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Max shook the dice in his hand, feeling the subtle twists and turns of the unpredictable gyros embedded in them. Max smiled recalling his conversations with Captain Cypher. All so-called random number generators had flaws. Deep within their algorithm was code. Complex code to be sure; but once you had its pattern, the apparent chaos resolved into predictability.
The dice had a massively complex meta-code, shifting between several randomizers and combining their outputs. It was sufficient to defeat even the augmented masterminds with peak decryption and FastCog skills.
Max had those skills, but his intuition was serving him better. A spike of pain and the pattern cleared in his mind. Max opened his hand in reflex and the dice flew.
“Sevens again! Oh my god, Max. You are the luckiest son of a bitch in the casino!” Charlie beamed as he eagerly urged the croupier to push his winnings over.
“Come on, shooter. Keep it going!” An NPC android player yelled.
Max pulled the dice in and cycled them in his fist as he concentrated. The world slowed as his FastCog built up. The beady eyes of the angry floor boss, the cheering of the crowd, and the chaotic clash of bodies faded as he felt the dice.
“[I don’t know how you're doing this Max. It’s not your patterning or decryption skills. Your brain is picking up the slack. It’s like a lightning storm in your uplifted neocortex. The dendrite density keeps increasing.]” Dr. House said.
Max ignored the commentary in his head, his perception of the sequences rolled faster than his fist shake. He licked his wet nose in slow motion as the pattern resolved like the crescendo of a symphony. Light flashed his eyes, momentarily blinding him, as the pressure in his head peaked. He released the dice.
Play after play, Max continued his “lucky streak”. Comments flew left and right as excitement built. Today was a day of winning! NPCs and players tossed about nuggets of news and rumor.
A new team was arriving today with yet another on the way. Dominic Masterson, the last of the Roughnecks, was likely to achieve enough credits to graduate to the next level today. Challenge matches were ramping up again after the artificial lull in the action. More knockout rounds were planned as team immunity expired. The Casino was charged up like never before.
“Another seven for the shooter.” The NPC croupier said sourly, as the players erupted again in enthusiasm.
Max panted with joy, wiping his mouth and nose on his sleeve. The croupier hesitated in parceling out the bets and returning the dice. He was staring at Max. Confused, Max looked around the table. Everyone was looking at him in concern. The system pinged and through a notice into his HUD.
[Decode +1, Decode reaches level 10, Skill cap award +100XP, New Skill unlocked - Encrypt.]
[New Skill: Encrypt 1 - Reformat communications and programming to enhance security and control. Adds resistance against Identification and Hacking skills.]
[Warning *** Stat calibration beyond calibrated setpoints *** Recalibrating….]
[Error *** Calibration for Intelligence exceeding six-sigma human normal margins.]
[Recommend factory reset brain-computer interface neural estimator.]
[Temporary assignment of intelligence stat: INT - 148]
“Max. Ah…are you feeling alright, man? Maybe you should go to the restrooms?” Charlie asked nervously, his hand pointing down. Max looked down at the table. Small droplets of blood marred the felt tabletop in front of him. His smart suit’s sleeve was coated with streaks of bright red.
Max coughed into his hand, tasting copper. More blood in his palm. He stuffed his hand in his pocket.
“Sorry, excuse me. I’ll be back in a minute.” Max said, quickly dragging his chips into his satchel. As the croupier shifted the play to another shooter, Max hurried to the privacy of the restrooms.
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He crashed into the empty room. Looking into the mirror, he saw burst capillaries in his right eye, and bloody residue around his mouth and nose. He ran the water and washed, scrubbing his bloody muzzle.
“[Fuck fuck fuck, what’s happening, House?”] Max asked, looking at himself deeper with his augmented senses. Daemon House tutted and made non-committal noises as a holographic model of his brain and the interfacing augmentations updated in the projected OverLayer.
“[It doesn’t look life-threatening, but maybe you need to lay off the Amazing Karnak act out there for a while. You have some swelling and a minor aneurysm that burst. Your medical nanobots are already fixing it. The uplift virus added another layer of dendrites and your corpus callosum has thickened considerably, creating a much broader connection between the hemispheres of your brain. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot. I’m concerned, Max.]” House said.
Max’s thoughts spun, clarifying. He felt…good. Better than ever, as his headache receded. He snorted.
“[Why should I stop? I’m starting to see all connections! I’m not a dumb pet anymore. This is exactly what I signed up for. I need this so I can finish and get back to my dad. Maybe I can actually beat this stupid Labyrinth. If the final prize is supposed to be so great, maybe that can help him with Apex and whatever the hell he’s doing in the nightmare land.]” Max said, feeling his worries recede like the troubles of a child who grew into an adult. He only needed to make a series of smart plays. A few fights and good bets and he could quickly earn the credits to exit the level. His vision of potential paths forward bloomed in his mind. It was possible! Hell, it would be easy with his “luck”.
“[Max, you need to be careful. Humans abandoned these types of bio-augmentations for a reason. Early uplift processes applied to humans resulted in incoherence, madness, and megalomania. You’re already above average now. If you go too far, you could get similar side effects.]” House cautioned. Max pondered the daemon and the model of his brain.
“[Alright, House. I’ll slow it down. Keep monitoring me and let me know if you see any signs of deterioration.]”
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Max finished washing up, his smart suit performed a self-cleaning and shed the now-dried blood onto the ground. He took a centering breath and returned to the loud chaos of the casino floor.
As he approached the section with the craps tables, Max grew concerned. The area had cleared out and several hulking security drones and NPC android casino muscle were there. Loose chips and broken furniture were scattered about. His NanoTracker for Charlie was right in the middle of the scrum. Max was about to force his way in when Xavier bounded over from the entryway.
“Max! Thank God you're back.” Xavier said, relief pouring off him.
“What’s going on?” Max asked.
“I was coming over to make sure you guys got your bets in for my match and saw Charlie and that Mueller guy getting into it. I’m not sure what happened but Charlie punched him out. Security came and shocked Charlie unconscious. The NPCs say he'll be detained for fighting. My match is starting in fifteen minutes! I have to get to the staging area. Look, can you follow them? I’ve got money riding on Charlie already for his match this afternoon.” Xavier said.
“Damn. We placed our bets and entry fees already too. Alright. I’ll see what I can do. Go! Get to your match. I’ve got this. Don’t worry about it; just win your match. Okay?” Max said.
Xavier, still frazzled, bounded away again, this time towards the combat staging area. The security cordon started to loosen and Max saw two of the larger drones haul the unconscious Charlie up. The squad quickly moved in formation, heading toward the administration sections of the casino. Max kept them in sight and started walking. As he followed behind at a safe distance, Max pinged Leah to let her know what was going on.
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Xavier fidgeted in the isolation chamber adjacent to the Drone Storm combat stage. He and his team of daemons had double and triple-checked his mote swarm and the larger personally designed drones that he was allowed to bring into the fight.
“[I kinda wish I had one of those Tesseract devices that Max got from his dad. It's too creepy to be stuck inside, but I’m jealous of the shear amount of stuff he can haul around.]” Xavier said internally.
“[You should be sure to foster your relationship with Max. If his father intends to market the devices, you may have an opportunity to test or purchase some of the early-release products.]” His newest acquisition, Cyrano said.
Xavier grunted in reply. Cyrano was a great addition. His collection of daemons had been a little too focused on helping him design stuff. The section of the Casino level housing the NPC androids had a cool little store called the Little Shop of Daemons; giving Xavier some cool new advisors to fill the last slots for his Daemon council.
“[Hey, Ender? Any last-minute advice?]” His daemon strategist, Ender Wiggen, was a fictional amalgam of strategy and tactical lessons built around the frame of the popular novel and movie character. Xavier thought his focus on modern tactics made him far superior to the crusty historical figureheads.
“[You’ve got this, Xavier. As we’ve researched, the room will have 10 stationary gun pods randomly scattered about with 30 weaponized room drones and dense clouds of motes and foglets. You need to access and retain control of as many as you can. The room will attack you both randomly, so you need to fend off both the room and your opponent. You need to disable or disrupt any you don’t control to get the upper hand.]” Ender said quickly.
“[James Zedroid’s access and hacking skills aren’t well documented from the combat recordings we’ve seen, but being an AI piloting a mech we must assume that he likely has the skill capped like you. You should assume he will contest you for control of the room.] Ender took a breath and daemon Feynman interrupted.
[“That skill Max shared with you, Chthonic Block, was exceptionally effective for blocking skill-based hacking intrusions. We’ve updated your motes and drone to run that skill. So at least your personal drones should be safe.]” Ender’s voice continued, slightly petulant at being interrupted.
“[Zedroid favors that big rifle, so you need to be ready to defend against kinetic projectiles. You should get your lightsabers ready, now.]” He finished.
Xavier grabbed a lightsaber for each of his four hands and ignited them all. Xavier had been holding all his custom drones tight, wrapped into the tentacles lining his back. He had topped each off with power, using the contact points on his many appendages. He accessed them all and parceled controls to each of his daemons. Between his pilot, access, and swarm skills; he could control of a small army of devices now.
Xavier grinned. This was awesome. He had spent some time training with Leah. He would try to cycle between FastCog and PreCog. Each, run in tandem, with his Ballistics and Reflex skills could help him intercept bullets like a real Jedi. He groaned slightly remembering her cold rebukes to his attempts to impress her.
“[You’re thinking of Leah again, aren’t you, boy?]” Cyrano sent. Xavier sighed and responded.
“[Yeah. I tried all your tips and suggestions, but I don’t think she’s interested in me that way.]” Xavier admitted.
“[Have you looked in the mirror, child? Maybe it’s time to discard the childish cosplay. Leah doesn’t seem the type. If you want to court the lady, you need to consider what she’s looking for. A four-armed monster may be intimidating in a spar, but in the battle for hearts it puts you at a severe disadvantage.]” Cyrano chided.
Xavier grimaced, his Thark tusks preventing him from fully expressing it. Xavier nodded. His experiments with his body design had only been a bridge to advance his skills. He still thought it was cool but maybe it was time to move on. He flourished his sabers as warning chimes sounded and the chamber began to open to the massive room beyond.
Xavier’s saber flashed in reaction to the flash of light before he could even think to react as the swarming view of the cathedral-like room registered. He was suppressing system notifications, but he had arranged for a phantom tactile sensation to feel each skill like a vial of fluid filling.
His PreCog and Ricochet skills had just advanced, deflecting the bullet without even thinking about it. The crack of the rifle shot sounded milliseconds later, lagging the actual bullet. Xavier was already on the move. He used his Leap skill and vaulted on top of a large drone that was passing by. He slapped his hand down and made contact with its access port, drilling into its operating system with his Intrusion skill.
A secure communications path was even easier to hack and more secure against others trying to wrest control from you. Xavier spun and dove, piloting “his” new ride as his personal drones swirled about providing cover.
Rocketing down and to the right, Xavier strafed the wall-mounted gun turrets with his collection of skills; stunning, laser, arced electrical, k-gun, and focused EMP.
“[Dodge left now!]” Ender screamed. Xavier reacted, pulling into a left barrel roll.
“[The Focused EMPS and K-Gun are most effective against the gun emplacements. Don’t waste any more power on the other skills, they aren’t working."]” Von Neumann squeaked. The scientist daemon really didn’t like participating in battles.
“[Climb right, my good fellow! We must engage with the miscreant and perhaps achieve an early victory.]” The bloodthirsty musketeer Athos added.
Xavier followed the advice as a drone laser slashed across his chest. He moved too fast for it to burn deep, his augmentation’s dermal layer peeled away to reveal laser-reflective coating.
His multitasking skill enabled him to turn the rogue laser and dominate it, he passed its control over to Athos while he focused on his surroundings. He could feel his daemons Ada and Isaac contesting several other drones, locking them up. A shout from Agatha alerted him to danger and he spun off on a tangent as a large form dropped from above missing him by inches.
“[Good reflexes, sir. I apologize for not spotting our foe, Zedroid, earlier. He must have been utilizing an active Chameleon skill.]” Agatha said contritely. Xavier zoomed around but the mech had faded into the swirled of foglets and machines.
“[Xavier, He fell right through our motes. Several are lodged on his mech frame. I’ll paint his location on your HUD!]” Buckminster laughed. Xavier chortled as Athos’ drone strafed the unmoving silhouette. Zedroid must have thought his skill was still hiding him.
“[Jarvis, bend it like Beckman!]” Xavier yelled. He threw a lightsaber, spinning it like a boomerang. His AI companion responded to his code name for the move they had spent long hours training. He altered the spinning plasma blade's trajectory with precise tweaks from the swirling foglets in the air.
The energy sword smashed into the hidden figure. The player’s chameleon effect failed as James Zedroid’s head fell to the ground. Xavier gasped in horror, as Athos continued to pour laser fire into the headless body.
“I YIELD!” The mech screamed.
Xavier commanded all his daemons to cease fire. The room’s automated weapons powered down and the flashing lights stopped spinning.
“Oh my god! I didn’t mean it. Medic!” Xavier yelled, landing hard next to the mech.
“Calm yourself, meat man. My head contains only aural and video receptors and some EM antennae. I just need to reattach it. Obviously, I need to rethink my armor distribution. I guess I should thank you for the lesson.” Zedroid’s vocoder echoed from the mech’s chest area.
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