| Generated by Google Flow text-to-video AI software, powered by Veo 3.1 |
Marshal 2 walks into the room where Renata is pretending to be asleep. He
takes a sip of his orange juice as he stares down at her. Then he gets an
idea, so he pulls out his phone, and perpetrates like he is talking. “Yeah,
I’m lookin’ at her now. She almost died. Yeah, I agree, it would have
been better, but what do you want me to do about it now? Well, that can
certainly be arranged. We’ll just have to take care of the hospital people
too. A few nurses, and a doctor. I’m sure they’ll be missed, but we’ll come
up with a cover story. We’ll blame it on Granger; say that she went nuts,
and killed half the floor.”
Renata suddenly reaches up, and takes Marshal 2 by the throat. She starts to
try to squeeze the life out of him, which won’t be permanent if she
succeeds. So he just smiles at her. She lets go. “Oh. You’re joking.”
He puts his phone away. “I’ve been doing this for years, kid. You’re not
gonna fool me. But you should be proud of yourself. It’s the breathing.
People don’t now how they breathe when they’re asleep for real, so they
can’t replicate it. You did a great job.”
“Thanks,” she replies as she sits up, and pulls the pillow down to support
her back. The other two?”
“They’re dead,” Marshal 2 lies. They did die, but they came back. Visitors
always do, but that’s not something that this NPC would understand. She
believes that all of this is real.
“If you were joking about murdering me, I’m hoping that means you won’t?”
“That’s not our style.”
“But I’m done with the NSD.”
“You’re done with the NSD,” Marshal 2 confirms. He doesn’t know why he’s
even bothering to spin this yarn. They’re going to reset her memory, and
tomorrow, she’ll start the whole charade over again with the same old
script. This time, she’ll do it right, and help a new small group of
visitors. She’ll inspire them to begin their journey in the simulation, and
reach their potential. He won’t be a part of it anymore, though; not with
her. They like to change things up, and there’s a theory that it’s
necessary. Even though waking up and doing the same thing every day is part
of Exemplar 1’s programming, there is still a risk of overfamiliarity. If
her training officer is the same person each time, she might start to
recognize him. It may even be what happened when she failed the escape room
phase. In order to put everyone back on track, they’re going to start with a
clean slate. She’ll even be getting a new mother to wake her up in the
mornings.
Renata breathes in through her nose, and acts like she’s looking out the
window, but it’s pitch-black out there, and bright in here, so she’s not
seeing anything.
“How do you feel about that?”
“What do you care?” Wanting to be the best agent who has ever lived is part
of her baseline. It’s sad, really, that she has the procedural memory in her
brain to excel in the training program, but when she’s assigned to Phase 1,
she never remembers. She lives her life in these isolated blocks of
repeating experiences, never genuinely connecting them, and never being her
true self.
Marshal 2 shouldn’t be worrying about any of this. When he signed up to work
in this dome, he knew that he would be encountering a lot of NPCs. The
majority of the people in here are AIs of various kinds. The dome has to
feel lived in so visitors forget that it’s all scripted. There are Ambients
out there who will never meet one of the main characters. They go about
their lives day by day, just in case they intersect with whatever story path
the visitors choose to follow. Marshal 2 doesn’t know which life is better,
and which is worse. An Exemplar’s mind is reset when it’s time to redo the
scenario, or start a different one, but an Ambient has no agency at all.
He’s thinking about quitting, and maybe spending a decade or two relaxing in
one of the recreational domes. No, that wouldn’t work, because they’re run
by NPCs too, so he would just keep seeing it. He would have to go somewhere
populated by natural-born intelligences, like Underburg. But not there,
because that place sucks. “Well, I’ll leave you.”
“Wait. Do I have to sign something? I mean, obviously I signed multiple NDAs
before, but is there something new pertaining to the unfortunate incident?”
He smiles at her. “No, you’re fine. It’s all covered. In fact, you’ll be
compensated for the danger you faced. You’re not a millionaire, but it will
keep you above water while you work on your next chapter. You got skills.
Just because you won’t be an officer, doesn’t mean you’ll be stuck working
at a grocery store, or something. Now get some rest. Someone will be by
later this week to work out the details.” Another lie. They’re not gonna pay
her anything.
“Wait. You never told me your name. I know I didn’t pass the test, but maybe
you could tell me now anyway?”
He inhales through his nose. He shouldn’t even be thinking about giving her
his real name. He decided a long time ago to go by the standard designation
that NPC Marshals use, because it doesn’t help his character to have a
complex backstory. He left his old life on Varkas Reflex behind, and he’s
here now. But again, none of what she learns today matters. It will all be
erased. So what’s the harm? “Lycander. Lycander Samani.”
“Nice to meet you, Lycander.”
