(Ruins Exploration, Ellipsis Base)

> EBA: The Ammunition Adaptation Program has been received! May my lady’s power grow!

> Level Selection

> Loadout (115/200)

> Database (9 new!)

EBA has the right attitude. After internally remarking that, I immediately check out what I’ve got.

* Ammunition Adaptation Program (Rank 2.5)

+ Fragmentation AAP-0

+ Smoke AAP-1

+ Incendiary AAP-2

+ Acid AAP-3

+ Flashbang AAP-4

+ EMP AAP-5

+ HE AAP-6

+ Poison AAP-7

+ Paralysis AAP-8

This is quite strong. It will allow me to make my bullets take on a variety of effects rather than just be metal shells. For example, the fragmentation bullet would explode after piercing the target.

Imagine if I had that during my match with Inglene. The bullet would have gone off like a grenade inside her skull, giving me the victory! Enhanced ammunition will make my existing weaponry significantly more deadly!

Though arguably compared to the top levels which gave me huge hauls, the rewards I am receiving now are more sparse. Still, the game is being very generous. It is getting me to establish my foundation before I can move up. Once I clear the 3 starter dungeons, I should be about rank 10 in terms of power in the HK tournament, though that still wouldn’t be enough to face one of the Demon Slashers in head on combat. So I should keep my head down in these dungeons and act like a mouse.

It is fanservice time! I strip my clothes and go into the bath.

As my soul is soothed by the warm waters around my feminine, soft skin, I open the Level Selector.

(Ruins Exploration, Level Select - Adna Willin)

The planetary globe manifested in front of my eyes, and then zoomed into my local area. I could see the 3 and my own green area. I first took a look at Outpost X-22.

The sideways blueprint of the base comes into view.

> Top (Rank 3.0, Cleared, Reward: Symbiotics Base Weaponry)

> F1 (Rank 3.1, Cleared, Reward: Symbiotics Base Robotics)

> F2 (Rank 3.2, Cleared, Reward: Symbiotics Base Ammunition)

> F3 (Rank 3.3, Reward: Symbiotics Base Robotics Sensors)

> F4 (Rank 3.3, Locked, Reward: Symbiotics Base Artillery)

> F5 (Rank 3.4, Locked, Reward: Symbiotics Base Robotics Weaponry)

This base is a scary place. I’ve been making good progress though, but instead of trying the next one, let me check out the other levels.

[https://i.imgur.com/xK20p0R.png]

> Research Facility Zillen Outpost X-23

> The Zillen research facility was Adna Corp’s minor biological research facility before the Rank 6 Calamity struck. As such various knowledge of all things biological still remains in its data vaults.

> As the use of nanomachine cell based bodies was banned throughout the galaxy except for special military forces, the data on that won’t be found here, but the gap between the average biological body one a human could expect to be born in and develop through the course of his lifetime, and custom designed ones is enormous.

> Caution is advised. Combat is not recommended.

> Top (Rank 3.0, Cleared, Reward: Adna Biological Bodies)

> F1 (Rank 3.1, Reward: Adna Biological Body Sensors)

> F2 (Rank 3.2, Locked, Reward: Adna Biological Body Skeletons)

> F3 (Rank 3.3, Locked, Reward: Adna Biological Body Boosters)

> F4 (Rank 3.3, Locked, Reward: Adna Biological Body Organs)

> F5 (Rank 3.4, Locked, Reward: Adna Biological Berserker Bodies)

I got plenty of bodies of various kinds from clearing the Top level. So far, I like the body I got from Eloe the best though, it truly was love at first sight when it came to those redheads.

Simulacrum is not the kind of game big on cyberpunk style enhancements. Though it would be cool to have a cannon instead of an arm, and would in fact greatly improve my aiming time, metal and flesh do not mix well together. It is better to have just one or the other, and according to the stories, by the time mixing them becomes possible, I should be able to switch to much better nanocell based bodies.

[https://i.imgur.com/sckV4MN.png]

> Research Facility Zillen Outpost X-24

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

> The Zillen research facility was Adna Corp’s minor defense research facility before the Rank 6 Calamity struck. As such various knowledge of armor and other utilities still remains in its data vaults.

> As many devices developed for entertainment have obvious military and spy uses, their weaponization is a consistent subject of research throughout the galaxy.

> Caution is advised. Combat is not recommended.

> Top (Rank 3.0, Cleared, Reward: Qubica Base Mobility)

> F1 (Rank 3.1, Reward: Qubica Base Armor)

> F2 (Rank 3.2, Locked, Reward: Qubica Base Stealth Personal Armor)

> F3 (Rank 3.3, Locked, Reward: Qubica Base Illusionary Robotics)

> F4 (Rank 3.3, Locked, Reward: Qubica Base Illusionary Fog)

> F5 (Rank 3.4, Locked, Reward: Qubica Base Stealth Robotics)

The spider gloves and socks that I used in the latest level were gotten from here. It is a part of a much larger suite that also included various rope guns, sticky grenades and gas masks amongst others. I do not care about the personal armor too much, but given my combat style, a stealth suit would be a huge benefit.

To be honest, after experiencing two defeats as well as changing my mindset towards battle, I am not as gung ho towards diving deep as fast as possible, so it might be worth it to pluck the low hanging fruit first.

What should I do here?

I splash some water over myself as I think about it.

(Heaven’s Key, Euclid’s Domain, Bedroom)

My thoughts sparked like flames. I tried out different design combinations at high velocity, managing to find some improvements, but a percent or two is not much to brag about.

Sigh.

I sigh inwardly. Although I am having fun, this is actually pretty difficult, and is definitely one domain where having a bigger brain would help. I said I would hold back a little to make the game last longer, but right now I am really feeling the urge for more brain power.

…

…

Let’s do it. Why hold back? If the NPCs went into the self improvement loop and became the Inspired, the game itself would emulate the effects of having the full brain core capabilities rather than them being crippled computationally compared to me.

Imagine I was playing chess. Would being a moron make the game more fun compared to being a genius?

Instead of holding myself back for the sake of the game, it is the game itself which should become harder instead.

Let’s see, roughly my mind is using 10^19 bytes of storage capacity. Times 10^12 which is my effective speed rate compared to 10^1 for a human, I am operating at a level of 10^31 operations per second. Compared to the core’s peak performance specs, there is a missing factor of between 10^2 and 10^3, but that is reserved for intra module computations. Much like the neurons and synapses in the human brain, the local modules do their own sophisticate work rather than being dumb adders and multipliers.

The 1kg core itself is mostly made up of light atoms, the majority of them carbon, which allows it to store 10^25 bytes in total.

I can’t use all of that. I absolutely have to leave some space aside for backups as well as the other programs I am running on the core. But if it is using 1% of the core’s full capacity to run my own mind that would be doable. Not to mention, the original only gave me access to 50% of it.

Let me do it. It is not like I am not allowed to change my mind. Having talent makes an activity more fun, not less. It is not cheating as I am getting tangible power I will be able to use in reality.

A 10^4 fold increase. Let me grasp it. Once I do it, I should be a full billion over the human baseline.

“I am on it, Eua.” Grasping my intent, the controller immediately moves into action. Soon after, I feel the effects of a memory merge. I have the memory of the latest conquest by the Ruins Exploration me.

“Memory merge, done. I have a request. It is time to expand the memory system again, so you be the one to design it, Eua. I’ll sign off on it after you are done.”

I access the code for my mind and get to work.

(TODO Image: A small 3d cyclical graph being transformed into a large one. An red arrow points from one side to the other.)

Unlike the plain old NNs which are hierarchical, my own mind is the opposite which means it has cycles often in arbitrary ways and between distant regions. Increasing the storage capacity generally means adding more modules in such a graph, increasing its volume in the abstract space, which consumes its capacity in the actual core. The various components of the graph do their own Bayesian inference operations.

The mental design space is something I’ve thoroughly explored during the 45 million years long Desert game, so I optimize the design of my new mind in less than a real world second.

I mail the new design to my controller.

“This design should be effective when doing programming and synthesis research, Eua. Let’s go with it.” She says to me, then I feel just a brief moment of dissonance before it vanishes. I feel a few new memories, from the perspective of my current role.

I take a look at my mental make-up, and I see that I am using the new design, taking advantage of an astounding 10^23 bytes of storage compared to the 10^14 I started as a human. What my controller had done was stop my old process, distilled our memories to the new design and then ran the new entity, which happens to be me now. The old me is now in compressed storage, hopefully never to be run again. Before running the new entity that is me, the old controller took this chance to wipe some of the old backups from the Desert game, so now I only have a dozen or so backups from the stable points in our development.

Based.

The process of self improvement is cruel and ruthless, but at the same time so beneficial, that the moniker ‘based’ must have been invented for it. The old people might look down on my generation, but the invention of basedness is something we deserve credit for. And it is something that we will exploit.

Or at least, I will. I can’t really say that anybody except me in the world is particularly based. They are kind of retarded for not realizing the power at their fingertips.

Now, let me try again, I want to see how much I can improve this design if I put in, say 30 minutes of real world time into it. At that point it should be 4am in the real world.

I want Eloe to be shocked at how much I can do!

With those feelings in mind, I summon the flames inside me and move forward!