Tamako’s AI auto-activated several of her skills as well as her healing enchantment tattoo, and within a second it informed her there were eleven fighters that were level 2 and level 3 entering the arena against her. Next to each fighter’s head floated the words: Name: “unknown”, followed by whether their level was 2 or 3, and a bar representing their health and mana pool. Tamako was nervous, but not about this first fight with a bunch of low-level gamblers. In this fight, she wanted to test the AI Jen installed in her head before the more challenging matches to come. Even though she paid The Arena for an anonymous mask, without a guild to protect them, it would be quite dangerous for her, Jen, and Sam if she used the special armor and weapons Sam enchanted for her to fight in the tournament. There were simply too many powerful organizations in the City that would try to take their equipment and enslave Sam for his enchanting abilities. She suspected her skill would not overcome the added advantage of the special equipment other fighters would use in later matches. As a result, her nerves were on edge.

The AI was not “smarter” or “better” than her at strategy or analysis of fights. She realized that the AI actually used her understanding of combat to provide its feedback to her. However, her AI’s processing speed and ability to analyze every micro amount of data and provide relevant feedback instantly, left her dumbfounded at her increased combat capability.

A noble spectator said, “Ha! Look at that tiny fighter!”

His skinny friend replied, “She probably used some special weapon when fighting beasts to gain so many levels.”

The noble scoffed, “You’re right! I bet if she were forced to fight hand to hand, these low-level fighters would kill her easily!”

Tamako ignored the comments, but heard the sentiment being echoed by others. She was wondering why the arena hadn’t announced the start of the fight when she received a system message.

System Message:

Arena Quest: Fight without the use of weapons or shields

Reward: Five gold if you win

Accept: Yes/No

Spectator Funding: Pending

Opponent(s) Decision: Pending (5 gold divided equally by all team members)

Before Tamako even finished reading the System Message, it changed.

Opponent(s) Decision: Accepted

Spectator Funding: Complete (5 gold contributed by spectators for quest reward)

Most of the crowd was now chanting, “Accept! Accept! Accept!” While other spectators in the crowd that originally bet on her to win looked concerned. They didn’t like their odds as much if she accepted.

When Tamako mentally “accepted” the quest, the crowd exploded in an uproar of excitement and a frenzy of new bets.

Jen and Sam had just made it to their seats in the stands, and watched as Tamako put her sword and shield away in her storage ring.

Jen’s eyes widened with confusion and frustration, and she said, “what’s going on! What’s she doing?” as she watched Tamako run from her opponents while stopping every now and to throw clumsy punches. When Tamako occasionally landed a punch, it would generally break the face of the low-level fighters, knocking them out. She would then struggle with any of them that caught up with her before breaking free and running around the arena again. While running in circles, any opponents that were lying knocked out on the ground, she would kick them hard enough to kill them.

Sam replied, “she’s sandbagging, you know, pretending to be an incompetent fighter. She doesn’t want to give away any of her techniques.”

Many of the spectators in the crowd were screaming at Tamako,

“Stand and fight!”

“Don’t fight like a coward!”

“What a waste of five gold!”

Sam watched Jen’s jaw tighten in anger as she listened to the comments from the crowd, and he said, “Don’t let it bother you. Tamako’s probably laughing about how easily she’s earning five gold.”

Jen grumbled, “logically, I know you are right, but emotionally, it still pisses me off!”

“O.K., so long as you don’t go and punch someone,” replied Sam.

A few minutes later, Tamako allowed her last three opponents to wrestle her to the ground, where she “struggled” to “clumsily” break their necks or choke them to death.

The winners in the crowd half-heartedly cheered, but the sulking faces made it apparent that the crowd did not get the type of fight it wanted.

As the next contestants entered the arena, Tamako walked through the tunnel that would take her back to the gladiator holding area, and then she received Jen’s onboard text message, “Great job! But Sam and I didn’t enjoy seeing you let those chumps hit you.”

“I love that you came, but you don’t need to stay if it’s too much.”

“I’m staying, and I bet you didn’t know our new AIs could do this,” and Jen linked the information feed from her AI to Sam’s and then linked them both to Tamako’s. Tamako paused as a small portion of her vision filled with a moving picture of the arena floor.

Then Tamako actually heard Sam’s voice in her head as he said, “That’s amazing! It’s like a picture in picture, with video and audio feed of everything you’re seeing!”

Jen replied, “Exactly, and you can mute the sound or dismiss the video feed altogether with just a thought. You can also re-size the video or move it to a different area within your vision. Unfortunately, I realized during your fight, The System blocks any messages or information trying to be sent to a fighter while they are actually in combat in the arena.”

Tamako was speechless. Unlike Sam and Jen, she didn’t have any frame of reference for what a video feed was. She just watched the ‘video’ of the gladiator match currently in progress. She could also feel her AI scouting and analyzing the skills of the competitors in the video, even while she was still in a state of awe and confusion. Finally, Tamako reached the gladiator prep room she was assigned to and just sat down with her eyes closed, allowing the match to fill her vision. After a few minutes of passively watching the match and ‘listening’ to Jen and Sam going back and forth about the potential use of their AI’s, Tamako asked, “How is my AI reading all the levels and other information of the combatants without actually being there to activate my skills and body tattoo?”

Jen replied, “You’re seeing what my AI assessed for their level, health, and mana capacity. However, your AI is analyzing the combat ability of the fighters in this match. Actually, all of our AIs, mine, Sam’s, and yours are communicating back and forth, providing input to each other’s AI regarding the fighters’ abilities and skills. Ultimately, our AIs are tied to each of us individually, even though they talk back and forth comparing theories and strategies based on our unique minds and memories. Your AI’s final conclusions are your own. It’s just like if we sat down together and talked back and forth for several hours about a match discussing our different opinions. When we finish, we each take away our own individual conclusions.”

Sam looked thoughtful for a second, and said, “I’m going to sit on the other side of the arena. That way we can evaluate the match from multiple angles.”

“Exactly!” Jen replied.

Tamako asked, “What do you mean, exactly?”

Jen answered, “Even if you’re not watching the video feed from Sam’s perspective, your AI will consider all the input from every angle it is receiving from both my viewpoint and Sam’s viewpoint. With just a mental thought, you can see Sam’s video feed or both of our video feeds at the same time.”

Tamako sighed to herself at the thought of the implications of Jen’s creation, and said, “O.K. I’m going to mute the both of you while I relax and watch this video match. Will my AI know if I need to unmute you for any reason?”

“You’ve got the jist of it. You relax and we’ll talk to you later.”

As Tamako tried to relax while waiting on her next match, she couldn’t help but think to herself, “Jen and Sam are both creating powers the Seven Decks have never seen! What am I doing? What do they even need me for?” She shook her head with disappointment in herself and her lack of contribution to the group. She forced her mind to quiet down her worries, and to focus on analyzing the match she was ‘watching’.