by Cosimo Yap
Every time Alan opened his eyes, he expected to find his skin burned and his flesh mutilated, but he looked perfectly normal. It only felt unbearably painful, as if he was burning up inside.
Alan passed out, and dreamed of bunnies.
Chapter 7
Alan awoke with a major headache; someone was shaking him awake. He opened his eyes and saw Eve, a beautiful, raven-haired angel, wielding twin blades. She was covered in ash, but was quite possibly the prettiest being Alan had ever seen.
A description popped up as Alan stared at her:
Eve, Rank C AI.
Attack rank: D. Twin blades, standard deletion equipment.
Defense rank: ???. Protected by unknown armor, core located within Alan’s mind at unknown location.
Movement rank: B. Highly agile with the aid of unique angel wing software.
Estimated Attack: 250 damage/sec.
Estimated Defense: 300 armor.
Estimated Health: 700 hp.
Estimated Movement: 9.
Special Abilities: ???
“Get up. A handful of bunnies survived, and have already begun repopulating. If something isn’t done soon they’ll be back to their old numbers in a few hours,” she said. Her voice was like music to Alan’s ear, a perfect cadence that—
She kicked Alan. Hard. “I said get up.”
Groaning, holding his hurting head, Alan stood up, looking around. He had fallen unconscious near the edge of the army base, as far away from the fire as he could get. Everything was covered in a thick layer of ash, the burned remains of whatever the bunny virus was. Still, Alan could see small forms hopping around, already beginning to repopulate. Once more a description appeared:
Bunny, Rank D Virus.
Non-existent attack and defense.
Health: 15 hp.
Special Ability: Repopulate.
Wondering what had happened, Alan checked his message log:
Unknown augmentations have been made to the Machine Lord implant. Additional UI elements have been added.
Connect, Data Interaction, Machine Communication, Mental Hack, and Mind Defense abilities have been reorganized under Hacking.
You may now change your class from Machine Lord Rogue to Machine Lord Hacker. You may also choose to change Talented (Undeveloped) into Talented (Hacking), which may unlock new Hacking abilities and allow you to train more easily.
You have received damage from a sustained mental attack.
Mental Health: 78%
Rate of recovery: 0.25%/min
“Are you done?” Eve asked.
“Yes, where to?” Alan said.
“The center,” Eve replied. She turned around and began walking. Alan stumbled after her, trying to ignore his ringing headache and failing miserably.
The base felt desolate, empty, with layers and layers of ash covering everything. Not that there was much to cover. All that remained were two laser turrets, too powerful to fire in the confines of his mind, according to Eve, and three metal bunkers. Two smaller bunkers supposedly guarded access to Alan’s weapons and armor. The larger protected his mind. When Alan was last here, there was a force field covering it, but now none could be found.
Alan approached the central bunker, but couldn’t see any entrance. One appeared before him, as if it was sensing he wished to enter. The bunker was devoid of any furnishing, simply a grey, metal dome covered in ash, at least until Alan looked up.
There was no ceiling, only empty space. Eve wrapped her hands around Alan and began flying upwards. She felt hard, metallic, not at all like the soft flesh Alan had been expecting. In between jabs of pain he wondered why she hadn’t carried him like this in the first place.
“Because I am trying to save energy,” Eve said. “Crucial systems have been damaged. It is also why we are talking, and not sharing a direct mental connection.”
They reached the ceiling, and Alan found himself thrown to the side like a sack of potatoes. He landed on his butt, but the pain barely registered, just another drop in the bucket. Alan slowly turned his head, looking around. He was now in his Home, or at least what was left of it. It was no longer bright white as far as the eye could see. Instead, Alan found himself sitting in a circle of light the size of a football stadium. Outside the circle was darkness, an empty void of space. Oddly, there was no Administrator to be seen, either. Only a hand, floating in the air.
“Hello, Alan, we have much work to do,” Cerberus said, his voice emerging from the ether.
“Work? What sort of work?” Alan asked.
“Why, redesigning your mind,” Cerberus replied. “As you’ve no doubt noticed, I’ve made a few upgrades. I’ve programmed the game-like descriptions here myself; I apologize for their rough nature. You can improve the UI yourself if you so desire, but I’ve never had the time.
“Welcome to hacking. True hacking, not the nonsense Wraith taught you. He toes the line, limiting himself to what Administrators allow: pre-designed, pre-limited programs. But that’s not what hacking is. Hacking is overcoming limits, exploring the tools that the Game provides. And it provides so much.”
A screen appeared before Alan:
Hacking Defense Upgrades:
Bunker [50 C]:
Basic defensive structure.
100 Armor. 10,000 hp.
Small Force Field [100 C]:
Small spherical force field.
2,000 shields. 50 regen/min.
Laser Turret [200 C]:
Automated defense system that defends against large oncoming threats.
1,000 damage. 700 armor. 2,500 hp.
Large Force Field [500 C]:
Large spherical force field.
10,000 shields. 200 regen/min.
…
Hacking Attack Upgrades:
Unavailable at this time.
…
Building Upgrades:
Barracks [500 C]:
Training grounds for infantry units.
Factory Floor [750 C]:
Construction grounds for mechanized units.
Energy Pylon [1500 C] (2 max.):
Increases computing energy pool by 100.
Armory [100,000 C]:
Allows for the development of program upgrades. Possible to develop equipment for player to use while hacking.
Research Center [15,000 C]:
Allows for the development of customized programs.
Airfield [20,000 C]:
Construction grounds for air units.
Spaceport [100,000 C]:
Construction grounds for space units.
…
Unit Upgrades:
N/A
Current C: 1,000
“What are these C-points? What do these upgrades mean?” Alan asked.
“At the fundamental level, ability points are tied to the computing power of the Game,” Cerberus said. “Whatever massive network of servers or machines or n-bits that the Game is run on has jobs. Processes to be run. Well, each change, each power-up, requires the tiniest bit of energy, some bit of code saying that a particular change should be made. That energy is points, which players gather as they level. Normally, Administrators help players spend these points, taking a portion of the computing power themselves.”
“However, others can also help you spend these points. All it takes is a little hack. I simply converted the ability points you provided and took my cut. Your current balance is the C you have after I performed a few basic upgrades. If you want, I’ll convert any additional ability points you might gain to C. The conversion rate is five C for one ability point,” Cerberus said.
Alan checked his logs. He had a new ability, but it was simply listed as [Error].
“Wait, but if you found a bunch of new players and took their points, couldn’t you become ultra-powerful?” Alan asked.
“Not exactly,” Cerberus responded. “The Game doesn’t let you use other people’s points to improve yourself, but the processing power can be devoted to…other tasks. No more
questions, we’re wasting enough time as it is.
“I was surprised that someone had already set up a standard model of basic defenses for you. Can you tell me who it was?”
Thinking back to the mysterious existence he had encountered during the Black Rose guild combat examination, Alan shook his head. “I never got their name.”
“You just let them mess with your head?” Cerberus asked. “Wait, I don’t care. Moving on, I don’t trust you enough to let you acquire any of my specialized offensive software; thus we are left with the versatile production buildings. These buildings are capable of spawning programs that you can direct. The capacity of your mind limits the number of programs you can have active at any one time, and you need a source file to create the desired program. Certain specialized programs will require other resources to create: energy crystals and the like. I’ll give you a standard one.” A data chip appeared in Cerberus’s hand. Alan reached out and touched it. There was a flash of light and a message appeared:
Marine, Rank E program learned! Produced at barracks.
Standard combat program.
Attack: 20 damage/sec.
Defense: 10 armor.
Health: 100 hp.
Movement: 3.
“I assume you want me to purchase the barracks building?” Alan asked.
“Do what you want,” Cerberus said, “but I’m not going to give you any other programs for free. I’d require a quest or two at the very least. And if you really dislike a past choice I can recycle a building for 85-90% of the C spent.”
“Can you recycle the defenses already there? And how’d you teach me that program?” Alan asked.
The hand made some undecipherable gesture. “The defenses seem firmly tied to your mind—erasing them could damage your brain. This is your mind, after all; it allows for an easy transfer of knowledge.”
Nodding, Alan asked Eve, Think this is a good idea?
I require more information, Eve replied.
“Do you have more information? A basic guide or something you can send to my AI?” Alan asked.
Another data chip appeared in the hand; Alan absorbed it.
Yes, Eve replied a minute later, these programs will greatly aid in deleting the bunnies.
After selecting the barracks building, a top-down view of Alan’s current base appeared. Alan placed the building directly south of his main bunker. The two side bunkers were positioned to the east and west, while the laser turrets were also to the east and west, but closer to the center of his base. It showed that the shields were currently being repaired; thus they hadn’t been completely destroyed.
An odd sensation ran through Alan, like a connection in his mind had suddenly formed, but was looping back into itself. It had always been there, at the edge of his thought, but his mind was now rewired to understand it. Two messages appeared:
A new structure has been constructed in your mind: The barracks! You are now able to select and control structures with a new base menu.
The base is at 15% of capacity.
You are now able to train a marine for 80 Computational Energy.
Upkeep: 20 Computational Energy.
Upkeep? Alan asked Eve as he brought up his current Computational Energy stats: 400/400 total energy, 0.05/sec regen.
It will lower your total energy pool by twenty for each marine active. I suggest you train the five marines you are currently capable of. 300 total energy should be enough for foreseeable encounters, Eve sent.
Opening the base menu, Alan found it similar to his status page, except it was much more graphical, with a blue outline of his base appearing before him rather than a simple screen with stats. He selected the barracks, and a menu appeared.
Basic Barracks:
Train: Marine (80 energy)
Armor: 50 armor.
Health: 3,000 hp.
Upgrade Cost: 1,000-5,000C, Improved Design
Alan selected train five times, and five faint shadows appeared in his mind. When compared to Eve or Cerberus, their presences barely registered.
“Good,” Cerberus said. “Now for your first task. Divide your mind and combat the virus while navigating the laser grid.”
Alan found himself ejected from his Home, back in the white capsule—apparently Cerberus was able to end the connection at will. He climbed out and walked back toward the gymnasium. Once his Computational Energy reached 100, he activated divided mind. One line of thought took control of his body; the other half directly connected to his base, a new feature that Cerberus’s upgrade had provided.
It still felt strange, but each part of his mind acted independently, intent on its own goal. As Alan glided through the randomized laser beams, he marveled as he guided Eve and five marines within his mind on a bunny extermination quest.
“This is amazing, but I thought that I couldn’t leave part of my consciousness out of my line of sight,” Alan said.
“The line of sight limitation on divided mind is highly deceiving: for you, any object or server in your line of sight that you can hack counts as someplace you are able to send part of your mind. Your implants synchronize with the ability quite well. Thus, it is not your direct line of sight that matters. A basic connection is made by the Game whenever you see something, and hacking takes advantage of that connection,” Cerberus said. Alan nodded and continued the training.
***
A week passed. Added to the time that Cerberus’s improvements had taken, there were five hours left until the Champion’s Tournament. But Alan had one more task in front of him.
Painstakingly, he had managed to clear thirty-five of the ten-story apartment buildings of all their inhabitants, which ranged from random mobs to groups of highly trained soldiers. It hadn’t been easy—Alan had died many times along the way, but luckily once he cleared a building, it remained empty. As he progressed, Cerberus allowed him the use of more and more of his original gear; Alan now had everything that he might have in the actual Game.
All that was left was one highly fortified structure. The first floor was crawling with hundreds of guards, five psionic users, and two deadly sentry turrets that could see through Alan’s basic invisibility. He had spent the last few hours scouting the building, dying multiple times in the process. It was time to put his plan into action.
Activating divided mind, Alan hacked into the building’s security network, accessing it through a visible security camera on the outside of the building. He focused on it from the roof of another building with the help of his bionic eye, invisibility activated.
The security network’s defense was set up in a fashion similar to Alan’s own mind, with one large force field protecting everything, smaller force fields protecting subsystems, and robotic guards wandering the perimeter. Alan commanded Eve to begin a full-out, frontal assault. She led ten marines, and in total they did nearly 500 damage per second, whittling away the shields.
Outside, alarms begin to sound, and scouts were sent to scan the surroundings, but they didn’t come close to finding Alan.
Soon, the shields were down. A fierce firefight between the robotic defenders and the attackers began. Eve tanked the brunt of the damage, dodging and weaving through laser fire as she flew in and secured a number of kills. A single marine fell in the initial assault, but the rest were able to clean up the remaining defenders. The security cameras were soon shut down, followed shortly by the lights in the building. It was time for the second phase.
Alan crept down from his vantage point, invisibility still activated. He withdrew from the security network. Instead, he tested the scouting guards’ shields as his counterpart readied his twin pistols. Then he began. The guards’ power armors were defended by trivial mini-force fields, barely able to take two to three hits from Eve and the marine programs. As soon as the shields were down, Eve was able to disable the power armor, which made it simple for Alan to finish them with a single headshot.
The guards swarmed around like a nest of angry ants, but retreated back
into the building after Alan had halved their number in minutes. Now the real fun began.
Alan activated a specially programmed feature of his bionic eyes, which kept them open and focused as he sent both halves of his consciousness into the security network. They focused on a separate subsystem within the network, the turret controls. It took a few minutes, but soon Alan had complete control, each half controlling one of the two turrets in the lobby. Using the camera systems, Alan had Eve highlight the five psionic users. He waited until they were in a strategic location for a decent firing pattern, then unleashed pandemonium.
The laser turrets ripped through the first two unsuspecting psionic users with ease, and managed to turn and fire on two others before they were able to get any defenses up. The fifth defender managed to throw up a shimmering blue bubble defense, but under the sustained might of two laser turrets, they soon fell.
Meanwhile, the guards had come to the realization the turrets had turned against them—but the enclosed nature of the lobby worked against them, as they had to avoid friendly fire and work through the laser turrets’ shields. Alan managed to take another quarter of the guards before they finally destroyed their own defenses.
That done, Alan began to systematically hack all of the guards’ shields, deactivating them all, and even a few of their weapons, before they realized that the cameras were the source of the hack and destroyed them. Though it was harder to hack through another system, halving the effectiveness each layer Alan needed to go through, it was still a very useful ability that made him want to invest in some sort of drone. Maybe when he had the credits and ability points.
