Chapter — 5
The wheelchair still dripped with tiny water droplets as Rei sat on it, wrapped in a couple of towels. She had flung her previous, dirtied clothes into the washing machine and now sat in a new outfit not dissimilar to her old one.
The washing machine — or the equivalent contraption — had been a curious sight to Rei. It didn't use water but some sort of spray of white mist.
She still felt damp, though, and to prevent getting even wetter, she'd opted to use towels between her and the wheelchair. She bemoaned that she'd had to shower with the wheelchair, but it was necessary. She couldn't be seen newly washed without the wheelchair sharing the same fate, as that could clue someone in that she'd been able to move without it — not that she currently could.
She was utterly exhausted, and the frantic efforts to clean the kitchen had drained whatever strength the 'attribute recalibration' had brought with it. She wanted to sleep but knew that if she did, she'd find another excuse to postpone her current task.
Well, the present is no time like now, or whatever the saying is. Fuck if I remember. It can't be too difficult to take a look at the very least. Right?
Rei thought back to her time as Agnes and the hours upon hours of testing their product on the game for which it was developed. She'd played quite a few games before starting at Odin Industries, and from what she could remember, there were a few standardized terms for game systems and player statuses.
She went with the most obvious ones first, her voice soft yet sounding alarmingly loud to her ears as she spoke.
"Status."
Nothing happened.
"Player. System. Menu."
Nothing.
"Help. Game System. Game. OH FOR FUCKS SAKE!"
Her nerves, already strung taut from trying her best to face the problem head-on, snapped. Her sudden burst of frustration came out as a shout, and the only response to her turbulent emotions was a quiet hiss from beneath the coffee table.
"Sorry," Rei said to the irritated void hiding beneath.
Alright, nothing happened. No need to start shouting, Rei. Calm breaths...
She took a few moments to breathe, her heart slowly settling.
So, either my command words are way off target, or speaking out loud isn't the answer.
She proceeded to think the same words she'd spoken, trying her best to put her intent behind them to see if that would help. It did not.
Rei groaned in frustration. By that point, she just wanted to get it over with, and the repeated failures made her want to lash out and scream.
This is really eating me up, huh?
The mystery would have piqued her curiosity had it not been tied to herself.
Myself... Could that be the answer?
Forgoing command words or phrases, both mental and verbal, she tried to focus intently on herself — her body and mind, the gestalt of which was her being. When this worked, she nearly fell out of her wheelchair in surprise.
「Rei Takeda:
Level: 0 [500 / 1000 Experience]
Body: 1
Mind: 8
Ego: 4
Perks: [...]
Skills: [...]
Perk Points: 1
Skill Points: 0」
For some reason, she couldn't focus on the window of information blazing in her mind. Her thoughts were stuck on the first line — her name. It irked her, and it took a second for her to realize why.
It's Takeda Rei! Not Rei Takeda.
The silver and neon-orange window flickered and, to Rei's astonishment, actually changed. The annoyance she'd felt at the standard order of first name and surname was irrational, yet it had mattered to the old Rei; hence, it now mattered to her.
「Takeda Rei:
Level: 0 [500 / 1000 Experience]
Body: 1
Mind: 8
Ego: 4
Perks: [...]
Skills: [...]
Perk Points: 1
Skill Points: 0」
Now that the immediate issue was addressed, she took her time inspecting the status sheet. She couldn't call it anything else, as it was too reminiscent of the status sheets seen in video games for players.
I'll just put aside how absolutely bonkers this all is and try to go with the flow for now. So there are levels, and I'm apparently at level zero with 500 experience earned towards the next level at 1000 experience. I got that experience from recalibrating my body attribute, I think? Which is odd but not as bizarre as anything else, I suppose.
Then there are the attributes: [Body], [Mind], and [Ego]. [Body] is pretty self-explanatory. My guess is that it governs my physical capabilities. Since it went up by one point, it must have started at 0. Or perhaps it started at something like 0.9, and the numbers are rounded down, meaning that my crossing into 1 in the body attribute started the recalibration.
Yeah, that would make more sense. Even if I could barely move before, I could still move a little, meaning that a flat zero in [Body] wouldn't be accurate.
This made Rei speculate that there was a qualitative difference between being a 'natural' 1 in bodily fitness without the Samurai System and being at [Body] 1 with the System. It was a bit confusing, but this whole situation was a bundle of mysteries, so she decided to ignore it for now.
Then there's [Mind] and [Ego]. My mind attribute seems fairly high, but I have no idea what the ego attribute is supposed to do. Does it govern my sense of self, perhaps? Then why is it so much lower than [Mind]?
Rei took a few moments to think it over. If her conclusions about what the ego attribute governed were correct, she surmised that the lower value could be the result of two factors.
The first was her self-inflicted erasure of almost all her memories as an AI. All that time had undoubtedly forged her sense of self into something unshakable, but without the memories to support such a mindset, it was no longer present.
The second factor was her merging of two different sets of memories: Her memories as Agnes and Rei. Being a bit unsure about who she was when two different lives combined into one wasn't strange. After contemplating it some more, she felt it odd that the ego attribute wasn't even lower.
There might be more to [Ego] than she knew or guessed.
Well, whatever. Going back to my mind attribute... Wait. If I'm currently at 1 [Body] and 4 [Ego], does that mean that the average for all the attributes is somewhere around 5?
It was a wild guess, but considering everything, it seemed reasonable. Rei also postulated that if five was the average, ten was most likely the limit of human potential — or at least the limit pre-transhumanism.
Perhaps a few geniuses would be considered around 10 to 11 in [Mind], and some star athletes or genetic freaks likewise around that number in [Body] without cybernetic augmentations. It's only speculation, though, so I shouldn't get too hung up on it.
She still felt that her guesses had some credence, and if so, her mind attribute of eight made her somewhat happy. Had she still been unbound by a meat container like her brain and back in her old Helson Corp. server, she was sure her mind attribute would have shown numbers in the thousands — perhaps hundreds of thousands or even millions.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
She couldn't calculate such things accurately anymore, which kind of made her point all on its own.
Moving on... What are [Perks] and [Skills]?
Rei focused her attention on the first option, and a new window appeared in her mind's eye.
「Perks:
No current perks.」
Huh. Doesn't explain shit. What about [Skills]?
「Skills:
No current skills.」
No answers seemed forthcoming, so Rei decided to ignore it for now. She had somehow acquired one perk point but no skill points. The perk point may answer some of her questions.
Let's see what this is all about then.
Immediately upon focusing on the perk point, she felt a massive amount of information flood her brain. There were hundreds upon hundreds of perks, and she intrinsically knew that all of them were for the mind attribute. Nothing for either [Body] or [Ego] was present.
Woah, just... woah.
The perks didn't come with anything other than surface information on their function, but she could see how many of them were interlinked while some were entirely isolated and unavailable. It seemed as if some perks needed prerequisite perks to be bought and perhaps other conditions to be met before being available.
Why do I feel a headache coming? Ah, that's right. I won't be able to buy any of these perks before I've gone through them all and evaluated each one... There's no way I'd make such a stupid mistake, even if it would be easy.
And it truly would be stupid. Rei had no idea how she'd gotten a perk point, but theories were already brewing in the back of her mind. It would also be easy to just pick a perk. Some of those she'd already glanced at seemed terrific, even ridiculous.
What is this magic bullshit? It's just like a game.
If the System's promises held true, these perks were undiluted power. A power she could gain by doing nothing more than spending a nebulous [Perk Point]. It seemed too good to be true. And yet...
The traumatic experience of having her body attribute recalibrated flashed through her mind. The nanites suffusing her physicality had worked wonders she hadn't thought possible, even if it had come at a significant cost in energy.
If it can alter my body, why can't it alter my mind?
She shuddered at the very thought. Her mind was sacred. These mentally aligned perks felt as if they represented her worst fears of the so-called 'Samurai System,' and for a fleeting moment, she felt a reflexive revulsion at being tempted by their offer of power.
Taking a moment to calm herself again, she tried to think about it logically. It was challenging to see past her fears, but after a few minutes of brooding, she eventually settled on something more palatable.
It's not as if I know that the nanomachines will change my mind. Perhaps they will only link more intrinsically with my thoughts — like the Neural Link does — allowing me to borrow their processing power to achieve things my fleshy brain can't do alone.
Rei didn't know what was true.
With a last, longing glance at some of the descriptions, she drew away from the list of perks. Rei was sorely tempted, even with her misgivings, but she needed to think. Rushing hastily into something might be her undoing for all she knew.
She looked around the room as her status sheet faded from conscious thought, her gaze landing on the coffee table, or rather, what lay beneath.
I suppose I have nothing else to do while waiting for Ichiro or Miyo to return. Trying to tame this fierce, tiny floof ball is a worthy pursuit.
***
"What happened to your arm?" Ichiro's face was flat, but his crimson eyes seemed to dance as he looked at the scratched appendage. He seemed to have already guessed but still felt it necessary to question it.
Why does he seem pleased but trying to hide it?
"Well... Sally's been a bit difficult."
The amusement in his eyes seemed to grow, and Rei could have sworn that he fought back a tiny smirk from emerging.
"I see."
Rei couldn't hold back her curiosity any longer as she tilted her head, "Ichiro, why do you seem secretly pleased about something?"
Ichiro shifted his eyes away, looking anywhere but at her as he walked over to the sofa and sat down.
"Do I? Must have been your imagination."
A tiny hiss came from beneath the table before a streak of black flashed toward Miyo's room and disappeared.
Oooh, I think I see now.
"Ichiro, are you perhaps pleased that you're now not the only one suffering from Sally's disapproval?"
"NO! No..." He continued to look away guiltily, but the hasty response had been all the confirmation Rei needed.
Keen to shift the subject, Ichiro looked back at Rei, his gaze softening somewhat and his mirth disappearing.
"How have you been, Imouto?"
"It's been okay, I guess. I was famished after doing the rehab exercises, but eating went alright. I haven't been doing much other than looking through my agent and browsing the mesh."
It was quite the dishonest account of her day, but the truth wouldn't do, and it had only been that morning she'd met her elder brother. She wasn't keen on speaking much about it and, taking a cue from her brother, shifted the conversation back to him.
"How about you? Did you figure out what that spy stole?"
She was quite curious about the Cyber Fangs' activities. She was more than likely to return to working for them, as there was a huge debt to be repaid. Rei couldn't leave all of that to her siblings.
The weary sigh Ichiro responded with wasn't optimistic. "We still don't know. Well, the higher-ups seem to know, as I told you before, but we have no idea what we're even looking for. We did find out who stole it, though."
"Really?"
"Yeah. Another gang. The Pistons."
Rei felt some static in her mind at the name, but there wasn't much more besides the information that it was another gang located just outside the Fang's area of influence. Ichiro had said it with a tone that indicated that he thought she'd know the implications of the theft.
She just met his exhausted eyes with her own blank ones.
"Right..." Ichiro said, seemingly stopping himself from sighing again. "The Pistons are a smaller gang of Zone 8 but still the second largest one. They are all rustskulls who control the majority of the zone's underground fighting pits and arenas.
"As their focus and influence differ so much from the Fang's focus on information gathering and asset retrieval, there has rarely been much conflict. Now though..." He trailed off, apparently not knowing how to continue.
Hm. 'Rustskull'? Does he mean like a 'meathead'?
Rei pondered the words, "So, whatever they stole, you think it may be valuable enough to start some sort of conflict between the two strongest gangs in this zone of Tokyo?"
Ichiro nodded, "Yeah. I mean, the whole debacle could be settled without conflict if we're lucky, but if it doesn't... There are some smaller subordinate gangs to both the Fangs and Pistons; if a large conflict, or worse, a war, breaks out, it could become very dangerous and chaotic."
It was difficult for Rei to speculate on these matters as she was too ignorant of her zone's landscape of influence and interests.
As a few hours passed, she chatted more with Ichiro, mostly about inane stuff, getting to know him better.
She learned about his work as an enforcer, which was mostly just guarding stuff or killing people. Hearing such lawlessness and violence spoken of in proud tones was bizarre, but Rei didn't particularly mind. Ichiro was quite the storyteller; she was on the edge of her wheelchair as he spoke about interesting missions and feats he'd accomplished.
She was primarily interested in hearing about the different weapons and cybernetics described in his stories, but she didn't tell him that. He sounded so happy being able to boast to his little sister about things she'd already known but hadn't been so impressed with in the past — according to him.
As the hour grew late, however, the siblings had to say goodbye as Ichiro still needed his rest for the next day's work. Even so, he urged her to contact him through their agents should she need anything.
After he'd gone, Rei breathed a tired sigh, utterly exhausted. It had been an eventful day, and she was more than ready to go to bed.
Already fresh from her shower, she wheeled herself into her bedroom and got into bed without too much difficulty. She hugged her plushie as her eyelids slowly closed, only to suddenly squeeze it tighter as a notification she felt was vaguely familiar popped up in her thoughts.
「Would you like to sleep?
(Yes / No)」
I've seen this before, I think. Probably when I went to sleep yesterday. Did I answer the prompt back then? I was too tired and can't remember...
It felt a bit weird to Rei to answer such a question, but whatever the consequence, she found it difficult to believe it to be worse than her attribute recalibration.
What if I answer 'No'? Will I just remain tired yet not fall asleep? What if I just ignore it? Ugh, no, it will bother me if I don't find out. I do want to sleep, so...
With just a teeny bit of hesitation, she eventually confirmed her desire mentally. Within a second, she was soundly asleep.
***
There was no sudden delve into half-forgotten memories when she fell asleep. There was, however, a surprise when she woke up, albeit a good one.
All my scratches are gone? Just like that?
She inspected her thin body with no tiny bit of disbelief. There had been quite a few more scratches than she'd shown to Ichiro. The little hellspawn had even managed to scratch her breast dangerously close to the nipple, drawing a tiny streak of blood through the fabric of her shirt with those razor-like claws.
It had hurt like hell, but now all her various scratches were gone, and not even a scar was left behind. It was as if it hadn't even happened.
No... don't tell me...
One almost universal trait of video games she'd played was their penchant for giving sleep restorative effects to players. It was often a way to save their progress in said games and regain any lost health or other renewable resources.
Rei's mind immediately went to the most likely culprit: The Samurai System.
It's nonsensical, but it's the only thing that fits. How else do I explain it?
She didn't have any advanced cyberware that could have potentially mended her flesh when asleep, so there was really only one answer.
I can sleep to heal? This is fucking ridiculous, but I'm honestly all for it.
She was pondering the potential consequences of such an ability when the cost became apparent. Her stomach rumbled fiercely.
"Guess that answers that," Rei muttered, feeling quite refreshed and not at all tired as she started to pull herself into the wheelchair.
There's a chance Miyo's home by now. I have to keep up the 'too feeble to walk' act. It's already getting old, though... How long do I need to keep this up?