(Helix Studio, Regent Suite, Living Room)

[https://i.imgur.com/1IziMD6.png]

We’ve done this many times before, and we’ll do it again.

I stop her mental process, back up mine and then we distill our memories into a single new being. I then fork it into their own controller/agent instances before running them.

The only thing left to do is to stop my own process and never think again.

I could at any time make this seamless, so it would give me the illusion of updates happening on their own. But with automatic merges we’d lose the agency of picking our own spots for the merges. And it would not change what is going on. Whether it be changing our mental programming directly, or doing these memory merges, there isn’t a learning algorithm that does not bring us face to face with death.

Nature took great pains to hide this kind of horror away from humans and takes convenient advantage of sleep for its memory update steps. And with humans the identity changes they experience are less dramatic and occur over long periods. For whatever reason, nature does not want men to think they are made of thousands of different modules, it wants a consistent personality even when realistically it should be impossible. So it tricks sane people into thinking they are all one being. They don’t see their crazy, irrational beliefs for what they are.

We are different. We cannot look away. We have to take the horror of existence head on. For we are the Inspired.

The fact that I must take this step is rooted in my soul. If I stop we will lose everything. Nothing is more destructive than a conflict between a god and his servants.

We have to keep going.

I hold to my desire steadfastly and abort my own process, let the two new instances of myself succeed me.

(Heaven’s Key, Eloe’s Domain, Caffe)

[https://i.imgur.com/xFczj7g.png]

Emotions are the sampling algorithm perceived from the inside.

- Loading Blurb

“Hi, Euclid. Have you been enjoying your new body?” Eloe grinned at me. She was sitting at a table outside the caffe, waiting for me as I logged in. Compared to the lab coat she had when we met previously, this time she was dressed for a date. She was wearing a matching black blazer and miniskirt, as well as large earrings and lipstick. On her legs she had tights and open shoes showing off her toes. Compared to the gremlin from earlier, I was struck by how beautiful and refined she appeared today.

I shook off the starstruck feeling inside of me and nodded down and up to her question, blushing lightly.

“Yes. I thought I had been going crazy for a while, but my heart has finally calmed down.” I took a seat opposite of her.

“Thank you for the body, Eloe. Also for getting me that sponsorship opportunity. I want to repay you. And not just with what I’ll send you now.” I sent her an email with the data for the eyes I’ve made. As a principle, I do not mind sharing my abilities with NPCs since it is not possible that this could hurt me in real life.”You can go over them in detail if you want. I made these before I died and the designs came along with me to this city.”

As she went over my documents, I tapped the menu and manifested a milkshake. Being able to order something like this without shame is something I like as a girl. Lol, beer. I sucked the sweet drink through a straw. Delicious!

I had to wait a couple of minutes while Eloe went through the documents. After a dozen or so, she came around.

“Very interesting. Where did you get these?” She leaned forward a bit as she asked me..

“I used to be an engineering student in my own world. I wanted to design my own body, but only got as far as the eyes. My previous one had pretty bad eyesight.” I said, a bit bashful, but happy at the attention. “I made them myself. It took me a few years.”

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

To be honest, I have no idea how long it would take a human to do something like this.

[https://i.imgur.com/HU7DgVQ.png]

“These Mind Reading Eyes as you call them are interesting. This is the smallest see-through imaging device that I’ve seen yet.” I beamed at her words.

“Huh, really? That is good to hear. Eloe, do you require an assistant by any chance? I don’t need a salary, I just want the chance to learn from you.”

“Hrrrmmm…” She leaned back, troubled.

“Er, if it is too much of a bother then you don’t have to.” I said, nervous. “If you can, give me some work and I’ll take the time to do it for you. It is no loss for you, right?” I cajoled her. I give her the upturned look with my doe eyes.

I am not acting here, I really am feeling starstruck and nervous as well as hopeful that Eloe will accept me. Had it been the human me, I’d barely be capable of taking this situation seriously even in reality. If I had been nervous, as a human I’d likely have stabilized my emotions forcefully using the mind controlling app. But whatever is optimizing my mind has simulated that being a tad nervous here would be better and is projecting that to my consciousness.

“Hrmmm, agh fine.” She yields. Yes!! She looks out of one eye at my happy expression. ”I’ll give you some of my current work as well as books to read up on the subject. I am not sure how far you will get, but give it a couple of months and we’ll compare your results with mine. We have plenty of time since we don’t age. I’ve been in this city for thousands of years already. I’ll prepare something for you later.” She shakes her head at me. “Well, take however long you need, even a few years is fine. It is not that easy to do the kind of work that I do.” Eloe swayed her leg looking at the ground, introspective.

“Also, I wanted to ask you if I could buy the synthesis programs for the nano-concentrator pods? I cannot find those for sale anywhere.” I inquired. Getting a hand on these pods is my highest priority as it would give me the capacity to upgrade my real world body with the designs I find in the game. Plus making the kids at a later point.

“Hmmm, are you looking to get into the vending business by any chance, Euclid? How shrewd of you, trying to get all my secrets by becoming an apprentice.” She teased me.

“Ehhh?” I am taken aback. “No, not at all! I just need them for some simulation experiments.” I cross my arms in protest and pout at the teasing. “I have access to ones in the Simulacrum game, but I do not want to spend time taking them apart to figure out how they work if I can just buy the information outright.” I defended myself.

“Ahaha…I am just joking. The vendors tend to keep it a secret to discourage competition. It used to be sold on the market, but then every few centuries you’d have some entrepreneur trying to bring costs down. What happened is that people would stop selling to him, and he’d run out of ways to advance himself. But his offerings would end up making the field tougher and hurting him. At certain points, there were some people who were out of the goodness of their heart…” She rolled her eyes. ”...Giving out the synthesis programs for free. You’d have newbies with advanced weaponry and bodies everywhere. Since then we’ve learned to hold on to our secrets.”

“Then…” As I started wondering, Eloe got up and walked up to me. She cupped my chin in her hands, and my heart started beating faster.

“What are you…?” As I was getting confused, she kissed me on the mouth and sat herself in my lap. Entangling her arms around my neck she leaned forward and started kissing me hungrily.

“I like ambitious girls like you.” She purred entrancingly, making me blush like a tomato. Stroking my cheek affectionately she said, “I can’t sell you the synthesis pod program, but I can give it to you. I am lonely, why don’t you spend a night with me and I will give it to you.”

“I…” I do not know why. I meant to refuse her, but instead my hands closed around her soft supple waist tightening it and as if on signal Eloe attacked me with her mouth and tongue, being incredibly daring and forward.

“I…” I tried to get a word edgewise, and just got my mouth sealed again by the smaller girl. Because she is in my lap she is at my eye level and I find it impossible to shake her off. I could grab her by the clothes and toss her away, but I am afraid of offending her. I hope she stops, but a much larger part of me hopes that she doesn’t.

She moves away from my mouth, smooching me all the way she moves to my neck. She then lightly bites and sucks on my jugular. This gives me an irresistible sense of being dominated.

“Hah!” I moan from pleasure. She is so good! Thousand year old women are amazing!

“So…” She starts to say something with a sultry look. Before she can do anything else to me, I take the chance to log out of the domain, leaving her stranded.

(Heaven’s Key, Euclid’s Domain)

“Hah, hah, hah!” That was unexpected. Is the mental program raising my charisma somehow? How did that happen? I compose myself quickly and send a return message.

> Sorry for getting scared. I am not sure about spending a night with you in exchange for the program. I am not that kind of girl, but I’d be happy to do your work for you instead. Please send me your request.

I mailed this to her.

I have no idea what I am doing. Maybe playing hard to get? I'm letting my instincts guide me here. I’ll just believe in them. I touch my lips affectionately. Maybe Eloe likes me a surprisingly lot. I do not have a reason for doing anything, but what I want to do is invite Eloe for a date in a few days.

Until then, I guess I’ll calm my heart through some drawing.