Luca DR
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22 – The Torment of Tantalus (2/2)
🕑 Added 2023-05-15 13:58:26 +0000 UTCThe video window appeared in the space between Albert and the wall, hovering in the air like usual. There were, like there always were, tiny differences with how it looked compared to last time. He wondered—
“Finally, another skill video. Welcome back, Albert.” The alter-ego said in the video, cutting his thoughts short. “By now you must have noticed that the system is not a forever-stable construct. It changes and reacts to your environment and your actions. And, most importantly, it grows. It’s sort of funny, isn’t it? That the source of your power would grow more powerful according to your own power.
Geez, I said power three times in a row there. All in one sentence! Apologies.
But it’s true. It’s a self-sustaining positive feedback loop where the more the system gives, the more you have. And the more you have, the more the system can give. Don’t go thinking that your agency is useless in all of this. The system could never work without your efforts, as you have seen every time you develop, evolve and use a skill. You are the most central part of it all. Give yourself credit, you are doing awesome.
I also happen to know that you are planning to develop a skill to accelerate your learning rate. I suggest that you prioritize it over everything else. Yet, I also see why you would want to teleport, and I respect it. Here’s the kicker.
We go back to Buddhism, back to philosophy.
I know you know about the FBT theorem and about the Interface theory. But let me give you a quick summary: the world you experience is not real. It is a representation of the real reality mediated by your sensory organs and by the understanding apparatus of your brain. Hell, quantum physics has experimentally shown that the universe is not locally real, and that the deeper they go into their probing of the exotic, the less real and local everything is.
Space and time are the same. It is time you dropped your hard-wired notion of them, at last. You are beginning to leave your old conception of time behind, I have seen it in the way you handle time magic. You are getting good at it. Spoiler alert: you will come across many barriers in your path to mastery, and true mastery only comes with enlightenment. You are just barely taking your first steps in magic, so please do not worry about the esoteric too much yet. Yet, do not ignore them either. There will come a time when all this thinking around in circles will come in handy, and I will be here to help you make heads and tails of all of that.
Before we proceed, an answer to your question. You asked me, last time, if I can hear you. Yes, I can. No, I will not answer your direct queries. But I will reveal some part of my identity to you. For all means and purposes, think of me as the System. I am not just a video, and the Albert that you see is not just an avatar. Now, was the system developed by a future you or by an alternative you, or did it just appear, or perhaps it’s a medium through which you are being manipulated by evil powerful beings from another dimension?”
Other-Albert grinned.
“I will not say. Perhaps. Perhaps not.
Do others have it? I know you want to know, but these are things you will have to find out for yourself.
What you should know is that I – the system – see all you see, know all you think and perceive all you feel. That’s why the quests are so on point. Do not worry about disappointing me, or angering me, or spiting me. I am above all this. Just like a GPT-3 system, yes that GPT you have been playing with in your free time… all you see are expressions of emotions. But are there real emotions behind the façade?
Perhaps, this too is for you to find and not for me to tell you. But don’t worry too much.
Shit. I got sidetracked and started ranting. Just like you do sometimes, yeah?” Not true, Albert never went on side rants for no reason. All of his rants made sense and were totally necessary. Ah, but this fake-Albert rant also seemed quite informative, so…
“Haha. Well. Spacetime in an illusion, you will need to work with that because I ran out of time for the video. Good luck!”
***
Samantha watched the video play back for the hundredth time. And this was only today, she knew that in the next few days the number could very well approach the four digits. Behind her were three men, all tall and straight and tight in their suits. Officials of some sort, of no higher grade than her but from different branches of the military who came here to oversee. Overseeing was an unofficial way of letting someone know that they were about to be a subject of an investigation. It was a fair price to pay, she thought, for having saved the world. The thought that there had to be a price and not a reward for doing a good deed soured her mood.
The video ended with the first missile detonating its deadly payload, and right before the screen went completely white from static and radiation, the second missile could be clearly seen entering through an unidentified spacetime anomaly only to disappear on the other side.
“There is no trace of the anomaly anymore, and the anomalous weather pattern has since lost 78% of its strength around the Exclusion Zone. However, the anomalous patterns still continue undisturbed at the continental and super continental level.”
“How about inside?” Asked one of the suits. Samantha nodded at the man operating the screen.
“We have no readings of the inside.” Said the small man.
Samantha put a hand on his shoulder, and he winced. “We have optical and magical data. No spatial rift. No Pilgrims. The zone is clear of any infestation, save for the nuclear fallout.”
“Which sources tell us will continue for decades. You have by all means taken an entire county and turned it into a dead zone for the better part of the century.”
The correct term was Exclusion Zone, not dead zone. Samantha put on her nice face. “I have. The alternative was worse, and you know it. I have sent the classified documents for review as soon as the launch was confirmed.”
“Ah, yes. Those documents. Speculations, notes, some blurry pictures, the reports of deserters left to die inside the shield. Nothing of substance. Am I correct?”
Samantha smiled. “You are.”
The man shivered, and cleared his voice. “Then there’s the matter of your father.”
“What matter?”
“His intrusion in the Quadrangle. I believe it was on film?”
“It was not an intrusion.” She said. She ordered the little hunched man at the screen to provide the video. “Show us the last time Lloyd Cromwell was here.”
“Right away ma’am.” The small man said. Footage from no less than twenty years ago started to play.
“See? You must be referring to this.” She said.
A second video played. There was an amused expression on her face, one she hid from the gentlemen of the other branches of the army.
“Ah, sneaky bastard. He had SpaceOps teleport him a healing flask from the biolab.”
“Should I flag him?” The little man asked.
She almost recoiled. Almost being the keyword. She was not one to react to stimuli this weak. However, this was the right input for an explanation. “What? You’re new here, aren’t you? See that guy on the wall, the man who literally built the Quadrangle? That’s the Lloyd Cromwell we are talking about. You won’t revoke shit. I’ll give him a slap on the wrist, and you delete that footage. Are we clear?” Then, she turned around and squared the three suits up and down. “Do I need to call the psion on you three?”
“About what?” One of them asked.
“I think she meant—” the other began, but he quickly received an elbow to the gut. “Right. About what, ma’am? We saw nothing of note here.”
The hunched man at the computer waited until the three guests left, then called Samantha back at the station.
“Ma’am you might want to see this.”
