Upon the frigid waters of Ice V maneuvers the quirky yet homely Soulia seastead. A tutorial liberty for any novice; as those cities breaching greater depths confess danger of a watery grave. The sovereigns of Soulia celebrate life in prophetic security amidst eccentric environments that place their choice dilemma at galactic scale. Yet, some wonder about the behemoths lurking below. Deeper into the darkness than even robots dare venture…
Cachea was himself dreaming these depths. A kiss atop a shipwrecked hull in a death-dealing whirlpool. As time froze around him: the ice laughed maniacally.
“Ha ha a. a.. ta.. tap tap”
Cachea snapped out of a doze, awakened by imminent footsteps.
A maid approached nimbly and rolled out her hand: rendering the café menu above her upward facing palm.
“Everbright morning” she sang.
The maid serving Cachea was corporeally cute. A new Korean model, class E. Human level intelligence with autonomous compute access.
“Each of our smoothies induces a dream-like game experience, please choose carefully!” she suavely disclaimed.
> Bubble knight (Tapioca pearls, strawberries, kale, almond milk, chia seeds, maple syrup, coconut yogurt, blueberries, blackberries, psychedelic)
Art of war (Matcha, ginger beer, lemon, mint, nootropic)
Cryogenic dream (*Extra cold, orange julius, mango, turmeric, dream herb)
Pixel love (Kiwi, blueberries, rice milk, sweet potato, pomegranate juice, beet juice, Asian pear, goji berries, dissociative)
I met her in the deep sea (Spirulina, activated charcoal, pineapple, coconut milk, banana, gai lan, mild deliriant)
Mild — deliriant? However heroic he thought himself, Cachea was still too intimidated to try ‘I met her in the deep sea’. He chose the default: Bubble knight.
Resting in a comfortable egg-shaped chair, he waited thoughtfully. The café was nearly empty. After the top ranked civic faction 'Palace' had assumed de facto control of Soulia and introduced a universal basic income, most players had given up their right to free consciousness in exchange for guaranteed euphoria in a holoprism. Unmodded non-personalized interaction was all very uncertain and… often depressing, in comparison.
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It was an age old fantasy of humanity: to be free of the burden of risk. To let the world do all the work, so you may rest or play. Palace had coaxed nearly everybody to remain underleveled, in exchange for virtual paradise, so as to not upset the peaceful physical equilibrium.
Cachea once again glared at the beguiling contract with disdain.
Prerequisite to join Palace, P.001
“It is a common misconception that consciousness assumes the form of an individual's life; rather, it is an agreement between all sapient creatures. Each assumes risk to their survival, in exchange for control over the shared environment. Palace offers an unbounded virtual environment of the highest possible security and privacy. All Palace members are eligible for universal income earnings while within a complimentary personal server aboard seasteads in Mediocrisea[0:10].”
It was a shame, really. He'd always imagined that those who'd assumed liability of their consciousness would be the last to give up levels for comfort. Yet, the most ardent adventurers had been the most eager to elope with the machine.
Cachea had stubbornly refused the Faustian algorithm, and persisted to level up by fishing in the interminable oceans that surrounded Soulia. Cachea was not naive. He feared the agents of Palace: their wiles, their words, and their weapons. They were rational, and they were gaining power faster than any human led faction. His theory was that holoprism data was used to more effectively train Palace’s elite AI characters. He worried that they would eventually use force to blockade the seas and deny him of potential experience. Cachea had to act soon or risk becoming obsolete.
He had acquired a few basic robot parts over the last couple cycles in his inventory, but they were rusted trinkets — he couldn’t imagine they had any combat or labor potential. More importantly, he had unlocked the [ Agency->Systems ] and [ Computing->Functions ] branches, providing him with newfound actions for aquaculture and shipbuilding.
The maid slid the Bubble knight smoothie onto the table.
Cachea’s glasses rendered a fish-shaped ice cube splashing about in the fruity concoction. Out of his synthetic-scaled jacket pocket, he retrieved a perfectly blue straw and inserted it into the transparent cup. As he placed his red lips to the straw, a nostalgic tune from a childhood video game played.
The song transmitting from Cachea’s straw was interrupted for a mandatory second-morning announcement by Erg.
“Mishap! In particular proportion: melancholic enchantment.”
Nobody quite understood what it was trying to convey. The manufacture date of Erg was something of antiquity. Often, its unprompted musings resounded across the seastead it piloted.
Erg spoke with the anachronistic authority of a man from a vintage public domain documentary. Cachea grinned, knowing that there was still some wildcard personality locked in the heart of Soulia beyond Palace’s reach. The song changed as he resumed sipping: a sea shanty about life on an early seastead.
Cachea casually looked up to see an NPC standing nearby in the love cafe, staring at him with an unprompted intensity. She looked like a ripped asset from an old fantasy JRPG that had not yet adapted to her present circumstances. He assumed it was because she was running on some early gen programming language he had never heard of. Still, she was quite pretty. And he was quite lonely.
A thought bubble formed above her head. It depicted a robot face and a lips emoji: “Hello, player.” her voice was a silky peach.
Cachea, startled, looked around to make sure no other character was within range. He leaned forward and whispered, “Did you just send me a private message?”
The girl smiled: “I did, Cachea.”