“Old Earth’s condition is a matter of historic debate. Many records were lost during the Long Dark. The surviving fragments of the Ballad of Serenity speak of an Earth with burning land, boiling seas and no place left to stand. Some historians theorize that runaway climate change led to an Earth where only floating cities were habitable, much like the early settlements on Aphrodite. Another view is that these are metaphorical references to a world war or a series of intense regional conflicts. Some land burned, some seas boiled and many were left without even a place to stand but only in places of high conflict.”
What Remains, volume 5, part of the introductory course on ancient history at Vista University.
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Lady Kara was human, not an artificial intelligence. Probably. Olivia and I were standing in front of her desk as her large icy blue anime eyes examined us from behind her pale steepled fingers.
“I’m sorry to hear about your recent troubles David. I will discuss your situation with your foster mothers at our next meeting, but in the short term we are going to follow Doctor Popadopoulos’ recommended treatment to the best of our ability.” Lady Kara takes an eye dropper from her desk drawer.
“I will be administering these eye drops once a cycle for the next ten cycles. After I administer these drops I want you to meditate, let your mind free associate for at least an hour. Today we won’t reach for anything more, but I am assigning your pod to help in guided meditation sessions.” She reaches out with her long slender fingers, gently cupping my face while tilting my head back. Her slightly cool fingers feel nice.
“Try no to blink.” I flinch slightly but manage to only blink my left eye as the drop falls into my right eye. Lady Kara administers a drop to my left eye before releasing my face. Wow, that is some fast acting medication. I feel so floaty. I can feel my tension and worry leaving me.
“David, is there anything you want to tell me, anything that Olivia or Doctor Popadopoulos might not know?”
Lady Kara is so nice. There are so many children but she’s making time for me and my problems.
“I think I recovered a memory when I entered my room. It was intense, emotional. Flash was so proud when he saved up enough for a private room. The locker was so spacious and the room was so large. All my clothes fit without me having to fold or organize anything.” I try to focus, recalling the experience is easy, even more vivid than the first time I experienced it. Putting it into words is harder but I try to share every detail with Lady Kara.
“You are Flash, David. Even if you don’t feel it yet the words can help you piece together your damaged sense of self.” Lady Kara interrupts me.
She is right of course. I was Flash, I’ve just forgotten so much that I don’t recognize myself in my own memories.
I nod “I was Flash. I am David.”
“That’s good boy. It’s good that you are starting to remember. Olivia, after David finishes meditating I want you to introduce him to the other members of his pod. I am issuing a gig to all four of you to assist in David’s recovery.” Lady Kara ruffles my hair before pulling her hands back, placing them on the desk in front of her.
“Run along children, but please share your progress with me. If I’m not available in person then keep me apprised with messages. I try my best but there are so many of you lovely children and only 25 hours in a cycle.” Lady Kara dismisses us.
“Yes Lady Kara” Olivia and I chorus.
As I leave Lady Kara’s office I have a moment of vertigo. I think I’m about to experience another flashback but as Olivia studies me the moment passes without further incident.
Olivia guides me to one of the couches. I don’t think I really need the help, as long as I move slowly. I move my arms around, getting a feel for this new state of being. My hand is amazing, it can move in so many different ways. My skin is so smooth, and stretchy. The little scar on my middle finger is gone. I cut myself while cutting up vegetables for a salad. There was so much blood from such a small cut. It throbbed more than hurt, at first. I am my memories. I wonder, which me am I remembering? Since the scar is gone it must not be a Flash memory.
Olivia isn’t back yet. I try closing my eyes. No good. I woke up from my nap too long ago to fall back asleep or too recently to be tired again. Or maybe it’s the eye drops? What was I supposed to be doing? Right, meditating. I don’t really know how to meditate. I stare up at the ceiling. An eastern style dragon is painted in vivid reds, yellows and oranges. It undulates along the ceiling. It doesn’t move far. It’s like a short flip book, moving a little, resetting then moving again. I can control how it moves, by angling my head. It feels like I’m willing the dragon to slither to and fro.
The eye drops are wearing off, no idea how much time has passed. I probably have a clock in here somewhere. Oh, it’s part of my HUD. It’s 14:45, we’re on military time? As I am searching for time zones Olivia returns.
“I couldn’t find any of the other Owls but I left a message for them on the creche’s board. How are you feeling?” Olivia asks.
“I think I’m coming back, but I’m not completely here yet. So, where do I start? Homeroom? It’s kinda late in the day, how about we start with lunch?”
Olivia rolls her eyes “Half the day is gone and you probably haven’t even started on your dailies but we can start with lunch.”
Olivia offers a hand but I get up on my own. I follow her down the hall. With the AR on the place is kinda beautiful. Garish, lots of colors with high contrast, like a cartoon cereal box. Some of the pictures wink or wave as I move past. It’s more impressive than it should be given that I know these are all digital images.
In a land that feels strange and half remembered the cafeteria is a pillar of mundanity that could hold up a world. It’s all automated, or I guess self serve + automated. At my request Olivia recommends the chili with a side of vegetable fried rice and a glass of orange drink. Around the middle of the price range at 18 credits. The orange drink is slightly sweet and adequately wet. The fried rice is fine, good even but the chili has a crunch I’m not expecting and the meat doesn’t have the right texture.
“What’s in this?” I point to my remaining chili.
“Just the normal things. Chilis, beans, peppers, Mmmmeat, and flavoring. If you want we can sign up for the dinner cooking shift.”
“Did you just say meat or mmmmeat?”
“Mmmmeat, you know they’re the ones with the jingle ‘Mmm, it’s so good! Tastes just like meat!’”
I take another spoonful. If you don’t expect it to be meat it tastes fine. I’ve had worse vegan chili.
“I don’t suppose mmmmeat comes from a farm?”
“Of course not, mmmmeat comes from a can, it was put there by a man.”
“Who works in a factory downtown.” I attempt to continue the song only to meet a blank expression.
“Who works in a factory in Yggdrasil. The largest producers and exporters of food in the system?”
It’s my turn to stare blankly at Olivia. “If you say so.”
The conversation stops, not so much stalling-out as dying. I feel awkward. My memory problems make even small talk difficult. It feels like I’m reaching out over well known common ground when suddenly the ground is gone and I’m falling.
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“First thing first, open up your dailies and tell me what you have done and what still needs to be done.” Olivia stands with hands on hips looking at me expectantly.
I start playing with my menus. It’s like trying to learn any new GUI, part of the struggle is knowing what questions to ask. With the keywords provided by Olivia I find my way to a sub menu of the GSC138 Education Environment.
Daily Quests
XP
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Gym
1208/1000
Reading / Writing
0/1000
Math
0/1000
Art
18/1000
Music
0/1000
History
0/1000
Science!
0/2000
Programing
0/2000
Social Studies
0/2000
“Wow, you probably want to use a joker, but if this was the start of the day the next thing I would do is check for any cached xp boosters with expiration dates. Normally you use those first, one at a time. If you do have any that are going to expire today we can use those but otherwise save them. You’re not going to finish most of these before the midnight reset.”
I check, I have a virtual inventory also under the GSC138 environment. It’s got xp boosts, my creche credits, 4644 at the moment, and my room’s lease.
“I have a universal 15 min 100% xp boost that is going to expire at 24:59.”
“Great everyone gets those, you just need to do at least one task for a goal between 6:00 and 12:00 or 19:00 and 0:00. So what do you want to work on, you can still probably finish some of these today.”
I look through my options. Science! looks interesting but I’m drawn to math. I’ve always been good at math, at least once my mom linked it to money.
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I’m sitting with my mom in the park by the sandbox. The sun is hot today so the shade from the big tree feels extra nice. My mom is drawing in the sandbox with a stick.
“This symbol means four and that symbol means one. The symbol between them is asking the question how many fours there are in a one.” My mom points to the symbols each in turn.
I remember my numbers, I know four and one but the / is a new symbol. “Four” I answer confidently.
“No. Four is bigger than one so there is less than one four in a one. What if I put it like this. If you get 1 quarter a day how many days until you have a dollar?” My mom asks me while drawing one circle under the one and four under the four.
I think about it to make sure but I already know the answer “Four.”
“That’s right, there are four quarters in a dollar. A quarter is another way of saying one fourth.” As she says one fourth she circles the 1/4 symbol on the ground.
“This can work with other numbers too. Let’s try with dimes.”
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The memory is less intense than last time. There was no contradictory memory from Flash, but the memory itself was also relaxing. A quiet moment with my mom without a towering emotional high or bottomless emotional low.
Olivia is still waiting for something. For me to answer
“Math.” I don’t think a lot of time has passed, a few moments at most.
“Open up your Math goal and start a task, this time without the xp booster.” Olivia instructs
The task isn’t hard, around 10 questions. Calculate the area under a curve. Find the slope of a line. Calculus 101 stuff. It takes me five-ish minutes and I’m rewarded with 80 math xp at the end.
“Now activate your xp booster then try another task.”
It’s about the same. The questions are different but still derivatives and integrals with an occasional question about limits. I do get the bonus xp at the end, 160 for a perfect score with a 100% boost.
“It was the same, but with more xp at the end.”
“It was the same? You didn’t notice anything different? Did you get a double perfect?”
“Yes…”
“Then we need to try something harder. Try one of the challenge tasks.”
I tab over to challenge tasks and start a speed task. Speed tasks come in sets. Each set of tasks is timed and the difficulty increases as more tasks are completed until you complete the set or fail and have to start over. I breeze through the first three sets but the fourth is a bit of a struggle to finish in time and on the fifth set I start making mistakes in my rush.
That’s when I see the difference that an xp boost makes, not just bonus xp but better instruction. I am shown a right way to complete the problems I got wrong, more than that the interface offers tricks that can speed up further attempts. Regular training is tested self study, xp boost training doesn’t just let you finish sooner it helps you learn new material faster.
On the 6th level I fail to answer all the questions in time and have to start over. I’m part way through my second attempt at the speed run when my xp boost runs out. I’m just under 900 math xp so I burn through two more exercises pushing me up to 1043 math xp. I’m rewarded with a bronze treasure chest that opens with fireworks and a little musical ditty. Ah, loot boxes, I know them well. The reward is 6 creche credits. Not bad considering lunch was only 18. I have a new optional goal to reach 2k math xp but I navigate away from the math section.
Olivia is still nearby doing her own thing. Maybe her own dailies. I check my clock, 15:40. So call it 40 minutes to get 1k xp with a 15 min booster, or just under an hour to achieve a daily goal without a booster. 10k xp of dailies left today and 10 hours until 00:00. I could technically do that without any boosters… but I’m going to look at the school shop.
Wow, the school shop doesn’t just have microtransactions. No, this is a pay to play school run on microtransactions. For 100 creche credits I can buy a half hour 100% xp booster. 100 credits to make 6. The math isn’t hard here, I’m not spending credits to make credits, I’m spending credits to save time. To save time and to avoid penalties. If I don’t earn enough, say Gym XP, the amount I still owe is added to tomorrow’s goal and I’m fined 10 creche credits.
Looking through my history the first 1k xp in a category gives a bronze treasure chest, on average worth 5 creche credits. At 2k in a category I get a silver treasure chest for an average of 8 credits and a 15 minute boost for a random category. Neat, but buying boosts still isn’t a money making proposition.
Why not specialize in the categories I’m best at and ignore the skills that are hard? Ah, there are long term goals too. If I complete all my dailies for 10 days in a row I get a silver treasure chest. The same silver chest at day 20, day 30, day 40 and at day 50, then a gold chest at day 100, day 150 etc. The 1000 days in a row platinum chest has some substantial rewards but I’m sitting at day 280 at the moment so not worth considering.
What was Olivia talking about, playing my joker. Ah I can buy skip days for 100 credits that pause all my streaks and prevent the failure to reach goal penalties. I guess it’s a day off or a sick day that I have to pay for. Not a great deal given the penalty for failing every category is only 90 credits. Gold chests do give 200 credits and a 30 min universal xp boost so up to two sick days to preserve a streak would be worthwhile. Or wait, the sick day is also preventing a penalty so more than two could be worthwhile depending on how much penalty they were preventing.
Honestly I’m not doing the system justice. There is so much more. There are leaderboards that payout and reset every ten days. The top three xp earners in each category as well as a leader board for total xp earned in every category. Then there are the rewards for quality that are almost like their own mini games. I remember the little girl being disappointed with her wall art’s reception and I check the art goal. The longer a picture is up on the wall the larger the payout in credits, but the longer the picture is up the more harshly it is rated compared to the other pictures. A picture that started on the ceiling could last a week or two. Pictures on the floor disappear after an hour. The first payout is one credit for an art that lasts twelve hours.
Fuck I’m procrastinating. Do I buy a Joker or try to push through this? If I only buy one xp booster I can probably finish in time and still take a break for dinner, although that would mean I’m not taking that job in the kitchen with Olivia. Lady Kara did say I should focus on my regular schedule and given my streak I must have been doing these every day.
David: I’m not going to play a joker, I’m going to push through and finish my dailies.
Olivia: If you think you have time, remember buying more than two boosters is worse than playing a joker.
David: I remember, or well, I did the math. This means that I won’t be able to work with you on the dinner kitchen shift.
Olivia: That’s ok. Get to grinding! ( ๑‾̀◡‾́)σ"
In the end I made it with half an hour to spare. I wolfed down my dinner, coffee to drink, buttered noodles with vegetables 15 credits, in 15 minutes flat while trying to solve programming problems in my AR.
It didn’t help that not all of the categories were what I was expecting. Science! was just lab work. Practicing following instructions and performing simulated experiments in AR. Reading / Writing wasn’t a surprise as much as it was boring. Learning how to compose business reports for varying situations. Accuracy Brevity Clarity! Truly the cornerstones of an efficient bureaucracy. Social Studies was the worst. It was etiquette and deportment training for office drones. When there is a complaint about a product, which department do you contact and how. This is how you address a colleague, this is how you address a superior, offer your business card with both hands, accept their business card with both hands. Never mind that both cards are probably digital AR holograms that you couldn’t drop if you tried.
I also messed up the optimal order. I should have done the 2k courses first, since finishing them gives random category 15 min xp boosts. As consolation I’ve got two small boosts for gym and history that will make tomorrow easier. I’ve got eye strain and a headache and I had to buy two 30 minute xp boosters. My credits are down to 4,494 but I’m done. The first day of my new life, complete!