by Cosimo Yap
“Alan, was it?”
“Yes,” Alan said. “I’d like to apologize for my earlier behavior. It was uncalled for and rude.”
Celeste smiled. “I would be impressed, but Cerberus was here a few minutes earlier with a similar lickspittle speech. Now, what do you want?”
“Why are you so certain that I want something?’ Alan asked, trying to look surprised.
“Don’t. I can see through you like a Haxlard wedding veil. I know you’re here for something because I have yet to meet a single one of Cerberus’s students that isn’t just like you: straightforward and unwilling to go out of their way if they don’t have to. Goal driven. Direct, to the point, with a quest to complete, I think that sums you up nicely. Or am I wrong?”
“No, not really,” Alan said. “Can you tell me much about Cerberus’s other students?”
“It’s not my place to say,” Celeste said. “But most have been like you: new to the Game, with a powerful AI at their side. Maybe one or two with every class of students, though the numbers have been waning of late. In the past Cerberus was never known to take many students, given his responsibilities.”
“Interesting,” Alan said. There were other new Machine Lords like him? What were they doing?
It’s hardly surprising, given the number of players in the Game, Eve sent.
Yes, but why did Cerberus never say anything? Alan replied. Eve had no answer.
“More information than you might expect can be gained from just a bit of chatting, asking the right questions or mentioning the right topics,” Celeste said. “Conversation is an art, one that you have far from mastered.
“Communication is paramount, and in your single-minded focus you will experience trouble sooner rather than later. Let me teach you the art. Elissandra is an old friend; I’ll forward the Black Rose guild the fee.”
“Thank you for the offer,” Alan said, “but I’m not here to learn how to talk to people. I’m here for information, and maybe a bit of knife training.”
“You’re looking for your killer,” Celeste said.
“Yes, how did you know?” Alan asked.
“Talking to people,” Celeste said. “For future reference, all Institute teachers have their schedules on the net. Today I am holding a private lesson. I suspect that you’ll be able join; having another student could prove useful. I’ll forward the Black Rose guild the bill.”
“All right, when do we begin?” Alan asked.
“How about now?” Celeste said, looking behind Alan. There was a knock at the door and Alan turned around. Daisy entered, shutting the door behind her.
Celeste waved her hands and the room changed. A message appeared:
You have entered a simulated zone! All damage will be simulated and not actually affect the player. No death penalties. Severe XP penalties while in the zone.
Permissions: None, unable to call into being or change the simulation. Basic interaction with simulated environment allowed.
The office space disappeared and a city street replaced it. A pyramid-like structure in the distance reminded Alan of Khersath’s main Administrative Center. Pedestrians began appearing, along with a few street vendors.
“Hello, Daisy,” Celeste said as bystanders and NPCs began walking around her. “I hope you don’t mind if Alan joins us today; he’ll pay for half the lesson cost.”
“Very well,” Daisy said. She walked next to Alan on his right, glanced at him, and then refocused her attention on Celeste. Alan shifted his feet, trying to hear Celeste over the noise of the street as traffic weaved around them.
“Knife fighting is a lie,” Celeste began. “Knives need to end fights, when a target is up close and personal. You will not fight off swordsmen or riflemen with a knife if they see you coming. If someone attacks you with a knife, you most likely will not have time to react.”
Alan sensed a bystander to his left take a shiv out of his pocket. He dodged out of the way.
“Ah!” Daisy let out a cry, two small sharp pieces of metal sticking out of her sides. The attackers disappeared into the crowd.
“Oh, shit, I’m sorry,” Alan said. “I should have—”
“I’m fine,” Daisy said. She held her hands over her wounds and a soft, green glow filled the air.
“Healers,” Celeste continued, “will likely be the first target of any attack. As well as glass cannons.” She glanced at Alan. “You must remain vigilant against attacks at all times: be aware of your surroundings. There should never be a prolonged engagement—knife-wielders are at a disadvantage the moment they are discovered.”
Two guards appeared. They looked around for a moment, searching for the attackers, then returned to their posts along the street.
“Now go, find, and defeat your attackers,” Celeste said. She took out two sharp metal blades, handing one to Alan and one to Daisy.
Alan looked over at Daisy, still in obvious discomfort from her wounds. “You stay here, I’ll go out and find them.”
“No,” Daisy said. “And no helping me. I’m here to be useful.”
“Healers are useful! They’re one of the most crucial class in any game,” Alan said.
“Not when, as Thiago put it, a battle can last a single second, a single push of a button. There is nothing preventing others from carrying around medical kits—technology everyone can use to heal themselves. To make a difference in any party I can’t be only the healer.” Daisy disappeared into the crowd.
Alan stared after her for a second.
He saw two attackers coming at him—it was easy to pinpoint them with his awareness. Celeste noticed Alan looking in their direction.
“Alan, you take out the guards, it looks like two street thugs would be too easy for you,” Celeste said. “Getting close to people without setting them on edge generally requires talking to them.”
“Or an invisibility field,” Alan said, activating his armor’s basic stealth.
Celeste frowned, pushing a few buttons on a screen that appeared before her. Two sentry robots with scanners appeared. Alan tried hacking into them, but they appeared to be nonexistent, a limit to the simulation. Oddly, he could sense the simulation itself, but he decided against hacking into it.
Instead, Alan activated his armor’s advanced invisibility, which the robots were unable to see through. He stepped right up to the guards and stabbed them each in the heart in quick succession.
They crumpled to the ground, dead.
Celeste was behind him, holding two knives. It felt like she wanted to attack, but couldn’t determine his position.
“Enough, reveal yourself,” Celeste said. Alan deactivated his invisibility field.
“Why do you need training?” Celeste asked. “While I think your methods naive, they are effective. You’d likely be able to reach most targets.”
“Well, to access Volta, I was thinking of reaching master level with my knife skills,” Alan said. “I was also hoping you might have a database of information that describes various alien customs and cultures that I could consult.”
“Any reason for knife mastery in particular?” Celeste asked.
“I have a weapon that requires it,” Alan said.
“Very well. To master any skill, you simply need to demonstrate a level of competency in the Game. I will provide you with a suitable training room. I had planned to teach you how to reach targets, but I think your methods differ greatly from mine.
“With regard to your other demand, there are so many factors that go into any social exchange that you can’t simply calculate a suitable action—but if you wish to go down that path, I can recommend a list of books that should provide enough context to tackle basic social situations.” There was a commotion in the distance, raised voices and a crowd forming. “Now it looks like my other student needs me. Good luck.”
Walls appeared, enclosing Alan in a white chamber. A message appeared:
Welcome! The knife test will assess your knife mastery. Additional examinations may be
needed. Data from your fights in the assessment will be analyzed. Are you ready to begin the test?
Yes
No
Alan selected yes.
Preparing test…
Knife Test Initialized
The virtual space shifted, creating an obstacle course. Red-outlined targets appeared all around Alan. He couldn’t see an end to the obstacle course—it surrounded him, extending in every direction. It grew more complex the farther out he looked, with Eve highlighting numerous traps that had already been detected. A row of knives appeared before him in a menu, ranging from simple, metal combat knives to high-powered laser knives. Eve highlighted the weapons she approved. Alan didn’t find a soulsteel knife in the list of options.
After a bit of deliberation, he chose a pair of Elite Crimson Combat Knives, as they were similar to his newly acquired Crimson Blades, just smaller. Alan tested a few swings; they felt natural enough. He was able to activate the laser field on the knives with a thought directed at Eve. A message appeared:
The Knife Examination will begin when you select ready. You will be tasked with eliminating all red targets. You are to avoid hitting any target of a different color. You will be graded on technique, targets destroyed, and timing. Black dots designate weak spots on each target.
Ready
Cancel
Alan selected ready, then launched himself over a low, grey wall that appeared in front of him. Eve fed him data on the obstacle course, and he plotted out a path. The first fifty targets were simple to reach—navigating to them was no harder than climbing a wall or dodging a laser trap. Alan attacked each target according to Eve’s outlines, anticipating how the targets, which were all humanoid in shape, would move.
As he eliminated the fiftieth target, a wave of five knife-wielding red thugs appeared, each about his height. Alan eliminated them one by one, dodging all incoming blows. Ten knife-wielding red targets appeared. Dealing with them required him to follow Eve’s direction with the utmost care, each step crucial to—
He tripped, causing himself to fall onto an oncoming knife. A message appeared:
Knife Test Complete.
No new abilities or upgrades gained.
Damn, Alan sent. The test restarted and a similar obstacle course appeared.
Shit, again? Alan sent, hoping there would have at least been checkpoints.
Yes, we should wait until you have caught your breath—
No. Let’s go. Alan made his way through the obstacle course, only slightly different this time. He took longer to get through it, his fatigue taking its toll. This time when the first wave of attackers appeared, he activated hypercognition. With ease, he managed to deal with the first wave of attackers, then the second, third, and fourth.
But his Computational Energy ran out before the fifth wave of enemies, which included a combination of melee and ranged attackers. Stabbing at the wrong angle caused him to lose hold of a knife. Shortly after that, a sword that he was unable to deflect or dodge stabbed through him. A message appeared:
Knife Test Complete.
Managing to destroy 50 consecutive targets with amazing control, you have learned Knife Mastery (Basic)!
+10 Agility +5 Strength +5 Endurance
Rest before the next attempt, Eve sent.
Fine, Alan replied. He sat down on the floor, going over the previous two tries. As soon as his stamina and Computational Energy were full, he commanded Eve to restart the test. This time he would wait until the fifth round of attackers before he’d activate hypercognition. But then he failed in the third round, his body unable to react in time to an attack from behind.
God damn it, again, Alan sent.
Perhaps—
Again.
Very well.
The fourth and fifth tries fared no better than the second, the combination of precise balance and control over his already tired body proving too much for him.
Try something different, Eve sent.
Like what? Alan asked.
Try splitting your mind, controlling the two different sides of your body.
The experiment failed, the sense of control too strange for Alan’s split mind: layered on top of the odd sensation of controlling half a body was the need for the two parts to communicate with each other to balance. He nearly fell on his face with the first step forward he tried to take.
Try having one “locks” on parts of your body. A mind can only control that part of the body if it’s holding the lock associated with it. I’d also pair locks together, such as the legs and the arms.
Fine. Alan did as Eve commanded. The sensation was odd, but it did make controlling his body a bit simpler, because instead of needing to keep track of every part of his body at once, he only needed to control whichever lock he possessed.
Of course you came up with this idea, Alan thought.
What?
Nothing. Again. The test restarted, but Alan barely made it three-quarters of the way through the obstacle course; his lower half had tried to make a jump a tad sooner than his upper half had expected, resulting in a missed grab at an over-hanging bar. He crashed to the floor, landing on his face.
Again. Both halves of Alan’s split mind sent.
It is unadvisable to—
Again. But this time add a timer to each action, and help us coordinate. Let me know if I end up out of sync or come up with a plan ahead of time.
Very well.
Alan managed to complete the obstacle course without any errors, but he was still slower than his first attempt. The wave of attackers appeared.
He carefully took them all out. He defeated the second wave as well. A third wave appeared, and despite a small misstep, he completed the round. He activated hypercognition, which simplified things immensely, and then completed the fourth and fifth rounds. No new enemies appeared; a short break allowed Alan to regain stamina and energy.
Good job, Eve sent. Alan ignored her, and the next phase of the test began. Another obstacle course, but this one had no obvious pathway, and was filled with treacherous footholds and hanging ropes.
Targets appeared like ninjas, attacking Alan as he traversed the obstacle course. He barely made it twenty feet before a target sliced off a rope he was holding onto, causing him to fall to his death.
Sorry, that move was unexpected, Eve sent.
Again. And Alan tried the test again. Then again and again, on and on until almost four hours had passed. Half of the time, he barely made it past the fifth wave of attackers, and never farther than a hundred feet into the second obstacle course. As his body became tired, the time for breaks grew longer and he began to fail to make it past the third round of attackers. This wasn’t working.
“The others were like that, too, or so I hear.”
Alan, drenched in sweat, spun around to find Celeste. She stood by a doorway, looking at him.
“The other what?” Alan asked.
“The other Machine Lords. They were all able to learn a new skill faster than any other, but few were ever able to train an ability past the intermediate level,” Celeste said. “Only a handful were able to master a skill and make it to Volta.”
“Isn’t the requirement mastering two skills?” Alan asked.
“Maybe for you,” Celeste said. “The Game adapts, everything is variable. What you hear, say, see, smell, feel is not always what others do. Thus, the need for clear communication.”
“Whatever. You’re supposed to be teaching me knife fighting, right? What advice or instruction do you have?”
“If your goal is to make it to Volta then my advice is simple. Give up. You have no aptitude for knife mastery, you lack the endurance, the finesse, and the control that is necessary to master the skill. The only reason you’ve made it this far is because of the instruction of your AI.
“I can tell by watching you,” Celeste said. “Your movements are uncoordinated: wooden and mechanical. It’s like watching an Erudite try to dance. Mastering any skill requires years of t
raining—you have to practice the skill to the point that every movement is natural, ingrained into your very being. You won’t reach that level in a few months, and certainly not by following a program’s directions without any understanding of why you’re performing your actions.”
“What do you mean?” Alan asked.
“Tell your AI to stop giving you commands,” Celeste said.
Stop giving outlines and information, Alan sent.
“Now,” Celeste said, “stab forward with both hands.”
Alan blinked. He looked down at the knives in his hands, then tried stabbing forward in the manner that felt most natural.
“Your grip is wrong, your footwork is wrong, everything that you just did is wrong,” Celeste said. “But you have no idea why, do you? Despite the hours of training that you just performed, do you understand knife fighting any better?”
Alan thought to himself, and then said, “No, I guess I don’t. So what are you saying? That I should just abandon my AI when I train? I’m a talentless hack that can’t do anything without her. What would you advise?”
“You’ve managed to reach a level that takes most people a matter of weeks in a single day, and you complain about your talent? Daisy still hasn’t managed to reach basic knife mastery, you know.”
“Yes, but that was only with Eve, my AI. Without her I doubt I’d have many skills at all. The Game is only recognizing them as my skills, not hers, because I’m the one performing the actions, but she’s the brain.”
Celeste shrugged. “I can’t tell you how to play, but I’d suggest trying to find something that you are good at, not your AI. I’m sorry, but I don’t think it’s knife fighting.”
“No, thank you. This has been helpful. Do you know somewhere I can shower and sleep for free? I’m out of credits.”
