The Final Trial, page 54
part #3 of Level Up Series
“Leave this to me,” Kira said, taking another tug on her vaper and laughed nervously. “I’ve been round the block a few times. Let’s go for it! Fortune favors the brave!”
“Hey, cool it. What’s with the amateur theatrics? I need you to be focused.”
I knew that my every word weighed heavy on her, adding to the load of future responsibility. Still, I knew she could do it.
“Next. Here in this file is the list of all major undiscovered mineral deposits. Do you have any idea how much governments and private companies pay for prospecting and seismic surveying these days? I understand that for you it’s all double Dutch…”
“That’s where you’re wrong. It all makes perfect sense to me because our bank owns one of the country’s biggest geophysical companies. And I’m the liaison person with their local branch.”
“In that case, there’s nothing for me to explain. It’s up to you to decide how to use this data worth trillions of dollars.”
We continued in the same vein, going through all the other projects in view of the current global situation. We played around with the order of project launches and the initial staff list as well as the future holding company’s jurisdiction.
Finally, I moved to what I considered the most important thing — for me at least. “At some point, you will need security staff. And personal bodyguards. You’d better get on with it now before you get bogged down with other things. The more time they spend with you, the more loyal they’ll be, especially because they’ll associate the venture’s success with their own efforts. Here’s a list of potential candidates, in this file. All of them will be absolutely loyal, both to you and the firm. Make sure they’re happy. Pay them well. Then you won’t have any problems with them.”
Kira knew better than to argue this. She wasn’t born yesterday, after all. She knew she’d have to deal with attempts to hijack her business, with competitors’ sabotage, probably even with attempts on her life. Her enemies might try to apply pressure to her family, too. In the end, we decided that she should keep a very low profile becoming an invisible mastermind. It would be a good idea to send Cyril and our parents out of the country — not now, not straight away, but as soon as the moment was right.
She stayed at my place for the night. I didn’t sleep at all, too busy going through several lists or wanted criminals by country, sending the search results anonymously to those most interested in finding them — those who, in the program’s opinion, were sure to use the information. Talking about which, I’d already become an expert in online anonymity, bringing the corresponding skill level to 6.
At a continental breakfast next morning, I brought up the subject of going to Belgrade to see Jovanna, but Kira asked me if it could wait another week. Having checked my remaining to-do list against Jovanna’s game schedule, I agreed to finish everything I still had to do here. In ten days’ time, Jovanna was to participate in a ladies’ tennis tournament in Tokyo, and I could go and see her there.
Having received a Japanese visa, I spent the few days left until my flight helping Kira. I made my company share over to her, introduced her to the staff — I still had to explain my future disappearance to them somehow — and spent every spare moment with our parents.
As for Great Job Recruiting Agency, Veronica had become its new director (the second most optimal choice, according to the interface, the first one being myself) with Kira as a founding member. Considering the sheer volume of future projects, she was unlikely to find time for a tiny local business like this one.
Among other good news, Kostya Bekhterev had returned from Germany. His sister Julie had completely recovered. Kostya had perked up. He smiled more often these days, completely engrossed in his work in our company. He’d quickly blended into the team — but he’d quit boxing entirely. According to him, my rapid successes had made him lose all motivation.
I suggested he concentrated on his IT skills instead: he had enough potential to become a top expert in that area.
So basically, things just got going.
* * *
The day before my departure for Japan, I remembered something very important. I called Sveta Messerschmitt.
She picked up the phone straight away. “Phil! It’s so good you phoned!” she chirped into the microphone. “Your puppy is so cute! Yesterday he climbed into a…”
“Sveta, that’s exactly why I’m calling you,” I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I’m afraid I…”
“You what? What happened?”
“I’m afraid I can’t take the puppy.”
“Why?” she sounded very upset. “You wanted him so much!”
“I still do! But my job involves constant traveling,” I ad-libbed off the top of my head. “I’m afraid I just can’t take good care of him.”
“You’re right, that’s not good,” she agreed. “A dog requires training and attention. Better not to have one if one can’t afford the time. But it’s such a shame! He’s so cute!”
“I know, I saw him. He’s adorable. Send my love to your dad and please give Richie a pat from me, okay?”
Having said good-bye to her, I spent some time just sitting there, thinking how my life might have panned out and how many wonderful things might have come my way had it not been for the wretched Selection I was facing.
Then I started thinking about everything I had to do.
In actual fact, I’d already managed to do everything that I’d planned, and then some. Kira was spending every waking hour in the Great Job offices, working on her plan of action, making phone calls and arranging meetings all over the globe, trying to work out an optimal route for a protracted business trip. We’d decided to fly out at the same time to make sure we could spend as much time together as we could: she wasn’t going to come back to Russia for quite a time, while I might not even come back at all if my next abduction took place while she was abroad.
I’d been lucky that I was at home alone when the sudden torrent of level-ups had flooded over me. No idea what had triggered it but if felt like a sudden downpour. I’d already had a similar albeit much weaker outburst when I’d been sending out the anonymous tips about the criminals I’d located: that time, I’d received several levels one after another.
This time, however, I was transported to such heights of bliss that it took me over an hour to come to.
Congratulations! You’ve performed a number of socially meaningful actions, triggering a chain of events which will lead to a multiple increase in your civilization’s wellbeing, increasing the average Satisfaction index of the Humankind faction by 7.2 times and its Happiness index by 4,2 times. It will usher in a multilevel technological breakthrough which in turn will accelerate the progress of the Humankind faction.
XP received: 360000
Congratulations! You’ve received new levels!
Current social status level: 45
Characteristic points available: 18
Skill points available: 9
Congratulations! You’ve received a new system skill level!
Skill name: Heroism
Current level: 4
XP received: 1000
Congratulations! You’ve received a new system skill level!
Skill name: Insight
Current level: 7
XP received: 3000
Now you can receive an answer to any question by simply posing it.
XP points left until the next social status level: 21350/46000.
At this point, I asked myself a question. And I got the answer.
So I activated Qa-Tung. I now knew exactly what I wanted to become to be the best in the annals of human history.
I also knew why.
The program’s reaction was prompt:
Qa-Tung activated
The message was followed by what appeared to be the already-familiar skill notification:
Congratulations! You’ve received a new skill level!
Skill name: Creative Writing
Current level: 99
XP received: 91000.
These two levels didn’t bring me much joy as their effect was too weak, and I was too excited about other things. Those few extra seconds of pleasure felt almost annoying, like I was wasting my time.
I then invested some characteristic points into where they were needed the most: Charisma as well as some Charisma-related skills. I also brought up the psi-field of both my Commander’s and energy auras. To do what I was about to do, I needed the highest possible Leadership and Communication skills, as well as Public Speaking, as each new Charisma level added five levels to each skill.
That done, I worked on all the other requirements, even throwing in the Taming skill for good measure. That allowed me to activate all the remaining Heroic abilities: Taming, Berserker, Persuasion and Invulnerability.
Just for fun, I then tamed a little spider that had conveniently dropped into view. Obeying my request, he began spinning a new web exactly where I’d asked him to.
Smiling, I sat at the desk, opened my laptop, started a new text document and began typing at 1000 strokes per minute.
The book I had in mind wasn’t going to be thick if it ever got published (then again, what was I saying? Not if — but when it got published!) — if anything, it was going to be thinner than all the others.
Unlike all those other books, mine wasn’t going to contain any moss-covered fairy stories, vague prophecies, unintelligible admonitions and hopelessly dated life counsel.
In it, I wanted to compile the answers to every possible question one could ask themselves; the questions that hundreds of generations kept asking themselves ever since man had first looked up at the stars. What is the meaning of life? What is love? How can you love and be loved? What makes one happy? Where do you find truth and justice? What is spirit? What is the Universe? How to live your life “so as to feel no torturing regrets for wasted years”[21]? What is soul? Does it even exist? And what is the perfect ideal? Why? How? What? When?
Smiling, I deleted the paragraph which answered the question about Kennedi’s assassination. Not important.
I tried to write so that everybody could find something interesting in it: an inexperienced child as well as a wise old man, the wealthy as well as the poor, a teenage idealist and a fickle young lady, a factory worker and an artist, a gamer and a professor, any and every man and woman on planet Earth.
I was writing without stopping to reread or edit. There was nothing to edit, anyway: the lines about Kennedi’s assassination added in a sudden bout of frivolity were the only deletion in the whole manuscript. Kira had already come home and kept calling me for dinner in vain. I was on a roll and didn’t feel like eating at all.
In the last part of my book I wrote about everything one should avoid doing in life. All the bad habits, selfishness, betrayal, greed, hypocrisy, lust, theft, anger, envy, laziness and everything else you wouldn’t wish on yourself or your loved ones. In order to get a move on, I wrote it in Sprint mode; I’d also activated Persuasion hoping that that would help.
I’d finished the manuscript by first light, giving myself another Regeneration halfway through the night. Then I spent until midday writing an English-language version of the book, ignoring Kira’s constant grilling.
After lunch, I self-published the book everywhere I could, using the pen name Homo Sapiens. I used the same alias to submit the manuscript to all the biggest publishing houses in Russia, USA, Asia and Europe, renouncing all royalties.
And when I’d finally finished, I was overtaken by such a bliss that it made me feel one with everything and everybody. This time my euphoria lasted so long that I only came round late in the evening. I’d been showered with so many social status levels that they now required a three-digit number.
Congratulations! You’ve received a new achievement: The First Hero of your local segment of the Galaxy (location: planet Earth).
You’ve achieved the highest social status level in the history of your race.
Reward: Time Cheat, a passive Heroic ability
Preserving the life of society’s most valuable member is the highest degree of its social protection. A Heroic ability requiring the combined investment of Spirit from all the sentient beings of the local segment, Time Cheat will reload the world at the exact moment of the user’s death.
Additional reward: The Sower, an active Heroic ability. Allows you to install an Augmented Reality! Platform. Home Edition interface to all persons of your choice.
In order to install the interface, you must maintain tactile contact with a potential user for the duration of 3 seconds.
I didn’t feel anything. You might think I should have but I didn’t. I was so drained that I didn’t have enough Spirit to even summon Martha in order to share my successes with her.
Instead, I looked at the clock, then turned round to see a very scared Kira behind me.
“Phil? Are you all right? Everything okay?” she touched my forehead. “I thought you’d never come round. You didn’t even breathe but your heart was beating,” she whispered. “Your flight is in four hours. I should be going to the airport too. Are you gonna pack? Would you like us to leave together?”
I asked myself another question, received an answer and nodded. “Of course. I have nothing to pack. Let’s just go. Can we pop by the office on our way? Please give everyone a call. Alik, Veronica, Kesha, Gleb, Kostya, Greg, Marina… and Mr. Katz and Rose. I’d like to say goodbye.”
* * *
There was only half an hour left till midnight. All those whom I’d asked to come to the office to have their interfaces installed had decided to come with me to the airport. Before fitting them, I gave my workers a quick demonstration, leaving, however, the superpowers out. The only thing I actually showed them was my lie detection ability. They already knew how my search skills worked. Having explained to them the principle of the augmented-reality interface, I activated Persuasion and told them that this interface was in fact a gadget from the future where I was now heading never to come back.
“You’re something else, bro,” Alik managed.
“And you ain’t, bro?” I mocked him. “Now listen up. Whatever happens, keep your cool. The program will behave differently depending on your personal preferences, but the main principle is the same as mine. As long as you use the interface for the common good, you’ll keep leveling up. Veronica, didn’t you want to be a bit taller? Now you’ll have the opportunity provided you level up Charisma. Just make sure you don’t focus on it to the exclusion of all else. You’re a company director now, so there’re other qualities that are no less important for you. Alik, I would like you to invest every available characteristic point into Intellect. I’m serious. Gleb, you need to concentrate on Self-Discipline. Because if you accidentally stumble into another poker club, you’ll be too tempted to cheat the system and will be penalized for it. Here’s a list of all your abilities with the biggest potential. You should be concentrating on them first and foremost…”
“I have a heart problem,” Mr. Katz interrupted me in a plaintive voice, then immediately cut to the chase. “Will this, as you call it, interface in my head, help me to extend my life?”
“Quite so, Mr. Katz. The program will prompt you what you should and shouldn’t be doing. Once your social status level is high enough, you’ll have special abilities available, including a complete recovery of the user’s body. How’s that for an incentive to cultivate kindness?”
Katz pursed his lips, about to say something, but reconsidered. “Ah, whatever!” he said with a dismissive shrug. “Go ahead and install it! I want to be the first!”
I knew he would say that. By the same token, absolute knowledge does take spice out of life.
“First or second, it doesn’t matter,” I said. “I’m programming the system activation for 6 a.m. tomorrow. That’ll give you some time to prepare yourselves for what’s coming. When you wake up, the interface will already be installed. You might have some problems with your vision at first, but it’s normal so you shouldn’t worry about it too much…”
My decision to delay the interface installation till next morning had been dictated by my desire to make their adaptation as smooth as possible. This was also part of my absolute knowledge.
Once I’d installed all the interfaces including Kira’s, and repeated my instructions to everyone on how to find their way around them, we went downstairs and walked out onto the porch. Everybody started getting into their cars.
Two dark silhouettes — Yagoza and Sprat — were hovering at a distance. Alik walked over to me and whispered, staring guiltily at the ground,
“Phil, could you wait a second? I promised to lend some money to the guys…”
