While I waited for Sara to catch up on the logs I leaned against a car parked in front of Sara's house. A line appeared over it with the label, 'Subaru Outback'. I clicked and it showed:

Energy: 300/hour

Potential Energy: 15,030

Einstein Value: 1.5

Constitution: 90%

I wondered what affected the constitution, so I picked up a rock and scratched the paint with it.

I looked at the car and it now read:

Constitution: 89%

"Hey asshole!" Sara yelled at me. "That's my car."

"Oh," I looked at the car and then back to Sara, "Oh, I'm sorry Sara."

Douglas said, "Actually, this will be a good way to show you how you can craft something. James, click into the label of the car and you'll see all the individual components."

I did as he said and a huge list of parts came up. Some of them made sense, like Tire or Taillight. Others were just generic, like "Part 231".

"Why does it say Part 231?" I asked.

"Because you don't have that part stored in memory. The system knows what code exists within the car, but your own knowledge is what you use to label those parts. You know what a tire is, but not much else. Now stop interrupting me. In the list of car parts find the paint and put that code into your inventory."

I did, it cost me 50 in Potential Energy. I guess it wasn't a particularly difficult bit of code.

"Good, now use your energy to create more paint and fill in the spot you scratched away."

I didn't have a paintbrush. And even if I did, I didn't know what I would have dipped it into. So I put my fingers up to scratch and converted the paint code with some of my potential energy. It sorta splashed out of thin air and onto the car. It covered the scratch all right. It also left a big blob of paint all around the area.

Douglas smiled, "Excellent, perfect!"

"That looks worse!" Sara said.

Douglas looked over at the paint job again, "Oh yes, I see what you mean. James, that is truly dreadful."

"But you told me..." I looked at Douglas and decided I was being played by my tutorial. I just shut up.

"Ok, I'm going to unlock Settings, but honestly there are too many for us to review right now and many of them won't make sense until later. So I suggest that you glance at them later when you have some downtime. Now for the last item in your menu, finally. Jobs."

I clicked on the Jobs and a list of, well, jobs showed up. The columns read:

Posted By

Start Date

End Date (if any)

Job Title

Location

Reward

I saw jobs appearing at an incredible speed. I clicked on one so I could focus on it before it scrolled off my view.

Posted By: Janet Williams (Not Rated)

Start Date: ASAP

Job Title: Remove Boat From Driveway

Location: A map showed where I was and where the job was. It looked like Miami, Florida.

Reward: Pilates Level +3

"So if I do this job she would train me in Pilates?" I asked skeptically.

Douglas made a tsk tsk sound, "It isn't called Good Jobs. Anyone can post a job and offer what they want."

I looked and saw that, like the Log system, I could search, filter and sort these items. I started by applying a location filter. That did the trick, the list dropped considerably. I decided to test filtering by skill offered and I put in Mathematics. Only one job appeared. The offer came from John Farber. I knew John. He was a mediocre mathematician and really annoying to boot. I cleared that filter.

I saw the ability to create a new job. I clicked on it. I added a job called 'Teach Me Level 10 Negotiation' and then I wondered what reward I should put. I thought about the situation with Sara and I exchanging Sarcasm and how we both had portions of the code that composed our score of 14. I decided to put 'Sarcasm Level + 14' and find out what it showed Sara.

"Sara, can you view the job I just messaged you and tell me what you see for the reward?"

She remained quiet, her eyes darting back and forth. Then she answered, "Sarcasm +7"

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Ok, so I had put in +14 but it only shows you what you can gain from it. That is good. Now, can you accept the job so we can see how it works?"

She glared at me, "+7 Sarcasm for +7 Negotiation? Not really a fair trade."

I would have normally caved in, but I felt like arguing, "Come on Sara, this is just so we can see how it all works. You aren't losing anything."

She smiled at me, "Looks like those negotiation skills you already got from me are paying off."

An announcement popped up, "Your job 'Teach Me Level 10 Negotiation' has been fulfilled by Sara."

Nice.

Sara looked at Douglas. "So what stops us from just posting a million jobs and trying to trade up as fast as possible?"

"You have to network with the person first. And you can't network with someone until you both are within close enough proximity to each other."

Was it just me or did Douglas treat Sara better than he treated me? I didn't dwell on it long, something else about this bothered me.

"If distance and time don't matter in this place, why can't we just exchange jobs with anyone. I mean we can see the board. And you just said that we can chat with each other from any distance."

"There are aspects of the simulation that haven't been hacked. That is one of them. Who knows, perhaps you'll be the one that unlocks that superpower."

That idea appealed to me. I suppose my strong scores in Algorithms and Puzzles drew me to exactly that sort of challenge.

"Can you teach us how the code can be altered?" I asked eagerly.

"Let's go into the lab."

I guessed he meant the link to the Lab in the menu.

Douglas continued, "Code can be edited in the lab. You can't read the code, but you can take items into the lab and combine them into something new."

I clicked into the lab and as he warned I only saw my inventory and a virtual lab table. I put the paint I created earlier on the table. It just sat there. How anti-climactic.

I asked, "But if it is code, why can't we see the code? Is it written in some language we don't understand?"

"It doesn't work the way our software works. It isn't written with human readable declarables or fixed inputs and outputs. The code is 100% emergent. It's like it is alive."

That didn't help. Of course Douglas could tell.

"Here is one hypothesis. Imagine that the simulation started with the big bang. Not in physical space, but rather pure energy was thrust into this computer simulation we are in. Then that energy begins to convert into code that gives us the "things" we think of in our world. For all we know, even the people who created the simulation can't read the code. What is certain is that the creators needed to have access to an incredible amount of energy and for some reason they felt this simulation was the best use of that energy."

Sara looked and sounded impatient, "So if we can't read the code, how are we going to change it?"

"You take items from your inventory and put them on the table. That will convert them into our best representation of the code...no it isn't a stream of green symbols." Douglas glared at me. "When brought close enough together the parts will begin to... merge. Let me warn you now, once you merge the code you won't be able to unmerge it. The code changes are so fundamental the new code is permanent."

Sara wondered out loud, "So if I combine a tiger and a horse, I might get a horse with a tiger head or a tiger body or I might get a horse that just acts like a tiger?"

Douglas sighed, "Or a plate of gelatinous Tiger Horse Dog Food, 9 out of 10 dogs choose Tiger Horse!"

That didn't sound good. I asked, "Is there no way to control it?"

"You could say it's as much an art as a science. You can watch the code merge and you can direct that merge but no one really understands the code itself."

I would have to figure that part out later. "Can you show me how to see it in whatever format is closest to its real state?"

Douglas nodded, "Yes. There is a debug mode."

I saw that option and I clicked it on. My paint turned into waves flowing in and out, only it looked more like the reverse of an ocean. It reminded me a billions of yo-yos spinning in and out in every direction. Could I be watching the quantum state of atoms? I wondered... No, just focus on one thing at a time.

I picked up a rock from the ground and put it into my inventory. Then I brought it onto the table. I nudged the two items together and suddenly they moved to each other as though they were magnetized. They more than touched, they sorta spilled into each other. The entire blob looked like a pot of tomato soup boiling over, although no parts ever left the mass. Then, it slowed down and finally, I guess you could say, stabilized. I turned off debug mode and I saw a red rock, only it looked more like silly putty. I decided to use some energy to convert it into a 'real' item. It appeared in my hand. It was kinda crazy. I could squish it and stretch it, but I couldn't separate it from itself.

"Very impressive! Everyone will want one of those. Move over pet rock!"

Douglas was being an ass, again. I ignored him.

"What is it called?" Sara asked.

I looked at Douglas. He shrugged, "Don't look at me, you created it, you name it."

I gave it some thought. What a silly red rock. And as I finished the thought a label appeared next to the item with those words.

"Wait, no, that's a terrible name." I said, "How do I change it?"

"Sorry, you are now the proud inventor of the Silly Red Rock, fun for all ages."

I looked at it. Dumb name, but who cared. I had just created something new in the world. You know what this means!

Douglas interrupted my thought, "You are not God."

"Douglas, stop reading my thoughts."

"I can't help it, I am programmed to do so."

"Well, pretend."

Douglas started putting papers into a briefcase, neither of which existing a moment ago, and closing it up. "Well, that is it for the tutorial. Any questions?"

Sara asked, "What do you recommend we do now?"

Douglas looked happy, "Oh, you want my opinion. That is too kind of you. Well, here is a hint. Whenever there have been great technological changes in the past, what is the first thing that human beings do about it?"

I didn't understand what he was saying. I thought back to my old high school history class. What were examples of change this big? Electricity? Steel? Gunpowder? And then it hit me.

"Um, Douglas, if someone kills us in the simulation, what happens?" I asked, but I thought I knew the answer.

"By putting you in their inventory they get everything you had. That includes your items, energy and memory allocation."

We stood their in silence.

"Oh shit." Sara got it then too.