After another week of Amber, Declan, and Jessica using the system, Thomas decided it was time to begin spreading it for real. First, he set it so that when he transferred the system, it wouldn't activate until the next morning, so people wouldn't be able to tell where they got it from. He included this as an option that could be turned on and off in the system as well. The only difficulty he had after that was finding an excuse to actually touch people. He kept having to find excuses to introduce himself to people, so he could go in for a handshake, tap them on the shoulder to ask a question, or just blatantly bump into them if he really couldn't think of anything.
"So, how many users are we at?" Jessica asked one Monday morning, sitting next to him.
Thomas checked the system. "We just went over three hundred."
"Woo!" Jessica cheered. "I guess that means we can stop working on spreading it, huh?"
"Yeah, it'll probably spread on its own now." Thomas agreed.
Jessica grinned. “Just in time for Fall break too!”
Thomas frowned. "Fall break?"
"You know, the long weekend? In like two days? There's going to be parties and dances and all that?" Jessica explained.
“Huh… no one told me.” Thomas shrugged.
"So I guess that means you don't have any plans then, right?" Jessica asked tentatively.
"Not unless you count sitting in my room and reading. I was thinking of reading up on artificial intelligence, so this might be a good time to get started. See if I can figure out how to make the system smarter, you know?” Thomas replied.
Jessica rolled her eyes. "Well, if you don't want to do something completely boring, me and a few friends are going to check out some of the events people are throwing. It should be fun!"
Thomas thought about it. "I don't know… I've never seen much point in parties and stuff like that. It just seems like all the goals parties are meant to accomplish can be better met in different environments. In fact, it seems like parties only accomplish their goals superficially, while actively inhibiting them on a deeper level.”
Jessica scowled at him. “Do you want to hang out with me or not?”
Thomas blinked. “I- do?”
“Then you're coming to the party.” Jessica declared firmly.
*
"You remember Mark, and this is Stacy, Luke, George, and Casey." Jessica introduced Thomas to her friends as they met up. "Guys, this is Thomas."
"So you're the Thomas she keeps abandoning us to hang out with." Stacy commented, giving him an evaluating look. Then she turned to Jessica, raising an eyebrow. "Does he…?" She trailed off, tapping her temple.
"Yes, Thomas has the system." Jessica sighed, rolling her eyes. "And I told you guys, it isn't some big secret or anything! In fact, you're encouraged to spread it!”
"Kinda defeats the purpose of making it if you don't." Thomas added.
"How would you know what the person who made it was thinking?" Mark sneered. "Could you even begin to comprehend the thoughts of a being capable of making such a miraculous tool?!?"
Thomas raised an eyebrow at him. "Well, first, there's literally a button for sharing the system. Kinda seems like a dumb addition if they didn't want it to be shared. Secondly, well, I'm the one who made it, so… I'm pretty sure I know what I was thinking when I did it, yeah."
"You made the system?!?" George immediately exclaimed, all of them eyeing him skeptically.
Jessica nodded. "He did, and I helped too. Though, I thought we were keeping that a secret, right?"
"Well, from the general public, yeah. I don't need to be the focus of the entire population of Earth. I don't mind if your friends know though." Thomas shrugged.
"Wait, hold on." Mark interrupted. "How is it even possible for you to make something like this? It's… it literally breaks the laws of reality!"
Thomas paused. "Well, to start, I didn't make all of it. One day I figured out I could make tasks and be rewarded for completing them. I don't know where the points come from, and I don't control how rewarding any particular task is. All I did was design a system for actually using the points and rules for how tasks are made, which really wasn't that complicated."
"But why though?" Casey asked.
"Don't ask him that." Jessica immediately interjected. "The answer is very unsatisfying."
"I just thought it'd be boring if I didn't." Thomas answered, causing Jessica to sigh in exasperation.
"That is kind of a weak reason." Luke commented.
"Though arguably better than many mythological reasons. Like turning someone into a spider because they weave better than you do. Kinda shitty considering you're immortal and they'll be dead in a couple decades." George added.
"I'm not sure I appreciate being compared to the Greek gods…" Thomas muttered.
"Alright, enough!" Stacy clapped. "We came to party! Let's go!" She insisted, ushering them towards the campus event center which already had loud, pounding music echoing from it. The moment they stepped inside, Thomas immediately felt uncomfortable. There were people everywhere, bumping into each other, jumping around, waving their hands, drinking whatever happened to be available. A good portion of the crowd was already drunk or high and the event had just started! Thomas felt the urge to bail on this whole, pointless mess, but then a task popped up.
[Stay at the party: 0%]
With a sigh, Thomas grudgingly entered the crowd, sticking close to Jessica. They wove through the crowd until they reached a spot along the edge of the wall with a few tables and chairs. There were a few refreshments available here as well, but most people appeared to have brought in their own, so they were largely ignored. As they found a place to set up, out of the press of the crowd, Jessica turned back to look at Thomas and suddenly let out a laugh, though it was mostly drowned out by the music. "You look pissed!" She exclaimed, leaning in close to him.
"I'm not exactly a 'party person'." Thomas explained. He looked out over the crowd of people obviously enjoying themselves just jumping and bumping into each other and shook his head. "I just don't get it." He muttered, low enough that no one could hear it over the cacophony.
"Come on!" Jessica grinned, grabbing his wrist and leading him into the crowd. She led him deeper and deeper, until they were practically in the middle of the crowd before she stopped and started moving with the crowd, hopping and swaying, still keeping a hold of Thomas's wrist. She turned to look at Thomas and laughed again. "You can't just stand there!" She exclaimed. "Move a little!" Thomas tried to move a bit, but the jumping felt weird, and swaying didn't make much sense to him. He kept getting out of sync with the crowd and bumping into people. Jessica shook her head. "Follow me!" She moved in front of him and pressed her back into his chest, starting to sway with the crowd. Then she used her grip on his wrist to hold his hand up and wave it around, slowly getting him used to the rhythm of the party. Every now and then she'd lead him off to the side for a break, often finding someone she vaguely knew to introduce Thomas to, though there wasn't much they could actually do to talk with how loud the music was. He still didn't get the point of it all, but seeing the way Jessica got swept up in it all, he started to get an idea. It wasn't particularly about anything that was happening, but the energy that everyone was giving off. It was like the very fact that people were out here having fun made more people have fun, which then made even more people have fun, and so on. Unfortunately, Thomas didn't seem to be able to tap into it himself, but he did enjoy being around Jessica and seeing her enjoy herself, so he guessed it wasn't that bad. Still seemed pretty pointless overall, though.
A few hours later the party wound down and people began making their way out, some heading home but most people looking for somewhere to keep partying. Jessica somehow managed to get an invite to a house party nearby, so of course she dragged Thomas along. Thomas expected the rest of her friends to join them as well, but they'd seemed to have disappeared at some point, so it ended up just being the two of them. The house party was just as crowded as the previous one, but instead of everyone forming a crowd to ‘dance’ to music, people formed clumps to mix and mingle with each other. There was also a lot more alcohol available, though both Thomas and Jessica avoided it.
Again Thomas had to rely on Jessica. Without her, he probably would have spent his time hanging out on the fringes, having no idea how to insert himself into the bubbles of conversation that formed, or at least not in a way that would lead to anything of substance, but Jessica was just good at talking to people. People Thomas could only exchange a few words with would become animated the moment Jessica began to talk. She even found ways to keep Thomas involved in the conversation, acting almost like a buffer or translator, keeping everyone in the conversation. Thomas had no idea how she did it, but because she did, for the first time, he actually enjoyed himself at a party.
"Hey, everyone, there's some dude out here picking up cars!" Someone ran into the house shouting and everyone rushed out after them. Thomas and Jessica shared a knowing glance before following everyone out. In the front yard of the house were a couple guys standing around with their shirts off, taking turns picking up the rear end of a truck and laughing.
"Are they?" Jessica asked Thomas, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes they are." Thomas confirmed, pulling up the guys’ status pages. "I'm guessing they're some of Amber's derivatives."
"Ah, yes, the gym rat crowd." Jessica nodded.
"Hey, watch this." Thomas grinned as the latest dude bro picked up the truck. He went to the option for hair color and tried to change the color to bright pink. However, the moment he went to spend the points, there was a sort of… resistance. The dude bro suddenly froze, dropping the truck as he began to look around, confused. "Huh…" Thomas grunted, cocking his head, considering what just happened. When he'd tried to spend the points, they'd resisted him, like… like he didn't have complete control over them. He sensed he could have tried to force it, to make the points be spent, but he didn't actually care, so they didn't. Was it because it was the dude bro who earned the points? Did that give him some sort of ownership over them, so Thomas couldn't just mess with them?
Jessica looked at him, confused. "What'd you do?"
"I tried to turn his hair pink." Thomas coughed, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. He'd thought it might get a laugh out of Jessica, but now that he was thinking about it, it seemed dumb and pointless. "Turns out I can't just spend other people's points. Which, I suppose, is a good thing. The power to turn anyone into a girl would probably be a bit too much."
"Wait, what?" Jessica asked, widening her eyes. "How would you turn someone into a girl?!?"
"Did you not see that option?" Thomas asked, raising an eyebrow. "It's a little expensive, but yeah, the system does gender changes. Well, it says it does… I haven't exactly tried it."
"I thought that was just informative! I didn't realize it was a changeable option!" Jessica exclaimed.
"Yeah, you have to click on it to pull that option up… I thought things might get weird if it was too obvious." Thomas explained.
"Seriously, what can't the system do?" Jessica muttered, shaking her head.
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"I honestly don't know." Thomas sighed. "I feel like I'm severely underutilizing this thing sometimes."
"I mean, you've only had it for like what, a month? I'm sure you'll get better at it." Jessica assured him.
"Yeah… I'm hoping the AI will help a lot, once I can figure it out. Once the system can understand other people the way it understands me, development can really take off." Thomas replied.
"Why can't it understand other people? I mean, it can study our morals and desires, but it can't respond to our commands? How does that make sense?" Jessica added.
"I honestly have no idea where the disconnect is." Thomas shrugged. "Unless I prescribe a method of interaction, it can't seem to handle it. For the tasks, it just looks for the presence of something, then makes something out of it. It's just an if this, then that function. For commands… I just don't know. Also, for the tasks, a lot of the generated tasks are thrown out after going through the rules. You can't really do that for commands, and if the system started responding to idle thoughts, things could get… chaotic."
"That's fair I suppose." Jessica agreed tentatively.
The dude bros had recovered by this point and were back to messing with the truck. Two of them had picked up one end each and were swinging it back and forth. "See, now that can't be good for it." Thomas pointed out.
"You know… You could go show them some real strength." Jessica suggested, bumping into him slightly.
"Is that what you're into? Big strong men holding trucks over their heads?" Thomas asked, raising an eyebrow at her.
"No, it's just… They're getting all this attention just for picking it up a little bit." Jessica muttered sheepishly. "You could blow them out of the water, and everyone just ignores you!”
Thomas frowned. “I don't think I really want the type of attention that comes with lifting a truck over my head…”
"I know." Jessica sighed. "It's just… I don't like how people just dismiss you cause you're a little strange! You're literally standing right next to them, and they just… gloss over you, like you're not even a person to them! If I didn't force them to pay attention to you, they'd never even acknowledge you! If you did something like that, maybe- maybe they'd at least give you a chance…”
"So?" Thomas shrugged. "I came to the conclusion that a large majority of the population is not compatible with me a long time ago. It isn't necessarily their fault or mine, it's just the way it is. We're like oil and water. I mean, I look around this party, and I don't understand why anyone would want to be involved with this. It's too crowded, people are being drunk and obnoxious, and no one is even really doing anything. The conversations are shallow at best, there's no games, and the most entertaining thing happening is two dudes swinging around a truck. It's nonsensical, and everyone seems to love it. It's going to be hard for me to connect with these people, because I don't even understand why they want to be here."
Jessica sighed. "I know you may not be their best friend, and they may not even like you, but they should at least acknowledge your existence. It's just- there's so many amazing things about you, and no one even takes the time to figure out they're there!"
"Yes, but people who don't take the time to actually understand a person aren't worth hanging out with." Thomas countered. "Lifting a truck over my head isn't going to change that."
Jessica frowned thoughtfully for a moment before shaking her head. "You want to get out of here?"
"Eh, sure." Thomas agreed and they headed out.
"I'm sorry you didn't have fun tonight." Jessica apologized once they were a good distance away from the party.
"Whoa, hey, I never said I didn't have fun.” Thomas quickly corrected her. “I mean, I didn't get any of that, but… I get you, so it wasn't so bad."
Jessica glanced at him with a slight smile. "Really?"
"Well… Yeah? Honestly, I don't think I could ever be bored when you're paying that much attention to me. Plus… well, I still couldn't quite get it, but seeing you enjoy yourself kinda made me enjoy myself. Like a contact high or something." Thomas explained.
"Well, I'm glad you enjoyed yourself then." Jessica replied with a grin, bumping into him slightly. "How about we do something you enjoy tomorrow, to even things out?"
"I mean, unless you want to sit in my room watching dumb TV shows while playing video games, I don't really do much." Thomas answered with an awkward shrug.
"It's a date then!" Jessica immediately replied. "I'll buy us a pizza. How about around 7?"
"That should be fine… are you sure though? Aren't there other parties going on?" Thomas asked hesitantly.
"Eh, I'm a little partied out after tonight." Jessica replied dismissively. "It just didn't seem as fun as it used to."
"To be fair, you were essentially babysitting me the entire time. I mean, I appreciate it, but it probably wasn't the most fun thing you could have been doing." Thomas pointed out.
"Thomas, trust me, you were not the problem tonight." Jessica assured him, grabbing his hand and giving it a squeeze.
Suddenly they began to hear screams coming from the backyard of one of the nearby houses, a crowd frantically struggling to get through the narrow gate as fast as they could, a few even jumping the fence and scrambling away in a panic.
[Stop the two system users from harming civilians: 0%]
Thomas froze for a moment as he read the task notification before rushing towards the back yard. To avoid the crowd, he leapt up and flipped onto the roof, running across it to reach the backyard, pausing for a moment to take everything in. An above ground pool had a hole in it, flooding the yard and turning it into a swampy mess, people scrambling through the mud to hide behind overturned tables or in the vegetation, or trying to push through the crowd to get out the gate, and a couple dozen were trapped in the now empty pool, the twisted wreck of the ladder lying next to the hole. So far, it didn't look like anyone had been seriously injured, but that was liable to change soon as two idiots were tossing each other back and forth, breaking tables and chairs as they wrestled with each other.
Thomas jumped into the yard, stomping over to the two bozos who were now rolling around in the mud like children. Just as one pinned the other, pulling his arm back for a heavy blow, Thomas grabbed his wrist and squeezed, causing him to let out a pained scream. The other began to struggle to his feet, looking at Thomas thankfully, before Thomas fixed him with a withering glare. "Sit!" Thomas commanded, and the guy immediately froze. "What the fuck do you two idiots think you're doing!" Thomas growled. "I don't care if you want to fight, hell, you can kill each other for all I care, but you do not fight in the middle of a giant crowd of civilians! You do not wreck other people's homes over your own bullshit!" Thomas glared at the both of them as he opened up their systems and turned everything off, making it so they couldn't spend points or receive tasks, setting it to turn back on in a week. The points may be theirs, but the interface was his. "If I catch either of you doing something like this again, I'll take your system away permanently!" He warned, making the two look at him in absolute horror. The system announced his completion of the task, but when he felt the point reward appear, it felt much… larger than normal. He quickly checked how much he'd gotten, and…
[Stop the two system users from harming civilians: 21.39 pts.]
*Now why would it be that high?* Thomas wondered, scratching his head. He'd never seen anything over seven before this!
By this point, Jessica had reached the backyard as well, approaching him from behind. "Are you alright?" She asked, placing a hand on his back.
"Hm? Oh! Yeah, I'm fine." Thomas answered. "These guys were pushovers. Actually, do you think you could watch them while I get the people out of the pool? Maybe call the cops as well?"
"Sure." Jessica nodded, turning to watch at the two offenders with a serious expression as she pulled out her phone.
Thomas left her to it and walked towards the pool, casually leaping to the top of the six foot high rim. The crowd of people pressed away from him, looking up in fear, giving him a nice empty area to jump into, which he immediately regretted, as there was still a good six inches of water left in the pool. He grimaced at his now soaked shoes, before sighing and turning to the frightened crowd. "Alright, who wants to get out of this pool? Don't worry, the two who caused all this have been taken care of, so it's perfectly safe out there." The crowd looked at him blankly, no one stepping forward. "Uh, guys?" Thomas gave them a little wave. "Come on, do you guys really want to be stuck in here until the cops show up?"
At the mention of the cops, several in the crowd began to look nervous, and eventually, one girl hesitantly moved forward. "H-how will you get us out?" She asked nervously.
Thomas shrugged. "I was just going to carry you out. Like so." Thomas picked up the girl, before jumping to the edge and down again, placing the girl back on the ground. "See? Easy."
"T-thank you!" The girl exclaimed, before rushing off to grab her things.
Thomas then leapt back into the pool. "Alright, who's next?" Slowly Thomas carried everyone out of the pool, though some of the guys got awkward about how he was carrying them. What was wrong with carrying them in his arms? Thomas would never understand some people. The most awkward however, were the few girls who seemed to have decided to lose their tops while they swam. He got that it was a party, but really? One of them practically leapt into his arms, wiggling weirdly the entire time he carried her and refusing to get down.She ended up taking a mud bath when he dropped her anyway, shooting him a shocked look and cursing at him, but Thomas just rolled his eyes as he went back for more people. By the time he finished, the cops had arrived, talking to Jessica as they cuffed the two trouble makers.
"You got some good legs on ya, doncha boy?" One of the cops complimented him as he approached, clapping him on the shoulder and reaching out to shake Thomas's hand. "It's good to see young people doing what they can to help."
Thomas returned the cops handshake, transferring the system to him. "Share that with the other officers. You'll be needing it."
The cop looked slightly stunned as the system appeared in his vision. "What?"
"Well, there's probably going to be other incidents like this, and I am not going to be able to take care of it myself, so you guys need to be able to handle these things." Thomas explained with a shrug.
"What!?!" The cop reiterated incredulously.
Thomas frowned at him. "People are using the system to get stronger. If you don't keep up, you won't be able to maintain peace and order for much longer. So complete tasks, get points, and increase your stats. I can't explain it any simpler than that."
The cop looked at him with a blank expression, thinking the boy in front of him was absolutely insane, but the symbols in the corner of his vision weren't going away. "I- I just need a quick statement from you and you can go." The cop muttered, deciding to ignore it all for now. Thomas spent the next few minutes answering the officer’s questions while Jessica waited. "Alright, that's all we should need. We'll call you if we need anything else." The cop finished, walking off.
"Well, that was exciting." Jessica commented as they headed out.
"Eh, I guess." Thomas shrugged. "You know, I knew people would be able to misuse the system, but I still have no idea what to do about it."
"Couldn't you add a system rule that if they misuse it, it shuts down?" Jessica asked.
"Based on whose morality? Things I believe are wrong, aren't necessarily universal, and if we do subjective morality again, it doesn't really do anything. We could try hard and fast rules, like don't hurt civilians, but what if you come across some dude forcing himself on a girl? You're going to have to act, and you don't deserve to lose the system for defending someone. Plus, define 'hurt'. Would you lose the system if you hurl a particularly vicious insult at someone? How about after a breakup? There's so many variables to consider that any judgment would require an individual determination. The only solution I see is an AI for the system, which… Well, I'm working on it." Thomas explained with a sigh.
"That is a tricky problem." Jessica muttered in agreement, looking thoughtful. "Maybe I could help? I am a computer science major too, you know."
"I would love that." Thomas agreed immediately. "I'm currently working on machine learning, but if you wanted to work on a better UI, one that would allow for more diverse inputs, I think that'd help a lot. The problem with learning algorithms is that it only optimizes the use of the available options, so the more diverse the inputs, the better it can learn. Of course, that still doesn't really count as an AI, but… Well, it's a start. Also, remember, it doesn't need to be code, it just needs to be a detailed list of steps, more like a flow chart."
"I could do that." Jessica nodded thoughtfully. "Kinda like working from both ends and trying to meet in the middle. You work on helping the system understand people, while I work on helping people understand the system."
"Exactly! I was going to try it myself but… Well, things I consider intuitive don't seem to be as intuitive to others." Thomas explained. "Also, I know the system can allow people to modify their physical appearance, but I have no idea how to design it so that people have enough options to let them get it exactly how they want it. The best I could do is maybe on the level of character creation in a video game, but… that probably wouldn't work for most people."
"No it wouldn't." Jessica smirked. "Any other features you want?"
"Not off the top of my head, but feel free to experiment. I'm honestly not sure what the limitations of the system are so just assume it can do anything and if we end up being wrong, it isn't that big a deal."
"Statements like that make my head hurt." Jessica grumbled, shaking her head. "How can you be so cavalier about all this? I mean, I've been using the system for weeks now, and I still wake up some mornings thinking it was all a dream!”
Thomas considered it for a second. "I honestly don't know. I mean, I've never really been one to struggle with existentialism. Or more, there doesn't seem to be much point in questioning something that's obviously working? I mean, this could all be a dream, but even if it is, I'm in the dream, so wouldn't that make it my reality? What's the harm in just going with it? In any situation you find yourself in, all you can do is what you believe is best, dream or not, so why worry about it?"
Jessica sighed. "I wish I had your brain sometimes. It seems so peaceful in there."
"It really is." Thomas agreed. "I honestly can't complain. Well, except for sometimes getting a little bored, but… well, everyone deals with that, right?"