The next three cycles fell into a routine. We did only see each other at shift handover and then only for a brief chat and checking in with each other about what had happened. And when I am saying three cycles, I mean three 12 hour cycles.

Me and Ralgau got the claim handed over from the Drak and Fell and handed it to the other two Quirts of the team. Usually we split it up in a way where I would drill non-stop and Ralgau would fill the broken material into the container and then ferry said container to the processor, disconnect the empty one and connect the new one. Apparently he had also gotten some skill in Mineral Processing and that allowed him to set it up in a way where the material would automatically be pulled from the container and fed into the processor. Yay for skill ups.

And while he was still no good on the laser drill, he also turned out to be extremely adept at using the grav lift. In that he showed a nimbleness that I would never have expected. If he would have the same skill at piloting…

Our four hour shift had just come to an end and I had handed over to Mrk when I grabbed Ralgau.

“Busy?”

“Not really. Not too many things you can do on an asteroid with the money we currently have.”

“Fair enough,” I nodded. “If you are free, I want to check on our secret treasure. Wanna come with me?”

“Void, I thought I have to force you at some point. How are we getting there?”

“I was thinking that I am taking Rustbucket and you can squeeze in the hallway. I promise I will fly carefully.”

“Har har,” he mock laughed.

“Grab one of the torches. I am doing the same. I want to see the whole thing in the light. Meet me at the ship in a few minutes.”

I headed into my shelter and grabbed one of the torches. Basically they were like insanely powerful handheld lamps. But they could also be clamped on a stand, connected to a power source and have the burn width changed at which point they became flood lights.

I had already loaded to extra fusion generator into Rustbucket. And while we would have to bring the torches back, I thought that two hours for exploration sounded not too bad. A short while later we were on the way. Ralgau wedged into the hallway between my quarters and the cockpit while I was doing the piloting.

I set up the course, slowly and carefully took off and got some distance from the rock and then started “flying” us toward the cave. Yes, I was distracted but I was wondering what the appropriate term for my action was. On one hand I had set up the course and thus could be considered navigating, but I also took manual control, so piloting and flying seemed appropriate even though Rustbucket had no wings. Driving, in the sense of moving from A to B could also apply. Weird, how was there no established word for it. I made a mental note to later ask about it or look it up at some point.

For right now though I brought my attention back and we made the trip in a little over 25 minutes. The problem would be setting the ship down. Since I had no light in there and the scanners provided next to nothing, I hoped I would not bang into anything.

Seeing my hesitation Ralgau snorted. “Why don’t you stick one of the lights on your ship? One on the front, one on the bottom. Won’t help the sensors much but it will definitely help you to gauge distances and the ground by sight.”

“Huh?”

“I said why don’t you…”

“No, I heard what you said. I am just wondering why this idea has never occurred to me? I mean this is not exactly rocket surgery that you are proposing.”

“Ah, what’s your skill in spaceship mechanics, spaceship upgrades or jury rigging?”

“I have neither,” I replied grumpy.

“Aaaand there you have your answer. You need one or the other at level 10 to have enough knowledge to do something like this without a plan or even to develop your own ideas about anything related to that skill.”

“Huh?”

“Aren’t we eloquent today?” Ralgau chuckled. “Imagine I would tell you, you need to not only fix the drive system for this ship but also improve it to get an extra 10% speed out of it. Could you do it?”

“Nope, no clue. Don’t even know how the drive works, much less how to improve it.”

“So there it makes sense that you have no idea. But about upgrades and mechanics you simply expect to be able to reason it through? No my friend. It works the exactly same way.”

Wow, it really was a scary thought that the game could prevent my thought processes to this degree. But then again, it shouldn’t really be a surprise considering that I had this jacked into my brain. |The scary part was the thought of how people with an n-link were affected in other ways. The world we were living in was a fully augmented reality. So how much in in what way were we driven by people and technology controlling us. Was there such a thing as free will? I shook my head to clear these thoughts.

“Okay, can you do it?”

“Sure, set down over there for a moment,” he pointed at some flat space just outside the entrance.

Then he hopped out of Rustbucket and just when I was about to check on him, I heard the airlock cycle.

“All done!”

“Wow, that was quick,” I exclaimed in surprise.

“Hmm, like you said, not exactly rocket-surgery. Whatever that is.”

I chuckled. “There are two sayings that I grew up with that are meant to express something isn’t at an extreme difficulty level. One is comparing what you do to rocket science and the other compares it to brain surgery. I just pulled those two together.”

“I see. I don’t know why you would consider rocket science or brain surgery extremely difficult but I guess when you pull them together it makes sense.”

I refrained from answering. Because that would lead to more questions and then I would have to talk about RL which would mess with the AI. Best case scenario the NPC AI would simply ignore what I was saying, worst case scenario, it would delete Ralgau. And that was something I wasn’t willing to let happen.

It was really weird. I had played a lot of full immersion games but this was the first time where the lines blurred this much for me. Because it didn’t feel like a game. I mean, I knew it was one but everything felt so real here. The little things. The normal behavior of NPCs. The pain and sensation levels. Plus I actually cared what happened to them. Somehow this game not only felt real (which others do to), it felt like reality. I don’t know if this was because of the long term immersion or because of something else but this had become my reality.

I think it could be best compared with you moving to a different country by yourself. You might come with your reality (growing up in your country) intact. When I am saying reality I mean your culture, your way of thinking, your language, etc. But then you are in a different place and the first thing you might have to do is start learning the language. And you notice how it doesn’t follow the same pattern as yours. And then you realize that this also shapes how the people in this new country are thinking slightly different about things. And then you start finding friends from the new country and you become acquainted with the culture. And bit by bit your old reality shifts into something new.

You still remember and compare and judge sometimes by your old standards. But then you also become aware how these old standards don’t really apply anymore and you actually have to switch your reality filters to look at it through a new lense, a new filter. And this was very much what was happening to me.

Yes, I knew this was a game and I remembered playing games and I know my real life and all. But at the same time I am looking through a different lense here. NPCs are ‘just’ programs. But is an AI less of an intelligence than a human? Is there life less worth than a human’s? Could we consider them a life?

I knew these questions have been running rampant ever since sci-fi was a thing. However, I thought about it a lot over the last few days. Interacting with Ralgau and now even with the others felt as real as any other thing I did with friends IRL. And, I guess, being a professional gamer had already laid the foundation as every game was somehow my reality, even though it was only a means to an end.

Wow, a lot of philosophical questions and no answers. So I forcefully banished them from my head and instead lifted Rustbucket off and headed into the cave. We were here for a reason.

“Flip your sensors over to visual and then put the results on the screen. It should give you a good idea.”

I switched my displays to what Ralgau had suggested and while it took me a moment to decipher it, I definitely got a better picture.

“Which skill did you use to get this done?” I asked.

“Jury Rigging. I have 14 points in it. Nothing special but enough to get by.”

“I’d say so. I might have to pick this skill up down the line. It seems specialized in a very unspecialized manner and I can think of all kinds of situations where it might come in handy.”“Yes, saved my ass a number of times. Just keep in mind that dying right now means losing all skills and we don’t have the cash to pay for it being kept safe. So let’s not spread skills too far around because it will get really expensive.”

I chuckled. “Yes mom.”