MetaGame

by Sam Landstrom

  The type of work performed by night harvesting falls under one of two categories: one, gathering data known by subjects (data mining); and two, answering questions (data processing).

  It was determined after numerous studies that probing a subject’s mind interface chip was best done while the subject slept. While awake, the subjects tended to be stressed by what was often considered a “mind hack.” Even when subjects were compliant, they tended to try to manipulate the probe for their own benefit. For example, when a subject was posed the question of whether fuel for transport should be taxed, their answer depended largely on how often they used transport themselves. Despite being given evidence suggesting a different decision, subjects would generally make choices based on self-interest and/or beliefs in which they had previous investment.

  In addition to greater objectivity while asleep and unconscious of the probe, subjects’ minds were also much more pliable. For example, when the Game wanted a logical answer to a question and the subject was asleep, it was very easy to stimulate the subject’s brain (primarily the left frontal lobe in this example) to help elicit the desired mindset for logical thinking. On the other hand, if an emotional response was desired, other respective brain tissues were stimulated.

  In this way, mind queries were able to better fine-tune the information extracted. Using the example above, the question of the transport fuel tax could be weighed both logically and emotionally to ensure that any measure taken made the correct trade-off between best solution and the emotional pulse of those the tax would be levied upon.

  Due to these findings and the obvious realization that subjects were not making important use of their minds while asleep anyway, it was decided that wide-scale harvesting would be done only on sleeping subjects.

  As a brief overview, night harvesting works like this:

  Software bots called “crawlers” are constantly parsing over the mind interface chips of players in search for sleepers. Minds that are asleep leave distinct brain signatures and are therefore easy to identify by crawlers.

  Once a sleeper is identified, it is added to the billions on the harvesting list.

  The OverSoul, and the Game presided over by her, uses this list as a resource for queries and information gathering. For example, if the OverSoul wants to know whether a war permit should be approved, she may ask a random set of sleepers from the two opposing houses. In addition, she may select a few unassociated sleepers knowledgeable on war to make an unbiased cost-benefit analysis.

  Of course, given the complexity of the Game and the needs of the OverSoul, there are billions of such queries going on at any given time.

  Not only does AI make use of sleepers, but sleepers make use of one another. Sometimes the sleepers are known to each other, and other times they are paired together by the crawlers. In this way, the OverSoul is able to cobble together entire unconscious teams that can solve difficult problems, problems these same teams would have difficulty solving when awake. As mentioned, conscious subjects are hampered by their emotions and biased by their desires and prejudices. In addition, sleeper teams are more efficient than their conscious counterparts because they share their minds freely. Such raw blinking with strangers is seldom done by conscious players due to security and privacy issues…

  Truly, night harvesting has thus far outstripped our expectations in that it has since become the lifeblood of the Game and bestowed upon the OverSoul historically unsurpassed wisdom, and thus divine credibility.

  D_Light opened his eyes as he finished the summary. “We are all harvested without consent, without even knowledge of it?” His head hurt from trying to process what he had just read.

  “Yes,” answered Hal, “but that is beside the main point. You are part of the OverSoul. We all are. Therefore, why don’t you take your newfound perspective and leave?” Hal waved off the intruder.

  “This is unbelievable…I…” D_Light’s words trailed off as he discovered there were no words to convey what he felt.

  Hal paused while his eyes glazed over as though communing with a spirit, and he continued conveying information to D_Light. “I see you…Yes, there you are in the harvest log. You, your Mother Lyra and Father Djoser, even that bodyguard…even the one you seek to destroy now, Lily, she too was harvested. And others…” Hal paused again. “My Soul! My own father? The doctor is involved?” Hal asked himself out loud in disbelief.

  D_Light shook his head emphatically. “No, I did not make this. Lily did not make this game.”

  As Hal continued to speak, he found it easier. His vocal system was shuddering back to life. “You did create this, and now you come to me, break my instruments, and demand that I fix your game because it has not gone the way you want!” Hal rasped out the condemnation.

  D_Light shook his head again. “It cannot be…I have not been harvested. My dreams?”

  “Your dreams are fabrications!” Hal wheezed. “What would happen if night harvesting was common knowledge? Players would try to game the system. Your dreams were like everyone’s-pleasant but uneventful. Just a filler to run over the top of the real work going on in your mind.”

  “But my familiar-”

  Hal interrupted impatiently. “Your archival processes, including those run by your primitive familiar, are bypassed. You cannot replay something that is never recorded to begin with.”

  “I did remember though…I saw Ascara in a dream. She was hunting me?”

  “ You were hunting you! Your NeverWorld character-that witch-was merely a flimsy subconscious caricature of yourself revealed, no doubt, by emotional stress. Do you remember at the groksta how the Authority made you famous in NeverWorld so you could be easily found? That was your idea.”

  “Who better to hunt myself than myself?” D_Light scrunched his forehead and tapped it lightly with a closed fist.

  “But why didn’t I just tell the Authority where I was?”

  “Again, because sleepers are unaware of their identity during harvest. Otherwise, your personal interests would contaminate your analysis. For example, what if you did know who you were? Would you help the Authority hunt you down? You see, harvesting does not strip you of conscious free will; however, through anonymity, harvesting makes free will irrelevant.”

  D_Light’s face was expressionless. “So why am I here?”

  Hal sighed. “Allow me to summarize it for you, after which I hope you will leave me alone. Keep in mind that I am mainly drawing this analysis from harvest log files. I do not have direct access to your personal archives; therefore, you will have to do some thinking of your own.”

  The analyst paused as he closed his eyes. “You are here to fulfill a prayer, a prayer you recently sent. You asked the OverSoul, ‘What is the nature of my God that she is so cruel?’ Well, the MetaGame brought you to one of the few places in the world where you could find the answer. And incidentally, I’m fulfilling this prayer of yours right now.”

  D_Light tilted his chin up as Smorgeous confirmed that D_Light had indeed made that prayer soon after he fragged Fael. It was only a week ago, although it felt like another life. “It was my destiny to know, to find out about night harvesting?” D_Light asked.

  “I wouldn’t call it destiny. I would call it opportunity. The OverSoul is the most powerful entity in human history, but she cannot control fate absolutely.” Hal’s patience was wearing thin.

  “But why not just send me straight to Dr. Monsa? Why did Lily need to be involved?”

  “You are not the only sentient being served by the OverSoul, D_Light,” the analyst sneered. “My father had a prayer to fulfill too. The demon girl is for him, for reasons not specified in his harvest log.”

  “Lily’s coming here was the doctor’s prayer?” D_Light was puzzled even more.

  “I said you would have to think, not simply repeat everything I say!” Hal’s voice cracked. “Yes, it was his prayer. Why else would the demon follow a fool like you? Given that my father is interested in her, I suspect she is smarter tha
n that. In her harvest she complied, and in her waking time…No doubt she felt compelled. Intuition, as you humans call it. Although she did not consciously know it, she was being drawn to him.”

  “And that was why we got the quest to become demons. Otherwise we would have turned her in. She hitched a ride with us…Dr. Monsa’s prayer hitched a ride on my own,” D_Light murmured.

  For the first time, D_Light saw the slightest smile appear on the analyst’s face. “Indeed, efficiency is core to the Game.”

  “And this quest, where we hunt down and kill Lily-whose prayer is being answered now?”

  CHAPTER 34

  When you want something with all of your soul, the entire universe will conspire to procure it.

  — Minister A_Dude, archives, “From the Pulpit”

  Hal took as much care as he could stand in answering D_Light’s question. From the harvesting logs it was clear that Djoser and Lyra were the main drivers of the most recent quest. They each had their own emotional reasons-lust and envy, respectively. However, their main motivation was simple logic. Lily was designed to be hunted, and hunting her was consistent with the theme of the MetaGame. Hal decided to tell D_Light this, but he also added a lie.

  “Djoser, Lyra, and… you created this quest,” Hal answered.

  “No! No, that’s not true!” D_Light sputtered.

  “The OverSoul knows us better than we know ourselves,” Hal recited the hymn.

  “I have to stop it! I don’t want this!”

  “The wheels are already in motion,” Hal assured him. “As I said in the beginning, you created this game, and now you must play it out.”

  D_Light covered his face with his hands and was silent for several long seconds. Finally, he spoke. “The night harvest is essentially a raw blink-a raw blink with billions of others at once.”

  It was not, not technically; however, Hal nodded with certainty. The analyst liked where this was going.

  “I’ll open a raw blink to everyone. I’ll shout my prayer to God. She will hear me.”

  The desperation of humankind can always be counted on, Hal thought to himself. A conscious subject trying to use a raw blink as though it were a night harvest was likely to be lethal. In a night harvest, sleepers only communicated with other sleepers and were otherwise protected from mind hacks. And the volume! D_Light’s mind would not be able to withstand unfiltered access to the collective consciousness.

  In the ensuing minute, Hal pretended to resist D_Light’s demand for the encryption key to hack out of the network quarantine. He pretended to resist giving D_Light the software crack required to open an infinite raw blink request loop, a crack necessary to circumvent the security software onboard Smorgeous.

  As Hal sent the required content to D_Light, he touched his cheek, still moist from his earlier tears. Until now, Hal had not realized that he was capable of crying. Long ago he had inspected his own architectural specification and believed all such emotional centers had been stripped out from his original human template. There must still be a remnant left. Interesting! Hal thought. Hal uploaded the observation to the Cloud for review. Perhaps someone would want to sponsor a grinder game based on this data point. Where could these emotions be emanating from? My brain does not have the proper architecture.

  By the time D_Light fell, smacking the side of his head against the stone floor, the analyst had all but forgotten about the pesky intruder.

  Master, this protocol is illegal and not recommended, Smorgeous warned.

  D_Light ordered Smorgeous to run the software crack and initiate the infinite raw blink request.

  Immediately, his senses began to quake as though a tsunami wave was approaching. Then, suddenly, the roar was deafening and the light blinding. It was as though D_Light had been seized by a mob that pulled him in all directions, causing the very flesh of his consciousness to be torn out. From a billion entities emerged a sensory blur. And there were emotions too, a deluge of emotions-fear, love, horror, hope, angst-all of which overcame him so quickly that they seemed to occur simultaneously.

  This was pure pain. It was as though he was on fire from head to toe. He was being smashed against a wall of dazzling color. Somewhere in his consciousness he was aware of Smorgeous; the cat was twitching, rolling, and twirling as though on the strings of an insane and devilish puppeteer.

  Through the fire he heard an imperious voice. “Jump!” He knew the voice. It was the Dark Queen. Queen Pheobah had found him. She was behind him and she was roasting him alive. Ahead of him and below was the edge of a cliff, beyond which there was blackness, the deepest of nothing, the infinite void. He could not think. The pain was too much for that, but there was an inexplicable desire to jump. Certainly, oblivion was better than this.

  “Jump!” the queen commanded again.

  He did not. Instead, he turned to the queen and shouted, “Stop the MetaGame!” But the queen was too powerful. Her light consumed his mind, and the void took him away.

  Master, your raw blink request resulted in a massive seizure. As a countermeasure, I deployed sedatives to force you into an unconscious state; however, this action was delayed due to a critical error in my system that required me to reboot. I’ve detected some disruption to your neural network, including some possible organic brain damage.

  D_Light let his familiar’s words echo passively through his mind. His head pounded, and he was unsure if he could communicate back even if he wanted to. He felt like a dead vessel, a dead vessel with just enough brain activity left to still feel pain. But then the spent player remembered his important objective, which forced him-with some effort-to ask, Smorgeous, the MetaGame…is it still on?

  Yes, master. The current quest, “The Hunted Hunt Themselves,” is still active.

  D_Light allowed himself to fall back into unconsciousness.

  When D_Light woke the second time, he could at least think, but every thought came with some discomfort. He felt the need to sleep for a week or more, but he knew he could not. If nothing else, there were the cullers to consider. His repellant had completely worn off by now; they would be coming for him.

  At some point during the thirteen hours he had been unconscious, D_Light had been dragged out of the analyst’s lair; its door was shut. D_Light did not need to check the door to know it was locked.

  There were a dozen messages for him from Lyra and Djoser. He reviewed the messages as he slowly, incrementally, got to his feet. There were the expected questions and threats: We lost Lily. I think she’s somewhere in the garden. We’re coming back to you. What is your status? Are you alive? We got some crazy raw blink from you. What’s going on? Better for you that you are dead than ignoring us! The list went on.

  D_Light knew the right move was to give a status update to the rest of his team, but his only compulsion now was to find Lily. His intuition told him where she was, and now he knew to trust it.

  Lily’s normally golden blond hair was darkened and slicked back as she swam in the lake. She was swimming toward D_Light, but she did not appear to see him hidden in the thick foliage. Surrounding the lake on that side, sheets of marble rock jutted down steeply into the water, save a small sandy beach. It did not take an analyst to know where she was swimming.

  The OverSoul has brought you to me! D_Light thought. He wondered if she had been sleeping at some point over the past few hours, which prompted them to rendezvous here. Or perhaps the OverSoul has some connection even while we are awake. Either way, it is her will, the will of the Divinity-this game is about to end.

  D_Light ducked back into the garden and crept over to the beach. As he squatted, concealing himself behind a tall flowerbed, he heard in the distance a culler’s call, followed by another, and then another. They have found something.

  D_Light opened a blink to everyone, which was readily accepted. Before he could report, Lyra sent a thought with maximum urgency. Thank Soul, you’re alive! They’re coming, the cullers are coming!

  I found her. I found Lily, D_Light rep
orted. She is at the lake.

  For shit’s sake, if you have a shot, take it! Djoser blasted over the blink.

  There isn’t much time, D_Light, Lyra emphasized. You need to end this fast!

  It was a long thirty seconds or so before Lily silently emerged from the water. Her bleary blue eyes were fixed on some distant point as though enchanted by the Great Stag standing patiently on top of a hill off on the horizon. She made a move toward the concealment of nearby hedges, but stopped when D_Light ordered her to do so. He stepped out from hiding, his crossbow leveled down on her. She was caught in the open.

  There was fear on her face, but that emotion was battling with relief. A long hunt like this without the benefits of drugs was definitely taking its toll on the product, and now, at least, she would be released.

  The analyst was right. The wheels are in motion. I cannot stop the MetaGame any other way, D_Light thought.

  D_Light was surprised that he did not pull the trigger immediately. There was no reason not to. Nothing to learn from her, no interrogation necessary; only her death would end this game. The OverSoul has brought us together. Kill the product and end the game. The OverSoul wants me to win, as she loves me. The thoughts burned through him. But there were other voices too, distant but clear. God is love, D_Light. You must not betray God. You must not betray yourself.

  His eyes started to burn. His whole body began to tremble. He wanted to shout and curse, but instead he shuddered and cried out, “I don’t want this! I don’t want the points or this damned game! I don’t want to lose…I don’t want to lose you!”

  Lily fell to her knees. Her torso shuddered under a sudden outpour. At first she covered her face as though ashamed, and then she looked up at D_Light through tears and between heaving breaths, smiled sadly, and said, “I hid the bottle, the repellant. You can have it.”