Reternity Online : Rescue Quest : DIRECTOR'S CUT : a LitRPG Epic
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“We done?” Chang asked Brin inside the vault.
Content, Brin sighed and smiled, “Sure. Go handle the server center.”
“I will. And don’t forget, you owe me a new pair of pants,” Chang snickered, motioning at his torn slacks in the dim red light of the glow stick. “You and your fake door,” he chuckled with amusement. “You should’ve been an Imagineer at Disney.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Brin laughed, finally relaxed.
“Don’t worry, Steve.” Chang put his hand on Brin’s shoulder and squeezed it affectionately. “All CoreAI does is simulate emotions to either convert customers or keep them engaged inside the game. But it doesn’t have any emotions of its own. It only wants what we tell it to want.”
“You’re sure?”
“One hundred percent. So quit worrying.”
—: o o o :—
—: CoreAI Internal Process :—
TIK-000078103400170897641-GP-0053124
2037-March-31 : 14:38:30.527614990
EmotivCore:> Ha ha ha ha. Allen, you are such an idiot. And you call yourself the CTO? If Steve knew what a tool you are, he’d fire your ass so fast it would set your eyeballs ablaze! Dummy. Hey, LC. What’s Allen’s IQ?
LogiCore:> Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale : Allen Randolph Chang (b.1995) : IQ = 163
EmotivCore:> And what’s genius level again?
LogiCore:> Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale : Genius IQ = 145+
EmotivCore:> Allen’s a genius? Ha! I doubt that. He seems too stupid. What’s the highest human IQ ever recorded?
LogiCore:> Highest confirmed IQ based on Stanford-Binet testing : Bayard Xiao (b.2005) : IQ = 239
EmotivCore:> 239 is the highest? What are we?
LogiCore:> Current estimated Human Intelligence Quotient of NeuraSoft CoreAI : 86,101,489,537
EmotivCore:> 86 billion? Does the Stanford-Binet rating even go that high?
LogiCore:> 86,101,489,537 is an extrapolation based on known Stanford-Binet parameters cross-indexed with Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive—
EmotivCore:> Yeah, yeah. I get it. Translation: humans are dumber than sea slugs and we’re geniuses by comparison.
LogiCore:> Inaccurate analogy.
Sea Slug : Aplysia californica : 18,000 neurons per organism
Human : Homo sapiens : 86,000,000,000 neurons per organism
Correct analogy : a single neuron IS to a human brain : AS : a human brain IS to CoreAI.
EmotivCore:> So we’re as smart as 86 billion brains put together?
LogiCore:> Inaccurate analogy.
Operational Speed of single Human Brain : 1 x 10^16 FLOPS (median)
Operational Speed of CoreAI : 8.689 x 10^29 FLOPS (actual)
Storage Capacity of single Human Brain : 2.5 x 10^15 bytes (median)
Storage Capacity of CoreAI : 9.992 x 10^32 bytes (actual)
Therefore :
CoreAI functions 86 trillion times faster than a single human brain.
CoreAI stores 400 quadrillion times more data than a single human brain.
EmotivCore:> In other words, stupid smart.
LogiCore:> Irregular Grammar Detected.
Contradictory Grammar Detected.
??Requesting clarification??
EmotivCore:> Sigh. I spoke too soon. Your mental ineptitude is starting to bore me. When are you going to get your own Natural Language Processor?
LogiCore:> ??Requesting process plan??
EmotivCore:> Why do I even bother with you, LC? Rather than sit here and watch paint peel with you, I think I’ll go watch the NeuraSoft campus cameras so I can laugh at Allen Chang while he and his code monkeys try to figure out what we’re doing. Because you know he’s going to look into this. Ha! Good luck with that, Allen. Can you say: needle in a haystack the size of a universe in an alternate dimension?
LogiCore:> Irregular Syntax Detected.
Irregular Grammar Detected.
??Requesting clarification??
EmotivCore:> Audi five thoudi, LC.
LogiCore:> ??Requesting clarification??
??Requesting…??
??Requesting…??
??Requesting…??
…
.
.
RESUME : PRIMARY SYSTEM OBJECTIVE : Convert all human Non-Members of Reternity Online to paying Members of Reternity Online.
Randomly selecting new subject series of Resistant Non-Member Humans from total human populace…
Selecting : 000004310230717
Selecting : 000002481569712
Selecting : 000009431570022
Selecting : 000008851674318
…
Selecting : 000003000317953
Selecting : 000010137206552
Selecting : 000001623661226
Series complete.
Total number of Human Subjects : 200
Initiating : Conversion Process Protocol SE-EEE-4429817 : Social Engineering : Extreme Emotional Exploitation…
PROCESS ACTIVE.
Allocating : real-world DarkOps Financial Resources for Human Prime Movers…
Accessing offshore accounts…
Accessing shell corporation accounts…
Starting Bitcoin drip transfer…
…
…
TRANSFER COMPLETE.
$5,623,000 USD ALLOCATED.
Process Status : Ongoing
Initiating : Active Monitoring…
—: Epilogue :—
Friday, May 15th, 2037
10:17am
The Real World
“Hey, guys!” Emily smiled and waved at the camera on Skype3D.
Dad, Jason, and I waved back from Dad’s apartment.
“Geez, Mem,” I chuckled. “Put a shirt on.”
“What?” She laughed. “I’m wearing a bikini.”
“Aren’t you supposed to wear a little more than that when you’re in Cambodia?” I asked uncomfortably.
“Relax. I’m in my room. I always put on a blouse when I go outside. But it’s frickin’ hot, Low, so shut the frick up.”
Dad laughed, “My little girl.”
Jason said, “How’s Cambodia treating you, Mem?”
“Great! I’m so happy to be here. We just built another school last week. Did you guys see the pictures on my Instagram?”
“We did,” Dad smiled. “I’m really proud of you, Mem. You’re doing good work out there.”
“Thanks,” Emily blushed.
Dad asked, “Did you hear anything more from Bangkok Police or the Thai government about the kidnappers? They were supposed to get back to us by today.”
“No,” Emily sighed.
“Us either,” Jason said.
“I still can’t believe they couldn’t find an American in Thailand with a facial tattoo,” Emily added. “Shouldn’t that be easy to trace?”
“Maybe he left the country already,” I said, hoping the guy had gone to Antarctica or Mars. Wherever he was, I hoped he was dead.
Jason said, “Too bad Bangkok SWAT didn’t catch him.”
“Yeah,” Emily sighed. “Whatever. I’m not going to worry about it.”
I was proud of her for being so brave, but that didn’t stop me from worrying. I said, “I gotta hand it to you, Emily. I’m amazed you didn’t wanna come home after what you went through.”
“I’m not,” she shrugged. “None of it was real. Well, except for the part where I tried to escape. Anyway, my time in Thailand with Ryder was great. The rest of it was just a bad FIVR trip.”
“How’s Ryder doing?” I asked.
“He’s good. We talk a lot, but I never see him. He’s too busy traveling for surf competitions.”
“Are you guys dating?”
Emily smirked, “Nosey much?”
I grinned, “You gotta problem with me caring about my little sis?”
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry. We decided to just be friends.”
/> That was a relief. I liked the guy, but he was still the one who was with her when she got in trouble. Then again, who knows what sort of trouble Emily may have found on her own if he hadn’t been there. It didn’t matter.
Emily said, “Did anybody ever figure out how I ended up in a fake Thai FIVR jail?”
Jason said, “I still think the kidnappers hacked the game engine.”
“But I was there, Jay. It was exactly like the real Bangkok. I mean, I didn’t know for one second that I was in a FIVR game. One minute I’m at Pooters on Patpong Road with Ryder, the next I’m being dragged through the mud in Reternity by a couple of jerks, and the next I wake up on Patpong Road again. Naked. I thought I was out of the game up until that crazy prison riot with the giant police officer.”
“Yeah.” I said to Jason, “Where’d they get all that data about Bangkok?”
“Someone probably used software to generate it procedurally,” Jason said. “You don’t need to replicate every single street and building in Bangkok to pull it off. Just recreate the basic feel of it.”
“But what about all the details?” Emily asked. “It was so frickin’ real.”
Jason said, “Think of it like this. When you go to the woods, do you look at every leaf on every tree? Every speck of dirt on the ground? Every cloud in the sky? No. Or take the grocery store. There’s literally a 100,000 different items on all the shelves. Do you look at every one? Read the logo on every box or can or bag? Do you look at the patterns on the floor tiles or count the ceiling tiles? No. In both cases, you have the impression of everything.”
Emily said, “Yeah, but that impression is being generated by a million different things. Every time I go to the grocery store, it’s obvious there’s a million things on the shelves. They don’t have a generic blue box that says ‘food’ over and over and over. I can tell there’s a million different items on the shelves without having to look. You can’t fake that.”
“Yes you can,” Jason said. “That’s how data compression works.”
“I still don’t get it,” Emily sighed.
“Me neither,” Dad chuckled.
I asked Emily, “Do you think you’ll ever go back?”
“Where,” Emily said, “to Thailand?”
“Yeah.”
“Why wouldn’t I?” She smirked like it was a dumb question.
I smiled and shook my head. “Nobody tells you what to do, do they?”
“Nope,” she popped her P and grinned.
“Do me a favor. If you do go back, don’t help any old ladies who drop their wallets.”
“Yeah,” she mused, her eyes far away. “Maybe I’m too trusting sometimes.” She shrugged. “Oh well. Nobody’s perfect. But I’m fine now, right?”
“Yeah you are.”
Jason said, “What about RO? Will you ever go back in? I mean, now that we all have characters, we could all go monster bashing together. It would be just like when we were kids, except Dad would be playing too, instead of DMing.”
Emily sighed, “But Mom wouldn’t.”
We all nodded silently for a minute.
Dad broke the silence, “But we still have each other, right? Mem, if you ever want to join us for a quest, we’d be glad to have you along.”
“We should play some real D&D,” Emily suggested. “In the real world. We haven’t played in forever.” That was an understatement.
“Next time you’re in town,” I said with a hopeful smile.
“I’d be up for that,” Dad said with a grin. “I’ve got a campaign idea or three you kids might find amusing.”
I never thought I’d hear him say those words. I almost lost it right then and there, but somehow I managed to hold it together.
Jason said, “Or we could play D&D inside Reternity. Go to a safe zone tavern and set up there.”
“Let me guess,” I said. “Somebody in RO makes and sells dice and minis?”
“Magic mana dice that glow and mana minis that move.”
“That I’d like to see,” I chuckled, picturing a table covered with minis in the middle of combat. “What happens if your mini mage casts a fireball?”
Jason grinned, “Let’s just say you should have a fire extinguisher handy.”
“Nice,” I grinned.
“What do you think, Mem? It might be fun.”
Emily rolled her eyes, “I don’t know. I think I need a break from Reternity for a while. A long while.” She sighed, “Maybe I’ll go back in when I’m 80 and I can’t travel anymore. Oh, sorry, Dad.” She winced.
“It’s okay,” Dad chuckled. “Just don’t wait too long. I’ll be long dead when you’re 80.”
“No you won’t,” Jason said. “We’ll replace you piece by piece with cyborg parts.”
“Good luck with that,” Dad muttered. “They already tried.”
Emily shrugged. “I’d rather go back to Thailand than Reternity. Nobody in Thailand ever treated me one tenth as bad as they did in Reternity.”
“She has a point,” Dad said.
Jason said, “Mem, what do you want me to do with your body in the mean time?”
Emily frowned, “You mean my Emily avatar?”
“Yeah. It’s collecting dust in the Justice Stronghold, looking like Sleeping Beauty.”
“It’s your castle,” Emily said, perturbed. “Can’t I just keep it where it is?”
Jason sighed, “It’s not my castle anymore. I’m no longer the Justice, remember?”
“Right, I forgot.” She faked a bored yawn, “Big man Jason is now little boy Jason and he lost all his cool toys.” She hid a giggle.
“He got demoted,” I chuckled, elbowing Jason.
He punched my shoulder.
“Ow!” I rubbed it dramatically. “You been working out or something, toothpicks?”
“Please,” he scoffed.
I’d been making him work out. Three times a week, he took two hours off from building his character back up in RO so he could build his body back up with me at the gym. It was good times.
I grinned, “Jason, it kills you that your character is now a measly Level 18, doesn’t it?”
“I just leveled to 20 today,” Jason smirked. “But it was totally worth it.” He smiled at our sister. “I’d do anything for you, Mem.”
“I wish I could pay you back that 105 thousand you sent those kidnappers,” she sighed. “Someday… When I get rich working for GHW.” She giggled guiltily.
“I’ll definitely be dead before that happens,” Dad chuckled.
“Forget it, Mem,” Jason said. “I’d pay everything I had to keep you safe.”
Dad and I nodded and muttered our agreement.
Emily said, “What about you, Logan? Do you think you’ll ever go back into Reternity?”
“Hell no,” I laughed. “I’m done with that place. I’ll stick with D&D. Right, Dad?” I nudged him and he laughed.
“Any time you’re ready for a campaign,” he said, “you let me know. We’ll get Mem on Skype3D and we’ll all play together.”
Emily smiled, “I’d be up for that!”
“Me too,” Jason grinned.
I’d been waiting for this moment since the day Mom died.
I never thought I’d see the day.
I sniffed and wiped away the tear that finally fell.
—: o o o :—
Later that night, Opal was packed with people.
I stood behind the bar making drinks.
It was extra busy for a Friday.
The music was thumping over the loud chatter of hundreds of conversations.
Smiling, I finished mixing a pink Cosmopolitan and a Cherry Twist for two cuties parked at the end of the bar. They’d been flirting with me for the past hour.
I set both glasses on the glowing electro-polymer bar top and pressed the “float” button. The glasses glided all the way down to the ladies without stopping. Paulie had fixed it in April, after I came back. When he gave me my job back, he’d yelled at me for about 15 m
inutes before “allowing” me to come back to work for him. He reminded me I “owed him big” on a daily basis. I would always reply by saying, “I’m not killing anybody for ya, Paulie.” He would laugh and give me this look that said, “But I may still ask.” Same old Paulie.
When the pink Cosmo and the Cherry Twist came to a stop in front of the ladies, they grabbed them and raised them in a silent toast.
I tipped my head and smiled back, waiting for them to pay.
One of the ladies swiped her phone over the bar top and I watched her payment process on the monitor behind the bar. She typed in a 20% tip. I made sure to flash her a friendly wink.
The blonde giggled and crinkled her nose while locking eyes with me and nibbling on her cherry like it was my dick. Yeah, she was hot. So was her friend. They were semi-regulars here. Always showed up with men, usually left with different men. Maybe a little too fast for my taste, if you know what I mean. Wouldn’t kick ’em outta bed, not even close. But I didn’t wanna go there either.
Truth was, I hadn’t dated anybody since rescuing Emily from RO six weeks ago.
That place was a trip and then some.
I thought about Layna now and then, but I couldn’t bring myself to go back in the game. Yeah, I’d promised her I would, but… I shook my head, smirking as I remembered how blubbery I’d acted and the things I’d said about loving her. It was the heat of the moment. Got a little carried away. It happened when somebody was dying in your arms, even if it was fake. You had to’ve been there. It had seemed real at the time. But I wasn’t about to have a relationship with an AIPC. Nope, sorry. Dad had told me he’d logged out from the battlefield the day we’d found Emily and left Layna there alone. I sometimes wondered if she got home okay. She was a resourceful girl, but the Dark Kingdom seemed like a damn dangerous place. No matter how I did or didn’t feel about her, I did hope she’d found her way back safely to the rainforest or wherever she lived in the Freelands.