The next morning I awoke tired but not in pain. ‘Good Morning’ Vera said.
“Hey.” I responded instinctively. “Were you waiting on me?”
‘Well, I didn’t have much to do while you slept. All I could do was play trash mobile games on your cell phone.’
I looked at my phone to see that the battery was at 5%, and that several gotcha games had been downloaded. “Please tell me you didn’t pay for anything.”
‘Of course not.’ she responded. ‘They weren’t worth paying for.’
“Also, it’s my money,” I said, plugging my phone into the charger beside my bed. I grabbed the vacuum cleaner and started cleaning up the mess my brain damage caused unconsciousness had caused last night.
‘That too.’ she responded.
“Besides, can’t you just download the games yourself? You are a computer, after all.”
‘I could, but I don’t have authorization to emulate foreign programs on System hardware. I suppose I could run them on the node in your brain if you’d allow...’
“No.” I responded before she could finish the thought. “I’m not letting you run trashy games in my head. If you really want to play them, I can find an old cellphone of mine and leave it on the charger so you can play through it.” After finishing vacuuming I threw my dishes in the sink and started deleting apps on my phone. “Besides, did I even give you permission to download apps? I don’t remember that in the Helpdesk settings.”
‘Well, you see...’ She paused for a few seconds. ‘Earth’s computer security is kind of a joke compared to the System. So, I can kind of hack Earth hardware if I want. Normally it’s only used to learn about humans, their technology, culture, etc. But I kind of used it to do… other things.’
‘So, any System user out there can hack into human computers at will? Great.’ This would cause me several problems if I wanted to keep this quiet.
‘No. I’m actually not allowed to do it, but you already granted me access to your cellphone, and technically gotcha games count as ‘cultural research’, so...’
I sighed. “Fine, just don’t do it again.” Now that things were clean again I laid back down on the couch.
‘You aren’t planning on sleeping all day, are you?’
I groaned. “No, but I do have the day off, so I thought I’d take a break. You know, the reason you get days off in the first place.”
‘In that case, how about we visit the zoo?’
“And why would I want to do that?”
A map overview of the city popped up in my vision, with two large red dots on it. One of those was over the zoo. ‘This is the second location I detected errant System activity.’
“Of course, you want me to work on my day off. Do I have to leave right now?”
‘No. The activity is escalating, but it shouldn’t be a problem for at least a few hours. Besides, your cell phone is almost dead.’
“Great.” I rubbed my eyes and set up. “In that case, I guess I might as well try that power I almost died for. How do I use it?”
I could feel Vera’s approval. ‘Just think about your body and say ‘Align Nanites’.’
“Ok, then.” I closed my eyes and focused on my body the same way I did when meditating. “Align Nanites.” I felt a wave of energy leave my core and spread throughout my body. In my mindspace the ground grew slightly greener as the wave washed over them.
‘You know you can just think the words, right?’ Vera responded, a hint of joviality in her voice. ‘Good job, though. Your solid mental image made it more effective than normal.’
“Thanks, I guess.” I stood up, and changed into some street clothes. “Well, guess I’ll go try to complete that quest.” I grabbed my stuff, minus my cell phone as it was only on 11% now, and went for a jog.
Surprisingly, I actually managed Eight Kilometers today. Checking SP recovery, I realized that it had leveled up to 3 and was 10% to level 4. After getting back home, I did the other exercises on the list, actually completing the Squats and earning a checkmark beside the subquest. I then shadow boxed for a few minutes as my SP recovery fought to keep up with the fatigue, finally succumbing an hour and a half after getting back.
As I laid on the ground I checked my skills. SP recovery was almost at level 4, and I had even gotten Martial Arts to 4. My MP was even up to 9 of 12 now, as Nexus Recovery was nearing a level up as well. ‘I guess the early levels really do increase quickly.’
‘True. Even with the slower XP gain, your training routine is quickly leveling them up. So, breakfast then the zoo?’
“Shower first.” I said, pushing myself off the ground. “I got way too sweaty out there.”
Thirty minutes later I was ready to leave. My cell phone was at 74%, which was good enough, but I grabbed my power brick just in case, then headed out.
The zoo was on the other side of town, and the only parking there was paid, so I decided to take the bus. Thirty minutes later, and after switching to a second bus, I got out in front of the gate. It took another five minutes to get through the line, then I was finally inside. ‘So, where to?’ I asked.
‘Primate Enclosure, African section.’ Vera responded. So I headed over there. Outside there were several families standing around, but none were in the pen for chimpanzees. In fact, there were notes attached to the railing stating that the enclosure was closed due to the only chimp being sick.
I read the board placed in front of the enclosure talking about the animal, then looked around. ‘So, I assume we are here for the chimp?’ I asked Vera.
‘Possibly,’ she answered. ‘The system works with most lifeforms, so many non-sapient creatures can be connected, but it usually means they are a pet if they are connected on purpose.’
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I glanced around the area. Even if it was the chimp that was the source of the signal I couldn’t do anything about it, as it would be kept in a secure area. After a minute or so one of the veterinarians in front of the nearby staff building started speaking to a security guard that was walking by. “Hey, Joe, have you seen doctor Fredricks? The female Gorilla is acting weird and I want him to make sure it isn’t a related to her pregnancy.”
“Actually, he wasn’t feeling good, so he went to the clinic to have a nap.”
“Great,” the man sighed. “I’m a four legged mammal specialist, but now I have to do the primate specialist’s job for him.” With that the Vet went back into the staff building, presumably to check on the gorillas, and the security guard wondered off to somewhere else.
‘Vera, what’s the chance that Dr. Fredricks is the source of the signal?’, I asked.
‘Pretty good. The signal was coming from inside that building when I checked on the bus ride over here. And it was getting stronger.’
Which meant I’d have to break into an ‘Employees Only’ area. ‘I’m not sure if I can help him then. I’m not allowed back there.’
‘Then don’t get caught.’ she responded.
I was surprised at this response. ‘Didn’t you tell me that the system could support local security in dealing with criminals? You are telling me to commit a crime.’
‘To save a man’s life.’ she retorted. ‘It’s the same logic as saying it’s ok to steal food to prevent a person from starving to death. Besides, I can’t be forced to testify against you, even on System worlds.’
I still wasn’t sure about her logic, but it did make a bit of sense. Still, I hesitated. Risking a criminal record wasn’t something I wanted to do.
‘Just think of it as a form of training.’ she suggested. ‘You need to level up your Mental Pain resistance, and forcing yourself to do things you aren’t comfortable with is covered by that skill.’
‘And I’m sure I could learn Pickpocketing skills by stealing people’s wallets. That doesn’t make it a valid reason to do that.’
‘Slight of Hand, actually, the same skill a street magician uses to pull off many of their tricks. But whatever. I’ll make you a deal. I’ll help you get in and not get caught if you will agree to do the job if I do so. Deal?’ A quest box appeared in front of me. <1) work with Vera to plan the details, 2)Vera acts as lookout, 3)save a man’s life. Reward: ?>
I sighed. ‘Fine. Let’s do it.’
A few minutes later she had discovered a gap in the security guard’s patrols that opened up beside a section of fence that was part of the Employee area. Once the guy had passed and went around a corner, I ran over to the fence and, with the help of a nearby tree, managed to jump the eight foot high fence. <37 climbing experience gained> That would get annoying quickly if I got notifications every time I learned something, so I quickly altered the settings so that it would only notify me of level ups, and entered the main building through a back door.
I walked down a short corridor which connected to several nearby primate enclosures, and into the main area. There were several cages around the area, and two doors on the walls which were labeled “operating area”. Apparently this was where they kept the sick primates.
A banging noise from one of the cages caught my attention and I went over, only to see a chimpanzee having a violent seizure. After a few seconds it stopped and laid still. Too still. I carefully reached into the cage to touch its neck, assuming that it was like a human, but couldn’t feel a pulse. I then grabbed a nearby food tray that was still fairly shiny despite its damaged appearance, and put it in the cage, holding the shiny side close to the chimp’s face. After 30 seconds there was still no fog on the surface, so I pulled the tray out. ‘So, the chimp just died.’ I said. I touched its head and, after looking up average chimpanzee body temperature on my phone, verified that it also had an extremely high fever. ‘Best guess is that it went through the same thing as that homeless man, but didn’t get good enough medical treatment to save it.’
‘Sounds about right.’ Vera said. ‘If that’s the case, then the Doctor probably caught whatever it is from the chimp and may not have that long. And if that is the case, then what I initially thought was one very strong signal was likely two, one from the chimp and one from him.’
‘Then I’d better find him.’ First I checked the operating areas, as they were the closest location that would have a bed, but when I didn’t see him there I found the employee lounge area. In the back of the break room was a cot, upon which lay a sweating man in a lab coat. One of his arms had a slightly bloody bandage on it.
I touched his forehead only to find that his temperature was over 110. If I didn’t do something soon, the fever could kill him before the ambulance got here. ‘I need a way to bring down his fever, Vera. Any suggestions?’ I grabbed a bottle of water from the nearby refrigerator while I asked, and poured it on him, knowing that that wouldn’t do much.
‘I’m not sure. But I do have a theory on what the disease is now. First, I need you to try something. Touch him again.’
I placed my hand on his head, noticing that his fever was still increasing, though more slowly than before, and a message popped up.
‘I will quarantine all data from that connection until the Virus Scan program is finished, but that verifies my theory. The disease is System nanites, though somehow they have been corrupted, making too many of them the Harmful variety for them to safely inhabit the body. They are also able to duplicate themselves without a stable full System connection, which bypasses several safety features which prevent a dangerous outbreak.’
‘So, they are sick because of the corrupted nanites making them sick?’ I asked.
‘Essentially. In fact, if you check the bandage, you’ll probably find an explanation for why his infection is proceeding so much more quickly.’ I removed the bandage only to find a partially healed bite mark that looked similar to a human bite. ‘You’ll probably find that that is a chimp bite mark.’ Vera responded to my thoughts. ‘If he was bitten by a sick chimp, the animal’s saliva would have delivered millions of corrupted nanites directly to his blood stream.’
‘So, do you have any way of fixing the corruption? You did say you could hack computers. Could you hack these nanites and force a factory reset?’
I could feel Vera essentially shaking the head she didn’t have, though I had no idea how that worked. ‘I said I could hack human computers because they were more primitive then System computers. The nanites are still System computers, though much less powerful. I could probably hack them eventually, but over the slow speed of a secondary communications protocol it could take days. He probably only has minutes.’
Hearing that I quickly went over other plans in my head, but they were all worse. Then I had an idea. ‘Vera, what would happen if he got more, properly programmed and beneficial nanites? Say ten million of them?’
‘They would fight the corrupted ones, maybe even buying him enough time to recover. Why are you asking?’
I smirked and placed my hand on the man’s forehead. “Align nanites” I said. A rush of energy left my body and went into him, immediately dropping my MP to 2/12. I kept my hand on his forehead for another thirty seconds before checking his temperature again. ‘109.8’ it read, with a small green arrow pointing down beside it, indicating that the temperature was falling. ‘Good, now that he’ll survive, let’s check on patient zero.’
‘The chimp? But it’s dead.’
‘Yeah, but if it was infected, we need to know how it got that way. I doubt a corrupted nanite outbreak just happens.’ Back at the chimp’s cage I found its medical records. It started showing symptoms three days ago, though they were minor at first. I rapidly flipped through the clipboard, knowing that my photographic memory would let me recall all of it if I wanted to, and stopped on the last page. This was a less detailed list from a place called “Cedar Park Pharmaceuticals”. “Subject 42 was acquired from
‘Cedar Park Pharmaceuticals?’ Vera said. ‘Then it can’t be a coincidence that that is also where I tracked the largest outbreak in the city.’
‘Looks like I need to pay them a visit.’ I responded, when I heard someone down the hallway leading to the animal pens. Apparently the other vet had finished with the gorilla and had returned.
‘Quick,’ said Vera, and drew my attention to the emergency exit. Without waiting I ran out the door and into the same fenced in employee area behind the building. When I saw a picnic table near the wooden slat wall which surrounded the area, I had an idea. I ran over to the table, stepped on top and jumped off of it, managing to get halfway over the fence.
I flipped myself over it and saw that I was in the four-legged mammal area, in between the Zebra and Gazelle pens. Thankfully, it didn’t look like any of the families in the area saw me, but as I looked around I noticed a roughly thirty year old Asian man sitting on a park bench, looking at me and smiling. He was wearing black jeans, a black tee-shirt, and a black jacket, and smoking a cigarette. When I briefly looked at him something appeared above his head.
Recognizing that as the name of the assassins group I briefly read about when setting up my paradigm, I tried to play it cool, hoping that he wouldn’t notice me.
I hopped on the bus and headed back home, my mind racing. What was an assassin doing there? Was he there to kill someone? Was he there to make sure the doctor died? Or was he covering up for the pharmaceutical company, and getting rid of anyone who found out what they did? Did that make me a target? By the time I was home I hadn’t reached any conclusions, so I decided to meditate.
I drank my obligatory smoothie and sat on the floor. Technically, I had an ability that could align my nanites better than I could, but as it was the only meditation I knew, I did it anyway. Breathe in, Breathe out.
After my mind calmed down, I spent the rest of the day researching the Company. Apparently three years ago they sent out a press release announcing that they had begun research on a “universal vaccine” which promised to end all communicable diseases. This was probably the “Panacium” that the chimp had been part of the trials for. The announcement had brought in huge amounts of investment from private investors and investment firms, which allowed them to expand their research department. There were periodic updates for their shareholders and investors until eight months ago, when they stopped.
The next morning, as I was getting ready to do my Daily Quest, there was a knock on my door. Checking the chain, and assuming it was just one of my neighbors, I opened the door a crack, only to see
“I’m actually getting ready for work right now.” I lied. The last thing I wanted to do was talk to an assassin that was probably sent to kill me.
“I understand. Perhaps when you get off of work you can come by my office? I believe you can help with my investigation. The subject is a tough nut to crack, almost as if they are made of Cedar.”
I ignored his mixed metaphor when I realized that, at least on the surface, I wasn’t his target. That reference could only mean that he suspected that I knew about the company and could help him against it. Or it was a trap. “Sure, I’ll think about it.” I said.
“Then I’ll see you later,” he said with a slight bow, then left.
I closed the door and breathed a few times before I continuing. ‘Looks like I won’t be getting in my exercise, Vera.’ I said, then opened my laptop to begin researching this ‘Investigator’.