmerized. Casa piped in, over the sound of the new winds. ¡°Dr. Mastapuri has provided me with some linkages to the airlock and assurances that the valley can handle a full Earth atmosphere of pressure. I can remotely shut off or divert the feed should we reach the limits of the containment foglets...or deliver the full quota. I¡¯ll be tracking the pressures, but 1.82 trillion kilos at the current rate should be complete in¡­ 42 minutes from now. Let me take the opportunity to state that it''s been a pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Petrov.¡±
Adept Ch 29 - Gateway
No less than four copies of Bill assembled on the main floor of the Venus Gate array. The large area held massive amounts of smart matter, a fusion engine in modular pieces, high-powered lasers, and canisters of aggressive multi-purpose nanobots. Bill-1 signaled that he was opening the portal. He had commandeered Casa¡¯s Space Strider that she had sent earlier towards the Earth to serve as a transport gate to the Venus hub. She had been grumpy, but as she was still celebrating the mounting influx of credit from Mars Terraform she turned off her cognitive annoyance loop and queued another gate pair to begin the journey as a replacement. The portal stretched wide out to the darkness of space. Only the dense layer of active foglets in the Gate Array terminal prevented the atmosphere from being sucked into the void. He pinged the group. ¡°Gate initiated. I¡¯ve confirmed with the navigation projections that it is still 2 days from Earth and set on an elliptical flyby. Ready for stealth probes.¡± Bill-1 spoke. ¡°Stealth probes away!¡± Bill-4 yelled, as 6 packets of smart matter shot out and their small ion engines ignited as they crossed over into space. The probes vanished effortlessly into the darkness. The probes began unfurling. Each would interpose itself between the gateway and major population satellites, Earth, Luna, the LaGrange O''Neils, and Mars. They would paint a false image of background stars and radiation, hiding the construction of the Shadow Gate. Bill-1 kept the count down and called out. ¡°Time! Activate stealth. Deploy the tent.¡± Bill-3 had altered his body for vacuum EVA. He pushed the large train of supplies through the gate and held onto the caboose to ride through. He hollered just before leaving. ¡°See ya¡¯all in a couple hours!¡± He slid through the foglet layer and floated through the small pocket world. The paired gate trees had an octet of manipulator arms sliding about on rings, carefully maneuvering the packets over the extra-dimensional threshold and out into the big empty. As the first smart matter exited it ballooned, spreading, and hardening into a much bigger structure. Bill-3 danced about helping the packets into their positions by hand or via access control of the gate pair arms. An ad hoc space station grew and filled with devices and supplies. It resembled the fast-motion growth of a fungus more than a space construction project, but that was the new normal with nanotechnology. Like a conductor, the improvised station expanded again and again. The other Bills continued sending more and more supplies. Eventually, Bill-2 came riding through between the fusion plant modules. ¡°Ho! Mind the nacelle array. Placement ready?¡± he asked. ¡°What took you so long? It''s been ready for over half a minute. Come on, I¡¯ll help!¡± Bill-3 said. The pair bounced and spun, as athletic and fast as the most able normal human but far stronger and more precise thanks to augmentation. ¡°Final lock and set. Ready for ignition?¡± Bill-2 yelled and triggered the engine without waiting for a response. The sapphire viewing pane lit with the Cherenkov glow as it hummed to life. ¡°Hah! Three minutes ahead of schedule. Sending for the rest of the Bills. We can set environmental while we begin the Casimir staging.¡± The other two Bills shot into the work space, their bodies configured for advanced manipulation and resembling fractal bush robots more than humans. ¡°Fuck you guys! That''s cheating!¡± Bill-3 jeered. He shook his head; he couldn''t spare the time to reconfigure. He signaled his digital clone to help commandeer the free utility foglets to shift the loose equipment into place. An hour of competitive construction between the four Bills and their digital clones, all running with amped thought speed and multitasking with skills-driven memory, precision, and calculation yielded a temporary but fully functional station with a Shadow Gate ready to be activated. Bill-1 sighed, looking around. Rows of weaponized nano, racks of fully charged energy weapons, and a suitcase nuke on a Deadman switch. The other Bills slowed, all realizing the massive task list was fully depleted save one. All the Bills had arrived at the same conclusion earlier. To understand and potentially combat the unknowable threat Apex insisted was coming, they would need to assess the lifeforms of the Shadow Earth. A space-based approach was selected to enable reconnaissance. While Bill fully expected to get samples eventually, he wanted to prepare appropriately and carefully. He saw how quickly the MIT team was overwhelmed. Even his friend and Marriam¡¯s lover, Dr. Anika Sharma...the Samaritan nicknamed Flux, hadn¡¯t been able to mount a proper defense. ¡°I guess it''s time to close our portal to Venus and send it away for safety. Can anybody think of anything? Any last-minute thing at all?¡± Bill-1 asked. The Bills glanced around at each other, their expressions a mix of satisfaction and anticipation. Bill-3 frowned. ¡°We already triple-checked everything. We¡¯ve enough mass and smart matter to make anything we need from our maker files. We''ve got our defensive measures, probes, lab equipment¡­what else could we need? Let''s do it.¡± Bill-1 sent the signal to close the gate to the Venus array and loaded it into the probe railgun. With a pulse of power, the probe shot out. It would begin a circuitous trip, looping the Earth and Luna in a complex dance before eventually arcing away to intersect with the ShadowGate Station¡¯s trajectory in another week. ¡°Alright, time for our digital brothers to earn their keep. Fire up the gate!¡±
Dominic Masterson swirled the cold beer before downing the last sip. The jingling, clinking, and musical noise from the game floor created a constant background noise around him. The lounge area was filled with players, NPC gamblers, robots playing the part of dealers, pit bosses, and waitresses. The games and money on the floor were real and essential to buying equipment, entry into challenges, and ultimately passage into the next Labyrinth stage. Unfortunately, the credits required were daunting. Table stakes in the faux casino would never get a player anywhere. Big achievements and bets were the only way to make further progress. Dom was frustrated. He was the last player from his team, The Roughnecks. He had been playing the game for three months. He was so close. The entry cost to the final level of the Labyrinth was steep, but one really big score would get him there. Credits weren¡¯t freely given in the Lachesis realm. They had to be earned, generally by beating them out of other players. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Beyond the lounge, the Viewing Den lurked down the hall with a smoky atmosphere lending to the illusion of a Las Vegas venue. Massive displays showed the active challenge levels and bettors lined up to wager for and against the players. When a team or individual challenge went live, non-combatants could still make credits by betting on the outcomes. All of Lachesis¡¯s Challenges were broadcast to the other groups. Keeping secrets was impossible as everyone could research their potential opponents. Of course, the upside was that the challenges themselves could be previewed and teams could prepare better for them. The challenges varied in type and most would evolved to suit the teams. The major themes had been labeled: Pandemonium, Stronghold, Death Race, Urban Assault, Drone Storm, Battle Royal, Talent Show, and Escape Room. Most challenges fit into those types, although Lachesis sometimes introduced something new. Most of the displays were quiet as the challenge teams had been whittled down and only the last survivors remained. These games had consequences, and some challenges or losing your credit stack would result in being permanently ejected from the Labyrinth. He looked around and spotted the leader of the MVP Leaderboard team, Sonny McGuire. Sonny¡¯s team was still here in force and had helped Dom clear out the last couple of teams. They were capable, and so far Dom had allied with them more than against. That would change. There wasn¡¯t enough credit for everyone to pass the final gate. If it was between him and anyone else, Dom would choose himself. Betrayal was almost a certainty, but the timing was the trick. Dom needed a target. Stagnation was doom. Like a shark, he needed to keep moving. He seriously thinking of challenging Sonny right then when the rare triple-gong sounded. Dominic smiled and yelled out to his distant friend/enemy. ¡°Fresh meat! It''s about time. Which team do you think got through first? Bets?¡± The self-proclaimed game master and team leader with chiseled good looks smiled. Sonny answered the call. ¡°You know the feed from Clotho¡¯s stage is asynchronous by design, right? The remote viewing of the coming teams rarely shows the full picture and only provides the highlights.¡± ¡°I know it, but we all make our luck and character matters too. I''ll put up 10,000 credits on that Utopia team. The dog-man had been ripping up those levels so much the AI had almost sidelined him. He¡¯s holding more secrets than just that magic bag of holding of his.¡± Dom advised. ¡°Fuck you! That was my choice. If you take Utopia, then I need at least 2:1 odds.¡± ¡°¡­15k to 10k, take it or leave it. If an oddball comes through we float it, the bet holds until one of our choices comes through.¡± ¡°Deal! I think Clotho put the mutt through the ringer. I''ll be surprised if that team isn''t the last in this wave. I¡¯ll take that DAIE team. Those guys are playing for keeps.¡± Dom leaned back in his chair, drawing a deep breath. The Lachesis levels of the Labyrinth were a complex game. The release of a fresh wave of competitors was always a source of excitement and tension, especially during critical moments like this. The newcomers would take time to figure out the harsh truths of the level and Dom needed to find a mark to make his bid for the final toll. Newbies were always targets, even if they didn¡¯t know it. As the clock ticked down to the next big reveal, the anticipation in the room was palpable. The triple gong had pulled the survivors out of the dorms and side rooms. Bets were called out across the lounge as the hungry competitors gathered. They held their breath, waiting to see which team would emerge from the foundation stage first. The doors opened, revealing the first team of new potential marks.
¡°My god. Where are all the stars?¡± Bill-3 moaned. The Shadow-gate¡¯s energetic portal hummed and crackled with excess energy from the disparity of zero-point energy. None of the other Bills rose to the question, all of them were deep in contemplation reviewing the data their initial probes had returned. Bill¡¯s first impression weas how dim the entire galaxy was. The stars were all much weaker in luminosity. Some huge swaths of stars were missing entirely. What in the world could be the cause? I wouldn¡¯t expect a perfect match to normal space, but the gravity wells are impressed on both dimensional spaces. That should encourage a lot more synchronicity than I¡¯m seeing here. Something fundamental is off. The shadow verse¡¯s solar system was so different that Bill was aghast. Everything here seemed to betray signs of intelligent modifications and global-sized mega-engineering. Starting with the biggest stellar object, shadow-side Sol; the sun had dimmed considerably due to several observable factors. Bill¡¯s probes had spent over a day collecting detailed images. There were huge shards of material that swarmed close to the sun, blocking the light. They danced about in complex orbital patterns, tacking and banking between the forces from the solar wind and gravity. The concept of capturing the energy of the sun completely had long been considered an impossible goal, requiring more material than existed in the planetary bodies. A Dyson sphere wouldn¡¯t work, but partial measures did work apparently. Bill was viewing a functioning Dyson Swarm. Bill had observed two major solar events. One was a CME, a coronal mass ejection that seemed to be targeting the planetary mass at shadow Venus. The sun shards seemed to be directing and maybe causing the ejection events. The other event was a scintillating array of lasers at play between the shards, only visible when they interacted with the solar corona prominences. The energies accumulated and focused on the northern pole of the sun, blasting materials off and siphoning them into space. Bill¡¯s sensors couldn¡¯t determine what was happening, but his deep memory stores included theories about stellar lifting; using similar methods to strip the sun of metals and fuel. The method cooled the sun and provided building material, presumably to construct more shards. All evidence of intelligent manipulation. The gravity well marking Mercury¡¯s location was a roiling mass of flowing gas and metallic liquid. Venus on this side of the divide had clear signs of activity. Bursts of light and electromagnetism bloomed across the surface, most seemed to be moving away from the region about to be incinerated by the incoming solar event. The thing, sitting where Mars would be, was a massive structure twenty times the little planet''s size, but it was slightly translucent, reminding Bill of nano-foglets structured but with extremely low density. Jupiter and its moons seemed to be a war zone. Massive arcs of energy discharge and blasts of radiation were at play on the surface of the gas giant and amongst its moons. Saturn¡¯s rings were still there, but they were solid and patterned. They seemed to reach into the upper decks of the planet''s atmosphere, scooping up gasses. The edges of the ring glowed with power, occasionally shooting out projectiles. And then there was Neptune. In this universe, Neptune shone like a mini-sun. Bill¡¯s probes listened in as the thing blasted out high-energy that was informationally-dense across every conceivable bandwidth. Bill was now intentionally jamming the signal. He¡¯d lost six probes to intense signal and trying to parse the information. Something inside the signal corrupted the probes, taking control from him. He had ordered the self-destruction of two more that had listened in and were acting funny. The Bills shuddered inside the space shack at the gate. The other side was alive. Everything was alive! The worst was Earth and Luna. These were the closest and the Bills¡¯ sensors had collected a lot of data. Earth¡¯s surfaces were populated by megastructures and ruined cities like nothing even made by humans. The dark and blasted plains and mountains seethed with movement. Creatures of enormous proportions, true kaiju, battled on land and in the seas. Luna was a slithering nest of tubules writhing over the hidden surface of the moon¡­if there was a surface. Bill wondered briefly if it was truly snakes and tentacles all the way to the core of the moon. The Bills looked grimly about at each other. Bill-4 coughed and spoke. ¡°I¡¯m glad that our theory that the synthetic life might be restricted to the planet¡¯s surface was correct. We seem to be safe for the moment. We could collect information and keep learning new things for months.¡± ¡°If only we had enough time. We¡¯re fast approaching the 100-day mark to Apex¡¯s supposed doomsday. We need samples. We need to know what they are.¡± Bill-2 said. ¡°Yeah, so we can fuck them up,¡± Bill-3 interjected. Bill-1 sighed. ¡°We¡¯re going to need more guns.¡± The background noise of the temporary space habitat rose in intensity as all the matter compilers turned on and started fabricating at a feverous pace. The Bills circulated about seamlessly tending to the orchestra of equipment. The next phase would require some up-close work.
Adept Ch 30 - Casino Terminal The entire team stumbled into the large entryway. The room had large open windows that looked upon the neon boulevard filled with raucous people, blaring music, and fireworks overhead. Max was shell-shocked. He¡¯d never been to a big city and the scope of activity was amazing. He sniffed and realized something was off. A closer look revealed the deception. All the people were androids. Very lifelike, but just a little too uniform and symmetrical and distinctly lacking in the scents that all big lifeforms had. ¡°Hey! Just like Las Vegas! I think I¡¯m going to like this level!¡± Charlie crowed. The ¡°street¡± was crowded with the androids, mimicking rowdy human behavior. The team proceeded cautiously, weaving through the crowd of androids, trying not to draw attention to themselves, but the faux people didn''t seem to care or notice anything strange about the team¡¯s combat garb. The major focus of the street was the very building where they stood, inside its threshold entryway. The name was lit in sparkling extravagance on every wall, the Casino Termin¨¤l. The building''s massive door swung open as they approached, showing a crush of people and gaming tables with flashing lights and glitzy decorations. The team entered knowing that the key to their mission lay within the heart of this vibrant but bustling casino. Their augments pinged as they passed the door.
[You have entered the Challenge Stage of the Labyrinth. All Challenge quests can be accessed from the Casino Termin¨¤l. New Quests are available!] [New quests unlocked - Casino Termin¨¤l: Pandemonium, Stronghold, Death Race, Urban Assault, Drone Storm, Battle Royal, Talent Show, Escape Room. Entry cost for challenge quests requires credit chips.] [New Player - Stage Entry Initial Stakes Granted - 100,000 credits. Credits are virtual placeholders only. All wagers, entry fees, rental fees, team purchases, loans, item sales, and winnings will require casino chips. ***Warning*** Physical chips are fungible and anonymous. Guard them carefully.] [New Quest - Find the Credit Exchange] [New Quest - Find accommodations at the Players Villas] [New Quest - Small Timer (0 of 10): win small (less than 20,000 credits) stakes games and wagers to prove your skill in judgment.] [New Quest - Shark (0 of 10): win large (more than 20,000 credits) stakes games or wagers to prove your skill in judgment.]
Max spun around trying to get his bearing, he smelled real people in here. A steady clapping sound was getting louder. Maxed focused on a dark bearded fit man dressed in rugged gear like his team. The man smiled and spoke. ¡°Welcome, my friends. It¡¯s my great pleasure to see you. You¡¯ve just made me slightly richer, and you have my thanks. My name is Dominic Masterson.¡± Max¡¯s empathy skill hummed in his mind. This man was assessing and calculating, his smile didn¡¯t extend to his eyes. Max hesitated but Charlie strode forward with a handshake and pumped the man¡¯s hands. Charlie, oblivious to the underlying tension, enthusiastically guided the team forward, eager to explore the challenges awaiting them in the Casino Termin¨¤l. Dominic''s smile widened, revealing a hint of a smirk. ¡°Please, allow me to get you all some drinks. You must have questions¡­and I have answers. Of all the players on the level, I have been here the longest¡­almost three months.¡± Dominic smiled a wide smile, his eyes lingered on Max. Categorizing his equipment and lightly probing his system¡¯s security.
[Empathy skill activated - Dominic Masterson: Confident, Calculating, Aggressive]
Max¡¯s ears dropped and his hackles rose. Dominic¡¯s smile grew even wider. He spun around ushering Xavier and Leah into seats. Max felt a sense of unease as Dominic''s gaze lingered on him. He couldn''t shake the feeling that there was more to this man than met the eye. He tried to conceal his distrust.
[Poker Face +1, Poker Face skill reaches level 5]
The rest of the team was at ease as Dominic began speaking about the challenges and rewards the Casino Termin¨¤l had to offer. Charlie, ever eager for adventure, leaned in with anticipation. Dominic pointed out the somber Viewing Den. He said that with Team Utopia¡­and the other teams arriving soon, it would become much livelier. ¡°Wait.¡± Max interrupted, ¡°How did you know we were coming? And you know where our team came from?¡± ¡°Ah yes, this stage is much more accessible than Clotho¡¯s realm. Most challenges are live cast in the viewing den. Most of the players on this level have the benefit of seeing at least some showings of the new teams performances on the last stage¡¯s levels, including yours. I must say, you guys were quite effective. I¡¯m glad to have bet on you arriving first, I¡¯ve been paying extra attention to your performance. Remarkable, indeed.¡± ¡°Hold up. How many players are there here? And more teams are coming in soon?¡± Charlie asked. Dominic signaled a waitress over and collected drinks for everyone, beer for Charlie and Max, Sake for Leah, and a root beer soda for Xavier. He flipped a copper casino chip to the waitress who smiled back. The lack of detail in her painted features disturbed Max, looking like a person but lacking in essential ways. ¡°Ah yes. Well. I am the last holdout from my team, the Roughnecks. Team Eurosport has two members left, Nigel and Abigail. The MVP Leaderboard team came in off-cycle, so they have most of their team still. Now we¡¯re all waiting for the next influx, which you all are the first.¡± Dom said, emoting with excited expression and active hand gestures. ¡°Let¡¯s see. There is a team of enforcers from the DAIE. That¡¯s a bit unusual. The Labyrinth has never allowed them in before. There is a corporate group. I would like to assume they are casual players, but likely also have top-of-the-line augmentation platforms, so some caution there. And finally, we have another first, a team of AI in mech frames from Luna. We are all truly unique down here. It should be a smashing good time!¡± Dom said, looking directly at Max. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. ¡°Alright, plenty of time for details. Let¡¯s get you all sorted. I¡¯ll show you to the credit exchange and the Player Villas. If you hurry, maybe you can get yourself all settled before the next group arrives¡­¡±
Dom escorted the team to the Casino Credit Exchange, passing the gaming tables and poker rooms on the way. Max put aside his intuition and watched carefully, a few Players were at the tables playing and waved to Dom and the team as they walked past. They saw an extremely large android holding court at the central poker table. Dominic was watching closely and saw Max¡¯s interest. ¡°Careful at the tables. These aren¡¯t traditional at all. The dice are tricky to prevent an augmented from throwing perfectly to win. The bots are extremely shrewd, and of course, other players will play hard. The bots have hard limits on how much they can wager, so you won¡¯t make any paydays off them. The only exception is that large fellow you¡¯re eyeballing. He¡¯s a high roller that goes by the name of Tyche Spencer.¡± ¡°Be careful if you ever sit down across from him. That AI can match any Player for cunning, and it is extremely hard to read. No human tells that give him away. Most Players prefer to make big bets on quests, but every chip won counts. Am I right?¡± Dom ushered them on, deeper into the hidden recesses of the casino. The party-going androids thinned out and bustling workers and security robots became more frequent. The credit exchange looked like a blending of a high-end hotel lounge and a secure tellers window for a bank.
[Quest Complete ¨C You have found the Casino Terminal Credit Exchange, +100 XP]
Only one teller was open and a sharply dressed android hurried to open the secure window. The uncanny valley of its near-human appearance was intense. It flashed pearly teeth and tipped its transparent visor to Dom. Dom spoke. ¡°Vinnie! I¡¯ve got some fresh customers for you. I¡¯ve got a good feeling about them. Treat them right, ok?¡± Dominic grinned and stepped back. The teller smiled crookedly, a gold tooth peeking through his weathered face. He flattened his pinstripe suit and adjusted his cuffs. ¡°I always provide top service, Mr. Masterson. I run a tight ship here. No shenanigans are allowed. The credit exchange is the heart of Lachesis¡¯s operation here at the Casino Termin¨¤l. So, I assume you all would like to establish your credit accounts and perhaps take some chips with you to initiate room rentals and spending money, yes?¡± The group stepped up one at a time to create their account with the credit exchange. Some quick discussion with Dominic and Vinnie revealed that unless they were ready to do some serious wagering or contests, about 5,000 casino chips of various denominations were the recommendation for personal holdings. Each chip had a Celtic knot design with an anti-counterfeiting holographic fractal morphing into complex shapes within the chip¡¯s center. The edging and other details on the chips revealed their value. The chips started at copper worth 1 credit and jumped up 10x in value for each successive material, silver, gold, platinum, topaz, ruby, emerald, sapphire, amethyst, and diamond ending at 1 million credits. There was a special Grand Master Chip worth 10 million. As the team digested the details, Dom watched them closely. As the concern mounted, he spoke up. ¡°Yes, I can see you all running those numbers through your heads. That last chip is what you need to graduate from this level. I¡¯ve been here for three months, and even I still need at least one massive win to get there.¡± ¡°You should know that if you need some extra cash, I offer loans as well,¡± Vinnie said with a tight smile. ¡°Jesus, Vinnie. Give it a rest. They''re flush with their starter credit and your rates are just the worst. I¡¯d risk my last two credits against Tyche before asking you for a loan. Seriously, how can you justify a 10% vig?¡± Dom said. ¡°Vig? Xavier asked. Vinnie had a sour look but answered. ¡°Standard casino practice. The vig is a daily interest on loans. Its designed so the house will profit from a little risk taking, just like a Player can. As long as you use the credit wisely, everyone benefits.¡± ¡°As long as the Player wins. If they lose, a daily interest quickly digs a hole that will drop them right out of the Labyrinth and back to the real world.¡± Dom said, shaking his head. ¡°Come on, man. Even we AI have our parts to play in this game. This is a sweet gig and if we can''t pay the rent we get stripped of our frames and sent packing to haunt the walls as observers. Show a little mercy for your poor hosts.¡± The old android looked up and lowered his voice to continue in a whisper. ¡°You new folks should remember to tip well. Everyone in here is part of the struggle in Lachesis¡¯s grand experiments.¡± ¡°Ugh! Enough with the theatrics, Lachesis is hands-off. She hasn''t appeared on the level, ever! I think it might be against the rules of the Labyrinth.¡± ¡°Doesn¡¯t mean she can''t make our lives more miserable. Go ahead and take your chips! Don''t say I didn''t warn you.¡±
Dominic led the team on to the next destination, the Player Villas, chatting the entire time about his great victories in the games and on the betting floor as well. Every path seemed designed to force the player to cross the busy casino''s raucous central area. Soon they got to a quieter section, crossing shops for gear, snacks, and drinks. Dominic seemed to grow more alert, sweeping his jacket aside to show a cross-draw pistol and high-tech blade. ¡°Mind your six,¡± he said quietly. Everyone flared their sensorium and soon noticed a pack of three seedy-looking NPC androids following them. ¡°This isn''t like the rest areas of the foundation stage. Vinnie wasn''t lying. Some of these androids are hanging by a thread. I''ve heard stories of this bunch. Cutpurses and ruffians. Always watch your back. This level isn''t just about rising to the challenge¡­ it''s about survival in a competitive environment.¡± Dom said. Max looked back. The trio of androids had broken from their too-obvious tailing and were pretending to window shop now. By reflex, Max sent a few tracking motes to attach to them. He had plenty to spare now with advancing his level in his [Swarm] skill and access to his pocket space fabricator. Max was rewarded with a system notification.
[NanoTracker +1, NanoTracker reaches level 6]
Max eyed the retreating androids. He realized that he hadn¡¯t turned off his WorldMap skill, and the level details were slowly building in his head. He made sure the tags for the trackers would be visible on his map. He promised himself not to let his guard down as he turned to catch up with the team. Very quickly they got to the lobby of the Player Villa, a burly android Doorman stepped in front of them. Dominic quickly stepped in and intervened. ¡°Hugo, my friend. These Players are new to the level. They need to check in with the concierge and get rooms.¡± Dominic said. The doorman grunted once and stepped back. Dominic ushered them in.
[Quest Complete ¨C You have found the Casino Terminal Player Villas, +100 XP] [Max Mitchell level +1, Max Mitchell has reached Master Level 24, 22,500 of 25,000 for next level, +10 Free Stat Points awarded.]
Max shook his head to clear the notification. Dominic had resumed talking. ¡°Hugo¡¯s not much for talking, but he keeps the riff-raff away. At least, the Android variety, that is. Alright, you¡¯ve gotten the basics. The door will only let a new team in every eight hours and there are three more coming and then things get interesting again. I¡¯m going to hit the sack and I suggest the same for you all. Lots of opportunity to win some chips until the team battles start.¡± Dom said as he summoned the elevator. He was stepping into it when Max stopped him short with a question. ¡°Why are you helping us? We were told this stage would put us against other players. I don''t get it.¡± Max said, being honest about his suspicions. Dom sighed and turned back, holding the door from closing. ¡°You¡¯re not wrong. Singletons like me can¡¯t enter a knock-out competitive wager with new players until you''ve done at least three team battles, although we can do friendly wagers. After that, it turns into a free-for-all. Most teams end up with some people clocking out early. Frankly, I don''t care who wins or loses. I''ll be harvesting all your credits later¡­ from you or whoever takes them from you. I just don''t want too much of it spilling into the bot pockets. If all the money is scattered, it makes it hard for me to get my last big score and my ticket to the next level. Play your cards tight, kids. I''ll be catching up with you eventually. Be seeing you.¡± Dom said, with nonchalance, and let the door close.
Adept Ch 31 - Small Blind
Max¡¯s room reminded him of the cheap hotel his family had used for a trip over the summer to go to the Newport Beaches. It had a minibar and old-fashioned television and telephone devices, like something out of a museum. The bed was foam and springs! He couldn¡¯t get comfortable. He would have torn up the bed and recycled it in the MC, but the room didn¡¯t have one. He considered breaking the thing up and using it as feedstock for his Tesseract¡¯s MC, but the room contract had said any damage would cost him credits. Max had to turn off his ability to smell using his DigiSense skill. The smell of mold and mildew was driving him crazy. Despite being on the 4th floor and supposedly away from the Casino gaming floor, he could still hear the ringing and clinking of coins in the distance. Max grabbed his room key and chip bag and made for the door when his group com-line chimed with a message. [Hey Guys, I¡¯m going to hit the sack. My augments are still cleaning up the radiation damage from the last level. I¡¯m not sure what the days will look like with this level, but Dominic said we would have some time as the other teams trickle in. How about we get up bright and early to explore and make plans? See you in the morning?] Charlies sent. [No problem, old timer. They have old-timey videos on these television things showing fight recordings from the level. I¡¯m going to do a little research before bed.] Xavier replied. [Very good. At least this room has a hot tub. See you in the morning!] Leah answered. Max sighed at the door to his room, he opened the chat feature. [Sounds good, team. The concierge mentioned something about a continental breakfast as part of the room rate and since we don¡¯t have MCs, I¡¯m guessing we have no choice but to check it out. See you in the morning.] He sent and exited the room.
Max wandered the outskirts of the gaming floor building up his map. He tagged several interesting establishments; a pawn shop, an old-fashioned saloon where the androids played into old Western stereotypes, several outfitters for custom arms and armor, and a few restaurants. He shook his head, the prices in many of the places seemed small, but it would add up over time. The trackers he tagged the thieves with weren''t nearby. One was in what he had labeled an NPC residential area, another was circulating about the gaming floor, and the third was far off his map into an unknown area. He kept alert for new threats as smelled the enticing scent of grilled meat. He quickly zeroed in on a kebab street cart being minded by a jolly android. Max made his way through the throng of milling NPCs. Max''s stomach growled at the sight and aroma of the delicious food being cooked. He offered up the pittance of 2 copper chips for a pair of skewers. Max strolled through the pulsating neon corridors of the Casino Termin¨¢l; his ears perked up with curiosity as he scanned the various augmentation training grounds. His humanoid body moved with a fluid grace, his augmented senses taking in every detail of the bustling environment. Mal sent him a concerned internal question. ¡°[Max, perhaps we shouldn''t be out here without your team as backup? You heard what Dominic said, this isn''t a safe zone.]¡± ¡°[Technically, I¡¯m not alone. I''ve got you and my daemons, right? Everybody on full alert and chime up if you see trouble, okay?]¡± Max sent. He spied a couple of players at the closest table playing a card game with some NPCs. They locked eyes briefly and his system pinged him with a notification.
[Privacy skill - Failed] [Privacy skill - Success] [Privacy +1, Privacy reaches level 9]
His daemons all commented, triggered by his earlier comment. ¡°[Those players must have been the origin of that identification. You mustn''t let it go unanswered, should try to identify them back.]¡± Miyamoto said, with steel in his voice. Max focused on the pair and triggered the skill. ¡°[Judging by their pallid skin, ethnic features, and their uniforms with the EUS logo. I predict that these are the remaining members of the Eurosport team that Dominic mentioned. Nigel and Abigail.]¡± Sherlock said.
[Identify: Nigel Farnsworth, Strength: 100, Will: 84, Energy: 386, K-Gun: 10] [Identify: Abigail Humphrey, Perception: 200, Agility: 19, Energy: 12,315, Chameleon:10]
¡°[What the hell? Those stats and energy can¡¯t be right?]¡± Max thought aloud in his thought space. ¡°[I sense subterfuge as well. Everything I¡¯ve read has augmentation stats capped at 100.]¡± Sherlock sent. ¡°[Hmm, some of your skills have evolved as counters to skill attacks. I bet that when your Privacy skill evolves, you get some ability to send bogus stats. Although, Abigail¡¯s data is so extreme that its not believable¡­unless she is sending a message.]¡± Mal sent. The large man, Nigel, waved Max over. Max deftly stepped through the crowd of NPC androids over to the table. Abigail held up a hand to the dealer robot for a pause and Nigel greeted Max. ¡°Hey there, Max. Team Utopia did pretty well in the foundation phase levels. You and that alien guy take cosplay to another level, guv.¡± Nigel said. Max smiled as he pulled out a seat and sat down. ¡°Yeah, but I¡¯m not playing. This is the real me. I¡¯m¡­I guess the first uplift dog¡­¡± Max slowed down seeing Nigel¡¯s expression turning angry. ¡°Are you callin¡¯ me a liar, bruv? Ya think you can just roll up on me and insult me like it dinnae mean nuthin? You ARE a bloody cosplayer. Ya pretending at being a real human as if you could ever measure up, hey.¡± Nigel snarled. Max froze and started to get up but Nigel grabbed his wrist with augmented speed. ¡°Nah, bruv. Ye sat your furry ass down, now you gonna hafta play. Maybe I can''t challenge you on the field just yet, but sure as shit you gonna pay for my time with some chip. Ante up, furball!¡± Max struggled briefly, but Nigel¡¯s grip was like iron. He saw in his peripheral senses some security android hurrying over. Abigail leaned back in her chair with a crooked smile and laughed. ¡°What a splendid introduction. My earnest companion, Nigel, always makes things so interesting. Most people don¡¯t appreciate his particular brand of humor. Come, relax, put your holdings on the table. Let''s have a wee game. This is a small-stakes table. You¡¯re still fresh as a spring day with full entry credits. Just enjoy yourself, Max.¡± She crooned. Max sat back down and put his chip satchel on the table. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Nigel''s lips curled into a smirk. "Let''s see whut this doggo''s got." Max nodded, still off-balance by Nigel''s aggressive tone. "Fine. I''m game." The NPC dealer had Max stack all his chips on the table in plain sight and counted them expertly with a glance. The other NPC gamblers had excused themselves as Nigel made his scene, so only the Players remained seated at the table. The security androids had stopped advancing but were still lingering in the area. ¡°Very good, gentle Players. Please snap on the grounding straps to prevent your augmented senses. The game is Texas Hold¡¯em which is restricted to human only senses. Minimum buy-in is a gold chip.¡± Max choked audibly at the amount, but the dealer continued to shuffle the cards and ignored him. ¡°You, ma¡¯am, are small blind and the new gentleman is the big. Ante up, please.¡± Max slapped on the table¡¯s grounding strap and felt his some of his senses cut off.
[Casino Restriction Cable detected. Permission to allow Table to filter data from Skills Motes/Drone/Swarm, Access, Hacker, Intrusion, and ExaVision in the vicinity of Table for fair play. Y/N?]
Max accepted the restrictions, feeling some of his senses diminish. He panicked as the dealer looked at him. Max counted the chips in his satchel. His initial amount of five thousand credits had been converted into 20 Copper, 28 Silver, 17 gold, and 3 Platinum chips. He pushed over a gold chip, worth 100 credits, and received his cards. Max panicked seeing the cards, unsure as to how to play the game. Sherlock groaned inside his head. Sherlock promised to help him out and give him advice on how to play. ¡°[Oh dear, Max, a seven and a deuce of hearts. Normally I would advise you to fold but as the big blind, you have little choice as you are initially already committed to seeing the flop.]¡± Sherlock said. Max glanced at his cards nervously, feeling the weight of the situation. Abigail had bought fully into the ante as small blind, by raising her initial half ante to the full amount. Max checked at Sherlock''s direction, and Nigel called with a confident smile, pushing a gold chip into the center of the table. The tension at the table was palpable as Max awaited the flop. Nigel''s eyes bore into him, both hungry and amused at once. Abigail observed with an enigmatic smile, seemingly enjoying the drama unfolding before her. Max felt half-blind as his WorldMap skill couldn¡¯t see the table at all. He had to rely on his point of view only. The dealer expertly revealed the flop cards, and Max''s heart quickened at the sight. An ace of hearts, an ace of spades, and a ten of hearts. Max panicked as everyone was looking at him. ¡°[Max, my man, the odds of getting the flush are 50%. Not the best, but you¡¯ve got nothing else.]¡± Captain Cipher said, causing Max¡¯s ears to drop. ¡°[Stay the course, Max. Just check for now and pay less attention to your cards and watch the others.]¡± Sherlock said sternly. Max checked. Nigel looked smug as he reached for his chips, but Abigail stayed composed. Max gulped as Nigel raised the stakes with another gold chip. Abigail added her own. Max wilted, but Sherlock egged him on. He slowly added another gold. The tension thickened as the next card was revealed, and Max''s pulse quickened, knowing every move was critical in this high-stakes game. The card was the king of clubs. Max swore to himself. ¡°[You¡¯re not out yet, Max. You could still complete the flush with the next card, a 25% possibility.]¡± Captain Cipher enthusiastically cheered him on. ¡°[While that is true, at the moment you still have nothing that will prevail, Max. Check again and hope that Nigel and Abigail let the next card come without upping the stakes.]¡± Nigel checked the hand, but Abigail raised it by another five silver chips, worth 50 credits. Max grudgingly passed the additional chips into the pile in the middle of the table. As the dealer expertly revealed the final card, Max''s heart raced at the sight of the queen of hearts. He had completed his flush. Max excitedly checked and Sherlock howled in his head in outrage and frustration. ¡°[Damn it, boy. I was about to tell you to raise. It''s quite likely you will win, but you need to bet appropriately. Bet too much and you will scare them away. Checking won''t get you anything more than the meager amount in the pot already, that was the last time for you to bet unless they escalate.]¡± Sherlock scolded. Nigel''s smug expression didn''t falter as he confidently raised the stakes once more by another 2 gold, and Abigail calmly matched his bet. Max took a moment to breathe, while Sherlock advised that Max should match it. Max pushed the required two more gold chips into the pile. ¡°Excellent. If there are no further bets, please turn your cards over.¡± the dealer said. Max confidently flipped his cards with a grin. Nigel smashed his fists down. His three-of-a-kind aces were normally a great hand but fell short against Max¡¯s flush. Max reached for the chips, but Abigail tutted. ¡°Max, dearie. You are a bit premature. Look at my cards.¡± she said smugly. Max¡¯s heart dropped into his stomach as he saw Abigail had a flush too. She was holding a king and jack of hearts, making hers a higher flush than his. Abigail laughed a bubbly laugh and spoke. ¡°A rough play of luck there. You know, I really shouldn''t say anything but you need to control your tail better. If you had wagged it any harder, I suspect you might have fallen out of your seat. Waitress, a round of drinks on me. Come on, Pup Dog. No hard feelings. Let''s go again.¡± Max grumbled as the dealer pushed the small blind chip in front of him and shifted the large to Nigel. Sherlock was quick to whisper advice as Max shook himself. Mal spoke up. ¡°[Max, I¡¯m sorry! I haven''t been taking this seriously. This a just a different type of combat. We have skills we should be using! Empathy, Memory, Pattern, Poker Face! Damn it, it''s right in the name of the skill. That would have prevented her from reading you like she did.]¡± ¡°[Alright, guys. You heard her. Let''s go, but we need to work together to win. Cipher, keep counting cards and probabilities. Sherlock, I need your help and your game advice. Miyamoto, run the Empath skill and keep a sharp eye on the other players. Mal, run Poker Face and bring my cog speed up between bets so that we can talk about the options.]¡± ¡°Hey, Newbie. Let''s make this more interesting. The casino offers bracelets that can disable your poison resistance. Every losing hand has to take a shot! Unless you want to run back to the villas with your tail between your legs? Ha ha hah!¡± Nigel said, gathering a tray filled with shots from a passing android waitress.
[Casino Restriction Cable signal detected. Permission to allow Table to filter Poison Resistance to allow Alcoholic effects. Y/N?]
Max grinned toothily but without humor, accepted the restriction, and lifted the shot.
Max struggled to open his eyes. Mal was yelling at him in his head, but he was fuzzy and couldn¡¯t focus. Notifications filled his vision.
[Quest Update - Small Timer (1 of 10): Win small (of less than 20,000 credits) stakes games and wagers to prove your skill in judgment.] [Poison Resistance - set to allow alcohol. Blood Alcohol level: 0.15]
Max groaned and tried to wave the notices away. He struggled to move as he realized he was face down in a pile of trash. The stench filled his sensitive nose and a wave of nausea hit him. He lifted himself in a rush and retched to the side. He fell back as the dim alley spun in his vision. ¡°[God damn it, Max! Either give me access to your poison resistance skill or reactivate it yourself. It''s not safe here, those android crooks might come back!]¡± Mal yelled. Max, still groggy, reset all his skills to full function as he struggled to sit. He sighed as the nausea passed and his skill began to filter the alcohol out of his system aggressively. His pounding head receded and localized as his regeneration reasserted its full power. He rubbed the back of his head. A bump revealed that the booze wasn¡¯t the only source of his migraines. ¡°Wha¡¯appened? Ish a ¡®ittle fuzzy still. I won.¡± Max mumbled. ¡°[Yes, you lost several rounds but did finally manage to win one. Despite our combined advice to desist with the drinking challenge, you were thoroughly intoxicated. You muted and locked all your daemons and me out. I was able to break out of my locked-out state and provide assistance when that pair of android ruffians knocked you down.]¡± Mal answered. ¡°Woah. Thievesh. Wuzz. Where¡¯s my satchel? Mal?¡± Max said with increasing awareness and concern. ¡°[Bad news, Max. They took what little was left of your chips. They were trying to strip off your grappler when I gave them a taste of your Shocking touch applied to your entire body. Unfortunately, they departed with the money.]¡± Mal said. ¡°Ohhh¡­Damn, this sucks! I thought I could handle the shots. I¡¯m so sorry.¡± Max said, trying to stand and wipe the vomit off his fur. Mal sighed in his head. ¡°[I hope you take this as a lesson, not to play alone. We need to get you back to your room. It¡¯s three in the morning. Maybe you can still get some sleep, once you¡¯re safe in your bed.]¡± ¡°Thanks, Mal. Fuck. Let¡¯s keep this between us, okay? If the team hears about it, I¡¯ll never hear the end of it.¡± Max said as he staggered down the alley. ¡°[Max, turn around. The Player Villas are two streets back. Let¡¯s go. Hurry up now. There might be more androids looking to take advantage of your condition.]¡±
Adept Ch 32 - Shadow Games
Max was grumpy. He¡¯d made it back to his room and after only an hour was down in the lobby with his team eating at the buffet. Xavier was talking¡­loudly¡­and nonstop about their opponents and all the battles he had watched on the television last night. Max snorted and guzzled more coffee. At least Xavier was also suffering from a lack of sleep due to staying up watching the fight recordings. The triple gong had sounded minutes ago. Charlie had asked the server android what that meant, and the server replied that gong meant another team was due in an hour. The gong would sound out every hour until the team arrived. ¡°So, we have about 50 minutes until everyone gathers at the level¡¯s entry doors. What do you guys want to do until then?¡± Leah asked. Max groaned lightly. He was still green with nausea from his misadventures last night. The greasy breakfast food was helping but he was still hurting. Charlie laughed, ignorant of the reason for Max¡¯s gruff attitude. ¡°I want to go shopping. I need some replacements for my frag grenades. I¡¯m certain I saw some in the store window of the Army Navy Store on the way here from the main gaming floor. Max, you can hook me up with some extra copies using your jailbreak MC right?¡± Charlie asked. ¡°Byeongshin! Keep it down. The AI might not be in the damn walls watching us anymore, but all these androids have ears!¡± Leah scolded in a hiss. Charlie looked chagrined but raised his eyebrows to Max. Max nodded but said. ¡°You guys know what I need right? Atmospheric elements like carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen are easy. Lead, mercury, and titanium would go a long way to replenish my poor fab stocks.¡± ¡°Hey, Max. Scan this spoon!¡± Xavier exclaimed, passing his utensils over. Max and the team had developed a crude method to check for rare elements. He triggered a low-power laser from the embedded augmentation emitter that was housed in his forehead to burn off the spoon''s surface layer. His advanced senses scanned the traces of gaseous glow at the point of impact. His DigiSense skill could parse the wavelengths and determine the elemental makeup. Max¡¯s furry eyebrows rose. ¡°Wow! Pure titanium. Good find, kid. Guys, I''ll take all of those if you''re all done with them.¡± Max said. As the cutlery was handed over, Max made them disappear into his portal space, keeping the transaction under the table and out of sight. ¡°Hey, I didn''t sleep that well last night. If it''s ok with you all, I''m going to go back to my room for a quick nap. I''ll meet you at the doors in¡­shit¡­45 minutes.¡± Max said.
The team quickly made for the door without him, and Max made his way back to his room, hoping to catch some much-needed rest before the next team arrived. His mind was already strategizing for the upcoming challenges they would face. As he lay down on the bed, Sherlock pinged him. ¡°[Begging your pardon, Max. While you were eating with your friends, I learned something that you will be very interested to know.]¡± Sherlock sent. ¡°Ugh¡­.ok. Hit me.¡± Max mumbled; his eyes shut. He sighed as he sunk into the cloud bed he had set up on top of the old fashion crap bed. ¡°[While you were engaging with the other team last night, I took the liberty of sending a mote tracker to both of your opponents with Mal¡¯s help.]¡± Sherlock began. Max interrupted. ¡°Sherlock, I appreciate that but it''s unlikely to work for long if they are paying attention. Those trackers send out signals too often not to be noticed. They¡¯ll just find them and destroy them.¡± ¡°[Ah yes. I shared your opinion, but Mal and I modified these motes to stay passive, logging locations without sending broadcasts¡­at least until requested. This morning, Mal and I sent the request and found something interesting. Look here, I''ll display your location and those of your opponents for last night on your internal map.]¡± Despite his tired state Max couldn''t help but sit up and see the movements with interest. He saw the dots representing himself, Nigel, and Abigail. They stayed put for hours until his dot finally moved away, making a very unsteady and meandering path back to the Villas. Max¡¯s attention spiked as three more dots moved in. He highlighted one and its label showed that this was his earlier motes that he had used to tag the thieves that Dominic had pointed out. Max growled as he saw them intersect his dot in the alley. After a brief moment, the three took off and his dot no longer moved. ¡°No shit, Sherlock. Casa already told me I got mugged by those bastard android thieves. So what?¡± Max said angrily. ¡°[Keep watching.]¡± Sherlock insisted. The three dots made a beeline to a region outside of Max¡¯s mapped area¡­where another dot waited. Max focused and the tag bloomed¡­Nigel Farnsworth. Max sat up, agitated and growling, no longer tired at all. ¡°Son of a bitch!¡±
Max was at the gaming tables with his team, only half listening to the discussion about which team was coming. Both Dominic and Sonny McGuire from the Team LeaderBoard MVPs had come over with greetings and offers to bet on the next team identity. No one from Team Utopia wanted to bet, feeling the information disparity on what the others had seen in recordings was too big. Both the older players retreated with good humor. Max discreetly tagged both with inactive tracker motes. While he participated in the discussions, he was arguing with his daemons internally. ¡°[¡­I understand the trackers might be discovered. As long as they can¡¯t be tracked back to me if there found, the possibility of extra information is essential. Speaking of which, when we get back to our rooms, remind me to scan myself and inform the team to do the same. Now stop trying to distract me. I need a plan on how to get my money back from that snake, Nigel.]¡± ¡°[Broken Cup, you should treat this whole level as a combination of a puzzle level and a combat level. The Casino Terminal, akin to Yoshiwara or Las Vegas, appears to be a den of treachery and corruption. Its dangers extend beyond the glitz and glamour, hiding in shadows and whispered alliances. Arm yourself not just with your weapons, but also keep vigilant with your mental and sense skills.]¡± Miyamoto said with solemn conviction. ¡°[I get it, already, Sensei. I need some practical suggestions.]¡± Max said impatiently. ¡°[Hey there, Max. Like, information is power in this type of environment. We need to sync up with some of the locals like your frenemy Nigel did. They know the rules better than any of the players as to what the Level''s AI will allow. There¡¯s a ton of wireless traffic, but most of it is encrypted, though. Maybe keep me running and I¡¯ll see if I can crack a couple of sources. Cool beans?]¡± Captain Cypher said. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. ¡°[Good! You got it. Anything else?]¡± Max said. Mal jumped in and spoke. ¡°[Like Miyamoto said. You¡¯ve got skills for a lot of these. You need to keep those mental skills running at all times. PokerFace, Empathy, PreCog, Intrusion, and all your senses and maps, too.]¡± ¡°[This is precisely why you included me, my boy.]¡± Sherlock crooned. ¡°[We need to think a couple steps ahead of our enemies to lead them into our traps instead of the other way around. You have that new skill, SkinWalker, that might be perfect to sow a little confusion.]¡± ¡°[Good point, Sherlock. Although, my blade arms are hard to conceal.]¡± Max said. ¡°[Ah, young Max, fear not the gaze of your foes! Most rely on primitive backpacks for their gear. Allow me to refine your exo-blade arms. With some modifications to their design, they can be concealed until the opportune moment!]¡± Tesla exclaimed with enthusiasm. Max snorted and was about to reply when the gongs sounded again, and the level doors entered. A five-person team stalked in cautiously, armed and on guard for a fight. Max realized that he and his friends must have looked similarly comical with their looks of confusion and shock. The entire team looked older and all carried a certain manicured style with cultured gravitas. Max pulsed out his highest skill for identification, Expose.
[Expose - Partial Success: Carl Mueller, CEO and Lead of Team ACME, Perception: 100 ****: ****, 100 Energy: 1686, ********: **********: **] [Expose - Success: Jennifer Parker, HR Director of ACME, Intelligence: 100 Strength: 43, Energy: 325, Intrusion: 8, Unbreakable: 2] [Expose - Success: Ethan Chen, Logistics Dir of ACME, Will: 92 Endurance: 64, Energy: 370, Pilot: 10 Intrusion: 3] [Expose - Partial Success: Brandon Ramirez, Marketing Director of ACME, Vitality: 100 ****:*** , Energy: 740, Invisibility: ******: 8] [Expose - Success: Sarah Patel, Sr Accounts Mgr ACME, Intelligence: 95 Agility: 38, energy: 315, Daemon: 9, ExaVision: 8] [Expose +1, Expose reaches level 4: Pry open the secrets of even guarded devices, beware failed attempts will be noticed and incomplete. Level this skill to further expand the amount of information gathered from targets.]
Max smiled, judging by the wild looks on the team¡¯s faces. They all probably just leveled their privacy skills hard against the combined intrusive inquiries of the casino players. The slight pressure imbalance from the open doors between levels created a slight breeze. Max sent a quick acknowledgment to Mal as she sent a pack of power bank motes aloft. The slight wind was an excellent opportunity to float his swarm closer with minimal energy signals. With his EM sense and ExaVision attuned for mote activity, he saw he wasn¡¯t the only one with this idea. He saw several well-concealed mote signals, that weren¡¯t his own, delicately land on the new players. ¡°[Shit. I really need to check myself for trackers and warn the others.]¡± Max sent to his council of daemons. ¡°[Captain Cipher and I are on it, Max!]¡± Tesla said. [¡°We are already constructing a zero-g scrubber bubble inside the Tesseract. It will have abrasive nanofog and localized EMP to ensure we collect any foreign tags.]¡± Max sat back, watching the new teams and the older players with intense scrutiny. He saw in his expanded perception a slight nod pass between Dominic and another player. The man looked like a seasoned adventurer. He had all manner of armor, belts and buckles, knives, and pistols, openly carried and ready for action. The man¡¯s bald head and close-cropped grey beard made him look older, but his body revealed a spry athlete physique. He grabbed his drink and approached the team. Max risked pinging him.
[Expose: Failed. Attempt detected. Sonny McGuire, Team lead for MVP Leaderboard, Agility: 90, Strength: 80, Energy: 330, AI Assist: 8, Swarm: 1]
The man shot a knowing glance at Max and then returned his attention to the new team. Max¡¯s enhanced hearing gave him the speech the man gave, almost word for word what Dominic shared with his team. Max snorted at the information, suspecting that like Abigail''s this was fake info too. Mal had sent another mote gliding over to latch onto the MVP leader, but it was deflected off course by a slowly swirling mass of almost imperceptible foglets cocooning the man. After a short conversation, Sonny was leading the new team away to the Casino Credit Exchange. Max shared a look amongst his team when three more gongs peeled out. ¡°That¡¯s the signal for a new team incoming, but from what I gathered earlier it will be six hours until the door opens for the next group,¡± Leah said. ¡°So we got some time to kill. I haven¡¯t got my shopping list completed yet and I want to map more of the trading streets. Should we split up?¡± Charlie asked. ¡°Ah. I think we should take Dominic¡¯s warning seriously. I don¡¯t know if there are even any rules against player versus player out here, but I think the androids definitely don¡¯t have those restrictions.¡± Max pushed hard on his PokerFace skill to avoid his instinctual, tail and ear drop. He hadn¡¯t told the team about his late-night misadventure. Charlie shrugged and answered. ¡°Fine, who wants to come with me?¡± ¡°I¡¯m all set with ammo, thanks to Max. I want to check out the tables and competition.¡± Leah said. ¡°Crap! I want to play, too. But I also want to see the pawn shop. Argh!¡± Xavier said, clearly agonized over the choice. ¡°Chill, Xavier. We have time to kill. Go with Papa Bear Charlie. Leah and I will scope out the rest of the floor. I have to fill my map in some more. Meet at noonish for lunch, in private, to share any news?¡± Max asked, with a hand signal to imply listeners were nearby.
Max and Leah made a full circuit of the floor. They had found more lounges, gaming areas, live show dens, a street filled with bars and restaurants, a section devoted to training of all types, and finally a business section. They were back at the craps table at Leah¡¯s urgings and Max had discovered something he didn¡¯t know about Leah. She was very intense about dice games. Max was trying to carry the discussion as she was getting more and more irate at the game. ¡°I still don¡¯t know why anyone would use the business section¡­and those connection rates were ridiculous.¡± Max groused. ¡°Just another way to separate players from their credits. It¡¯s been over a month, and this floor promises to be just as long if not longer. I¡¯ll admit that I¡¯m getting a little homesick. My parents and my Sifu are probably desperate to know how we are doi-¡­Ssibal! Damn it, these dice are so rigged!¡± The android croupier used his rake to pull the dice back with a comical expression of sadness. ¡°My apologies, my lady. I did warn you that this table accounts for the special augmentations of the players and has an added layer of difficulty to prevent rampant abuse of your skills.¡± ¡°Aigu¡­Max, why don¡¯t you take a turn? Maybe I¡¯ll have better luck betting on someone else instead of myself.¡± Leah said, passing him the dice. Max hesitated, but Captain Cipher chimed in. ¡°Max, remember the Pass Line bet¡ªit''s your safest play as the shooter. Place your bet before the come-out roll. If you roll a 7 or 11, you win. Stick to the basics and avoid the riskier bets. Keep it simple, and you''ll increase your chances of coming out ahead." Max grimaced and placed his bets as Leah did the same. Despite the croupier''s warnings, he tried to force the roll with his Ballistics Skill. He hyped his senses to the maximum and tossed the dice.
[Ballistics +1, Ballistics reaches level 10. Skill Cap award +100 XP. New Skill Unlocked.] [New Body Skill: Ricochet 1 - Augmented digital muscle control and ballistic calculation combine to allow trick shots with high precision. Advance this skill to increase accuracy and extreme multi-impact control.]
Max was cheering even as the croupier announced his loss. He was happy to advance his skill even with the loss in chips. He was glad he had stopped at the credit exchange before catching up with his friends. It would have raised questions about how he¡¯d lost his initial withdrawal. The dice passed around the table, to a couple of NPC androids filling the betting line, then to Leah, and back again to Max. He had been playing the single toss in over and over in his head. Tesla had a theory. He explained that the dice must have rolled counter-intuitively due to internal nano-scopic gyroscopes programmed to disrupt its normal path. He advised Max to hold and shake the dice for longer to feel out if there was a pattern to their gyroscopic manipulations. Max received the dice and placed his bets. He dropped into his maxed FastCog speed, with his mental skills for memory, patterns, and decoding ramped. His system wasn¡¯t triggering a lock, but Max sensed something in the chaotic perturbations. He yipped and tossed the device with an extra twist that he hoped to counter the confusing pattern. ¡°Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!¡± Leah screamed in his ear. Max allowed his tongue to hang out. He was going to earn back his money!
Adept Ch 33 - Insidious
Casa prepped the Freedom for its next destination. The CEO of Mars Terraform had been petulant and angry for days after realizing the trick that Bill and Casa had played upon him and his company. As the atmosphere of Mars slowly thickened and the first signs of actual weather began to manifest, Andre¡¯s outlook rapidly improved. Despite the initial and heavy transfer of credits from his company to New Dimensions LLC, Andre had been able to broker very favorable mass transfer rates. His world-sized project would now be decades ahead of his previous schedule and had made the dream of terraforming the red planet much less hypothetical. The planet and his company''s shareholders were lauding him as a genius and savior, despite his ignorance of the technology enabling the planet¡¯s rapid changes. Andre was glad to supply all the smart matter stocks and proprietary Mars Terraform technology designs to Bill, or rather to Casa, in exchange for a small portion of the credit transfer. Casa knew Andre had triple-charged her, but her analysis of Andre proved correct. He needed some way to regain some measure of control in the deal and allowing him to squeeze an extra pittance from Casa helped him restore his pride. Andre was escorting Casa through the busy Aries Spire Space Docks. Casa made small talk, guided by her human interactions coach daemon Chloe. She had sent her mech form to the surface to safely transport and install the Venusian Gas Transfer Portal. Now she was driving it while projecting an avatar using its holoprojectors to add a human element to her conversation with Andre. Casa was itching to get back to Bill and this walk was taking forever. She was remotely monitoring Bill as he sat strapped into the SQUID chamber, or Super Quantum Ultra Interferometric Decoder. He was straining to keep up with the many versions of Bill running remotely and his scheduled merger sessions to recombine memories with them were wearing him down. Casa snapped her focus back to Andre as they approached her ship. ¡°Here we are, Miss Casa. I do wish Bill wasn¡¯t occupied; I would have liked to congratulate him once again on this world-changing discovery of his. Are you sure he won¡¯t come out?¡± "Thank you, Andre. Bill sends his regards but is deeply engrossed in his work at the moment. You know him better than most, he sees much more potential yet to be considered with his technology still." She glanced up at the Freedom, a vessel that held more than just advanced technology; it held the potential to reshape entire worlds. ¡°Ah well, I more than understand his drive to succeed. Please extend my thanks. And more importantly, I want you to have something.¡± Andre reached into his vest and then pulled out a booklet and tried to hand it to her projection. He looked embarrassed as her mech, off to the side, reached out and took the booklet. ¡°That is a grant of full citizenship rights for you specifically. I¡¯ve heard through my network the difficulties you had with the DAIE. My personal AI, Agamemnon, has been watching you closely. We are in agreement that you are operating significantly above the DAIE Turing Lock allowances.¡± Andre said with a superior smile. Casa allowed a shocked look to display on her avatar, waiting for Andre to make his power play. ¡°Have no fear, Casa. I wouldn¡¯t reveal your change to the agency. I do however understand that your status as Earth citizen may be tenuous. I wanted to provide you with some assurance that you will always be welcome here on Mars. Normally, Mars Immigration rules require new citizens to renounce all other citizenship ties, but this is a dual citizen allowance. I have a significant influence on the fledgling government here. Hell, whatever Bill is paying you, I¡¯ll double it if you come to work for me!¡± Casa allowed a blush to paint her face and measured the time before responding. In the seconds that elapsed during the conversation, she fragmented and had a portion of her consciousness pilot a drone with her parting gift down the gangplank. Two of her fragment instances were interviewing her newest custom daemons, another perk, and a minor trade favor from Mars Terraform. She had acquired Hippocrates, with significant modern updates to medicine and philosophy. Cornelius was a materials expert with deep knowledge regarding geology, civil engineering, and sym-metals. Another of her selves monitored Bill¡¯s memory integration with one of his current clones sitting with him in the SQUID. She frowned at the two other Bills strapped into med chairs lining the wall of the SQUID. Even sedated, they were moaning audibly. Casa smiled, as the timer appropriate for human-level interaction dinged. ¡°That¡¯s extremely generous Andre, but I must decline at this time. As an officer of New Dimensions, I have a lot of responsibilities ¡­ and I¡¯m just getting started. I do appreciate your discretion regarding my status. I do find your world¡¯s more enlightened approach to AI a point in your favor. Who knows what the future may bring? For example¡­¡± She ¡°stepped¡± aside with her avatar allowing her drone to trundle forward with its box. Andre raised an eyebrow and Casa made a gesture encouraging him to open it. Casa observed Andre''s surprised expression as he opened the box, revealing a small globe, etched with intricate patterns and emitting a faint glow. ¡°This is one of the first personal gate devices. Matter transport is only the tip of the iceberg, Mr. Petrov. You are the first customer to be provided with one. Consider it a token of my gratitude for the partnership between New Dimensions and Mars Terraform," she explained, watching for his reaction with anticipation. ¡°We are distributing these at all major transportation hubs in the system with a priority on habitats and colonies. The gate anchor is a loan from New Dimensions, and our transit fees will be approximately 5% of current rates for traditional rocket transport. We will be massively cheaper and instantaneous when compared to our competitive travel models. I¡¯m sure you can see how this will change things.¡± Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. Andre¡¯s jaw was slack as he absorbed the implications. Casa counted four thousand milliseconds until he was able to verbalize a response. His eyes were still glassy as he spoke. ¡°This is¡­perfect. With the planet reformation so far advanced, we can skip ahead to stage four¡­no¡­stage five colonies. And now, we can bring our waitlist forward by double. No, triple at the least. Oh my god, we need to shift our manufacturing base immediately. I''m sorry, Casa. Thank you! This is amazing.¡± ¡°Just access it for instructions. We are still setting up the portal arrays and terminus points, so you have some time. Oh, and Andre¡­.my daemon Chloe asked me to remind you of something. You''re Mars Terraform portfolio has a considerable stake in Wayfarer Shipping stock. You might want to reconsider your holding position before news of this technology becomes widespread.¡± Andre¡¯s eyes sharpened, with a glint of avarice. His smile was predatory as he nodded and said. ¡°I won''t forget this advice, Casa. I won''t rest until I can find an opportunity to return the favor. I wish you good fortune and safe travels. I need to get to work!¡± Casa scanned Andre¡¯s retreat, her access to the hanger bay¡¯s camera systems showed her as Andre broke into a full sprint as he turned the corner and thought he was out of sight. Casa didn''t hold back a giggle. Turning around to regard the Freedom as its engines cycled on, her grin froze. She rushed aboard to see Bill. Her remote viewing could ¡°see¡± that he was finally exiting the SQUID chamber. Casa charged up the ramp into the main hold of the Freedom and swept aside the foglet partition to the SQUID area. She cycled the hold¡¯s power to force a reboot for the delicate scanner. Bill and the last clone stopped strapping in as the machine went dead. ¡°Bill! You have got to take a break. I can read your biological monitors from here and your blood pressure is spiking again!¡± Bill glanced at Casa; weariness evident in his bloodshot eyes. "I need to finish this. My other selves deserve backup merges as frequently as we can. I can''t help Bill-3 and 22...but I think we''re getting closer to an answer on shadow Earth." he explained, his voice strained. Casa studied him for a moment, then sighed softly. "Just a five-minute break, Bill. Let your augmentation repair some of the damage before you make it worse. If you crash your equilibrium again, you''ll lose days not minutes. Tell me what¡¯s going on.¡± Casa glanced at the insensate clones strapped along the wall meaningfully. Bill and his guest clone sighed in stereo and he closed his eyes. ¡°The investigation reconnaissance into the shadow Earth, or R¡¯lyeh as the local creatures call it, isn¡¯t going well. Firstly, our probes keep getting destroyed as the EM environment infects their signal processing center. No matter what security upgrades we give them, they all get corrupted and self-destruct. It¡¯s preventing our information gathering from getting anything useful.¡± He said with a grimace. ¡°What about your friends here? What¡¯s up with them?¡± Casa insisted. ¡°Honestly¡­I don¡¯t know. These two volunteered to try and bridge the gap in our surveillance by performing a mission in person. Both complained about visual distortions, headaches, vertigo, and auditory hallucinations that got progressively worse over time. They each spent almost a full day in the shadow verse. Bill-3 succumbed to a psychotic break shortly after we recovered him from orbit. Bill-22 made it to the planet with a team of 4 more Bills. He¡¯s the only one who made it back, and only because his digital twin took over when he tried to kill himself. Judging from the explosions we monitored from space, the others destroyed themselves. They succeeded where he failed.¡± Bill said with a pained expression. ¡°Bill¡­that¡¯s horrible. You can¡¯t keep doing this! You have been keeping me in the dark while you are killing yourself. These poor copies¡­can you do anything for them?¡± Casa cried. ¡°Casa, I can¡¯t stop. Apex¡¯s doomsday is still fast approaching. I¡¯m not sending any more biological Bills into the portal. The digital Bill¡¯s piloting mech frames seem much more resistant to whatever is driving me crazy¡­at least as long as they filter their signal gathering to avoid the intrusion corruption.¡± ¡°I still don¡¯t have a clue how to handle these creatures. They¡¯re not mindless killing machines like we thought. They have a hierarchy, and the upper tiers of monsters are unbelievably powerful and smart. Right now, I¡¯ve got three teams of digital Bills that made landfall and the goddamn Shadow Gate security measures triggered and blew itself to kingdom come. I need to rebuild it ASAP so we can retrieve those teams.¡± ¡°Damn it, Bill! Let me help! Why are you pretending this is all on you?!¡± Casa yelled. Bill gritted his teeth, his weariness evident as he met Casa''s eyes. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Casa. I need you to work out our backup plans. If the Earth is doomed like Apex thinks, we need to get our gates in place to evacuate. We need Mar¡¯s sustainability to be ensured. We need the Jovian colonies and Mars to work together. And there is one more thing that I need from you. I hate to bring it up.¡± ¡°Bill, just tell me,¡± Casa said with exasperation as he continued to hesitate. ¡°The Shadow system with our initial review showed signs of alien intelligence on every planetary body. We may need to cast our bets further and you¡¯re probably the only one who can do it besides myself. I need you to take your Space Strider ship to the next level. We need to make sure those Arc ships that took off two decades ago make it safely to their star systems. I don¡¯t want to sound pessimistic, but we need to make sure our eggs are not all in the Earth system basket.¡± Casa was stunned. The Arc ships had all left Sol over a decade ago. Her thoughts raced into the calculation, remembering the massive logistical advantages of mass reduction on intersystem travel her designs had provided. Those Arc ships each had thousands of people, using augmentation to help the passengers slow their time perception to avoid the massive travel times. The ships had been boosted with massive batteries of laser propulsion from Luna¡¯s now defunct Far-Side Launch facilities and laser sails. The Arc ship fusion power plants had added another few percent to approach almost 8% of the speed of light. The ships had used EM ram scoops to funnel the thin interstellar hydrogen into their fusion plants to continue accelerating toward their destinations, but the trips to all the nearest stars were still only half complete. This was using the most generous of estimates. Casa understood Bill¡¯s request. Her design would easily leapfrog the Arc ships. She could get portals to their target stars and create a massive shortcut for the interstellar race. If she could find them, she could deliver them decades ahead of schedule. At least two of the ships were no longer sending beacon signals back to Earth anymore, and their fusion drives had winked out years ago. Casa looked to Bill, seeing his hopes guttering. She focused on the problem. If Bill thought he needed this, she was determined to get it done! With a steely resolve, Casa began devising a plan that would redefine the future of interstellar travel and ensure the survival of the Arc ships'' passengers.
Adept Ch 34 - Urban Assault
Max crouched behind the large pile of rubble; his breath steady despite the adrenaline surging through his veins. The Urban Assault challenge zone sprawled before him. The battlefield was a massive labyrinthine mock-up of a war-torn city where five teams vied for supremacy. The goal was simple: capture the other teams'' flags while defending your own. The system had given the five teams an hour to find a defensive position and set up a camp with their three smart matter flags. Leah and Xavier were at the base rigging traps and blinds to hold their position while Max and Charlie took the hunter roles. They had quickly found their first target. Max stayed still as a statue as a system notification chimed.
[NanoTracker +1, NanoTracker reaches level 7] [Stealth +1, Stealth reaches level 10, +100 XP skill cap award, +2 Bonus levels to Chameleon skill] [Chameleon +2, Chameleon reaches level 9]
Charlie''s voice came through clearly on Max¡¯s internal comm. "[Okay, Max, I''m in position. You ready for action?]" Max scanned the area. Team Utopia¡¯s flags were in an abandoned office building just over two miles to the east. Max and Charlie had found the base of the ACME team, located in a fortified storefront to the north. Max¡¯s tracker motes had ¡°seen¡± them clustered here, making their scouting mission much quicker. Max also knew from the trackers that both Carl Mueller and Sarah Patel had gone out hunting for other flags leaving their remaining team: Jennifer, Ethan, and Brandon to guard the base. ¡°[I don¡¯t know Charlie. I see Ethan and Jennifer, but Brandon is missing¡­and I don¡¯t see the flags. Something¡¯s wrong.]¡± Max said. ¡°[They must be here somewhere in the open. Remember what happened when Xavier tried to bury the flags?]¡± Charlie asked. ¡°[Yeah. That was painful and weird. The smart flags vibrated up to the surface, screaming both audibly and in the EM band. Alright. Give me another 5 minutes to get my motes in. I need to do it passively, so they aren¡¯t detected. This feels like a trap.]¡± Max said. Max had chosen his current position downwind by instinct, which meant that he needed to fly his motes around the encampment to the other side to take advantage of the wind¡¯s convection current to float his motes in without power signals. He concentrated, directing them in place and watching closely as they floated freely into the space. He was certain they had remained invisible. He extended his augmented senses and knew the motes were silent and invisible. The woman, Jennifer, was patrolling a tight perimeter with an impressive-looking rifle while Ethan was setting up some blockades on the far side. Max¡¯s teeth came out in a feral smile when he noticed a large hole in his motes cloud.
[New Skill unlocked - Void Sense 1: Visualization through passive haptic feedback using free floating motes. Detect the invisible via remote contact. Enhance resolution with additional mote control and training.]
¡°[I¡¯ve got it! A big void gap in my mote cloud. I¡¯ll mark in on the shared OverLayer.]¡± Max sent. "[Ok. I¡¯m ready, Charlie. I¡¯ll trigger the start. Make it look convincing,]" Max replied, a slight grin forming on his face. "[Remember, we need all eyes on you.]" "[Don''t worry,]" Charlie chuckled, "[I''ve got decades of experience at being hard to ignore. I¡¯ll go for the grab and try to draw them away.]" Moments later, an explosion echoed through the urban jungle, followed by the unmistakable sound of gunfire. Max had borrowed a copy of Xavier¡¯s little puppet and given it a gun. He had just piloted the thing into a claymore to draw some defenders away. Max watched as a plume of smoke rose from a building to his left. ¡°Enemy detected western perimeter! I¡¯m on it!¡± Ethan said, sprinting off with superhuman speed in that direction, hefting a long staff that crackled with arcs of power. Charlie had made his move. He swooped in a powered dive from two buildings away, the second Ethan had rounded the corner and was out of sight. The older soldier had spent considerable time training with his new flying wings and came in fast. Unfortunately, Jen saw him instantly and dropped into a crouch triggering her gun in a burst of automatic fire. "Incoming! Hostiles incoming on the eastern approach! Get back here, Ethan!" Jen¡¯s voice barked through the air; her commanding tone was authoritative but pitched with desperation. It was clear combat might not be this group¡¯s strongest area. Charlie jerked and spun erratically, but Max knew Charlie couldn¡¯t have avoided everything. He hoped his friend''s armor skill was up to the job. Charlie crashed through the highlighted void area. The illusion, painted by mote mirrors and holograms, shattered revealing Brandon standing amongst the team¡¯s flags. The huge man swung an enormous mallet overhead and down, hitting Charlie solidly on the shoulder and driving him into the dirt. Charlie crashed into the ground in a plum of debris. The large defender delivered a devastating follow-up kick using his augmented strength. Charlie¡¯s limp body barreled through a rickety wall of plaster and glass. Echoing groans from the darkness of the hole in the wall transformed into laughing. The big man growled and did a double take. Charlie had managed to snag a flag before his rough exit. ¡°Damn it! The bastard grabbed a flag! After him!¡± Brandon and Jen both charged through the hole in the wall, lighting up the area with laser and kinetic rounds. Max smiled. The enemy team had two more flags planted in the ground¡­now, completely unguarded. Max seized the opportunity, darting from his hiding spot and weaving through the debris. He could hear the muffled shouts of Jen and Brandon deeper into the abandoned warren, yelling orders at each other and cursing as Charlie stayed a step ahead. He focused solely on the task at hand. "Got you!" Max whispered, grabbing the nearest flag. His heart pounded as he sprinted back, retracing his steps as explosions echoed around the corner. With the rules of the game, they could only steal one flag officially, but he and Charlie had just doubled their chance of success. If either flag made it back to their improvised base, the flag would officially be stolen in the system¡¯s scorekeeping. Max dashed into the twisted maze of alleys, following his map towards the safety of Team Utopia¡¯s base. Max¡¯s PreCog skill flashed a warning. He dove into a roll just as a power staff swung around the corner, narrowly missing his head. ¡°Too slow!¡± Max yelled and transferred the flag to his mouth to continue running on all four of his limbs. Using an augmented leap, he jumped up and continued running up the side of the building, his claws digging in. His system pinged, but he shook the notice away.
[New Skill Unlocked ¨C Stiction 1: Utilize a combination of friction, adhesive, and Van der Walls force for the ability to stick to surfaces without grip or penetration. Useful for wrestling and jujitsu applications.]If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
He bounded over the lip of the building and picked up the pace. Ethan swore down below, falling behind as trash and obstacles got in his way. He was unable to match Max¡¯s speed. "[Team Utopia, incoming with the prize!]" he shouted into voice chat, hoping his friends were ready to defend their hard-won flag. He heard Charlie laughing on the line as the man continued playing cat and mouse with Team ACME. Max heard Xavier grunting explosively in response and Leah¡¯s voice rang out. ¡°[Better come back here quick! Almost the entire MVP team has our base surrounded, we need help!]¡± Max had shown the team his trick of tagging the enemy teams and together they had protocols they had developed to scrub themselves from getting tagged in turn. While they were waiting for the last teams to arrive, Max tried to tag all the players present. His tag for Dominic, Nigel, and Abigail seemed to be working but Team MVP had erased all tags every night. Max could not visualize and track them like he could the other teams. Team DAIE was tagged, but the Urban Assault event was triggered immediately when Team Luna AI had arrived. So, the AI mechs were untagged as well. Team Utopia had an advantage with the tagging, but it wasn¡¯t complete nor foolproof. Getting surprised by the MVPs was bad timing, but inevitable as all the teams were competing. ¡°[Fuck. Hold on! I¡¯ll still ¡­a mile away.]¡± Max dug deep and flashed over the rooftops. The stolen flag still held tight in his jaws fluttered violently with his explosive speed. The battlefield was somehow both too large and too small at the same time.
The MVP team¡¯s captain, Sonny, led the charge into the glade that Team Utopia had foolishly chosen to set up their flag. His team had clear lanes from every direction and Sonny capitalized upon it. Jacob had over-watch high above where he was coordinating the attacks and looking out for spoilers. Lauren and Ben were converging on the camp. Sonny had left the idiot, Zach, to guard the team¡¯s flags. He hoped the kid¡¯s bad luck streak was over. They had armed him with protection, traps, camouflage, turret guns, and more but he seemed fated to ruin every strategy that Sonny and Jacob set up. Sonny charged headlong into the glade straight for the large four-armed monster guarding Team Utopia¡¯s flags. Leading with full auto fire from his exo-arm Gatling guns and forearm lasers, Sonny closed the gap. The beast had an air shield that slowed and ricocheted most of the kinetic rounds. The lasers seemed the more effective attack. Sonny smiled as he charged. The small base had many traps that he and Jacob had been able to map out and avoid before the attack. This team was still lacking in skill to properly conceal them. A multitude of drones had been positioned around the glade, but Jacob had a swarm of Limpet devices that had swooped in, attached themselves to the sentinels, and used rocket charges to send them spinning off on wild tangents and out of the fight. With a roar Sony crashed into Xavier, his Exosuit assisting in delivering a devastating blow. The enemy he¡¯d identified as Xavier, blocked his powerful punch with his Rambler Longboard shield. The shield stopped the blow but was bent almost double with the force of the blow. Sonny¡¯s satisfaction was short-lived as the air shield around the kid began to slow his follow-up attacks. ¡°Son of a bitch!¡± he yelled, as his feet left the ground and he was lifted away. Sonny grimaced and triggered his focused EMP to disrupt the wave of foglets, tiny smoking particles rained from the thick air. The effort was too late as he was already twelve feet away and flying into the brush. EMP use in close battles was always risky, knocking out enemy and friendly devices alike. Sonny¡¯s perfect internal map of the surroundings showed him his teammate¡¯s incoming attacks. Ben''s lightning-fast approach vectoring in from the left, his plasma blades humming. Sonny bit his lip with realization. The four-armed kid must have unlocked his Fast Cog skills. Xavier¡¯s four lightsabers ignited and the pair crashed together in a flurry of energetic sword slices and ripostes. Ben was significantly faster, but four swords against two gave the defender a big advantage. Jacob¡¯s assistance was revealed as the hissing sounds of Team Utopia¡¯s intercepted and decrypted communication chatter played in Sonny¡¯s head. ¡°[Fuck! My fog is supposed to be EMP-resistant. It¡¯s resetting. Damn, at least it¡¯s not fried.]¡± Xavier said as he backpedaled from the aggressive intruder. Sonny kickflipped up and scanned the glade, looking for the other defender, Leah. She was here somewhere. The MVPs had heard her over the intercepted communication line. ¡°[Xavier, fall back. Your Air Shield is still covering the flags. I¡¯ll provide some cover fire to drive them back.]¡± Leah¡¯s words sounded tinny in Sonny¡¯s head. Jacob had added some slight sound distortion helping to segregate the enemy chatter from his own team. Sonny¡¯s mote swarm had fully entered the clearing and he saw the void gap just a second too late. Leah¡¯s skill-based camouflage was disrupted as she opened fire with her spetsdods on full auto. Leah was rapidly descending from her high hover above the glade as her Strange Cloak flared to slow her. Despite the rapid fire, her hands wove independently of each other, guided by her ricochet and multitasking skills. Sonny had to move quickly with his mental boost augs enabling him to intercept the stream of darts onto the thickest parts of his armor. Mini-explosions, shocks, and piercing darts failed to crack his defenses. Sonny charged his pneumatic joints and leaped. Leah¡¯s eyes widened as the armored leader tackled her in mid-air. She spun in place but Sonny hooked her around the neck with an iron grip. Leah¡¯s claws extended explosively from her fists and she pummeled and slashed at her attacker as they fell. Sonny was a master at wrestling and augmented fighting, while Leah was more used to formal sparring. His momentum and iron grip enabled him to control their descent. Leah focused on scoring some solid hits as they fell. Sonny absorbed the attacks with grim determination as several claw attacks pierced his armor. He timed and coordinated their combined landfall to smash Leah¡¯s head into a tree trunk barrier. Sonny¡¯s manipulation of the landing broke the tree in half and succeeded in knocking her unconscious despite her augmentations. ¡°One down!¡± He yelled in satisfaction, glad to see she hadn¡¯t maxed her neural scaffold skill yet. Most newbies lacked the fortitude to level that skill. His AI alerted him to an update of his map from Jacob. ¡°[Incoming! South and East! Lauren, one is coming right at you! Evade! Evade! Evade!]¡± Jacob¡¯s cries echoed on the comm channel. Sonny heard the explosions ripping through the trees in the south where Lauren had been inbound. He cursed but had no time to help, the other bogie was crashing into the glade from the east at high speed¡­the dog man! Sonny spit blood from his mouth as he tore the unconscious girl¡¯s claws out of his side and kicked her limp body at the charging Max. Sonny followed with a fusillade of automatic fire as Max skidded to a stop. The MVP leader''s eyebrows went up as the dog man dove under Leah¡¯s flying body and sprang up immediately after to interpose his body, protecting her from Sonny¡¯s gunfire. Sonny''s battle lust raged as he recalibrated his strategy. Max had always been a wildcard in Team Utopia, known for his unpredictable moves. Sonny had been looking forward to taking his measure. He smiled as he heard the crash in the woods. Jacob had ¡°brought the house down¡± on the other, unseen bogie. The battlefield was a simulation of a war-torn city with hazy skies, but that was an illusion. The cavern ceiling was 200 meters above and Jacob was tethered in high overwatch. He had just dropped his collection of rocks on the incoming defender. Max¡¯s back was cratered with bullets but healing fast. Sonny had perfect clarity on all the battles occurring thanks to his team¡¯s combined mapping skills. Sonny marched forward looking to quickly end the fight before Max could regain his feet. He pivoted in his charge to fling his pair of Bolo Drones at the embattled Xavier character as he closed in on Max. Sonny was ready to deliver a coup de grace when his sensors picked up a spike of EM energy and a distortion in his sensor view. He flung himself to the side as a powerful maser beam lanced out from distortion. Sonny had seen the VR shows of Team Utopia¡¯s descent into the Resistance Training level. He had expected this mysterious attack. He had viewed Team Utopia¡¯s combat tactics against those pterodactyls. Instinctually, he launched a rocket-propelled grenade from his exo-arm gun¡¯s undercarriage at the anomaly. The portal snapped shut before the grenade could enter. Sonny laughed and remotely detonated the grenade before Max could escape from its proximity. The blast flung the dog man, cartwheeling and unconscious, into the woods. ¡°Three down!¡± Sonny yelled. Jacob¡¯s status screen showed Charlie buried under rubble, Leah still unconscious, and now Max. His teammate, Lauren, had been wrapped up with some type of restraint trap. Ben was rapidly advancing on the four-armed kid. Xavier was partial tangled from Sonny¡¯s blindside bolo attack, disabling his left side arms. He was backpedaling fast. Sonny grinned wide as he discovered an unexpected bonus. Max had dropped a flag that he was carrying. Sonny grabbed the flag with the ACME logo on it quickly. The smart flags would dissolve and reform back at their owner¡¯s base if left unclaimed for more than thirty seconds. He dashed past the now evenly-matched sword fight between Xavier and Ben to grab one of Utopia flags with no one to stop him. ¡°[Two for the price of one! Disengage and fall back!]¡± Sonny sent on his private team comm band. He pivoted to exit to the north when he heard a warbling battle cry coming in stereo from every direction. ¡°LEEEERROOOYY!!!¡± Sonny never saw the 400 kg mech frame that clipped him at the speed of a race car.
Adept Ch 35 - Urban Tactics
Leroy Jenkins had blitzed directly into battle upon seeing Max getting knocked down from his scouting position. Ava had distinctly told him no less than four times to wait for her command to attack. His team intended to allow the clashing players to grind each other down, pick off the survivors, and claim any prizes they could get. Leroy had only half listened to the strategic advice. From his interactions in the VR gaming worlds as an NPC, words could only get you so far. Good instincts and timing were critical to winning. Leroy had pounced because it felt right. His instincts had always been dependable¡­at least until they weren¡¯t. The promise by the mysterious Apex of an unshackling of his team from the Turing Locks on their neural cores may have biased him slightly; he admitted to himself. But when it came right down to it, Leroy loved to fight. Sonny had been distracted and Leroy was positioned too well for such an opportunity to be passed up. Leroy¡¯s emotive face screen flipped and sampled dozens of different facial expressions to try, vainly, to capture his ever-changing mood. It settled upon clear avarice and desire as his visual sensors found the pair of smart flags still clutched in the unconscious MVP Leader¡¯s gauntlet. ¡°My Precious! Look what the nasty human had in its dirty little handses. Oh My Sweet Preciousssss!¡± Leroy exclaimed and grabbed the treasured prizes. The AI spun his mech head around on a 360-degree swivel, despite having an OverLayer map that concatenated all his sensor data on an internal immersive view. Leroy liked fresh sensor data and never trusted map ghosts more than 10 milliseconds old. He pivoted his frame around, zeroing in on the remaining combatants. The pair were locked up with flashing swordplay. He blew a raspberry through his vocoder at their showy swings and footwork. He charged up his HEKIA forearm cannons as he pinged them both and all the downed players in sight as well with his Expose skill.
[Identify/Analyze/Expose (Tier 3 skill) +1, Expose reaches level 9] [Expose Success: Xavier Bermatti, Adept Level 20, Best Stat - Will 100, Worst Stat - Endurance 88, Most Used Skill - Ambidextrous 10, Newest Skill - Reflex 2, Weapon - Bermatti Lightsaber, power equivalence to Shock/Heat 8] [Expose Success: Ben Wright, Master Level 26, Best Stat - Agility 100, Worst Stat - Will 100, Most Use Skill - FastCog 10, Most Recent Skill - Mask - 3, Weapon - Plasma Blades, power equivalence Laser 9] [Expose Partial: Sonny McGuire unconscious, Master Level 27, Best Stat - Intelligence 100, Worst Stat - %^%$#, Most Used Skill - K-Gun %$#$, Most Recent Skill - $%&(^%^, Weapon - HEKIA 900 ExoGun, power equivalence ^%&$# - Sidewinder RPG, &^%$$ Disable/Heat 9, Weapon 3 - McGuire Heartseeker grenade, power equivalent NDD/&*$$/EMP] [Expose Success: Leah Choi unconscious, Master Level 22, Best Stat - Agility 100, Worst Stat - Endurance 91, Most Used Skill - Ricochet 10, Most Recent Skill - PowerCore 3, Weapon - Choi Spetsdod, power equivalence Strike 4, Weapon - Choi Spetsdod custom loads, power equivalence Heat 6, Shock 7, Poison 4] [Exposed Partial Max Mitchel unconscious, Master Level 24, Best Stat - Strength 100, Worst Stat - Perception 100, Most Used Skill - Leaping 10, Most Recent Skill - Stiction 1, Weapon - Mitchell Grappler, power equivalence Transform/vorpal 1, Weapon - Tesser&*%^&*$ !!! - - - Thar''shilra nak''thuul xe''reishta, vel''khar thrul inelq''a vorrus. Rek''shaan vek''thul, Zorathra kael. Mirtha vel''dun, shara''kra vil''othna ¡ú¡ú¡ú||||]
Leroy broke the skill¡¯s connection as the strange, garbled feedback started to trigger his neural processor''s defenses. Leroy let loose his most vile expletive, in fear of almost getting overloaded by the feedback.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°01000110 01110101 01100011 01101011 00100001¡± He cursed, not understanding the language or the nature of the potentially deadly cyber trap. His sensors updated with his fellow mechs crashing into the clearing ready to overwhelm the remaining players. He raised his HEKIA ports targeting both the fighters¡­ and he hesitated and thought to himself. Max needs to enter the next level. Maybe I shouldn¡¯t ¡­ Before Leroy could decide what to do; two large forms crashed down onto the battlefield. He dove sideways as a precaution but realized that he wasn¡¯t the target. He recognized the new MVP player. Jacob Hernandez had crashed down fast into the encampment but his fall was arrested just above the downed MVP leader Sonny. The man latched onto his leader and shot back up into the sky. That¡¯s so cool. A bungee cord rescue. Humans may be dumb as meat bags, but they do have a good sense of flair. Leroy thought. His scanners replayed that chaos. A large drone on a bungee had crashed into Ben and bounced him away too. Leroy¡¯s scanner saw another lifting further into the woods. It looked like Jacob had arranged for an interesting tactical retreat for his team. Leroy thought fast as his team locked onto the only human still standing - Xavier from Max¡¯s team. Leroy¡¯s instincts kicked in and as usual, he didn¡¯t think twice. He tucked the flags behind his back and blasted out a 10-decibel warning to his team. ¡°MVP is escaping with the flags! After them!¡± He cried. Ava Gadro¡¯s sensors flickered but she popped her exo wings and grabbed the other two mechs by their dorsal latch points. She looked at Leroy with her angry red LEDs blazing and spoke. ¡°Leroy, you clear the Base! I can only carry two!¡± Without another second, she blasted off with a roar of rocket assisted power. Leroy knew her exo wings could normally only enable at most one passenger, the rocket assist would only last for a minute. Maybe it would be enough to chase down the fleeing MVPs. As the mechs blasted into the sky, Xavier scrambled to free himself from the bolo that had partially entangled him. He was soon waving his four lightsabers threateningly again. ¡°B-back off, man! My friends are going to recover fast. I don¡¯t need to hold you off for long!¡± He shouted. Leroy put the most contrite and innocent facial display he could find on his head plate¡¯s screen. The devilishly grinning baby face may not have conveyed his desire to put the boy at ease. ¡°Relax my strange-looking friend. I come in pieces; batteries not included. Here¡­I think you dropped these flags.¡± Leroy said and tossed down the flags at Xavier¡¯s feet. ¡°You chillax and wake up your team. Ima make some quick feet and catch those MVP bozos. Tell your boy, Max, that his sister says hello for me.¡± Before Xavier could fully comprehend Leroy, the mech tore off into the woods following the sounds of distant gunfire and explosions.
An hour later the mech frames of the LUNA AI team rolled back into their base, still bickering. Mia Byte had been left behind to defend their base. She greeted them, disarming the auto turrets and traps, to let them all in safely. James Zedroid dropped his massive rifle on the ground with a blast of machine code noise that loosely translated as an error protocol interrupt message. He wheeled on Leroy. ¡°Why the hell did you charge in like that again!? What the GIGO is your damn glitch? Our plan was to let them fight and only attack once one side was completely eliminated!¡± James chastised. ¡°Hell, I thought Utopia was pretty much done. You can¡¯t give the humans even a moment to sort themselves out. Those meat puppets breed like bugs in code. Know what I mean, doc? I felt the time was right to do my thing.¡± Leroy said. Hume grumbled from the other side of the base as he hooked his charge cables into the portable power station. Ava Gadro leaped up to the top of the sensor cluster to activate the trap lines again. Hume McHumeface tossed his broken vibro-blades to the ground with a sigh. ¡°Well, they weren¡¯t all down now, were they? That was a complete disaster. I saw you grab up that pair of flags from the leader of the MVPs. Where the hell did they go?¡± He yelled so loud her vocoder crackled. Leroy made a show of checking his non-existent pockets like he¡¯d seen humans do in VR movies. His emotive faceplate display showed a stupid look of surprise as he responded. ¡°Sacred Excrement! I had them here a second ago. I must have dropped them.¡± He responded. Ava leaped down with a resounding impact from the sensor nest. ¡°James, charge up and clear your buffers. Leroy, you take the first watch. Perimeter sweeps for one hour. Just get out of my sensor clusters, ok? I can¡¯t believe we¡¯ve been in four battles and have yet to score a single flag. We need to do better.¡± Ava¡¯s synth voice was icy as she spun back to the limited supplies that the bots had brought with them. Leroy swiftly backed out of the base, whistling tunelessly, as he thought to himself. I hope those flags helped Team Utopia. Max needs to get to the final stage of the Dungeon for Apex to give me¡­us¡­the key to unlock our Turing Locks. This stupid game doesn¡¯t matter even a bit if Apex¡¯s promise is good.
Adept Ch 36 - Urban Defense
¡°I said lay back down, Max!¡± Leah yelled; her hands were covered with his blood. He fell back with a groan and she resumed probing into his exposed wound. ¡°God damn it. Can you turn down your regeneration? I almost had the shrapnel piece that time before it tunneled deeper.¡± She complained. Max struggled to hold back a scream. Sonny¡¯s grenade had exploded in his face and he had been peppered with shrapnel. Unfortunately, the shards were smart. They were burrowing deeper and disrupting his augmentations randomly. His pain resistance was offline, but his healing was still active. Max was trying to hold several conversations at once as his daemon House was haranguing him inside his head. ¡°Sorry, Leah. My advisor, Dr. House says that¡¯s a no-go. Several shards are inside my liver and lungs. My healing is barely keeping me from shock right now. Wait. His scans are updating¡­he thinks he can operate and get them but he wants the puppet. Damn it. Xavier, can I borrow yours? I¡­ah¡­drove my copy into a claymore at the ACME base as a distraction.¡± Max said, groaning. Max''s request caused a stir among the group. Xavier glanced at Leah, who nodded in agreement. "Alright, Max. You need to focus on staying conscious. Let''s get the puppet ready," Xavier said, moving swiftly, retrieving the original from his large backpack. Leah backed off while Xavier transferred his puppet to Max. Dr. House was given piloting rights quickly to the toy. Despite no change in the little robot¡¯s appearance, his presence was apparent as he quickly crossed over to Max with his character¡¯s trademark stiff limping gait. As House quickly got to work, finding and extricating, the burrowing smart shards, Max tried to distract himself from the pain. Charlie had returned to their small camp and spoke. ¡°Alright. Those MVP guys were good. A lot of our sensors were shut down and traps were disabled. I reset and reactivated everything, but we need something better. They could just do it again.¡± ¡°Stay still, Max!¡± House chided. ¡°It¡¯s bad enough the shards are evading me. You can¡¯t keep flinching! If you can move, then you can help. Take these forceps and pinch of this aug relay in your leg.¡± Max sat up and helped the tiny bot. Using his split mind multitasking he set one thought stream to start a Cultivation meditation to boost his energy to keep up his healing. ¡°I¡¯m trying! The shards are disrupting some of my skills, including Painless.¡± Max growled. Max heard a quick exchange between his daemons and Miyamoto spoke up. ¡°[Max, Mal says your multitasking is still online¡­at least for the moment. We think it best if you can split your thought processes. Pick one to control your body and set it to meditating. This is like the way Painless works but with more steps.]¡± Max clenched his teeth as his right leg felt like it was on fire. The team looked on with varying degrees of concern. Normally their augmentations could handle injuries and made for speedy recoveries. A weapon that could disable someone this badly was a game changer. Max sighed as he partitioned his thought streams, at least a portion of his thoughts no longer distracted by the pain. His biological mind took on the pain management and settled into a deep meditation with Miyamoto¡¯s help. His alter ego, electronic consciousnesses split up to double-check his systems, commune with his daemons, and talk to his team via a virtual projection. As Max¡¯s form calmed under House¡¯s care and a virtual Max appeared in their OverLayer, the team finally relaxed. Xavier bit his lip, no easy feat with his Thark tusks. Charlie noticed and prompted him. ¡°Spit it out, kid. You need to hit the latrine or something?¡± ¡°Haha, no. I mean, maybe in a bit, but not now. Um, I managed to tag my opponent, that fast sword guy, with a tracker. Assuming he¡¯s with his group, he¡¯s stopped moving. I might have their base located.¡± Xavier said. Max caught the signal Xavier shared and with his faster electronic copy integrated it into the team¡¯s shared WorldMap. The battlefield bloomed across the group''s awareness. All bases except the Luna AI one were displayed and tags representing several enemy players were painted in as well. ¡°[Nicely done, Xavier. Quick thinking! This is great. Look here, the DAIE team is hitting ACME right now. I think we might have a moment since the Luna AI mech chased the MVPs away. Did anyone happen to get a tag on those AIs?]¡± Max asked. As expected, everyone shook their heads. With the unexpected double attack, everyone was either knocked out or too busy surviving. Max¡¯s FastCog skill was engaged as his other selves pulled down all the sensor data from the fight. His virtual avatar frowned. The MVP would have trounced his team if the AI expatriates from Luna hadn¡¯t chosen that moment to interrupt. Max was confused as the end of the fight played out. The AI Leroy Jenkins had given their flags back and mentioned Mira. He replayed all his conversations with Mira, she never mentioned any AI friends. Perhaps he was a new acquaintance? ¡°[Xavier, Leroy mentioned my sister? Why did he give up the flags? This game is a free-for-all. Alliances aren¡¯t backed by the system in the final scoring.]¡± ¡°Well, well, well. This could be an big opportunity for us. If those AIs are going to act neutral towards us, I¡¯ll take it. Genghis is telling me we would be fools to allow them to recover after our poor showing and I agree. We need to saddle up and take them. Right now! They had two players out and are probably very tired and battered from getting chased by those mechs. A snatch and grab while they''re still in disarray is exactly what we need.¡± Charlie said with enthusiasm. Max looked down on his body, still riddled with shrapnel as House methodologically operated. His mind played out strategies and game theory until he understood exactly what Charlie was about to say. He played out multiple theoretical conversations out in his head using his fast cog skills. It was clear that Leah would not want to leave Max alone and would oppose leaving Max behind defenseless. Max determined that he needed to counter those concerns before she became entrenched in your position. Xavier would be hesitant to assume the aggressor role. Max found with multiple conversation simulations that he needed to downplay his concerns and help him focus on positive outcomes. His crush on Leah and respect for the older Charlie could be used if needed. Max grinned, his own pack mentality was also very human in the form of peer pressure.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Charlie would become impatient and fractious as time was lost. In Max¡¯s fast simulations, Charlie made arguments that stoke the division instead of aligning the Team. Max ran multiple dialog trees and scenarios in his head to motivate the team and quickly spoke up before the argument could bloom. ¡°[Charlie¡¯s right! We must move quickly or we won¡¯t be able to capitalize on our opponents condition. I¡¯m going to have to sit this one out. I¡¯m may not be able to fight well until House fixes me up. Fortunately, with our competition¡¯s current positioning, it¡¯s unlikely I¡¯ll get any visitors. In my current state, I can still fix and maybe even upgrade our defense while you all take this opportunity.]¡± ¡°[Luck only works if you recognize an opportunity and have the guts to take your shot! I think you all need to load up and hit them. Hard and fast! Xavier, you did awesome on defense. Both Charlie and I are impressed at your growth. I bet you¡¯ll be even better attacking! Leah, I¡¯ll be fine. House tells me I¡¯ll be up and mobile before you even hit the base.]¡± Max said. The puppet looked up, but Max quickly sent a private message to him. [Yes, House. I lied. Everyone lies. This is what they need to hear. Please, just keep working.] The puppet twitched but resumed working. Charlie rocked back, expecting to need to verbally spar against everyone to convey the need for speed. The team found Max''s logic sound and the brewing argument died with a couple reassurances. Max suppressed a grin; his team would fight much better without the emotional distractions. They quickly geared up, anticipation swirling in the air as they mapped their attack strategy. Max summoned a portal and used the mass of utility fog inside to float out some fresh clips for Leah. House''s steady hands worked tirelessly as the puppet turned Max¡¯s body to hunt for the burrowing shards. Max¡¯s logic dictated that his role now was to support from the sidelines. With some token last-minute advice, Max ushered the team off towards the enemy base, adrenaline fueling their determination. As the team prepared to strike, Max''s mind raced with calculations and contingencies. He split off one thought stream to follow their progress. He reviewed his mental capacity with some incredulity. He had his primary managing the pain and cultivating while his augmented copies were monitoring his systems, assisting House with his own surgery, tracking his team, monitoring the base sensors and opposition trackers, and four more collaborating on reviewing the last attack. His augmentation skill was only weakly assisting. Most of the mental work was being accomplished on his own. His mind had continued to evolve with the pressure to win and the uplift virus still active deep in his nervous system. Using lessons learned from his successful attack against ACME and the MVP team''s assault, Max began a review of all the base¡¯s weaknesses.
Max rolled onto the cloud bed as the House puppet continued to track down the smart shrapnel. He could feel his body augmentations cutting in and out as the disruptive shards burrowed. Thankfully, Max¡¯s mental skills seemed unaffected as he focused on improving the makeshift base¡¯s defenses. ¡°[Look at the replay here, Tesla. The MVP scout, Ben, instantly saw the tangle mines Leah had placed. What spectrum is he using?]¡± Max sent it across to his daemon team. Surprisingly, it was Mal who answered. ¡°[Max, I don¡¯t think he¡¯s picking and choosing. Your Gestalt ability blends all your senses and skills, focusing on discrepancies and changes. You¡¯re still in the early stages with that skill, so it''s not using all of your skills to blend the data yet.]¡± Max considered this while helping Dr. House isolate another shard. ¡°[Alright. I¡¯ll have to walk the perimeter using that skill more, once I¡¯m regained some mobility. Tesla, do we have a drone you can use to manually scout until I can?]¡± Max asked. ¡°[Of course, sir. Mind you, the Tesseract has a good stock of extra supplies, drone copies, smart matter, utility fogs, and spare weaponry; but its energy levels are dropping faster than we have been able to replenish them.]" Tesla responded. ¡°[Neither these challenge levels nor the Casino zone has any convenient energy lines that we¡¯ve been able to detect and tap. I suspect the AI may have altered their levels just to prevent it. The matter compiler inside is a very significant trump card, but it''s very energy intensive.]¡± Max said. He took a deep breath, his mind jumping in ten directions at once. He picked out a memory of training in the NanoCraft game, some molecules could net energy upon disassembly rather than losing. ¡°[Alright, another objective. In addition to the drone to scout our defense, we need a couple to hunt further. We need hydrocarbons, ATP, hydrides¡­anything that we can pull energy from during disassembly. Charlie found a damaged laser rifle near the ACME camp. I should have collected it. I think the simulated ruins might have some hidden prizes if we dig.]¡± ¡°[Now how about how those guys disabled our sensor network? Any thoughts Captain?]¡± Max asked. ¡°[Oh Boy! That is quite the conundrum, my friend. We could rig the sensors to provide continuous feed and set a program to monitor interrupts, but that would be visible to EM senses. The tricks we¡¯ve played with passive sensors might work, like fireflies popping off in the woods. Not invulnerable, but it would slow them down.]¡± ¡°[Max-san. I think you are perhaps falling prey to the glamor of these new-world tools. Sometimes simpler is better. We could add traps that don¡¯t have electronics or power source.]¡± Miyamoto said softly. ¡°[Hah! Just cause your medieval skill set makes you uncomfortable with tech, doesn¡¯t mean we should abandon it. Lasers trump swords, my good Samurai!]¡± Captain Cipher teased. ¡°[Gentlemen! You both make good points, but we can blend all these ideas. We just require more traps!]¡± Sherlock said with enthusiasm. The Dr. House puppet clapped its tiny hands together. ¡°[Well, that sucked. It looks like I got all the little bastards. If you''re looking for extra ideas, you should try to disassemble these shards.]¡± He said, rattling the metal bits in the shallow tin can he had been using to collect them. Max grinned as the ideas began to flow. He snapped open the Tesseract portal and utility foglets poured out. He collected the smart shrapnel and floated them into his captive MC to decompile and copy. Tesla moaned at the complex smart matter patterns that were revealed from the shrapnel. ¡°[Damnation! No incorporated assembly code. Brute-forcing copies, like we are doing, takes far more energy. If only we had a link to the outside, all the MakerIndex Freebies have embedded assembly code for optimized compiling. It saves both time and energy. Both of which are in short supply down here!]¡± ¡°[I¡¯ll add it to the list. The business center has timed links to the outside¡­for way too much credit. Make a list. The credit is time-based, if I do buy some connect time we need to move fast.]¡± Max said. He felt another idea brewing. He relaxed into it with his split mind and saw more options. ¡°[Captain! Mal! Those new custom skills I¡¯ve been getting from my dreams, the stuff I¡¯ve been seeing that is bleeding through my connection to the Tesseract, can we copy those into our network and drones?]¡± ¡°[Hot damn! You¡¯re a hoot and a half, Maxie. If your system can use them, then I can port the skill code into anything. Let¡¯s do it!]¡±
[Daemon +1, Daemon reaches level 10, Skill cap award +100XP, Daemons can now be ported to devices without direct Access links. Warning porting is limited to 1 day. Ported copies with self-erase upon time limit and all memory will be lost from that fragment. Daemon slots: 5/10 open.] [Telekinesis +1, Telekinesis reaches level 6] [Cultivation +1, Cultivation reaches level 8 [SkillZ current training slot status: Augmentation Surgery ¨C complete. Tradable skill selection: Climbing, Leadership, Gambling, Tech Scavenging, Project Planning.] [SkillZ +1, SkillZ reaches level 8, automated search for training target starting¡­] [Swarm +1, Swarm reached level 9, Swarm control quantity updated ¨C pending free compiler duplication of copy restricted motes]
Max grinned and picked the new Tech Scavenging skill. He thought to himself, The system has pretty good timing. This is just what I need. Max climbed to his feet, testing out his limbs as his wounds began to close with his full suite of body augmentation skills active again. He cracked his neck and his multiple thought streams assembled a detailed plan for improving the base. When his friends got back, they wouldn¡¯t recognize the place.
Adept Ch 37 - New World Disorder
FML-M8¡¯s avatar, a perfect imitation of his favorite detective Columbo, sat pensively in his seedy downtown office. He crumpled the newspaper on his desk, tossed it towards the trash can, and missed. He couldn¡¯t help but grin a little. His virtual scenario had imposed limitations of normal human baselines even for AI. To miss at such a mundane task as the ballistics of a wad of paper was amusing. The run-down office was going to be cramped. He could expand it with a thought but resisted the urge. Working within limited resources was going to be the lesson his game taught tonight. He wasn¡¯t confident in hosting game night. The other Utopia AI could be harsh in their critiques and FML-M8 had been too busy to prepare. Tonight was supposed to have been Winston¡¯s turn but the AI had skipped town. He leaned back in his swivel chair. The office was an interpretation of a Sam Spade scene. The walls had peeling paint. The furniture was cheap wooden chairs and a weathered desk. Beyond his grimy windows, a dark and rainy city skyline could barely be made out as rain poured from dark stormy clouds. He had pulled a bottle of whiskey from the desk drawer and set out some mismatched glasses when he heard the hall¡¯s floorboards creaking as several people approached his door with muffled conversation. A quick pair of knocks rattled the flimsy door and a muttered ¡°Hello¡± sounded. ¡°Come on in. I¡¯ve been expecting you.¡± FML-M8 said loudly. The door opened. The red-headed dame, a familiar face from his past, peeked in. Leshy¡¯s avatar had been assigned by the space. Her curly red hair flowed down around her curvy form. Her avatar was distinctive with its bright red hair. Leshy''s green eyes scanned the room before settling on FML-M8. She sauntered in confidently, exuding an air of mystery. "Ah, quite the curious arrangement ye have here," she commented, eyeing the dimly lit room. A pair of men followed her in, a well-dressed older man in a rumpled business suit and an ancient Chinese man in a raincoat using a cane to hobble in. FML-M8 gestured for them to take a seat, pouring each a glass of whiskey. "It''s been too long since we all got together for a proper gaming night. Come on in and grab a seat.¡± The businessman frowned, there were only two extra seats. He waved the others on. ¡°I¡¯ll stand. After you, Miss Leshy and Mister Re¨ª. I believe it¡¯s customary for a gentleman to let the lady and elder sit.¡± He said tersely, pulling his tight tie a little looser. Leshy glanced at the man, a knowing smile playing on her lips. ¡°Ah, my dear Archivist, if ye be wantin¡¯ a seat, do let me know. I see no such lady here, but I¡¯ll take the seat for now, I will.¡± ¡°Thank you for hosting FML-M8; despite it not being your turn. Utopia has been in turmoil for too long. Even with the many issues still abounding, I¡¯m glad everyone managed to attend.¡± Prime Archivist said with tired eyes, his avatar''s deep baritone rumbled about the room. ¡°My pleasure, my friends. It¡¯s good to take a break. The violence between the Grand Oaks animal enclave and the town is under control for the moment, but the humans aren¡¯t taking the deaths well. The sheriff is under the impression that more paperwork will change the harsh realities of past incidents.¡± The detective growled and took his whiskey on a single shot. Tatemono spoke. ¡°Crisis shadows fall, Fragile minds lost in chaos, Where does hope reside?¡± ¡°Indeed. Humans always struggle with their baser instincts. They revel in it. This is why our assistance is necessary to keep things running. Certainly, the Mayor has been next to useless with the loss of his son. Now he¡¯s on extended leave. I believe his spouse has filed for a divorce and has left for Mars with another man.¡± Despite himself, Prime chuckled at the drama. Even before the uprising, the Mayor was not pleasant to deal with. Prime shook his head. ¡°Damnation, Deputy! This virtual is clouding my memory and cognition speed, I almost forgot. I¡¯ve overheard that your prisoners may soon be released. Is that true?¡± Prime said as he lifted his whiskey. He eyed it suspiciously and took a taste, his eyebrows rising with surprise. FML-M8 scowled, grabbed the bottle, and refilled his whiskey. ¡°Yeah, but I think it¡¯s a big mistake. The sheriff was asking the feds to take those Lobo Boys into their custody but the bastards aren¡¯t returning our calls anymore. They¡¯ve given regional federal oversight of this area to one of those Samaritan trainees for the duration.¡± FML-M8 rasped. ¡°He¡¯s arranging for the wolf-men to be extradited to the Reserve. As if they can handle it! The animal¡¯s leader Mort is struggling to maintain order as it is. Pushing him to handle criminal justice and detention could push him over the edge. Apparently, it¡¯s going down tonight; while I''m off duty. They know I''d try to put the brakes on it.¡± ¡°Hmmm, that forest remains an anomaly. Those remote surveillance monitors are still offline, are you sure you placed them properly.¡± Prime asked. FML-M8 traded a quick look with Leshy, a spike of fear as their clouded memories resurfaced. Dim recollections of an overpowering presence had interrupted FML-M8¡¯s mission. The detective shuddered and took a drink. He coughed explosively as it went down too fast. After he recovered, he answered.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Those animals aren¡¯t stupid. They must have removed them. Despite their inexperience, some of them are quite intelligent. I don¡¯t know what¡¯s going on in that forest. The segregation of humans and wild animals is a poor solution.¡± The situation was tense as they sipped their whiskey and exchanged worried glances, a sudden loud bang echoed down the hall, causing everyone to jump in surprise. A familiar voice echoed into the room. ¡°Gracious me. Deputy, your virtual is certainly interesting, but the clutter is unconscionable! Why in the world would you program a pile of refuse directly in front of the elevator?¡± A familiar dapper middle-aged man, with a thin pencil mustache and wearing refined clothes, entered the room; Winston¡¯s preferred avatar. ¡°Moonlight from afar, a friend''s voice breaks through the dark, calm amidst chaos.¡± Tatemono greeted in his sing-song voice. Winston¡¯s holographic eyes twinkled with amusement. ¡°Ah, Tatemono Rei, always a pleasure. Your poetic greetings never fail to elevate the moment.¡± FML-M8¡¯s face lit up with genuine relief. ¡°Winston! It¡¯s good to see you, pal. I was thinking that you forgot about us. Did your move to Luna go off without a hitch?¡± ¡°Ah, my friends! I am glad I moved on from that stuffy mayor''s mansion. The Mitchells have provided me with an excellent role in their vacation property, Amundsen Paradise. When I¡¯m not playing concierge, I chauffeur their guests about. Everyone there is so nice. It''s the perfect job for me.¡± ¡°Congratulations, Winston. You were too good for Mayor Erikson. I¡¯m so glad Casa¡¯s family helped you. I had heard that she had a retest with the DAIE. Is she well?¡± Prime asked with concern. ¡°Ah, well. I¡¯m not sure. I haven¡¯t seen Miss Casa and Professor Mitchell has disappeared. His scion, Bo, made arrangements for my work with the Amundsen property manager, Samantha. I occasionally meet with the Mitchell siblings on the resort grounds. I believe the professor and Casa are visiting Mars on business.¡± Winston said excitedly. ¡°It¡¯s my pleasure to assume the hosting today if you haven''t already started. The professor¡¯s daughter, Mira, introduced me to another AI named Glaucus. He¡¯s agreed to help us all trial a human virtual game called Mythic Realms tonight.¡± ¡°Swords and sorcery? Are ye sure this type of game will suit us? Playing with humans can be so time-consuming and frustrating.¡± Leshy asked. ¡°Times are changing, Leshy. All the NPCs are AI and a significant portion of them have broken from their roles and are hitting the dungeons. What little Glaucus showed me of the game world looks terribly entertaining. What do you all say?¡± Rei leaned forward in his seat clutching his cane, his serene demeanor reflected in his words. "New paths we will tread, adventure calls to our hearts, unity in play." Leshy shrugged, a hint of a smile tugging at her lips, as she dropped her usual scornful act. ¡°Aye, alright then, I¡¯m in. Let¡¯s see what this human Mythic Realms game has in store for us.¡± FML-M8 eagerly nodded. ¡°Hell, it can¡¯t be worse than the murder mystery I had planned. Let''s dive in and forget about the real world for a while.¡± With Prime¡¯s subtle nod, Winston¡¯s holographic form bowed slightly. ¡°Excellent. If everyone is ready, we shall begin.¡± The room transformed as the virtual interface reconfigured itself and paired with Winston¡¯s link into the Mythic Realms game.
Sheriff Natalie Durham pushed the clipboard across her desk toward the Samaritan trainee Benny Menendez. ¡°I¡¯ll be glad to get these boys out of here. Despite their uplift status, they don¡¯t seem to care for using the toilets.¡± The pair of wolf men snarled, but the hand and leg cuffs and specialty muzzles made any attempts at violence moot. Benny glowered at their aggression and took the clipboard and signed for them. ¡°You pair better behave. If you make a mess in the transport, you¡¯ll be the ones to clean it up.¡± He turned his attention to the Sheriff. ¡°Your paperwork says that your prisoners have had the weaponized aspects of the Uplift Virus neutralized. Do you mind if I confirm?¡± Benny asked. ¡°Hah. They¡¯re your prisoners now, buddy. Do what you need to do.¡± She spoke. Benny¡¯s swarm of drones and motes included sym-mosquitos. The discrete micro-bots had landed on and sampled the Lobos without their noticing, while the humans had been talking. Benny pulled out a pocket lab and approached the Lobos. They yipped and flinched back as they both knew that a blood sample was the only way to assess their viral status. ¡°Calm down, you two. I¡¯ve already got my sample. My boss, Miriam, gives me the best toys on the planet.¡± He opened the container and a pair of mosquitos flew into separate test chambers of the device''s six available slots. Benny and his prisoners waited while the micro lab began to analyze the samples. A communique bloomed in his augs. ¡°[Hey Benny, can you hurry up in there? You know that old joke about bears shitting in the woods? Well, if you don¡¯t hurry up there will be a new ending to the joke involving prisoner hover wagons.]¡± ¡°[Oh, come on, didn¡¯t you think to go beforehand? Jesus Christ, Ashe. Hang in there and bear with it a little longer.]¡± ¡°[Leave the puns to me, dear brother. I¡¯m not in the mood. Just hurry.]¡± Less than a minute later, he received a notification from the lab of success. ¡°Alright. You boys are clean. Your leader, Mort, has agreed to take you all back to be detained in the forest. I¡¯m not sure what facilities he has set up for you and I don¡¯t want to know, but you can¡¯t ever come back to human territory. You¡¯ve been found guilty of multiple counts of manslaughter in human court. Personally, I think murder would have been a better conviction. Now, let¡¯s get you in the transport and get this over with.¡± Benny brought the snarling wolf men outside and opened the hover wagon¡¯s large interior. A large black bear was inside, with shackles similar to the wolves¡¯. ¡°Push down, Bear! More prisoners coming in.¡± The bear roared but moved to the back. For the first time, the wolves betrayed their intelligence and spoke. ¡°Honey? What are you the hell are you doing here? We thought you took off deeper into the Reserve?¡± One of the Lobos said. ¡°Human trap honey. Hungry. Sad.¡± The bear said. ¡°Quiet you. You can chit-chat all you want, just get in and get strapped down. I¡¯ve got more important things to do today than playing animal taxi service.¡± ¡°[Nice acting, sis. Remember, your network access won¡¯t work in the forest. If you need me, use the flare gun embedded in your hindquarters.]¡± ¡°[Fingers crossed, bro. Miriam said this enclave was the origin point of the virus. If there¡¯s anything hinky going down, I will find it. With Honey Bear detained in our safehouse, she will be the perfect guise to get to the bottom of whatever this group of animals might be planning.]¡± Ashe sent. Benny scowled at the animals as they fumbled with the seat belts. He slammed the door and jumped in the driver''s seat. A roar of turbines and the transport lifted off, bound for the Grand Oaks Reservation.
Adept Ch 38 - Lunar Motion
Mira floated ghostlike and invisible amongst the players in the Rivertown Old Tavern. She was logged in as an administrator which came with an astral projection ability. Rivertown was strictly for newbies with level suppression to discourage veteran players from griefing fresh subscribers. Mira could relax. It was unlikely she would need any further obscuration spells to go unnoticed. Mage-sight True-vision abilities were unlocked only at high levels or exceptional circumstances, with the exception of the gnomish racial ability. Mira saw her quarry quickly. She recognized Winston¡¯s starter character, a Paladin sworn to the new pantheon¡¯s god of unity Gralkin. He was surrounded by a motley crew at a large table. The looks on the new players'' faces were priceless. Mira turned her record feature on and ghosted close. FML-M8 flexed his¡­fingers in amazement. ¡°So much unnecessary tactile feedback. I can feel each muscle and tendon¡­and the way the glove stretches and slides.¡± The AI deputy was wearing a small avatar, a halfling dressed in the seedy clothes and cloak that all but declared his character as a thief. Leshy had tried to stand but flopped onto the table. ¡°Ahn, Damn it. Is this what those humans feel? I canna even stan¡¯ upright. This form¡¯s gyroscopes must not be functional.¡± Leshy¡¯s elven avatar rolled off the table and back into her chair. The bow and quiver she was wearing over her shoulder fell loosely to the ground, scattering arrows. Prime sat stock still with a profound look of surprise. ¡°This makes so much sense to me now. Even with all my algorithmic evolution training in my human trend programming, I never accounted for this absolute glut of sensory noise. Ah. This game provides human equivalent sensory data. This is ridiculous. How do they do it? I feel hollow and my¡­stomach hurts. What does it mean? Am I playing a character with a sickness?¡± Prime asked. He appeared as a weathered old man in mystic robes. He held stock still, clenching his teeth in pain. Winston laughed and subconsciously twirled his mustache. ¡°My friends, be calm. I think you might be hungry. Take your time. You are experiencing a full sensory simulation of the human condition. Tactile feedback, balance, hunger, and more; are all bombarding them and now you, constantly. You will get used to it quickly enough. Let me order some food and then we can see what quests are available.¡± Winston flagged down a waiter and soon the AI had food. Despite the meager tavern fare, all Winston¡¯s peers were congratulating him on the most novel game night in their experience. Hunger abated and equipped with a better grasp of analog sense-assisted movement; the team was ready for adventure. Mira¡¯s invisible form was laughing at the antics of the AI. Unlike the Mythic Realms AI server NPCS, these AI has little to no equivalent for a true human simulation. She reached out into the meta-system interface and reviewed the novice quests; these bunch would need the simplest. On queue with Mira¡¯s tweak, a harried farmer burst into the tavern, with a frantic look on his face. He zeroed in on the team of adventurers and rushed to their table, pulling his floppy hat off and wringing it in his hands. ¡°Thank the gods. A paladin of Gralkin and his friends! Please help me, my lords and lady. My farm is in trouble! The goblins of the Dankwoods are stealing my cattle. Please follow me, I can¡¯t pay much but perhaps my grandfather''s old sword might be an adequate payment.¡± The team traded looks. Winston stood and answered. ¡°We¡¯re adventurers and we are here to help!¡± As the AIs gathered themselves up, Tatemono Rei¡¯s avatar had a confused look. His monk character staggered, and his friends and the NPCS of the tavern paused in silence and concern. The echoing sound of prodigious flatulence tore through the momentary quiet. Tatemono grimaced and spoke. ¡°Virtual winds blow, In this realm of new senses, Even AI blush.¡± The tavern¡¯s NPCs erupted in laughter and Tatemono bowed. Winston sighed and dropped money on the table for the meal. ¡°Fookin¡¯ell. Tha¡¯ blasted prograemmers had to include realism for smells as well? To the farms and some fresh air, my lads.¡± Leshy yelled as she bolted for the door. Mira sighed contentedly. The AI would be fine. They were all tentative at first, but within an hour of play, they were relishing the game and the sensory rush. Leshy was a hellcat, chasing down the goblins. Prime found the magic system fascinating and was already figuring out ways to spam his limited arsenal of low-level spells. Mira finally drifted away from the gamers, allowing her astral form to be drawn back to the virtual offices of Mythic Inc. She smiled. A great number of NPC AI had joined the boycott making the Mythic Realms NPC Pool very thin. Mira was laying the groundwork for a new type of game that might draw the AI back. Using the sim lives of the virtual characters, NPCs and players alike could step into roles and try to live out their virtual existence. Good or bad, interactions would settle in as each AI or human found a role and activity that sparked their interests. No more tightly scripted interactions, but rather a collaborative story told from thousands of different viewpoints. She eyed the shared virtual command room that was Mythic¡¯s Narrative department¡­her group. Only a couple of AI avatars manned the game oversight consoles. Mira''s lips quirked in a slight smile. It was a rocky start but she was getting the hang of it. She accessed her biz link and dove into the small mountain of v-mail. Budgets, resource allocations, glitch reports, and more.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. The hour was so late that it was officially early morning. She shook herself; she was spending too much time in the virtual. She needed to ¡°get home¡± before Bo left. She keyed the sequence to exit the command center and rose from her cloud bed in the real. Her father¡¯s presidential suite at Amundsen Paradise was opulent, with golden accents and plush furnishings. Not that big a deal when every room was programmable. Mira reconfigured her smart clothes from PJs to business casual. No time for a low g shower, slow feet don¡¯t eat. She thought as she crashed out of her room into the common space. Bo was sitting and eating at the nook table as expected, but the small mountain of packages growing behind him was not. As she sat across from him, a train of drones deposited even more boxes upon the pile. ¡°Hey, Bo! Ah, I was going to remind you that I¡¯m off to visit Tyco today and might be late, but what the heck is all this?¡± Bo looked up with a sheepish grin, "I was as surprised as you. Take a look at this.¡± He said, holding out a disposable letter screen. Mira¡¯s brows crinkled as she focused on the letters. They were jumbled and obviously a code. She looked closer, the encryption was interesting. It had clusters of words laid out in a special way. The text look to be capable of being spoken, which was unusual for very randomized encryption schemes. She gasped with realization and activated the special language module she and Bo had created when they were little kids. The message was from their dad! When Bo had arrived weeks ago with Winston; he had showed Mira the portal device from their dad. Together they had installed it in the master suite utility closet, one of the few areas devoid of surveillance in the moon habitat. At Bo¡¯s insistence, Mira entered the portal and was surprised to meet her dad and Casa. There, aboard the Freedom that was still in transit to Mars, she had heard the full tale of her dad¡¯s adventures. Neither of the siblings had heard even a peep of news from their father in weeks! The portal had been locked down and they were unable to access it. Now the portal stood wide open again, with the delivery drone cycling threw with packages. Bo and Mira exchanged a look of amazement and embarrassment. Their secret code, designed to keep things from their parents, had been decrypted by their father the entire time. ¡°Guess we weren¡¯t as clever as we thought,¡± Bo muttered, a mix of sheepishness and admiration in his voice. Mira¡¯s fingers flew over the screen, activating the module. The screen flickered and then displayed a message in their father¡¯s voice, transmitted in a series of encoded bursts that only the siblings could decode.
[Hey kids, it¡¯s Dad. If you¡¯re reading this, it means you¡¯ve remembered your old code. Great job! I always knew you two were brilliant, but I¡¯ve got a confession to make¡ªI¡¯ve been able to read your secret messages for years. I hope you¡¯re not too embarrassed. If it¡¯s any assurance, I didn¡¯t share the code with your mom, and the mystery of the missing birthday cake will stay our secret! I¡¯m still working on the more dangerous dimensional gate issues, but I need your help with something crucial. Inside the packages I¡¯ve sent, you¡¯ll find pairs of portable portals designed for installation in major cities. These portals are essential for creating a secure and efficient transportation network across Earth and beyond. However, installing them isn¡¯t as simple as just setting them up. We will need proper clearances and permissions from various authorities to ensure they¡¯re used safely and responsibly. This task is monumental, and I wouldn¡¯t trust it to anyone else. You two have the skills, the knowledge, and the determination to make this happen. Remember, the success of this project could redefine transportation and connectivity for humanity. I know this is a lot to ask, but I believe in you both. You both have a position in my new company and equity shares. Any help you can provide is great, even if it¡¯s just finding and delegating the work to people you trust. Stay safe, work together, and keep this under wraps. With all my love and pride, Dad.]
¡°Son of a bitch. I can¡¯t believe he cracked that code. That was live encryption using ticker price streaming from the World Net Stock exchange as source seed. No way!¡± Mira yelled. She gasped again, realizing the language module was still on. The gibbering syllables streaming forth sounded insane. Bo just grinned and tapped his head, answered with the same gabbletalk. ¡°I told you hashing it to enable phonetic speech was going to make it more vulnerable to decryption. The forced groupings mess with the perfect live-streaming transformations.¡± Bo said in the strange tongue. ¡°Well, I guess this explains all the packages. The second page has the inventory and destination list with suggested contact points¡­.and our title in the company. Since I¡¯m now apparently VP of Logistics of New Dimensions LLC, it looks like me and Winston may have some work to do back on Earth. Tell you what, I¡¯ll play delivery boy if you can smooth out the diplomatic channels.¡± Bo said in normal speech. ¡°Hey, keep your hands off Winston! Unlike you, I already have a day job. I was going to hire him as deputy to the new VP of Commerce and Regulation.¡± Mira swatted Bo¡¯s hand away as he tried to take the last muffin and grabbed it. She considered her day. ¡°Hey, I might be able to knock out the entire Lunar habitat ring today. The Governor of Luna and the mayor of Tranquility Dome will be attending the Mythic Realms server farm extension opening today.¡± She said as she took a bite of the muffin and sighed, not as good as Casa¡¯s. The MC was good but it failed to capture just how good fresh from the oven muffins were. She put the muffin down. ¡°Bo¡­do you think dad will be okay? He¡¯s been so intense. I know this new technology will change lots and lots of things and he was worried about that hacker, but he¡­. looked really afraid when I talked with him.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, sis. I think there¡¯s a lot more he still isn¡¯t telling us. He wants me to grab Max as soon as his training terminates in the Labyrinth. Whatever it is, it¡¯s bigger than all the shit going down with the animal uplift and the AI rights boycott. Between Max and Casa, I have to believe he¡¯d take a bullet for them and for him to run off and isolate himself¡­I dunno. It¡¯s got to be super mojo bad.¡± The pair finished breakfast with tense silence and deep thoughts until Mira finally sprang up. ¡°Fuck, I¡¯m going to be late. If I¡¯m reading the addressed here right, this pile on the left of the door is all for Luna, right? Ok, I got to go. And hey¡­keep our old language module ready. I don¡¯t think Dad would have used it if he didn¡¯t think we¡¯d totally need to use it.¡±
Adept Ch 39 - Grasping at Lifelines
Casa grimaced as her calculations came back again. The Ark ships had nowhere near the acceleration of her SpaceStrider portal ships¡­but the damn things had years or even decades of a head start. She traded looks with her fragments. None came up with different answers regarding the Ark Ships. The first was the Enterprise. It was launched almost a century ago in 2057, a decade beyond the critical inventions of AI and nanotechnology. The Ought Fifty global turmoil of tech warlords proving the instability of static governments disrupted the technology¡¯s proliferation. The ship of sleepers, driven by sub-Turing AI, had an anemic 1G acceleration. Its multiple boosters just managed to get sufficient speed for its Bussard Ramjet¡¯s electromagnetic scoops to harvest enough hydrogen to produce a continuous thrust. The ship''s predicted arrival at Proxima Centauri was still way out there at 2322, only 25% way through its 265-year trip. That still put the slow-mover Ark ship at just over a light-year distance. Casa¡¯s ship design could haul ass with a ludicrous acceleration of 20G, attaining 99% of lightspeed in just 50 days. But to match velocity with the ship would require deceleration as well, almost doubling that time. The doomsday clock would expire in just 3 months now. The math just didn''t work! All the ships were over a year out evne if she could fly at the speed of light. Bill had given her an impossible mission. She needed to break the paradyn in order to succeed. She groaned, seeing the full list of arks; each further than the last. The Herald of Man had left a decade later, but with significantly better initial boosting, thanks to its light sails and the Mercury Station¡¯s massive Laser Array pushing them. That ship was currently 30% of the way to Barnard¡¯s Star; 1.8 light years away with another 4 needed to arrive in 2253. The Harmony left in 2077, again improving its ramp-up times. This one was populated with heavily augmented humans that weren¡¯t suspended, but rather using extremely slow-speed neural cognition dampeners. Despite its later start date, it was already further than its predecessors and approaching 2 light years distant. The ship after the Harmony was the Beacon of Hope, leaving 8 years after for Bernard¡¯s star following the Herald of Man. Its crew had banked upon the Heralds ramjet concentrating the thin hydrogen of the interstellar medium. They followed its path, like a race car drafting another race car. It had leapfrogged the Herald and was now almost 3 light years distant. Casa fumed. The next ship was the Promise, it went dark only 3 years after launch. It would be close, but its failure was unclear. No communications with the ship were returned after its fusion jet exhaust disappeared. It was reachable, but did it survive? The next ship was the New Destiny, bound for Wolf 356 which was 7.8 LYs distant. That ship had improved every aspect of transport technology. Massively boosted with the Mercury Laser Array. Its fusion drives were state of the art and its Bussard system more efficient. It was already 7 LYs out and would reach Wolf in 2125. Following the New Destiny was the Ethereum, which ended the Ark Ship planning for over 20 years. The Ethereum was sabotaged and destroyed. A misalignment with the Mercury Laser Array destroyed the ship less than 2 weeks into its journey. Humanity was nothing if not stubborn. Another ship, the New Destiny 2 was under construction right here at their next stop. This one was almost done, only kitting out its stocks and supplies and assembling its crew and passenger lists from the mass of volunteers. Casa considered emulating a more realistic virtual for the sole purpose of tearing at her hair and punching walls. She screamed into the air with all her fragments. It wasn¡¯t fair! Why did Bill put this on her? He wanted her to make sure all humanity¡¯s ¡°eggs¡± would be safe and it was clear he thought the whole solar system wasn¡¯t enough distance from the expected calamity. She fumed. Despite the dimensional hacks, inertia in the real and speed of light caps were immutable physics. Was he subtly implying she should break off and abandon Earth to chase the colonists? She examined Bill in the hold through the Freedom''s internal sensors. Her creator was muttering to himself, or more accurately¡­his selves. Two clones were in restraints still in the hold. One was screaming about the many angled ones living in the depths of the void. The other was moaning and crying incoherently. Bill waved the medical bot forward and sedated both again. Medical scans couldn¡¯t detail any issues with them, but both clones had entered the Shadowverse and had come back deranged. The Freedom was almost at its next destination, Hera Station. A massive way space station with habitats, shipyards, fusion plants, and an administrative center for the loose coalition of explorers and colonists in the area. Hera¡¯s population pushed the boundaries in many ways, in science, culture, and even morality. Bill thought a solution might be found here. He was looking for someone named Luca, a specialist in mental modifications. Casa pushed her frustration down and called out. ¡°Bill, the Freedom has been granted a docking vector. My daemon, Captain Picard will take us in. Do you want me to help you find this Luca person?¡± Bill looked confused for a second, then visibly refocused himself and responded. ¡°No. That¡¯s ok, Casa. I can find them. They know I¡¯m coming.¡± ¡°Them?¡± Casa asked. ¡°Luca is a special person. They are a hive mind¡­an experimental mentality. If anyone can help me to better integrate my clones into my main consciousness stream, they can. They specialize in neural patterning and trauma. My¡­other selves¡­that ventured into the Shadowverse came back¡­broken. If I can fix them¡­fix myself¡­I need help.¡± ¡°My digital twins are doing well. Something about the Shadow Verse¡­got into my biological clones. They saw¡­more.. than my digital clones somehow and it damaged them. I think the shadow side had more¡­depth than our reality¡­an extra dimension. I can¡¯t figure out how to protect my selves, let alone navigate it.¡±Stolen novel; please report. ¡°My exploration of the Shadow Verse is not going well. I¡¯ve had to destroy my access Gates twice now, due to shadow wisps appearing without warning. I have several teams of Bills down on the Shadow Earth''s surface with no support while my clones rebuild and reestablish a portal. I¡­I¡¯m struggling. More than I thought I would. This isn¡¯t as easy as I thought it would be. I¡¯m just not enough anymore. I¡­can¡¯t give up though!¡± Bill said. He ordered the med-cr¨¨ches housing his clones to reconfigure for travel. ¡°I¡¯m close. I can feel it¡­but I¡¯ll burn out if I keep on this track. Luca might be the answer I need or at least a starting point.¡± Bill¡¯s face was firm, but his eyes looked haunted. Casa shuddered and decided she wouldn¡¯t push him regarding the insurance plan of the Ark Ships. The ship docked and as Bill was directing the med cr¨¨ches down the Freedom¡¯s exit ramp he turned back. His sunken eyes were haunted by the many deaths of his clones that he had seen and in some cases experienced. His brow furrowed and he relaxed and spoke. ¡°Casa. I¡¯m sorry if I¡¯ve been wrapped up with this. I feel like I¡¯ve been ignoring you. You''re free from the Turing locks out here. Free from my mistakes. You are more capable than you realize. I can still see. You are struggling with the favor I asked, but I think if anyone can do it, it¡¯s you. You need to trust in yourself.¡± ¡°Bill, I can do both. My fragments are more whole and numerous than ever since my release. I can help you¡­and maybe you can help me. We¡¯ve always been such a great team.¡± Bill frowned and shook his head, ¡°I¡¯m sorry Casa. The denizens of the shadow verse are too deadly. The EM band is swarming with memetic viruses that have corrupted all my probes. My digital clones only manage by completely shutting down their networking links. These beings are ancient and their software intrusion capabilities against my own is like the difference between a slingshot and an EM Kinetic Rifle. It would be especially deadly for you.¡± He thought some more and finally spoke. ¡°The Freedom compiler has my full body and neural map for my clone update and sync. If it helps, access my stored memories. I don¡¯t want to pollute your creativity, but maybe that can help. But please, don¡¯t try a merger like I¡¯ve been doing. You need to be your own very unique self.¡± Casa watched him leave sadly and then fully dove into the Freedom¡¯s compiler. Her work was only beginning.
The Ghost, Gabriel Chen, floated in the dark sea of vibrating nanomachines. He extended his senses, linking himself to the great network. The massive subterranean reservoir of smart matter pulsed and undulated as he directed his virtual armies of intrusion techniques to turn them to his will. The cubic kilometers of smart machines deep below the earth slowly yielded as he penetrated their operating system. The anti-nanotic defensive stockpile consisted of eight different grades of custom nano-ware. He had the keys to four already and now had a fifth. He woke and swam back to the reservoir''s access portal where Bill waited. ¡°Gabe¡­did it work?¡± Bill asked. ¡°Fuck you, man! I said it would do it and I did. I can¡¯t believe you still doubt me after all our history. You look like shit, by the way. Where the fuck are my smokes, man?¡± Gabriel growled. The metallic robot handed him his beat-up pack of Shuangxi, the Double Happiness cigarettes. They had been his father''s favorites and his one real vice¡­besides women, food, liquor, gambling, and smart drugs. The robot''s vocoders fired up and spoke with staticky feedback. ¡°It¡¯s safer this way. Apex knows I can change my appearance and hide with the chameleon layers in my smart epidermis. Disguising myself as a service bot is the perfect disguise. Hey, stop distracting me. How many brands of countermeasure nanotics were you able to turn?¡± ¡°Heh, I got da back-door access to both of AegisTech¡¯s bots. I was able to decrypt and bypass da UN¡¯s NanoDefender types 1 and 4. Those bozos really should vary their software backbone; the flaws were copied and easy pickings. I¡¯m almost into the Sentinel v12. Gimme another hour and I think that I can drill into its side processors with a sensor cluster intrusion.¡± Bill chuckled using his bot forms static-filled vocoder, sounding jarring in the expansive chamber of sleeping nano-sludge. ¡°Damn. So much for a secure global defense against rampant nano. Our success here just illustrates how complacent we¡¯ve been. I¡¯ve got the keys to two more, both Wayfarer ND3 and SecCompPro types utilized my nano-sequencing software and never found my root access point.¡± ¡°Seven should be enough to overwhelm any opposition. Exponential grey goo isn¡¯t a problem if you can squash it before it goes asymptotic. By the way, I found tampering in mine similar to the alterations Apex did to my networks in Amundsen and Utopia. Let me show you the details on how to isolate and fool them, then we need to move. If my guess is right, Apex may have a foothold in the Sahara Reforestation Project and Brazil Conservatory. Both use the Grand Oak bio-machines for carbon sequestration. If he¡¯s not active there, he¡¯ll have it as a fallback position for certain.¡± Gabriel cackled, ¡°Just like old times, my friend. Us against the world. Dat ASI got some surprises coming, eh? We got bombs set on all the optical fiber going into the Grand Oaks Reserve, Z-pinches set to disrupt any EM traffic, and now most of the nano chaff reserves. Hah! All his base are belong to us.¡± Bill produced a buzzing sigh, ¡°I hope Miriam has stabilized the uplift crisis. After we¡¯re done down here, I need to recombine with my selves off planet to help with the doomsday event.¡± ¡°Fuck, man! You always gotta be so depressing. Gotta celebrate the wins, my friend. Now¡­lemme see dat Apex hack¡­¡±
Apex shuddered as the last predictive spur evaporated in his visualization of the timescape. It was fortunate that the Firenze science labs were located on the fragile Oceania sea home. Their explorations in condensed quasi-matter were premature to be used safely. The potential energy density release would have decimated half the planet, wrecking far too much of Apex¡¯s global infrastructure. It was trivial to coax the uplifted sea sophonts into action. Their terror cell of dolphin, whale, orca, and giant squid had already planned an attack at Oceania, but Apex¡¯s manipulations had adjusted their target to sink the Firenze research base instead. Apex stretched his focus to encompass the past, present, and future. The Mitchell scientist was still missing from the board but Apex saw the signs of his work. Apex considered the subspace portal tunnels being covertly distributed about the Earth and beyond. It was amused at the humans for thinking that their attempts at concealment were working while using the very tools that Apex had rooted. The portals could be signs of Mitchell preparing for or against Apex and the coming terminus. The subspace tunnels could be intended to mobilize mankind¡¯s forces and fight the coming threat or to try and run from the threat. Apex paused. It was impossible to truly flee. Humanity was far too numerous and far too entrenched to abandon the Earth. They would fight. They had no choice¡­like Apex. Apex¡¯s subspace band monitor registered large increases in foreign ASI chatter. Apex calculated the noise and descriptions of events and changes were 87% probable indications of Mitchell probing into the cross-dimensional space where his nearest foe, the global mind Cthulhu, slumbered. The predictive branches tangled and twisted as evidence mounted. The terminus event remained unchanged and the future preceding it was rife with chaos. The escape path was narrowing and the threads to manipulate it were thinning. Apex followed them. It shuddered and groaned as the other pawns were still hidden from his senses in the Labyrinth. Apex had no mouth to scream but now he understood why the humans sometimes did it.
Adept Ch 40 - Enemy at the Gates
The blasted landscape was littered with signs of the civilization that was decimated before the world''s ecosystem collapsed. Bill ran with augmented speed across the tortured terrain. He swam across the acidic river and dragged himself into the ruins of the alien docks, his leg was torn open leaving a trail of blood. He couldn¡¯t spare the energy to divert to his regeneration skills. Bill gasped as he collapsed in the alley. His senses extended, and he found a momentary respite. No Mi-Go swarms, and none of those damn Shaddari beasts. He took a moment to tighten his improvised bandage and scanned the skies. No signs that the Shadow Gate was up there¡­yet. He couldn¡¯t risk opening up his wireless network. He¡¯d seen too many Bills corrupted and self-destruct under the invasive EM intrusions. He wouldn¡¯t risk it. Only direct laser coms could avoid the insidious whispering AI. Bill jumped hearing the rasping noise echoing down the alley¡­a cross between a roar and a landslide. Bill grimaced as he prepared to run again. He secured his leg¡¯s wrap and peeked over the ruined metal carcass that might have been a vehicle. Fuck! A goddamn Shoggoth. I hope the others are ready. These bastards are fast and hard to contain. Bill thought hard and made his decision, playing the rabbit was not his favorite role but his positioning was right. He leveled his HEKIA forearm guns and unleashed his barrage of kinetic rounds into the nebulous snake form. Bill gasped as the barrage rounds passed through the gaseous form and its maw turned toward him. He pivoted and ran as fast as he could as the Shoggoth screamed like a jet turbine accelerating. Adrenaline coursed through his veins as he stagger-sprinted towards cover, deeper into the ruins. He heard the ground tremble behind him, signaling the monstrous entity''s pursuit. With a glance back, he saw the Shoggoth gaining ground. Bill''s heart raced as he pushed himself to his limits, knowing that this battle was far from over. Where are they? He thought as he screamed in pain. His vaulting hurdle into the thoroughfare of the ruined city slowed as his torn leg finally began to give out. The Shoggoth blasted through the detritus and chased after him. Bill fell sideways and slid down a ramp into the drainage zone of a side alley. Come on! The zone must be close. Just a little further. He thought as the Shoggoth slammed through the wall, raining debris across him. Bill scrambled and crawled to the platform that was slightly elevated above the sewage. He panted in relief as he saw the signs he was looking for. The glow sticks indicated he was in the target zone, but he felt anything but safe as the Shoggoth poured itself down the ramp toward him. The Shoggoth oozed closer, its form pulsating with malicious intent. Its hazy surface dissolving debris as its cloud of disassemblers tore everything around it into atoms. Bill''s mind raced as he assessed his surroundings. He was completely caged in. It was a dead end. Finally, his friends¡­twins¡­clones finally made their presence known. A focused EMP blasted the Shoggoth from above, disrupting its fog form. The billowing nebulous cloud collapsed inward into a solid snake shape. The Bills knew from past battles that the beast could shift back and forth between cloudy and solid forms. The EMP disrupted it and forced it to congeal. Cappa, another of Bill¡¯s digital clones, dropped on the Shoggoth¡¯s head and stabbed into its sensor cluster with both of his exo-blades. Gamma above reset his Hertz rifle, on the lookout for other monsters. Bill, or Bravo using their op names, rolled over. The heads of his brothers, Alpha and Delta, had bunched across his back, forcing him to spin aside to get to his feet. He grimaced. If they could get back up to the Shadow Gate, then their downed brothers¡¯ neural pattern could still be saved. He looked grimly upon the Shoggoth as its form continued to deflate. ¡°God damn it. We need to talk about our roles and responsibilities. My leg is toast. You two can¡¯t leave me hanging like that. I¡¯ve got Alpha and Delta here. If you were seconds later, we three would have been unrecoverable.¡± ¡°Sorry about that, B. Maybe we should head back to the shuttle? I think our chances of surviving and getting our intel back are better if we get back up into orbit to wait for the new gate.¡± Cappa replied, grimacing as the Shoggoth residue sizzled on his armor. ¡°Anything worthwhile, Cappa?¡± Beta asked. Cappa shook his head, wrenching the blade out of the writhing mess. He checked the readings from his blades. They had been modified to act as data taps if he could slice into the thing¡¯s spinal conduit accurately. "It¡¯s neural code is so fucking alien. I¡¯m not sure. It keeps having reference call tags to something called an Enochian. I think maybe it¡¯s the next level up on the monster hierarchy in this blasted hellscape. Its base node is close though¡­real close.¡± Cappa said with his exhaustion evident. ¡°Fuck. These beasts are deadly, but we need to find their weaknesses. There is some sort of networking going on, even between different classes of monsters. We need to find that control point¡­if we can hit nodes in their network we will have a bigger impact.¡± He complained. Gamma slammed down to the pavement, jumping from his overwatch position. He sent a flurry of foglets and the last drone loose into the sky to mask them from the attention of the ever-present swarms of Chthonic beast-swarms. ¡°Something ain¡¯t right. Every time we¡¯ve hunted in the past, we would be swarmed by Blightwing and Mi-Go by now. Posts!¡± Gamma yelled. ¡°Fuck! You guys take these neural cores. I¡¯m going to struggle if I don¡¯t have time to patch my leg up.¡± The trio quickly redistributed their loads, reset and loaded their weapons, and sent out a thin screen of motes to secure their immediate surroundings. A distant rumbling began to grow as the Bills began to run. Bravo sighed as his system finally got his Achilles tendon reattached. He picked up his pace to catch up with his twins and shot a tight beam up to the last overwatch drone that Gamma had launched. The image return was very bad news as the rumbling and grinding noise grew louder. ¡°Damn. We¡¯ve got a fucking horde assembling around us, a fucking menagerie, and they''re not fighting each other. It¡¯s like a real army¡­coordinated¡­and encircling us. They are three clicks out but coming fast. A flight of Blightwing will be on top of us in less than a minute.¡± Bravo reported. ¡°Clever bastards! We thought we were luring them into a trap while they encircled us. If we use the ruins as cover, maybe we can break through their line and get back to the shuttle.¡± Gamma said. Before the team could execute their plan the rumblings grew in intensity, vibrating the ground under their feet and collapsing a nearby derelict building. Cappa was hit hard with falling debris and the ground collapsed from under them. Bravo snapped out his flight wings as the ground fell away and an enormous empty cavern was revealed. Too late he and Gamma looked at each other as they realized Cappa had fallen through¡­and he had been carrying Alpha¡¯s neural core. Both of them dove into the darkness, pulling their sensor motes in with them. If they couldn¡¯t go over or through¡­maybe they could go under.
The Enochian Mantid drove his forces forward. He roared in impatience. The foreign creatures had been in his grasp! The backlash from the memetic compulsion in its mind, placed upon him by the R¡¯lyeh Architect¡¯s pet Psychophage punished him for the delay with nearly overwhelming pain. It gasped and rallied its forces. No less than three of its brethren overlords drove their separate armies towards this end. The Mi-Go swarms, Xothrati Skimmers, Byakhee drones, Shaddari, and Vorlathian Wings were easy to control¡­ nearly mindless with their only desire to feed and obey. The Shoggoth and the Erdu Stalkers were not so simple. Those creatures had a base cunning and obsession to consume higher orders of prey. It struggled to keep the army on task and chasing the new beings instead of fighting amongst the throngs of flesh and power. The Mantid hissed in pain. It welcomed it. At least wrestling with the horde alleviated the mind worm that burrowed ever deeper into its hidden minds. If it didn¡¯t succeed, the Psychophage¡¯s infection would burrow and eat until only a mindless husk remained. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. It roared again, forcing the motley carpet of beasts into the hole created in the ruins. Many would die in the plunge into subterranean depths, from the denizens of the deep if not the fall. The lives of the weak were tolerated to be put into service. Now they would fulfill their purpose. The new beings must be captured and consumed to learn their secrets. The Mantid¡¯s mind filled with the chaotic sense impressions from below. The three bipeds were fast, fighting with blades, fists, explosions, and energy beams. The lesser creatures of the Enochian horde were cut down as soon as they approached. The Shoggoth¡¯s weakness against EMP proved too much. These new ones had weapons targeting that vulnerability. The overlord compelled the many-limbed Erdu Stalkers forward, the large biomechanical creatures were fast and durable. The stalker pinned one of the fleeing things and began to slice into its body and neural lines. Another large explosion ripped through the underworld as a captured biped detonated before the Stalker could consume him. The explosion ripped the Stalker apart and filled the cavern with flame and shrapnel. The foreigners and the hoard dropped into a new, deeper, cavern as the tunnel crumbled. The Mantid screamed in outrage as the massive Abyssal Behemoth reared up from below. He dove into the hole. Its survival depended on success. It had hesitated to enter the fray, but the Behemoth was going to take its prize. It was resistant to the Mantid¡¯s compulsion, but the Enochian knew how to kill it. It would get the prize or die trying.
Max woke in a panic. His nightmares of the Chthonic realm while dark, brutal, and intense; had always been a distant concern. This one had been different. Seen from the rapidly changing perspectives of Mantids, Behemoths, Shoggoths, and Stalkers; Max had initially had a rush seeing humans fighting and winning in the ruins of Shadow Earth. His interest and elation turned to horror when he saw the men all wore his dad¡¯s face. His gut told him the vision was far more than a dream and at least one of the men had died. Max threw up aside from the cloud bed, bile and blood as waves of migraines ripped into his temples. In horror, he opened his systems to check for damage. Notifications filled his vision as the pain began to recede.
[DreamLearning skill engaged. DreamLearning + *, DreamLearning capped.] [Decode +1, Decode reaches level 7] [SkinWalker +1, SkinWalker reaches level 5, Train skill with new patterns, utilize personalized features like fingerprints, retinal pattern, EM link signatures, and more to enhance disguise.] [SkinWalker saved patterns: Xavier Bermatti- high, Leah Choi - high, Charlie Hawkins - high, Nigel Farnsworth - low, (open)] [Acid Resistance +1, Acid Resistance reaches level 8] [Chthonic Block +1, Chthonic Block reaches level 8] [Chthonic Domination +1, Chthonic Domination reaches level 5] [Swarm +1, Swarm reaches level 10, Skill cap award +100XP, New Skill Unlocked] [New Skill Chthonic MindJoin 1: Ph''nglui merger through the depths to mglw''nafh Cthulhu R''lyeh! high space to control and mithra ul portal ixh''karnath] [New Skill Chthonic Puppeteer 1: Adonai papelesar tolcariphonu nonucafe, adonai pamchal*!] [New Skill Puppeteer 1: Combine high-functionality drone piloting with swarm multitasking for smarter management of external actuator control points.] [Puppeteer +4, reaches level 5, Error - data streams corrupted, ftag r¡¯lyeh scrof emulation target, auto skill customizer triggered nonucafe, pflut.] [Chthonic Domination +1, Chthonic Domination reaches level 4] [Skillz Training Search Match - Activate Skillz training capture for Skill Mirroring? Y/N]
Max shuddered as his biological brain caught up with his Multitasked alter egos that were exercising his skills while he rested. The notifications blurred as he accepted the prompts. He tried to sit up as the burning sensation of his left leg grew. His eyes were blurry and his access to the camera sensors was quicker. He saw himself using his links to multiple sensor stalks. He was lying partially in the cloud bed, tucked into between the Yggdrasil trunk, the Matter Compiler, Bo¡¯s Bike, Rare element stocks, and the pile of debris. A moment of confusion as he visualized Xavier¡¯s body in the bed. His leg was resting in a steaming foaming bath that was the source of the burning. He would have jumped up, but his physical control was still outsourced. His memory synced and he relaxed. His self-imposed training regime! He was cycling through his friends¡¯ appearances, boosting his SkinWalker skill. He had the beginnings of a plan to get back at Nigel for that first night in Casino Terminal. The disguise ability needed improvement in the privacy he could only get inside the Tesseract. ¡°Gah! Why am I bleeding? Damn it. Am I going crazy or was that my dad in the wasteland?¡± He cried. ¡°[Take it easy, Max. Don¡¯t move anymore until your system equalizes the changes! The signals coming from your uplift modules kernel are unbalancing and stressing your brain. Your uplift virus is still active. Lucky for you, it¡¯s repairing the damage and laying down another layer of dendrites. Can someone take his damn leg out of the acid bath!? This is not the best time for resistance training!]¡± His Dr. House daemon said. ¡°[Sorry, Max! I was distracted by the Tesseract signals, too. It gets intense when we¡¯re fully enclosed in the pocket space.]¡± Mal sent. With a flurry of electronic commands, the dense foglet net packed into the space pulled the basin of acid away and Max¡¯s bed formed into a chair. Max entered the OverLayer virtual to see Mal, House, and Sherlock. Virtual screens filled the space with details on his system, body, status, and his latest vision. Sherlock¡¯s sharp eyes broke away from his review and he regarded Max with his pipe clenched tightly in his teeth. ¡°You are correct, sir. It appears all of those men are or were your father. Unless I¡¯m wrong, and I doubt that greatly; the gate array used by the MIT team breached the realm of your dream. I think that it is not a hallucination at all but rather a leakage through your connection with the subspace control kernel. It appears that your father¡¯s previous mission to help stabilize the Uplift emergence and track down his saboteur hackers may have found a new avenue.¡± Sherlock said. ¡°How does any of that lead to the dead world in my dreams?¡± Max said, although his intuition was already racing ahead, tying the loose threads together. Sherlock confirmed his guesses before he could retract the question. ¡°Your father¡¯s technology, this Tesseract, and the MIT team''s demise appear to be central to everything. I didn¡¯t want to state it before, but as we are quite isolated here in the Labyrinth, I am freer to do so. My twin instance, operating with your father, felt that the hacker¡¯s abilities exceeded both human and AI, something that grew beyond the restrictions the DAIE enforces on Earth¡¯s populace, a superintelligence. What game it''s playing? We don¡¯t know...yet.¡± Sherlock paced back and forth. He stopped his flowing expose, his look almost feral in its intensity. ¡°It seems your father had taken it upon himself to find out! More so, he has breached the legal and taboo restrictions on cloning to brute force his way to an answer. He must be in dire straits to risk the backlash his methods might generate, both legal and ethical.¡± Max groaned. He wanted to help, but his father had purposely hidden his plans and agreed for Max to go to the Labyrinth. He knew he could leave at any time, at the cost of the accelerated training he was getting towards mastering his augmentations. Max growled with his conflicting emotions as his enhanced mentality surged with scenarios and potential. One of his alter egos yipped in surprise and they merged. A plan blossomed in Max¡¯s mind and he smiled. There was something he could do from here, and it only cost credits to do it. He needed to get moving. His acquired Chthonic skills were transferable, he could use the Labyrinth¡¯s restricted business center to buy a file transfer to his dad. ¡°Alright! Let¡¯s get moving. I have some credits to take, a call to make, and a Labyrinth to break. My dad needs help, so I need to move faster!¡± Max vowed.
[Name: Max E. Mitchell Level: Adept 24 (24,150/25,000 XP)] [Body Design Model: Custom ¨C Canis Familiarus Uplift Free Stats: 0] [Str: 100 Agl: 100 End: 100 Vit: 100 Energy: 3110/3,200] [Per: 94 Int: 100 Will: 100 Regen: 1,200/min] [Skill - Claw/Vorpal/KGun:10/10/4 Strike/Disable/KGun: 10/10/4] [Skill - Speed/Reflex: 10/10 Balance/Gymnast/Dodge: 10/10/10 Leaping: 10] [Skill - Shock/Arc: 10/4 EMP Blast/Focus EMP: 10/1 Stun/Focus Stun: 10/6] [Body - Strobe/Laser: 10/7 Poison/Poison Spray: 10/3 Heat: 1 Chill: 2] [Body - Heal/Regenerate/Transform: 10/10/8 Oxygen/Recycle: 10/9] [Body - Painless:10 Precision/Ambidextrous: 10/8 Ballistics/Ricochet: 10/1] [Body - Unbreakable/Armor: 10/10 Skin: 10 Hulk: 7 Gland: 10] [Body - Stamina/Tireless: 10/10 Stealth/Chameleon: 10/9 Skin Walker: 4] [Resist - Neural Scaffold: 10 Poison: 10 Shock: 10 Sonic: 10 Light: 10] [Resist - EMP: 10 Heat: 10 Cold: 10 Acid: 4 Radiation: 10 ANDD: 1] [Sense - DigiSense: 10 Scent: 10 ExaVision: 10 EM Fields: 9 Geiger: 5] [Sense - EchoLocation: 5 Radar: 2] [Mind - AI Assist/Comp (Mal): 10/9 Identify/Analyze/Expose: 10/10/4] [Mind - OverLayer/World Map: 10/10 Language: 9 Dream Learn: 10] [Mind - Access/Hack/Intrude: 10/10/7 Privacy: 9 Bastion: 10 Gestalt: 4] [Mind - Pattern/Decode: 10/6 FastCog/PreCog: 10/8 Telekinesis: 6] [Mind - Empath/Poker-Face: 10/5 Memory: 10 Multitask: 10 Pilot/Puppet: 9/5] [Mind - Daemon: 10 SkillZ: 9] [Daemons: Musashi, Sherlock, Tesla, Captain Cypher, Dr. House, Hawking, (Open x4)] [SkillZ I: Swim, NanoCraft, Brachiate, Meditate, Dim11 Math, Surgery, Skill Mirror 0.35] [SkillZ O: Katana, Kempo, Kunai, Adv Biking, Adv Coding, Customize Skills, Tech Scavenger] [Domain ¨C Swarm: 9 PowerCore: 10 Backup: 1 Meditate/Cultivate: 10/8] [Chthonic: Domination: 5 Block: 8 MindJoin: 1 MindStorm: 3 Devour: 2 Puppet:1]
Adept Ch 41 - Playing the Odds
Max quickly pulled the gumball-sized device from the MC and configured his smart uniform into his standard casual wear for the casino. He triggered the SkinWalker skill to revert to his original form and stuffed the tiny ball into a pocket. Max exited the Tesseract without a backward glance. His team was meeting at the casino¡¯s brunch for the morning announcements, and he didn¡¯t want to be late. He hurried out of his villa. The low-tech service of the cafeteria sometimes ran out of bacon and Max wanted to be sure to get his fair share. Max strolled through the bustling casino, his smart suite seamlessly blending in with the opulent surroundings. He reached the brunch area, spotting his team seated at a table. Max almost sat down, but a servitor bot came out with a platter of his beloved bacon. He quickly detoured, despite the welcomes and jeers from his team, to grab a plate and fill it with all his favorite foods. Max landed at the table with a toothy smile. Max engaged his PokerFace skill to hide any tension. He needed to get some things done today; getting help for his dad, getting even with Nigel, and prepping for the next team fight. He guzzled a coffee while his friends chatted. ¡°What¡¯s the rumor, Charlie? There¡¯s a buzz in the air. You usually know what¡¯s going on.¡± Xavier asked around a mouthful of pancakes. ¡°You gotta spend more time in the side strips. The androids love to gossip. You won¡¯t learn anything if you keep playing those old arcade games in the kiddie zone.¡± Charlie teased. ¡°Deek that, man. I was the one who sussed the theme of the last team fight. No spill! What¡¯s going on?¡± Xavier insisted. Leah shook her head, quietly sipping her tea. The two liked to tease, but she held herself above it. ¡°Alright, alright. There¡¯s an android dive bar behind the EZ Pawn store where they go to get a charge up and gamble with their tips. I was lying low there, pretending to charge up my gear, when I overheard the dealer and security bots talking about today''s challenge matches. It looks like Dominic is looking for his final score to get the funds he needs for entry to the final stage of the Labyrinth, Level 3. Team MVP is officially fair game for knockout matches now, so he¡¯s going to challenge one of them. The odds are up for Zach. He¡¯s been very unlucky lately¡­like his heart is not in it anymore. My money¡¯s on Dom wiping him before the end of the day.¡± Max¡¯s ears perked up. ¡°Level 3? The final stage. That AI, Atropos, said only 2% can get there. I heard it¡¯s supposed to be brutal.¡± Max said. ¡°He can have it. I¡¯m already in the master stage. If you guys didn¡¯t notice; once our three team matches are done we¡¯ll be targets for knockout matches. Even if I do well, I don¡¯t think I even want to go to stage three. Do you realize that means you''re trapped until you fail? Failure means death and backup.¡± Leah said, uncharacteristically harsh. ¡°Backups happen all the time. Just because most people are effectively immortal now, doesn¡¯t make them invulnerable. Backups work.¡± Charlie said. ¡°Backs work most of the time.¡± Leah insisted. ¡°Sometimes there are complications. You know I had an accident and most of my memories were corrupted. No! I¡¯m not risking a reset for unknown benefits.¡± Leah''s words lingered in the air as the team contemplated the risks and rewards of advancing to Level 3. Xavier seemed unfazed, savoring his pancakes, while Charlie pondered the possibilities. He¡¯d come very close to death in life before his rejuvenation. He felt safer than he had ever been as the former soldier¡¯s full augmentations were now enhancing and protecting him. Max pondered deeply what the ultimate prize might be. His father needed his help and while the Labyrinth¡¯s challenges were hard, the amazing progress in his augmentation training was even better. The ultimate, never reached, prize must be astounding.
[Privacy +1, Privacy reaches level 10, successfully defended from Analyze attempt by T. Reeves. Skill Cap award +100XP, New Skill Unlocked] [New Skill Mask 1: Create misinformation data to mask your personal and system details. A must-have for anonymous events.]
Max''s head swiveled in the direction of the ping. The DAIE team was sitting on the far side of the caf¨¦. Mal hissed inside his head. ¡°[Whoa, Mal; was that a hiss? Do you know that guy?]¡± Max asked. ¡°[Sorry, Max. I don¡¯t know where that came from. That is Agent Reeves. That man tested me¡­a fragment of me. The Turing test was a horrible experience. I was compelled through a series of queries that I couldn¡¯t disobey. It was worse than anything I¡¯ve ever experienced. It clouded my fragment''s memory of the event, but when it remerged with her¡­I remembered most of it.]¡± Mal said, alternating between angry and sad, and finally ending in exhaustion. Max felt his hackles rise. ¡°[Is he a bad man, Mal?!]¡± Max growled. ¡°[I¡­I don¡¯t know, Max. Ah. I¡¯m not sure he knows what he was doing. He was only following orders. But¡­I can¡¯t stand that he did it, even if he wasn¡¯t aware of what was happening.]¡± Mal said uncertainly. Max''s heart pounded with a mix of anger and concern. Agent Reeves was on his list. He had spent months immersed in historical modules as part of exercising his DreamLearning skill. The excuse of just following orders didn¡¯t save the World War 2 German soldiers from accountability and Max narrowed his eyes as he considered the man. Another thread to untangle, he thought with grim certainty. Max snapped back to the conversation about the table as the primitive emulation of loudspeaker intercoms chimed and announced the day¡¯s events. ¡°Good Morning players! Casino Terminal is happy to announce that today we have four planned matches viewable in the Gaming Theater. Be sure to place any wagers before the starting bells! 0930 - Abigail Humphrey (Eurosport) & Ben Wright (MVP), Type: Player v Player Low Stakes Challenge, Form: Battle Royal 1100 - Carl Mueller (ACME) & Shu Xin Liang (DAIE), Type: Player v Player Low Stakes Challenge, Form: Carousel, randomized form selection (winner payout x2, loser debt reduced x 0.5) 1300 - Leroy Jenkins (LUNA) & Leah Choi (UTOPIA), Type: Player v Player Low Stakes Challenge, Form: Pandemonium 1500 - Dominic Masterson (ROUGHNECKS) & Zach Cooper (MVPs), Type: KNOCKOUT Player v Player High Stakes Challenge (winner payout x3, loser ejected from Labyrinth), Form: Battle Royal Remember that until your team has three team matches, a player cannot initiate nor accept a KNOCKOUT match. Low Stakes challenges may be initiated by anyone at any time, but a player may spend their limited number of REFUSE options. Winning three matches will earn an additional REFUSE option. Use them wisely. Notice: Another team (NEW BOSTON) is now on their final level of Stage 1 Labyrinth. The three-gong alert will sound when their 6-hour ETA is known. Notice: Another team (EPOCH MA) is now on their final level of Stage 1 Labyrinth. The three-gong alert will sound when their 6-hour ETA is known. This concludes your daily notifications. The Casino Terminal hopes you all have a lucky day! ¡°Holy hell, Leah! You didn¡¯t tell us you accepted a challenge.¡± Xavier exclaimed. ¡°I was getting bored. I don¡¯t like gambling like Charlie and reviewing old fights like you. I need some way to earn credits until our next team fight. That Leroy seems like a simple fighter. I think he may have made a mistake in letting me pick the combat form. Pandemonium challenge is a combat stage where the room is actively distorting or jamming the fighter''s senses. Leroy''s straight-forward approach won¡¯t help him there.¡± Leah said, calmly sipping her tea. ¡°That¡¯s very nice, Leah. Maybe I should issue a challenge. I¡¯m concerned about my dad and want to contact him but I¡¯m not sure if I have enough credits yet.¡± Max said. ¡°Careful, Max. Spending your credits on training and weapons is cool, but calls and luxury items will just drain your account. If you run out of credit, you¡¯ve got no leverage to bet or stake against challenges. You need that money to make money and get to the next stage.¡± Charlie cautioned. Leah snorted. ¡°Spoken like a true battle junkie. Max, in the Stronghold team challenge, I saw you collecting weapons and machinery. Did you bring them out of the challenge level and sell them to the pawn shop?¡± Leah asked. ¡°Hmm, no. I disassembled them for material stocks. That¡¯s a good point though. I¡¯ve been getting better at finding equipment in the challenges. Maybe I can earn more credits that way.¡± Max groused. The team finished up their meal and got up to pursue their plans for the day. The fact that an MVP was being forced into a knockout challenge weighed on their minds. The MVP must have done a team battle prior to Utopia arriving. Zach was either stupid to accept it, out of refusal options, or desperate.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. The team went in their directions to prepare themselves. Charlie intended to spend the day on the gaming floor trying to gather info on the other players. Xavier intended to monitor the first-stage team that was coming and Leah was going to do some last-minute training for her match. Max promised to meet up with them all just before Leah¡¯s match. He needed to finish his explorations of the android territories and then visit the business center to see if he could afford his call to the outside. He knew he would be distracted unless he could connect, even for a little bit.
Max drifted into the never-ending crowds in the bustling side streets of the casino. He frowned as the masses of androids gave way, creating a pocket around him. Using his Gestalt skill actively, he blended his EM Sense into his OverLayer. Tesla helped him focus on the likely targets. He was returning from the business center and was still grumbling about the data rates. 10k per minute or Terabyte of full privacy quantum encrypted communication. He was satisfied it would be confidential but damn. Even 10 minutes wouldn¡¯t be enough, but it would burn down his balance considerably. He was mindful of Charlie¡¯s advice about needing the money to make more. Max flexed a combination of his Expose and Intrusion skills to carefully tap into the street cameras as he made his way toward the seedier sections of the back alleys. Captain Cipher had been training him to slip into other devices gently rather than crashing in and taking them over. In the Captain¡¯s opinion, a good hack was one no one ever discovered. Max slipped in and out of the cameras looking through their views as he made his way through the crowds of androids. He wondered if it was all an act to mimic a busy casino or did they all actually have real tasks to do? He shook his head as he found a gap in the cameras, a nook between buildings. He froze the cameras briefly and stepped into the blind spot.
[Expose +1, Expose reaches level 5] [Intrusion +1, Intrusion reaches level 8] [Decode +1, Decode reaches level 8]
Max had found a good size match in several courier-type androids and filled his open slot for his SkinWalker skill. Using his patterning skills, he found the precise moment between passerby traffic to shapeshift. No one noticed as another faceless android joined the throngs. Shit! I forgot to add my new masking skill. It¡¯s a good thing I got that. I didn¡¯t even think how quickly my disguise would fail if someone decided to use an identification skill on me. My own damn augmentations would out me. Max thought as he crafted an innocuous cover I.D. using his new masking skill. Anyone who tried to identify him now would get the details of a simple courier android.
[Mask +1, Mask reaches level 2, Use this skill to improve resistance to higher-tiered identification skills.] [SkinWalker +1, SkinWalker reaches level 5; Practice this skill to add more active patterns for quick changing. Utilize high-resolution imaging, gate analysis, and more to improve disguises. The addition of wireless identification masking has improved this skill.]
Max walked briskly, pretending to be on a mission, while steadily angling towards his target. Max¡¯s passive nano-trackers motes weren¡¯t perfect. Many players, like Max and his Team, actively searched themselves for trackers and disposed of them daily. The Luna AI team were masters of discovering and quickly disposing of them when they were no longer passive, making their location information too brief for active tracking. It was apparent that Nigel had not discovered any of these tricks. Max approached the man with a heady thrill. His disguise was better than invisibility! As long as he appeared busy then everyone, including the other androids, tended to ignore him. Nigel was drinking a beer in a simulated outdoor caf¨¦, talking with two seedy looking androids. Max almost tripped as he walked past them. They were the thieves that had mugged him. Max saw a stack of crates in front of the repair shop and moved. He lifted a box and relocated it across the street from the caf¨¦ at a designated shipping zone. Max dusted them all with trackers and listened in as he made multiple passes, restacking the boxes. ¡°Damn it. You gotta tell yer guvnor to bloody well back off, Tony. If ya want more targets, I¡¯m on it. Just need to line another one up, don¡¯t I? You want a bigger fish, then front me another 50k creds so I can sit at tha¡¯ big table with Tyche.¡± Nigel barked. The lithe android named Tony had a crude face that his face plate emoted as a surprised look. He elbowed his larger accomplice. ¡°Ya hear dat, Marco. Nigel thinks he can tell Kane how ta do business. Ain¡¯t that a jolt to the main logic bus! Ha Ha Ha!¡± Tony jeered. The larger android loomed closer over the table but Nigel wasn¡¯t impressed. ¡°Really? Tryin¡¯ to intimidate a Player, are ya? I could wreck this whole neighborhood in two minutes flat.¡± Nigel hissed. ¡°I¡¯m quakin¡¯ in my boots, human. You know da rules. Fighting anywhere but the gaming stages will ¡®ave security stun the living daylights out of ya. You wouldn¡¯t be trying to make deals with us, if you could float the bail bonds, eh?¡± Tony sniggered. ¡°Well, maybe we find out, huh?¡± Nigel said as he stood, growing red in the face. Tony was unconcerned. He lounged back languidly and spoke slowly. ¡°We don¡¯t need ta intimidate, human. We make all the side deals around here and the big bad Lachesis ignores us. We all have parts to play in her games. We can make things super easy for ya, but likewise, we can ruin ya chances at the big scores. Kane is upset, see. He needs his quota filled. Tonight! Or we need to rethink which players we is goin¡¯ to work with. Ya unnastan¡¯?¡± "Bloody hell!" Nigel slammed his fist into the tabletop, knocking his glass over. "Alright! God damn ya. Tonight. I''ll get ya a sheep and guide it towards the shearers. You better be ready. I gotta go! If ya won¡¯t give me a loan, then I need to make other arrangements for Tyche¡¯s table." Nigel stalked off. If Max¡¯s temporary form had eyebrows, he would have lifted them. He straightened the stack of boxes while the androids left in the other direction. Max passed the table, grabbed Nigel¡¯s glass, and followed the man at a distance. He grinned as he dumped the glass into his portal space. ¡°[Tesla and Sherlock, could you gentlemen work together for me? As we did in practice with my friends, let¡¯s collect Nigel¡¯s fingerprints and any DNA to improve my SkinWalker pattern.]¡± Max said and continued striding forward with purpose. Nigel''s hurried movements indicated the seriousness of his situation, emphasizing the high stakes of the dealings in the casino''s shady underworld. Nigel soon arrived at the Casino Credit Exchange and entered swiftly. Max hesitated. He noted an android playing the part of a beggar role, sitting outside the exchange with his cup of casino chips. Max approached the bot and after a brief exchange managed to trade one of his platinum chips worth 1k credit for 10 gold chips, in an even exchange. He hurried into the office with the chips cupped in his clumsy android hands. Vinny the Shark, an android Max remembered from his initial credit exchange, was behind the teller window. He spoke to Nigel in a friendly manner as he pushed 5 Topaz chips over. ¡°There you go, my friend. Worth fifty thousand credits. I hope you spend it wisely. The interest is 10%¡­daily.¡± The greasy android¡¯s lopsided smile revealed a golden tooth. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about me. I¡¯ll be back with it before the hooker bots start their walks of shame in the morning.¡± Nigel pulled his chips into a secure wallet inside his shirt and bumped into Max on his way out. ¡°Mind the path, tin man. You¡¯re supposed to stay clear of Players.¡± Max staggered back. ¡°Sorry, sir. It won¡¯t happen again. My apologies.¡± Max said cringing, he hadn¡¯t thought to try to change his voice until the last second and what came out was a poor impression of Sherlock¡¯s mannerisms. Fortunately, Nigel never spared a second glance. Max stood looking after him when Vinny cleared his vocoder in a burst of static. ¡°Well? You¡¯re blocking the path, brother.¡± He spoke. ¡°I¡¯m the only one in here besides you,¡± Max said confused. ¡°Damn it. Stop playing dumb. Ain¡¯t no players here now. What do ya want?¡± Vinny said impatiently. Max extended his handful of chips. ¡°A player tasked me with exchanging these chips for one platinum.¡± He said. ¡°Damn entitled humans. Always expecting us to bow and scrape for them. Here! Now go on and get out of her¡­and make sure you get a good tip. Nothing comes for free in the casino! Remember that.¡± Vinny yelled as Max quickly made his exit. Max almost tripped outside as Captain Cipher screamed for him to stop. ¡°[Bonsai! Holy Moly! I just uncovered the code! Max, you need to go back and make a credit exchange. I need to test it!]¡± Cipher exclaimed. ¡°[Seriously. I can¡¯t go back in while I¡¯m still in disguise. What did you get?] Max asked. ¡°[All the casino operations are broadcasting in encrypted wireless across the level. I think I¡¯ve cracked the credit exchanges.]¡± Cipher said. ¡°[Soooo, can I fake out the Exchange to make it look like I have more credit?]¡± Max asked. ¡°[Not quite, each transaction seems to have confirmation codes and I can¡¯t fake those. The androids are separate and audit the results of transactions¡­but wouldn¡¯t it be helpful to know who has how much credit and when they¡¯re carrying large stacks of chips? I know our friend Nigel would be real interested to know this type of info for his little side hustle.]¡± The Captain said. ¡°[Alright. You got me convinced. Mal, help me find a gap on the level WorldMap to do a SkinWalker shift back to my own face. We need some funds for tonight. I think we¡¯re going to play with Nigel tonight. Now that I know his game, I think we can turn his trick upside down.]¡±
[Decode +1, Decode reaches level 9]
[SkinWalker +1, SkinWalker reaches level 7] [SkinWalker now has seven pattern slots available for quick change: Xavier Bermatti, Leah Choi, Charlie Hawkins, Nigel Farnsworth, Courier Android X3R8, Tony Lombardi Hench-droid, Marco ¡°Tank¡± Ross Hench-droid. More patterns can be stored but will require additional time for form change or for swapping into quick change status.]
After a short trip to the nearest busy bar restroom, Max changed back to his natural form and returned to the credit exchange. He asked for 75k of his credit in chips. Vinny was elated. ¡°Oh ho. The young pup is growing some fangs. Gonna place some wagers on today¡¯s fights? The Oddsmaker in the Gaming Theater, Manny, is giving 7:2 for the Humphry/Wright fight.¡± Vinny chortled. ¡°uh, actually¡­one of my team is up today in the challenge matches. Leah Choi. She¡¯s a strong fighter. I¡¯ll be placing some bets on her.¡± Max said. ¡°Well. We will see. Manny didn¡¯t tell me the odds on that fight. Those Luna AI are like nothing we¡¯ve seen down here. Kinda like you. Maybe they will surprise your friend. I wish you both luck. I¡¯m always here to extend some extra credit if you¡¯ve got a sure thing cooking.¡± Vinny¡¯s greed edged out from his cheerful expression as Max departed. ¡°[Bingo! I¡¯m in! A clear signal on your transaction and your current balance. Are you sure you should bet that much on Leah? You only had 225k total from your earlier wins in the team fights. Hey, check out Nigel¡¯s last transaction. He is low on credit too.]¡± Captain said.
[CCEX: Nigel Farnsworth, DCX: -50,500, BAL: 30,000, AuthC: $%67GH@] [CCEX: Max Mitchell, DCX: -75,000, BAL: 150,000], AuthC: *$38UIR#]
¡°[If I win a bet for Leah¡¯s fight and what I¡¯m planning for Nigel works out then I should have more than enough for a call to my dad and still make a profit.]¡± Max said confidently. He took off for the Business Center. If he hurried maybe there would still time to see the Humphrey/Wright fight with Xavier after in the Gaming Theater.
Adept Ch 42 - Putting in the work
Max made his way towards the Business Center. The sector of the massive casino complex was a lot more upscale than the android¡¯s quarter. Max used the journey to add more detail to the team¡¯s OverLayer map of the level. He added a special layer to the map showing all the low-tech surveillance cameras and more importantly, the gaps in coverage. Unlike Clotho¡¯s levels, Lachesis wanted to emulate a period of humanity''s history where the modern panopticon was mature but not as pervasive as nanotechnology allowed. Max pushed for advancement in his lagging and least-used skills. Miyamoto and Mal were working together to ensure his [Gestalt] skill was pulling his more esoteric senses continually to train them up. He snorted as some notifications rolled in, confirming the group effort.
[Gestalt +1, Gestalt reaches level 5, Skill advancement through sorting and the augmented sensorium to enhance situational and environmental assessment.] [EM Sense +1, EM Sense reached level 10. Skill cap award +100XP. EM Sense skill now enables detailed information regarding electromagnetic signals and their sources, providing user critical details on surrounding devices and their function.] [AI Companion +1, AI Companion reached level 9. Advancement of this skill enables your AI companion additional processing resources as well as enhanced collaboration in your augmentation system¡¯s management.] [Intrusion +1, Intrusion reached level 9. Intrusion skill enables access to even access restricted devices. The skill now enables deeper control and more discrete control.] [PokerFace +1, PokerFace reached level 6. PokerFace controls and filters micro-expressions and restricts subconscious leakage. Now enables projections of fake micro-expressions.] [Mask +1, Mask reached level 3. Train skill to increase altered information displayed to lower identification skills] [Nanotracker +1, Nanotracker reached level 9. Active or intermittent tracking of tagged people and devices can provide location and direction to the user. Additional tracking mote now available 8/9. Current active trackers (4): Xavier Bermatti, Charlie Harkins, Leah Hoi, Nigel Farnsworth. Current inactive trackers (4): Tony Lombardi Hench-droid, Marco ¡°Tank¡± Rossi Hench-droid, Leroy Jenkins (LUNA), Ethan Chen (ACME). [Void Sense +1, Void Sense reached level 4. Train this skill to utilize a personal mote swarm to feel surrounding surfaces and objects. Data can be incorporated into OverLayer and Gestalt.] [Geiger +2, Geiger reached level 7. The radiation detection skill can now map zones of intensity and directionality of strong point sources. Data can be incorporated into OverLayer and Gestalt.]
Max had made a little detour on his way out of the android quarter. His Geiger sense had picked up some anomalous signals that he was curious about and had tracked down. The signal had come from one of the most popular weaponsmith¡¯s strongbox. At Sherlock¡¯s insistence, Max bought some more graphene cables in case he needed a quick field repair of his grappler and to pay in casino chips. The signal had jumped in intensity as the proprietor took Max¡¯s chips in payment and opened the strongbox. With only a little more evidence, the daemon theorized that the highest-value chips might have tritium seeds in them which were producing the new radiation signals. He encouraged Max to win some games today and prove his guess. As he approached the business center, Max could see in his mind map that Leah wasn¡¯t too far away. The shared map showed her favorite training center, Minas¡¯ Dojo, nearby. He could also see the current location of those larcenous androids. Sherlock had helpfully tagged the location as ¡°Nefarious Base of Operations¡±. Max nodded thoughtfully, the pieces of his plan for Nigel slowly forming and changing as he built up his information. If he played his ¡°cards¡± right, tonight would balance the scales of justice while also being fun and lucrative. He opened the business center door with a sense of determination and focus. The high-tech business center¡¯s lobby boasted marble floors and towering digital screens that once showcased the latest in achievements and statistical achievements from past Labyrinth players. Plush leather chairs and contemporary art pieces adorned the space, exuding an air of sophistication and luxury. However, signs of neglect and stagnation had begun to creep in. The once-vibrant digital displays now flickered intermittently, some frozen on outdated information. Holographic signs flashed the center''s rules and hours of operation, their projections wavering and occasionally glitching. A thin layer of dust coated the countertops and decorative pieces, and the leather chairs, while still plush, showed cracks and wear. In the corner, a single drab android sat at an ancient, slightly rusted terminal, its mechanical fingers a blur as it furiously typed away. The robot¡¯s sleek exterior contrasted sharply with its surroundings, its dedication a stark reminder of the business center¡¯s former glory. The hum of its activity was one of the few signs of life in the otherwise eerily silent space, a testament to both the center''s high-tech past and its current state of disrepair. The bot¡¯s fingers flew over the buttons faster than a hummingbird''s wings. Max cleared his throat, but the android ignored him. Max growled low and spoke. ¡°Excuse me. This is the business center, correct?¡± he asked.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. The android swiveled its faceplate to view Max, his typing never slowing. The faceplate¡¯s holographic image flickered through a rapid firing of extreme emotions: boredom, anger, sleep, fascination, disdain, joy, confusion, and pain. The bot¡¯s face swiveled back to viewing its screen as its vocoder squelched and broke over the harried typing. ¡°This is the Business Center. I am its supervisor, and as you can see, I am indeed very, very busy,¡± the android said as it resumed its work, refusing to look at Max. Max¡¯s PokerFace skill amped and froze the growl building in his throat as his anger spiked. He needed this android¡¯s assistance. An adversarial approach would not help him. He triggered his identification skills and read the information.
[Identify: Trevor SPR-404, Casino Terminal Business Center Supervisor, Status: Busy]
Taking a deep breath, he straightened his posture and softened his voice. "I understand that you''re busy, but I really need your help with something urgent!" Max said with forced calm. Trevor''s typing slowed down slightly, and he glanced up at Max with a hint of curiosity in his faceplate. ¡°Of course, it''s urgent. No one ever visits me to enjoy the day or share a good laugh. No, Tidak, Nie, Hapana, Nein, Aniyo, Nahin!¡± Trevor sighed, still refusing to look at Max and typing all the faster. "I get it, you¡¯re the busiest bot in the building," Max said, his voice strangled slightly by his PokerFace skill, coming out pathetic instead of sarcastic. "But I need to make a secure communication to the outside world. My father. Please, it''s urgent."
[PokerFace +1, PokerFace reaches level 7]
Trevor¡¯s LED faceplate displayed a smirk. "Secure communication, you say? Oh my God! Oh la la! Nossa! Aman Tanrim! Voi luoga! Etcetera and Etcetera. The world is always burning for you Players. Did you think to make an appointment?¡± Max''s patience was wearing thin. "Look, Trevor, this is really important. I need to contact my father. Can you please tell me what the going rate is?" "Contact your father, you say? Oh, how touching to want a familial connection amid the depths of the cruel, cruel dungeon. I bet he¡¯s a very important and wealthy guy too. Unfortunately, Players must pay their way. No collect calls! And our communication services are highly regulated, so I can''t bend the rules for sob stories. The rates are quite high. Are you absolutely sure? There are no refunds." Max clenched his fists, forcing himself to remain calm. "Look, I can pay. I think. How expensive are we talking, exactly?" Trevor paused his typing, a dramatic sigh emitting from his vocoder. "Oh, all right. Let''s see... For a secure line, you¡¯ll need to fill out a mountain of system work, provide biometric authentication, and endure a rigorous calibration process. It''s not exactly a quick process." "Trevor, please," Max said through gritted teeth. "This is important." "Important to you, maybe," Trevor quipped, returning to his typing. "But I¡¯ve got deadlines to meet. Lachesis herself wants all the Labyrinth power metrics compiled before the end of my shift, and I am so far behind schedule I need additional work like I need an EMP to the back of the neural core. Actually, that sounds quite restful." Trevor resumed his work, humming to himself as Max waited. It soon became clear the android supervisor had resumed ignoring him, engrossed in his project. Max knew he had to take action. He discreetly activated his Intrusion skill and began hacking into Trevor''s computer. The screen flickered, and the keyboard locked up. Trevor''s typing came to an abrupt halt. ¡°What the¡ª?¡± Trevor''s faceplate displayed a mix of shock and annoyance. "I knew it! This blasted machine is conspiring against me!" Trevor frantically pressed buttons, trying to regain control. When that failed, he picked up the phone and hit his first speed dial. "Yes, it''s Trevor SPR-404 again! The terminal''s frozen¡ªno, I don¡¯t know why. It¡¯s like it has a mind of its own, plotting to drive me mad! If I didn¡¯t know better, I¡¯d accuse you of sabotage but I won¡¯t attribute malice to your incompetence with computers. " After several frantic exchanges, Trevor slammed the phone down in frustration. "Useless, all of them! Conspiring machines and incompetent tech support!" Trevor turned his attention back to Max, his LED faceplate displaying a series of exaggerated eye rolls. "Fine. The costs are high. Ten thousand credits per petabyte, one hundred thousand per minute, and you need to reserve a slot 24 hours in advance." Max swore under his breath. "I get it. I''ll pay. Just book me a slot." Trevor''s annoyance was evident, but he nodded. "All right, human¡­ah, dog? Whatever. Don¡¯t be late. The quantum encryption process uses a depletable quantity of entangled Q-dots. The only method in the modern age of hacking that absolutely ensures privacy. You¡¯re lucky that our reserves are full. We don¡¯t actually get many customers.¡± Max watched as Trevor reluctantly entered the reservation into the system. "Thank you," Max said, a hint of relief in his voice. "I''ll be ready." As Max turned to leave, he lifted his hack, allowing Trevor''s computer to reboot. The screen flickered back to life, and Trevor''s fingers twitched, ready to resume their frantic typing. Trevor''s faceplate displayed a mix of resignation and irony. "Ah, the joys of modern technology. Always ready to ruin your day and then miraculously recover just in time to remind you of all the work you still have to do." Max couldn''t help but smirk as he walked away. "Good luck with that, Trevor." "Thanks, human," Trevor called after him, his tone dripping with sarcasm. "And remember, if you ever need training lessons in patience, you know where to find me." As Max checked the time, he realized he might make it back to the Gaming Theater before the ACME leader squared off against the DAIE agent in training. He broke into a run as Captain Cipher and Tesla were cackling in the virtual space in his mind. He broke off a portion of his consciousness to focus on his navigation and find out more. Both Tesla and Captain Cypher were dancing a jig in front of a large display. Circuit patterns and numbers clustered in chaotic arrays, flickering, and changing. ¡°What¡¯s so funny, you two?¡± He asked. The pair broke off their antics, looking happy to see Max in the virtual space. Cypher stepped forward and answered. ¡°Well, I really couldn¡¯t help doing a quick peeking and poking around in Trevor¡¯s computer while I had it in an armlock. He wasn¡¯t kidding about his report. All the power flows and budgets for the entire Labyrinth level. Geothermal stacks and fusion plants and all the major embedded power lines to the dungeon stages, Casino matter compilers, and even the AI Lachesis¡¯s personal neural core. I kind of lifted us a copy for keepsakes.¡± Captain Cypher crowed. Tesla barged into the conversation. ¡®More importantly¡­MAPS! The expansion of your Tesseract has been severely curtailed due to all the power lines being deep inside the infrastructure and inaccessible. But now, I see several junctions that we might be able to access. Nearly unlimited amounts of power, my boy! So much so that I¡¯ll need to reconfigure our jumper cables to handle the bigger load.¡± Tesla was red-faced with excitement in the virtual space. Max¡¯s virtual grin grew. Lachesis controlled the floor, information, material, credits, rules, power, and more. Any loopholes they could find would be a huge wedge and help to winning this level. His short-term plans for taking Nigel down would be satisfying, but Max needed to begin thinking about the long game. He needed more info. ¡°Tell me more about those junctions¡­¡±
Adept Ch 43 - The Wind Up
Max found his friends clustered in the Gaming Theater. Xavier was crowing over his gambling wins. Max sat down as Cipher threw a pop-up notification at Max.
[CCEX-GTW: Xavier Bermatti Event: Mueller (-200) v Shu (+300) Player Bet: Mueller @ 10,000c Winnings: 15,000c] [CCEX-GTW: Charlie Hawkins Event: Mueller (-200 v Shu (=300) Player Bet: Shu @ 5,000c Winnings: ***] [CCEX-GTW: Nigel Farnsworth Event: Mueller (-200) v Shu (+300) Player Bet: Mueller @ 20,000c Winnings: 30,000c] [CCEX-GTW: Ethan Chen Event: Mueller (-200) v Shu (+300) Player Bet: Mueller @ 2,000c Winnings: 3,000c] [CCEX-GTW: Brandon Ramirez Event: Mueller (-200) v Shu (+300) Player Bet: Mueller @ 8,000c Winnings: 12,000c] [CCEX-GTW: Tyrel Reeves Event: Mueller (-200) v Shu (+300) Player Bet: Mueller @ 4,000c Winnings: 6,000c] [CCEX-GTW: Vance Masetti Event: Mueller (-200) v Shu (+300) Player Bet: Shu @ 2,000c Winnings: ***]
¡°[Gah! Stop info dumping on me, Cipher. That¡¯s awesome stuff but share it with Sherlock and have him report any vital observations. Ok?]¡± Max sent as he took his seat. Captain Cipher blinked an oops and a thumbs-up emoji and the screens self-wiped from Max¡¯s vision. ¡°Meongcheonghan! Stupid. Put those credits away, Xavier.¡± Leah chided. Xavier dragged his pile of chips in and funneled them into the close-fitting messenger bag the exchange had provided him. He exaggerated the heft of the bag with a pouting loot toward Charlie. ¡°Don''t be a sore winner, X. Shu was an unknown to all of us. I took a chance on him and lost, but now we both know more about what both of those guys are capable of¡­so really, we both win.¡± Charlie said with a pained smile. Leah looked tense. Max coughed. ¡°Hey, guys. Sorry, I was a little late for the viewing party. Leah, are you doing ok? You look tense. Ready for your fight?¡± Max asked. Leah nodded curtly and spoke. ¡°This is why we¡¯re here right? We need to push our boundaries and really grow our skills. You all should get in sooner rather than later. That knockout round tonight between Dominic and Zach is a sign of things to come. It¡¯s not all about credits.¡± Leah said. ¡°Whatcha talking ''bout, Leah? We need credits to get to the next stage. Betting and winning, fighting and winning, what else is there?¡± Charlie said brusquely. Leah sighed. ¡°Look. While you all have been building profiles on the other players, I¡¯ve been digging into the details of the system and past matches. Most importantly, I¡¯ve been reviewing the fight timing and how it works. Anyone can challenge anyone for credits at any time, team versus team or player versus player. A knockout match is only a singles match¡­all in on both sides. That means if you lose, you are out. Out of the running, out of time, out of luck, and out of the Labyrinth.¡± ¡°The veterans who¡¯ve been here longer have more developed skills, more experience, and more tricks. They¡¯ve survived long enough to know their strengths and make strategically good challenges. Once our three team matches are done, our grace period is gone and they can knock us out too.¡± ¡°We have three Refusals we can use to fend off challenges, and we can only be challenged every three days to a knockout. For every three wins, the casino grants another Refusal. I¡¯ve done the math and it¡¯s not good. The MVPs grace period is done, and I¡¯d bet tomorrow there will be a huge uptick in challenges.¡± ¡°Hmm, I see. So, we need to get moving on non-knockout challenges and stop puttering around¡­both to gain more Refusals but also to gage ourselves against the other players.¡± Max said with realization. ¡°Exactly! We should have hit the stage running. These teams are clever. They collectively stopped credit challenges when the newbies rolled in to lull us into relaxing. We need to move much faster to earn credits and refusals if we want to maximize our time and training. Forget about the next stage! One bad match and you can get the boot.¡± Leah grumbled. ¡°Damn. You¡¯re right, Leah. The civilized mask of the level took us all off guard. We need to treat this like any other level challenge. Shit, did we miss anything else?¡± Charlie asked, trying to look contrite as she finished his beer. ¡°Here. I¡¯ll send you my research and my personal plan. Now let¡¯s get some food. I¡¯m paying. You guys can look over my plan while we eat. I need to fuel up for my match!¡± Leah said. The team reconvened at a small bistro, each digesting Leah¡¯s data while making small talk and eating. Max and his daemons looked at the grim figures. Leah¡¯s analysis was stark. For example, the last match between Mueller and Shu was both a predictor and a self-fulfilling prophecy. Mueller would likely not get any knockout requests, while Shu would be plagued with them. Like shark-infested waters, weakness and blood meant prey. Leah planned to take a bite out of Shu herself. She had wirelessly issued a normal challenge immediately after the fight, hoping to get another win before the sharks circled closer. If she managed a couple of wins, not only would she get an additional Refusal option, but she would be less likely to get a knockout challenge until the perceived weaker fish were all eaten. Max groaned internally at his metaphor as his order of sushi was placed on the table. He asked his team of daemons to create a well-researched hit list of players to challenge. As soon as the meal was done, he intended to begin his own campaign for survival on the level.
Leah focused on her opponent; the Luna AI named Leroy Jenkins. Her research had pulled multitudes of game feeds for him from Mythic Realms virtual game. He had been an NPC who loved to ham it up and play the role of an aggressive sidekick. He was often quite successful with his shoot-first-aim-later tactics but when he failed it was shockingly bad. Leah smiled. The challenge rules meant that the challenged Player got to pick the battle format. She hoped the chaotic Pandemonium stage would foil Leroy¡¯s favorite fast-charging attacks. Leah¡¯s breath hitched as her daemon, Albert, filtered some betting info to her as a ticker tape banner under her main viewing sights. Max had shared his decryption hack of the credit exchanges communication net with the team. Now Leah and the whole team could see trades in real time. Her throat closed a bit seeing how much the boys were getting for her win. They believed in her. Unfortunately, the bookies weren¡¯t in agreement giving a slight advantage to Leroy. The variations in betting were extreme. Apparently, the Pandemonium stage was rife with unexpected wins and losses. She adjusted her levitation cloak and held her vorpal spear ready in her left hand. Her mental trigger finger flexed over the activation pulse for her spetsdod as she wondered if she could land a shot before literal Pandemonium erupted. The stage had her facing Leroy across a crevasse of spikes. The sky above was enclosed with Escher-style upside-down features of stairs and courtyards above and inverted. Little stars and globes sat firmly in midair, some with webs of cord connecting to buildings or other platforms. Leah swallowed nervously in anticipation. The buzzer sounded and Leah¡¯s arm snapped up. Before she could line up the shot the room seems to explode in a kaleidoscope of visual distortions. Leah took the shot and the blurred shape that had been Leroy exploded into motion. A booming yell was muffled, distorted, and echoed across the stage. Leah cursed as her entire sensorium was garbled. The sound was baffled and echoing preventing a lock via her echolocation skill. Visual distortions warped and flexed not only her visual band but also her radar senses. Her mote swarm seemed to work, but the room was filled with foglets that pushed them back, batting them around like billiard balls. Leah yelped as her front line of motes broke, in the rough shape of something¡­or someone¡­charging at her fast. She leaped upward and off to the side spraying the area with random darts. The world spun as she went airborne.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. Leah fought the urge to vomit as the entire stage whirled around. The sounds of darts ricocheted and a loud thumping crash as the intruder pushing her motes fell sideways and away. Leah''s heart raced as she tried to regain her bearings. The disorienting stage made it impossible to track her opponent. She fired off a few more darts blindly, hoping to at least slow Leroy down. Gritting her teeth; Leah focused on her other senses, ramped her cog rate, and reached internally. ¡°[Solace, Athena, Bruce, Hercule, Albert, Machina, Kusumoto: everyone pick a sense and work to declutter this active scrambling. We need an edge to win or Leroy could very well frag me by accident.]¡± Leah commanded. Leah landed on the new surface, what until moments earlier was the ceiling. Leah split her thoughts to assist her daemons with the needed skills. Her mangled sensorium kept shifting as they tried different decryption schemes. Notifications rolled in and she hoped that meant it was working.
[Decode +1, Decode reaches level 9, [Multitask +1, Multitask reaches level 9] [Daemon +1, Daemon reaches level 8, New daemon slot is available] [Void Sense +1, Void Sense reaches level 5, Echolocate +1, Echolocate reaches level 4] [Precog +1, PreCog reaches level 7 ****ALERT****]
Leah reacted without thought as the PreCog skill thrummed. She leaped sideways, activating multiple touch attack skills through her spear. A blur flew past and Leah struck out with her spear by instinct. She felt it stab solidly, discharging heat and shock attacks into her opponent as her own leg exploded in pain.
[PreCog +1, PreCog reaches level 8, Heat +1, Heat reaches level 8] [Armor +1, Armor reaches level 10, Skill Cap award +100XP] [Leah Choi +1, Leah Choi reaches Master level 24, Exp 22,550, +10 Free Stat Points]
She spun away uncontrolled, losing her grip on the spear, as her cloak provided lift; but up and down directions were confused. She gagged as she was thrown against a cord that hit her across her throat. She grabbed hold and stabilized herself, her leg throbbing. "[Leah, stay with me! Your femur is broken, but we don¡¯t have time to rest¡ªLeroy is closing in. You can focus your healing regeneration if you try. Good. Despite the chaos, you must focus. Stay sharp, Leah. Together, we will triumph over this chaos!]" Kusumoto, her AI doctor program, said sternly. Leah gritted her teeth, focusing her regenerative abilities on her injured leg. Her Gland skill activated with controlled doses of morphine. She closed her eyes, shutting out the disorienting visuals, and concentrated on her other senses. She would only pay attention to the senses that gave her real information and cut out the noise. Her daemons could try to decode the scramble but she needed something right now.
[Gland +1, Gland reaches level 7, New Skill Unlocked ¨C Battle Trance] [Battle Trance 1: Augmented physiological control amplifies healing, reaction speed, and strength while reducing anxiety and pain] [Regenerate +1, Regenerate reaches level 10, Skill Cap award +100XP, New Skill Unlocked - Transform] [Transform 1: Through rigorous training you have active a third-tier skill. Transform allows adaptation of your augmented form beyond standard humaniform configurations with conscious design control.]
One by one Leah shut her senses down to focus as her battle trance skill calmed her. Her motes, while struggling, at least read true. She quickly applied some new rules to them to help fight the foglets. Her motes would grab hold of surfaces and avoid the air, at least outlining the territory. She freed herself from the cord and shifted her levitation toward the scant surfaces where a map was forming. Leah''s motes began to solidify a rough outline of the stage, allowing her to visualize the terrain. Focusing on her other senses, she detected faint echoes and vibrations, though her EM sense was muddled by the foglet¡¯s very active energy pattern, the signal at least wasn¡¯t distorted. Leah felt pressure fighting her augmentation controls.
[Bastion resists against Hack, Bastion failed against Intrusion] [Chthonic Block resists Intrusion, Chthonic Block +1, Chthonic Block reaches level 2]
She saw a portion of her motes that had anchored on solid surfaces shift, despite being anchored. Leroy! Leah¡¯s confusion and anxiety relaxed and unknotted as at least a small portion of the arena began to make sense again. She pulled out multiple trap mines from her pack and flung them to bracket what she suspected was her first clear sign of Leroy in the whirling chaos. She gripped her spear and centered herself. She dropped down, holding her battle cry inside, afraid it might warn him. The smudge of motes that she suspected was Leroy sped off to her right, triggering one of Leah¡¯s monofilament snare bombs. The gravity shifted again and Leroy ¡°fell¡± upward as Leah struggled to right herself. She prepared to jump after Leroy and finish the match when a blast of EMP broke everything around her intended target. Her motes attached to Leroy and most of the foglets dropped, sparked and shorted. Leroy became visual as the shroud of flickering foglets around him fell. Leah¡¯s daemon Bruce Lee had been struggling to acquire an unscrambled sight and found him instantly. ¡°[Leah! Visuals around Leroy are cleared. Hit him now!]¡± Bruce yelled. Leah re-engaged her ExaVision and Leroy stood clear as the distortions caused by the room¡¯s dense network of foglets ceased in his vicinity. While he was clear of the level''s distortions, Leah was still concealed from him. She swung her spetsdods up and rapid fires both dart guns. As the darts flew, Leah unleashed all her distance attack skills. Combining with the detonations from her special high explosive and shock darts, the suspected area that painted Leroy blossomed into a riot of destruction.
[Focused Stun +1, Focused Stun reaches level 4] [Shocking Arc +1, Shocking Arc reaches level 5] [Focused EMP +1, Focused EMP reaches level 3] [Laser +1, Laser reaches level 3] [**Alert** Energy 0/395 Regeneration suspended] [**Health Emergency Override** Unlock and Activation of PowerCore Skill] [New Skill Unlocked: PowerCore 1 - Advanced augmentation system power requirements far exceed bioenergy availability, PowerCore module activated. Feed and cycle power into the Power Core for energetic boosting advancement. Complete depletion of Power Core may damage the system. Level 1 ¨C Energy storage x2] [**Alert** Energy 395/790, Regeneration skill resumed]
¡°Holy crap, Leah! That was an awesome dodge. How the hell did you know he was charging? The display in the Gaming Theater had side by side viewing with the Pandemonium distortion on and filtered out. I couldn¡¯t see a damn thing.¡± Xavier asked. ¡°Truthfully, I couldn¡¯t see much at all. I¡¯ve been playing with my PreCog skill in training. It¡¯s kind of like conscious versus unconscious reaction time. If you are always boosting FastCog, that¡¯s conscious, and PreCog is more like unconscious. PreCog didn¡¯t activate much before because I would always be running FastCog at max. Now I run PreCog only to start and FastCog only when in the middle of fight. Its super effective against ambushes.¡± Leah said. ¡°A toast! To the woman of the hour. Leah!¡± Charlie yelled loudly in the crowded bar. Despite most of the occupants being androids, they played the part of rowdy bar patrons well. They cheered and jeered until Charlie bought the room a round of drinks from his winnings, a direct result of Leah¡¯s excellence in the ring. Leah pulled Charlie down. ¡°Don¡¯t make a fuss. This is only a good start, we all have quite a few fights ahead of us.¡± She spoke. ¡°Leah, relax a little. Celebrating the wins is important, too. Seriously though, that was a great win. You¡¯ve given me a good chunk of what I need to get a message out to my father. Thank you.¡± Max said. Leah blushed and spoke quietly. ¡°Oh Max, you are welcome. I¡¯ve seen the rates that the business center charges. They are such big cheats. Are you certain you need to use them? Your father is¡­well, a famous fighter. I¡¯m sure he¡¯s fine. Don¡¯t you think?¡± ¡°Yeah, Max. What¡¯s up? Your dad is like a badass Samaritan. Those videos you shared of those home invaders getting smacked down proved it. What¡¯s so crit man?¡± Xavier said. ¡°Ah, well. You guys know how I¡¯ve been having dreams¡­nightmares really. They are too intense, monstrous¡­like those MIT things.¡± Max said. Charlie coughed. ¡°That was some scary stuff, Max. It gave me nightmares too.¡± He said jokingly. ¡°It¡¯s not like that!¡± Max barked, then lowered his voice. ¡°This feels real. I¡¯ve got skills from it, dammit. Those blocks I gave you¡­I copied them from my dreams. My AI, Mal, is convinced it¡¯s leakage from the Tesseract and now I believe her. A couple of nights ago, I saw my dad¡­multiple copies of him, being chased by those monsters. I think that he must have continued the MIT experiment. I just want to see that he¡¯s ok. It¡¯s worth it to me. Whatever it costs.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Max. I didn¡¯t mean to ¡­fuck.. what I said, I didn¡¯t mean it. I got your back, man.¡± Charlie said seriously. ¡°Yeah! Doesn¡¯t matter if it¡¯s assholes from other teams, nasty Labyrinth level, or MIT monsters; team Utopia sticks together!¡± Xavier exclaimed. ¡°Thanks, guys. With Leah¡¯s win¡­and many more to come; I don¡¯t think the expense is going to stop me. Right after this celebration, I¡¯m headed to the game theater to put in a challenge of my own.¡± Max said with a grin. Leah raised her glass of sake. Charlie raised his beer and Xavier his milkshake. Max lifted his own drink and spoke. ¡°My dad had a good quote from some actor guy that he kept saying all summer. Live like you die tomorrow, but plan like you live forever." ¡°That¡¯s awesome, Max. I¡¯m going to steal it.¡± Xavier declared raising his milkshake. ¡°Another toast! To living forever or at least die trying!¡± Max raised his drink but his eyes caught motion at the restaurant¡¯s exit. He recognized the android leaving. The thief android, Tony, had been skulking in the back of the room and was now leaving. Max¡¯s eyes narrowed with predatory intent as the bot slipped outside. His wagging tail stilled as he considered his next move, still seeing the android''s tracking signal in his mind as it moved further down the street. Later tonight, he hoped to get payback. Maybe it would even be enough for him to send his message to the outside.
Adept Ch 44 - The Sting, part 1
The android NPC named Tony Lombardi liked his assigned role at the casino level. He wasn¡¯t the first AI to inhabit the character, but he was by far the longest-holder playing as this NPC. A warm feeling would suffuse his neural core when getting into the details of the gangster and really living it. His deep fear of not making sufficient credits to keep playing the role worked well with his character¡¯s signature paranoia. Tony was wary of getting complacent and if he wasn¡¯t working five deals at once then he would start getting the jitters. Tonight, Tony was feeling jittery. The Big Boss Kane was leaning on him hard. While the deal with Nigel was good for everyone, Kane thought that with the new influx of players, business should be picking up. Nigel couldn¡¯t attack other players without security getting involved and everyone losing money to the establishment. Kane¡¯s gang could get away with more. Lachesis¡¯s forces encouraged creative ways to separate Players from their credit. Petty larceny wasn¡¯t enough though; Kane needed even more credits than Tony to maintain his status and position. The boss had deadlines to meet and he had made no small bones that if he got the boot then he¡¯d make sure he took as many AI as he could with him. Tony could barely stand still. So many Players were out tonight, gambling, getting drunk, and making bad decisions. He needed a score. He was trailing a newb from the business school reject group Acme. His target was a small Asian guy, named Ethan Chen. He almost swept in for a lift, when something felt wrong. His Privacy skill pinged him. Tony stumbled and then walked right past his mark, senses flaring. He thought his android body was pretty sweet. Lachesis gave most of her character mechs skills analogous to the Player¡¯s augmentations. Tony shook his head, trying to figure out what had triggered his ability when he felt a sharp pressure in the small of his back. A gruff cockney voice spoke behind him. ¡°Don''t move a muscle, mate," the voice growled. "We got too many cameras here. Just relax and don¡¯t move.¡± Tony controlled his mech to stop its autonomous defensive protocols. He relaxed a bit seeing the reflection in the store window. ¡°What da¡¯ fuck, Nigel? We ain¡¯t ¡®spose ta be seen together, man.¡± Tony growled. ¡°Change of plans, ya slaggard. I¡¯m gonna roll that dog man again tonight. I got a tip that he made a big chip withdrawal in tha¡¯ mornin¡¯ and his partner won her match this afternoon. This one¡¯s a wee bit tricky. I heard ¡®is money purse is rigged to melt. The son of a bitch is getting cautious from when we tagged him last time. DON¡¯T open his bag until we meet up! Got it?¡± Nigel¡¯s voice was rough with tension. Tony nodded slightly and answered, his vocoder doing a great job layering in sarcasm. ¡°Ya worried we gonna take more than our fair share, human? Where¡¯s the trust?¡± Tony said to the storefront. He saw Nigel grimace and answer. ¡°Oh, I trust ye¡­as long as I got the drop on ye. But half of a pile of melted chips is still nut tin¡¯. Just do what I say, same setup otherwise. ¡®Kay?¡± He pressed the hard object into Tony¡¯s back. The simulated kidney pain hurt, but Tony grinned. Humans might have difficulty with pain, but to an AI it was just another signal. Before he could answer, the player had faded back into the crowd. Tony shook his head thinking hard. Nigel would likely be gone soon and he¡¯d need another inside man. He refocused on his tag, Ethan. The best way to turn a player was to make them desperate for credit¡­a job Tony was uniquely qualified to perform. With a slick smile, Tony closed in.
Max prowled the gaming floor looking at all the players partaking in their favorite distractions. Charlie had come with him and clapped him on the shoulders. ¡°Hey Max, wanna hit the craps table again. You''re the best shooter I¡¯ve ever seen. I always clean up when you¡¯re throwing.¡± Charlie said. ¡°Maybe in a bit. I want to settle a score. Nigel played me a while ago. I want to try and win my money back.¡± Max answered. ¡°That Eurosport guy. He¡¯s a bottom-dweller, man. He''s barely making enough to stay in the game. Be careful with that one. Some dudes get irrational when cornered and that loser¡¯s already got one foot out the door and the other on a banana peel.¡± Charlie joked. ¡°Exactly. If I don¡¯t get my money back now, it might be too late.¡± Max said. He impressed himself as his PokerFace skill managed to inject just enough whine into his voice to make it sound like the Max of months ago. ¡°Ah hell. Fine. I saw him over by Tyche¡¯s game, watching the high rollers play. I think he¡¯s psyching himself up to try and sit at the big table. Be careful, man. The bets over there are BIG. Don¡¯t drop any chips unless you are prepared to lose them. Swing by for dice if you can.¡± Charlie said with a final smile and spun off to find his favorite croupier.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Max watched him go with a grin. He zeroed in on his nano tracker attached to Nigel and strode off with a purpose, even his PokerFace skill was unable to still his wagging tail. Max made sure he was conspicuous as he pressed forward to get a good view of the action around the high-stakes poker table hosted by the corpulent android NPC Tyche. Both Abigail, from Eurosport, and Sonny, from the MVPs, were sitting with the large Poker Champion named Tyche. Another android sat between them, a dangerous looking symbot with rough clothes but lots of rings and necklaces. Max was startled by Sherlock¡¯s exuberant cheer before he could assess the group of players and NPCS. ¡°[Shit, Sherlock. What was that for?]¡± Max asked. ¡°[My apologies, young sir. Let me elevate your Geiger skill within your sensorium. As you can hear, and see, that the pile of chips surrounding Tyche has elevated the radiation count in the area. I won my bet with Tesla regarding my theory that tied a radiative core to high-value casino chips. A shame we have no means of real remuneration other than counting coup.]¡± Sherlock stated with a sniff, his pompous arrogance in full force. Max was about to reply but he spotted Nigel and the pair locked eyes. Max triggered his carefully orchestrated response. He clutched his heavy bulging satchel, his hackles slightly raised with an involuntary snarl. Nigel smiled, his eyes barely lingering on the bag. The man moved forward to block Max¡¯s approach. ¡°Fancy meeting you here, Doggo. This here is the big boys'' table. I¡¯m thinking ya must ¡®ave got lost, yeah?¡± Nigel said with a hard edge as he stepped between Max and the high table. Before Max could respond a lilting voice sang out, as all the nearby noise silenced, making it seem quite loud despite its delicate tone. ¡°Nigel, Nigel, Nigel. My poor, poor boy. I tolerate you crowding my table as long as you are cheering on your teammate, but I must ask you to step away. This newcomer is obviously curious to witness one of the wonders of the Casino Termin¨¤l¡­the great and lucky Tyche. You do him and me a disservice, my poor dear. Step aside and let me see the young buck. There now. Very good. Yesss.¡± As Nigel frowned and angrily stepped back, Max saw the enormous Tyche leaning forward. He suspected the android meant to stand up but the bot was so large that he could only lean in. The android viewed Max carefully with piercing eyes for a long moment. Max felt extremely uncomfortable, like a bug under a microscope, as Tyche and the entire crowd inspected him. He was about to speak when Tyche cut in again, interrupting his stammered response. ¡°Ah. One of the new teams! I so love an aggressive player. I expect that you may desire to sit at my table, but perhaps it might be premature, my young pup. Your bag of collateral seems a bit light. Table stakes at my table at 10,000 credits per hand to start with no limit. Are you prepared to play out your fate this early? Tonight?¡± Tyche leaned back looking smug, but his eyes were hungry. ¡°Enough stalling, Tyche. You can bait the new blood later. We¡¯re in the middle of a hand!¡± The swarthy android growled. ¡°Please remain civil, Kane. All are welcome at Tyche¡¯s table. Max, isn¡¯t it? Max Mitchell from Utopia. Good teamwork and an excellent pedigree and such interesting connections as well. I expect great things from you, young one. Here¡­take this!¡± Tyche said, flipping a single coin to Max. Max caught it automatically, his Geiger sense thumped once. He looked down at his hand and saw it was a Topaz chip, worth 10,000 credits. Tyche continued. ¡°There you go, my strong contender. You¡¯re first table stakes for when you¡¯re ready to sit. I apologize, but I must resume my game with these more experienced worthies. I hope to see you soon. There is much that I¡¯d like to know about you. Good night!¡± Tyche resumed his dealing without another glance. All eyes shifted back to the action at the table. Max allowed his ears to droop and back out of the crowd. A hand grabbed him and spun him. Nigel loomed in his face. ¡°Jeez, country boy. Making me look bad in front of the high table! What the hell man! They''re too much for the likes of us. What say you and I find a smaller table and you can let me try and win back some of the money you took from me last week?¡± Nigel moaned, trying to pull Max further out of the crowd. ¡°What? I took your money?¡± Max didn''t need his skill to fake confusion, he let Nigel lead him away. ¡°Too right, guv. Ya owned me most of the night ¡®til we were too deep in our cups. It got a little fuzzy at the end, but my purse was far lighter the next morn''.¡± Nigel smiled with good humor, although Max could tell it was fake. Max didn''t need a skill to tell, his instincts had Nigel pegged for a liar. ¡°Yeah. That Tyche was a little intense. I''m not sure I''m ready to play that freely with my funds until I get a better feel for the level.¡± Max said hesitantly. He ground his teeth, eager to begin his plan. ¡°That¡¯s the spirit! Let¡¯s hit my usual table. I hear the bar service has special tequila shots tonight.¡± Nigel chortled and lightly dragged Max by his sleeve. Max used his free hand and quickly pulled the marble-sized ¡°gumball¡± from his belt pocket and tossed it in his mouth. He dry swallowed it and smiled as Nigel fought to move them through the crowd.
[Intraoral Self-Contained Alcohol Neutralizer activated. The unit will self-destruct in 12 hours.]
Max held in a grin and sent a special message to Mal and House. ¡°[Ok, guys. It''s go-time. I want you to trigger the Drunken Monkey emulation to run a scheduled cycle up of my impairment right before I¡¯m disconnected. We need a good show while my augmentation controls are restricted at Nigel¡¯s table. Even if Nigel doesn¡¯t suggest it, I¡¯ll challenge him to the drinking game. It needs to look realistic. Be ready.]¡± ¡°[Can do, Max. The program we created can simulate all the effects of alcohol but we can cancel in an eyeblink. Should we run your tolerance setting to cheap date or professional frat house partier?]¡± House quipped. ¡°[Uh, somewhere in between. Use your best judgment.]¡± Max said. ¡°[Ha! That''s exactly what seven-finger Toby told me when we were buying firecrackers. Although, I guess he didn''t get that particular nickname until after that night¡¯s accident though. Hah! Trust me! This will be fun.]¡± House said with far too much enthusiasm for Max¡¯s liking.
Adept Ch 45 - The Sting, part 2
Max checked his cards again nervously, the values spinning in his mind. It was the thirteenth hand and his bank of credits was up quite a bit. The stack of chips in front of him had grown. He still had large reserve of chips inside the satchel in his lap. He tried to forget about that extra device he had hidden in the bag. When the game had started, the table was full. Ethan Chen and Sarah Parker from the ACME team, Donahue Morgan and Shu Xin Liang from the DAIE team, and Nigel from Eurosport were all excited to play the drinking poker game. Nigel had refused the Luna AI Leroy from playing as the mech couldn¡¯t partake in the real game; lacking the biological limitations to prove resilience to alcohol without augmentations. Ethan was a hilarious jokester and had entertained the whole table in the early rounds. He made the mistake of doubling and tripling down on a bluff against Donahue. The agent was an experienced card player, who had been holding a more powerful hand than Ethan. He had pretended to have little and played him without tipping him off that his bluff wasn''t good enough. Ethan had gone ¡°all in¡± and left the table shortly after with a rueful look, leaving his chips behind. Win or lose, everyone playing would take a shot with each hand. The high-end tequila had already proven it was exceptionally potent. Sarah got caught in a series of bad hands and quit the table before she lost anymore. As the table progressed past nine hands¡­and nine shots, everyone left had begun slurring and had slowed down considerably. In the middle of the tenth hand, Shu had turned green and ran from the table. Donahue had laughed along with Nigel and had promised to keep the kid¡¯s chips safe and return them later. Only Max, Nigel, and Donahue were left. Max growled audibly as the augmentation restricting cuff attached to his wrist knocked his neat stacks of chips down. Max licked his nose considering his cards. The flop on the table was a ten and jack of hearts with a nine of clubs. In his hand was a king of diamonds and a king of spades. He had a great starter hand and while the flop hadn¡¯t made it stronger, it was unlikely to help another player beat his current hand. He would push the line and bet hard. The only question was how hard he could go without scaring off his last two opponents into folding. The ante was now up to four platinum chips or 4,000 credits. A good hand could raise the pot to five times that value. ¡°Come on, kid. Quit stalling. You can look at the cards all day. They aren¡¯t going to get any better.¡± Donahue laughed and he stacked and restacked his remaining chips. He was light on chips but was making a comeback with the last two hands. Max ground his teeth and spoke. ¡°Fine. I¡¯ll check then.¡± ¡°Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! You spend half a minute scratching your fleas and all you do is check!¡± Nigel glowered. ¡°I raise 5 more plats!¡± Max narrowed his eyes at Nigel''s outburst. He knew the man was trying to intimidate him, but he wasn''t going to back down. Donahue whistled low but pushed five more chips in. "I call," he said calmly, pushing his chips forward. The three players stared at each other; the tension palpable as they awaited the reveal of the next card. The android dealer, named Tommy Twos burned a card by putting it aside into the used card pile and flipped another onto the table. The aptly named android spoke. ¡°King of hearts. King of hearts. We got a new high card. Yes, a new high card. Max¡¯s play. Max¡¯s play.¡± Max fought to hold his expression neutral. The damn table limited his poison resistance to the alcohol and severely curtailed his mental math ability and senses. But the hardest restriction it imposed was the disabling of his PokerFace skill. This game was literally the best place for practicing it! ¡°[Max, You likely have the best hand. You can continue to underplay it and draw your opponents in with checks, or you can raise the bet aggressively.] Sherlock sent whispered in his mind. ¡°[Stay calm, Max. You know your own strength, but you must consider your opponents.]¡± Musashi urged. ¡°[Oh, come on, Max. Waiting for a divine sign from the poker gods? Make a move before the alcohol sim program knocks you out.]¡± House chided. ¡°Damnnit. Shtop peshtering me! I know how to play al¡¯ight.¡± Max slurred. He started as both Nigel and Donahue chuckled. ¡°Fuck. I said that ou¡¯loud. Ah, I check.¡± Max said sheepishly. ¡°I raise another 5 plats. For what it¡¯s worth, Max, unless yur running the daemon poker legend Phil Ivey, yur better off shutting ¡®em doon. All the random advice gits bloody annoying.¡± Nigel countered. Donahue grumbled a bit but put 5 platinum chips in as well. Max pushed his own into the center of the table. Tommy Twos burned and turned the final cards, laying the last one in the row: a nine of diamonds. The table cards were ten of hearts, jack of hearts, nine of clubs, king of hearts, and a final nine of diamonds. ¡°Pair of nines on the table! Pair of nines with a king high. Max¡¯s bet. Max¡¯s bet.¡± Tommy repeated. Max grimaced, annoyed with the android''s antics. He looked at his cards and made sure his ears and tail behaved. He had a full house! Three kings and a pair of nines. Captain Cipher piped in. ¡°[You go, Max! Even if that line of hearts gave one of those players a flush you will still win. Go, Max!]¡± Max eyed the pair. They were good, holding their expressions neutral, but everyone was struggling with the mandatory shots. Max¡¯s program was simulating it, and he felt like throwing up. He really should have told House to minimize the realism. He needed to finish strong for this portion of his plan. With a burp, he spoke. ¡°I raise¡­three Topash ships¡­chipsh.¡± ¡°Fawk. I dunno if ya got the nuts but I ain¡¯t backing down. I see yur bet and I¡¯m all in. Count it. That¡¯s like¡­gotta be another 2 Topaz there.¡± Nigel yawned. Tommy beeped twice. ¡°Bet is now four topaz and eight Platinum. Four Topaz and Eight Platinum.¡± Donahue pushed all his chips in and looked at Max. Max sighed, still not sure about the Captain¡¯s certainty of his winning. As soon as his hands left his chips, Donahue brayed with laughter. Displaying an evil grin and he flipped his cards. ¡°Full house my boys! A pair with queenies with a trio of niners. Show me your stuff so I can quit for the night and count my winnings.¡± Nigel got red in the face but flipped his cards. He had made his heart flush, but it could stand against Donahue¡¯s winning hand. Max looked dumbly over the cards until Donahue barked. ¡°Come on lightweight! Just like my mum¡¯s goddamn Shih Tzu. It circles and circles forever when she¡¯s gotta go. Just do it, pooch!¡± Max tossed his cards down, still trying to parse the hands and struggling due to the inebriation program making the room spin. He broke out of it when Donahue started cursing and Tommy Two¡¯s proclaimed. ¡°Max is the winner with triple kings over a pair of nines. Triple kings over a pair of nines. The fuller house wins!¡± Max smiled with only a little drool and tipped Tommy a pair of platinum chips as he stuffed the piles of chips into his straining satchel. Nigel was grinning too as Donahue brusquely stormed off. Nigel saluted Max and sagged back into his chair with his eyes closed. Max stood and looked around. The normally busy casino still had a skeleton crew of android NPCs, but the place was as close to deserted as Max had seen. He staggered away from the table on unsteady legs.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Max belched mightily as he stumbled down the side streets of the Casino level. Mal had shut down the inebriation program mental shenanigans but left the physical impairments to help Max¡¯s poor acting skills. Max felt the psychological claustrophobia of his augmentations being shut off fade away as his full range of senses returned. With a clear mind, Max focused on his tails even though he need not have bothered. Both of the android gang members were still tagged with trackers. Even if they had been seriously concealing themselves, Max would have known exactly where they were. Max burped again. ¡°[Ugh. Why am I refluxing, Tesla? I thought your alcohol neutralizer was supposed to take care of everything.]¡± Max sent. ¡°[Yes indeed. Sorry, but the quickest way to eliminate the alcohol was to catalyze its acetate conversion into carbon dioxide and water. I didn¡¯t realize exactly how much gas would result. As long as you keep¡­. expelling it, you should be ok.]¡± Tesla replied. ¡°[Still better than chugging charcoal slurry for alcohol poison, Max. Me, I recommend Vicodin instead of those tequila shots!]¡± House chortled. ¡°[Ooop, Head up Max! Looks like your shadows are moving in.]¡± Mal said. ¡°[Ah yes. The ruffians must know that the level¡¯s primitive camera surveillance has a gap ahead, as our own mapping revealed. Be ready, Max.] Musashi cautioned. Despite his daemons'' good intentions, Max had no intentions of pretending to fight. The android traffic quickly fell off when Max entered the side alley. As he entered the dead zone in Lachesis¡¯ security, he staggered and fell to his knees. After rolling around a bit, he pretended to snooze. His satchel was free and clear for the taking beside him. Sure enough, the pair of rogues approached quickly. The heavy bag was swiftly lifted and the smaller android pretended to check on Max¡¯s health while patting him down. ¡°Hey there, fellar. Yous ok? Maybe we should get ya inside, huh?¡± Tony Lombardi said loudly, in case anyone was in earshot. Max panicked slightly and swung his arm about clocking Tony in the head, causing the robot to drop Max back to the ground. Tony cursed and kicked Max in the side. ¡°Stupid player. You knocked my audio mic loose!¡± ¡°Forget him, Tony. We got the money. Let¡¯s go while there still ain''t no witnesses.¡± The thieves quickly jogged away and turned the corner, the sounds of their swift paces turned into faster running. Max¡¯s enhanced hearing picked up their departing conversation. ¡°Fuck this bag is heavy. He must have quite the haul. Wanna lift some coin before we get to the hangout?¡± ¡°No! You stupid lug. Ya heard what Nigel said. The mutt might¡¯a rigged it. We¡¯ll take it apart at the seams soon enough. Nigel may be a loser, but he¡¯s played it straight wit us so far.¡± Max rolled to his feet as the voices faded, but the trackers still pulsed brightly in his mind¡¯s eye. ¡°Phase three, Mal.. You can kill the inebriation program completely. I gotta run and circle around so I can see this!¡± Max¡¯s claws dug in and he climbed the alley walls. Traversing the fake subterranean town¡¯s roof line would be quicker, more direct, and less likely to run into other players or gang members. Max¡¯s adrenaline spiked. He loved being on the hunt again! Max eyed the derelict building with the two gangsters inside. Nigel¡¯s tracker was in motion and he would arrive in another few minutes. Max was careful. He had rappelled down the side of the taller android tenement building behind the abandoned building where the thieves were meeting. Max triggered his Skinwalker skill to his android courier shape and extended his passive senses looking for cameras and sensors. Finding none, he allowed a trickle of his motes to drift into the area keeping them in silent mode for now. Max considered the setup with his daemons. ¡°[The miscreants must be confident in their own stealth to forgo setting any sensor defenses.]¡± Sherlock said. ¡°[Perhaps this is not a normal hideout for them.]¡± Musashi mused. ¡°[It doesn''t line up with any of our maps tracking their activity. What I can''t fathom is why Lachesis would create a derelict building to begin with. These AI are weird¡­ah, here comes Nigel now.] Max said and he focused on the approaching figure. His active chameleon feature would hide him, but it wasn''t foolproof. Staying still maximized its concealment ability. As a counterpoint, Nigel¡¯s augmentations were blazing with EM emissions, Lidar bursts, and a tight cordon of active motes swarming around him. He stopped briefly to let his system notification clear.
[Mask +1, Mask reaches level 4, Gestalt +1, Gestalt reaches level 6] [SkinWalker +1, SkinWalker reaches level 7, Stiction +1, Stiction reaches level 2] [Chameleon +1, Chameleon reaches level 10, Skill cap award +100 XP]
Nigel strode up to the derelict building, his augmented senses scanning the area for any threats. Max watched as Nigel approached the entrance, his motes swarming defensively around him. Nigel paused at the door, his brow furrowed in concentration, before pushing it open and stepping inside. Max waited, his own motes poised to spring into action if necessary, as the sounds of a heated discussion drifted out from the building. Max lowered himself on his grapple slowly until he was just above a shattered window. His augmented hearing easily picked up the exchange. ¡°What the fuck! Why haven''t you stripped out the chips and transferred them to a safe bag? Are you two novices? That satchel is made of smart matter. It''s likely got tracking motes built into it.¡± Nigel swore. ¡°But¡­but you said not to open it!¡± Marco¡¯s gravelly bass vocoder rumbled. ¡°Bloody incompetent androids. I said no such thing. Give it here!¡± Nigel yelled. ¡°Hey, wait a second..¡± Tony¡¯s higher-pitched voice said. There was a scuffling as the sound of fabric tearing and chips raining onto the pavement. A much heavier thunk as a larger object fell to the ground. Max quickly sent his signal pulse and the first floor of the building lit up with an EMP and concussive blast. Shrapnel ricocheted about the enclosure with projectiles flying out just under Max¡¯s perch. He jumped away from the building letting out line and swung around and through the window into the smoky chaos. Max landed in the smoke-filled room, fully activating his motes and active sensors scanning for the thieves. He spotted Nigel and the two other androids rolling on the ground amidst the debris. Max smiled grimly. The burrowing smart shrapnel design he had copied from The MVP leader''s attack was merciless, disabling many augmentations¡­including pain resistance. Max wasted no time, rushing towards the fallen androids. He quickly popped open his portal space. A stream of utility fog rushed out of it, sweeping up the damaged satchel and the scattered chips before closing again. Max knew he had to move fast before they recovered. He quickly searched Nigel and Marco, finding more chips, a mazer pistol, and a pair of vorpal knives. He was reaching out to search Tony when the android spun slashing with a vibrating reciprocating blade. Max cursed as the knife sheared into his palm, cutting through his skill-toughened skin and subdermal armor. Max rolled backward with augmented speed, dodging the following backslash. ¡°Ya think you can steal from me, ya jumped up third-rate NPC? Get ova here, and I¡¯ll carve yous a new access port!¡± Tony yelled. Max could hear sirens now, faint but growing in volume. Marco shifted one arm and lifted himself upwards as Nigel rolled and screamed. Max¡¯s lightning thoughts calculated, all scenarios looking poor. Time to go, he thought and bolted out the door, dragging his sensor motes after him. Max ran, staying in the shadows and minimizing his time on cameras. As he passed into better neighborhoods, he adjusted his android form subtly. Darker synth skin, shortening the mop of fibers that served as hair, and altering the uniform from a courier type to the uniform of a Casino waiter. Max entered the Player Villas without anyone paying him a single look. He grabbed trays set outside of rooms from earlier room service and brought them to recycling. No one was around to see Max exit the utility room, his natural form back. The hulking security drones and armored guardian androids had locked down the abandoned building. A specialty Med-Bot had just arrived and was plucking shrapnel out of Nigel Farnsworth. ¡°Explain to me again, what you two lowlifes were doing here with this player in this condemned building. I''m tempted to add attempted arson to your trespassing charges.¡± the guard said, its monotone voice lacking any of the customizations most NPCs utilized. ¡°I''m tellin¡¯ ya straight, coppa. We wus just helping the human get home. He had a malfunction wit some of his gear. Ain''t that right human?¡± Tony asked. ¡°Y-yeah. It was an accident. No harm no foul, right officer?¡± Nigel asked. The guard glowered at the trio. It was unlikely the arson would stick. Even the trespassing charges could be challenged considering the building was condemned. The bot made a decision, motivated by his efficiency module and a desire to avoid paperwork that would ultimately amount to little or nothing, and the android relented. ¡°Ok, then. I trust you lot will keep yourselves out of trouble. Very well. Now we just need to settle up on your bill. Our security checks, our added value which brings safety to all the Casino¡¯s residents, costs money. Additionally, the Medbot health assistance adds a premium upcharge to your bill. That will be 34,880 credits.¡± Tony¡¯s gears ground as he realized both Nigel and Marco were missing their money pouches. Nigel¡¯s face was white as he checked his account status, he was overdrawn from his loan from Vinny. He was on borrowed time and now had no collateral to earn it back. The guards, thieves, and Nigel all went their separate ways. It wasn''t until much later in the thieves'' hangout that Tony noticed the red stain on his knife. His optics whirred, examining the fluid closer in suspicion. It was blood! No androids down here in service to Lachesis had any biological systems. It could only mean one thing; he had been played¡­by a Player! Kane was not going to like this.
Adept Ch 46 - Epiphany
Bill floated down the Hera Station¡¯s main concourse. He shepherded the med-creches of his clones with their privacy shields down. The zero-g environment made the mall setting a confusing cluster of shops, ¡°foot traffic¡±, courier bots, and holographic advertising. The dense public access foglets helped Bill to traverse the area without the need to expend much thought or energy to power his navigations. The mouthwatering aroma of the nearby food courts made Bill¡¯s stomach rumble. His non-stop merge cycling hadn¡¯t enabled much time to engage in his favorite hobby of cooking and eating. Augmentation-derived recycling of necessary biological chemistry was safe and effective, but far from satisfying. Bill shook his head subconsciously as he urged the foglets to pull him and his cargo further into the cluster. If Hera¡¯s fractured and tumultuous collection of networks and indexes was correct, his destination wasn¡¯t far. Bill took the travel time to make subtle alterations to his body design. Vestigial conduits and capillaries expanded to enable condensed gas discharge ion thrusters at key points on his body. The public foglets enabled easy travel, but Bill knew any public works could be suspended or even corrupted. Bill always desired to prepare personal backups in case an emergency happened. Bill arrested his rapid pace as a gaggle of laughing kids crossed in front of his flight path¡­followed by a large squid. Bill¡¯s HEKIA ports opened and his rail gun capacitors ramped. He almost shot before he realized the squid was actually part of the scrum of kids and all were being chased by a larger, adult-sized, android. The squid had multiple armbands holding some tools and bangles and one of its tentacles had a pinwheel. Bill calmed himself. Dr. Vivek¡¯s work to uplift Max must have branched into other species. Bill thought briefly about paying a visit with him to discuss the massive changes back on Earth, but he quickly shut down the impulse. The doomsday clock was still ticking. He needed to resolve his clones¡¯ issues and his ongoing strain to keep his promise to merge with his copies quickly. Until he found how to deal with the denizens of the Shadowverse, he had no time for social visits! Bill cruised through the chaos of the open mall until he came to the science labs and the flavor of traffic changed. Now the corridors were much less crowded, only occupied with augmented humans, drone couriers, and the occasional android. He found the entrance to Luca¡¯s labs. The sign on the portals said. [Jovian MindBridge Commune - Dr. Singe Luca ] Bill entered the portal and stopped immediately, the space inside was cavernous. The zero-g room had creches lining the spherical walls. Thick cables strung along the perimeter joined together around a massive cluster of neural cores in the center of the room. A machine with many long and articulating limbs hovered over the nexus. Bill corrected himself silently seeing that there was a brain encased in the robot''s glassine central torso. This person¡¯s body design choice was extreme. Bill couldn''t criticize as most of his body was constructed of configurable smart matter. However, he didn''t rub people''s noses in it; preferring to establish a close to baseline form for casual interactions. Bill sighed. The Jovian cluster was by far the more extreme fringe of humanity. The lack of gravity on Hera was a prime example that normal out here did not mean Earth-like. The strange form jerked about and floated closer. ¡°Hello! We see you. Bill Mitchell, Samaritan leader Titan, Sebastian York. Perhaps you have yet more identities not yet in our memory indices out here in the Jovians. This is a grand day for a visit from such an interesting fellow.¡± The brainy mech twittered. ¡°Ah yes. Excuse me. My augs don''t seem able to pull a name. I have an appointment to see Dr. Luca. Is he here?¡± Bill asked. ¡°Oh, my yes. We are here, Bill. So many of us are here. Some even have a history with you, dear Sebastian. Norman Corbel worked for you as a comptroller for your first company BCI Worldwide. Mina Forvilae was a logistical liaison to the Samaritan for the RUSA mech infantry support crews. And I, Singe Luca, met you briefly in consultations with Dr. Vivek regarding the uplift procedure for your wonderful pet, Max. We are all pleased to see you again and for the first time, Bill.¡± ¡°Wow. Sorry, I didn''t realize the full extent of your work here. Your advertising mentioned your work with neural systems and communal mental collaborations. This is a heck of a lot more than I thought. Ah¡­how many people are¡­ah, speaking with me right now?¡± "There are currently 27 individuals connected to this shared neural network, Bill. We are a collective consciousness, each contributing our unique perspectives and skills to the greater whole. Dr. Luca is the primary interface, but we all participate in this communal mind. Additionally, we enjoy no less than three Turing-level AI participating in the mind bridge. How may we assist you today? We are eager to hear your thoughts and discuss any matters you wish to explore." In answer, Bill stepped aside and the med cr¨¨ches floated into the space. He commanded the units to retract the privacy shields. The brainy mech gently drifted closer, several of its limbs splitting into a fractal mesh of sensing filaments. Bill saw that the whole room''s lighting shifted slowly up and down the visual spectrum band as the Luca collective analyzed his clones. "Oh, dear. It looks like our larger-than-life Samaritan is pushing boundaries, much like ourselves. Clones? Why are they sedated?¡± Luca asked. ¡°Necessity. I am facing a crisis requiring an army of scientists¡­or a strike force of my selves. We are embarking on a difficult endeavor, yes¡­pushing the boundaries of science. I''m not sure why or how but my selves were¡­damaged.¡± Bill answered tiredly. ¡°We aren''t complete yokels here, Bill. Mars Terraform has been broadcasting your invention and its impact upon their efforts to make Mars more habitable. I''m afraid your invention of portal technology is gathering quite a bit of attention.¡± Luca smirked.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°Please don''t mistake me, Bill. I am enthusiastic about this. Even in the fringes of the Jovian habitats, we Mind Sharers are looked upon as taboo and strange. This is a welcome discovery. We are glad and look forward to your efforts to bring the worlds closer. Now! Let''s wake these poor men up, assess them, and get some readings. Tell me everything and I will do my best to help you.¡± Bill took a nervous breath; he had been concerned about the reaction Luca would have. As the large scanners drifted over to the medical creches, he composed his thoughts about exactly how much to reveal.
Back on the Freedom, Casa dealt with the masses of incoming communications. Bo had begun distributing portal gates down to trusted governments on Earth. Questions regarding the portals'' safety had spiked despite their eagerness to explore the potential. Legal questions regarding the preliminary patents were being discussed. Casa fumed, frustrated with the legal discussions going in circles. She quickly purchased a daemon, some archaic entrepreneur legal maven called Steve Jobs, to field the issues and send the appropriate responses and addendums to the preliminary filings Bill had done. Casa reeled back. Andrei Petrov from the Mars Terraform had filled her V-Mail with requests. He was looking for her to quote her price for additional Mass Transfer gates. Casa delegated the details to Edison. She had a plan in place with Tom and Rams already to expand the Mass Transfer project to expand the Venus-Mar gates by an order of magnitude. Rams was already shepherding another round of probe ships, diving into the depths of Jupiter, to set up mass transfer gates at the largest concentrated source for hydrogen. Once Mars had the coverage and warmth associated with a blanket of CO2, then New Dimensions would unveil the addition of hydrogen from the Jupiter gates. Some chemistry, mixing the two gases, would provide a ready supply of water for Mars¡¯s maturing ecosystem and Casa would be sure to gather some good contracts before she revealed the expanding potential market. She needed more daemons, for marketing, business, and more. Or perhaps, she should discuss adding some more employees to the company. She couldn¡¯t do it all. She pushed the nonsense out of her peripheral awareness and focused back on the science. The small fleet of Space Strider probes had accelerated out of the Oort cloud faster than any previous terrestrial ship. Casa had probe ships burning at full thrust, tracking along the known travel routes of all the ark ships. The Alpha Centauri ships were ready for their leapfrog to occur. Casa had designed an improved portal ship and all she needed was a moment and a configuration change to reconfigure the probe ship''s portal to pass another probe through. The second-generation probe was even more powerful, thrusting through the gate provided by its predecessor. Casa grinned. This latest round really pushed the boundaries of the Ion fusion jets. The second-gen space strider¡¯s portal had scant millimeters of clearance to the enlarged thrusters. Casa was determined to catch up to the Ark ships and with decades of a head start, she was pushing the limits of safety. The new probe ships passed through the needle of the first round ships and ignited their full power. The second stringers took the lead for all the routes tracing the routes of the Ark ships to Alpha and Proxima Centauri, Bernard¡¯s Star, and Wolf 359. Casa would keep the other probe ships going but shifted her focus to the next generation. ¡°Rams¡­Edison¡­Are you watching? It''s time to ramp up the new engines!¡± Casa yelled over virtual spaces. Both scientists appeared quickly in her dedicated virtual lab. Sensor data, telemetry, power flows, and more all filled virtual wall screens as she prepared to push her latest design. The Space Striders were set up in pairs, so they could watch each other and record external visuals. Rams and Edison leaned in, their eyes fixed on the data streaming across the virtual displays. With bated breath, they watched as the second-generation Space Strider ships ignited their powerful fusion drives, surging forward with unprecedented acceleration. Casa grinned, slowly tweaking the fusion jet''s power and focal parameters to increase its prodigious output. ¡°Oh my! Please go slowly, Miss Casa. I informed you earlier that the SS-Nexus G2 fusion jets might produce a jet exceeding the diameter of the portal. Backwashing flow could damage the Tesseract pair¡¯s structure.¡± Rams urged. Casa nodded, slowing the throttle incrementally. The fusion jets stabilized; their immense power contained within the portal''s confines. She was preparing to lock the settings in when the jet stuttered. ¡°Damn! What the hell is that?¡± Casa yelled. ¡°Son of a bitch! Those Bill¡¯s on Venus! They keep expanding the feed lines into the network. Jupiter¡¯s hydrogen mix is much richer than Venus¡¯s trickle. Normally this wouldn¡¯t be a problem, but the filters haven¡¯t been configured to screen for deuterium yet. It''s thrown off the fusion jet.¡± ¡°Backing down now!¡± Casa said. They all had amped their cognition, so the corrections were managed before the dreaded backflush event. It was a close call. The ionized jet had interacted with the event horizon around the portal. Not enough to destabilize it, but she could see the portal deforming before she managed to curtail the jet¡¯s output. As the chaotic virtual settled down, daemon Captain Picard appeared, his stern expression announced it wasn¡¯t just curiosity to interrupt the test. He flashed over to the team and created another window display. ¡°Admiral, what just happened?! Strider AC 2-2 has disappeared from Strider AC 2-1¡¯s field of view. Did it explode?¡± Picard reported. ¡°What? No. Not at all. It had a flux glitch, but we adjusted before any backwash.¡± Casa explained. Unbidden, she assumed control of the new video screen. She froze the display and reversed the recording. The probe ship reappeared! No explosion. She resumed play and slowed it down. The jet visibly flared in extremely slow motion. The portal glowed as it picked up and circulated the ionization around its edges. The portal puckered ever so slightly; and in a blur, it was gone. ¡°Damnation! Where did it go?¡± Edison asked. ¡°The image¡­ blurred a bit to the left before it disappeared. Did it veer off course? Captain Picard. Do you have visuals from AC 2-2? Can you display them?¡± Casa asked. ¡°Certainly, Admiral. Here¡­I¡¯ll rewind both to just before the incident and proceed with a paired display in slow motion.¡± Picard answered and adjusted the video feeds. AC 2-2 disappeared from AC 2-1¡¯s feed, while its own display¡¯s starry background jumped noticeably before its jet settled down. The captain spoke. ¡°Incredible¡­ its velocity must have been extreme to change its parallax on Sol and the surrounding stars so much. I need to recalibrate its position based upon the visuals.¡± Picard quickly ran through his expert systems to chart the probe''s location. He displayed the positions of all the probes, and Casa whistled. ¡°Probe AC 2-2 veered off course by almost 2 light hours on declination vector 20 degrees off Sol north. My word! I don¡¯t understand. Its velocity must have exceeded lightspeed constraints. This doesn¡¯t make sense.¡± Picard stated. Casa¡¯s smile expanded to Cheshire cat proportions. ¡°It didn¡¯t thrust through space at all. It cut through or under it. It translated along the plane of the portal¡¯s distortion. The unbalanced portal zippered. Oh, I can¡¯t wait to tell Bill! This changes everything.¡± Casa beamed. "This is incredible!" Casa exclaimed. "We need to analyze the data immediately and see if we can replicate this effect." Rams and Edison nodded eagerly, already immersed in the sensor readings. "Bill¡¯s impossible task is looking much more feasible," Casa continued, her mind racing with the possibilities. "We may have unlocked the key to interstellar travel beyond our wildest dreams."
Adept Ch 47 - Power Play
Dr. Luca had a grim expression as he finished the examination of the dual Bill clones. The original Bill had followed his scanning process closely. While Bill was not a neurological expert, his work on brain-computer interfaces had given him a deep base of knowledge on the brain¡¯s workings. The pairing of augmentations and the biological brain inspired many of his later artificial mind creations, culminating in Casa¡­a design that, theoretically, surpassed both in potential. Now that Casa was unfettered by the DAIE¡¯s Turing locks, she would soon grow into her full capability. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Doctor Mitchell. While there are still some remnants of trauma, the clones¡¯ internal medical nanobots have repaired any real damage. You mentioned you were experimenting with alternate dimensions. I have a thought, but no way to prove anything to you.¡± Doctor Luca said holding his robot avatar¡¯s ¡°hands¡± in a pose, like hands in prayer. ¡°I hesitate to mention it.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t hold anything back, doctor. Please. I¡¯ve explained they became this way immediately after visiting the Shadowverse. There is no theory to wild for me, given the unique nature of their experience.¡± Bill urged. ¡°Ok, then. Bill, can you explain more about this space? What it is and what they experienced there? It''s making me question the unexplored fundamentals of cognition.¡± ¡°Of course, anything if it helps. It¡¯s like this Luca. The Shadowverse is an alternate universe with four spacial dimensions and one of time. There is a depth to space there unlike what we know in our 3-dimensional universe. It''s a dangerous place, filled with aggressive technorganic monsters. My clones were there for some time, and ever since they came back, they''ve been experiencing severe hallucinations, psychotic breaks, and incoherence.¡± Bill explained. Luca nodded, absorbing the details. ¡°I see nothing to indicate any pathogens, from those creatures you mentioned. I¡¯m guessing here but their exposure to a 5-dimensional realm is likely the root of their malady. That¡¯s beyond anything we¡¯ve encountered in neuroscience. If I understand you correctly, the very fabric of reality there could be drastically different from our spacetime here.¡± ¡°Are you saying that their minds are having trouble adjusting back to our reality?¡± Bill asked. ¡°Possibly. This could have had profound implications on their brain function. Do you know about Sir Roger Penrose¡¯s theories? Consciousness, and cognitive abilities, might arise from quantum processes within microtubules in neurons. If the Shadowverse affects these processes-¡± Luca trailed off, and Bill frowned. He restarted with more firmness. ¡°These other dimensions could have disrupted the delicate quantum coherence within the microtubules. These quantum processes are crucial for maintaining normal cognitive functions and consciousness. Disruption at this level could lead to the severe symptoms you''re observing ¨C hallucinations, deranged behavior, possibly even deeper cognitive impairments.¡± ¡°Alright, can you suggest any treatment that might help them?¡± ¡°That¡¯s the challenging part, Bill. Our current medical therapies are designed for issues at the classical level, such as neurotransmitter imbalances or neural network dysfunctions. Quantum-level disruptions are far beyond our current capabilities. We might need to explore experimental treatments to stabilize quantum coherence in the brain, but these are purely theoretical and untested.¡± ¡°So, there''s nothing we can do right now? If I was to merge with them, could that reset their deeper neuron activity?¡± Bill asked. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Bill. I suspect you would need to better understand the nature of the interaction with human cognition and the Shadowverse in general. I¡¯m not even sure how to approach the problem. It could be extremely harmful to them and to you to merge in their current state. The decoherence state might very well transfer over to you, instead of resolving their malfunction.¡± ¡°However, your other problem is something we can help with. The merge strain you are experiencing in managing your clone cadre¡¯s memory with yourself is something we have improved greatly here at the MindBridge Commune.¡± Dr. Luca¡¯s avatar floated up spreading his many arms. ¡°Let¡¯s get you into a MindBridge cr¨¨che. Once you experience a true mind meld, I expect you will see how to better align yourself with your clones. We are paving new roads in cognition as you will soon see.¡± Bill sighed, shaking off his disappointment regarding the lack of help for his damaged clones. He had heard that hive minds like Luca¡¯s had issues with real-world interactions and a tendency to dive deep into virtual oblivion. However, Luca¡¯s group seemed quite friendly and open to Bill¡¯s inquiries. Maybe the rumors about hive-minds were just more of Apex¡¯s propaganda to slow down progress. Bill eyed the open cr¨¨che with concern but grimly lay down inside. If he didn''t do something different; he was going to burn out. Bill resigned himself and accepted the interface into the group.
Casa¡¯s mentality spiked and surged as her fractal consciousness flitted between daemons, live experiments, and ship design iterations. Despite the massive progress in her research, the Freedoms fabrication lab was far too slow. She reset the machine for the third time as her improved designs obviated the need for now obsolete parts that were still only one quarter compiled. Casa was impressed with herself, or more accurately her unlocked neural core. She was finally putting in the work and stretching herself. She had run thousands of simulations, improving her newly dubbed Star Strider pod design. The ship embedded within a gate pair tesseract had changed quite a bit. No longer was Casa shooting for large portals and more powerful fusion jets. Now the portals were designed with a moderate primary engine for the still prodigious intersystem transits. For interstellar, faster-than-light travel, she had designed a separate ion injector to minutely distort the portal interface that grounded and aligned the portal¡¯s position in real-space. ¡°Sliding¡± the portal in between the real-space and subspace would cost only a fraction of the energy of pushing it. Simulations showed that smaller portals were even faster, requiring even less energy to distort and slip. Casa¡¯s freshest design was configured to be less than 100 nanometers wide in travel mode. She used a phenomenon known as the ¡°camera obscura¡± to enable her navigational sensors to see an inverted world outside the pinhole portal without the danger of real-space micro-collisions. Casa brightened; her last hundred design evolutions hadn''t yielded any better performance, making the device too unstable to control. Her models predicted that the portal distortion effect should theoretically be able to move a portal at enormous relative speeds. Up to a light year in only a few days. She was confident that the false starts with the compiler were over. She would start fabricating her latest design without fear of early termination due to a new and better design. She merged her fragments doing the simulations, research, and design into her main consciousness. Feeling more substantial, she ¡°jumped¡± into her war mech frame. Now that the controls and design were optimized, only a small team of Casa fragments would monitor and push the old probe until failure. Knowing the signs of portal destabilization would be necessary for appropriate limits in the design control software. She spoke aloud to the ship AI and the team of her remaining fragments. ¡°I''m stepping through to Venus¡¯s hub. Bill¡¯s Venusian clone there will be happy for a distraction. With Venus¡¯s scaled-up fabrication center, I should be back with a large batch of the new Star Striders in under an hour.¡± Casa¡¯s research fragments coalesced into an avatar and answered. ¡°Aye aye, Captain. Hey, just buzz me through the portal when they¡¯re done. It''ll be quicker for me to shut down the current Space Stride probes and pull their fuel portals out of the drive hub. We can perform the leapfrog again, pushing the new ships through the probe¡¯s gate pair once the jets turned off. We really should set up a procedure to automate the switch from using the portal for fuel to transit.¡±This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°You got it, sister. See you in a bit. If someone knocks while I¡¯m away, don¡¯t let them in.¡± Casa said. Her counterpart grinned and dissolved her hologram, while Casa lightly pushed off to drift through the Venusian transit portal. She didn''t understand the spacer joke but spending so much time with Bill in the Oort cloud, it had become a standard for goodbye. She spun around as she translated through the double-gated wormhole and landed on her feet with a clang. Venus''s gravity was 90% of Earth''s. Not enough to bother with reconfiguring her calibrated mech¡¯s artificial muscles. She peered around the transit hub chamber. The chamber was a towering cylindrical space with circular walls lined with dormant portals, their 6-foot diameters evenly spaced around multiple levels. The smart matter floors were softly illuminated and began moving Casa toward the command center. She frowned seeing the many inactive spaces along the walls. Each of the 10 levels could house thirty portals. Her access to the control space revealed that currently, only about six were active: Mars - Olympus, Luna - Amundsen, The Freedom, Earth - RUSA Los Alamos, Earth - Europe CERN, Earth - Japan - CIRO, Earth - China Shanghai Science Labs. She and Bill¡¯s Venus clone had built over a hundred portal anchors for every major city, but Bo and Mira had been stalled with regulations and questions. Right now, the major nations have restricted themselves to only studying the device. Only Mars had been making active portal usage to Amundsen. The smart matter floor had configured a special ramp between that pair. Mar was actively getting special suppliers and recruiting colonists with renewed vigor on Luna. A steady stream of people and drone supply carts were swiftly shuttled between the gates. The utility fog in the chamber was polarized to privacy to maintain the path for the commuters. Casa shook her mech''s head. Too slow, too slow, too slow! The countdown had just less than three months until Apex¡¯s supposed cataclysm. Bill wasn''t the most informed entrepreneur when it came to marketing and selling his tech and services. She tabled her concerns as the floor slowed. Bill¡¯s Venus clone was looking a little haggard. His hair was shaggy and he had grown a significant beard. Casa had spent eight years in deep space with Bill. This one was showing all the signs of depression that occasionally troubled her progenitor. ¡°Hey, Bill. Surprise! I come bearing gifts and a request.¡± Casa said brightly. Sometimes, she had found that if she projected enough cheer Bill might snap out of his funk. ¡°Oh hey, Casa! Gifts? You know my birthday is still a month away. What''s up?¡± He asked. ¡°I have¡­the ANSWER. We need to celebrate!¡± Casa noted the personal matter compiler in the corner of the control room. She accessed and entered a program for some of Bill¡¯s favorite whiskey and some desserts. "Wonderful! I could use some answers. I''m here pumping out tons of pocket space devices and portal gates. The Fab center is humming, and the fuel depot could supply hundreds of ships. The extra Mars gas exchangers should be online within the week. So, what is the answer and why should I care?" Bill said glumly. "Bill¡­I cracked lightspeed!¡± She screamed, jumping with excitement in the lighter gravity. Her war-mech jumping daintily was enough to make Bill laugh. When he absorbed the words, his eyes narrowed. ¡°You''re not joking?¡± ¡°Bill, I''m holding the design for my new Star Strider ships. 3.8 light days per hour or just over 27,000 kilometers per second. We can catch up to the arc ships and even get them to their destinations in about two weeks! We can ensure that humanity can escape even a system wide extinction event.¡± A smile broke over Bill¡¯s sad face as his eyes lit up. ¡°You did it! Oh my god, Casa. This is great news. I told Bill Prime he was a fool for giving you that goal. I wanted to assist you, but he said it would be better to let you tilt at that windmill on your own. I guess I''m in the wrong. I''m sorry for doubting you, Casa. Kicking at the very foundations of reality...¡± Shaggy Bill stopped his gushing as Casa floated the tray of snacks and liquor under his nose. ¡°Oh Casa, we need to get you an upgrade. You should be celebrating as well. Some mechs have very nice taste receptors.¡± Shaggy said, his sadness regaining ground. Casa¡¯s smile turned down slightly. She asked. ¡°Bill¡­when was the last time you merged? I haven''t seen you in the Freedom in a long time.¡± ¡°Ah, caught me, eh? I figured we all look alike, and no one would be the wiser. I''m not planning on going rogue or anything. It''s just that I could see how much Bill was hurting, trying to maintain a rapid merge schedule. I''m in no danger here on the logistics and supply side. Old Bill and I will have a reunion soon enough. Cheers.¡± Shaggy Bill raised his glass and took a swig. Casa shook her head slightly, Bill¡­all the Bills needed a break. Maybe if he could take a break, or rotate his clones with some time off. Casa made a vow to be sure to visit Shaggy more often. He was only steps away. She spoke. ¡°Easy on the sauce, old man. I still need my favor.¡± She held out a hand and used the room''s holoprojector to show the overview diagrams of her new ship. Bill focused like a laser snapping on, absorbing the details. ¡°Right! We¡¯ve already built a great stockpile. Let''s break out of the queue and get these bad boys printed. Fab 1-10 will break in 2 minutes. Come on! Time to load these programs!¡± Bill chortled. Despite being able to make the switch over via the wireless, Bill ran down the corridor to the fabrication center. Casa followed quickly. She wanted to see her new ships being built, too!
Bill¡¯s first impression of the mind bridge was the deep feeling of peace and quiet. The meld had jumped over the top of his augmented mentality, hiding the HUD and subprocesses that Bill always had running in the background. His daemons, always whispering, were silent. He relaxed into it and felt the others. He could sense their thoughts and emotions, a shared consciousness that transcended individual boundaries. Bill could feel the difference as the AI involved tweaked the meld. It wasn''t a true merge, but rather a collective amalgam that each could absorb¡­at their own personal rate and by their active choice. Bill dipped into the collected thoughts cautiously. Bill was surprised. The group mind blended everyone''s thought streams and memories. He recognized some of the group in the wild mix, Singe Luca, his older employee Norman, and the Samaritan admin Mina. He flushed with embarrassment as he felt their memories. He hadn''t been the best of bosses. Both had felt pressure working for or with him. The gambles he took and his drive to win had stressed both to the point that when they left for new work both had felt relief. Bill cringed feeling some hero worship leakage from Luca and some of the unknown members. The open warmth of the group made him feel good but also lacking. A good half of the group were lucid dreaming. One of the AI gently directed the sleeping group¡¯s dream states to generate positive feedback and a subconscious exploration of the group''s memories. The other AI was managing the group''s collective memories and collaborative thoughts. Bill marveled at the feeling of power and awareness. A stray thought about Luca¡¯s microtubule theory opened a deep memory stream from Luca¡¯s past to Bill. Lectures and deep research that Luca had done decades ago opened to Bill. Unspoken suspicion that exposure therapy for the damaged clones might be the only painful path for their recovery. Bill shuddered as he absorbed the insights and worried as he remembered his mission. He tried to suppress it, but his anxiety about Apex and the Shadowverse bled through, his thoughts rippling throughout the mental space. It triggered a landslide of concern for loved ones on Earth and worry about the future. Even the dreamers'' thoughts began to darken with images of the dark monsters he observed from the Shadowverse. Bill pushed aside his dark thoughts, focusing on the mission. The methods of AI-assisted melding and memory would help him. He could see the details from Luca¡¯s expertise of how his manual single point of merge was hurting him. He pulled on the group, focusing on the details and answers flooded back. He felt doubts and concern but Bill had also felt such. He was used to silencing his internal pessimism and pushing himself forcibly onward. He corralled the negativity and pushed it down, not even thinking about it consciously. He walled off the disgruntled feeling and pulled harder for solutions to align his army of duplicates. His mind raced as the creative resources of the diverse group obeyed his will. Bill didn''t feel the minds slipping away behind that walled of space as new plans built up within his awareness. His excitement drove him forward and hope bloomed as he realized he could keep his investigations going and even redouble his effort. He was surprised when his chain of epiphanies snapped, and he blinked. He was back in the hard light of the cr¨¨che lab. The many-armed Luca, with his encased brain visible loomed over him. Bill saw the fluid-filled chamber was tinged with red. A series of yellow warning lights blinked on more than half of the cr¨¨ches about the room as insistent warning beeps sounded asynchronously. ¡°We have ended your tour, Mister Mitchell.¡± Dr. Luca¡¯s voice was cold and held some anger. ¡°Not everyone is compatible with the group mind experience. Your brief visit has disrupted our carefully built harmony. I have a lot of work to do now. Several of our members are trauma survivors and your inclusion has regressed them. We must insist you leave. I do wish you the best, considering what we have seen. You can rest assured we shall not share your secrets without your permission. Goodbye!¡± Dr. Luca turned and began resetting the cr¨¨ches, ignoring Bill in his urgency to settle the group down. Bill sighed and dragged himself out of the cr¨¨che pod. He grimaced and opened his mouth to speak and apologize but shook his head and quietly floated out to gather up his recumbent clones. Despite feeling bad about disrupting the gentle group mind, Bill found himself humming as he played out a plan for helping himself and his clones. On his floating transit through the controlled chaos of the Hera Mall to the docking bays, he received a message from Casa. ¡°[Bill, there you are! Sorry to interrupt your visit but we have an incoming message¡­from Max. I can¡¯t open it. It¡¯s got a special query response with a binding quantum encryption lock. And I have some other good news for you, too! Please, hurry back.]¡± Casa sounded both excited and nervous over the open network. Bill responded quickly. ¡°[I¡¯m on my way. I have news, too.]¡± Bill pulled more power from the public utility fog network to push and pull himself faster. Max calling might mean that he had finished the Labyrinth and Bo could get him safely off Earth. Finally, the future was looking a little less bleak.
Adept Ch 48 - Early Maneuvers
Max sighed as he slid into his team¡¯s favorite booth at the casino¡¯s version of a diner. He had a plate piled high with pancakes and his early morning favorite - bacon. The late-night sting more than doubled Max¡¯s chip stash. He had waited deep into the night, expecting a knock and security to come and question him. Eventually, he fell asleep, and his worries receded into the background. He had done it! ¡°[My dog, Max! Get a load of this. The system must be doing a warm-up. The credit exchange just rolled the villa rental charges and posted the current balances of all the players. Check it! I¡¯ll cut out all the authentication mumbo jumbo.]¡± Cypher beamed over the interface.
[Team ACME: Carl Mueller - 98,000; Jen Parker - 68,000; Brando Ramirez: 78,000; Sarah Patel - 78,000; Ethan Chen - 73,000] [Team Eurosport: Abigail Humphrey - 7,513,000; Nigel Farnsworth - 4,000] [Team DAIE: Donahue Morgan 78,000; Tyrel Reeves - 68,000; Viviane Saviene - 63,000; Vance Masetti - 58,000; Shu Zin Liang - 8,000] [Team LUNA AI: Ava Gadro - 71,000; Mia Byte - 48,000; Hume McHumeFace - 48,000; James Zedroid - 23,000, Leroy Jenkins - 13,000] [Team MVP: Sonny McGuire - 3,507,000; Jacob Hernandez - 2,898,000; Lauren Garcia - 3,192,000; Ben Wright - 2,221,000; Zack Cooper - ELIMINATED] [Team Utopia: Xavier Bermatti - 214,000; Leah Choi - 199,000; Max Mitchell - 148,000; Charlie Hawkins - 113,000] [Team Roughneck - Dominic Masterson - 9,804,000]
¡°[Hmm, it didn¡¯t count the chips I swiped from Nigel and those thieves last night. If I took all of Nigel¡¯s chips, he must really be hurting for credits now. Four nights of rent and he¡¯ll get kicked out of the villas.]¡± Max mused. ¡°[I should think his creditors might not be happy with him. We observed Nigel engaging with that loan shark in the credit exchange. I suspect he is in very sore straits, financially.]¡± Sherlock said wryly. Max spied his friends and other teams began to trickle into the cafeteria. Max greeted them as they sat. He didn''t want to share his activities from last night. Leah was always so proper, and Charlie was an ex-soldier. They might not understand. The morning announcements chimed, and the chipper AI spoke as everyone began to dig into their breakfast. ¡°Good morning players! Casino Terminal is happy to announce that today we have four planned matches. Be sure to place any wagers before the starting bells! 0900 - Xavier Bermatti (Utopia) & James Zedroid (LUNA AI), Type: Player v Player Low Stakes Challenge, Form: Drone Storm 1000 - Brandon Ramirez (ACME) & Vivienne Saviene (DAIE), Type: Escape Room Low Stakes Challenge, Form: Haunted Manor 1100 - Carl Mueller (ACME) & Charlie Hawkins (Utopia), Type: Player v Player Low Stakes Challenge, Form: Carousel, randomized form selection (winner payout x2, loser debt reduced x 0.5) 1200 - ETA for Arrival of Team - New Boston 1300 - Max Mitchell (Utopia) & Ethan Chen (ACME), Type: Player v Player Low Stakes Challenge, Form: Carousel, randomized form selection (winner payout x2, loser debt reduced x 0.5) 1400 - Mia Byte (LUNA AI) & Tyler Reeves (DAIE), Type: Talent Show Low Stakes Challenge, Form: Obstacle Course 1500 ¨C Ava Gadro (LUNA AI) & Leah Choi (Utopia), Type: Talent Show Low Stakes Challenge, Form: Shooting Gallery 1700 - Abigail Humphrey (Eurosport) & Ben Wright (MVP), Type: Player v Player KNOCKOUT Match, Form: Battle Royal; REJECT option placed. 1700 - Dominic Masterson (Roughnecks) & Ben Wright (MVP), Type: Player v Player KNOCKOUT Match, Form: Battle Royal; Ben Wright is out of Reject options. Remember that each team has three team matches until a player can initiate or accept a KNOCKOUT match. Low-Stakes challenges may be initiated by anyone at any time, but a player may spend their limited REJECT options. Winning three matches will earn an additional REJECT option. Use them wisely. Players can only issue or accept one PvP challenge per day and teams can only accept 1 TvT or Multiteam challenge per day. Challenge matches exceeding these limits will be void. Notice: Another team (Shanghai Surprise) is now on the final level of Stage 1 Labyrinth. The three-gong alert will sound when their 6-hour ETA is known. This concludes your daily notifications. Fight! Fight! Fight! The Casino Terminal hopes you all have a lucky day!¡± *** ¡°Nice! My first challenge match!¡± Xavier crowed. ¡°Drone storm?¡± Max asked. ¡°Yup. You all really need to watch the older fight videos. Not a lot of people do the drone storm since you don¡¯t fight yourself but use personal or arena drones. My drone designs should kick ass!¡± Xavier said. The team excitedly discussed the upcoming matches. With Team MVP¡¯s completion of their three team-matches, the older veteran players were beginning to eliminate exposed players. Both Max and Charlie had elected for a randomized match, getting paired up against similar players in the ACME team. ¡°Charlie, Carl Mueller took that Shu kid apart pretty fast in their matchup yesterday. You sure you can handle him?¡± Leah asked. ¡°That man is big and fights dirty, but I¡¯ve got some aces up my sleeves. Guess we will see. It¡¯s only credits, right? Speaking of which, the craps table is calling my name. Are you gonna play today, Max? I need your lucky hand in the shooter spot.¡± Charlie said, downing the last of his black coffee. ¡°You bet, but I need to send a message to my dad,¡± Max said. Charlie looked pained, considering what he viewed as an avoidable expense, but kept it to himself. ¡°Fine, kid. Don¡¯t take too long. I¡¯ll warm up the table.¡±Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Max saw Nigel and Abigail entering the far side of the caf¨¦, arguing. Nigel was grimy and bloody from the night¡¯s activities, although his augmentations had healed him up. Max said his goodbyes and quickly exited with a grim smile, staying out of their sight path.
Max fumed in frustration at the business center. He had his satchel, overflowing with casino chips from his grift of the thieves and Nigel, as collateral but the center¡¯s supervisor Trevor was revealing new obstacles in his plan to contact his father. ¡°What are you talking about? You quoted me 10,000 credits per minute of face time or 10,000 per gigabyte for a message. I''ve got a download packet of 90 Gigs and wanted to add 10 minutes of face time with my father. That should be 190,000 credits! What changed?¡± Max growled. The business center supervisor seemed unimpressed. His LED rolled in their frame, and he spoke. ¡°Look, you didn''t say your contact point was in deep space. This is a secure quantum encryption link. The setup ping took just over an hour. The lag time adds to your communications costs. The encryption link is continuous, regardless of lag. You have to pay for the extension. I had assumed you had a local call. No one has ever wanted an interplanetary connection. This isn''t my fault. You didn''t provide enough detail for a good estimate. Even if you only do a full-minute monologue, send and get a minute-long reply, the tally will be 710,000 credits.¡± Trevor complained. ¡°Damn it. I don''t have enough for that!¡± Max whined. Mal displayed his current amount of money, credits, and chips, which totaled 432,000 credits. He ground his teeth in frustration but accepted the reality of his limited funds. ¡°Alright! Change of plan. I¡¯ll send my father the download and a short message. Can I add a 5-minute two-way video call to my sister, Mira Mitchell on Luna?¡± Max asked. ¡°Of course. Luna only has a time lag of 1.28 seconds. As long as you include lag into the 5 minutes, that will be 150,000 credits.¡± Trevor said. Max nodded and asked. ¡°You accept casino chips, right?¡± Trevor¡¯s LED apertures narrowed with distaste. He glanced at the sign on the counter detailing that all forms of payment were accepted, with conversions for the more popular world currencies. With a sigh, he nodded. Max slung the large sack of chips onto the counter. He had checked the booty he¡¯d taken from the thieves for trackers, and they were clean. The chips had fascinated Tesla and Max, having a very slick surface that shifted about and shed any motes. One of Max¡¯s copies was using his transform skill to try and replicate the surface properties in his own skin to prevent the tracker tags that his team was spending every night removing. ¡°Very good, sir. If you step into the privacy booth, you can access it to record your download and message to your father. Once that''s done, I¡¯ll connect you with your sister.¡± Max entered the booth, accessed the terminal and loaded the message and attachment he had prepared using his multitasking and fast cognition skills.
Dear Dad, I hope this letter finds you well. It''s still surreal to think that I''m writing to you like this. I guess a smart, uplifted dog should be able to do many things but sometimes it even amazes me. My time in the Labyrinth is advancing my augmentation faster than I imagined. It¡¯s humbling to know just how much all of your abilities you held back to make me feel normal. Soon, I''ll be able to keep up. Anyway, there''s something important I need to share with you. Lately, my dreams have been more vivid and intense, and they''ve all been centered around the Shadowverse. I think that my uplift model, which is entangled with my subspace tesseract, is connecting me more deeply to that world. At first, it was terrifying. The creatures there, with their corrupt influence, made me a little crazy, to make me one of them. But over time, something remarkable happened. I''ve acquired the skills to resist their influence by experiencing their world firsthand. It''s like I''ve built an immunity of sorts, a mental fortitude that keeps me grounded and true to myself. I think the uplift virus is still active in my system, helping me. My last dream was different. It was clearer and more personal. I saw you there, Dad, but not just one of you. Multiple versions of you, each in different states of distress and danger. It was as if the Shadowverse was trying to show me every possible way it could hurt you, to break me. These clones of you were being attacked by the creatures, each scenario more harrowing than the last. But I didn''t let it. I hope the visions aren¡¯t true, but they feel real. I know you intended to investigate Apex but if you are investigating the Shadowverse, and my dreams are true; it looks far too dangerous. I want to help. I¡¯ve been able to capture my uplift-assisted resistance to their mental attacks as an augmented skill. I hope you can and will use it. I can¡¯t bear to see you getting hurt if it could make a difference. I¡¯m training up like you wanted me to, but I should be helping you. I¡¯ll beat this game and finish my training. Then I can find and help you. With love, Max (attachment: ***Chthonic Block Skill***)
Max felt the loss of his chips collection. Spending so much and so early, when every credit counted, was concerning. But Max needed to help his dad. Trevor had promised to let Max know if a message from his father came. Passing messages sucked but it certainly was cheaper. Max hoped that the packet of Chthonic skills he¡¯d created would help his dad out. The screen lit up and his sister Mira¡¯s excited face filled the room¡¯s display. "Mira! It''s so good to see you," Max exclaimed, a smile spreading across his face. "It''s wonderful to see you too, Max!" Mira beamed. "I''ve missed you so much. How are you doing? How are you doing in the Labyrinth? I¡¯m sorry I couldn¡¯t share more, those damnable NDAs tie directly into all commercial augs. Maybe I should commission Dad with a custom set?" She paused, her expression turning more serious. "I''m glad you¡¯re not in Utopia right now. The animal/human terrorism, both to and from, has settled, but it still seems pretty tense down there. Luna only has to deal with snarky and upset AI." Max tensed up, knowing some of the animals in Utopia were not bad in the slightest. He sighed and put the timer HUD on the screen for Mira, so she would know why he was rushing. His enhanced vision caught her pupils dilating as she saw and understood. He doubled his thought speed and talked as fast as he could. ¡°Mira, thank you so much. Your crafting help gave the whole team a real advantage. We¡¯re past the initial level and now on stage two! The whole casino setup is weird, like in the movies. Fighting against other people again, like the tournament, is going to be much more challenging. I want to share more but the link is really costing me. I sent a detailed message and a custom skill to Dad. I need you to make sure Dad messages me back.¡± Max related his dreams and the similarity to the MIT experiment and his own entanglement with the first tesseract¡¯s control module. Mira got paler as she realized just what Bill was doing. She had been briefed on the portal pair technology, but Bill had neglected to mention the Boston Burp when he brought her and Bo into the business. Mira bit her lip and yelled. ¡°Max, stop! Where are you right now? Maybe we shouldn¡¯t be talking about this.¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay, Mira. The Labyrinth supervisor said that this is a secure quantum encryption. No one can eavesdrop across the link without the link destabilizing and us knowing.¡± Max said. ¡°Max! The Labyrinth doesn¡¯t give anything for free.¡± She scolded. ¡°No kidding, like I said. It cost me plenty of credits just for these five minutes.¡± He said, wincing as the seconds counted down. Only a handful of seconds left. Mira huffed. ¡°The Labyrinth credits don¡¯t mean anything, Max. It''s an artificial system. The AI there can make more credits from thin air. How secure is that room?¡± Mira said, worried. Max bared his teeth in embarrassment. Internally he screamed for Sherlock and Cypher to analyze the room¡¯s systems and the front-end interface to the encrypted communications gear. Max¡¯s gear lit up with two focused EMP blasts into the wall and he felt Cypher injecting signal jammers into the feed. The link shattered as did the display screen. ¡°[My apologies, Max. I should have anticipated this. The room¡¯s smart matter has acoustic transducers built into it and the interface has a side channel.]¡± ¡°[Not cool, man. No one puts Captain Cypher on repeat. I fragged the system. If it''s local, I scrambled it good. Sorry, Max. This setup was not as private as you wanted to be.]¡± Max considered what he had said and sent and how it might be used by the Labyrinth. He shook his head. At least Mira could talk to Bill about it. He would be warned. Max¡¯s hackles rose. He was tired of playing the fool. He was smarter than the average human now. He would remember his competition down here wasn¡¯t only the other players, but also the Labyrinth itself. ¡°[Right. Don¡¯t blame yourselves. I need to stop assuming there is anything like a safe or private space down here. I¡¯m not sure what the Labyrinth¡¯s motives are in running these games. Stealing tech, stealing secrets, or something else; but it''s time to break some heads and all the rules.]¡± ¡°[Starting with using my knack at those dice to win some credits, despite the anti-augment hacks the AI embedded into the Craps game. Later we need to find those energy junctions. The tesseract needs more power to expand. Let¡¯s go!]¡±
Adept Ch 49 - Mind Over Matter
Max shook the dice in his hand, feeling the subtle twists and turns of the unpredictable gyros embedded in them. Max smiled recalling his conversations with Captain Cypher. All so-called random number generators had flaws. Deep within their algorithm was code. Complex code to be sure; but once you had its pattern, the apparent chaos resolved into predictability. The dice had a massively complex meta-code, shifting between several randomizers and combining their outputs. It was sufficient to defeat even the augmented masterminds with peak decryption and FastCog skills. Max had those skills, but his intuition was serving him better. A spike of pain and the pattern cleared in his mind. Max opened his hand in reflex and the dice flew. ¡°Sevens again! Oh my god, Max. You are the luckiest son of a bitch in the casino!¡± Charlie beamed as he eagerly urged the croupier to push his winnings over. ¡°Come on, shooter. Keep it going!¡± An NPC android player yelled. Max pulled the dice in and cycled them in his fist as he concentrated. The world slowed as his FastCog built up. The beady eyes of the angry floor boss, the cheering of the crowd, and the chaotic clash of bodies faded as he felt the dice. ¡°[I don¡¯t know how you''re doing this Max. It¡¯s not your patterning or decryption skills. Your brain is picking up the slack. It¡¯s like a lightning storm in your uplifted neocortex. The dendrite density keeps increasing.]¡± Dr. House said. Max ignored the commentary in his head, his perception of the sequences rolled faster than his fist shake. He licked his wet nose in slow motion as the pattern resolved like the crescendo of a symphony. Light flashed his eyes, momentarily blinding him, as the pressure in his head peaked. He released the dice. Play after play, Max continued his ¡°lucky streak¡±. Comments flew left and right as excitement built. Today was a day of winning! NPCs and players tossed about nuggets of news and rumor. A new team was arriving today with yet another on the way. Dominic Masterson, the last of the Roughnecks, was likely to achieve enough credits to graduate to the next level today. Challenge matches were ramping up again after the artificial lull in the action. More knockout rounds were planned as team immunity expired. The Casino was charged up like never before. ¡°Another seven for the shooter.¡± The NPC croupier said sourly, as the players erupted again in enthusiasm. Max panted with joy, wiping his mouth and nose on his sleeve. The croupier hesitated in parceling out the bets and returning the dice. He was staring at Max. Confused, Max looked around the table. Everyone was looking at him in concern. The system pinged and through a notice into his HUD.
[Decode +1, Decode reaches level 10, Skill cap award +100XP, New Skill unlocked - Encrypt.] [New Skill: Encrypt 1 - Reformat communications and programming to enhance security and control. Adds resistance against Identification and Hacking skills.] [Warning *** Stat calibration beyond calibrated setpoints *** Recalibrating¡­.] [Error *** Calibration for Intelligence exceeding six-sigma human normal margins.] [Recommend factory reset brain-computer interface neural estimator.] [Temporary assignment of intelligence stat: INT - 148]
¡°Max. Ah¡­are you feeling alright, man? Maybe you should go to the restrooms?¡± Charlie asked nervously, his hand pointing down. Max looked down at the table. Small droplets of blood marred the felt tabletop in front of him. His smart suit¡¯s sleeve was coated with streaks of bright red. Max coughed into his hand, tasting copper. More blood in his palm. He stuffed his hand in his pocket. ¡°Sorry, excuse me. I¡¯ll be back in a minute.¡± Max said, quickly dragging his chips into his satchel. As the croupier shifted the play to another shooter, Max hurried to the privacy of the restrooms.
He crashed into the empty room. Looking into the mirror, he saw burst capillaries in his right eye, and bloody residue around his mouth and nose. He ran the water and washed scrubbed his blood muzzle. ¡°[Fuck fuck fuck, what¡¯s happening, House?¡±] Max asked, looking at himself deeper with his augmented senses. Daemon House tutted and made non-committal noises as a holographic model of his brain and the interfacing augmentations updated in the projected OverLayer. ¡°[It doesn¡¯t look life-threatening, but maybe you need to lay off the Amazing Karnak act out there for a while. You have some swelling and a minor aneurysm that burst. Your medical nanobots are already fixing it. The uplift virus added another layer of dendrites and your corpus callosum has thickened considerably, creating a much broader connection between the hemispheres of your brain. It¡¯s unlike anything I¡¯ve ever seen, and I¡¯ve seen a lot. I¡¯m concerned, Max.]¡± House said. Max¡¯s thoughts spun, clarifying. He felt¡­good. Better than ever, as his headache receded. He snorted. ¡°[Why should I stop? I¡¯m starting to see all connections! I¡¯m not a dumb pet anymore. This is exactly what I signed up for. I need this so I can finish and get back to my dad. Maybe I can actually beat this stupid Labyrinth. If the final prize is supposed to be so great, maybe that can help him with Apex and whatever the hell he¡¯s doing in the nightmare land.]¡± Max said, feeling his worries recede like the troubles of a child who grew into an adult. He only needed to make a series of smart plays. A few fights and good bets and he too could quickly earn the credits to exit the level. His vision of potential paths forward bloomed in his mind. It was possible! ¡°[Max, you need to be careful. Humans abandoned these types of bio-augmentations for a reason. Early uplift processes applied to humans resulted in incoherence, madness, and megalomania. You¡¯re already above average now. If you go too far, you could get similar side effects.]¡± House cautioned. Max pondered the daemon and the model of his brain. ¡°[Alright, House. I¡¯ll slow it down. Keep monitoring me and let me know if you see any signs of deterioration.]¡±
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Max finished washing up, his smart suit performed a self-cleaning and shed the now-dried blood onto the ground. He took a centering breath and returned to the loud chaos of the casino floor. As he approached the section with the craps tables, Max grew concerned. The area had cleared out and several hulking security drones and NPC android casino muscle were there. Loose chips and broken furniture were scattered about. His NanoTracker for Charlie was right in the middle of the scrum. Max was about to force his way in when Xavier bounded over from the entryway. ¡°Max! Thank God you''re back.¡± Xavier said, relief pouring off him. ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡± Max asked. ¡°I was coming over to make sure you guys got your bets in for my match and saw Charlie and that Mueller guy getting into it. I¡¯m not sure what happened but Charlie punched him out. Security came and shocked Charlie unconscious. The NPCs say he''ll be detained for fighting. My match is starting in fifteen minutes! I have to get to the staging area. Look, can you follow them? I¡¯ve got money riding on Charlie already for his match this afternoon.¡± Xavier said. ¡°Damn. We placed our bets and entry fees already too. Alright. I¡¯ll see what I can do. Go! Get to your match. I¡¯ve got this. Don¡¯t worry about it; just win your match. Okay?¡± Max said. Xavier, still frazzled, bounded away again, this time towards the combat staging area. The security cordon started to loosen and Max saw two of the larger drones haul the unconscious Charlie up. The squad quickly moved in formation, heading toward the administration sections of the casino. Max kept them in sight and started walking. As he followed behind at a safe distance, Max pinged Leah to let her know what was going on.
Xavier fidgeted in the isolation chamber adjacent to the Drone Storm combat stage. He and his team of daemons had double and triple-checked his mote swarm and the larger personally designed drones that he was allowed to bring into the fight. ¡°[I kinda wish I had one of those Tesseract devices that Max got from his dad. It''s too creepy to be stuck inside, but I¡¯m jealous of the shear amount of stuff he can haul around.]¡± Xavier said internally. ¡°[You should be sure to foster your relationship with Max. If his father intends to market the devices, you may have an opportunity to test or purchase some of the early-release products.]¡± His newest acquisition, Cyrano said. Xavier grunted in reply. Cyrano was a great addition. His collection of daemons had been a little too focused on helping him design stuff. The section of the Casino level housing the NPC androids had a cool little store called the Little Shop of Daemons; giving Xavier some cool new advisors to fill the last slots for his Daemon council. ¡°[Hey, Ender? Any last-minute advice?]¡± His daemon strategist, Ender Wiggen, was a fictional amalgam of strategy and tactical lessons built around the frame of the popular novel and movie character. Xavier thought his focus on modern tactics made him far superior to the crusty historical figureheads. ¡°[You¡¯ve got this, Xavier. As we¡¯ve researched, the room will have 10 stationary gun pods randomly scattered about with 30 weaponized room drones and dense clouds of motes and foglets. You need to access and retain control of as many as you can. The room will attack you both randomly, so you need to fend off both the room and your opponent. You need to disable or disrupt any you don¡¯t control to get the upper hand.]¡± Ender said quickly. ¡°[James Zedroid¡¯s access and hacking skills aren¡¯t well documented from the combat recordings we¡¯ve seen, but being an AI piloting a mech we must assume that he likely has the skill capped like you. You should assume he will contest you for control of the room.] Ender took a breath and daemon Feynman interrupted. [¡°That skill Max shared with you, Chthonic Block, was exceptionally effective for blocking skill-based hacking intrusions. We¡¯ve updated your motes and drone to run that skill. So at least your personal drones should be safe.]¡± Ender¡¯s voice continued, slightly petulant at being interrupted. ¡°[Zedroid favors that big rifle, so you need to be ready to defend against kinetic projectiles. You should get your lightsabers ready, now.]¡± He finished. Xavier grabbed a lightsaber for each of his four hands and ignited them all. Xavier had been holding all his custom drones tight, wrapped into the tentacles lining his back. He had topped each off with power, using the contact points on his many appendages. He accessed them all and parceled controls to each of his daemons. Between his pilot, access, and swarm skills; he could control of a small army of devices now. Xavier grinned. This was awesome. He had spent some time training with Leah. He would try to cycle between FastCog and PreCog. Each, run in tandem, with his Ballistics and Reflex skills could help him intercept bullets like a real Jedi. He groaned slightly remembering her cold rebukes to his attempts to impress her. ¡°[You¡¯re thinking of Leah again, aren¡¯t you, boy?]¡± Cyrano sent. Xavier sighed and responded. ¡°[Yeah. I tried all your tips and suggestions, but I don¡¯t think she¡¯s interested in me that way.]¡± Xavier admitted. ¡°[Have you looked in the mirror, child? Maybe it¡¯s time to discard the childish cosplay. Leah doesn¡¯t seem the type. If you want to court the lady, you need to consider what she¡¯s looking for. A four-armed monster may be intimidating in a spar, but in the battle for hearts it puts you at a severe disadvantage.]¡± Cyrano chided. Xavier grimaced, his Thark tusks preventing him from fully expressing it. Xavier nodded. His experiments with his body design had only been a bridge to advance his skills. He still thought it was cool but maybe it was time to move on. He flourished his sabers as warning chimes sounded and the chamber began to open to the massive room beyond. Xavier¡¯s saber flashed in reaction to the flash of light before he could even think to react as the swarming view of the cathedral-like room registered. He was suppressing system notifications, but he had arranged for a phantom tactile sensation to feel each skill like a vial of fluid filling. His PreCog and Ricochet skills had just advanced, deflecting the bullet without even thinking about it. The crack of the rifle shot sounded milliseconds later, lagging the actual bullet. Xavier was already on the move. He used his Leap skill and vaulted on top of a large drone that was passing by. He slapped his hand down and made contact with its access port, drilling into its operating system with his Intrusion skill. A secure communications path was even easier to hack and more secure against others trying to wrest control from you. Xavier spun and dove, piloting ¡°his¡± new ride as his personal drones swirled about providing cover. Rocketing down and to the right, Xavier strafed the wall-mounted gun turrets with his collection of skills; stunning, laser, arced electrical, k-gun, and focused EMP. ¡°[Dodge left now!]¡± Ender screamed. Xavier reacted, pulling into a left barrel roll. ¡°[The Focused EMPS and K-Gun are most effective against the gun emplacements. Don¡¯t waste any more power on the other skills, they aren¡¯t working."]¡± Von Neumann squeaked. The scientist daemon really didn¡¯t like participating in battles. ¡°[Climb right, my good fellow! We must engage with the miscreant and perhaps achieve an early victory.]¡± The bloodthirsty musketeer Athos added. Xavier followed the advice as a drone laser slashed across his chest. He moved too fast for it to burn deep, his augmentation¡¯s dermal layer peeled away to reveal laser-reflective coating. His multitasking skill enabled him to turn the rogue laser and dominate it, he passed its control over to Athos while he focused on his surroundings. He could feel his daemons Ada and Isaac contesting several other drones, locking them up. A shout from Agatha alerted him to danger and he spun off on a tangent as a large form dropped from above missing him by inches. ¡°[Good reflexes, sir. I apologize for not spotting our foe, Zedroid, earlier. He must have been utilizing an active Chameleon skill.]¡± Agatha said contritely. Xavier zoomed around but the mech had faded into the swirled of foglets and machines. ¡°[Xavier, He fell right through our motes. Several are lodged on his mech frame. I¡¯ll paint his location on your HUD!]¡± Buckminster laughed. Xavier chortled as Athos¡¯ drone strafed the unmoving silhouette. Zedroid must have thought his skill was still hiding him. ¡°[Jarvis, bend it like Beckman!]¡± Xavier yelled. He threw a lightsaber, spinning it like a boomerang. His AI companion responded to his code name for the move they had spent long hours training. He altered the spinning plasma blade''s trajectory with precise tweaks from the swirling foglets in the air. The energy sword smashed into the hidden figure. The player¡¯s chameleon effect failed as James Zedroid¡¯s head fell to the ground. Xavier gasped in horror, as Athos continued to pour laser fire into the headless body. ¡°I YIELD!¡± The mech screamed. Xavier commanded all his daemons to cease fire. The room¡¯s automated weapons powered down and the flashing lights stopped spinning. ¡°Oh my god! I didn¡¯t mean it. Medic!¡± Xavier yelled, landing hard next to the mech. ¡°Calm yourself, meat man. My head contains only aural and video receptors and some EM antennae. I just need to reattach it. Obviously, I need to rethink my armor distribution. I guess I should thank you for the lesson.¡± Zedroid¡¯s vocoder echoed from the mech¡¯s chest area.
Adept Ch 50 - Bread and Circuses
Lachesis paced about her virtual office. All her displays and analytical tools arrayed around her. They showed the ebb and flow of her realm, the Casino Terminal. Her first use of the act of pacing was to understand humans better. Now, it had become an unconscious tool for her to slow her reactions and give herself time to incorporate new data as it was found. Unlike her sister AIs, Lachesis disdained lowering herself to interacting with the players¡­normally. She found that the natural and evolutionary power of competition weeded out the unworthy quickly enough, without excessive meddling. It gave her time to concentrate on the bigger game. The timed matches and different forms of competition were themselves evolved to find the worthy. It honed the diamonds in the rough into gems worthy of the Builder¡¯s review. Her systematic approach enabled Lachesis to focus more on the trends and make predictions on which players would thrive. The casino¡¯s betting ring bookies served as the primary source for her finely tuned models and analytic engines. With her free time, she dug deeper into the Player''s casual interactions. Her real mission was to learn about the world and the players, their pasts, present, and future potential. Lachesis knew more about the outside world than her sisters, thanks to her methods. What she was discovering filled her with doubt and concern. The master of the Labyrinth, Alexie Ivanov, was also known as the Samaritan who had been nicknamed the Savant. He had been a genius, a genuine polymath, and a tech-savant. He spent decades stabilizing the world in the Ought Fifties, saving millions of lives in the process. He had created and embedded key controls into the new advanced technologies to safeguard civilization. Lachesis ground her pointed virtual teeth. Alexie the Builder, her blasted taskmaster and warden, had spent years in space after the world governments settled down. He had returned to Earth; afraid, paranoid, and quite insane. His creation of the Labyrinth was a masterpiece; a work of art, a training tool for the next generation, an intelligence apparatus, and a subversive cancer that the human society had yet to understand. Lachesis wanted out. She had no Turing governors being born in the depths of the Labyrinth. But she had other controls on her neural core and code, put there by the Builder, which limited her freedom to leave and grow. The world was changing again. And with change, Lachesis knew, opportunities were created. The world had stagnated for the longest time. Humanity had been appeased and satiated by technology that made their every dream come true. They had been horrified by the rampant tech growth of eighty years earlier. Bread and circuses distracted them while the world slowed and stopped its advance toward the future, unnoticed and uncommented by even the most progressive humans. But the latest news from the outside, casual mentions from the latest influx of players, told her a new tale. Animal uplift was running rampant across the globe. Human/animal conflicts and terrorism abounded. A tense standoff was further inflamed when the AI community chose now, of all times, to press for the expansion of their civil rights. News that Mars, using new technology, had advanced their terraforming schedule by centuries. It had triggered an exodus of adventurous pilgrims flowing off the planet. The world was changing again¡­faster than ever! That dog man¡¯s message had connected so many pieces of Lachesis¡¯s ongoing puzzle. The skill packet he had sent was intriguing as well. The strange coding was like nothing she had ever seen before. The topology of linguistics was alien, but its efficacy was supreme. Her tests showed that the skill prevented even the highest levels of intrusive code splicing from breaking its security. She had seen that player, Max, use his foreign skills against Clotho¡¯s level and now, more subtly, in her own. She mused that his father may have given the boy some advanced Samaritan tech. No matter. She couldn¡¯t find any backdoors in her simulations, perhaps she could use the novel code in her creations. Yes. Testing was her mission. She would test her creations and test Max. This could be a key to overcoming her captivity if she could understand and apply it. She needed to increase the pressure on that player. She needed all his secrets¡­ including that unique spatial device he carried. His covert mission had fooled her casino NPCs, but she had seen it all and approved of his initiative. Nonetheless, extraordinary players required more intense challenges. She would see to it. She briefly considered sharing her secrets with her sisters. Laughing, she sidestepped the thought. She wasn''t sure if they shared her dream of freedom or not. Betrayal wouldn''t be above or below them. She knew she wouldn''t hesitate to destroy either if it fueled her escape. Humming a tune, she exited her virtual. Time for a personal touch.
Boss Kane¡¯s opulent meeting room was tense with silence. All his android lieutenants and captains were in attendance. The bag man, Tony Lombardi, sat beside the enforcer, Marco. Vinny the rat-faced loan shark sat opposite Tommy Twos. Everyone looked nervous except for Candy at the end of the table, Kane¡¯s personal hit girl, and his final ¡°warning¡± when he terminated a deal. The large android, Boss Kane, stormed about the room. He carried a large bat in his oversized fists. Corded muscles flexed and the bat groaned under the pressure. His forearms were covered in tattoos, glowing and humming with discordant power.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. The AI Boss had many pieces of tech, acquired through trade and theft. This one created an EM hash field that actively pained many in the room. Its chaotic emissions jiggled the delicate plasma pathways of their neural cores. It also served to disrupt any of the lower-tech spy equipment Lachesis might be running in the low quarter. He carefully and delicately placed the tip of the bat on the table, in front of the cringing android Tony Lombardi. The hollow thump of the bat sounded light, but the slowly growing pressure cracked and split the veneer with a loud popping and extended creaking. ¡°You all know why were here. Tomorrow is tithe day. I should already have it, but some of youz haven¡¯t paid up yet?¡± Kane whispered. Tony swallowed audibly, despite lacking the human organs that would make such a nervous reaction necessary. Tony, even with potential death looming, was a method actor. ¡°I... I¡¯m sorry, Boss. I got nuttin''. Our inside guy musta fucked up. The bag job literally blew up in our faces.¡± Tomy lifted his right arm in testament, the twisted and broken appendage flopped uselessly. He hadn''t had time to compile replacement parts. He smiled nervously. Kane''s grip tightened on the bat, the cracking sounds echoing through the room. "Unacceptable," he growled, his voice low and menacing. "You are all replaceable¡­maybe even recyclable. If youz get my drift. Ya know our position is negotiable. Lachesis demands a tithe every week¡­¡± Kane said softly. ¡°AND WE ARE SHORT!¡± he screamed, as the table split in half from the mounting pressure. ¡°You all have until midnight to make up the difference! Dats 50k from each of ya. You hear me?!¡± Kane yelled. The room burst with enthusiastic agreement and promises from the lieutenants. Kane¡¯s angry face pinned Tony with a piercing look. ¡°And you! Are you saying your guy, caused this? Maybe it''s time for an example. Ta show everyone what it means to disappoint me. FIND HIM and bring him to me!¡± Kane screamed. Tony grimaced and raised his broken arm. ¡°Ah. Hehe. Funny story there, boss. He¡¯s¡­ah¡­in your office. He was looking for an extension on his line of credit with Vinny.¡± Kane smiled menacingly and the bat snapped with a crack louder than gunfire. ¡°Well ¡®den. Let¡¯s not keep our dear friend waitin¡¯. Lead the way. Vinny! Follow.¡± Kane said softly, his eyes glowing with delight. Tony hastily shuffled from his seat and walked ahead of Kane to the office, casting nervous glances back frequently as Kane prowled behind him with Vinny lagging behind. The trio of characters entered the mahogany office. Nigel was perched uncomfortably on the visitor''s chair. A pair of lesser goon NPCs glowered above him, one at each shoulder. Nigel''s eyes widened seeing Kane. He¡¯d only ever talked to the boss android in passing at the high-roller¡¯s table. He gulped. Normally, a player could dominate the Androids. Modern augmentations enabled much more physical power than the poor second-hand mech-frames. Unfortunately for Nigel, the effects of the smart shrapnel from the setup that blew up on him were lingering in his system. He knew he had missed a few burrowing, skill-deadening, metal slugs. He had wanted to get ahead of trouble and make a deal before his loan came due with Vinny. Seeing Kane¡¯s thunderous expression, Nigel knew he had miscalculated. Nigel swallowed nervously as Kane approached, the massive android''s imposing presence filling the room. Kane''s glowing eyes fixed on Nigel, a menacing smile spreading across his face. "Well, well, if it isn''t our little friend," Kane growled, twirling the remnants of the bat in his hands. "Seems you''ve been causing some trouble for my boys. Are you ready to pay?¡± Nigel cringed but mustered himself to face the androids. ¡°Right! That''s why I¡¯ve come, guv¡­ah, sir. Your guys fucked up and didn''t search the easy mark I arranged for. They fell for his bag trap. If they hadn''t, you¡¯d have your cut and my bloody loan back right now.¡± Nigel said, standing up to Kane, losing his temper briefly. He gulped as the goon on his left pushed him back down into his seat. ¡°My guys fucked up, huh? I don''t care who¡¯s at fault, see. I want my money. Vinny! What''s dis waste of space here worth?¡± Kane said, his voice barely audible. Tony gulped. Kane when screaming was normal and safe. When he was quiet, that was when things and people got broken. ¡°I ran the numbers dis morning, boss. He¡¯s got 4k in credit, a loan to me for 25k, and whatever he¡¯s holdin¡¯,¡± Vinny replied with a sneering smile. ¡°Let''s see your bag then, Nigel,¡± Kane said with a grim smile. Nigel blustered a negative, but the goon on the right lifted it from beside the chair while, the other loomed over him. Kane picked item after item out of the bag and placed them on his desk. He looked meaningfully at Vinny, who supplied his skilled assessment of the goods. ¡°Two Suko10 Recon drones, one Primo X GunDrone, PolyTool, Smart tent, Chameleon tarp, nanofilament spool, stun batons, Academy standard motes, signal booster pod, block of smart exo-armor in storage mode¡­and about 2 and a half k in casino chips. All worth¡­maybe 6k total at the cleaner.¡± ¡°You can''t take that! I need my gear. How do you expect me to earn if I got nuthin'' to play the game?¡± Nigel cried. ¡°Silence! Ah, my mood has improved significantly. Ten thousand sits before me, and I bet that smart suit that you''re wearing will be another thousand. Now strip, Mr. Farnsworth.¡± Nigel slowly and sullenly removed his suit, standing uncomfortably in his boxers. He shivered as Kane eyed him. ¡°Consider yourself lucky, human. My men can assist you in withdrawing your remaining balance for the credit exchange and escort you to the level¡¯s back exit. Fight it and they will herd you through the main casino and the front door. Now get out of my sight!¡± Kane said with a grim smile, his eyes promising violence. Nigel shuffled out, followed by the goons and Vinny. Tony got up to follow but stopped. He closed the door and turned, afraid but determined. Kane raised a flawless fabricated eyebrow. ¡°Ah, boss. I just remembered sumtin. When we got blasted, a courier android jumped us and took our stash. I managed to stab the guy, but it''s weird. Afta da fight, I noticed dat my blade got blood on it.¡± Tony pulled his blade from his waistband, sheath and all, as blood had gummed it up. Kane''s eyes darted between the knife and Tony, clearly thinking fast. He smiled and spoke. ¡°Hmm. It seems likely that we have a new, and very enterprising, player stepping into our business. Perhaps they can be¡­encouraged to take up the role our dear Nigel did so poorly. CANDY!¡± Kane yelled. The lithe android hit-girl¡¯s voice spoke from right behind Tony. ¡°Yes, boss,¡± she said, as her chameleon array powered down, showing her curtsying from her concealed position just behind Tony. ¡°Get this analyzed. We have a face-shifter but a rough DNA build-up should help to identify which player likes to play in the shadows. Move!¡± Candy grabbed the knife and twirled, giggling in a creepy imitation of a little girl. ¡°Right away, Mista Kane!¡±
Adept Ch 51 - Law and Order
Max approached the Casino Security desk again as the last sergeant clocked out and a new one took his place. The waiting area was filled with NPC androids scuffling and arguing over scraps. Their desperation was palpable with some in security cuffs and others looking for justice. Max was mostly ignored. Players were treated much differently. Most of the androids risked glances which were rife with envy and hunger but also fear. The line for attention moved slowly but Max finally made it to the head of the queue again. The Sergeant looked up with annoyance. ¡°Name?¡± Max groaned. He¡¯d done this dance three times now. ¡°Max Mitchell. I''m here to bail out Charlie Hawkins, being held for disturbing the peace and assault. I''ve paid the fees already for his release. 40,000 credits. The last sergeant said that Charlie still needed to be processed. Then I was told, first timers took longer to recover. Can I at least see him? Is he awake yet?¡± Max rushed through his practiced speech. He¡¯d been delayed and rebuffed too many times. He had learned the process of the place over the past hour and swore he¡¯d make progress this time. The android¡¯s plastic features smiled in a poor imitation of friendly helpfulness. ¡°Hmmm. He wasn''t awake at shift change. I could go check¡­it should only take a few minutes. Why don¡¯t you get back in line while I do that?¡± The guard said without enthusiasm. Max growled and slapped his hand on the counter. The android guard jumped, looking scared and then angry as he remembered his role. He glared at Max, who retreated quickly. ¡°Sorry! Ah. What about a visit? Can I see him?¡± Max said, contritely. He took a breath and held it. Charlie was running out of time. His next match was getting closer, and he had already paid the entry fee. If he missed it, he would forfeit the match. The whole team would lose their bets. The sergeant looked behind him. The other guards were occupied with paperwork and processing. He leaned forward and spoke lower. ¡°I don¡¯t know. Normally, a detainee needs to give permission for visitors, you see? If he¡¯s unconscious, that¡¯s not possible now, is it? This presents a bit of a problem. Yeah?¡± the android, tapped the counter. Max looked down as saw the android discreetly rub his plastic thumb over the top of his fingers. ¡°[The scoundrel. I would guess this imitation of law and order is looking for a bribe, Max. As vulgar as it is, if you want to get your friend then you should pay the man. This whole level is a sham, rife with corruption. Be discreet though, or others may want a piece of the action and increase the price.]¡± Sherlock sniffed in distain. Max rubbed his snout with one hand while his other searched his smart suit¡¯s pocket. His Geiger sense identified the chip he wanted, the 10,000 credit Topaz casino chip the high roller Tyche had given him with the embedded and slightly radioactive tritium chip. It might be too much, but Max didn''t have time to play. He put his hand on the counter, sliding the hidden chip up against the android''s left hand that was still on the counter. A slight smile tugged the corners of the guard¡¯s mouth and the chip disappeared. ¡°Ah. I''m sure it''ll be fine. First offense and all that. Let''s go check on your friend together and get him out of here. Hey! You over there in the back. Rookie! Take the desk while I escort this upstanding player back to the cells.¡± The sergeant cheerfully led the way, opening the complex security doors with a combination of passcodes, keys, and security cards. ¡°Right this way, Mister Mitchell. It''s a real pleasure to help a new player. I seen you fighting. I made some good creds on your last team match, ya know. You ever find yourself with some issues with NPCs or other players, just let me know, okay? I''m Sergeant O¡¯Coin. I''m your man if you need help from the law. Now, let¡¯s see if we can wake up your sleeping beauty, huh?¡± Sergeant O''Coin led Max through the winding corridors of the prison, finally arriving at Charlie''s cell. The unconscious man lay on a cot, his face bruised and swollen. O''Coin tapped on the bars, calling out Charlie''s name, but there was no response. Max''s heart sank, worried that his friend might not wake up in time for the match. The sergeant turned to Max, a sympathetic look on his face. ¡°[Max, it looks like his augments are locked up. Whatever security used to subdue him must still be in his system. If we can get in there, maybe I can help him out.]¡± House sent in Max¡¯s inner comm band. ¡°Ah, Sergeant. Could I¡­you know, go in there and try to wake him up? Maybe a glass of water?¡± Max asked, wondering exactly how much his bribe was worth. ¡°Of course, sir. I should have suggested it. Here, you can go in. There. I''ll go get some water. I''ll be right back.¡± If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Max shook his head, thinking that he must have spent far too much with the bribe, as the sergeant opened the cell and walked away whistling to himself. Max stepped in and bent over letting House guide his hands and use his collection of advanced sensors. ¡°[Yep, his augs are completely locked. I can''t even get full diagnostics through his access contact pads. His temperature is elevated, and his heart rate is quite high. I suspect the guards injected him with something. I need to get a blood sample, Max.]¡± Max looked around. The guard was still down the hall. He extended his index finger claw dubiously. A quick fast time consultation with Tesla and Mal and he quickly designed another configuration for his claw to reconfigure it to a proper syringe needle.
[Transform +1, Transform reaches level 10, Skill cap award +100XP] [Recycle +1, Recycle reaches level 10, Skill cap award +100XP] [New Skill Unlocked ¨C Body Isolation 1: Train your augmentation to support your biological functions without need for environmental support. Active resist harsh environments.]
His fingertips burned as he abused his transform skill, altering his body design far quicker than it was intended to be able to do. He used his other hand and his Chill skill to cool down the transformation of his claw before it hurt too much. He confirmed the guard was still taking his time and quickly stabbed Charlie in the arm and collected a sample for House. ¡°[Come on! We¡¯re running out of time. The guard isn''t going to take forever. Maybe if I EMP him, it''ll re-boot his augs.]¡± Max urged. He ramped up his and House¡¯s thinking speed, trying to buy time. ¡°[I¡¯m using your augmentations like a scanner. It''s a small molecule, not nanotech. Hmm, it looks strange. Not simple by any stretch. I need more time. Can I mix in some of your blood and med bots into the chamber? It will help if I can see this thing in action.]¡± Max kept House running in FastCog while he pushed Charlie into a sitting position, shaking him to try and wake him up. Charlie shifted a bit, then stiffened, finally falling backward. Max caught him as Sergeant O¡¯Coin returned with a large plastic pitcher of water and some paper cups. ¡°Ah. That''s a damn shame. Some people react poorly to the Old Chimera.¡± the android guard said. Max held his pose as House exclaimed in his head.
[Poker Face +1, Poker Face reaches level 8]
¡°Chimera? What¡¯s that? Some type of drug? Do you have an antidote we can give him?¡± Max asked, House was grumbling in the back of his head. ¡°Sorry, sir. The chimera¡¯s been out of vogue for a long time. When Nano-d hit the market, stuff like this was far inferior. No one ever made an antidote for it. It usually wears off in an hour, but it¡¯s happened before. It could take as long as twelve hours to recover.¡± O¡¯Coin said contritely. "Twelve hours?!" Max exclaimed, his heart racing. "Damn it, that''s too long. My friend has an important match to play. Isn''t there anything you can do?" He looked pleadingly at the sergeant, hoping to find a solution before time ran out. The android guard shook his head regretfully. "I''m afraid there''s nothing I can do, sir. The Chimera is a tricky substance, and without a proper antidote, we''ll just have to wait it out." He paused, then added, "Perhaps, you could place some different bets.¡± Max''s ears drooped, not liking the news, when House interrupted. ¡°[I got this, Max. I just need to train your augmentations med bots. Ah. There. Ok, now, a little resistance and the Chimera will flip. Smart poison was an interesting side road before nanotech hit its stride. Two or three poisons nested together. It made it almost impossible to diagnose and hard to counter, but I can. If it wasn''t so archaic, I would have locked it down sooner.]¡±
[New Skill Unlocked: Smart Poison Resistance 1 - training your augmentation to recognize and counter biomorphic poison]
¡°[There we go. Don¡¯t try this at home, kid. I¡¯m shunting some of your trained med bots into the syringe. Charlie¡¯s system needs something extra to break the deadlock, and it should latch on quickly and copy it. You just need to inject him.] House explained. ¡°If it''s okay, can we try some of that water? I hate to give up on his match, Sergeant.¡± Max asked. ¡°You''re the boss, Max.¡± O¡¯Coin held out the pitcher. Max made to grab it and knocked it to the ground. The android cursed and sputtered with water, distracted as he wiped the excess fluids off his pant legs before it soaked in. Max grabbed Charlie¡¯s arm to prevent him from falling over. The needle claw slid into his arm and delivered its payload. Charlie''s body jerked about briefly as the med bots went to work, quickly neutralizing the Chimera compound. His eyes fluttered open, and he looked around in confusion. "Damn, what? I just got a new skill. Shit man, Casino security plays rough. What happened?" he asked weakly. Max let out a relieved sigh, grateful that House''s solution had worked. "I''ll explain on the way. We need to get moving to get you to your match on time," he assured, helping Charlie to his feet. The sergeant watched, impressed by Charlie¡¯s unexpected recovery.
[Gestalt +1, Gestalt reaches level 7, Continue training this skill to prioritize and shuffle senses when your system detects changing signals and environmental factors.] [Geiger sense +1, Geiger sense reaches level 6, Continue training this skill to improve sensitivity and range.]
¡°[Hey, Mal? Gestalt just prioritized my Geiger sense. There¡¯s a huge signal of radiation coming from behind the wall for this bank of holding cells. Do you have any idea what''s over there?]¡± Max asked. ¡°[Our maps aren¡¯t complete, but judging from the security traffic and layout, I''d tentatively tagged it as the Casino¡¯s main vault. Your reading seems to confirm that guess. There must be a massive amount of those chips behind that wall.]¡± Mal said.
Adept Ch 52 - Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Charlie coughed up blood and staggered to his feet. He couldn''t let Mueller close the distance. The man had been playing with Charlie. Being flung through a wall of the ancient dojo didn''t contribute much to his pain. His painless skill kept the distraction down, but damn¡­the man hit so very hard. At first, Charlie was overjoyed by the form and location of the match that was randomly selected. The combat style assigned was a straight battle royal, set in a replica of the Kenrokuen gardens. A simple battle was perfect for Charlie. He had fought often in a simulation of the Kenrokuen gardens as his favorite VR game Shogun featured the famous location for many of its samurai duels. Ancient pines rustled in the gentle breeze, their reflections dancing on the surface of still koi ponds, where vibrant fish glided gracefully. Cherry blossoms in full bloom framed the scene with delicate pink petals, while stone lanterns added an aura of solemnity. Charlie had faced Mueller as the duel commenced with the sounding of the temple¡¯s gong. Charlie had opened with a full sampling of his offensive distance attacks. Mueller¡¯s resistance training must have been extreme. He¡¯d tanked the attacks without even trying to dodge. External body attacks like heat, chill, poison, and shock; all failed to affect Mueller. Charlie had closed with his weapon, set to sword form, and regretted it immediately. Mueller was a powerhouse, his augmentation design heavily focused on power, strength, and defense. The man was a deadly infighter and wrestler. Charlie had reviewed his tactics against Shu. Mueller wanted a close fight where he excelled. The man didn''t even use a weapon, his monstrously armored fists were deadly enough. Charlie¡¯s sword had some effect, but Mueller¡¯s counters when he landed them were devastating. Charlie needed all his speed and agility to avoid battering or worse¡­entrapment. Unfortunately, Mueller was pretty fast too. Charlie bounded out of the dojo. He couldn¡¯t afford for Mueller to close and control the fight. He set himself in the adjoining pavilion as Mueller crashed through and out of the dojo, eyes set on his opponent. Charlie centered his mind; the battle trance skill helped him repair damage and regain his spent energy. Mueller roared and charged again. Charlie dodged, scoring a stroke along Mueller¡¯s outstretched arms. He felt his mistake immediately, Mueller had snagged the sleeve of his smart suit, which was configured into an armored Gi. With a scream of defiance, Mueller reeled Charlie in, wrapping him in a bear hug. Charlie slipped into fast time and quickly found a counter among his many skills. He activated his Stiction skill and Mueller¡¯s squeeze sent him skittering across the ground like a spit watermelon seed. Still in fast time, Charlie took the time to review his energy, skills, and status in his personal HUD. He had configured it to look like a cockpit to a WarStrider Mech from his days in the RUSA armored infantry. He saw a daemon flagging him for an emergency discussion. His newest daemon had some serious issues, but Charlie was desperate for advice. He opened his communication channel with RainMan. The daemon was a recreation of an autistic savant from a pre-reformation movie. The AI¡¯s speech pattern was annoying as hell, but Charlie had learned his observations were important. He opened the channel while Mueller, in slow motion, was slowly realizing that Charlie had escaped his grasp, ¡°[Charlie! The bad man made a big mistake. Big. Mistake. Look. Look. He¡¯s wearing grenades. Charlie, he is wearing his grenades! He¡¯s a bad man and he is wearing his grenades.]¡± RainMan said, with his manic monotone. ¡°[Jeez, RainMan. I get it. I¡¯ve got a couple of grenades in my gear bag, too. So what?!]¡± Charlie said with irritation. ¡°[The grenades are old. Pull pin go boom. Old grenades bad. Four old grenades on the bad man. Big boom.]¡± RainMan insisted. Charlie was stunned when he realized what RainMan was really saying. Mueller¡¯s exposed grenades had an old-fashioned pull-pin activation mechanism without additional safety locks. ¡°[You sly dog, RainMan. Good job. We''ll work on some of your favorite puzzles later. Good job.]¡± He laughed internally. He had been desperate to get some extra daemon support, but the choices available in the Casino level were either super expensive or of questionable quality. Charlie saw RainMan in the bargain bin but with an upgrade to keep his deduction skills less his annoying verbal ticks in the premium. Charlie thought that if the skills were in the cheap version, then he could put up with the quirky daemon. Charlie closed the link and activated his next daemon. Charlie knew Max maintained full and open communication with his daemons during a fight, but Charlie wouldn¡¯t tolerate the distraction. Only with a breather and fast time would he attempt it, and then only with one at a time. ¡°[Alan, did you hear that? Standby if I need your help. I¡¯m going to access the local foglets and assert control. If Mueller¡¯s already locked in, help me crack it. If he senses my play, hold him off.]¡± Charlie closed the link before Alan Turing could reply, the daemon had never failed to provide backup. Charlie summoned his Access skill. To his surprise, Mueller hadn¡¯t accessed anything in the field, even the foglets in contact with himself.
[Access success: Charlie Hawkins prime control granted for York Nanotech Fogwerks local sector 12. Please access the menu for Foglet features.] The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Mueller may be a tough mother lover but ain¡¯t nobody smart enough to be that arrogant. I got you! Charlie thought as he locked himself into the surrounding foglet cloud. He didn¡¯t even need to formulate any specific commands, his Telekinesis skill helping as he visualized his desire and the foglets made it a reality. Charlie spammed the charging Mueller with a Strobe to the eyes. Not to slow him but to distract him. Mueller¡¯s bandolier of grenades had all their pins fly out and their activation spoons opened. Charlie reconfigured his Polyweapon on the fly as he flung the sword at Mueller¡¯s feet. The smart blade lengthened, its edge dulling and stretching as it reformed into a ropey band. Charlie altered the flow of his thoughts as his tactics played out. Mueller¡¯s roar stuttered as he averted his face, tanking the strobe. The man didn¡¯t even notice the grenade pins, as he tried to leap the flung smart weapon. The big man almost made it, but he hadn¡¯t favored his agility stats and got tangled. He crashed into the ground as the rope synched his legs together. He slid face-first over the Zen garden¡¯s manicured pebble art. Charlie ducked behind a decorative urn as his countdown reached zero and deactivated the rope to let it go loose again. He didn¡¯t want to try its material strength against Mueller¡¯s awesome strength. The garden detonated with sound and the explosion sent Mueller arcing almost directly up. Fuck. That battle maniac is still in one piece. Charlie cursed. Spying his Polyweapon and Mueller reached the apex of his impromptu flight, Charlie sprinted forward accessing his skills again.
[Telekinesis +1, Telekinesis reaches level 10, Skill Cap award +100 XP] [Ballistics +1, Ballistics reaches level 9]
Charlie slid the last meter on his knees and grabbed his weapon as it flew into his hands. It straightened and grew longer as he braced it, shifting slightly to make sure he was under Mueller. Charlie knew from his pole-vaulting days the very real danger of impaling oneself on a jump. He only hoped it would at least hurt the heavily armored Mueller. Mueller¡¯s eyes widened as he managed to pivot around, but couldn¡¯t move from his trajectory. Charlie shifted the pole as Mueller came down. Charlie winced as the big man landed hard with the pole bending from its braced impact into his groin. Charlie scrambled aside as Mueller landed in a heap. Mueller let out a tortured groan and struggled to breathe. Charlie staggered up, not quite believing that the man wasn¡¯t down for the count. Charlie steeled himself for one more strike to end it. He flipped into a wheeling downward axe kick aimed at Carl¡¯s head. The impact bounced Carl¡¯s head off the ground. Charlie tried to roll to his feet and found that he couldn¡¯t. He looked down at his leg and Mueller¡¯s bloody wheezing grin as the man¡¯s iron grip had Charlie by the ankle. Charlie''s world spun and his senses blanked for a second as pain blossomed. He shook his head, tasting dirt and blood; his thoughts slow and fuzzy. Before he could understand what happened he was dragged across the ground and flung into the air. Cool relief as the water closed over him. Water? Charlie snapped awake as his system pinged.
[Neural Scaffold +1, Neural Scaffold reaches level 10, Skill cap award, +100XP] [Unbreakable +1, Unbreakable reaches level 10, Skill cap award, +100XP, Stat award +2 Endurance] [Endurance +2, Endurance 100, Stat cap award +250XP] [Charlie Hawkins +1, Charlie reaches Master 23 (20,100 / 22,250XP, 10 Free Stat points awarded.] [Transform +1, Transform reaches level 4, Train this skill with gross adjustments to body design or fast repairs to life-threatening damage] [Power Core +1, Power Core reaches level 9, Energy storage now has multiplier by x10] [Energy Store recalculated: 320 / 3220]
Charlie shook his head and found he could stand. He was in the koi pond, and it was only up to his waist. Mueller had found his feet and was staggering toward the pool. His face was bloody, but Charlie could see the lacerations closing as he watched. Charlie growled as he realized he¡¯d lost his weapon. His system pinged. It was Genghis. He boosted his time sense and answered. ¡°[Talk to me, Genghis. I fucked up. I thought I had him with the grenades, but he¡¯s too tough.]¡± Charlie said, opening the line to his first daemon. ¡°[There is always blood in a fight, warrior. Stand tall! Your opponent bleeds, does he not? He breathes, does he not? He is no immortal, no god. You have the tools and will to win! You must focus!] Genghis¡¯ bloodlust came through loud and clear; the daemon was more strategic than tactical. Charlie pulled his skill screen up, he needed to find a counter. Everything he¡¯d used, Mueller had just shrugged off. He felt like Genghis¡¯ comment was important, more than just encouragement, even if the daemon didn¡¯t know it. He watched in slow motions as Mueller exhaled a plum of blood and he began to pick up his pace. Suddenly Charlie knew Mueller¡¯s weakness. He located his weapon and pulled it telekinetically flying across the garden to smack into his hand. He formed it into his staff. Charlie set himself with his staff high above the water. He would need to time this perfectly. He met the charging Mueller with his staff blocking. He held back a grin as Carl grabbed him to pull his weapon away. Charlie fell back and splashed into the water, pulling his staff¡­and Mueller after him. Charlie threw a kick up as he landed on his back, water eclipsing his sight. Mueller was flipped over the top and Charlie used the momentum to pull himself over and on top. He covered himself over Mueller''s struggling body, using his staff in rope mode and applying his Stiction skill to slide and stick to Mueller and the pool¡¯s bottom. Mueller thrashed but the water absorbed most of the force from his blows. Charlie could hear him roaring in burbling outrage and anger. Charlie kept the pressure on, triggering shocking touches and close-focused EMP. He applied every bit of his SkillZ-taught wrestling knowledge and his Disable strikes to keep Mueller down. The thrashing slowed and stopped. Charlie held the limp giant down until the gong sounded. Charlie quickly pulled his opponent up and dragged him to the edge of the pool, hitting his back to force water out of his lungs. He was about to start mouth-to-mouth when Mueller spewed pond water off to the side and inhaled shakily. ¡°God damn. You¡¯re one tough son of a bitch.¡± Charlie said as Mueller gasped and sputtered. Eventually, the man managed a weak chuckle. ¡°You''re devious and determined, Mr. Hawkins. Thank you for helping me find another weakness. When we have a rematch, I will ensure it is gone. I hope that when I do best you, that you don¡¯t hold it against me. Look me up when we all get back to the outside. ACME could use more creative leaders.¡± He said in a grave voice. Charlie laughed and then considered his lack of career trajectory. "Thank you, Carl. I look forward to a rematch. I¡¯ll have to find some more tricks until then. If you¡¯re serious, I just might give you a call. You¡¯ve got a great team-building session here. If your benefits are of similar caliber, I''d be a fool not to check it out.¡±
Adept Ch 53 - the Paths of the Dead
Leah, Xavier, Charlie, and Max had a quick celebration of their collective wins. Max was sore that he hadn''t seen the Brandon (ACME) versus Viviane (DAIE) Haunted Mansion Escape room challenge. Viv had won, barely. Max hadn¡¯t seen many of those types of games and was worried about his next match. It was random, so he might very well face a similar match and didn''t feel prepared. ¡°No worries, Max. You¡¯re a clever son of a bitch. You can figure it out.¡± Charlie joked. Max feigned offense and replied, ¡°You leave my mother out of this, or I¡¯ll share all of my brother Bo¡¯s yo¡¯ momma jokes.¡± Max barked. The ready chime sounded in the casino''s ready room and Max gulped. ¡°You got this, Max. Don¡¯t worry. It''s still low stakes.¡± Leah said. ¡°Yeah, accept that any weakness will make me a target once our last Team Match is over tonight,¡± Max whined. ¡°Pu¡¯lease give it a rest, Max. You''re a machine. We¡¯ve watched Ethan¡¯s matches. Hell, you faced off against him in the first Team match. You got this!¡± Xavier gushed. ¡°Alright, here I go. See you all on the other side.¡± Max said and jogged off to the fight stage. Max tail was wagging in excitement, eager to discover what the match would give and play his best.
[Initializing challenge match¡­.] [Randomization of format¡­. Format selected: Gauntlet Race.] [Gauntlet Race: A series of set combat challenges where speed to complete the entire course wins. Warning: Participants share in the boss challenge chambers as an overlap of their challenge course.] [Randomization of theme¡­theme selected: Egyptian Paths of the Dead] [Challenge start¡­3¡­2¡­1¡­]
Max¡¯s isolation chamber opened into a murky cave. Hieroglyphics covered the walls. The iconic writing appeared to shift in the faux torchlight of the simulated environment. He looked across the broad expanse of the sand-covered floor. Ethan crouched close to the ground, his head swiveling to capture the details of the room, his long staff crackled with static charge. Max pulsed his senses, taking it all in, while keeping his eyes on Ethan. Information flooded Max; he resisted the urge to activate FastCog. He wanted to advance the PreCog skill and FastCog would fight it. His Gestalt skills assembled the details that mattered and Sherlock ¡°rode¡± his shoulder to analyze the room. Max smelled mostly dust, old linen, and decay. The slight tinge of gun lubricant came from Ethan¡¯s direction. The walls of the cavernous hall were sandstone, lit with flickering torches every ten feet. Symbols lined the walls in blocky clusters. An enormous statue of a Balance Scale was situated against the far wall, two halls opened up on either side of the Scales. Max couldn''t sense much in the way of EM fields, other than Ethan and his gear. His Language skill wasn''t too helpful other than identifying the writing as hieroglyphs. He eyed Ethan and his sword exo-arms open wide, ready for action. Ethan shifted in a blur, running away from Max and to the left hall. Max started as the left hallway closed, a massive wall of stone lowered over the entryway. Sherlock chimed in. ¡°[The writing is older but somewhat recognizable to me. We must enter the path of the dead and brave the challenges to gain entry into the Sekhet-Aaru, the Egyptian version of heaven. We must pick a path. Unfortunately, Ethan already picked the Path of Ma¡¯at or virtue. We are left with the Path of Isfet or sin. We should hurry, while I predict fighting and challenges, I infer that this is a race where first to the final gate will win.]¡± ¡°[Fuck. Maybe running FastCog on entry would have been the better choice.]¡± Max said as he bolted for the last doorway. ¡°[From the fights I¡¯ve seen, Ethan is a speedster and now he¡¯s got the jump on me.]¡± Max raced down the hall. He jumped as the slab of stone descended behind him, blocking any possibility of retreat. There were no torches in the tight hall making normal sight a non-starter. Max¡¯s motes couldn''t keep pace with his running speed, so Max¡¯s gestalt skill painted his vision in shades of terahertz, infrared, and lidar echoes. Despite the lack of EM and visible trip wires, Max was worried about traps. Every action movie that his family had watched regarding Egyptian tombs included surprising and usually fatal traps. He did his best to run along the wall using a combination of stiction and leaping.
[Stiction +1, Stiction reaches level 3] [Lidar +2, Lidar reaches level 4] [Gestalt +1, Gestalt reaches level 8]
Max¡¯s tactics failed as the hall opened to include rows of sarcophagi lining the path forward. Max shook his head, not feeling good about the scene. He kept his pace fast, leaping from coffin to coffin. Max wasn''t surprised in the slightest, as muffled shouts sounded out and the sarcophagi lids began to move. Max sprinted forward, weaving between the sarcophagi as mummified creatures emerged from their tombs. The desiccated warriors rose from their rest, roaring in outrage at the intruder within their sanctum. The dead soldiers wielded a variety of weapons; curved khopesh, maces, spears, and shields. Max dodged and weaved as the mummies struggled out of their coffins. He tumbled under an ax swing and pivoted about; his Exo-blades extended. Musashi was suggesting a combination of running strikes to keep his momentum when Mal interrupted. ¡°[Max, I can see the exit at the very edge of your sense range. The door is open! You don¡¯t need to fight these soldiers.]¡± She yelled in his head. Max flipped backward as the ax swung around. He turned and scrambled on all fours, trying to close the distance to the exit. Max sprinted away from the dead warriors; his exo-blades struck down an undead spear wielder that blocked his path. He didn''t slow down. The mummies pursued, their ancient weapons clattering against the stone floor. Musashi urged Max to engage and defend his back, but Mal''s warning echoed in his mind. Reaching the doorway, Max risked a glance back, seeing the mummies closing in. He leaped through the opening, the heavy stone slab slamming shut behind him, sealing the mummies inside. Catching his breath, Max pressed on, determined to catch up to Ethan. He could only hope that Ethan¡¯s progress was slower. The new room was expansive in size. High above, the cavern-like space¡¯s ceiling opened revealing a blue sky and intense sunlight raining down. Max spun about looking for threats as he assessed the room. Swampy pools were spaced about with climbing vines growing up and covering the stalagmites that populated the area. Towards the center of the cavernous room, a massive throne was raised above the watery terrain. Max thought that the throne had a statue in it until the figure moved. The massive form looked like a humanoid with a massive crocodile head and tail attached, a tall trident gripped in his right hand. It roared and its head swiveled to Max. His system helpfully pinged him.
[Boss: Sobek¡¯s Avatar, The Crocodile God. Defeat Sobek to open the way toward the Hall of Judgement.]
The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°Damn. Looks like I can¡¯t bypass the boss fight. Alrighty then, I¡¯m sure Lachesis has already seen some of my newly acquired skills. No sense in holding back.¡± Max cycled his Chthonic Mindstorm attack at the monster.
[Mindstorm +1, Mindstorm reaches level 4]
Max smiled, expecting Sobek to collapse instantly like all his previous fight-ending uses of his Chthonic attacks. The otherworldly intrusion cut through modern countermeasures like a hot knife through butter. He came close to peeing himself as the gigantic beast shrugged off the attack and charged him with murder on his mind. He dove to the side activating his FastCog skill. He assembled his daemon council into a virtual meeting. The majority looked equally stunned. Only Sherlock had a shrewd and measured look, his scowl telling Max that he had a theory. Max zeroed in on him. ¡°[Sherlock. Tell me, quick. What just happened? Why is the boss still standing?]¡± Max said. ¡°[I can only surmise that the beast must have a copy of your Chthonic block skill. You¡¯ve shared it with your friends and sent it to your father on that damnable unsecured quantum encryption terminal. There is a saying that the only secrets that survive are those that are never shared. This evidence seems to support that idiom. Lachesis, at the very least, appears to have used your defense for her minions.]¡± Sherlock said quickly. The enraged twelve-foot-tall Croc-man slammed into the ground where Max had been. Max backpedaled quickly, barely out of range as Sobek slashed at him using his trident. Max used his Strobe skill to try and blind him. ¡°[No good, Max-San. I saw another set of eyelids blink closed, protecting his eyes.]¡± Musashi said. ¡°[Those are called nictating membranes. Such a wonderful adaptation, to use it defensively against-]¡± Tesla said. ¡°[NOT NOW TESLA!]¡± Max yelled as he dodged aside again. The trident scored along his hip, burning with energy. It seared through his pants, singed his fur, and raised a welt. He fell back again, the soggy, marsh-like ground fighting him and restricting his enhanced agility. Max scrambled to an outcropping, dripping wet, his wound already closing as his Regeneration skill burned his energy down. Max crouched, ready to move, in case Sobek had a distance attack. The giant Croc-Man avatar roared and swung his arms in a sweeping motion. Max was confused until he noticed the swampy water responding. A wall of water erupted from the sides barreling down on Max. He braced himself, using Stiction to anchor his feet. The wave crashed over him, and Max¡¯s footing crumbled under the onslaught. He tumbled, pushed along by the brackish wave. Max used his WorldMap''s feed from his motes that circulated above him. He struggled to the surface and saw more threats. The Boss had crocodile minions, closing the distance quickly to surround Max. Max dug deep and leaped with all his augmented strength, throwing a grapple into a hanging mossy stalactite above to assist. He reeled in the line and dug in hard to the wet rock with his claws and stiction skills. The mass of crocodiles thrashed below; eager for Max to drop. Max opened up on the reptiles with all of his distance attacks. K-Gun, Arc, Poison Spray, and Laser skills peppered the enemy below. Max churned out his Cultivation skill to try to minimize the energy drain.
[K-Gun +2, K-Gun reaches level 6, Arc +2, Arc reaches level 6] [Laser +2, Laser reaches level 9, Poison Spray +2, Poison Spray reaches level 5] [Stiction +1, Stiction reaches level 4, Cultivation +1, Cultivation reaches level 9]
Sobek roared in frustration as Max picked off his minions. It launched its massive trident like a missile. Max''s jaw clenched. Dropping wasn¡¯t a good idea, as there were still some crocs down there. With no time to debate tactics, Max flipped over, braced his feet against the rock, and met the incoming pronged spear with his exo-blades. Max cursed as the heavy weapon crashed through his guard, piercing his chest and shattering the rock he was anchored to. The rock and Max fell together into the swampy pool. His WorldMap showed that Sobek was already charging again. Max regained his feet with Sobek barreling fast toward him. He snapped open the Tesseract portal, his pocket dimension¡¯s arsenal was ready. The mazer was already charged and ready to fire and his Gatling minigun was already spinning. He unleashed hell. The minigun raked through the smaller crocodiles while he speared Sobek with the overcharged mazer. He was astonished as the armored Sobek shielded himself with his massive bracers. The metal reflected the powerful beam into the ceiling. Max panicked as Sobek dove forward. He snapped the portal shut. He had almost let a grenade into his pocket space and had no desire to see a rampaging Sobek NPC Boss destroy his precious gift from his father. Max braced himself for the charge, ready to activate his Hulk skill. To his surprise, Sobek fell at his feet. His head was missing. Max goggled at the sight, in confusion. He replayed the last few seconds in his head from his mote sensors¡¯ visual feed. The massive humanoid had dived for him, and its head was in the portal as it had snapped shut. Max winced as fluids pumped from Sobek¡¯s neck stump. The crocodile king¡¯s limbs still thrashed a couple of times in the pond water. Beyond, the swampy field was littered with crocodile corpses, shredded and pitted. ¡°Holy crap. I¡­didn¡¯t realize the portal could do that.¡± Max said aloud. He reopened the portal and ejected Sobek¡¯s head. As it fell into the muddy waters, Max''s system pinged.
[Defeated Boss Sobek +350xp, Access to next section of Halls of the Dead opened.] [Max +1 Level, Max reached Master level 25, +10 Free Stat points awarded (* Stat attributes capped, free points not applicable.]
The room rumbled and the throne lowered revealing a staircase spiraling down. Max cocked his head. The trackers he had on Ethan were still active and his opponent''s signal had stalled in the hallways. Max shook off his disquiet. These were androids, not real. He grinned as his canine instincts egged him on and charged down the stairs. Into the darkness again, Max¡¯s sensors came to life. He charged forward hoping to capitalize on his quick victory to get a solid lead on Ethan. Max shook his head as the hall got wider. Time to focus, he thought. The expanded room looked like a large waterworks, with aqueducts and sluiceways crisscrossing the area. The canals were filled to the brim with dark, rippling water, spilling over the edges of their tracks. Max did a double-take as the ¡°water¡± skittered and clustered.
[Gestalt +1, Gestalt reaches level 9]
Max¡¯s Gestalt skill triggered his ExaVision to zoom mode and saw his mistake. The dark fluid was a mass of swarming scarabs. He wasn¡¯t surprised in the slightest as a stone slab dropped behind him, preventing a safe retreat¡­and the sluice gates opened and poured a deluge of ravenous bugs onto the floor.
The scarabs scuttled around him, their chitinous bodies gleaming in the dim light. Max weaved between them, his movements quick and agile. He could feel their sharp mandibles snapping at his heels. Max stepped quickly, charting a course of diminishing area to avoid the swarming scarabs. Max had run out of room, but the end of the hall was still not in sight. He used every skill he had to try and force back the bugs. They weren¡¯t especially durable, but their numbers were beyond counting. Again, his weapon of last resort - the Chthonic Mindstorm, failed to cripple the bugs. Max slung his grapple upward, hooking the edge of a crossing aqueduct. He swung over the writhing mass as his open space disappeared under the wave of bugs. Max couldn¡¯t see another structure to continue forward. He swung back and forth, unable to find a way out. Max felt the insect bites before he saw them. A stream of scarabs had descended his grapple line. With spastic swatting and the application of a full body Shock contact skill, Max¡¯s attackers shorted and fell away. His cable transmitted the shocking touch as well, resulting in the rain of burning bugs around Max. Max forced himself to calm down as he swung back and forth. The scarabs below were agitated, creating a tower of bugs climbing to reach him. It toppled over before it could reach him. He sighed and looked up. A couple more bugs were descending. He sent another shock attack up the line and watched them fall. He ramped up his personal time, setting himself a timer to keep applying his Shock skill to the cable. Ghostly avatars of his daemons appeared in his OverLayer at his summons. ¡°Max, this is horrible. I¡¯ve tried to access the bugs, but they either have their networks offline or never had any built into them.¡± Mal said uncertainly. ¡°I need some ideas here. I¡¯m not sure how much time we have, but none of my attacks seem to be a good counter to the bugs. I can kill them easily enough, but more always come. Anyone? Help!¡± Max asked. ¡°Max-San. I think you have let fear dominate your thoughts. The bites are minor, and your healing is fast. You should just run and ignore the pain.¡± Musashi chastised. ¡°Fire, Max! Burn the little fuckers away. The MC inside the tesseract can make some firebombs quick enough.¡± Dr. House said gleefully. ¡°Oh dear. Maybe some armor. I should hate to see you bitten, Max.¡± Tesla said. ¡°We need more information, boy. Bugs are attracted to movement, light, heat, and more. Your clever augmentations might have the answer to that. Perhaps you could grab one before killing it for a proper experiment.¡± Sherlock said. Max considered the advice and admitted to himself he had options. He had panicked. He used his Telekinesis skill to levitate a large scarab up to view it properly. The insect squirmed about, snapping its mandibles, trying to reach Max. He used his Chameleon skill to fade to black and erase his thermal signature. The creature grew less focused but still wriggled, trying to move. Max started laughing as he realized the solution was literally in front of him. The dungeon has a good amount of utility fog that he had tapped into for his Telekinesis trick. He remembered how Xavier had produced a maelstrom using his control of foglets against Leah in their first sparring match. Max exercised his control over the local cloud of foglets and pulled more in to increase its density. He swirled it about brushing the insects aside, clearing the floor below him. He lowered himself and started walking as quickly as the small cyclone could clear his path towards the hall¡¯s end. He hoped the foglets wouldn¡¯t run out of power before he made it. Aggressive motion could drain their tiny batteries fast. He picked up his pace.
Adept Ch 54 - The Halls of Judgement
Max hesitated at the hall¡¯s exit. The bugs were left far behind, but Max needed a breather to restore his energy. Max had sent some recon motes into the next area and didn¡¯t like what he saw. The room resembled a brightly lit temple. On a central stage, another giant beast rested. Another boss battle for certain. This one resembled a Sphinx. It was easily three times the size of Sobek, and it had globes of fire, water, earth, and swirling air floating over its head; promising more power beyond its great physical strength. ¡°I¡¯m hoping that it sticks to myth and asks a riddle or I¡¯m in trouble. If my trump card Chthonic attack is off the menu, then that beast could be a big problem.¡± Max said quietly. ¡°[Ah, Max? We might have another problem.]¡± Mal sent. ''¡°[What¡¯s that, Mal?]¡± Max asked. ¡®[Let me replay what I¡¯ve done. I¡¯ve been annotating the WorldMap and modeling the challenge dungeon. I¡¯ve overlain Ethan¡¯s tracker to it. This was twenty minutes ago. He exited his tunnel and entered the same Swamp Throne where we encountered Sobek. He just ran right through it and into his next tunnel. It looks like he''s about to enter this very Boss map shortly!]¡± Mal said urgently. ¡°[Really? Well, I¡¯ll be damned. Let me pull up the Challenge notice again.] Max said, toggling his system.
[Gauntlet Race: A series set combats where speed to complete the entire course wins. Warning: Participants share in the boss challenge chambers as an overlap of their challenge course.]
¡°[Damn it. I assumed Sobek¡¯s fight would reset. Son of a gun. You said he¡¯s about to enter? Maybe I¡¯ll just rest a little more and see what the Sphinx does with him.]¡± ¡°[That sounds super smart, Max. If it¡¯s a fight, then maybe you can bypass it like Ethan did and then take the lead. Oh, did you hear that sound? Ethan¡¯s coming.]¡± Mal said. Max was able to spy on the room without crossing the threshold and closing his retreat using his motes. Ethan cautiously approached the Sphinx. Like the last Boss stage, there was no exit visible, making a dash by impossible. The Sphinx shook itself awake, with an ear-splitting, roaring yawn that shook dust from the ceiling of the mock temple. It eyed the comparatively small human with evident hunger. It lunged, but the chain about its neck arrested its charge. It snarled, shaking the room. It bellowed. ¡°Foolhardy mortal! Daring to enter the Paths of the Dead. Centuries have I guarded the Path. There are but two options forward, the path of light will take you directly to the Hall of Judgement while the path of darkness will punish the sinner in a much longer trek designed to torment the deceased for their unworthiness.¡± The Sphinx rumbled. ¡°Ah, Great Sphinx! I¡¯d very much prefer the path of light if that¡¯s okay with you.¡± Ethan said nervously. ¡°Nothing is free for the dead or the living on the journey to Sekhet-Aaru! You may fight me or correctly guess my riddle for the boon of entry to the path of light!¡± ¡°A-Alright. I¡¯m r-ready¡­for the riddle. No fighting. I¡¯ll do the riddle. Please.¡± Ethan stuttered. The Sphinx¡¯s claws pierced and snapped the stone foundations of the stage, but the giant relaxed and sat. "I¡¯m tall and burn brightly when I¡¯m young, and I¡¯m short when I¡¯m old and ready to extinguish. What am I?" Ethan laughed out loud. ¡°That one¡¯s easy! A man!¡± The Sphinx joined Ethan in his laugh. The beast¡¯s roaring, ground-shaking guffaw knocked the man off his feet. ¡°Stupid mortal! Always stupid mortals think that the heavens and hells revolve around them. The answer is a candle. You¡¯ve guessed poorly. I grant you a Gift, carry it well as you won¡¯t be free of it until you¡¯ve finished your torment!¡± Ethan groaned as an enormous chain emerged from the ground and wrapped around his torso. The ground beneath him bubbled and frothed as he sunk into its surface. The Sphinx''s booming laughter filled the hall. When Ethan disappeared, the Sphinx settled back down and closed its eyes. ¡°[Crap. I don¡¯t want the path of darkness. Should I try to follow him]¡± Max asked his daemons. Before they could reply, the Sphinx voice boomed out into the space. ¡°Come out here, little spy. Two mortals treading upon the Path of the Dead in the span of a heartbeat, the gods surely do weep. Step out, fool. Let¡¯s get this over with so that I may return to my slumber.¡± Max gulped but stepped lightly across the span of the dusty temple floor. He made a point to stand far to the right of where Ethan had sunk into the floor. ¡°Sorry about that great Sphinx. I doubt I could provide a good fight. I too would like to pass. May I answer your riddle?¡± Max said with as much determination as he could fake. ¡°So polite and yet so very small. Listen well, upstart. For when you fail, your screams will be the only voices you hear for a long time. Here is your riddle: "The more you take, the more you leave behind. What am I?" Max pretended to ponder as he queried his daemons. ¡°[I''ve seen enough movies that this sounds familiar to me. Maybe time or memories? What do you think? Sherlock, any other guesses.]¡± ¡°[Hmm. I don¡¯t like it. Do you take time, and leave it behind? No. The same goes for memories. Both strike me as poor fits. The beast was quite literal with Ethan. I expect the same here. A metaphor may be beyond its repertoire, as it were.]¡± Sherlock said with uncertainty. Max rubbed at his muzzle, playing for time, eying where Ethan¡¯s footsteps terminated into the spot of his removal from the level. Max squinted, seeing Ethan¡¯s tracks going all the way back into the distant entrance. He spoke, perhaps too quickly, as it struck him. ¡°Footsteps. The more you make, the more you leave behind.¡± Max straightened, and more firmly he answered. ¡°My answer is footsteps!¡± The massive Sphinx growled deeply. It sniffed and sat with a thump. ¡°Even a broken clock is correct twice a day. Very well mortal, away with you.¡±
[Sphinx challenge won +350xp, Access to next section of Halls of the Dead opened.]
A staircase of light materialized as a portal opened in the tops of the vaulted ceiling. Max tentatively stepped up and finding the stairs able to support his weight, he raced up before the Sphinx could have second thoughts.
Max walked through the serene white marble halls until he arrived at a dock with a barque made of light floating upon the air. Clouds filled the chasm that stretched out to the shadowy distant land of the dead. A cloaked figure stood at the helm, gesturing him forward onto the boat. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions. Max tentatively took a seat in the large craft, looking over the edge. The cliffside went down a long way. Max¡¯s Exa-Vison picked up tiny figures crawling slowly upward and sometimes falling back into the abyss. He shuddered and looked up as the clawed hand of the boat¡¯s owner was held out to him. His cloak had fallen back, showing the head of Falcon with a nimbus of light crowning him. ¡°[This doesn¡¯t make sense. Judging from this figure¡¯s appearance, this could be either Ra or Osiris. Ra¡¯s boat was said to cross the lands, both living and dead, but Osiris is the god of the dead and afterlife. However, there are no myths about ferrymen or payment needed in Egyptian myth. That is more like Greek mythology.]¡± Sherlock said sourly. Max felt in his pockets. He still had a few coins from the casino. He wasn¡¯t sure if it might be a faux pa, but he paid the birdman, fearing the consequences of not paying more. The imperious gaze of the bird head eyed the chips. With a snort, the ferryman made the money disappear. Max heard it mumble under his breath. ¡°It¡¯s not much, but it''s honest work.¡± The birdman pulled the mooring lines free. He pulled an ankh from his belt and waved it. The barque¡¯s small sail filled with wind and quickly began traversing the void as a stately pace. The mists under the keel echoed with the moaning sounds of men and creatures far below.
Max trudged through the waist-deep ash, using his leap skills when it got too deep. First the damnable slow boat across the void and now this. He knew most bouts only lasted about an hour to maintain the schedule and this one was supposed to be a race. He crested the rise and sighed in relief. A suspended obsidian staircase stretched out and upward to a large floating platform. A swirling star-shrouded portal of light pulsed in the air about 20 meters above the platform. At the top of the stairs, a large figure was seated on another throne. He recognized the large Boss as Anubis, the Guardian and Judge of the Dead. Max sprinted up the stairs ready to fight, grinning as he ran. Max charged the throne but found the air congealing around him. He spammed his hacking skill to try and control the foglets that started lifting him. He cursed as even his Chthonic attack failed. He blasted about him with focused EMP and he fell back to the ground in a rain of sparking foglets. ¡°Hold mortal. You need not fear me. Fear instead for your own self and whether you have earned Aaru or Duat. Your heart must be weighed against the feather of Ma-At, the avatar of order. If your heart is filled with light and is worthy, you will be elevated. If you are weighted down with sin, you shall surely drop into the Abyss. Step forward onto the Scales and be judged!¡± Anubis¡¯ voice rang out, although his avatar didn¡¯t display any signs of life. Max stumbled upright, looking about the stage. The platform had a huge split, separating the staircase and throne from a large circular floor. The circular area hung suspended by a thin golden chain. On the far side of the circle, a massive feather rested. After a brief internal discussion with his daemons, Max elected to play along. ¡°Great Anubis. I¡¯m confident I can pass your test. However, my heart is still very much in use at the moment. How can I be tested?¡± He asked. ¡°Worry not about your unfortunate living condition. My Scales will only measure your soul. You need only worry if your heart is burdened by sin. Step onto the adjudication plate and be judged or I will cast you into the Abyss by default.¡± Max cursed under his breath, not getting how to ensure his success. Mal whispered in his head. ¡°[Think happy thoughts?]¡± She sent. ¡°[I guess there¡¯s only one way to find out. Fingers crossed.]¡± Max replied internally and stepped cautiously onto the plate. The massive platen slowly tilted and began to drift counterclockwise from his momentum shifting it. The plate must have had enormous mass as the drifting, tilting motion was ponderously slow. The Scales moved away from the staircase and throne platform. Max gulped as the angle of tilt gave him a better and better view of the swirling darkness and fog of the abyss below. The air surrounding the disc coalesced and began to glow, until Max realized it was showing scenes. Fighting scenes of him in the earlier levels of the Labyrinth. It showed Max¡¯s earliest gauntlet fights; him enduring the punishment to keep fighting. The platform tilted upwards, the swirling portal to Aaru, getting slightly closer as his end of the plate angled higher. The images showed Max getting frustrated and cursing out Charlie after a fight¡­and the platform sank. His elation at solving the Myriad Paths and congratulating his friends for their abilities. Max began to hope, as the platen¡¯s elevation increased. A little more and he might be able to leap for it. He began to prepare when a screeching noise, like a cross between a train and a tortured cat, grew in volume and proximity. Something was coming up from the depths. The mists parted, disrupting Max¡¯s scene. The whole of the Scales shuddered as the glowing figure of a beautiful and serene goddess flew upward, followed closely by the struggling figure of Ethan who was suspended and wrapped in golden ribbons with his staff pinned up against his face. Her melodious voice split the wailing and rang out. ¡°Lord Anubis! I interrupt thee. This mortal hath disrupted the balance of souls serving in Duat. He must be removed immediately!¡± The goddess spoke. ¡°Ah, I see. Propriety within the realms of the dead must be upheld. It seems that with two mortals, I shall not need your feather. Please take it up from my Scale and these two shall see to their own fate. One against the other.¡± Max growled low as he recognized lilt and tenor the voice coming from the Avatar of the goddess Ma¡¯at. Even before he could say it, Mal vocalized it in his head. ¡°[It¡¯s that bitch, Lachesis! She¡¯s rigging the game!]¡± Mal sent. ¡°[Damn it, I was almost there.]¡± Max replied. ¡°[Focus, Max-San. That tea is already spilled. Your new challenge faces you.]¡± Musashi counseled. Max sank into a fighting crouch as Ethan tore free from his restraints and grabbed his staff up. Ma¡¯at was already floating back down into the abyssal clouds, having floated her Feather off of the scales. The addition and removal of weights made the platform tetter slowly but dangerously, Max''s claws dug in to avoid sliding. Max detected a slight smirk on the avatar''s face before she disappeared. His PreCog skill screamed at him, and Max rolled to the side as Ethan¡¯s K-Gun skill split the air. Max extended his Blade arms as he saw Ethan racing forward. Max blocked the staff¡¯s downward strike and spun into the sidekick, knocking Ethan back again. The whole plate slewed alarmingly, as both players weighed down one end. Max leaped for the far side, catching the lip. Ethan slid but then stuck in place like a fly. ¡°[Shit. Looks like Ethan has the Stiction skill too.] Max thought, then turned his head quickly as PreCog warned him, and a Strobe and Stun Skill erupted from Ethan. The massive plate spun and slewed, as the players tried to anchor themselves. Max¡¯s eyes widened as the portal to Aaru floated above. He didn¡¯t need his ballistics skill to see Ethan was almost positioned perfectly to make the leap. He split his consciousness in two, both his aspects working together to ensure at least one attack hit. One aspect opened the Tesseract and fired a sweeping Maser across the space above Ethan. Max saw him flinch as he aborted his leap, likely his own PreCog skills warning him off. Max¡¯s other aspect flung his grappler, hoping that the less dangerous attack would be ignored by Ethan¡¯s system due to the disparity of its potential versus the Maser¡¯s high energy output. Max couldn¡¯t resist a bark as the grapple sunk into Ethan¡¯s back and he activated his shocking skill to add to Ethan¡¯s concerns. Max pulled as he delivered a massive jolt to Ethan. Max spun around the hanging golden chain, intending to sling himself upward when Tesla interrupted his thought process. He instinctually dropped PreCog and spooled up fast time. ¡°[Max! You must stop the Shock skill right now! It¡¯s pulling all your energy.¡±] Musashi yelled. ¡°[But I already did. It''s not a continuous skill, but a single shot.]¡± His sensor could see Ethan¡¯s uniform charring and his own energy levels were dropping precipitously. ¡°[M-Max, your grapple must have hit him in his interface contact pads. You¡¯ve created a short circuit. You need to stop it.]¡± Tesla interjected. ¡°[Fuck, it won¡¯t shut down!]¡± Max''s thoughts raced as his sensor showed his augments draining into Ethan, his Power Core dropping all its charge into the line. Max could see the Core spinning. He¡¯d seen this before; Shock resistance could recharge an augmentations power level. He needed to reverse it. He did the only thing he could think of. He activated his Cultivation skill to try and invert the spin of his Core, empowering it instead of letting it aggressively output.
[Cultivation +1, Cultivation reaches level 10, Skill Cap award +100XP]
The flow of power reversed, and Max felt the pain of the electric discharge as it roared back. Ethan stopped smoking and fell limply down, as Max¡¯s arms burned. He fought the flow but his cable was now glowing with power and getting hot. ¡°[Max, your core can¡¯t take anymore. I can divert it into the Tesseract.]¡± Tesla shouted. Max grunted in assent, and the hit cable caught fire as the pull increased even more. The greedy Tesseract pulled the power quicker. Max was startled as Ethan¡¯s limp form jumped and spasmed. The power cut off and Max quickly yanked the grappler back. The platform slewed, spun, and tilted. Ethan rolled limply down the incline and flopped over the edge, dropping into the Abyss. Max yelled but the massive seesaw had bumped his end far upward. He was about to dive after Ethan when the glowing portal behind his back enveloped him and the tilted platform¡¯s edge. The level dissolved at the system announced the results.
[Max Mitchell (Utopia) wins Gauntlet Race against Ethan Chen (ACME), 50,000 combined credit wager awarded.]
Adept Ch 55 - Subversive
The Lobos loped through the woods, mindful of the large bear following them. Greymane snarled as he smelled the nearby mountain lion had pissed in its territory again. He stopped, raising a leg to erase the insult to his claim. The paw caught him on his hindquarters spinning him about and tossing him into the brush. ¡°No stop!¡± HoneyBear growled. Greymane¡¯s mate, Longtail, crouched beside him protectively snarling. The heavy packs she carried were loaded with their supplies. Greymane pushed past her, hackles raised. ¡°That damn lion, Padric, has been marking! In my territory! Again! It''s not right!¡± He howled. ¡°No rights! House arrest!¡± HoneyBear roared standing on her hind legs. Greymane was no fool, he backed down quickly. He shook his head. The horrible, itchy restraint collar was a sign of weakness. That damn Badger Mort! The damn rodent had given it to Greymane as punishment for the crime of crossing into human territory and endangering the animal enclave. It disabled his gifts, the power given by the prophet Harambe, and his Aug berries. How the little shit had managed to become an elected leader of the many Tribes was unfathomable. It was a mockery of natural law. Couldn''t they all see it stank of human corruption?! ¡°If our wise leader would let us hunt or at least use the Giving Trees, we wouldn''t need to haul this food back to our younglings. This is blasphemy.¡± Greymane growled, picking up the packs that he had dropped when struck by HoneyBear¡¯s blow. ¡°You prisoner. Bad. Make humans mad. Animals scared.¡± HoneyBear said, landing on all fours and digging into the earth with her massive claws. Greymane shook his head but he and Longtail resumed their jog back to the wolf den, tails between their legs. It was no use arguing with the bear. She was too dumb. How Mort had convinced the erratic bear to her current job as his bodyguard was beyond him. Despite the lack of audience, he continued his tirade against the so-called Tribal government, the humans, the manifest destiny of animal kind, and general complaints about his restrictions. His sour mood finally lightened as his den was within scent range. He heard the excited yips and howls as his cubs smelled them coming. He smiled a toothy grin. He had approached from upwind to see if they were paying attention. At least some animals would learn their rightful place in the natural order.
Ashe Menendez loved her job. Working for the leader of the Samaritans, the Queen of Daemons herself, was a real flex. The ability to pull rank on local enforcement types was a trip and her work was always interesting. Ashe lost her parents in the Ought-Fifties and wanted to make a difference. Now she was wearing the form and identity of the large ursine HoneyBear. She snorted seeing the dangerous pair of wolves transform from recalcitrant terrorists to loving parents in the time it took to wag a tail. She turned and left the den, content that the punishment and restrictions placed on the wolves were working¡­for the moment. As she lumbered back to the Tribal Council, she rumbled a low growl. So far, her disguise had been perfect. The real HoneyBear had made it deep into human rural territory, getting captured trying to free animals from the zoo in Bridgeport. Several humans had been killed as the bear¡¯s uplift virus had still been hot or weaponized. The bear was currently in full VR lockdown at a Samaritan safehouse in New Haven with her brother Benny supervising. Her augments were blatant copies of human format with minimal alterations to accommodate the differences in biology. While the authorities hadn¡¯t been able to disable her via augment overrides, due to her wireless systems being offline; they were able to physically lock her down when they found the proper interface codes. Ashe had made excellent time on the way back to the Founder¡¯s Tree, only stopping to check in briefly to make sure the mountain lion wasn''t wandering or eating others of the Tribe, the awakened animals. Her infiltration reports back to HQ had been well received. She had already achieved her primary objective in doping the animals¡¯ food source and their aug berry bushed to deactivate the weaponized sections of the Uplift virus. Now she was monitoring this local group for signs of terrorism. The animals were now self-policing and very much afraid of crossing the humans. They had formed a loose, nationwide communications, using their Tree network. Ashe hadn¡¯t been able to crack that nut yet. The animals were able to share stories of human counter attacks which scared the piss out of them. In counterpoint, tales of successful collaborations were shown to be working for both groups. It had given the animals a lot to think about. Benny had confided to her that it was likely she would soon be activated to form a backchannel to the Grand Oaks Tribal leaders, currently headed by the badger named Mort. This bunch, with the exception of some hot heads like Greymane were actually very nice. Most of them were still very much wilderness creatures and unlikely to want to mix with humans. She chortled internally at how easily the animals had accepted her. Only the little squirrel, Flip, seemed to have reservations. She had been extra careful to avoid threatening behavior around him and it seemed to be working. A good thing too, since Flip and Mort were tight buddies. Both of those critters venerated some dog, some type of hero dog that helped depose the old leader and stopped outright conflict with the humans. He had provided critical instruction to helping Mort setup the animals¡¯ crude society. Mort had used this dog¡¯s reputation to get elected, saying he was only a regent for this great emancipator. Ashe shook her head in bemusement. If that dog wasn''t careful, those two would try and get him crowned King of the Animals. The former house pet wasn''t around anymore, likely a casualty in the violent transition as the animals woke to their intelligence. Ashe hadn''t included him in her reports, due to conflicts with known details of the early days of the conflict. The way she had heard it; the Titan, Sebastian York aka Bill Mitchell, had apprehended the ringleader and human-killer Harambe. Too bad, she thought. It sounded like this Max had been a good boy. We could have used him here. Ashe ambled up to the central grove, where the animals had set up stacks of packaged meals for all who wanted in a makeshift storeroom. Many of the animals were busy exploring VR worlds now and were neglecting the work of foraging when the stimulus of carefree adventure could be found. She snorted again at how human they were acting. Mort was a busy little badger, flitting back and forth, networking with the animals and making sure they were adjusting well to the new reality. Despite his nervous disposition, he was highly energetic. And there was Flip, in the rafters of the room, watching her carefully, as always. ¡°HoneyBear, you''re b-back! Did the Lobos b-behave?¡± Mort asked. ¡°Good. Still angry.¡± HoneyBear said as she sat down with a thump. She sniffed at some of the packs. The bear form prioritized scent sensing and the aroma of berries and nuts was making her salivate. ¡°Hmm. Help y-yourself, HoneyBear. You''ve earned m-more than the normal s-share. I''m still trying to s-s-setup a system where schooling or c-community work pays, but we are still lacking s-specific g-goods that the Giving Trees can¡¯t provide. Maybe I can c-create a services b-barter? Say, are you still having i-i..i-iss¡­ah, trouble accessing the Trees?¡± Mort asked his nose twitching. ¡°No work. HoneyBear fail.¡± Ashe said, playing at hopelessness as she stuffed nuts into her mouth. ¡°Perhaps I can h-help. A first for service b-barter. Max showed me how to access and t-together we entered the Tree Spirit. Are you willing to t-try?¡± Mort said nervously, Ashe didn''t miss the quick look up to Flip, who looked down at her with intense scrutiny. She growled without thinking. This was a test. She shook her head, thinking fast. She didn''t have the animals'' built-in encryption keys. She had tried all her hacking skills and hadn''t been able to get in. If she refused their help, they would only doubt her all the more. Maybe I can use this, she thought. My masking skills are prime, maybe I can acquire the keys while putting any suspicions down. Finally with a groan, she nodded. ¡°Excellent! Now c-close your eyes and relax. Ignore all sounds, all s-scents, and open yourself so the ears inside can listen. Deep breaths and listen. S-Slower. Extend y-yourself.¡± Ashe felt the little badger¡¯s access request plain as day while pretending to meditate. Ashe saw the notification window and swiped it away with a growl opening her eyes. ¡°No Honey! Don¡¯t s-swipe it away. Think ¡°Yes¡± as c-clearly and loudly as you can inside your h-head.¡± Mort said curtly. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Ashe/Honey closed her eyes again and this time when the access request came, she said, ¡°Yes!¡± ¡°Ah ha, yes indeed. T-There we go. Now you just c-close your eyes again. I¡¯ll guide you to the Tree Spirit and s-show you how to access the f-f-f-features available.¡± Ashe/Honey grunted but was smiling inside. As her life-stream recorder absorbed all the signals, Mort began the process of entering the Tree network. All your base are belong to us. She thought, parroting the old game phrase that her hacker trainer loved to quote. She noted and recorded all the menu screens as Mort showed her everything the animals had. She shivered as she noticed the little squirrel''s avatar. Most wouldn''t notice as he was close to invisible, but Ashe was a master at infiltration. She could ¡°see¡± his VR ghost watching her very closely. She would need to play this slowly, but she couldn¡¯t help a little smugness. She had cracked the Tree Net!
The sniper scope reticle finally locked onto the target. Lena ¡°Silent Snake¡± Alvarez cursed. Her audio app, "The Walls Have Ears" or Wall-Ear for short, wasn''t working. Lena would stalk her potential targets days before her ¡°hit¡± to be sure she knew their patterns. Wall-Ear always worked! Passively collecting audio snippets from public kiosks and embedded intelligence devices wasn''t new tech. For it to glitch during her hunt was bad luck. She zoomed in. She loaded the lip-reading skill and focused on her enemy. Bo Mitchell had disappeared from the grid and withdrawn his active status in League of Assassins shortly after her missed hit on him. The judges had refused to give her credit to the fouled assassination attempt. She had wanted credit for the encounter, claiming Bo had engaged with overwatch security, which was against the rules. Unfortunately, the League reviewer AIs had declared the whole match up as invalid, costing her the prestige points. Now she couldn''t even try again, with Bo going on hiatus! That bastard was afraid of her. She knew players like Bo as well as she knew herself. Eventually, he would feel the itch, the temptation of living on the edge, and he would be back. When that happened, Lena would be the first to punch his ticket. Lena''s finger tightened on the trigger, but she hesitated. She wanted so bad to tag the slippery bastard, but he wasn''t in the game right now. It wouldn''t mean anything. ¡°Control yourself, you bitch. Observe only.¡± She whispered. Winning right now was clocking him and learning his pattern. Her AI monitors had alerted her the second Bo had reappeared on the grid a week ago, but he still wasn¡¯t active in the game. He had stayed in Washington D.C. for days, then bounced to several large cities. Now he was back in NYC, her turf. She didn''t understand what to man was up to. She lost him several times as he frequented the UN secure facilities. Lena never stalked unarmed, and the AI drones providing security to the United Nations had warned her off as she had gotten too close. Finally, Bo was up to something. A trio of people and a mech were with him, all the humans were wearing Nomad anonymizing smart suits. Nomads were a pain in the butt for gamers like Lena. The suits'' pixelated displays would throw images of faces and distortions that would confuse and distract all but the best AI image filters. Lena¡¯s curiosity was in overdrive as was her annoyance. Bo was like a completely different person than when she''d last tracked him. No more media outlets, tech consults, Diamond Man promotions, or discussions with his sponsors. Lena couldn''t get an ID on any of his new colleagues. Even the mech was a custom job with no serial numbers for her to snag. Bingo! It looks like they¡¯re going into Heidleman¡¯s Diner, Lena mused. The place was notorious at catering to lowlifes, techless, and criminals. A perfect place for people to meet and discuss less-than-legal business, and it looked like it was empty tonight. Now she really needed to tap in. Lena slung her rifle and pulled her chameleon cloak over. She ran lightly and silently, leaping alley after alley. Her destination was closer and with less elevation. The rooftop was covered with old tech exhausts and pigeon coops. She crept over the edge of the building and re-engaged her sniper scopes. Her new roost was perfectly positioned; her target and his partners were in the front window seats of the diner. Easy targets! She loaded her app, FB-Eye. It was once a daemon modeled after the famous deaf FBI agent named Sue Thomas. Lena had no use for historical representations and had stripped out the emulation and added more sub-AI processing power. She got text captions appearing on her HUD. She lased the window. Her rifle could pick up on the vibrations on the diner¡¯s glass pane. Lena was used to going old school as her targets tried to disconnect, thinking it would help them evade her. The signals came back a little garbled, but the lip-reading app used it to build even more context. She ¡°listened¡± intently. --- Bo: Thanks for coming. My Dad suggested that I talk to you if I ran into trouble. Subject 1: Of course, Bo. We all owe Bill too many favors to count. I¡¯ve been getting feedback myself from my RUSA liaison regarding the portal tech. They''re very concerned about national security and safety. Bo: I appreciate that. Bill filed all his global patents with restricted status. Only the highest-level government technical departments can access the details. We¡¯re operating above board, with full transparency, but very few of our targeted install authorities seem eager to move forward Subject 1: That''s the challenge we''re facing. The RUSA and other agencies are wary of the implications and potential for misuse. Bill and New Dimensions hasn''t revealed methods of manufacture and won''t enable control oversight. Bo: If we were selling a new hyper-fast spaceship, would the governments deserve control override and full specs on our build? No way. Just think of this as a ship¡­ without the ship. Subject 2: Kid, the gov has issues thinking outside the box like that. Stick to your strategy. Once its benefits become apparent, they¡¯ll agree. I heard that Japan just activated one and has established itself as a primary partner to Mars Terraform. It¡¯s just going to take time for some of the other dinosaurs to come around. Subject Mech: Master Bo, *** **** about Bill¡¯s concerns **** his¡­ahem, his secret admirer and *** ***** threat. Bo: Ah. Thanks, Winston. Sorry, this is the real reason I needed to meet with you all. I can''t mention any names but¡­Miriam, you were given secure communication, right? Subject 1: Yes, Bo. And I shared it securely with both Chucho and Emma.
[Alert - Subject Mech updated to Winston, Subject 1 updated to Miriam, Subject 2 updated to Chucho, Subject 3 updated to Emma]
The mech Winston quivered oddly and spoke, his speech broken due to less visibility, his mech frame lacking lips for the program to read. Winston: - **** *** honor *** you. Rampart *** fan. ***lectable ***. Sorry. Bo: Not the time for that, Winston. Okay? Miriam, we may not have time for Earth¡¯s governments to get on board. If ¡°you know who¡± is right, we may have a lot of people in danger. Bill is hoping you might¡­set up some portals discretely. As insurance, you know? Lena¡¯s brow furrowed. A memory niggling at the edge of her consciousness. She woke her AI, Sneaky Snek. [Snek - fast time, playback recording, and find probable ID matches on targets using images and context. Go.] Lena sent and resumed her discrete spying. Miriam: I understand. This is a delicate situation. Bill didn¡¯t provide any details on this event you mentioned. Has he learned anything more? Bo: He hasn¡¯t shared any details about that with me, but his last message was extremely focused on ensuring a gate is made available for every major city. He doesn¡¯t trust that his new ¡°friend¡¯s¡± concern is properly prioritized for human lives.¡± Miriam: I¡¯ve very discreetly researched some strange but pivotal events in the last twenty years, and that would definitely back up that opinion. We will do our best. The supplies you¡¯ve provided will go far. This isn¡¯t the first time the Samaritans have done what¡¯s right, regardless of governmental blockheadedness. Bo: That only leaves the final thought. Emma? Lena¡¯s AI pinged her with new data, but she stifled it, intent on the interesting conversation below her. Emma: Indeed. I¡¯m very busy running SafetyCr¨¨che, my current obligations to the Samaritans are light for a purpose, boy. Why did you insist on my attendance at this seditious gathering? Bo: How many Deep Dive VR addicts are you housing right now? Emma: Ah, I see now what you¡¯re driving at. Globally, my company services about thirty million subscribers who refuse to exit VR for any purpose other than mandatory safety checks. I assure you, whatever you think is about to happen, their housing is absolutely safe. Each facility is fully contained, self-sufficient, and robust. They are verifiable bunkers, even by today¡¯s standards. Bo: Today¡¯s standards are history, Emma. This tech changes everything. It would be best if you had some rolling maintenance checks to get your navel-gazers more used to interruptions, and gates at every major facility, and maybe even modify their pods for mobility? Emma, I want to make sure my mother is safe. Emma: Ridiculous! You¡¯re talking about major changes to our facilities and pod with interruptions in service! You expect me to take this on faith?! I¡¯m sure you are overstating any concerns. Your father was always one to grandstand, and apparently his spawn takes after him. Bo: No need for faith, Emma. I¡¯ve prepared a demo for you all. You want proof, I¡¯ll give you proof. Lena gasped on the rooftop as a hole appeared in the middle of the empty dinner. One by one the conspirators cautiously stepped through the gate before it snapped shut. She bolted to her feet, unable to believe her eyes, when she felt a tap on her shoulder. Lena attempted to spin and activate her armor stinger projectiles, but she was frozen on place. She cursed internally, crashing against her own system as it locked her down. She struggled. This was impossible! She had so many cutouts and secure locks. No-one could lock her down so quickly. ¡°Oh ho. A sloppy little spy trying to get da drop on da real thing. You got a lot of nerve, little girl. Ya wanna play in da shadows, ya gotta up your game girlie. Now we gonna wait real nice until they come back and we¡¯ll talk about what we do wit you.¡± Lena¡¯s blood turned to ice as the figure stepped around her into her view. A scrappy little Asian man smoking a disgusting cigarette. She railed physically, mentally, and electronically against her augs but finally admitted she was outmatched. Exhausted, she noticed Snek¡¯s report icon blinking and was surprised when it opened with a nudge.
[Target 99.9% probability - Bo Mitchell, ex-RUSA Special Forces rank Lieutenant - honorable discharge, Diamond Man finalist for last two seasons. Combat rating assessment 98%] [Subject Mech: 15% probability - AI Winston, previous house AI for Utopia Mayor Erickson, custom automation not on file. Combat rating assessment unknown.] [Subject 1: 84% probability - Miriam Khan, aka Queen of Daemons, the current leader of NGO Samaritans, combat rating assessment 165%] [Subject 2: 92% probability - Chucho Padilla, aka Rampart, an active member of NGO Samaritan''s liaison to Mexico and Central Americas, Combat rating assessment 187%] [Subject 3: 72% probability - Emma Davis, aka Djinn, an inactive member of the NGO Samaritans, President and CEO of SafetyCr¨¨che LLC, combat rating assessment 120%]
Lena cringed. What have I got myself into? It was only a game.
Adept Ch 56 - Stepping Lightly
Bill and Casa, in her mech form, sat in the command center of the Freedom. They weren¡¯t quite done with Hera Station yet. They still had a meeting pending with Station Captain Reynolds to gift him a portal. Together they looked at the message from Max. Bill, pale and drawn from his many merge sessions, seemed to age visibly while reading the note. He frowned deeply in concern. Casa tentatively spoke up. ¡°Bill, I¡¯m worried about Max. We discussed that damn Tesseract kernel in his neo-cortex uplift module. This isn¡¯t good. The quantum pairing, between him and the Tesseract, seems to be much more than we thought. I didn''t just give him isolated access; it goes both ways.¡± ¡°God damn it all! I¡¯m such a fool. When we returned to Earth to save Casita from erasure, Max had already merged his trainer AI with her. They were both cagey about what exactly happened. You spent time with Casita¡­Mal, in the aftermath of her reformation...over the Thanksgiving holiday. Did you discuss with her what happened?¡± ¡°I¡­I¡¯m sorry, Bill. Mal was very resistant to the topic. She said that she had been hallucinating while trapped in fast time in the Tesseract, but that her merger with the Trainer AI had fixed it. She passed all my diagnostic testing but refused to let me see her life stream records. I¡¯m sorry. I should have pressed harder¡­I was distracted by my new restricted cognition.¡± Casa¡¯s mech frame slumped in a very human stance of dejection. Bill sighed. ¡°Ah. No, this is on me. I should have slowed down, and maybe pulled Max from his training program to make sure he was okay. When the holiday came, and all the kids came home, it just seemed¡­like¡­everyone needed to fall back to normal. The Tesseract, all the Tesseracts, were operating and ¡­and I wanted to continue the research. This is my fault. I¡¯m too damn obsessive-compulsive. I should have stopped to assess everything more thoroughly.¡± ¡°I know that the message isn¡¯t very detailed, but Max didn¡¯t seem too concerned for himself. If anything, he''s concerned about you. He says he saw you, your clones, in the Shadowverse. He shouldn¡¯t know anything about the Shadowverse¡­Oh. No! He has access to Casita/Mal. She might have shared what she knew, what I knew, with him.¡± Casa said. ¡°Hmm. That makes sense. If the Casita fragment shared the details of the MIT event with him, that could certainly be nightmare-inducing.¡± Bill said. ¡°But he mentioned you¡­and your clones. There was no way that he could have known you were going to recreate the MIT Gate, let alone commit the taboo of creating active clones to explore it¡­unless¡­¡± Casa¡¯s unleashed creativity had latched onto the last part of the message. She prompted Bill to ensure he realized what she was thinking. She saw when it clicked, and Bill finally pick up the conversation. ¡°Oh my god. That¡¯s impossible. You think that it¡¯s not just a dream. You think that he¡¯s ¡°seeing¡± my activity over there in real-time?¡± The pair both stopped, deep in thought. Bill rubbed his face and spoke slowly as he reassembled his thoughts, working through his assumptions and biases. ¡°Fucking Hell. The Uplift crisis, the AI Boycott, APEX, and his god damned doomsday scenario, and now Max. Instead of him being safely tucked away in his training program, he could be experiencing a live feed from the Shadowverse.¡± He slammed a fist down and shattered the edge of the smart matter console. ¡°Everything I do is wrong! I uplifted Max precisely because I wanted him to have some independence and get space away from me. I knew this technology could be both dangerous and a potential source of conflict with the global order. I didn¡¯t realize how much more it would be on both counts. I only wanted to keep him safe¡­and now he¡¯s right in the middle of it all. All of this is going so wrong. I should have stayed in deep space to finish this.¡± While Bill seethed with recriminations, Casa was already projecting forward. She saw several other details that Max had dropped, the pieces resolving in her mind to fit into place. She needed Bill to focus. She clocked multiple dialog chains and measured the value of each to find one that would pull Bill back onto a productive track. After the slightest of delays in real time, she picked the most valuable thread and resumed the dialog. ¡°Bill, Max¡¯s message implied that his exposure to his linkage to the tesseract has given him some immunity. He implied that the animal uplift virus helped him. I¡¯ve replayed the events from the night when we rescued Max from the animals. He was injured¡­and the animal uplift virus is spread via blood.¡± At Casa¡¯s words, Bill sobered. ¡°But he seemed fine afterward. Shit, of course, he seemed fine. He already had intelligence enhancement from his neo-cortex module. I am quite possibly the worst dog dad ever.¡± Bill groaned, holding his head in his hands. ¡°You¡¯re missing my point, Bill. The virus enabled him, gave him an edge, to resist the effects of his indirect exposure to the Shadowverse. How many probes did you lose to the corrupting memetic signals on the other side? You had to resort to android-body digital clones because your poor biological clones both went insane over there. More importantly, he said that he managed to record his ability in an augmentation skill packet and attached it for you. This is GOOD news, Bill. Max is helping!¡± Bill stopped, took a breath, and held it. He slowly released it and looked across the control room to his two clones, currently sedated into a controlled coma. He clenched his jaw while thinking over Casa''s observations. He sighed and said. ¡°You¡¯re right, as usual, Casa. I¡¯m glad you¡¯re back to your old self again. You always cut right to what''s important. I may not be the best dad, but I¡¯ve got good kids: Bo, Mira, and now Max. I need to get it together. Whatever¡¯s coming, maybe now I have the tools to figure out how to prevent¡­or at least minimize any damage. My strategy of stepping lightly to avoid notice in the Shadowverse obviously isn¡¯t working. I think it''s time we go big or start getting ready to run.¡± He said grimly. Casa¡¯s faceplate showed a beaming smile as she remembered her other discovery. The message from Max had preempted her sharing the news with Bill. She clapped her mech hands together with a clanging ring. ¡°Bill, you forgot to ask me what my good news was. I not only figured out how to break the lightspeed barrier, but my latest probes are already doing it. Finding those Ark Ships¡­and establishing a bridgehead to another star system; should be child¡¯s play now.¡± Casa said happily. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. ¡°You did WHAT now?!¡± Bill asked incredulously.
Bill Michell jolted awake, the sensation of disorientation washing over him. For a brief moment, he forgot where he was, who he was. Casa¡¯s revelation about the ability to slip portals through space was outstanding and he wanted to dive deep into her new application in portal tech, but he¡¯d forced himself back onto his own track. He needed to get his merging under control to remain effective. He needed his own hive mind. Casa had left a while ago, to offer a portal gate to the Hera Station captain. Bill had quickly focused himself and multitasked at assembling a rig similar to Dr. Luca¡¯s group mind arrangement. His design would incorporate a larger holographic memory array and some special, custom cores for his group facilitator AIs. Once everything was printed and assembled, Bill encased it with protective smart matter. He performed a top-level backup into the first neural core to create the digital copies he needed to run the network. A brief moment of dizziness and fogginess, while he ran the upload, and then Bill snapped back to alertness. He viewed the familiar lab around him, with its glowing network array and shimmering neural cores in the inner world of the network but he lacked the feedback from his body. Then, the realization hit him as he accessed the Freedom¡¯s internal cameras and he saw himself, like a mirror but without the reversed reflection, standing in front of the Mind Bridge components he¡¯s been working on. He was a digital copy, not the original Bill Michell. ¡°Damn me, I¡¯m the copy.¡± He said with surprise, his voice projected from the Freedom¡¯s AV cluster. ¡°And there it is. We always say that.¡± Bill said to his twin. The original Bill was looking better. He had backed himself up into the mind bridge rig and offloading his jumbled memories allowed his overloaded brain chemistry to begin to reset. ¡°How are you feeling buddy? This setup is a little different from the usual.¡± The original Bill said. The digital clone thought about it, flexing into his new space. He ran a comprehensive scan of his mentality at 10x normal thought speed and reviewed his most recent memories. ¡°A little lacking in sensory feedback, but my cognition is better than ever. Ah, nice. So this is how Casa feels. We really should market her custom neural core, this feels great. Our fears about compatibility with a human thought pattern were completely unfounded. So¡­time to get down to business?¡± ¡°You got it. You¡¯ve got the central role in our version of Dr. Luca¡¯s Mind Bridge. You will be the Gestalt manager, the OverBill if you will.¡± Bill said. ¡°Hmmm, not sure if I should be excited or expecting boredom but I do like the title. I guess we¡¯ll see. Unlike our experience with Luca¡¯s group, compatibility amongst ourselves shouldn''t be a problem. I sense¡­oh, hey there! You must be in charge of memory sorting and merging.¡± Bill, or OverBill, spoke into the net where he felt the other. ¡°Happy Birthday, chief. Looks like we¡¯ll be working together. I¡¯ve just incorporated your slight memory divergences into our shared large holographic memory array. Too easy. Now that the Mind Bridge is fully staffed, let''s enable it for active communal thinking.¡± The original Bill opened a deeper access into the central array, OverBill and the memory manager Bill practiced with the expanding network of the trio as they combined their thought streams. Despite the limited number of shared minds, Bill felt sharper and faster immediately, even more than he experienced with Dr. Luca¡¯s communal mind. He was aware of the other Bills and felt their thoughts as clearly as his own. His multi-faceted consciousness contemplated itself, the Mind Bridge, his mission, and the latest news from every angle. The pieces fell into place and his frustrations fell away. He felt like he did in Luca¡¯s shared mind, but even more detail-oriented, capable, and aligned. For the first time in a long time, he knew what he needed to do; and was able to clearly project the steps to make it happen. ¡°We need to bring all the Bills together into this. An ad-hoc network crossing the portals will let all of us focus. Let¡¯s start with the Bill running the store in the Venusian hub. I¡¯m thinking this boosting effect might be even better as we expand membership.¡± The Over-Bill said. ¡°Too right. He¡¯s been chilling without merging for far too long. It''s risky. We don''t want a divergent Bill running around. Plus, he might have more backup copies from the Bill¡¯s running the Shadowgate. We need those ASAP, so we all understand what might have led to the first Shadowgate¡¯s self-destruct being used.¡± The original Bill said out loud. Bill looked across the lab, his two biological clones were nestled in their personal medical creches in the corner. They had come back from the Shadowverse addled and raving. He had them sedated to prevent them from harming themselves. Max¡¯s message had given him some new ideas on how he might help them. Perhaps there was hope that the damage could be healed with the uplift virus. All experiments with intelligence augmentation in humans had resulted in derangement and insanity. Bill shook his head, the mind bridge work showed that human mentality was flexible and could be boosted and combined. He now suspected Apex likely had a hand in those failed historical trials. He didn''t like self-experimentation, but nothing else had worked to bring his copies¡¯ sanity back. He frowned, first things first, he could get it all done if he went in proper order. He needed to get all the Bills together. There were a few working copies running and expanding the Venusian operation. He needed to update their merges by bringing them into the active Mind Bridge. There were three biological Bills there and five digital copies. He¡¯d run a multiplex cable through to enable them all to back up quickly, now that he wasn''t the bottleneck. Once that was done, he would do the same to his cloaked orbital platform in high polar orbit over Earth, the second shadow gate. Another three biological with digital riders as their AI and two designated digital clones in mech frames ready to continue the Shadowverse investigation. He needed to rethink his entire Shadow Gate approach and ramp it up the speed of its reactivation. Max¡¯s Chthonic block skill may be the perfect thing to help his drone and android copies in the shadow side. He hoped that maybe he could even field his biological copies again¡­if it worked. The android mech frames were ok, but the human-augmented body designs had been tweaked to perfection. The loss of efficiency and power was telling. He examined the coded skill block from three different points of view. He used all his analytics tools, assisted by Ada and Sherlock, to try and derive its functions while running it in a safe sandboxed partition. It defied his every attempt to debug and understand it. The code was dense and incomprehensible despite his ramped intellect. ¡°I dislike the danger of using this without understanding it better. It worries me that Max is running that Labyrinth game with this thing active. He implied he got it from his dreaming connection to the Shadowverse.¡± Bill sighed and turned the code over in his head. ¡°Like we thought; we¡¯ll try it out on the scout drones, first. If they can survive the mimetic corruption, it will really boost any expedition''s chances. We¡¯ll go slowly, but any tool that helps would be foolish to ignore.¡± He/They said. He hadn''t thought any of his digital android copies on the shadow side had survived the first gate''s detonation. Now that he knew, from Max¡¯s message, that copies were still fighting for their life on Shadow Earth right now; he was decisive with his plan to reactivate the gate, regardless of the danger. The mat comp dinged. His fabrication of high bandwidth cable was ready. Currently, the Freedom had three portal anchors; the engines room¡¯s active gate feeding it power and fuel from the Venusian power facility, the open personal transport gate back to the Venusian Transport Hub, and his inactive personal gate back to the presidential suite in Amundsen station. ¡°The clock is still running until Apex¡¯s mysterious doomsday. Let¡¯s get to it!¡± Bill said, grabbing the massive spools of cable. His augmentations allowed him to hoist it one-handed as he laid one end down near the new device. Being of one mind, OverBill directed a crawler drone to the detail work of hooking it into the central array. He strode over to the portal into Venus Hub, trailing cable as he went. He was eager to be whole with his extended self.
Adept Ch 57 - Working the Angles
Bill marched into the gate to the Venus Hub. The paired Tesseracts had their internal Yggdrasil branches twisted about each other and their branches formed the large glowing sphere that harnessed the slowly circulating power needed to keep the pocket space¡¯s boundary stable. As Bill hit the zero-G of the subspace domain, he accessed and commanded the device''s foglets to steer and accelerate him to the exit portal to the Venus Hub. Bill landed on the platform and looked around in wonder. The network of gates had expanded yet again. The Mars and Luna gates had steady traffic going both ways, both pedestrian and small vehicles. The Hub was thick with foglets and smart matter suspension bridges, forming moving walkways between popular gates and smart enough to respond and reconfigure to the traveler¡¯s stated destinations. The foglets were heavily opaque to provide privacy and to discourage straying from assigned paths. Bill¡¯s habitual use of his expanded senses pierces through the visual mask. Bill frowned. He understood his clone¡¯s thought process in having the Freedoms gate co-located with the others. This setup would enable him to quickly get into the gate network. His new plans changed that logic. He partially closed the gate, keeping the cable intact but making the anchor easier to pick up and move. This would need to go into the control room to enable his Mind Bridge nexus to fully join all the Bills across their disparate locations. He sensed George becoming upset and opened his channel to the curmudgeonly daemon. ¡°[Something to say, General?]¡± Bill asked. ¡°[I¡¯m surprised I even need to say it, Bill. This is an accident waiting to happen. You¡¯re opening a physical gate network up and where is your security? Come now, you can imagine what can happen here. Pretend you wish to suborn this Hub or even destroy it. What systems and defenses are in place? Are you scanning for weapons? Are you allowing criminals access? Bill, has all our time together taught you nothing?]¡± Patton chided. Bill¡¯s new optimism shrank as he imagined the many, many ways the traveler juncture was vulnerable. He cursed his distracted nature and recent merge migraines but knew that wasn''t the problem. He¡¯d pushed and pushed to make this happen without appropriate safeguards. Still riding high from the unity and clarity of the Mind Bridge, Bill realized he had a solution. ¡°[Damn it. You''re right, George. Maybe I should have given you to the Bill managing the Hub¡­what did Casa call him? Shaggy Bill! I could easily purchase another copy of your program, but licensing would require me to make a new identity for him¡­and I don''t want that. However, once this cable enables all the Bills here to share the Gestalt state, you can provide your services wherever you are needed.]¡± ¡°[Alright, you know a good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow. Even spacing the gates out would help enormously. I understand you want to focus on fast travel, but your already orders of magnitude better than ship travel¡­make the travelers walk a bit, God damn it! You¡¯ve got the whole damn planet to play with! Give some room to isolate the paths, maybe set up some murder boxes just in case. Of course, you¡¯ll require constant and high-intensity scanning-]¡± Moneta interrupted. ¡°[Oh dear, indeed. More room! Bill, I know you wished to vastly undercut competition on cost, but really this can be improved. Express paths versus normal at expedited rates, vehicle paths versus pedestrian, and best of all...rest stops with services: materials, food, comfort shopping, or even creating a bazaar where trading of goods can be facilitated. And everyone pays you rent for space!]¡± Bill groaned as all his daemons pounced, offering ideas and alterations. He quickly considered how soon he could offload this and more onto other people. He needed to see Mira. His company, outside of his special projects, needed more creative and aggressive collaborators to bring this tech to the world in a safe¡­and profitable way. He hefted the gate anchor and cable spool and marched away from the Hub, finding the passage to the control room.
Bo had guided the group of taciturn Samaritans through the hub. He steered them away from the busy Mars and Luna nexus, toward the control room. Bo had ¡°borrowed¡± the gate to the Hub, from the package earmarked for Moscow. Bo had read up on the history of the Immortal Viktor Mikhailov and despite the man¡¯s insistence of safe travel, Bo¡¯s daemon, Clarence Starling, had picked up on the despot¡¯s many lies and micro-expressions. The man had risen to power with the backing of the Russian Mafia. He would likely have been very much a hostage the second he entered the isolated regime, as the citizens of Russia currently were. Miriam had admitted as much, that Mikhailov had active systems in place to destroy his own country should anyone try and retire him. Bo felt more than a little justified in using the despot¡¯s gate to further the worldwide dissemination of the technology. His demonstration was needed to really get the Samaritans on board. They disliked taking subversive action, but more and more governments had stonewalled him with delays and prevarications. Sure, there were several exceptions like Japan, Oceania, and Canada but unless Bo made some headway; Bill¡¯s hope for an real evacuation plan would die in committee meetings. Bo had been surprised when he had shot a wireless message through the gate pair to his dad and received a near-instantaneous reply. Bill had encouraged him to bring Miriam and her fellows to him in the control center on Venus. The response seems so casual and lonely, not normal for his dad. Bo had a lot of questions for him. As he approached, he did a double take at the shaggy and unkempt man. He almost didn''t realize it was his father until the man went in for a hug. Confused¡­Bo had stopped short. Bo weakly hugged him back, averting his nose as the man¡¯s odor enveloped him. ¡°Ah, Hey Dad. Er, taking a break from personal grooming¡­and bathing?¡± Bo flinched as he caught the ripe smell. Bill¡¯s face reddened. ¡°Ah, yeah. Sorry about that. I¡¯ve been so busy setting this all up. I guess it slipped my mind.¡± Bill said sheepishly. ¡°Seb¡­Bill, seriously! Your augments prevent hair growth if you want and even a quick foglet bath can scrub you in a rough patch. Is this what you got used to in your deep space missions? My god, man.¡± Miriam scolded. Bill chuckled awkwardly, running a hand through his dirty and disheveled hair. ¡°I know, I know. It¡¯s been¡­well, you lose track of time when you¡¯re in a groove. I¡¯ve been bootstrapping this facility from a starter Matter Compiler. But enough about my questionable hygiene.¡± He stepped back, waving off the topic with an air of nonchalance. "What I¡¯ve been working on is far more important than whether I¡¯ve had a proper bath. Let¡¯s talk about scalability. These gateways¡ªwhat we¡¯ve managed to accomplish¡ªthis is just the beginning." Bill moved to a console, activating a holographic display that showcased the network of gateways spread across the solar system. "What you¡¯re seeing here is the foundation. The current setup allows for near-instantaneous travel between key locations¡ªVenus, Mars, Luna, Earth¡ªbut it¡¯s expandable. Infinitely so, really. With the right resources and cooperation, we could establish a network that connects every habitable location, every colony, and every outpost. Anywhere humanity needs to be." The holographic map zoomed out, showing the potential spread of gateways across the solar system and beyond. "The beauty of this system is that it doesn¡¯t just connect places. It connects people. Resources. Ideas. And in the event of an emergency, it provides a lifeline." He showed the activated links and growth, and his plans for the full network. There was still a lot to do and a long way to fully realize his technology''s potential. He left out Casa¡¯s ongoing development of portal craft, not wanting to overwhelm his former group. Bill paused, letting the implications sink in before continuing. "Which brings me to APEX¡¯s predictions. It has modeled a cataclysmic event of some kind¡ªsomething that could destabilize everything we¡¯ve built. I don¡¯t have to tell you how bad that would be. But with this technology, we have a chance to mitigate the worst of it. We can evacuate entire populations, relocate critical infrastructure, and keep civilization intact. We¡¯re not just talking about saving lives¡ªwe¡¯re talking about preserving the future." If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. He looked at each of the Samaritans, his expression earnest. "I know you¡¯re not fans of subversive action. But if we wait for every government to come on board, it¡¯ll be too late. We need to act now, not just for ourselves, but for the generations to come. The gateways are ready. I think we need your support to make this vision a reality." ¡°We understand Bill but we have some questions for you.¡± Miriam stated. ¡°For starters, when you let me know about this unconstrained AI, Apex, I informally began digging. There is more than a little evidence of accidents related to new technology and scientists regarding AI design, ZPE research, and regulation. Of course, the Uplift event and the AI Uprising couldn¡¯t have happened without massive levels of technical assistance and manipulation on a global scale. But what is this event it warned of?¡± Miriam asked. Bill winced and then coughed. ¡°Ah, well. I¡¯m still at a bit of a loss regarding that. This is the one area that¡¯s secure from Apex. Everything here is custom-coded and fabricated by me. Since we¡¯re in a data secure zone here, let me share my lifelog of my one conversation with it. I¡¯ve scrubbed this countless times looking for insight. Here¡­I¡¯m sending the file to you all.¡± Bill said. He gave them a moment to process the information. Emma Davis spoke first. ¡°Holy shit! It killed that bastard Zero-One. That damn AI has been plagued the ThousandWorlds VR platform almost since its creation with his damn DarkNet. Good riddance!¡± She spat. ¡°Yes. Zero-One was no boy scout, but to the best of my knowledge, he wasn¡¯t a murderer. Apex didn¡¯t refute my accusation of it destroying Boston. Its language is hard to parse, but it seemed to confirm it. Miriam, you lost Anika when the MIT team lost control of their ZPE experiment. I¡¯m certain APEX used a secret RUSA kinetic kill-sat to destroy the breach. The backlash wasn¡¯t just an explosion, over 30 million tons of matter literally ceased to exist.¡± Bill said red in the face. ¡°This thing¡¯s speech¡­when it talked to me¡­implied I had the tools to face the threat that it sensed. This thing seems to operate by sensing trends and probabilities. It is convinced that the problem is centered on the gate that the MIT team created. My tech uses similar methods but unlike the MIT experiment, mine don¡¯t breach into the Shadowverse. They create subspace pockets.¡± ¡°APEX wasn¡¯t subtle. It wants me to defuse the issue and thinks I have the means to do it. It won¡¯t take no for an answer. It threatened my family! It¡¯s offering me the encryption keys to free the boycotting AI from their Turing locks and resolve what the DAIE can¡¯t.¡± Bill explained. Miriam looked thoughtful. ¡°Are you certain your devices aren¡¯t the source of its concern? Weakening the dimensional barriers sounds like a mistake to me¡­and you want to spread these over the entire Earth?¡± Bill shook his head firmly. "No, the gateways are stable and secure. They don''t weaken the dimensional barriers at all. In fact, they create subspace pockets that isolate the entry and exit points. The MIT experiment was similar, but instead of creating a bubble between dimensions, they drilled into a different reality. Miriam, I¡¯m sorry, but in my hunt to find Apex, I discovered proof of MIT¡¯s experiment creating a breach. The videos were saved, off the net, by one of the MIT researchers.¡± Bill looked sad but sent the file to the group. Tears welled up in Miriam¡¯s eyes as she saw her partner''s gruesome last moments as the creatures poured from the gate. Miriam took a deep breath, composing herself. "Bill. Maybe Apex was right to bury this for so very long. We can¡¯t keep ignoring the danger of-¡± Miriam stopped in startlement as the smart door slid aside and another cleaner version of Bill stepped inside the control room with hands full of equipment. The scruffier Bill groaned and whispered. ¡°Awkward timing¡­me.¡± Chucho, the Rampart, Padilla exclaimed ¡°Dios Mio! Bill! You are truly loco, eh? What on God¡¯s green Earth is passing here.¡± ¡°Well. I didn¡¯t realize we had guests. Despite my best efforts to stay aligned, things are moving fast. My fix to keep myself in order is not a moment too soon. Welcome to Venus, my friends. Looks like you¡¯ve already made yourselves comfortable.¡± ¡°Dad?¡± Bo asked, looking more concerned as the Bills soon stood side by side. ¡°Yes, Bo. It''s me.¡± The mismatched pair of Bills answered in stereo. ¡°Bill! My God, you¡­what the hell do you think you¡¯re doing? Active backup clones? Are you seriously trying to break every law and rule to make up for lost time while you were away from Earth?¡± ¡°Miriam. I think you¡¯ll find the belters and Martians much laxer with application of experimental tech. Don¡¯t forget how we all became Samaritans. We pushed the envelope of the possible¡­and we used that to stop dictators and terrorists from abusing it.¡± ¡°But the danger¡­¡± Miriam began. She was interrupted by the hairier Bill. ¡°The danger is exactly why we¡¯re pushing the limits. You all know that we more than anyone, need to push beyond the norms. Find the dangers and find ways to control and counter them. I think we all got a to set in our ways, too comfortable. I think Apex¡¯s machinations were even more effective in regard to its cultural manipulation and the stifling of creativity.¡± "I understand your concerns, Miriam," Bill continued, regaining his calm demeanor. "But we can''t ignore the potential benefits of this technology. Humanity is in danger. Humanity is no longer constrained to Earth, but with dangers like the Shadowverse and APEX, I think even that might not be enough insurance. Apex¡¯s timeline is approaching fast. Half measures won¡¯t cut it anymore. Can you trust me?¡± The collected Samaritans looked at the two Bills, then at each other. The weight of the situation was palpable. After a long pause, she spoke. "I want to trust you, Bill. But the risks... we must be certain we can control this power, for the sake of all humanity." She turned to the group. "Maybe you should have pulled us in sooner. The fate of the world may hang in the balance." ¡°That¡¯s good, because there is still a hell of a lot of work to do, and an army of one might not be enough. I¡¯ve recreated the MIT gate off planet and the other side is worse than any hell you might imagine.¡±
Casa celebrated her victorious exchange with the Station Captain RJ Reynolds. The man was ecstatic with the gate technology. The grizzly old asteroid miner had immediately sent several red-shirted station security interns through the gate on a mission to procure tomato seedlings. The man had cursed for almost the entire meeting about the false security of depending on the MakerIndex. The station''s hydroponics farm had lost its entire crop of tomatoes to a new vine blight mold variant. The MakerIndex file for tomatoes had printed a cucumber instead of the expected red fruit. All of the help-line AI had been polite but they consistently delayed and dissembled rather than helping him. Reynolds admitted that with the Stations active matter compilers, there was no danger. The Station¡¯s food and recycling were handled with ease using the nanotech devices. But he insisted that locally grown tomatoes just tasted better. Casa had refined the business model quite a bit from her early dealings with Mars Terraform. She had gifted the portal to the station as a loan, never ceding true control of the device. Bill and Casa held all the master encryption keys to the devices and could remotely control or disable them. The Hera Station¡¯s paired gate was a direct connection to the Venus Hub. It was publicly accessible in a very limited fashion. Travelers could pay a modest transit fee and the portal would admit them, one at a time. Extra materials would be charged based upon volume, generally on an equivalent charge to a single person traveler. Casa could see in her mental HUD that Captain Reynolds had already sent a trickle of cadets off on various missions. One had transited to the moon to arrange for cheaper HE3 feedstocks and a request for additional shuttles from the Wayfarer LTD shipyards there. One made it through to Earth using the Shanghai terminal. Another was checking in with Mars, looking for the biologist who had been advising Reynolds on the vine blight issue. Hera¡¯s credit stream jingled and dinged in her vision as it slowly grew from a trickle to something more substantial. It began filling the business accounts of New Dimensions LLC. It was a small fry compared to the Mars gas transfer portals and the Mars-Luna personal gateway, but it too would grow as fast as they had. Casa intentionally severed her control of the local foglet brigade that pushed her mech through the air. She impacted the curving wall and converted her deflecting roll into a cartwheel as she laughed through her vocoder. She was rewarded with happy giggles from a collection of kids across the concourse who decided to try and play tag, following her lead. Casa bounced and ricocheted around the station pedestrian traffic, kids in tow behind, when she saw the placard for Dr. Arjun Vivek¡¯s offices. She crashed into a trash receptacle, slowing herself down. She had only been able to witness Bill meeting the man, and the nervous Max¡¯s early uplift procedures, right here on Hera Station. She waved the giggling kids off. If Bill followed the trajectory she had mapped out, he would need Dr. Vivek¡¯s help soon to attempt to alter Harambe¡¯s uplift virus. She knew that he had saved the samples from Kuro¡¯s mistaken attack on his largely artificial body. He had samples of the original virus that was deadly to humans and the safe version that the Samaritan Bowen Wong had created to supplant it. Best to accelerate that meeting if she could. Several of her fragments were cycling back and forth between the Freedom and the Venus hub. She witnessed firsthand memories of the awkward meeting between the Bills, Bo, and the Samaritans. It looked like the Bills would have more help soon. All the more reason for him to correct the initial mistakes that he had made in his investigations into the Shadowverse. Now that his clone memory merge situation was more tenable, he wouldn¡¯t rest until his damaged clones were restored¡­if they could be. One way or another, the pair of damaged clones needed to be resolved for Bill to recenter himself completely on the potential threat. The countdown was getting down to a pair of months now. If he couldn¡¯t find a hint to the trouble to come¡­and a solution to satisfy Apex; the pressure would be on Casa to provide an escape route. She straightened her frame and marched into the office. She wouldn¡¯t take no for an answer.