Once the implant finished syncing, Greg asked Narita a few more questions about its use before heading back to the transmutation chamber to try out the suit and experiment with his ability more. According to Narita, the implant didn't do much besides allowing the user to interact with the Technocracy's technology and acting as data storage. The kicker was that it recorded all your actions perfectly, allowing you to replay them over and over to study what you'd done and how you could improve. It could also influence your actions slightly, helping you become more consistent. Apparently, if you weren't an immortal death cloud, the Technocracy was a terrifying opponent, because they were all experts. Whatever they put their minds to doing, they improved at a terrifying rate due to the implant's assistance. At least, for physical tasks. It couldn't help you think better, so mental tasks like strategy and tactics, or controlling energy, were still on the individual.
Greg made himself a suit and stepped inside. The moment the suit enclosed him, he felt his new implant connect with it, and he was suddenly aware of everything he could do. The suit was packed with tiny pathways for the energy to follow, branching off to power different devices. Pathways to the chest for the force field, to the right arm to create those energy beam attacks (which apparently didn't need a weapon… was it just for accuracy?), the left arm for projecting shields, and various other devices all over. Greg briefly wondered at the multiple pathways that all led to the same device, before realizing it had to be so that even more energy could be pumped into the devices. Obviously only so much energy could move through a pathway, so multiple pathways would allow even more power.
Greg then turned his focus to the energy source sitting at the small of his back. Carefully, he began to draw a small amount of energy down the simplest path towards the force field generator, carefully threading it through the tiny pathways. He quickly figured out why Narita said this was so difficult. It wasn't just a problem of guiding the energy, but holding the entire thread stable! You had to keep the whole construct in mind as you moved it, making sure it all stayed within the channel, not even scraping the sides, or the entire thing would collapse and you'd have to start all over. It took Greg four tries to get the thinnest thread he could manage to the force field generator, finally activating it, the implant quickly taking over to maintain the connection.
Greg let out a relieved sigh. "Okay! Weak as shit, but it's working! Progress! Now… the weapon system." Greg began to guide another thin thread of energy down his right arm towards the weapon system, but the moment he began to manipulate the containment field, the thread leading to the force field snapped as the implant lost control. Greg blinked. "So… either I control the energy, or the implant does?" He had the implant reestablish the connection with the force field generator, before taking over again, focusing on maintaining the connection as he did, but as the control shifted, the thread shook, a part brushing up against the side and the entire thing collapsing again.
"Damn it!" Greg cursed, before letting a sigh and deciding to just start from scratch. He carefully guided the thread to the force field generator, only failing once, before concentrating on maintaining the connection as he drew out a new thread towards the weapon system. After failing over ten times as he either messed up maintaining the force field connection, messed up guiding the weapon system connection, or both, he finally managed to connect them both, letting out a small yelp as the weapon system fired and hit him in the leg. He'd forgotten what he was trying to do…
Greg coughed, letting the implant take control and pointing his palm at the wall as the weapon system fired, creating a small scorch mark on it. He then switched between maintaining the force field, firing the weapon, and doing both at the same time. Now that he'd done both, the implant could do anything in-between as well. Essentially, once he'd done something, the implant could then do any subset of what he'd done on its own. So all he had to focus on was pushing his peak higher and higher. Greg let out a sigh. "Great, yet another thing to train."
As he sat down to practice guiding the energy to the different devices, he reflected on the similarities between using the suit and casting spells. Both required focus as you guided energy, though the spells were a lot more forgiving, given that the whole thing wouldn't collapse the moment you made a minor mistake. Conversely, they were a lot more aggravating mentally due to their complex patterns and incomprehensible rules that meant the effectiveness varied wildly with even minor adjustments to its structure. If only he could use the implant for that, right?
Greg paused. Wait… why couldn't he use the implant for casting spells? Sure, mana messed with electronics, but he could always fix it with his smoke, right? If his phone was any indication, it wouldn't even lose any data… of course, it probably couldn't guide his mana the way it guided energy, but just helping him remember the complex patterns and his adjustments would be huge. Particularly if it could help him compare between them all… one of his biggest issues was that it was hard to keep the entire thing in his head, forcing him to focus on making adjustments in small sections, instead of the holistic approach that would probably be more effective… he'd already noticed that changes in one section would create inefficiencies in another.
Well, he didn't need any more convincing. In another section of the ship, the Greg with the mental enhancement ability opened his eyes as he finished attempting yet another variation of the sound manipulation spell. A small section of his head unfroze before turning into the implant. A brief sync window appeared, before quickly disappearing as it found his brain already fit the template it had stored. "Alright, let's try this." He muttered, quickly reforming the spell matrix he'd just used. He then used a few more of the variations he'd found effective, or at least more effective, before he had the implant display them all side by side, studying them to see if he could notice any similarities.
"Let's see…" Greg muttered, looking between the different images. "This part seems to work in all of them? Or is that part of what's keeping them from being efficient?" He frowned. "Maybe I should study some of my failures as well?" He wondered, quickly casting some of his least efficient attempts as well, before displaying them alongside the others. "Okay, throughout all my succ- er, more successful attempts, these parts stay the same… When this part is like this, it works better, and when this other part is like this it works well too, but if I do both it's crap. There's got to be some balance I'm missing there. It seems like this loop needs to be tighter? This line could be denser…"
Greg spent a bit more time picking through the various spell variations, finding various faults he'd never noticed in the process of casting the spell. Keeping the entire thing stable in his mind was hard enough without trying to pick it apart. Finally, he felt he had a workable model, and he began casting again, carefully forming the matrix and… "Fourteen percent!" Greg crowed victoriously. He had his first tier one spell! Progress!
Greg chuckled. Well, that took care of magic and the suit… He quickly added implants to his other two mage bodies and made a few more Gregs with suits to practice energy control as well. Now though… he had to deal with his actual ability. While several Gregs played with the suits on one side of the transmutation chamber, another Greg sat on the other, frowning at a small cloud of smoke, considering it thoughtfully. "What are you?" He muttered.
Even after all this time, the smoke was an enigma to him. How did it dissolve matter? How did it simulate what it dissolved? How did it become real? He didn't wonder how it defeated entropy. No matter what happened to his smoke, it was still smoke. All he had to do was turn it back into smoke and then he could turn it into whatever he wanted again. Like water spinning a turbine, he could let the water flow through, then turn it all to smoke and send it back to the beginning before starting again. He could do the same with any reaction, because his smoke took no energy to manipulate… Maybe he was part god or something?
Greg shook his head, refocusing on the smoke. In particular, the fact that he could freely manipulate it. It seemed to ignore most, if not all, physical laws in smoke form. It even ignored barriers, as long as they weren't energy based like mana or the force field. Hmmm… that implied that the smoke was physical, it was just so… small? That it could slip through any gap. Only field-like barriers, that weren't particle based, could stop it. Or maybe the smoke was a field itself? That might explain some of its eccentricities. And when it froze it was turning into particles! That… made sense? It was at least internally consistent. He wasn't sure how to actually test it though.
If it was true, what did that tell him? What would be special about his smoke being a field? He considered it for a moment. Fields had frequencies, right? That was a thing… Did that mean his smoke had frequencies? Maybe that's what he was doing when he simulated things using his smoke? Tuning it to a frequency that allowed it to act like what he'd dissolved? Again, that made sense, but how could he test it? He considered it for a moment. Well, if the smoke was just cobbling together frequencies to simulate objects, then shouldn't he be able to isolate frequencies? Instead of creating a pillow, he could have it just make a soft frequency?
Greg cocked his head, staring at the smoke. He waved his hand through it, feeling nothing, and then he tried to make it soft and… "Oh, that's freaky." Greg chuckled, a soft feeling covering his hand as he moved it through the smoke. He then paused. "Could I make it feel sha- ah!" He yelped as he yanked his hand out of the smoke, checking it for injuries, which were completely non-existent. The smoke just felt like a thousand blades cutting into his skin, it hadn't actually cut him. For that, he'd need to have the smoke simulate hard and form it into an edge. But then it wouldn't have any weight behind it… ooooh, could he just do mass without weight?!? He paused. Probably not… a factor of mass was that it had weight. The two were inseparable. Unless he could make an anti-weight frequency that would cancel out the weight of the mass? Greg rolled his eyes and shook his head. Now that would be ridiculous.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Still, this confirmed his theory, didn't it? His smoke was a field with frequencies that determined how it interacted with the world. He just needed to parse what frequencies had which effects… for example, if he simulated hard, would the smoke actually be hard or would it just feel hard? Judging based on soft and sharp, he was leaning towards- hold on, why was he not just trying it? Greg rolled his eyes again and turned his smoke hard, before swiping his hand at it. "Okay, now that is weird." Greg muttered, swinging his hand through the smoke that he swore was as hard as marble.
So he could just simulate hard. He needed something more. Something to give the smoke substance… all he could think of was mass. Mass was substance, right? Except… force fields had substance without mass, right? At least without weight… but that was a feature of another field… or was it a reaction? The force field was created by a device and required a constant input of energy… that'd be like simulating lightning or heat on its own, instead of creating the condition for the reaction to happen. He didn't think that was possible. Or was it? Greg concentrated on the cloud of smoke for a moment, before shaking his head. Yeah, not possible. He supposed he could just make the force field device, then pump some…
Greg froze, blinking. He- he just wasn't very bright, now was he? The entire point of the implant and the suit was finding a way to move energy from the energy source to the device, and what was his smoke except the perfect delivery system! One of the Gregs in the suits took control of some smoke, sending it to the weapon system, pointing his hand at the wall, and turning it to energy. Immediately, a beam of energy tore through the air, burning a giant hole in the wall of the transmutation chamber! All the Gregs stared at the wall for a moment, before bursting out laughing in unison, dark chuckles echoing through the chamber. Now that was some power! He could work with that.
The sinister laughter suddenly stopped as Greg frowned. "Ah shit. I am the villain, aren't I?" He let out a sigh. At least he was a villain with power now. He grinned as he glanced at the hole again. What would he call that? His trump card? He'd still need to work on magic and whatnot, because obviously he wouldn't be able to grow this attack. He had a hard limit on the amount of energy he could transform at once. Plus, he still needed to explore how his smoke worked… Greg sighed again. Time to get back to the grind.
He experimented a bit more with his new attack and figured out it was even more limited than he'd thought. There was a limit to how much energy the device could handle before it broke down, which wasn't even all that much! Barely even a percentage of an energy source! Which, to be fair, was still enough for him to melt through yards of steel, but it was disappointing compared to the sheer amount of energy he was capable of pumping into the device. At least he didn't have to work on energy control anymore.
*
"Do you think I'm evil?" Greg asked Tessa as she woke up.
She sat up and blinked blearily at him for a moment. "Greg… the fuck are you talking about?"
"Well, according to Narita, I have quite a few classic hallmarks of a villain, and I was wondering if I seemed evil to you." Greg elaborated.
Tessa frowned. "Greg, didn't we just have this conversation? All you do is try to save people. Why would you think you're evil?"
"I can be evil and still save people." Greg retorted. "Maybe I'm just trying to make myself look good so people will follow me blindly."
Tessa raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you?"
"Well, no, but it's an example of how saving people doesn't necessarily mean I'm not evil." Greg explained. "Also, I know I'm not actually evil, I'm wondering if I seem evil. Like, could people misunderstand and think I'm some kind of dark lord?"
Tessa let out a groan as she fell back onto the bed. "Greg, it is way too early for this shit!"
"But it's important! What if the World is setting me up to be a villain! I don't want heroes deciding I need to be put down and coming after me all bloodlusted! Heroes always win!" Greg protested.
"Then just don't be evil!" Tessa countered.
"But I have a villainous personality! I mean, have you heard me laugh?!?" Greg retorted.
Tessa paused. "I think you have a cute laugh."
Greg blinked. "I- thank you? But it still sounds evil."
"But it's cutely evil." Tessa replied.
Greg frowned. "I think you may be biased."
"Well I am your girlfriend, the mother of your child, and I might as well be your wife at this point. I'm pretty sure I'm obligated to be biased when it comes to you." Tessa smirked.
Greg let out a sigh. "You are absolutely going to be my dark queen… you're going to need to develop some sort of mental illness though. All dark queens are batshit crazy. That's just the rules."
"Oh really?" Tessa snickered slightly. "Maybe I can come down with a small case of nymphomania~" She winked.
"Well…" Greg began, before pausing as Tessa tossed her panties at him. "What were we talking about again?" Greg asked after a lengthy… diversion.
"You think you're evil." Tessa muttered, snuggling up next to him with a satisfied smile.
"Right! Or at least I seem evil, you know?" Greg replied.
"Even if you do, what are you going to do about it?" Tessa asked with a sigh. "Are you going to change how you act?"
"Well no… I like who I am." Greg answered. "Plus, putting on an act to seem good actually sounds like it'd make me more evil."
"Oh yeah, those douchebags who seem like the hero's friend only to stab them in the back when they least expect it!" Tessa snapped her fingers as she remembered that trope as well. "But couldn't you solve that by simply not stabbing them in the back?"
"What if I have to stab them in the back?" Greg asked, raising an eyebrow at her. "Sometimes heroes are assholes."
"I feel like that would mean they aren't a hero…" Tessa frowned.
"No, no, the thing about heroes is that they're idealistic and trying to do what's right. That doesn't mean they're actually right or that they're even all that good a person. Part of the reason they're so easily misled, you know? A classic aspect of the hero's struggle is ending up doing the wrong thing before you do the right thing." Greg explained.
"True…" Tessa nodded. "Hey, what if you become an anti-hero! They seem evil but do good! That's you!"
"I dunno… anti-heroes usually have morally questionable methods." Greg muttered, before pausing as Tessa raised an eyebrow at him. "What? My methods are completely- mostly moral! I do what's necessary to fix the problem!"
"You do realize that's classic anti-hero talk, right?" Tessa commented.
Greg paused, before letting out a sigh. "Fuck it, better than being the villain."
"Would that make me the morally gray rogue you're trying to keep on the straight and narrow?" Tessa wondered.
Greg snorted. "No, you're my tenuous connection to the light keeping me from going off the deep end."
"Oh, crap, I am!" Tessa exclaimed. "You're totally an anti-hero."
"It does seem to fit the more I think about it." Greg grumbled.
The two fell silent, considering the implications of that for a while. "Doesn't the tenuous connection to the light always die?" Tessa finally muttered.
"Yeah…" Greg nodded. "Though sometimes they only seem to die before coming back as a villain."
"Probably not how it'd happen in this case though…" Tessa sighed.
"No. Probably not." Greg agreed.
"So what are we going to do?" Tessa asked.
Greg hesitated. "We- we could leave? Or at least you could leave. If you aren't involved, then… maybe the World would ignore you?"
Tessa gave him a look. "Do you really think that would work?"
"No, but… Tessa, I can't lose you." Greg replied, his expression twisting. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. Slowly the World had been conspiring to push him over the edge: providing villains to get him used to killing and having power, trapping him in the transmutation chamber to make life seem meaningless, the impossible situation with the Technocracy and the Republic making it seem like he had to take matters into his own hand… losing Tessa would be the last straw. He'd have no more reason to hold back.
"Greg… no matter what happens, even- even if something does happen to me, you can't give in." Tessa insisted, her voice cracking slightly.
Greg closed his eyes and took a deep breath, before letting it out slowly. "I won't. I promise I won't." He assured her, determination filling his voice. He wouldn't give in. He wouldn't let the World turn him into a villain. He wasn't about to roll over and let some stupid Core dictate his life. He would do everything in his power to keep Tessa safe. However… if the World did manage to take Tessa from him… he would tear it apart, piece by piece, until nothing remained of whatever force thought it was a good idea to piss him off!