The next morning, Jack groaned as he slowly rolled out of bed. Everything ached, and he felt like he'd been trampled by a herd of buffalo. His left foot throbbed in pain, but when he stood, he found that the pain wasn't any worse. So at least he could still walk on it.
He shambled out of his bedroom and down the hall to the bathroom. After taking care of his morning business, he entered the kitchen and grabbed some eggs and bacon from the fridge. After placing four strips of bacon in the pan and turning on the burner, he turned and leaned back against the counter, but winced in pain when the counter top pressed into his lower back. Grumbling, he pulled out a chair from the kitchen table and sat down carefully. Even his ass was sore, but at least the pain was bearable.
Despite the many disasters that had struck his life — losing his parents, then losing his adoptive father, and then losing his adoptive mother — he had experienced some blessings as well. His birth parents had taught him to value hard work, perseverance, and rational thinking. And his adoptive parents had reinforced those ideals and given him the support he needed to grow and thrive. Their loss still hurt, but the ideals they had taught him meant that their loss would not break him.
The bacon was sizzling, so he reluctantly got up from the chair, wincing from his various aches and pains, then went to turn the bacon. Once the bacon was cooked, he laid them on a paper towel lined plate and cracked four eggs into the still sizzling bacon grease.
After eating, he put his dishes in the dishwasher and wiped down the counters and stove top. Bacon spatter tended to get everywhere. When he was done, he went into the living room and sank into his favorite spot on the couch. He was finally awake enough to start thinking about what to do next.
He started by looking at his status.
Energy Points (EP): 10000/10000 :-: (10/sec)
Genesis Points (GP): 2049
Soul Space Cost: 0/sec
His EP was full and he had enough GP to unlock Snapshots. But before he did that, he wanted to know what happened to his body while he was inside his Soul Space. He placed his phone on the coffee table and leaned it against a bowl of mixed nuts. He flipped to the front facing camera and sat back to make sure he was fully in frame. Satisfied, he started recording, leaned back and entered his soul space. He tried to keep his eyes open as he did.
Remembering that he had not altered the Time ratio setting from late night, he checked his status again.
Energy Points (EP): 10000/10000 :-: (0/sec [10/sec])
Genesis Points (GP): 2049
Soul Space Cost: 10/sec
So, his soul space didn't consume any EP while he was outside of it, regardless of Time Ratio setting. He changed the Time Ratio setting back to 1:1 since he wanted at least a few seconds to pass in the outside world and didn't feel like waiting longer inside his soul space.
After counting to ten, he exited his soul space, stopped the phone recording, then watched the video. He'd been staring at the juncture between the wall behind his T.V. and the ceiling when he entered his soul space, and he could see that his eyes remained open and staring at the same spot for a count of ten before looking down and into the camera lens. His expression didn't change, and he continued blinking, so he didn't need to worry about his face revealing that he was "away".
Next, he repeated the experiment, but this time, he sat up so that he was almost balanced, but would fall back onto the couch if he relaxed. When he came back out of his soul space, he found himself in the same exact position. This was looking promising. The fact that his body remained in the same position meant there were more situations where he could enter his soul space safely without giving away that he was doing something.
Going a step further, he stood then squatted down so that if he relaxed he should collapse onto the couch, instead of face planting into the coffee table. When he came back out of his soul space, he was still in the same position. He was feeling the strain of maintaining his awkward position, so he dropped back down onto the couch.
He wanted to know what would happen if he entered his soul space while standing, or while walking, but didn't want to risk face planting onto the floor and breaking his nose, or giving himself a concussion. With his safe testing options exhausted, he turned his burning curiosity towards the next item on his agenda, Snapshots. He could access his store catalog without entering his soul space, so he located the snapshots item and purchased it.
[Snapshots Unlocked]
[Assessing...]
What? He wondered why unlocking snapshots would trigger an assessment. What was it assessing? But, a few moments later...
[Assessment complete]
[Atomic Level Detail Unlocked]
[Subatomic Level Detail Unlocked]
He had felt a new section appear in his interface, and as each new level of detail was unlocked, he felt that same section update again. When he examined that section, he learned that he could make a snapshot at four different levels of detail, and higher levels of detail had progressively smaller snapshot ranges. Each snapshot would include a sphere of area centered on himself.
Snapshot Detail (Approximation)
-Range: 100 km
-Cost Per Snapshot: 1 EP/100 kilometer radius
-Description: Like a quality VR game, everything normal from a distance, but up close, the lack of detail would become apparent. This level of detail is sufficient to capture the structure, composition, and general function of everything, but is insufficient to support simulations of life forms and complex technology. This level of detail is especially useful for reconnaissance, and filling in areas of a simulation outside the area of interest. In simulations, everything captured at this level of detail will only be an approximation of it's real-world self.
Snapshot Detail (Nominal)
-Range: 1 kilometer
-Cost Per Snapshot: 1 EP/1 kilometer radius
-Description: A simulation based on a snapshot of this level of detail will be indistinguishable from the real world in all but the most exacting of circumstances. This level of detail still represents an approximation, but the approximation is so close to reality that events in a simulation would only slowly deviate from those in reality. While this level of detail can recreate functionally identical equivalents of most technology and life forms, the greater the complexity, the more likely the recreation in a simulation is to deviate from the original. This level of detail is suitable for the simulation groups of people, cities, or countries, it is not sufficient to precisely replicate the thought processes of a sapient. The behavior of a sapient in a simulation that is based on a snapshot of this level of detail will subtly differ from that of the original. Many scientific instruments will produce results that are statically similar to the real-world equivalent, but a trained scientist would eventually notice that something was wrong.
Snapshot Detail (Atomic)
-Range: 10 meter
-Cost Per Snapshot: 1 EP/10 meter radius
_-Description: At this level of detail, every atom and it's precise state is captured. In a simulation based on a snapshot of this level of detail, nearly everything will behave identically to that of it's real-world original. This include sapiens and most complex technology. However, this level of detail does not capture subatomic level detail, so experiments, like particle accelerators, that probe the structure of atoms will produce results that are statistically similar to the real-world original, but the relevant scientists would eventually realize something was off.
Snapshot Detail (Subatomic)
Range: 1 meter
-Cost Per Snapshot: 1 EP/1 meter radius
-Description: At this level of detail, every subatomic particle and all quantum state is captured. A simulation based on a snapshot of this level of detail will proceed identically to the real world down to the quantum state of every every subatomic particle. There is nothing and no one on Earth capable of distinguishing a simulation from reality when operating at this level of detail.
Jack was stunned. He'd been fantasizing before about being able to examine a cell at the atomic level, but this, this meant he could actually do as he fantasized. His interface told him that he could examine a snapshot down to the level of detail available. That implied he could examine every single atom in a cell, and every single quark in an atom! He was certain there were many scientists who would happily sacrifice important body parts to gain access to this capability.
Even the lowest level of detail was over powered. If he was reading the description correctly, all he needed to do was get within 100 kilometers of any secure military or government agency building and he could read everything they had. Nations would go to war to gain access to this capability, or to destroy it. For a moment, he felt like a multitude of unseen eyes were staring at him like hungry wolves, before he shook off the sensation as nothing but paranoia. No one knew about the Genesis Heart, and it would stay that way as long as he didn't do anything stupid.
As for the nominal level of detail, it wasn't particularly noteworthy, and he wasn't certain how useful it would be unless he could extend the range to cover the entire planet. When he thought about extending the snapshot range, his focus shifted to the store catalog, and he discovered that four new items had appeared.
Unlock Template Creation
Cost: 1000 GP
Description: Create a template for your template catalog based on an object found in a snapshot.
Unlock Linked Self
Cost: 10,000 GP
Description: Link your body to your soul space manifestation. Once linked, physical changes to your soul space manifestation can be exported back into your physical body. If two changes are non-interdependent, then each change can be independently selected for export.
Unlock Simulations
Cost: 100,000 GP
Description: Create and run simulations. Simulations can be designed, starting with a blank space, created using a snapshot as a starting point.
Extend Snapshot Range
-Cost: 10 GP
-Description: Increase snapshot range to be 100 times greater than the previous range.
These four items had appeared when he unlocked Snapshots. So that meant store catalog items were gated behind other items. And, the only way to learn about more items was to purchase the ones that were visible.
The first three items were amazing, and all were within reach. He only needed to spend a total of about 28 hours in his soul space and he would earn the 100,000 GP needed to unlock Simulations. He wondered if the Simulations ran at the same level of detail as the snapshots. If true, it would be amazing.
He was also itching to unlock Linked Self. With that feature, he could, theoretically, combine it with Time Acceleration and be able to get a full nights sleep in less than an hour of outside world time. And Template Creation meant he could probably bring a copy of his laptop into his soul space. At the very least, that would make it easier to spend a day inside without going insane with boredom. Though, he might lose a lot of time just examining snapshots.
He had enough GP to unlock the Template Creation feature and extend his Snapshot range, but would have to wait for more time in soul space achievements before he could afford the other two options.
The snapshot range extension was super cheap at only 10 GP, so he purchased it without further thought. He hoped it was like his EP increase items and would allow him to continue increasing his snapshot range. He wanted to cover the entire planet in one snapshot!
[Snapshot Range Extended]
He checked his snapshot ranges and found that they had indeed all been increased 100 times.
Snapshot Range
-Approximate: 10^4 kilometers
-Nominal: 100 kilometers
-Atomic: 1 kilometer
-Subatomic: 100 meters
And, when he checked the item in his store, it had updated.
Extend Snapshot Range
Prerequisites: Snapshots unlocked
Cost: 100 GP
Description: Increase snapshot range to be 100 times greater than the previous range.
So, it looked like each successive increase would cost ten times more than the previous. He held off on increasing the range any further because there was something else he wanted to unlock first.
He knew he could earn 10,000 GP if he stayed in his soul space for just under three hours. And, he suspected he would probably spend at least that much time examining his first snapshot, but he also wanted to create some templates to instantiate inside his soul space. So, since he was certain he would be able to earn more GP soon, he also unlocked Template Creation.
[Template Creation Unlocked]
Then he got up, went into his bedroom, and lay down on his bed. If his body was going to be perfectly still for three hours, he didn't want to be sore and stiff when he came back out. So laying down on his bed seemed wiser than sitting in one position for three hours on his couch.
Before he entered his soul space, he triggered an Atomic level snapshot at maximum range. He wanted to cover his entire house, but he also wanted to know how it worked to examine a snapshot at max detail. And since the maximum range of a Subatomic snapshot was only 10 meters, he chose the Atomic level snapshot which had a range of 1 kilometer. His mind still boggled at the possibility of being able to capture the position and state of every single atom in a 1 kilometer radius area. The human mind was not built to properly grasp the true nature of such large numbers.
As soon as he triggered the snapshot he felt some of his EP disappear. Then he felt something appear in his soul space. But before he could go inside his soul space to check, he received three new achievements.
[Achievement: Captured 1 Sapient in a Snapshot]
[Reward: 10 GP]
[Achievement: Captured 10 Sapiens in a Snapshot]
[Reward: 100 GP]
[Achievement: Captured 100 Sapiens in a Snapshot]
[Reward: 1000 GP]
Oh, wow! He had just discovered a figurative GP gold mine! There were approximately 8 billion people on the planet. That meant he could earn achievements for 1000, 10,000, 100,000, 1,000,000, 10,000,000, 100,000,000, and 1,000,000,000 sapiens in a snapshot! That was more than 10 billion GP! Assuming the reward progression continued.
He immediately tried creating a max range snapshot at minimum detail, but nothing happened. No new achievements. So, detail level does matter. Then he tried again at Nominal detail, and still no new achievements. So, it looked like the achievement could only be earned if the snapshot detail was at least Atomic level. This sort of made sense. The Atomic level detail description had stated that, "nearly everything will behave identically to that of its real-world original", so maybe that included sapiens. If he wanted to earn ridiculous amounts of GP, he just needed to keep increasing his Snapshot range.
It would take two or maybe three range increases to max out the achievement. He was certain he would need at least two. The second would increase the range to 10 thousand kilometers radius which would encompass a large part of the Earth. That might be enough to capture one billion people in the snapshot, but if not, the next range extension, at 100 thousand kilometers radius, definitely would. He checked his GP balance.
Genesis Points (GP): 1149
The next range extension would cost 100 GP, but the one after that would probably cost 1000 GP. And, while he had enough GP to purchase both, he didn't have enough EP capacity. At Atomic level detail, a snapshot cost 1 EP per 10 meters of radius. The next range extension would put the limit at 100 kilometers for Atomic level detail, and that would cost 10,000 EP per snapshot. He had enough EP capacity for that. However, the next range extension after that would put the cost per snapshot at one million EP. The cost to raise his EP capacity to one million EP would cost 990 GP, and that meant he didn't have enough GP to both raise his range twice and his EP capacity to one million. He would need to increase his range once, then take a new snapshot, hopefully earning more GP, then he could increase the range again and also increase his EP capacity.
[Snapshot Range Extended]
He checked, confirming his new snapshot ranges.
Snapshot Range
-Approximate: 10^6 kilometers
-Nominal: 10^4 kilometers
-Atomic: 100 kilometer
-Subatomic: 10 kilometers
He also confirmed that the snapshot costs were still the same. For Atomic level detail that was 1 EP per 10 meters of radius. Given that the volume of a sphere increased exponentially with the radius, he didn't know why the cost was linear with radius instead, and he didn't care. He was just glad he could get more range for his EP. Eager to earn more GP, he tried to create a new Atomic detail snapshot at max range snapshot but discovered he didn't have enough EP.
Energy Points (EP): 9,910/10,000 :-: (10/sec)
Genesis Points (GP): 1049
Soul Space Cost: 0/sec
He checked his status and realized he needed to wait a few more seconds before his EP was full. Nine seconds later, he tried again.
[Achievement: Captured 1,000 Sapiens in a Snapshot]
[Reward: 10,000 GP]
[Achievement: Captured 10,000 Sapiens in a Snapshot]
[Reward: 100,000 GP]
[Achievement: Captured 100,000 Sapiens in a Snapshot]
[Reward: 1,000,000 GP]
[Achievement: Captured 1,000,000 Sapiens in a Snapshot]
[Reward: 10,000,000 GP]
With a radius of 100 kilometers, that snapshot covered the entire Stetle metro area, which had approximately to 4 million people.
He checked his GP balance again.
Genesis Points (GP): 11,111,049
He was a GP millionaire! And now he had enough to increase his range again and increase his EP capacity. First, he purchased the next range extension and checked the results.
[Snapshot Range Extended]
Snapshot Range
-Approximate: 10^6 kilometers
-Nominal: 10^4 kilometers
-Atomic: 100 kilometer
-Subatomic: 10 kilometers
Then, he checked his status.
Energy Points (EP): 0/10,000 :-: (0/sec [10/sec])
Genesis Points (GP): 11,110,049
Soul Space Cost: 10/sec
He would need to raise his EP capacity to at least one million, but he would need to raise it to at least 100 million if he wanted to take a snapshot at the next range up. He didn't like having his EP storage completely emptied, so he decided to raise his EP capacity to one billion. Not wanting to have to make the purchase 999,990 times in a row, he examined the store item more closely and found there was an option to choose an amount of increase he wanted and it would tell him the cost.
[Energy Point Capacity Increased: 10,000 -> 1,000,000,000]
After increasing his EP capacity, he checked his status again.
Energy Points (EP): 0/1,000,000,000 :-: (10/sec)
Genesis Points (GP): 10,110,059
Soul Space Cost: 0/sec
Unless he wanted to wait a day for one million EP to accumulate, he would also need to increase his EP rate. He did some quick math and figured he had enough GP to raise his EP to 4500. He didn't like the idea of spending most of his recently earned GP so he raised his EP rate to 3000, a nice round number.
[Energy Point Rate Increased: 10/sec -> 3,000/sec]
At 3000/sec, it would take him about five minutes to accumulate the needed EP for a new max range snapshot. Eager to gain more GP, he "stared" at his status, watching the EP numbers increase. It was almost Zen like, watching the number grow.
Energy Points (EP): 159,000/1,000,000,000 :-: (3,000/sec)
Energy Points (EP): 468,000/1,000,000,000 :-: (3,000/sec)
Energy Points (EP): 879,000/1,000,000,000 :-: (3,000/sec)
Energy Points (EP): 963,000/1,000,000,000 :-: (3,000/sec)
Then finally...
Energy Points (EP): 1,002,000/1,000,000,000 :-: (3,000/sec)
As soon as his EP ticked over 1 million, he created a new Atomic detail snapshot at max range.
[Achievement: Captured 10,000,000 Sapiens in a Snapshot]
[Reward: 100,000,000 GP]
[Achievement: Captured 100,000,000 Sapiens in a Snapshot]
[Reward: 1,000,000,000 GP]
[Achievement: Captured 1,000,000,000 Sapiens in a Snapshot]
[Reward: 10,000,000,000 GP]
The earth had a radius of 6,371 kilometers. And with a snapshot radius of 10,000 kilometers centered on Stetle in Puget State, the sphere of the snapshot should encompass just over half the Earth. So he was a little surprised that he had already covered more than 1 billion people. Curious how that was possible, he checked the virtual Earth app on his phone and found that the opposite side of the Earth from Stetle was mostly ocean. So, his snapshot had already covered most of the world's population.
Since the Earth's population was less than 10 billion, even if he extended his snapshot range again, he would not earn any more GP. So he chose not to extend his snapshot range again, for now.
He checked his GP balance.
Genesis Points (GP): 11,105,608,614
Eleven billion points! He had no idea what he was going to do with that many GP. He could raise his EP/sec rate and capacity to the moon, but when he looked at his store catalog, he saw that more items had been added.
Unlock Linked Templates
Cost: 10,000 GP
Description: Link a template, or an instantiation to the physical object from which it was created. When a template is linked to its original, it can be updated to match the original at a fraction of the cost of the initial template creation. The update cost varies depending on the degree of change. When a template instantiation is linked to the original, changes made to the instantiation can be exported to original. The export cost varies depending on the degree of change. A template can be updated to match an instantiation at no cost.
Unlock Sentient Template Creation
Cost: 10,000 GP
Description: Create a template from a sentient, but not sapient, creature found in a snapshot. Instances of the creature's template can be instantiated inside your soul space. The loyalty, obedience, and other behavioral traits of the creature's soul space instance can be altered. An Atomic detail level snapshot is required for this feature.
The Linked Templates feature was similar to the Linked Self feature but for objects, and it would make a laptop in his soul space more useful. Assuming the cost wasn't crazy.
When he saw the second item, his first thought was, people templates, that's crazy, then noticed in the description that it said, "sentient, not sapient". He remembered that humans were considered both sentient and sapient, but that any animal with a capacity for emotion was considered sentient, at least from a scientific point of view.
There were rich people and crazy people, or maybe they were the same thing, that kept wild animals as pets. Like lions and tigers and bears, oh why. Why would someone want to be in the same room as a large predator? Still, as much as he thought it was crazy, he also envied them, at least a little. So, with the appearance of this feature, he started thinking, he could really have a pet bear, or lion, or leopard, in his soul space. With the behavioral modification ability, it would be completely safe.
He had so much GP now that the cost of all the features in his store catalog had fallen to the realm of pocket change. So, he purchased all of them. He also hoped that by doing so, he would reveal new items in his catalog.
[Linked Self Unlocked]
[Linked Templates Unlocked]
[Sentient Template Creation Unlocked]
[Simulations Unlocked]
As he made his purchases, he felt new sections appear in his interface. He also noticed three items appear in his store catalog. He wasn't sure how he felt about two of them so he focused on the one unambiguously cool feature.
Unlock Parallel Self
Cost: 1,000,000 GP
Description: Allow your soul space manifestation to operate separately from your physical self. Memories can be periodically, or continuously, synchronized between your physical self and soul space manifestation. Does not interfere with Linked Self.
He had encountered the concept of split mind, and parallel minds skills in LitRPG novels and he had always been envious of the characters for having those capabilities. If he had a choice between doubling his IQ or gaining the ability to think about two things at the same time, he'd be hard pressed to decide between the two. If the split mind ability didn't nerf his IQ in either mind, then he'd probably go with split mind. And, here it was, a feature that was effectively a split mind ability. Even better, it worked with Linked Self, so he could be studying and sleeping at the same time! Or sleeping and exercising. Fran had admonished him for not exercising enough. He just couldn't bring himself to spend time away from her while she was dying. It was probably why she didn't push too hard for him to exercise. However, she had refused to give in even a little on his study time. It was the only reason he had graduated with honors. It was her dying wish, and it would have killed him if disappointed. Anyway, he had the GP, so he unlocked it.
[Parallel Self Unlocked]
Then he turned his attention to one of the two remaining features.
Unlock Soul Bonds
Cost: 1,000,000 GP
Description: Create a soul bond between yourself and another sapient. A soul bonded sapient will be unable reveal information about the Genesis Heart to anyone by any means, nor will they be able to harm you without your consent. A soul bonded sapient may manifest in your soul space in the same way you do, and can be granted access to the Linked Self and Parallel Self features. A Soul bond may only be formed with a consenting sapient.
He knew that, at some point, he would want to talk to someone about Genesis Heart. There was so much capability present in it, and he had probably only thought about a tiny fraction of what could be done with it. And a soul bond would make it possible for him to safely talk to someone about it without risking the government, or other nations, from learning about it. The problem was, how to get someone's consent for a soul bond, without first telling them about Genesis Heart? Eh, he'd figure something out. Maybe Genesis Heart would allow him to gain consent from someone while inside a simulation, assuming simulations worked on people.
[Soul Bonds Unlocked]
After unlocking soul bonds, he turned his attention to the last remaining feature. One that was perhaps a little morally questionable.
Unlock Sapient Template Creation
Cost: 100,000 GP
Description: Create a template from a sapient found in a snapshot. Instances of the sapient's template can be instantiated inside your soul space. The loyalty and obedience of the sapient's soul space instance can be altered. An Atomic detail level snapshot is required for this feature.
With this feature, he could make copies of people inside his soul space. This opened so many possibilities, and temptations. Want to know if you can trust someone, make a template, instantiate, crank up their obedience, then ask them, "can I trust your original?" Want to learn someone's secrets, do the same, different questions. Want to know if that alluring actress is as fun in person as she appears to be during interviews, make a copy, find out. Tormented in class by a cock tease, make a copy. Now she'll definitely put out.
He wasn't entirely proud of that last thought. But, there was that one girl in twelfth grade AP English, Miranda. He was tempted. He might. Just...not yet. He still wanted to learn more about all the features he had gained. As he unlocked this last feature, he knew he would circle back to this idea later. Miranda and a certain actress. He would learn who they really were.
[Sapient Template Creation Unlocked]
When the Sapient Template Creation feature unlocked, he felt a new item appear in his store catalog.
Soul Space Assistant
Cost: 100,000 GP
Description: Manifest an assistant within your soul space. This assistant can answer some of your questions about the Genesis Heart and can assist you in many of your soul space endeavors.
Finally! Maybe now I can get some answers. This last feature could potentially be able to clear up some, maybe all, of the question he had about Genesis Heart.