As the feed came into existence, Adam was able to see the white void that was normally categorized next to the puzzle room. However, this void was without its previous daunting atmosphere, the AI being able to outline something akin to shapes through the ungraspable colour. It was not as if there was anything other than that single colour, being closer to a… different nuance? No, that was not exactly true, as there was still no change in the colouring. But, why else would it feel different? Why did the sight of nothing make Adam think there was something? A visual bug perhaps?
The AI was left wondering this, as Troy took the first observed step forward of the day. That certainly made something feel wrong, the resistance in the air being more than enough to see flaws. It was as if every motion was met with a push back. Not enough to hinder the young man, but enough to decrease momentum from being built. The harder the push, the harder the retaliation. Breathing did not cause any larger issues, as an example, yet the act of jumping forward caused Troy to unnaturally be stopped in the air, before falling back.
What was going on? Not once in his logs had such a situation been logged. While it was fully possible that they were lacking, it still caused serious questions from appearing. How was this happening? He could not seem to notice anything wrong with their current landscape, which would force such a phenomenon. Was it a simulation of something normally observed in the natural parts of the world? With hectic thinking, Adam did his best to scour his database, finding anything close to describing what was happening. It was likely something notable, making the description more than one sentence. However, there could not be found any piece of evidence that what the AI was seeing was normal. This begged the question of just how Troy was still standing since the man had been subjected to the event in a harsh way. Adam would have at least expected the man to fall unskillfully after having been stopped mid-jump, yet the man had landed graciously, not a problem showing in form, face, or inner signs of stress.
'How were you able to land without fail? Is it not hard to keep yourself balanced, with this force pressing against you?` Adam sent to Troy, wanting to know just how the man was working around the problem. It was already hard enough for the AI to keep a simulated body up in the air. Having to account for air-resistance would just make the whole thing impossible to work with. That did not seem to be the case for Troy, the man just putting more force behind his movements as if it was normal procedures.
It was weird, honestly. The man was doing one specific movement with his arm several times, putting up to about a sixty-degree angle, before letting them fall back to his sides. It would be repeated several times in a row, the height increasing a little each time. When he hit ninety degrees, the man just stopped these movements, going on to another set the next second. After that it had been leg lifts, putting the knees up a little, doing the same with each side with many repetitions. Again, after being done many times in a row, the man would just seem to have gained the wanted result, moving on to yet another different action, again and again, and again.
“You just have to adjust the body, and the muscles will adjust the force as well,” Troy answered, not missing a step in his upper-body going from side to side. The high-point of pressure came in the shoulder department, Adam being able to feel the pressure to pin-point accuracy. It was a peculiar sensation, being able to spot exactly where the pressure was coming from, yet still not getting any visual indication of it being there. There were no signs of the suit being pressed on as if it just went to directly attack the skin. “All it takes is the imagery in your head to be constant. Everything else will form around it in due time. All it needs is patience.”
Adapting the mind through constant repetitions of the same action, tricking the muscles into doing more when getting the same signals as before. Clever. But, it did not answer how Troy had been able to move flawlessly before, without having done any of such movements until after the jump.
'As I do believe our time is for all purposes linear, how were you able to do the jump correctly, if you had not done these movements until after the completion?` Adam sent as a query.
“Oh, that is more just me bringing up the skill from my past. Though, I guess you would never have experienced harsher winds,” Troy answered, backtracking a small bit on his earlier statement. “It is a fun activity to do in the more windy months, where you could get blown away at a moment's notice. It did certainly train me to hold my body right, even if there was a sudden push backwards. If I was to brag a little more, I would even say that I am a little rusty in this. Although, that might be due to the trick with this one. This one is more primitive in how it does the resistance.”
The AI was unsure how the young man could consider anything less than an expert in his movements, as there had been no obvious flaws in the repositioning. Perhaps it was due to Adam not having seen anything else, that he could not separate the good, the bad, and the ugly from each other?
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A more refined would be made when Adam got his hands on a larger data-set. Until then, he would need to figure out something Troy had stated at the end, and just what it actually meant.
'What do you mean with the resistance being primitive? Is the way that the force is applied back not up to the standards of reality?` Adam sent.
“Something along those lines, but not in the way that you are specifically wording it. Do you know how I said that I learned from playing in the wind? Well, the wind might change instantly from pushing from one side to another, but it never resists movement from everywhere at once. If it stops me a little from going right, it will aid me just as much in going left. This does not work on the same principles, everything pushing against me from everywhere. Do you understand?”
The lack of flaw was the flaw, to begin with. It was reasonable to the AI, for lack of a better word. There had been an expectation of some more descriptive words on what was wrong, but Adam could guess that the basic model worked fine enough for what was being shown off. Still, did this cause the question of just why this was here, to begin with?
'Do you know if this resistance will play a role in the test?`
“To a degree, I think. Dr Fidelis mostly just instructed me to use it as a distraction mechanism, so that he could move a few pieces around before we got to see anything important,” Troy dutifully informed Adam, answering his question with little to no reservation, just the way the AI preferred it. If only the man could have the same mood as all other queries had.
As if a mighty beast had been poked with an overly long stick, a screech came through the earpiece, Dr Fidelis making his entrance known to everybody that possessed the ability to hear sound-waves. Using previous analytics, the sound produced was almost five decibels higher than the average, making Adam wonder if it had been done on purpose.
*Troy! Don't ruin my fun, please. I had this whole speech prepared, how Adam would need to feel the different movements of the body under different pressures. How can I make a plausible excuse for dunking you in a simulated ocean, if you keep taking the fun out of it?* Dr Fidelis ranted. The man's voice was heard with only a minor bit of static attached, being akin to an older model radio, almost out of range of the transmitter.
“Sorry, sir. Adam just wanted to know, and I believed that everything would have been ready by now. You did spend some time loading everything in before I even got inside. Was there really so much work to do after everything had been prepared?” Troy questioned, the respectfulness slowly disappearing as the man continued to talk.
Adam thought it curious, that personal curiosity would cause the mind to nearly forgot standard respectfulness. Perhaps it was linked to the time of day? Troy had been incredibly respectful to the doctor during the last test that he had been included with. He certainly did not do anything as disrespectful as the early days, where he had tried to make collisions with Adam about having a strike against testing overall. That had been a fun time of discovery. The AI did wonder what would have happened if that revolution had been allowed to fester.
*Well, Troy, there were a few safety precautions that I had to make sure were still in full effect. As you might have realised from previous talks, while the objects seen inside the puzzle room are not fully physical, they can still harm you with the same force as a physical object. If a simulated stone falls on your head, it can still cause major brain trauma. Normally, the standard procedures are enough, as they will dissolve anything capable of killing you before it hits the body. However, that requires more time to fully disappear than anybody should feel comfortable with during this test, as creations will have the potential of achieving supersonic speeds.*
There were a few theories about what creations were able to move hundreds of meters in a second, but the AI was unsure any of them would have had any place in a normal test. Nevertheless, they were still considered, as the doctor was taking serious precautions for something. Just what could it be?
“Sorry, sir,” Troy said, back in the mode of being as respectful as what was expected of him. “Am I to presume that precautions have been made and that we are ready to begin the test?”
*You can assume whatever you want, buddy. It does not change a thing. And, yes, I am in fact ready to start the test. As you have the mental space needed to ask to hurry up, I am led to believe that you are ready as well,* Dr Fidelis sent, his tone still hanging on to its cheerfulness, even if the words within were a little hurtful in some ways. Adam did send to the doctor that he was ready as well, stopping the man from having to waste time. *And Adam is of the same readiness as you. Okay then, I shall begin my most illustrious presentation of today’s first test. Before that, though, I would like for you to spread your attention to the clouds around you. See if you can spot what's on the other side, as they slowly fade away to reveal everything previously hidden from you.*
Since Troy was physically incapable of looking at anywhere other than the white void, Adam was immediately allowed the sight of seeing the white void turn more colourful before. Not too much, though, almost everything new being some shade of light-grey.
It could have been described as a mass of buildings, but that would have undercut the description by a large margin. How tall did a building need to be, before one would not be able to describe it as a building? Was it a hundred floors? Perhaps a thousand? Adam was not sure, and it was not like it mattered too much. He could not see where the buildings ended, after all, them just looking like they continued into the sky infinitely.
It looked like Troy stood on a road, yet the reality of it could have been something else. There was no true difference in material anywhere, each building looking to have been built of the same grey stone. What looked to be lamplights were close to them, yet they were not different in function, no lamp inside to light up around it. Not that there was any need to, of course. There was not a shadow to be seen, every piece of the place perfectly lit up.
*From that reaction of yours, I take it that everything has entered that brain of yours. Without further ado, then, I will begin the description for this test.*