Traitor GIT: A LitRPG Adventure (Traclaon Armageddon Book 2), page 42
Soul Scouting driven by his processor went wild as his internal AI swept the area to verify that his getaway was as clean as it felt. Yep, for now, it was a perfect crime.
Eric walked faster.
Then he came to an abrupt halt. There was an honest-to-god physical map that was ten meters high and twenty meters wide.
Eric shut his eyes to a kaleidoscope of colors.
“I…” he began. The map he was going to ask about was displayed in front of him.
“Original.”
The map blurred. Symbols changed from what the pens he was used to back to the random patterns that had been on the physical map. It seemed the locals had their own language, or at least a unique cartographic presentation.
“Revert.” The map that he could easily read was displayed once more. “That dotted line is the direction you recommend I take to move upward?”
“Yes, sir.”
“It doesn’t highlight any hotels?” he asked hopefully.
“No, sir. It’s been built and maintained by the system algorithms.”
“So macro stuff, that does not cover any human enterprises.”
“Yes, sir.”
“How long?”
“Sir, if I was being unscientific enough to extrapolate from this very limited map, then my estimation is that it will take thirty-nine hours to reach eight-five and locate your target.”
“That’s slightly better than planned.”
“Yes, sir. But…”
“I know other stuff can go wrong. I won’t take it easy. After all, I have a quest riding on the outcome.”
Eric opened his eyes and took off at the fast hybrid walk-skips that locals employed to travel quickly.
Apart from the dearth of technology and signs of overcrowding, the ambience of this section of the station was great. With a light step, he hurried toward the first section lock. From his research, these were all functionally the same. An entry tunnel at least forty meters wide and twenty high. A ramp with a slight slope down, with the center separated by a series of airlock tunnels.
They were supposed to look like what he was seeing. Thirty egress points. Each of them exited into a small tunnel. Some went down, others up, and significantly, the immediate area in the center of the tunnel was system-controlled. His hacking threads, as he approached, found computer chips and video cameras. Eric walked right up to one door and walked in. Once he had entered, there was a click and the door behind him shut. He was now in a narrow ten-meter corridor with a door on either end.
Eric sat down and released his hacking threads. He could have used Soul Scouting to achieve this outcome safely from a distance, but he wanted the higher throughput of being this close to the chips. Threads immediately attached to the different electricity systems around.
His AI churned. Every chip his threads reached was a PDXW-715 chip. Small storage and limited algorithms and fortunately possessed a known flaw. As it turned out, he could have easily done this remotely.
What Eric wanted to know was whether his progress would be tracked. 2142 was supposed to have no internal monitoring. Each and every section lock was theoretically a self-contained network that didn’t send any personal information elsewhere. The promise of the people who built this was that all calculations were local, and no video or even biometric data would be sent externally; in fact, according to the advertisements, the only reason section locks had any external communication lines was to react if items physically broke down or people were murdered next to the locks. Even killing near the section locks would not get big brother involved unless the perpetrators went too far.
Eric wanted to confirm that the system worked how it advertised.
To do that, he was required to follow every video feed, check all the calculation routines, and monitor what was sent when information was passed from one spot to another. Then he needed to check the ancillary systems to ensure there was nothing splitting the data off to a central unit. As great as his hacking skills were, that sort of precision would take time.
PDXW-715s were both a great and a terrible result. They were great because he could grab control of them easily, but unfortunately, he had to do it with a physical connection. There was no easy way to hack them remotely. They had excellent design in that space. His hacking threads worked, but were limited within the range. Soul Scouting wasn’t limited, but throughput was only a single chip at a time.
A network of nodes opened up, and Eric groaned slightly. Too many chips and it was designed by someone who knew information security. He had been hoping that common components in the network would have the same security permissions, then he could hack the first chip and use the handshake between units to propagate his net further. It was what he usually did within stations, but the node map presented to him told him that was impossible.
Forty minutes.
That was the estimation of how long it was going to take to confirm the area was secure without tripping any hacking alarms.
He positioned himself more comfortably in his safe corridor and decided that it was time to cultivate and work out how to start his most recent quest. First, he grabbed his replacement eye and installation machinery. It strapped itself to his head, and then it drilled.
Ouch.
He bit his cheek, leaped upright, and grabbed at the eye package.
CHAPTER 53
The pain was excruciating, and Eric tried to pull off the metal, but the moment his hand reached the installation robot, he knew that would be impossible. It was too tightly bonded, and his fingers could not get any purchase under it. Soul Armor would do the trick, but Eric stopped himself as messages scrolled in front of his eyes.
Robot positioned.
Nerves deadened.
He read those words and realized that they were accurate. The pain was gone.
Please authorize the removal of mechanical eye and replacement with biological.
Estimated installation time: 25 minutes.
The panic completely faded, and feeling embarrassed at his initial reaction, he accepted the prompt. Immediately, he could feel the device moving and doing stuff. It set off unpleasant vibrations throughout his skull, which were probably best to ignore.
Eric shut his eyes, and the colors bombarded him as always.
Deliberately, he didn’t look backward. There was the sound of movement behind him. A polite shift of feet, the rustle of cloth. If he looked, there would be no one there. This was just the game that he and the AI played.
“I have a quest I need to plan for.”
“You know I will not solve this problem for you, sir.”
Eric hesitated as he turned that phrasing over in his mind. He remembered the planning he had put into the ally quest. The way he had to tease information out, and then married that with what he knew about the AI’s capability. Its ability to anticipate and adapt. How it answered questions to lead him to the right result.
“But you could?” Eric was imagining the AI taking the quest and giving him a hundred-point plan like what the future scientist had done with his hacking AI.
“Yes, sir.”
There was a long silence after it admitted that simple fact. To be honest, that answer didn’t surprise him and the unspoken bit was that while it could help, it wouldn’t. “Is it because of a rule? A restriction?”
Behind him, he heard laughter. “No, sir. There are no rules, no restrictions.”
“Then why–?”
“Because I have the same aim as you. I want to save humanity.”
“Then why–?”
“If you would let me finish, sir,” the AI said, then paused politely.
“Go for it.”
“Thank you, sir. As I said, I’ll do everything I can to save humanity. To do that, I’ll fulfil many roles. Sourcing information, determining your hidden questions, maintaining your psychological balance. Something I’m proud to say I’ve had to do little of, though that is mainly because of–” There was an awkward pause. “–it.”
Eric shivered. It had forced him to relive the worst parts of HC#199. “That hasn’t looked after my psychological well-being at all.”
“With all due respect, I would disagree, sir. But that is beside the point. As I was saying, I fill many roles, and if you were dumb and a lost cause, I would solve your problems. However, you are intelligent with surprising insights, especially once we factor in the ripple effect that occurs as a result of its interventions. You need to run this. If I solved your issues, then you won’t grow, and that will put boosting humanity at risk.”
“But if what I’m planning is a mistake? Would you intervene?”
“If it’s critical.” There was a long pause. “Or even a minor one closer to the Armageddon, then yes. Now, while you’re learning and developing, you’re on your own.”
“I see. More work. The standard reward for a job well done.” The butler didn’t respond at all, so Eric focused on what he had come to do. “Refresh me regarding the first step of stopping the Alien Integration Act.”
The screen immediately displayed the information.
Quest #9 - Delay the adoption of the Alien Integration Act
Engineer the delay in the treaty by completing each sub-objective.
Bribe Council Members (minimum 40)
“Goddamn it! I forget the first point was politics. Moonie pollies. I hate them all.”
“I believe that’s a view shared statistically by ninety-eight percent of the population.”
Eric burst out laughing. “That’s just a made-up number.”
The sea of memories immediately started boiling.
“No, don’t distract me.”
The water stilled. That amount surprised him, and he wondered what evidence there would be for ninety-eight percent. No one ever agreed to any question that strongly. So they must have used some sort of brain measurement technique to determine exactly what people thought.
“The first step is to determine who can be bribed, so let’s compile some more lists. Create a list of all voting members who were known to have accepted bribes.” The AI went to work in the background.
Eric considered the eligible population. If he was a player on the political, then his mandate wasn’t just those who were elected last time. “And while you do that, also add those who almost got a seat but just lost. We also need to create a model of people who don’t care about the result of the act and therefore can be more easily influenced,” he mused.
“How do you want to do that, sir?”
“For now, let’s put everyone on the list who changed their votes. No,” Eric corrected after a moment of thought. “That’s too narrow. Include anyone who publicly took a central position, or, you know, voted or made public speeches on both sides during their time in public life.”
“Fair enough.”
“What else?” he mused to himself. “Incorporate in the first list anyone who had financial difficulty either to be elected or personally.” That should grab those who, while had never been known to accept a bribe, had the incentive to do so. Eric’s fingers drummed on his legs. “Also add members who were exclusively single issue.”
“What?” the butler blurted out.
“They may trade their vote on the Alien Integration Act for votes on their pet issue.”
“Oh, I understand. Single issue on something other than Alien Integration Act.”
The list swirled.
“Give me the intersection between the two lists.”
Two hundred and fifty names were displayed.
“Shit, that certainly bolsters my belief in democracy.”
“I don’t see how,” the butler delivered dryly.
“Piss off,” he snapped before he could help himself. Then he grinned. “What’s that? Over half the goddamn council can be bribed.”
“More like a third, sir.”
“Wait, I thought at peak there were less than five hundred on the council.”
“Yes, sir. But your population is stretched over ten years and you’ve included some people who never got there.”
“Great, even the failures are corrupt.”
“You don’t know that yet, sir.”
“What was it, ninety-eight percent hated them? There’s a reason they’re that reviled.”
“If that’s the statistic you want to use, sir.”
Eric’s eyes narrowed at that response. “That politician statistic? Was it made up?”
“A direct question. Very mean, sir. Doesn’t give wriggle room.”
“Was it made up?”
“Yes.”
“So the sea boiling was a bluff?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good one.”
“Thank you, sir. What else do we need to do?”
“Cost per vote analysis, reliability of bribing. You know, will they stay bribed? Details on what we want to do, best middlemen to approach, acquaintance to influence to firm up the vote. Can’t I hire someone to summarize this?”
“You could, sir. But how much time do you have available right now to work on this? Sir?”
Eric thought about that and realized it was easy enough to calculate. “I have forty minutes. If I’m to maintain cultivation one hundred percent of the time and then spending the rest in here, that’s–”
The screen changed.
Approximately five days.
“Come on, I was doing the mathematics. You didn’t have to spoil it.”
“Sorry, sir, just trying to be helpful, sir,” the AI said, laughter in their tone.
“Is this you looking after my mental health?”
“Yes, sir.”
Eric’s eyes narrowed, and he felt a flash of annoyance.
“I meant, no, sir. This is not me doing anything with mental health.”
Eric burst out laughing, and then looked at the list that he needed to wade through in order to structure his bribery approach. The humor faded instantly.
There was so much reading to do, it was ridiculous. “It’s like I’m back at school.”
“You’ll do fine, then, given you were in school just two years ago.”
Eric’s mood darkened further. “You know I used to have nightmares about having going back to school.”
“Haven’t we all, sir?” the butler said introspectively.
“What? No, you haven’t.”
“No, I haven’t. I meant haven’t all the normal people, sir.”
“Stop messing with me.”
The butler laughed, and then he felt like the presence had withdrawn because of the extra stillness and lack of noise. The way the AI program mimicked being physically behind him was impressive. With a sigh, Eric turned back to the screen.
“Give me the dossier on Rupert Long.”
Immediately, a table appeared with a manila folder. Eric opened it and then frowned. The entire package was labelled a high-level summary, and it was easily ten pages long. And he had two hundred and fifty of these to read.
He rubbed his forehead, and then started reading while spending almost sixty percent of time in the real world maintaining the cultivation.
Steadily, he worked through the names.
Eric, for possibly the thousandth time in the last forty minutes, opened his eyes from another one of his prolonged blinks. It should not have been possible, based on how the ability was supposed to work, but his mind felt worn out.
The first thing, just like every other time he had dropped out of Meditative Perfect Recall, was to ensure that his cultivation routine was still progressing smoothly. The energy snapped down as he reinforced a bit of his skin. This was his third blink on that patch, so he shifted his awareness further down the thumb. Once more, he aligned his efforts with his heartbeat. He snapped the energy straight after the beat. Then he began the cycle again. He concentrated his attention on the single point. He endeavored to reduce the height of the focused energy until it was only a few millimeters thick, just like the cultivation genius had taught him. Then, after the heartbeat peaked, he released the power with a snap before building it up in rhythm with the next pulse of blood from the heart. Aligning it to his heart rate did nothing directly, but Eric found it provided an excellent framework for his skin cultivation. It structured his efforts and improved his results. The approach was useless for the other types, of course, but he seized any advantage that he could.
His processor pinged, and when he checked, he discovered the full network was mapped.
Closed network with a single fiber-optic line out.
Video is not sent across any network, with outcomes calculated and processed by a dedicated chip embedded with the camera.
Video chips are only programmed to send flags. No capacity to send video.
Confirmed that all video chips within twenty meters are functionally sealed as there are no electronics present that could duplicate the data.
Escalation Triggers.
Visual hardware damage.
Blind spots or physical damage sufficient to reduce potential section lock through put by over 40%.
Bodies to be removed.
Over ten people killed in a five-day period in the surveillance area.
Eric looked at the information, and then re-read it with surprise. That was extraordinary. The station promised privacy, and it actually delivered.
With distaste, he collected the robot that had installed his eye. He would discard it at the first trash dispenser that he found. With confidence that he wasn’t being secretly observed, Eric got up and continued through the section lock. A series of doors opened and shut as he moved through the sixty meters of tunnels that comprised the physical barrier between each bio environment.
Once he cleared the tunnels, he hurried through a further twelve locks in a little under four hours. He was happy with his progress and the marks on the wall showed him he had descended to a sixty-percent floor. The locals described their position by the percentage of apparent earth gravity the floor had.
