Novels2Search
Avitus Volten's journey through space and time
Side Story 1 - Some Bytes In A Black Box

Side Story 1 - Some Bytes In A Black Box

After Avitus Volten, Droftachi’s President and COO, along with his assistant were sucked into the dimensional rift, the crack in reality continued to grow, generating more power than the research base could store and use. At that time, Droftachi’s Headquarters, the island it resided on and the military force surrounding it were all caught up in a huge explosion caused by the quantum energy overflow.

All that remained from the huge base, spanning on over 2 square kilometers, and more than 100 military grade aircrafts and vessels, is a small black box now resting on the sea floor. For years to come, a recording will be heard from it.

Dear Diary, today I’ve… no, no, no, NO

Dammit, I sound like a sissy…

Name’s Volten, Avitus Volten… OK, screw it.

Today I’ve decided to keep something like an electronic journal. As for the reason I’m doing this, well, it may sound stupid but I’d like to think of it as a checkpoint system…

I sounded way cooler inside my head…

Well, the main idea is that if I ever stop, I’ll listen to this recording then remind myself that I must do something better that was recorded at last point. This way I’ll always go forward, I will constantly improve myself.

By the way, this is the first recording and we’re currently on the 3rd of May 2024.

The first project that I want to embark on is a small game, a game that I’d like to play myself. I just downloaded the latest open-software GameDevsUnited engine and decide that I’ll attempt to make a RPG. As I’m not…

I’ve finally completed it, but I’ve realized 2 things.

One, after all that bug testing I don’t find the game as fun as I thought I would.

Two, there are a thousand similar game to mine, some of them even better.

Quite depressing really, but there’s still the satisfaction of a completed project so I can’t complain too much. Oh, and before I forget, this is the 7th entry on 23rd of June.

I will take a small break to decide on the next project and then start it after my birthday.

I’ve found the perfect idea, oh, and it’s the 8th entry on the 29th of June. I will create a self-evolving game. This is the idea I’ve come with after the discussion I’ve had with my friends at my 17th anniversary.

You know, like there’s an a.i. that learns from its mistakes and starts playing a game better and better until it gets perfect. Why can’t there be a game-making a.i. coupled with the self-learning one creates a perfect balanced system. All I need to do…

45th entry, 5th of January 2025.

After letting the program run for the course of the holidays, I found out that it’s not the resounding success I’ve expected it to be. It successfully generated 1 mini-game, with a total playthrough of less than 4minutes. It’s a goddamn good game, but it’s too fucking short.

When I’ve given it the command to generate the best game it could in 2 weeks, I’ve expected it to be at least 30minutes long. Now that I have an actual test I can roughly estimate the time in which it can create a game that size. I’d only need to wait for about 2400years.

You know what, I’ll transform it into a virus. Yes, a virus. It will spread to new computers and use a part of the unused processing power from the infected computers to contribute to the creation of the perfect game. As compensation for using the other’s resources, I’ll make the game free. I’ll also make the virus part self-developing, so It can learn to bypass anything that is created to block it and…

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

Sorry, I started rambling, guess I was more pissed than I thought that the program I’ve worked for more than half a year is unusable. Not only it’d be immoral to create such a virus, it’d also be illegal.

46th entry, 10th of January 2025.

I can’t get the idea of making such a virus out of my head. Well, after some thought I’ve reached the conclusion that all that processing power is wasted anyway, so why not put it to good use. Like creating the best game anyone can enjoy.

Yea, I’ll do that and I’ll call it Project: Mario. Starting today…

178th entry, 24th of June 2027.

I’ve applied all the finishing touches. Seems I’ve managed to complete it in time for my birthday.

The hardest part was making it able to receive new orders from me without making myself a target by backtracking them. For what may I need to give it new orders? Well, let’s just say it’s payment for all the hard work I’ve put into it. While its main goal, and, at the same time, its cover, remains to create the best game in the world, it will be able to allocate a part of the processing power to new projects if I tell it to.

Tomorrow I’ll go to an internet café and launch Project: Mario there. Then I think I’ll take a break and enjoy my 20th anniversary. Then maybe I’ll for other subjects that I could interest myself into.

179th entry, 3rd of July 2027.

Project: Mario is a huge success in more ways than I initially ever thought of. Yesterday, I laughed so hard. On the news there was an attempt to find out on what this ‘new virus’ is about and all they’ve got was a pop-up saying “It’s me, Mario!”.

Jokes aside, THE GAME is already up and running, its content is increasing faster than players can finish it. While I know that it will slow down as more content has an exponential growth in processing p…

And I’ve found what I want to do next, quantum physics. I know, but I swear it’s not completely random. I feel like I’ve hit a barrier with a.i. programming as I do not have enough power to take it to another level, so I’ve found the perfect solution, the quantum computer. It also has an exponential growth in processing po…

194th entry, 26th of October 2027.

I’m starting to understand quantum physics to the point where I can come up with new theories. But here’s where I’ve hit a wall, I have no way to make experiments. Even if I am to use Mario for simulations I still need a lot of experimental data.

If I am to buy equipment and materials for such experiments I need a lot of money, money that I don’t have. My only project so far that can generate money is Mario, and that’s a free ticket to jail.

I think I will start a company specialized in programming. I already have experience programing Mario and I believe I can make some a.i. that I can sell.

I have no naming sense, so don’t expect something great.

As a side-note I’ve also started THE GAME and while I’m not as entertained as I thought I’d be, I still enjoy playing it for 1-2hours a day.

256th entry, 4th of September 2028.

Today marks the day of Droftachi’s first product launch, and also for its second, third and fourth. More are to follow soon after. None are coded by me thou.

I’ve realized that coding manually would be a huge waste of time as I can make a self-evolving a.i. that does that for me. The processing power needed for it to start working is insane, that’s no problem for me. Although I hate relaying on Mario so much, I’ll use it until I have a better alternative.

Speaking of Mario, THE GAME officially has the highest player count online since 2 months ago. People started realizing the connection between Mario and THE GAME, but there’s no proof and it’s not like most of the people actually care.

And speaking of THE GAME, its VR version is almost complete. The complete VR capsules released half a year ago were a monumental success, so it’s only natural that the world’s most popular game needs to be ported as well.

289th entry, 2nd of July 2029

As I promised, I completely stopped playing after my birthday. I’ve been playing THE GAME on VR for too long as I didn’t had much to do and I was waiting for fund to accumulate in order to start researching into quantum physics seriously.

Droftrachi earned more money than I initially thought it will and I already have more than enough to buy some private labs. I will also use this chance and move to Western Europe. All European countries became closer and there’s free trade and no borders, but Russia doesn’t like that at all. Their influence in Europe decreased considerably and their President declared that he will ‘remedy’ that. That said I feel like it’s safer to get as far away from them as possible.

302th entry, 9th of March 2030

I haven’t been updating my journal as often as I used to. My program lately was experimenting, running simulations and sleeping on repeat. But I’m close, I’m very close. The secret to quantum physics is the quantum energy, as I’ve called the theorized energy existing in the inter-dimensional space separating parallel universes.

We don’t have access to this space, but I’m almost sure that an inferior version of this energy exists all around us. This energy can be perceived only by equipment based on it, resulting in a loop. I found the way of breaking this loop, I’ll create the first tool capable of harnessing this energy and using it, without knowing of its existence. It’s like having a flashlight with empty accumulators work, because it’s in a room with supposed static electricity.

It sound far-fetched, but all the research data and all the simulations point towards it having a 97,8% chance of working. I can’t even imagine in how many ways this type of energy can be used.