Silence. A hot and awkward silence, as both of them processed what the tailed girl had just shouted.

“Quinn hinted she left you as a kind of replacement for her, and I am not sure what she meant by that, but I know for a fact it was not that type.”

Zax delivered his line as flatly as he could, with moderate success.

“I… just meant… in your home. Like last night. I don’t think you should stay alone, right now.” Aran squirmed as she explained, squeezing and twisting her tail between her hands.

Zax tried to keep a severe face for a bit longer, just to make her squirm, but after a few seconds he burst out laughing. He couldn’t help it; his nerves got the better of him and released all his tension. Aran pouted, realising she had been played. It took an uncomfortably long time, but the human eventually calmed down enough to give an actual answer:

“Well, I have the room and I am curious as to what Quinn meant, so I don’t mind giving you a more regular place to stay so you don’t have to pretend to be friends with a different person every night.”

The foxy girl stammered a denial at the last comment, but his matter-of-fact and non-judgemental tone removed any point she would have to do so. She could only sigh in resignation and follow on her word.

Zax spent the following days studying Aran’s template to figure out what went wrong in his free time. It was frustrating, but he welcomed the challenge. It was an efficient distraction, and it forced him to get beyond what he already knew. Getting out of your comfort zone was always a great way to improve.

Aran’s feedback also let him improve on other programs. Simple things, like adding a beep to the Zax-boxes to indicate the start or the end of a task. It eased the patient when nanites were doing something in their bodies. It seemed obvious in retrospect, but it had just never occurred to him. And it made a huge difference, significantly reducing the patient’s psychological reaction, the so-called placebo effect, and giving faster, more accurate results, for less energy.

He didn’t have many occasions to test it, but a few physicians who still used nano-technology did and they shared their results. The nano-tech specialists were a close but open community, and just like that, Zax learnt that all his calculations were based on a faulty baseline. Well, not exactly faulty, more like… hazy.

Which only partly solved the strangeness of Aran’s template. She was constantly tense and alert, even when she didn’t mean to or realised, so his hazy baseline was even more so. But even after compensating, some results were contradictory and made for an impossible template. And yet the system never glitched and didn’t issue any alerts, as if the contradictions didn’t exist. Or were not contradictory? Which didn’t make sense…

That was the most frustrating part. Zax manually checked all stages of the calculations without finding any problem; then he checked if the calculations applied and all came as fitting; then he brought Aran to a medical check-up, she came out as healthy and full of vitality, but the measurements gave the same data as his nanites. Everything was as it should on a healthy woman of her age, size and build.

For all intent and purpose, the program should fail to function, or Aran should.

Aran was perfectly fine though. The check-up confirmed it. She was even showing a few improvements, but that was more due to the new stability in her life. And the frequent general workout, probably. For the very first time, she woke up in the mornings knowing where she would spend the nights.

It was like a new world for her, it did wonders for her physical and mental health, and it reflected in her interactions with others. It was impressive how much she noticed when she was not so focused on getting strangers attached as fast as possible. For the first time, she realised her skill at navigating social clues could be so versatile. It started innocently, calming a sore loser by noticing their family was overbearing, then noticing Quinn had done something similar with her, and she quickly got a taste of how pleasant it felt to affect someone’s life for the better.

She relished in the games too. Zax kept trying different ways to measure the same parts, hoping to find a clue as to why her template proved so hard to make, and he knew how she liked games, meaning plays and challenges of great number and variety. She felt more alive than ever when she pushed her limits that way. It was a bit awkward at times, when Zax was so focused on studying her results, she felt like an overexcited child with a grown-up trying to do their homework, but it was a small price to pay, and he never judged her for it.

By the next week-end, general resting day in the dot, they had planned on spending it on pushing Aran to all her physical limits. Workout, rest, rinse and repeat. A great way to add stamina, recovery and willpower to the list of measured stats. Although Zax didn’t see how Willpower could qualify as a measurable parameter, and even defining it was a hurdle.

“It is just too complex. There are many philosophic, moral and even legal repercussions none of us are ready to tackle. I don’t even want to try, and I’m sure you don’t either.” He explained as they prepared for the eventful day.

“Don’t take it so seriously! It’s just a game.” The foxy girl rebuked. She quickly elaborated when he glared his annoyance at her: “Even if that part is not directly used in your… template or whatever, it would be an awesome way to motivate the player. And besides, an RPG without a WIL stat would never be taken seriously. If that’s how you want to sell it, you can’t half-ass it.”

“That’s… a good point, but how would I even do that? How do you give a number to something so… subjective and intangible? Strength and speed can be measured. Gastric efficiency can be calculated. Even charisma can be inferred or extrapolated. But willpower?

One person can be a coward who cannot be bothered to clean their own home; and at the same time, they could be the type who wait in line for several hours, or even days, for a limited-edition collector figurine. That would give them a low, then high score.

And that motivation could come from fear of a deadline, despair at who will come to get them if they fail, or just passion for their job. Do they get a bonus for any of those? A malus? Nothing special? Even if ‘it’s just a game’, it has to stay coherent throughout.” Seeing Aran hesitate, he pushed to the finish line. “It is just too much time and effort to be worth a bit of motivation and a stat I will not use.”

“But… that’s just too…” Aran deflated. It was such a waste, but he was right. He didn’t deny it was possible, just not worth his time. She couldn’t really deny it. Unless… “What if I do it?” She perked up as inspiration struck her.

“What?”

“What if I determine how WIL is decided? If I make the effort, you won’t, so it will be worth your while, right?”

“You have no idea how programming works.” Zax stated factually.

The discussion continued until they were ready to go, but they eventually settled on a compromise: he would add “Willpower” or WIL to the stats, but she would be responsible for how to define, measure, calculate, and generally quantify it. He would teach her the basics of programming to help orient her thought process, but for the rest he would just follow her directives.

She was ecstatic at the result and immediately started brainstorming, but very soon she had to focus on her breath to not lose her stride too early. When Zax had proposed to use this day to fully focus on the neglected parts of her template, she had agreed without seeing any harm to it. When he used the light road to go to an undisclosed destination and told her to run next to him all the way, she first thought he was joking.

When he took out the pictures and videos taken after she lost that bet two days ago, it dawned on her how much he had planned for this day, and how much he was not joking at all. His terrifying smile told her she would not forget that day anytime soon.

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Her coach for the day made her jog through a long detour. He had planned on staying on the light road so he could focus on his patient’s data as she dashed, but she struggled so much he ended up trotting with her. He expected her to have a better stamina, but he didn’t comment on it. Games rarely extended effort that long, after all.

They eventually reached his destination; the workout area. It was a well spread complex filled with all amenities for exercise and recuperation, situated between the education and entertainment areas. People still debated whether it was part of one or the other, but nobody really cared. The borders between areas were more practical than official anyways, and they kept changing with what the dot needed.

“Here, drink this. I am going to check into my reservations.” Zax handed her a bottle with a coloured band on top.

He left before she could ask what the band meant, but still drank greedily and tried to catch a sliver of her breath. It had been a lot harsher than she thought, and they had just started.

“Everything is in order, come along.” The human motioned with his head. “We will start low and go up depending on your results.”

“Alright.” The foxy girl could only sigh, her tail dropping in resignation. It felt more than high enough already.

“Don’t be so down, I’ll to it with you. It won’t be as boring that way.”

His presence did help, but something else caught her attention: more than a few people came by, to ask for advice or just to greet Zax. Most knew him by name, and he always answered in kind. And he always did have an answer for them; on where to find this or that training machine, on what exercise to train a monkey tail, even on someone’s diet.

And they all have a somewhat remarkable, size or muscle related mutation. Too much for a coincidence.

He was also constantly spotting and fixing flaws in her form, explaining what muscles group she was to use and what problems her divergence would cause. She could have done without the pictures though; some were really disturbing. Gruesome didn’t even begin to describe it. She would never take her back’s perfect S-curve for granted again. Who knew mutations could worsen bad habits and their effects?

Well, Zax knew, but that was beside the point. She had never been told anything negative about the 3G or its effects. Food for thought. Later. When she didn’t to fully focus on her arm’s speed and angle, her breathing and her ankles’ position.

“You really- know a lot- about that stuff.” Aran panted at one of their longer breaks. The normal ones were just enough to keep her going, so when she had the chance, she tried to make him talk to extend the respite. It didn’t really work. “How long have you- been doing this?”

“At least once a week since…school brought the class here, I think. With a few exceptions. Life happens.”

“I would’ve never though you were a sports buff.”

“Ha! I am not. I just got into the habit with my friends. Kad was the sports buff. He probably spent as long here as you in the arcade room. He loved the feeling of muscles burning from use and seeing his results improve, and his enjoyment was communicative, so we all got involved in some way. Mine was smoothing massages. And since I do not mutate, it is a good way to keep my body healthy. I cannot rely on the 3G to fix flaws, so I better maintain what I have. Now, next exercise. Try not to get hit.”

She gulped as he led her to a ball pitcher. Zax couldn’t to this exercise with her as he had to adjust the speed and trajectory of the projectiles. She knew his method by then, but she failed every time she tried to pretend that she was more or less tired than she actually was or to adjust the difficulty curve.

When she was done with the next series of exercises, Zax demonstrated that his massages were indeed a boon for recovery. She was putty in his hands, unable to move even if she wanted to, and he made it hard to want anything more than just let go. Even her tail wasn’t neglected, and she hadn’t even realised it was so tense and sore.

“Wow. I didn’t know it could feel that way. I don’t even use it that much. Isn’t it costly to come here that often?” Aran continued the conversation when he was done.

She had glanced at the prices of several services and balked at some of them. She didn’t know how rich Zax actually was, but there was no way it was enough to splurge that much that often.

“I have a membership. I mostly use it for the discounts on everything and priority in reservations, but there are other advantages. Drawbacks too, it is revoked if you do not use it often enough, so you have to give up or buy a new one.”

“That… seems like a weird system. Coercion is not a good way to retain customers.”

“The idea is to prioritise the people more serious about their physical development by making it more affordable and convenient. If they are serious, they will come here at least that often anyway, and if they are even more serious, they will come more often and get more bonuses. It also adds an excuse some need to be allowed here as often.”

“I’m glad the entertainment area doesn’t work like that.” Aran noted absentmindedly.

“It does. Everything non-essential in the Shelter is geared towards personal development or Shelter expansion. And the dot doesn’t have many options for expansion.” The human chuckled. “You probably never noticed because you rarely pay for yourself. But video games are excellent to train various skills, and not just physical. I never understood why they didn’t provide nutritive complements. Probably one of those cases where social expectations hinder development. Or maybe the serums for mental development are not cost effective? Well, speaking of, here.”

“Those were special complementary nutritive solutions?” Aran asked as she took her nth marked bottle of the day.

“Some were. Some were diluted normal nutritive pills. Some were just water. I wanted to test your body’s absorption rate in different circumstances. I did not tell you to avoid a placebo effect. What did you think it was?”

“I wanted to ask all day, but I kept forgetting.” Aran answered with an annoyed voice. “I just knew you gave them for a reason and I didn’t have enough energy to care beyond that.”

“You seem energic enough now.” Zax casually noted.

“Yes. NO! I mean, maybe?”

Zax chuckled, but stopped her before she could embarrass herself further.

“Relax, we’re done for today. It’s getting late anyways.”

“Oh finally!” Aran laid straight back down where she was. “I’ll feel today for a while.”

“Oh, don’t be so dramatic. I’m sure it was not that bad, and I bet you didn’t even notice the time.”

Her silence was confirmation enough. She rested a bit longer before they went to shower, change clothes, and then it was back to Zax’s.

“There is still one thing that bothers me.”

Aran interrupted the relative silence of the light road in the evening.

“I did not push you so hard you could not stand back up, so you do not feel like we tested your limits and your willpower?”

“… There are still two things that bother me.” She amended.

“Haha. Fair enough. I just did not want you to hurt yourself or your own pride, and I thought it would be more effective to not have you need more than an hour of rest between exercises. Pushing a single stat so far for so long would be harmful and would not give representative results. And it would annoy you and bore you to death! Haha.”

“Hm.” She begrudgingly agreed.

“And the other point?”

“Well, I know I’m not an athlete, but I’d still say I’m pretty fit. So why couldn’t I keep up with you? I know you spend most of your time programming, learning or working in a workshop. I mean, no offence, but I use my body a lot more than you.”

Zax hesitated a bit, but decided it wasn’t worth making a fuss:

“I do not know if you noticed, but I used your nanites to follow your physical state and adapt the exercises in consequence.” The foxy girl nodded. She already thought as much. “I have a lot more nanites than you, and I have had them for a lot longer.”

“But you said you weren’t enhanced!?” Aran was shocked.

“I am not. But they give me hindsight on my own body. Like, I have a program that constantly diagnose my body. It let me optimise my physical conditioning. I still have to put in all the work and eat appropriately, I just do it more effectively. Knowing objectively when to stop and when push helps a lot. Though I only use it to stay healthy; as you said, a nerd like me does not need to be very strong. I could never keep up with the actual sports buff back there.”

“They seemed to value you though.”

“They know the value of a nerd’s informed opinion.” Zax bragged. “They will not always follow my advice, but I can give them a new perspective, or confirm their own.”

When they finally arrived home, Aran collapsed on the couch without even bothering to unfold it. Zax chuckled as he put his bags in order, shaking his head. He had many empty bottles that would need to be recycled. The data of the day needed to be sorted, and he had spotted several points of interest. He entrusted the tasks to his personal workshop’s computer; the day had been taxing for him too. He was a regular at working out, but his own sessions were never that long and exhaustive either.

He didn’t stay in his workshop long, but Aran was already asleep when he left it. Another inconsistency; after such a day, she should be physically exhausted, but unable to sleep. And being so high energy, she should have at least slightly recuperated by now. At least enough to make her own bed. Her energy consumption and recuperation… An idea was starting to sprout in his mind, but it was based on too many speculations to be seriously considered.

The human put that thought aside and unfolded his friend’s bed under her, without waking her up. He covered her, then went to his own bed. He was exhausted and looked forward to a nice, restful sleep.

It took a little nano-technological cheat, but he quickly fell asleep too.

An unknown period of time later, the bedroom’s walls lit up with slanted, red and blue stripes running to the side, and a blaring alarm rang from all the devices that could make noise, forcefully waking him up.

[Emergency!]

[Support requested!]