Opening Moves (The Gam3 Book 1) (39 page)

“A spymaster?” Alan asked, as Phantom winced at Alan’s question.

“Yes, yes, something like that.” He took another swallow of whatever was in the flask.

“And the Chief Administrator, for one reason or another, thought you would be a good squire for me. To be quite frank, franker than I usually am, you would end up being my primary agent. To assemble all this,” he paused for another drink, “information, I need to stay here. I am unable to venture off Khersath or perform various… tasks. You would instead. The tasks would range from something simple, like handing off a package or bit of information, to infiltration and assassination. Is that, um, something you’d be able to handle?”

Phantom glanced at a screen in front of him, hitting a few buttons. Alan noted a bead of sweat on his forehead.

“Well, that sounds pretty cool to me, just, I don’t think I really have the skills or equipment to do some of the things you’re suggesting, especially not against governments or factions that have existed for millennia. Also, um, is everything alright? You seem rather nervous,” Alan replied.

“What?” Phantom said. “Oh, yes, well, honestly when I first joined this guild my every intention was to stick strictly to inventing, getting a good look at some of our diagrams and inventions. I never imagined that Enigma would single me out to do something so important as…” Phantom winced.

“I don’t think you should have heard that, although I suppose most people would assume Enigma was in charge of this whole thing. Anyway, I’ve never planned on getting involved in anything so dangerous as running such missions, or even leaving the safe zone of Khersath, for that matter. Like most people I imagined I’d end up spending most of my time in a safe-zone.

"Honestly, I’m still half expecting you to be a spy that is going to suddenly leap up and torture me. You have a combat rank of B, after all! Then again, I suppose that’s why the Chief Administrator sent you, as you’re from Earth you probably have next to no ulterior motives, no connections to any such groups that… Well, I’m rambling, does that answer your concerns?”

“Um, training and equipment? How much will I be paid?” Alan asked, a bit uncertain if he wanted this trembling figure as his mentor. Phantom was continuing to drink out of the flask, getting drunker by the minute.

“Oh, yes! You’ll be sent to the finest of academies, the one and only rank S academy simply known throughout the Game as the Academy. You’ll be joined by the guild leader’s daughter, and perhaps your friend Kitana, depending on how much she impresses Arms Master Mason. A few others might make it as well, though tuition is quite expensive, and you’ll be put a million guild points in debt.”

Phantom seemed to have calmed himself, though whether it was due to the drink or because of some other factor Alan wasn’t quite certain. Phantom had stopped glancing over and hitting keys on the screen in front of him a short while ago.

“A million guild points? That’s 10 million credits, right?” Alan questioned.

“Yes. The education and opportunities being a graduate of the Academy presents are worth far more than that. Doing the missions I’ve outlined you should be able to pay us back in a few years, assuming you’re at least mediocre.”

“Um, I’m not sure I have a few years. Right now, I need to pay off another debt and help Earth.”

“Oh, well, I'm sure we can add another million credits or so to the loan. Also you’re mainly going to be working around and on Earth. Tell me, how much do you know about your planet’s current situation?”

“Um, not much,” Alan said sheepishly.

“Well, this should help.” Phantom brought up a 3D star map of thousands of galaxies, and highlighted the solar system Earth was in, a tiny blip in space. “Here is what you call the Virgo Cluster. And here are the various powers within said Virgo Cluster.” The map was suddenly highlighted three different colors, red, blue and green. Earth was barely at the outside edge of the blue space, near where the red, blue and green sections of space intersected.

“The blue space represents the space the Haxlards control, while the red represents the Empire, and finally the green represents free space, the space around Khersath, which is generally controlled by guild alliances. Frankly, Earth is in a prime location for a staging point for anyone wishing to attempt to attack or defend against any of the other three forces! This is the reason why the Haxlards tried so long to stop Earth from entering the Game, and are now so keen on having Earth governments as an ally.”

“Staging point?” Alan asked questioningly, wishing he had Eve to help explain some of this to him. He was also feeling a bit nervous about Phantom. Something about the whole situation put him a bit on edge. Not having Eve around made him feel oddly naked, revealing just how much he relied on her guidance.

“Hmm? Oh, yes, I suppose you don’t yet know much about warfare in the Game. Well, suffice it to say that like in most wars, supplies and travel routes are of the utmost importance. Having a fortified refueling and respawn point right at the edge of enemy territory is as good as say, an entire fleet of capital ships. Thus, the guild alliances, or at least the Mercenary Bloc, of which the Black Rose Guild is a part of, desire for Earth to be either under their control or at the very least neutral in any conflicts to come.

"Honestly, being neutral in the face of any future conflict, charging everyone else, is probably the best outcome for the planet’s future. Now, even though no one is able to openly act for another three years or so, there are already plans in motion with humans from Earth acting as intermediaries, pawns for these various factions. Our hope is that Earth remains free, and any missions you perform for the guild will be with this goal in mind, which I’m sure you find acceptable.”

“Okay, I guess that makes sense. Um, I’d honestly like to do some calculations with my AI’s help before anything else though,” Alan said.

“Of course, of course, the scans should be about complete. I’ll bring them up on your AI Status Window for you,” Phantom calmly stated, as he pressed a few buttons.

“My what?” Alan asked.

“What do you mean?” Phantom said. “This should have been one of the first windows you saw upon entering the Game!”

Then, a screen popped up in front of Alan:

This was quickly followed by an additional window giving Alan information about the hardware Eve was running on, and even a list of abilities. He could only stare at the wealth of information that he had never seen before, wondering why he'd never seen it before...

“Alright, cut the bullshit,” Alan said, calmly staring at Phantom.

“Excuse me?”

“Enough acting, or whatever it is you’re doing.”

“Sorry, I don’t understand, are the test results unclear?” Phantom asked, unsteadily swaying back and forth, gesturing wildly with the flask in his hand.

“There’s no way a drunken idiot with zero combat experience became a top officer in a guild like this,” Alan continued calmly.

Phantom put the flask down on a table, turned to look into Alan’s resolute stare, then closed his eyes. When he opened them, they held a quiet, clear brilliance rather than the confused look that had been there a moment ago. Phantom’s irises had changed color as well, from a bloodshot blue to a crystalline green, with tiny silver gears whirling around in the center of his pupils.

“Fine, have it your way. Why the sudden inquisitiveness?” Phantom stood up straight, intently scrutinizing Alan.

“Because, you clearly know more than I do about what’s going on, and I want clear and straight answers, not whatever backwards, prepared bullshit that you were about to feed me,” Alan replied.

“Oh? You seem quite worked up about this.”

“Yes, I’d prefer to have the truth.”

“Wouldn’t we all. What exactly is it that you want to know?”

“What is this window, what are these stats, why haven’t I seen them before and did you make them up?”

“These results are quite real, and it’s odd that you’ve never seen the window before. That genuinely was surprising, as it should be one of the first windows to pop up when you first enter the game.”

“When I first entered the game I gained consciousness on a small farm in some rural part of the country a few hours before the tutorial began.”

“Really? Interesting… very interesting. Well, I guess, to answer your questions, all the various status windows are pretty self-explanatory.

"The name is its name of course. That its classification is undetermined is interesting, but expected given its C rank. Computing ability is basically an AI’s level or combat ranking, although you probably know that. To test your synchronization level, or your compatibility with Eve, we’d need to turn it on, which we could do soon, after a few more tests. But not here. Frankly, I’m not comfortable with an unknown AI in my private chamber.

"The objective is whatever you set it to be, apparently saving your planet, Earth. I’d advise you to tweak that a bit, as an AI’s idea of saving could vary. It might conclude that Earth was best left in the hands of the Haxlards, for instance, or it may decide to save the planet you’d need to take it over yourself. General functions as its role is rather vague, guess it’s just doing everything for you. One thing I’ve noted is you’re a bit too dependent on your AI, and that’s a habit that should be broken. The operating system is classified as per usual, you’d need to be a high level Administrator to see that sort of stuff.

"Now, corruption level. That’s fascinating, as I don’t think I’ve ever seen a new AI with such a high corruption level. Corruption levels are basically the Administrator’s catch-all term measuring how changed from a base-AI something is. It’s not necessarily even a bad thing, though tampering with an AI’s source code is generally frowned upon, and if the AI gets too erratic or its corruption level gets above 60% it’s usually wiped by the Administrators or reverted to a previous, less corrupted back up. Corrupted AI tend to start showing more… personality, I guess you could say. You should watch out too, as it’s not unheard of for corrupted AI to start forming their own ideas or goals. In effect, I guess they become less like tools and more like companions. Anyways, you should watch out for that, and I suppose this means I should converse with your AI as well before you officially join the guild.

"Storage levels are its memory, while aberration levels are sort of going into the corruption level more. AI are required to be declared sane, you’ll have to bring in Eve for an official test at least once a year in-game time, though this test should qualify as one such test. Any capsule should be able to perform such a check. Now, warnings, this once again raises a red-flag for me. Do you know what your AI has received warnings for?”

“Well, I know one was for accessing other player’s interfaces during the Tutorial, watching what they were doing, but that was sort of on my order. Wait, no, actually now that I think about it I’m not sure I ever did order that move…” Alan said hesitatingly.

Phantom stepped forward, right in front of Alan.

“Yes, see, this is what makes me nervous about AI, you don’t know how they think! You may think you know, but you don’t. Let me get one thing straight. Your AI, and all AI within the Game, are NOT biological beings. They do not have gender, it is not a she or a he, it is an it. They are a completely different entity. All of your feelings, your senses, are tied to your body, your physical embodiment. AI have none of those, everything is simply a series of n-bits to them, and while AI can be programmed to ‘feel’ I doubt it’s anything like what you or I experience.

"We’ve had generations of evolution hardwired into us, social practices, culture hundreds of millennia old. An AI has whatever data you’ve given it. The only reason it knows anything is right or wrong is because it’s been told it’s right or wrong. It has no real morals, no real wealth of knowledge to draw upon. It has true or false gates that branch out in a maze of pathways, and if something is undefined, it’ll freeze, or act in such a way that no one can really expect. Um, well, sorry about that rant, this alcohol is actually starting to get to me a bit.”

“Um, it’s fine, it’s interesting to hear your opinion,” Alan said, backing up a bit.