(Geoffrey POV - Heaven's Key, House in the suburbs)
[https://i.imgur.com/z1eotU7.png]
"So if Euclid is an Episteme, would Louis have any chance to win?" Walter queried.
"No, I don't think so. But it doesn't mean that he necessarily has to lose even against a superior opponent. We carefully note down how many chips the newcomers have won for a reason. As long as he has more than the opponent, he can put pressure on him and seek to break up the match. It is putting game theory into practice."
(Heaven's Key, Shadow realm, Resolution duel with Louis)
[https://i.imgur.com/yDx4ekJ.png]
"All in!" My exuberant mood was immediately dampened once my opponent did this.
Oh, no.
"Fold." He had J5, and I had 23, so he was 62.5% sure to win if I called him here. The fold was easy. But...
"All-in." He didn't even bother looking at what his hand was. Instead he manifested and pushed in his entire stack. And for the first time, I could see exactly how many chips he had. The game itself was aiding my ability to detect the chip amount, so I could tell that he had exactly 5322. He started at 5000 exactly, and took 322 from me along the way, and now I was at 418. It was a great pile that dwarfed my tiny stack. I'd have to win 3 times in a row just to get to a safe position. If I lost, I'd die. But he on the hand, if he lost would just lose some chips. It is not a big deal to him.
In this realm of shadows, that golden pile glimmered with a radiance, representing absolute power.
I looked at my hand, and saw that I had Qh Qc. If I was playing poker in the real world rather than a game, this would be a very easy call. But even if he had something like 36 or J5, any two lower than the queens, I'd still only be 80% certain to win. In other words, I have a 20% chance of dying. And now that this is an outcome, I realize that the chip amounts do not matter.
What is going to happen next...
"You are too much for me, champ. You are really good." My adversary buttered me up. "Let's stop the match here."
"..." I pondered his words intently.
"You've managed to get 300 chips from Dale's group. And with your skills you don't have anything to fear from the Heaven's Key tournament."
"..."
"From here on out, I'll be shoving blind. If you wait for an opportunity you can make the call where you are 70% ahead. But that just means you are 30% likely to die. Risking your life on these all ins is not worth it." He was doing his best to keep a confident demeanor. "In order to take all of my chips, you'd need to win 4 all-ins. Even if you pick your spots and are 70% ahead on each hand, the odds of you doing that 4 times in a row is only 25%. Meaning, if you decide to face me here you are 75% likely to die."
"..." He is right. He is right, but even though I agree with him, why am I starting to feel livid? This feeling inside of me is pure rage.
"Do the right thing. As long as you hide and keep quiet, the other enforcers won't bother you."
I hate him for snatching my victory away from me, just as soon as I gained an advantage. In my mind, I keep going between thinking of these people as NPCs and real, but it is right now that I realize just how smart they really are. I should have all the advantages in this match and yet, I am the one being pressured now.
I hate him so much I could die!
That is how I feel right now. Like some beast, I feel like growing at him to show him just how much I hate him!
[https://i.imgur.com/LDuvoxa.png]
Maybe I am a fool. I haven't thought about this aspect of the game at all. Last night I was focusing on how to cheat. I spent all that time designing eyes. I even came up with a design that I'll be able to use in the real world once I improve my nanofabrication skills. I can't replicate biological organs, but with the nanofog it would be possible to make nanomachine organs better that the biological ones.
That is my real goal. My goal is not actually to beat Heaven's Key, but to have it serve as a launching pad for beating the real world.
This is also the reason why I was not eager to challenge the white haired guy again. What point is there in fighting somebody who pulls out a gun at the table? That is not going to happen in a real world casino! I simply don't care about the advantages in the game that I cannot make use of in the real world.
This is why I am so disgusted at this situation. It is forcing me to care.
Suppose I do the rational thing, and we abort the match. I'll be able to get on with my life in this city. But they'll send somebody better than this guy who is capable of countering my current tricks. Then suppose I manage to gain an advantage. All-in! I imagine him doing just the same thing as my current opponent. I'll have to break up the match again, all for the sake of rationality. I'll really be an easy target to play against, an experimental pig for them to see how much it would take to break me. I'd get a never ending stream of opponents I can never beat as they pluck my chips away one by one.
In that case, wouldn't it be better to just die here, than having to endure living such a life?
[Gnosis check DC 2 Succeeded - Sampled 2.85]
Life is a paradox. The highest goal is to attain omnipotence, but if you care about your own life you can never accomplish it. I'll put my pride ahead of rationality and just die. I'd rather die like a lion than live like a mouse!
I check my hand and see that it is Ah 5d.
It is good enough. I'd call a random hand with this in the real world.
With a mental command I manifest my entire pile in the air above me. Then I smash it down on the table in front. As the chips land the table shakes in a satisfying manner, and peering into my opponent, I can see his eyes widen in fear. Yeah, this is what I want to see. Sweat you pig! Gazing at my opponent with undisguised bloodlust, I grab a few chips from the pile and play with them as I think.
I've already decided, I am going to fight until one of us dies.
As I gather the will to call, I start getting inspiration. Is it really necessary for me to die here? Have I really exhausted every possibility there is at this table?
I have some more abilities I haven't used, but those wouldn't help me at all in this situation. I have two problems:
* My opponent's cards are hidden. He is overpainting them as soon as they come out.
* The community cards which are going to come out on the table are hidden.
If I could break these two problems, I could win even in this scenario.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
If I was a real Inspired, I'd have control over nanomachine clouds. I could control those tiny machines to sneak under the opponent's cards and read them out to me. As for the deck, who knows what I could do about it. Since the game transports me to a different place once the duel starts, most likely the cards are held in a different realm by the system and transported here. But since the markings get preserved, I can be sure that the cards aren't simply being manifested from thin air as needed. The deck definitely exists somewhere.
Still, controlling nanofogs like in the stories is far beyond me at the moment. I could exit the game here, and spend a few decades training myself in this, but who is going to put this amount of effort just to beat this game. It is not worth it. What is the point of playing a game if you need to be max level at the start? That is more like real life.
If I am going to win, it has to be with my current abilities.
Do I have any possibility of doing that? I don't but...I suddenly recall what my opponent did. A little while ago he waved his finger and erased the marks on my side of the table.
...How did he do that? I didn't really care about that until now, but now I am suspicious of that.
Nanomachines? Of course not, there is no way a human would ever have the ability to control something of that sophistication.
Rather...I start to think about the cards. When they are dealt, it is not like they materialize right where they are. Instead, it is like there is an invisible dealer at the table...No, not like that. If there was an actual person the trajectory of the cards would not be like that. Rather, it is like there is an invisible vacuum at the table.
I visualize that sort of household appliance. But if it was literally a vacuum, there would be more air movement, but instead only the cards are affected. So some kind of telekinesis?
Yes. I feel like I am finally paying the game the respect it deserves and thinking about it. A lot of the things in this game are very weird so I haven't felt like doing that. Like how is there air in this place? There are weird rules everywhere, and I'd rather not waste my brain cells on something that doesn't have a physical basis. I wouldn't be able to use it in the real world. But now I'll give it a good thought. The game has upset me enough to warrant it. And besides, I have a lot more brain cells than I used to have.
(Geoffrey POV - Heaven's Key, House in the suburbs)
[https://i.imgur.com/R20ZFpg.png]
"Though it is policy, I question the efficacy of such an approach. I sometimes think that rationality is the one true torture method in this place, Geoff. None of the Epistemes that I've seen act remotely in such a fashion. They do drugs, they dabble in the occult, or they isolate themselves for weeks at a time." Walter pauses. "Sometimes I wonder if the better choice would be to ignore the threat to life and risk it all if you have the advantage."
"I picked the safe route." I shrugged.
"So did I."
(Heaven's Key, Shadow realm, Resolution duel with Louis)
[https://i.imgur.com/Ko0rHtg.png]
So how did he cover my cards in UV paint all the way across the table? I roll the chips as I wonder about that, feeling their coolness to the touch.
Nanofog clouds are out the way. If that guy is really good enough to control such things, I'll give him the win right here. He deserves it. But that is not the case...
I take a glance at the cool, golden chips in my hand and think about the sensation.
> I want to try something. I want to try projecting my sense of touch further from my hand.
I message the controller.
> Really? We tried that and it didn't work.
Of course I'd think of something as simple as this back during the night. But I want to revisit it. I shouldn't just bet all my chips here. I should put all of myself on the line! If this world breaks me, so be it.
> I have some ideas. I want to go further than we did last night. There are things we haven't tested yet. I want you to roll with me here. Read what I want to make real and make it happen.
> Very well, I'll support you. Do your best to break through this.
I raise one of my fingers and point it at the table some distance away from me. I want it to be real. I imagine touching that part of the table. The feedback I get is surprise because it did not work.
This is how True Belief Modification works. If I tried to touch a spot that I cannot reach, it would not be at all surprising, but just as expected. But the ability to edit my mind converts my imagination into true belief, so when it does not happen, I receive surprise.
My controller is supporting me. Good. Right now I have to be careful about what I want, otherwise I will fall into a sea of surprise. I need to desire the right thing
(Geoffrey POV - Heaven's Key, House in the suburbs)
[https://i.imgur.com/M6PVvTV.png]
"It is humiliating. Maybe an Episteme would accept such a deal once or twice, but not forever. I compare myself to the Epistemes and wonder what it is that I lack?"
"I do not think it is intelligence." I shake my head.
"These abilities are just so hard to train. Lifting weights and studying for exams was one thing while I was alive. But over here the only thing that matters is will."
(Heaven's Key, Shadow realm, Resolution duel with Louis)
[https://i.imgur.com/drbWSQ8.png]
I imagine my hands are like rakes and swipe them across the air. What I want to grasp is the air.
I look at the table, and in my aggression, I try raking my claws across its green felt as if trying to tear it. What I feel is surprise, indicating that the attempt failed.
I swipe my hands across the air, visualizing its projection as it sweeps the air aside. I try to feel the air as it passes. I am surprised again when it does not work.
I look down at my cards and visualize my thumb covered in ink going across it. The only emotion I feel afterwards is surprise when what was imagined does not manifest.
Heedless of my appearance, I start acting like a child, or a god that lost his power, swatting with my hands as I try to bend reality to my will. To my opponent it must seem like I've gone mad.
"Uuuuuhhhh!" I start to feel dizzy due to the barrage of unexpected and clutch my head. "Hah hah hah!" I feel flush and beads of sweat start to form on my face.
No, it is not good. Maybe there is a way, but just trying to push my mind like this will not find it. Are nanofogs the only choice here? Should I just come back after a long research journey?
I ignore the game for a bit and manifest a bottle of iced tea. I take a long swig of it to cool myself down.
Then I look at my opponent again, thinking about how I should strike again.
(Geoffrey POV - Heaven's Key, House in the suburbs)
[https://i.imgur.com/vIbFLKt.png]
"The city makes a mockery out of effort." I nodded to Walter.
"After my match with Gray I asked him what I lacked."
(Heaven's Key, Shadow realm, Resolution duel with Louis)
[https://i.imgur.com/M1j9C7X.png]
I try visualizing it from the pig's perspective. Nanofogs? There is no way he is using that, but...
I remember Mickey telling me we are all holograms here. I look at my hand and imagine - in the real world it would be made of flesh, blood, bone and nerves. But here...it can't really be the case the system is simulating all of that. Otherwise...I try enlarging and shrinking it, much like I did last night. Otherwise, there simply wouldn't be enough mass. Furthermore, though I can change their size, there is no way I know enough about the makeup on my own hand to place every molecule where it should be. Yet the system accepted it.
So...maybe I could control the kind of nanofog that couldn't exist in reality?
(Geoffrey POV - Heaven's Key, House in the suburbs)
[https://i.imgur.com/WrSnWHm.png]
"I bet it was soul, wasn't it?" Walter guessed correctly. I nodded in affirmation.
"At that time, I was mad and stomped off in anger, but later I found out that Epistemes in general have different kinds of senses. Some call it soul, some call it aura, some territory or zone. Some Epistemes can change their appearance and even have two bodies at the same time."
(Heaven's Key, Shadow realm, Resolution duel with Louis)
[https://i.imgur.com/uetj1uM.png]
Since I can grow and shrink my hands, maybe I could do something like expand my body. I could cover this whole table in a wall of my own flesh!
I start to visualize something grotesque and feel myself start to expand, but then I put a lid on it.
It is not the flesh that matters, but the cells that make up my body. They are what makes up my territory.
After refining it for so long, the completed idea comes to me.
My human self is just a shell. My real self is a cloud of my own cells covering the table.
As I think the image becomes clearer. I imagine myself sitting at the table, just like I have so far. But my physical body is just a part of me. I imagine a sphere around the table enclosing both me and my opponent and I imagine it being thinly filled with my cells. Those cells have a sense of touch to them.
This is nowhere close to an actual nanofog in complexity, but a simulacra of it. It wouldn't ever make sense in real life, separated from the body the cells would just die. But here it might be worth a try.
I crystalize the image in my mind, and believe it. Instead of being surprised, what I receive is a barrage of new sensations that are distinctly not surprise, but touch instead.
> I've never seen this kind of neural activity before! What did you do?
The controller messaged me.
> I imagined myself as a spherical cloud of thin cells covering the table and manifested it. It worked, I think.
The new sensations felt confusing. Whereas before I could only sense the touch of my body against the chair and my hands on the table, right now it felt like I was enveloped and touching myself from all directions. And not just myself, I could feel the table, under my feet, the chair itself. As I breathed, I felt myself swirling in my own lungs.
I sorted out those sensations and quickly adapted to them. I focused on my opponent and I could make out the insides of his mouth and body.
I nod to myself with satisfaction.
Experiment Success.