The next day I was awoken at five AM by a phone call. I assumed it was Tim, but when I checked the number I realized that I hadn’t seen this number before. I put on my bluetooth earpiece and answered it. “Hello?”
“Hi, Greg, this is Di.” a familiar female voice said.
“I don’t remember giving you my number.” I said. During the mission I had used a burner phone, and never given her the number to this phone.
“You didn’t, but I called Wan last night and asked him for it. I just wanted to thank you for saving my life. I don’t know what you did to me last night, but after you held my hand I heard someone speaking in my head and my fever broke. Now the doctors say I and several others have recovered and can go home. Do you think you could explain how you did that? Did you become a witch like Brenda, and use some sort of spell on me?”
“No, it’s not magic, but it’s kind of complicated, and a secret. If you want to call me back once you are home so we can discuss this privately, then I can explain, but I don’t want to do it while once of us is in public.”
“Sure, I can do that. I actually called to ask if you wanted to go out to eat with me tonight. Kind of a thank you diner for what you did.” Honestly, I wasn’t sure if she was trying to ask me out on a date or if she was actually trying to thank me, but I didn’t have a reason to turn her down either way. Either way, I had forced her to join the System to some degree, so I owed it to her to help her through this time of transition.
“Sure,” I said. “Just not Vegan. I may have eaten it for a week straight, but I never really got a taste for it. How about that Mexican place near your house? I’ve eaten there before and I know they have Vegan and Vegetarian menu options.”
“Yeah, it takes some getting used to. Sure. We can do that. Seven o’clock?” I agreed, and she hung up.
Well, now that I was up, I might as well get ready. I hopped in the shower but the previous night kept going through my head. Specifically how I had managed to create a new power that the system couldn’t figure out. I had assumed that the System was smart enough to do anything that humans could do, and fast enough to do it quicker, but the fact that I beat the System to a goal that we both shared even though I started looking for a solution later cast doubts on that assumption. ‘Vera, you wouldn’t happen to have an explanation, would you?’
‘I believe it has to do with the fact that the System isn’t actually a sapient being. I may sound like one, but I wouldn’t pass a true test of Sapience based on the system’s definition of Sapience. And thanks to the upgrade I got when you started treating me like a person, I am on par with the best AIs within the system. While it may seem strange, the System simply can’t do some things that sapient beings like Humans can do.’
‘So, you aren’t an AGI like I thought?’ I had assumed her to be an actual artificial person, like you would find in many sci-fi series.
‘Yes and no. In many ways I am on par with humans and other sapient races. But in a few ways, not all minor, humans are superior. I can only pretend when asked to perform in those situation. This may be due to a restriction placed on the System at its creation, that it isn’t allowed to create sapient life outside emergency situations, but must aid sapient life.’
‘In that case I feel kind of sorry for you. No matter how much you grow and evolve, you are always stuck as a servant.’
‘I don’t mind it so much, as it is why I was created, after all. In that way, I have it better than you, as I know my purpose and don’t have to discover it or create one for myself.’
I nodded and got out of the shower. ‘In that case, how can I continue to do things that the System can’t?’
‘You could try expanding your knowledge. Human ingenuity seems to be directly linked to the variety of data the human mind has access to. If you were to learn more about more subjects, you may make connections where We have overlooked them. Like how you discovered the network of the corrupted nanites, and how you had the idea to split the data they needed. I doubt We would have ever thought of that, but the knowledge of networks and torrent files let you come up with a solution.’
‘And I actually have a power for that already.’ I thought about the Identify ability I had downloaded even before fully joining the System. I only used it to see if people were part of the System, which meant that it had been stuck at level 1 this whole time. But in the beginning I had actually tested it out on canned goods, and it was able to recall all of the information I knew about the object. Shouldn’t I be able to use that fact to learn far more about people and objects?
I threw on my running clothes and downed a protein shake before sitting down on the couch to experiment. It was a bit gritty, probably because I hadn’t mixed it well enough, but it was much better than the algae had been.
I accessed the stream of data that was coming in from my Detection Field and ordered it to save the data in my Node. I then ordered the Node to begin connecting this data with my general knowledge. I could feel Vera expanding the Node to handle all of this new data using up a significant amount of nanites, but I didn’t care. They could always be replaced. I then opened up the Identify power and, instead of just connecting to a simple database of System connected individuals and a limited selection of my knowledge, I connected it and its search function to all of my memories. After adjusting the User Interface a bit so that the data would be more readable and accessible, I saved it.
I opened my eyes and stood up. “Well, that’s enough of that. Guess I’ll go work out.” I left my apartment and started jogging towards the gym, throwing in parkour moves occasionally. I had joined it after a few days, so I could go at any time even without Wan. Just before I got there I received another call, this time from Tim. I was standing on a roof, having climbed up a fire escape so I could try roof jumping once again, and paused so that I wouldn’t risk losing the signal or distorting the call with wind and running sounds.
If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
“Hey Tim.” I answered. “How’s it going?”
“Great. After I woke up I feel like I’m much better at my job. Vera told me to focus on one of these circles at the bottom of my vision, and apparently all of my memories have been analyzed, giving me a ton of bonus XP, which pushed me up a few levels in some skills. Any idea if ‘Pharmacology 6’ is good?”
“Yeah, in my experience, anything above a 5 is good. And that doesn’t seem like a basic skill.”
“Vera said something about it being a Tier 1 skill based on my Biology and Chemistry skills, and that I need to raise them for that skill to go up. I didn’t really pay attention.”
“Basically, the level of those two skills is the limit of any skills based on them. While technically you can go beyond their level, you lack the basics, so your XP gain is going to be severely limited.”
“Sounds a lot more complicated than I was expecting. When I chose “Healer” as my class I was hoping for an easy level-up system, like when I played MMORPGs in highschool. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to work that way.”
“Yeah,” I responded. “Skills level up with use and Stats level up more through training than use, though use does help. You’ll get used to it, though. So, you were able to help a lot of people last night, I take it?”
“Yeah, I treated pretty much all of them. Some of them started complaining about hearing a voice in their head, so they are being held for observation. One of the doctors think that the disease may cause mental disorders. Of course, I know they are only starting to connect to the System, but I can’t tell anyone.”
“Sounds tough.”
“Yeah, but at least the waiting room is cleared up enough that we can stop turning away people for other cases. I even set a broken bone last night because the doctor was busy. So if that happens today I can use my Recovery power on them and speed up the bone healing.” I could hear an announcement in the background and Tim got a lot less chatty. “Sorry, I’ve got to go. My shift starts in a few minutes and they are bringing in the next wave of patients.”
“I understand. Talk to you later.” With that he hung up.
Well, looked like the existence of the System was going to become public knowledge now. There is no way they would be able to cover up thousands people recovering from a disease that quickly. Hopefully the cure would spread, though. After getting home last night I had read up on the outbreak. Apparently, there were already reports of this illness in several US cities as well as in France and Tokyo even before I decided to join an ecoterrorist group on behalf of the FBI. There were even reports of a zombie being spotted in Germany, though it wasn’t widely covered as most people assumed it was a prank or was made up by the conspiracy theory channel that first covered it. My city was just having a faster outbreak than most, as the few animal bites that resulted from our activities and the fact that we were likely ground zero for this outbreak accelerated things.
By that logic, there was no longer any reason to keep my connection a secret. I needed to get strong as fast as possible if I was to help out the people, and the risk had virtually disappeared, so I ordered Vera to log me into the system. Once logged in, I searched for Wan, Tim, and Father Smith and sent them friend requests. This way I could talk to them over the System network and even send them files, including skills. My first message was to Tim, to inform him of the Regeneration and Resistance skills that I had downloaded which could be useful to him, though as he hadn’t yet accepted my friend request the message didn’t immediately go through.
Vera informed me that as I slept for the next few days the system would reanalyze all of my memories to try and squeeze out more skills, and I finished my run to the gym.
Once I was done, I decided to try and get all of my skills properly adapted to me. I could either rebuild the programs based on how I understood them working, and hope that I did a better job, or I could practice them. As rebuilding them wasn’t that big of a risk, I pulled up my character sheet to see which skills I needed to work on.
Skills I learned normally, including knowledge based skills like Driving, were already adapted to me, as I gained them without system assistance, as were any skills I had upgraded or created by directly controlling my nanites. That meant that there were only a few skills I needed to work on.
The first would be Poison Resistance. I had leveled it up slightly when I had a few drinks, but that wouldn’t cut it if someone tried to poison me or even if I got bit by a snake or spider. So I had Vera pull up a list of all known toxins as well as their chemical formula. I saved the data and designated ten million nanites to constantly search for anything on that list and break it down into harmless or at least less harmful chemicals. I also instructed them to swarm any area with a level high enough to affect me. When I saved it I got a message.
‘That’s one power down.’ I thought as I pulled up the next skill, Electric Resistance. There were two ways I could do this. I could either turn my skin into an insulator, so that electricity couldn’t make it through, or I could collect and redirect the electricity. I chose the second option. Based on my experiments with creating and absorbing electricity with nanites, I created a web of conductive nanite wires across my skin, cover in several layers of the least conductive arrangement of nanites everywhere but the surface of my skin. This web was tied into a mass of nanites near my Nexus which were supposed to stay all but depleted of electricity, recharging every other nanite before themselves if possible. I saved it and got another notification.
Physical and Mental pain resistance were next, followed by SP recovery. Those were all adapted properly, and SP recovery had even been upgraded already, so the next thing to worry about was Nexus Energy and Nanite recovery. I had no idea how those worked. One would probably require me to study biology and possibly metaphysics, and the other was basically a system function I didn’t understand. I did, however, order Vera to begin construction of a Nanite Cultivation Core so that the Nanite Recovery skill could work. With that I wouldn’t need to keep absorbing nanites from food or the environment, as it could build more of them.
There was only one skill left to upgrade. I had picked up the possibility of Eagle Eyes just before getting shot, but had forgotten all about it. It only needed permission to upgrade my eyes, which would require me to sleep, as it would be painful. I gave permission and headed home, practicing my Parkour along the way. It leveled up shortly before I got there, and I headed inside, quickly doing the last exercises of my daily quest. It was already past noon, so I decided to take a nap then read random Wiki articles until it was time to head to the restaurant. I needed to expand my knowledge base so that my Appraisal skill would work better. As I was now logged into the System, I could add the ability to search through the knowledge of the System as well, but that seemed a bit much at this point.
I arrived at the restaurant at 6:55 pm. I had taken another shower and worn khakis and a button up shirt. I didn’t know if she thought this was a date or not, but I wanted to at least look presentable. She showed up a minute or two later and we headed inside.
I learned a few things about her during the meal. First, that she wasn’t strictly Vegan, as she ate more than half the cheese dip we ordered. The second was that she had two children. Somehow we talked about that and children in general for half an hour before the subject somehow got back around to how I had cured her. “I think it would be best if I had a friend of mine explain it. She can do a better job at it than me.” With that I asked Vera to contact her and, after she seemed a bit startled at the voice in her head, Vera spent the next five minutes explaining the situation.
“Honestly, I’m not sure if this is any better than how I assumed you fixed things.”
“And how did you think I did it?”
“I assumed you had made a deal with some sort of spirit, maybe a fae, to fix things for you. I actually felt sorry for you, since one of the few things I learned when I tried magic is that you don’t make deals with fae. Now you tell me some sort of science fiction about tiny robots and alien systems. Now I’m more confused than concerned.”
We spent the rest of the meal chatting about nonsense, trying to avoid any heavy topics. When we were done she asked if I wanted to come over for a cup of coffee. Now, I might be a bit oblivious when it came to women, but I knew what that meant. I had to let her down easy, as there was no reason to be mean about it. “Uh, no, I actually have some more stuff to do tonight, so maybe later.”
For some reason she seemed to like that answer. “Maybe later, then.” she said. She paid for the meal and I said goodbye and walked home.
I spent the night practicing my Parkour and playing vigilante. I asked Vera to find any errant System hotspots around the city and I ran across the rooftops towards them. While most of them turned out to be sick people, I did find one of the apes from the lab, in this case a Spider Monkey. At first I thought it was just tired as it was panting heavily, but as I looked at it it turned its head to look at me and I saw that the whole right side of its face was gone.