3 - Chapter 2
Tasha looked at the road on the lookout for a black cab. Eventually she flagged a black cab. “To UCL main campus in Gower Street please” Tasha instructed as she got into the back and settled in.
As the cab took off towards her destination Tasha took a deep breath and looked at the icon floating in the side of her eye. She spent time examining the icon in detail for the first time. It was a round icon coloured in white and gold. The image depicted a gold dragon or ouroborus on a white background. The image could have come from the myths of any number of traditions, but for some reason Tasha felt like this was no depiction but a picture of a real being. She had no reason for the feeling apart from a subtle nudge from her intuition. She spent a few minutes trying to memorise all the details.
Finally she poked the icon with her will. As the screen opened in her mind's eye, she wondered why the icon didn't seem to react to her thoughts. It almost seemed like a manual action. Was will tangible to be able to be measured? How was he system interpreting her actions? She stopped pondering the questions for which she could have no answers without further information. She looked at the list of options that were presented on the screen.
1, Status
2, Message History
3, Quests
4, Close
She knew Close minimised the screen back to an icon. She alternated between close and the icon a few times. The screen could be opened up almost instantly, and closed just as fast. It just required the smallest amount of intent and focus. She thought with practice it would become even smoother.
Next she poked on Message History. What came up reminded her of a view similar to the messaging apps she used on her phone. There was only 1 message in the list. It did show her the date and time of the message. That was new. It showed today’s date and the time displayed as 6am. She poked the message listing and the message opened to show her the first message she had seen that morning.
Welcome Tasha Andersen, you have been bound to the Investment system.
£1 Billion has been deposited into your company account TA Consulting Limited.
The more you invest the more you will grow.
Click to continue.
Clicking on the message took her back to the message listing. She saw a small X on the top right hand side of the screen and poked at it to get back to her list of options. There didn't seem to be a way of closing the screen without going all the way back to the home screen. Whilst not a problem in itself, it meant that whilst navigating the menu, it would take her at least a second or two to close the screen and resume normal vision. In a tactical situation, that could be a serious issue.
Next she poked on the Status. What appeared seemed to be taken from a MMORPG game.
Name: Tasha Andersen
Race: Human (Tier 0)
Class: NA
Profession: NA
Strength: 8
Dexterity: 10
Proprioception: 8
Constitution: 9
Intellect: 11
Will: 10
Charisma: 9
Soul: 20
Luck: Locked
Some of the stats she had seen from MMORPG games before so she could understand some of it. Yet some looked surreal to her, like her Soul stat. She also wondered at the grouping and what relevance that had. So many questions. As she pondered on what the stats could mean, heard a ding and a red dot appeared in the corner of the screen.
She navigated away from the status screen to messages and noticed a new message waiting to be red as indicated by a red dot next to the message history option. Tasha clicked into the message list and opened the new message, timed just as she was looking at the status for the first time. It seemed the system was reactive and noticed when she had opened the option for the first time. Either that was a triggered event or her actions were actively monitored by the system. Again she wondered about the inability of the system to simply react to her thoughts.She paid attention to the text of the new message.
Your status reflects and quantifies your current physical and ephemeral self. There are ways to accrue and increase your stats. Stats and other benefits may also be purchased with quest points (QP).
There are two sets of stats. The body stats are Strength, Dexterity, Proprioception and Constitution. These reflect your physical abilities. The stats define how strong, how fast, how aware and how resilient you are.
The ephemeral stats are Intellect, Will, Charisma and Soul. They reflect your mental and spiritual abilities. The stats define your mental processing, your mental resilience, your ability to influence others and your ability to interact with the metaphysical.
The Luck stat is currently locked and will only be unlocked when your universe takes direct interest in you.
Note: there is no such thing as health points, stamina points or magic points. You can push yourself to failure in body, mind or spirit so learn your limits.
Warning: whilst some believe specialising or min/maxing is the way to build your character be aware that this carries a significant risk. If stats are not balanced in body or in ephemeral you are severely limiting your ability to use your stats properly. It can even lead to significant injury or death.
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Tasha reviewed the contents of this message in detail and read it through multiple times. There was just so much to unpack here. The body stats made sense, as did the requirement to balance it. If you were strong but didn't have the ability to perceive or the speed to move then the strength couldnt be brought to bear. Yes someone could be massively strong, but you could keep your distance or beat them through speed. The fact the same seemed to apply to the ephemeral stats was an eye opener.
The biggest shock was the luck stat. If it was real and could only be opened if the universe took a direct interest said a lot in one statement. Was the universe aware? Were there multiple universes? Attracting direct interest would probably be both a blessing and a curse. For now there was nothing Tasha could do about it. It was also interesting that the message ignored classes and professions completely. Tasha closed the message and noticed another red dot in the corner. As she navigated back to the main screen she noticed that the red dot was not next to the messages but next to the quest option.
Tasha took a few minutes to put her thoughts into order. The money was real. The messages and stats seemed to hint at a wider universe. Would the medical scans show anything, or was this so far beyond human experience as to be incomprehensible. Was this an out of context situation? If you were to show a mobile phone to a cave person, they would consider it a work of the gods, but to a more advanced civilisation it would be nothing but a child's curiosity. Was that how far out of her depth she was with this system? Was it simpler just to accept it for now and hope she could learn more in the future? Also what would cause the universe to take direct interest in her? Is that something she would even want? The implications were terrifying to say the least.
Tasha looked at the main screen and poked the quest option.
Quest: Accept the system.
You have accepted the system and used the investment provided.
Status: Complete - Rewards pending. Warning: Do not accept this reward unless you are in a secure and comfortable position.
Quest: Make your first significant investment
Make your first significant investment with a stated objective.
Reward: Quest points, Quest to find out more about your family
Status: Pending - accept rewards from previous quest to continue
As Tashe read the reward for the second quest, her instinct was to accept the first reward then and there. The drive to find out anything about her family was almost overwhelming. Only with a monumental amount of willpower did she close the screens. Tasha sat back contemplating the quests, the stats, the messages, everything. The situation was just too fantastical. Her intuition told her she would only learn more by using the system and there were no tools available that would give her any more information. She was also aware that learning about anything from the inside was much harder. As her thoughts swirled, the cab pulled out outside UCL.
Tasha thanked the driver as she paid with her phone and stepped out into the cold autumn sunshine.
Tasha made her way to the main reception desk and asked for directions to the dean's office. Getting the directions she made her way through the beautiful sprawling campus, though her thoughts kept her from noticing the beauty of the site.
Arriving at the dean’s office, Tasha informed the secretary that she had an appointment and was asked to wait whilst the dean finished another meeting.
Tasha came out of her reverie when the secretary coughed politely and informed her that the dean was ready to see her. Tasha stood, calmed herself and stepped into the dean’s office.
The office was majestic with mahogany panelling and bookcases filled with books. The desk was an antique walnut piece. Professor Chandler stood from his desk and shook Tasha’s hand.
“Ms Andersen, welcome, do take a seat. You were very cryptic on the phone.” said the professor. “How can I help you? You mentioned a potential for a commercial partnership”
Tasha decided to obfuscate for now. “Please call me Tasha professor. I wanted to be scanned by the latest in scanning technology and thought of your university.” replied Tasha amiably. “Of course I am aware that university and the staff are very busy, but I am sure you can free up some time if I am looking at funding some of the research your teams are looking into.”
“Of course something can be worked out. What kind of budget do you have to fund research Tasha? We wouldn't be able to disturb the researchers without a substantive reason. I am sure you understand.” retorted the professor.
“Well I am looking into both a one time donation and potential longer term partnerships professor. I am also meeting with the deans at Oxford and Cambridge in the next few days. I have the remit to fund programmes that I think can benefit and enhance humanity. The figures are substantial but at my sole discretion.” replied Tasha.
“Would you be able to put figures to those hypotheticals?” asked the professor clearly interested.
“A few million as a donation, and potentially a lot more for a mutually fruitful partnership.” replied Tasha.
“Sounds like we can work something out. When did you want to be scanned?” asked the professor.
“Now please.” retorted Tasha. The dean stood and led Tasha out of the office, only stopping to let his secretary know that he would be out of the office for some time.
The dean led her over to the medical research wing and had a quick word with some of the researchers. Before Tasha knew it, she was undergoing a series of scans on the most advanced machines known to man.
After the scans completed, and whilst waiting on the results, Tasha found herself back in the dean’s office sipping a coffee.
“So can we discuss exactly what you are looking for Tasha in terms of a partnership?” asked the dean steering the conversation back to funding.
“Well as I mentioned my remit in this matter is wide. If you can convince me that you have a research direction that can advance humanity or improve things for humanity and it has a reasonable chance of success then I can look at it.” replied Tasha.
The dean looked contemplative as he thought through his options. He was obviously aiming for a longer term partnership and wanted to propose something that would show results leading Tasha to fund future projects.
“Well our physicists and engineers have been collaborating on a project with Oxford and Cambridge. The idea is to create the next generation of highly energy efficient high resolution satellites. With AI continuously monitoring the data, a fleet of geostationary satellites would give us information that could benefit humanity in a myriad of ways. And it would not be controlled by a government or a tech giant. If we can prove our concept I am sure we can get commercial funding for the fleet. The initial investment would be in the region of £50m.” said the professor.
As Tasha thought through the implications and advantages for herself, having such a system would prevent what happened to her family from happening again. Just that was enough for her to make the investment, but there were so many more things she could do. She could in theory buy her own fleet.
“Well, I am interested in funding this research, but I have some caveats. We would of course have to have the paperwork properly drawn up. I would like to have first access to the test data, as well as exclusive first refusal on launching the fleet if successful. In addition I would have access to you and other experts for other programmes I may be interested in. Would that be acceptable to you?” replied Tasha.
“Are you sure you would be able to fund something of that magnitude?” queried the professor, obviously not believing Tasha to be able to.
“If you sign an NDA, I am happy to show you proof.” riposted Tasha.
Whilst the professor went to speak to his team of advisors, the scan results arrived. Tasha immediately started to go through the reports in detail. However, no matter the scan, it revealed nothing foreign in Tasha’s body. However the system functioned it was clearly not something current tech could identify.