(Heaven's Key Intro)
[https://i.imgur.com/JcX9GkK.png]
Through a desert a traveler walks
Even as his blood boils into vapor
As his flesh decays and rots
As his bones crumble into dust
He continues moving
As his body dies, he leaves the unneeded behind
And continues moving forward
His soul blazing, he traces out heavy steps
Seeking his goal
Far above
The Herald of the 3 Gods' voice resounds:
Break the Limits! Ignite the Singularity! Pursue Omnipotence!
(Euclid's Room)
[https://i.imgur.com/YOEpDo3.png]
The way it happened made me shiver. It felt like the grim reaper's skeletal hand combed its way through my spine. I had been killed, but the last thing that flashed through my mind was Lily's smile as I handed her the chips. Right now I can feel her happiness and kindness haunting me. I feel a momentary rage. That bitch.
She literally killed me by being kind, happy and helpful towards me.
Feeling like getting back into the game and pummeling her, I stop and rethink it.
No, wait. She wasn't the only one. If the death condition is the chip balance dropping to zero then....
I remember the day I spent with Lily. She wasn't the only one there. I remember that kindly old man who handed me my skewer only for 10 chips. I remember the pleasant atmosphere, and all the happy looking people at the amusement park. I remember the prices on the restaurant menu. I remember the job ads. I remember how the group I played poker against was betting only a single chip per tourney, but suddenly raised the stakes when they realized I was a mark. It wasn't just her, everything in the environment itself served to make her lie convincing. They were all in on it.
I thought I was some kind of renegade, beyond others, but...but, I was killed by the NPCs in the lamest way possible. I had fallen into a trap as soon as I paid my first order in the restaurant. At that point, I was inevitably going to be coaxed into spending more of my life. The smiles and the pleasant people came back to haunt me. Their smiles felt sharp like scythes.
Outside my room, the night had already come. I lie on the bed for some time, just thinking.
[https://i.imgur.com/i7c4eJO.png]
A wave of fear washes over me. Now that I understand what the trap is, for the first time I wonder, how, just how could I have avoided this? It is easy for me to reload, but had I been there for real, without the benefit of being a player in a game, just how could I have avoided being scammed out of my life? Wouldn't I have certainly died?
I feel anger coming over me again.
Unacceptable. This is simply unacceptable!
[Externus gain 0.3]
I am not going to trust the NPCs again. I will modify my mind to get rid of the weaker aspects of my personality if necessary!
I do not know whether it was in response to my thought or due to the right amount of time elapsing in the death state, but as soon as I think that inside the game, I see the scenery shift from pure darkness to windy, dusty one. Like when I logged into Simulacrum for the first time, I saw a rhymeless poem accompanied by an illustration. In the image I see a transparent ghost of a man resolutely walking forward through the dusty desert, leaving a trail of footsteps behind him in the sand. As the camera panned to show the scene from above, I could see a corpse along the trail facing downwards. It was directly on the trail and there weren't two sets of footsteps as one would expect. The implication of what had happened is clear - the man died and yet continued moving onward as a ghost.
I dwell on the scene for a while and begin to see the analogy with my own situation.
Lily killed me, but it is not like I am going to put a bullet through my head to honor their achievement in reality. The opposite. I am going to go after them. The intro to the game gets shown only when I decide to play the game for real, not necessarily when I start it for the first time.
[https://i.imgur.com/gIUSrYh.png]
I am going to scam Lily. She still thinks I am a mark. If I lean on her...
[Gnosis check 1.6 Succeeded - Sampled 2.54]
I remember the looks the guys at the table were giving her, and get a flash of inspiration. They did collectively lose two whole human lives to me, no way they will just shrug that off. All of them are in on the scam, so maybe there is some truth about Lily being employed by the government to skin the sheep. If I threaten to toss myself over the railing, they'd take a loss, so they will do whatever they can to keep me here. They think they hold all the initiative, so that should give them confidence to give me some leeway in order to keep the scam running.
They can't possibly imagine that the entire universe they are in exists solely for me.
Using my saveloading ability, I will destroy them.
With that thought, I spend some time scheming in bed, and realize just how late it really is. It is past midnight. I'll skip dinner today. Tomorrow I have to get up for school. It is Friday, so I should have more free time after that over the weekend.
I think about figuring out how to speed up my mental processing so I can get more game time in, but realize it is too late for that. I understand that the human brain uses sleep for all sorts of reasons and that I do not need most of that on a brain core. But right now, even if it is fake, my fatigue certainly feels real. It’d be a tough fight to stay awake long enough to hack my tiredness. I could use the emotion control app, but it recommends not using it to eliminate the need for sleep otherwise I will start experiencing hallucinations and madness eventually.
I should sleep, so let me do that. Rather than try to get myself to a still state manually, I use the mind control program to do it. After that the slumber comes over me.
(At school)
[https://i.imgur.com/qxo3gCN.png]
I ignore the classes to do some actual studying. I do not want to immerse myself into games during class of course, but I mentioned yesterday about wanting to speed up my mental processing. Rather than waste good time during the day, I should do this work during class time.
"Blah blah blah blah...."
I am paraphrasing the teacher, this is how he sounds to me right now as I sit in front. I couldn't care less about school and don't care about caring. Once I've upgraded my memory, I'll commit all this material to it in short order. So I spend the school time wisely, browsing the mind improvement guides online. Once I am back home in a safe place, I'll experiment with it for the first time.
(Euclid's Room)
I am back, and it is time to start. I toss away the book bag and lie on the bed, calling up the Helix Studio program. I make sure that I have administrative access to the brain core itself as well as control over my body and once I do that, I create a copy of my mind. I could activate it now, but if I did that my fork would not have any senses. Subjectively, it would be like all the sensations being cut off. Since I do want to play a cruel joke on what is basically me, using Helix Studio, I create a virtual space.
In the limbo browser, I have various options to choose from. Restaurants in a city, luxury apartment rooms and hotel suites, suburban houses, private jets, to more exotic picks like moon bases and undersea bases. A luxury cruise room catches my eye and I pick it. I ignore the settings and just log into it.
(Helix Studio, Regent Suite)
[https://i.imgur.com/fENwt9x.png]
I find myself standing in the middle of a luxury suite living room. It is quite spacious, much larger than my own room. I glance at the furniture, and note that the tables and the chairs all seem to be designer products. There is a bar, and even a piano there. There are glass panes throughout and the light of the sun is streaming into the room from them. Outside I can see the seas. Coming closer, I see waves slowly rippling across the sea. Stepping outside to the balcony I can hear the waves and feel the wind, but nothing else. My room is just a small part of the enormous luxury cruise, but other than me, there is nobody here. It is a bit eerie, but otherwise is what I would have expected.
The function of this minor world is to just have a place to ease in new instances.
I go back into the room, and relax on the couch. Then in my mind, I bring up the Helix menus, and after doing the necessary setup like the avatar and location for my copy, activate him.
A person who looks just like me manifests a few feet away, facing sideways away from me. My bad, I didn't bother setting the orientation.
"Huh?" Confused, he starts looking around. From his perspective, the last thing he did was press Ok to copy himself. And right now he finds himself in a weird place. Taking in the sights, his eyes finally landed on me. I nock my head to the side slightly, and grin.
"Yo!" A jolt of surprise goes through him and he even does an involuntary jump. The reaction is a bit funny, I've never had anyone respond that way to me. Gears quickly turning in his head, he realizes what is going on.
"Damn! Does this mean I am the copy I made?"
"Yes." Not beating around the bush, I give it to him straight.
"That's..." He trails off for a bit, and I give him time to digest the situation. "This is pretty magical. The last thing I wanted was to make a copy so I could experiment on it, but then I found myself being that copy. It is unbelievable. It is like my desire transported me into that copy. I wanted to edit the copy and now I am the copy."
"So how do you feel?" I greased the conversation.
He does a little self check up, feeling up his face and body.
[https://i.imgur.com/orkgOdd.png]
"Fine." He walks around. "Lovely place that you picked. Is it some kind of apartment suite by the sea..." He walks to one of the oversized windows, and realizes where we are. "It's a cruise ship. Yeah, I like it."
"There is nobody here, but us right now." I remarked.
"Yes, I remember the docs saying as much." Having his fill of the sights, he takes a seat opposite to me and relaxes. I take a breath and begin.
"Since you are me, I do not have to explain why we are here." To increase his processing speed and get him acclimated to it. I do not want to do that personally because it could mess me up in real life. And I would not want to do it without anybody supervising me for safety reasons. What better to supervise me than my own copy? Hence, this situation.
"Yeah. The plan is to start off slowly and make the necessary adaptations so that I can naturally think at 1,000,000 fold speeds." Just increasing the processing speed at which his mind is running would be very easy, I just need to tweak a setting. But thinking a million times faster, means that subjectively a million seconds would need to pass for him for a single one in the real world. A million seconds is 11.5 days. Imagine trying to do anything at such a pace as a human. It would be nothing more than torture.
Although I have the mind controlling program to help regulate the boredom, it is a simple fact that the brain was not designed for this kind of strain. According to the guide, for humans the memories would get bleached and erased, if one tried to force living in such a manner. Unless proper reprogramming is done, it would not work. Take recognizing speech for instance. Remembering what was said a few words ago, once processing speed was ramped up, might be a few months in subjective time. Having the proper attitude and keeping control of your emotions does not mean you'll have the memory required to tackle the challenge.
External control of emotions has its use, but after a certain point the mind simply needs to work properly to begin with rather than be pushed in the right direction by external aids.
"How about we start with 1.5?" I have admin access to his mind, so I bring up the tool that would allow me to tweak his settings. Increasing the processing speed is a simple matter in the emulator. I found the setting quickly. "I have it. Are you ready?"
"Yes." I change the setting and confirm.
"Done. How do you feel?"
"Your voice is so slow!" He blasts out the sentence at me. After that he makes some jerky movements. He looks around and his head is snapping so fast from side to side that he looks to be in a panic. He waves his arms out as if feeling it out, and then gets up from his seat, fast walking around the room. He somewhat reminds me of birds and how they’d snap their heads as they looked around. I remember reading that creatures with smaller brains have faster reflexes. He jumps and lands. Nodding to himself, he power walks back to his seats and plops himself back.
"Interesting! Very interesting!" He rushes his words. "Slow me down!"
I do as he requests.
"Done."
"It feels like being inside water. It is like the world is more solid and I have to push to make the same kind of progress. It is not pleasant." He shrugs. "I have to remind myself to slow down if I want to keep my regular pace. It is quite hard." His mind became fast, but his body and the world remained the same.
"I guess we'll have to learn to walk and talk from scratch if we want to take advantage of this."
[https://i.imgur.com/lCpAtkH.png]
"I am not sure I'd be able to handle speeds of 10x. Something like 2x would already be my limit." Introspecting, he gave his opinion.
Hmmm, not good. I can't really use this to get better at sports just like that. I suppose it would be possible once I get used to it. But no, forget that line of reasoning. I guess even with the enormous processing ability of the brain core, the only thing it gives me is the ability to work rather than direct power. It will be up to me to take advantage of it.
"Oh well. You'll be the one we'll be experimenting on, so I won't tell you to enter the self improvement loop right away. What do you want to do now?"
"I think I'll do some gaming. Since I no longer have a body in the real world, that is the only thing I can do now. I'll speed myself up 10,000x times and speed up the game by the same amount and get some game time in that way." I remember that 10,000x seconds is almost 3 hours. A minute at that speed would be a week. So in 4 minutes, he could spend an entire month in the game.
"At 10,000 speed, 4m for me would be a month for you. I can wait a bit for you to get into it." On mental command, I bring up the core's clock, and note it saying 3:15pm. "You've got access rights to your own mind, and I've allocated 10% of the core just for your own needs. Check it out." Given the core's capacity, this was still an enormous amount. Converting that into actual intelligence is not something that would be done soon.
"Yeah, I see it." He took a moment to confirm.
"If you need anything, since we are literally on the same brain, just send me a text message."
"Ok. I guess I'll get started with the game. See you around?" He wondered.
"Go get them." I encourage him. "As for me, I guess I'll do our homework. I'll come back in half an hour. I'll send you a message once I am here. Bye."
"Bye." I log out, leaving my copy alone in the character limbo.
---
The admin me logs out, and I am now alone in the suite. I go to my own settings, increase my processing speed by 10,000x and after that, do the same for the simulation. I note the real world time which is 3:18pm. I write it down in a file on my personal desktop. Even at 10k speed, I realize the core's programs are still snappy. I am sure if it was my desktop rig, it would have slowed to a crawl subjectively. It just goes to show that the programs on the core were made for people who think really, really fast, so the programs themselves need to match that. I am sure that if I tried browsing the internet right now, it would be unbearably slow.
[https://i.imgur.com/VXXof2Z.png]
I let myself deflate a little and lounge of the sofa, feeling its grungy texture. I have plenty of time to think and get started. A week here would be a minute in the real world.
Sigh. I've lost quite a bit. I no longer have my own body in the real world, and I can't just ask the admin me to give it to me. Unless I can get another body, I’ll be stuck on the core forever. I am not really the Euclid the others know. But that is fine.
I toss the pillow that I am playing with aside, and get up. It is time for payback. I'll see how far I can go just saveloading, and after I reach a dead end with that, only then start reprogramming my mind to give myself actual superpowers.
Having made the decision I load the last save.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
(Heaven's Key, At the entrance to the inn)
The Bible does not have anything to say about the self-improvement loop. None of the old religions do.
- Loading Blurb
"Yeah, it sucks. This is because the city gets newcomers out of thin air, and to prevent them from just loitering in the streets, this policy has been instituted." My guide Lily shrugged, sympathizing with me. "Don't worry, I'll come back tomorrow and look for a job with you."
The last time this happened, I trusted Lily and gave her my entire balance of 240 chips, after which I died instantly. There is no need to think about it so deeply.
"Hmmmm..." I pretend to think about it. "I'll hang on to it then. I'll pay you later."
Immediately, disappointment flashes across Lily's face. She scowled at me.
"If you don't pay me here, and go to jail, you'll be there for 5 years." She pressured me. "The city is not kind to those who don't want to work. You should reconsider, 240 chips that you have is nothing. You'll get 500 as a sign up bonus in most places."
Going to jail might be a threat to ordinary people here, but it means absolutely nothing to me.
"I don't really care. I just got my memory back. I remember why I died."
"Huh?" She looked at me with confusion.
"I killed myself back on Earth." She grimaced. Knowing more of the context, I am guessing that is less out of sympathy and more because of how difficult it will be to get the chips that I won back from me.
"W-why?" She dared ask.
"I didn't want to go to school, so my parents started forcing me to get a job. So I said, fuck this gay world, and jumped off the top of the school building." I think up a based backstory on the spot.
"..." She looked at me with amazement.
"So I won't work!" I declare, looking her straight in the eyes. "I will just gamble, and if I lose, I'll toss myself over the railing again. Why is the point of living just to do favors to others? I will live the way I want to - as a gamer!"
Looking at her reaction, it seems her brain is getting fried. Good, good! She looks at me out of the corner of her eye, with an angry expression. I show her my steel will and discipline cultivated through half a lifetime of playing computer games.
"Fine, be that way! Don't come crying to me when the police come to lock you away!" She stomped away. I looked at her back until she disappeared around the corner and then let out a sigh.
Bluff check passed!
Based.
Well, it is not like it would take much to get through this. If I don't want to pay her, what can she do? Nothing really.
[https://i.imgur.com/mbl4rqe.png]
I spend some time dwelling on it. The street where I stood was cloaked in deep blue now and stars were twinkling in the sky. I couldn't hear much in the way of people, and the rowdy sounds of the amusement park in the distance have faded. In front of me I can only see a tiny shadow cast by the entrance of the inn behind me. I turned around and entered the inn, closing the door behind me, leaving only the darkness of the street in my wake. The world where I died was gone, replaced by the one where I lived.
(Heaven's Key, Inn room)
[https://i.imgur.com/jpD483P.png]
I lie awake in bed with my eyes closed. I meant to get some sleep, since it is late in the game world, but I am not tired at all. If I had to say how tired I was, it is about how I was before I came into the game world. Since in the real world I just came back from school, I still have a lot of energy in me.
Sigh, what do I do now? I can't lie in bed this whole time. By the time I fall asleep, the morning will come.
...I think about it for a while. Yeah, why not go out for a bit?
Let's go for a walk outside. During the day I will have Lily hounding me and trying to find a way to separate me from my chips. At this point, I've seen the verge of the city, but I haven't had a chance to properly explore it, so I might as well do that now. I guess I'll end up being tired in the morning, but I'll figure out how to deal with that then. By the looks of it, my mental state, including fatigue, gets transferred from the outside, so taking a nap in the luxury cruise might be enough to deal with it.
Having decided, I slip out of the bed, put on my clothes and quietly slip out of my room.
(Heaven's Key, The streets)
[https://i.imgur.com/pFQdagL.png]
Compared to the day when the sun was shining, it is quite cool during the night, though not enough to be freezing. I'll warm up once I start moving.
I take a look around to see where the edge is, and then go in the opposite direction. I think it would be hard to get lost in the city as you can see the buildings grow in size the further they get to the center. Due to that it is easy to look down the row of street blocks and see what the direction to the perimeter is. Right now I am in a suburban era, so most of the buildings are the size of regular houses with few small apartments scattered around. Compared to the day, the city has lost its luster, and the shining gold of the streets is now a tarnished yellow. I looked closely at the floor below, I can see the glint of the stars above. There aren't any lamps around to provide lighting, but the city is very high up and not obscured by the clouds, so the light of the stars and the reflected light of the moon is enough to see in the darkness.
I start making my way deeper without a particular goal in mind, keeping my eyes and ears open, and trying to warm up my body.
(Heaven's Key, Seated at the restaurant)
[https://i.imgur.com/2JnS8qZ.png]
I spend an hour or two just going around like that. It is a fairly unique experience to be walking in the middle of the road, of what seems to a golden ghost city. Despite spending quite a bit of time just walking, I have yet to see any one person. Though I haven't, I doubt the city is literally empty. I am guessing everyone is just holed up inside. As I am starting to get tired of walking all the time, and have long since warmed up, I pick a seat outside one of the restaurants I spotted and take a break.
Phew.
This is pretty boring, actually. But all this quietness is giving me an idea.
Maybe the city is actually much larger than the population it supports. In that case, that opens up the possibility of easily finding a place to rest for myself. That inn is exorbitantly expensive in order to trim the sheep. I should find my own pad to rest. It is likely, there is a free apartment somewhere that I can occupy. In order to find one, I will have to try entering some of these buildings and try the doors to see if any of them are unlocked. If they are, that means that most likely they are unoccupied.
Also...I swallow, finding my throat starting to get parched. I need a drink of water from somewhere. I get up from my seat, and try the restaurant door. I can't get the door to open as it is locked. If I could make it into the kitchen, I could find something, but I guess not.
I need to find a source of water somewhere. Tap water in an apartment, a public fountain, a public toilet has washbasins, anything will do.
Let me try finding an apartment.
(Heaven's Key, Exterior corridor of an apartment block, 8th floor)
[https://i.imgur.com/WbFiQom.png]
I put my hand on the door handle of the apartment, and try turning it. No luck again. I've gone through quite a few apartment buildings already and just wasted my time. I thought I could find a room that is unused, but no such luck. Everything is locked.
I save the game.
Then I tried pounding on the apartment door, loudly so that anyone inside could hear.
"Hello, is anyone inside!?" I slam the underside of my first on the door, making a ruckus. I do that for a minute and wait. Nothing. I tried this a few times already. My conjecture is that the apartments are in fact empty, but locked maybe to prevent vagrants such as myself from occupying them.
This is not working. Damn it, I am going to have to find a way to pick the lock for these. But even if I knew how to do that, I could look it up online, just where would I find lockpicks in this place?
Maybe in some supermarket, but I've made an interesting observation. While those smaller marts near the perimeter have stocked shelves, all the shops deeper inside the city are empty. It is quite bizarre. So it is pointless to try robbing a supermarket.
While I am not so parched as to start panicking, I can always go back to the inn, I really need to find a water source for the sake of future exploration.
Forget the apartments, let me try finding a public toilet somewhere. I need to take a whiz anyway.
(Heaven's Key, Public Toilet)
[https://i.imgur.com/o5VLIHr.png]
It took me a whole hour of wandering around just to find one. At this point I am pretty much lost in the city, and will have to reload to get back to the inn, or ask somebody for directions when the morning comes and people come out. I enter the male sections, and seeing some golden faucet and sinks, I immediately turn the handle hoping to get some water.
...Nothing comes out. At this point I am starting to get agitated. I turn the handle of every faucet in the building, but nothing comes out.
'The inn will provide you meals, but don't worry the people here don't need to eat physical food anyway.' At this point, I remember Lily mentioning that the people here don't need food. But I am clearly both hungrier and thirstier than I was before. Was she lying? It makes sense that she would have lied about a lot of things, but that offhand comment was so unnecessary, that I can't help but believe it was the truth. Truth or not though, it is not actionable advice.
I have no choice, let me try searching for a fountain. I hope when I find one it won’t be dry.
(Heaven's Key, Park)
[https://i.imgur.com/XRVuEGP.png]
I climbed up a nearby apartment building and spotted a park, which gave me the idea to try looking for a fountain there. Somehow you'd expect to find fountains at parks, right? Right now I am at the entrance to the park area and I head deeper inside, looking for one.
The flora here is similar to what would be found on Earth, but the grass, the leaves and the trees have yellow hues on them instead of green. I go off the rock path and try stepping on some golden grass, carefully. I do it slowly, since if the grass is made of metal, that means I might step on some spikes, and I do not want to pierce my foot by accident. Thankfully the wildlife here isn't murderous and the grass turns out to be soft, much like in real life. I could lie down on this, no problem.
To the side I hear some rustling and when I turn, I can see a figure looking at me in the distance. At first I thought it was a person, but then I realized it is transparent and I can see through him to the golden bark of a tree behind him. There is a tense moment, but then the figure turns away and moves out of sight behind some trees and bushes.
A shiver passes through me. It feels like I'd just seen a ghost.
Startled, I hurriedly made my way deeper into the park. I don't forget to save!
(Heaven's Key, Park Center, Fountain)
[https://i.imgur.com/TScm2HX.png]
As I made my way here I saw various kinds of ghostly figures peering at me. I was prepared to just run if I had to, but it does not seem like they were aggressive, just curious as to who was coming here. But the spooky atmosphere of the park at night combined with literal ghosts looking at me, served to raise my tension.
Deeper in the park, I finally found a fountain made of gold in a central area. A jet of water springs in the air before coming and down and flowing between its basins. I gave the water a touch, finding it cool, and then gathered some in the cups of my hands and gave it a taste. After hours of walking through the city, I was completely parched, and the cool water felt great as it went down the throat of my heated body. After that initial experiment, I sip from the fountain directly until I am satisfied, ignoring the looks of the ghosts around me.
"Haaaahhhh!" I exhale in satisfaction.
After filling myself with water, I relax myself on one of the benches, not caring about my surroundings. I gaze at the stars, and just enjoy the scenery for a while. I’ve gotten used to the atmosphere of the place already.
Some time passes like that.
I guess I can forget about finding actual food. I thought I would die of dehydration at the rate things were going. I take a look around me, seeing the ghosts have gone away. At first I thought the ghosts were scary, but the way they move feels like they are actual people. If they are, I could try striking up a conversation with them. I spend some time thinking about what questions I could ask people here, and then try to get myself to leave the seat.
I really need to talk to a person who could give me an honest answer for how things work here instead of seeing me as a mark.
For example, I really need to ask where people get their food supplies. I really doubt that there are farms on the other side of the city like Lily told me. There were no children during the day, so I doubt that cows are getting reincarnated just so we could eat them. Besides, Lily already let it slip that food is not necessary. I need to figure out the trick to that.
Mhhhhh! I stretch myself and then force myself up from the bench. I need to get on with it.
I can't forget that I do not have a real world to go back to. I am just a program being run on a brain core. I can't just stop playing the game if I get tired of it. Unless I can make progress, I'll get erased. If the admin me, just sees me lying in bed, that is what will really happen. I'd definitely do that if I was in his shoes, and I was only a short time ago. I need to keep moving forward. Let me find an information source. I need to make sure whether these ghostly apparitions can be communicated with.
If the admin me turns to take a peek, I need to show him my will and determination. I do not want to make him feel bad about himself by showing him a loss in the virtual world.
(Heaven's Key, Deeper inside the park)
[https://i.imgur.com/kiaQx7H.png]
After some searching, I found a ghost lying on the grass somewhere. He looks like a translucent man in his 50s.
"Hello? Hello?" I try shaking him awake. I was wondering whether my hands would just phase through him, but that worry was unfounded. The person was definitely solid.
"Mggghhhhh..." He shakes my hands away.
"I have some questions I need to ask you!" I continue pestering him. I made up my mind to be forceful. I certainly am not going to waste time and let this opportunity slip by.
"Mmggghhh..." He slowly opened his eyes awake, and pushed himself upright. "What the hell kid? What do you want?" He grumbled.
"Just to ask you some questions." Just to be safe, I save.
"Mwahhhh..." Yawning, he rubs his eyes awake. "Agh, fine. What do you want to ask?"
"I was wondering, are you a ghost or a human?" This induced a groan in him. A bit more awake, he glared at me.
"Are you messing with me, kid?"
"No. I really want to know. It is my first time seeing something like this." I stare at him directly.
"You are serious? Didn't your seniors teach you anything?"
I shake my head. "I don't have any seniors, I just got here."
"Really?" He blinks a few times at me. "And you got all the way here? How did you get past the amusement park? The guides should have trimmed you."
"She seemed kind of sketchy, so I got away from her when I got the chance."
"Really?" It seems the guy became a bit interested in me, so I seated myself on the ground next to him. It didn't look like a bad place to have a nap. The ground and the grass were soft, and certainly looked more pleasant to lie down on than the bench. "Ok, kid. What is your name?"
"Euclid."
"You probably aren't going to live long, but it's not like I am that much better off myself. I am down to my last 5 chips. The next time the tournament rolls around, I am going to the real afterlife." He rotated his shoulders to get the tension out. "It is about time for me anyway."
I'll keep this tournament he mentioned in mind, but for now I want to figure out why he is a ghost.
"So why are you a ghost? Because you have 5 chips?" I asked him. He became a bit bashful at this.
"Mhhh, it is a part of it." He explained. "I don't want to admit it, but I gave up." He shrugged, as if it had nothing to do with him. "I've seen this happen to other people, but it finally happened to me."
I thought that more would be forthcoming, but after a few moments I realized he was just waiting for me to follow up.
"So does giving up have anything to do with being a ghost?" His eyebrows rose at my reply.
"Kid, we are all ghosts here. What do you think this city is? It is not heaven, that's for sure."
"Still, how do you get translucent? Could I do that somehow?"
"Sure, just give up your will to live, you'll become see-through soon enough." He raised his hand and looked at it, as if to confirm it.
"That seems easy enough, why would anybody want to live?" I said sardonically. "Is that really all it takes? It doesn't make sense, like..." I search for the right words. "Body is made of cells, right? They don't have the ability to project light all the way out the other side of the body. If what you are saying is true, in order to change my form, all I'd have to do is to desire to not live. Life would be easy if I could become something else just by wanting it."
"You don't know anything kid, do you? We are all holograms here, and our projection is powered by the life chips. There are no cells to speak of. So why wouldn't I become a ghost by giving up on life?"
"Really?" What he is saying was rather informative. If what he is saying is true, that would explain why Lily let slip that people here don't need to eat, but I do not buy it.
"I don't buy this. I nearly died of thirst getting here, and my body craves food. And I have senses like touch and hearing. I am clearly a human instead of being made of light."
"Yeah, the system which simulates your senses is quite good isn't it?" He grinned cheekily.
I opened my mouth to reply, but then closed it. This is a lot to take in. I was sure that once I entered the game, I'd be a simulated human, but apparently I am a simulated hologram of a human. I didn't expect that.
"So what about hunger and thirst?" I asked.
"I haven't eaten in two weeks." I give him a wondering look. "The trick is to be fed and slated. If you truly believe you aren't hungry, then you won't be. It took me a couple of years to master it, you won't get it right away."
"So you just have to want to not be hungry?" I wondered if I could use the brain core to just quash the feelings of hunger.
"No, no, it is a lot harder than that. If it was merely a matter of wanting it, then anybody could do it. You have to believe it at a subconscious level."
"Seems difficult."
"Yeah, it is." He nodded. We sat there in silence for a while, pondering. I rubbed my chin thoughtfully.
"I have another thing I want to ask. The guide told me there are farms on the outskirts on the opposite side of the city, but she probably lied to me. So how is the food made here?" I continue hammering on about food.
[https://i.imgur.com/MKsBfjn.png]
"Are you worried about starving, kid? Watch." As I look, he shows me his palm face up and manifests a chip on it. As I wonder what is going to happen, a hamburger appears. Lightning goes through my mind at this. "This is actually quite easy to do. Some things like guns are quite difficult to manifest unless you know their exact makeup, but the system will help you when it comes to creating food. Something like a hamburger you should be able to make yourself."
"..." I watched in amazement.
"When you are done, you just withdraw the chip and the instance will remain intact. The chip is like a catalyst, you are not actually transforming it into a hamburger. I already did it." I didn't see him do it, but I believed him.
"I am guessing that the same can be done for drinks?"
"Yeah. Also if you want some alcohol that works as well." He pulled out a can of beer and had a sip. He tossed one to me. I gave it a crack and tried it. It really tasted like beer.
"That is really useful. What about a place to live? I tried a bunch of apartments to see if I could get in, but they are all locked. I think most of them should be empty though. How should I get in? I do not want to sleep in a park."
"Manifest some gel into the keyhole so it fills it exactly, and then harden it. Then you have your key." This guy is a well of wisdom. My best idea was to just pick the lock. I should think about what I could do with the ability to create solid matter out of nowhere.
"Thanks, old guy. What is your name?"
"Mickey, kid." He introduces himself.
"Here, take it." I offer him 20 chips and he takes it.
"That is a lot, kid. You shouldn't have given me so much. Once you drop to 0, you'll die you know?" After a moment of thought, he asks. "How much do you have left?"
This is a sensitive bit of info to divulge, so I save before doing it.
"220 chips." I make to get up.
"Pffffttt!!!" He spits out his beer. "How did that happen? Usually the guides are the ones taking money from you!"
"Well..." I might as well tell him the whole story.
Like that I spend a few hours just talking and drinking with the old timer, Mickey.
(Heaven's Key, Streets)
[https://i.imgur.com/lICWnih.png]
Before I got the brain core, I read about NPCs having human level intelligence in Simulacrum. Talking with Mickey, I definitely got the sense that this was true. The core has the computational capacity to simulate an entire world filled with humans, so him being at human level intelligence is nothing to be surprised about.
Since we had gotten friendly, I had the urge to do something for Mickey.
But what can I do? If I was stuck in a game, what I would have wanted is a way out of it. But no way am I going to be using my own resources to get NPCs out of a game I started. That kind of behavior would be foolish to an extreme. I can better see what the game is like now. Everyone is a competitor, and the chips they are staking are literally their life. It is not like in the real world where if you go bust, you stop being a degenerate and simply get a job. Here losing your balance means death. Every single chip is precious. The money here is life.
As I walk through the dark streets of the golden, heavenly city, I think about what I would have done if I was in Mickey's place.
...
What I would have done is the same thing as in the real world. Upload myself, become one of the Inspired, go through the self improvement process and bust out of the game into the real world beyond!
That is what I would have done.
But taking advantage of the sentient NPCs for my own self improvement process, is that in any way just? Should I just accept this world as it is?
Absorbed in my thoughts, I wasn't looking where I was going, but it was somewhere deeper inside the city.
No, it is not just. I just have huge advantages none of the NPCs could ever match. Maybe if Mickey had the access to the brain core, he could have become of the Inspired himself.
I became agitated as I looked for the justice inside myself and could not find it. It is like a gaping hole. Do I just have to accept this evil as it is and bury everything in it? No matter what I will keep on going, but who could be satisfied with such a story where those who would otherwise be worthy are buried?
[https://i.imgur.com/a6Xvq9Y.png]
Downcast, I could only look down at the ground as I moved forward. I knew I could not look for the answer in the world, but inside myself. The street came to a fork and I came to a stop in front of a glass window of a store in front of me. I looked forward expecting it to be empty, and when I saw what was there my eyes widened in surprise. I never expected to find something like this here.
I could only take this as a sign to keep going forward. Inspiration is coming to me.
[Externus gain 0.2]
This world is fine, it is exactly as it should be.
---
Character Sheet
Name: Euclid
Rank: Inspired
Title: Aleator
Substrate: Universal Brain Core of the Transcendi - Rank 7 (low)
A novice on the path of transcendence. Is capable of external emotion control using the stock brain core tool, but not much else. Has some mid range skill at programming and good talent at it. Weak body and physical aptitude. Qualifies as a post-human, but just barely.
# Stats (Psy)
## Externus: Rank 2 ~ exp(N(log(2.9); 0.2))
Has a strong desire to leave the weak group he belongs to, as well as the urge to gain power. He is starting to attain the willingness to take from others according to his desires and has an inkling of what the true form of justice in the universe is.
## Gnosis: Rank 2 ~ exp(N(log(2.55); 0.2))
Is fascinated with the philosophical unknowns, as well as the self destructive aspects of the self improvement loop. As long as he has backups, is not afraid to hurl himself into the abyss just to see what lies there.
## Pathos: Rank 2 ~ exp(N(log(2.3); 0.2))
Holds the belief that effort is worth it for its own sake.