《Divine Artifact in a Scientific World》 Chapter 1: Where Am I? Chapter 1 - Where Am I? Jack hated this section of the trail. In front of him was a massive rhododendron bush. To his left was a steep bush choked up-slope, and to his right was a steep down-slope covered in loose dirt and gravel. The trail used to pass around the bush on the downslope side, but that section of slope had eroded and was now impassable. The only way forward was to pass through the bush by stepping from root to root, hanging onto the branches for balance. He really didn''t want to risk it, but he didn''t have a choice. The way home was in front of him, through the bush, and behind him was hundreds if miles of wilderness trail. The only reason he''d braved the damn thing on the way to Lake Valhalla was because of his promise to Fran, so now he was stuck risking it again. He sighed. It wasn''t that bad. He just needed to go slow and be careful. So, he grabbed a branch and began crab-crawling through the bush, stepping from root to root, holding branches as he went, trying not to think about the long fall down a steep slope if he lost his balance. He was halfway through, reaching for a branch with his right hand, when his vision went black. Oh shit, am I going blind?! In a panic, he clutched at the branch he was holding in his left hand while his right hand flailed about, reaching for a branch, any branch. Yet his clutching hands felt nothing. The realization sent a spike of fear through him and he cried out, flailing his arms, trying to grasp anything. Even as he tried to flail and scream, nothing happened. His arms didn''t flail because he had no arms, and he didn''t scream because he had no lungs. He was bodyless, floating in a void. Not a starry void, like the depths of outer space, but an empty void, like a blank universe devoid of all matter and energy. His initial panic dissipated into the nothingness before he could even think to try a second breath, and soothing calm replaced his panic. The sudden transition from panic to calm should have been jarring, but it wasn''t. One moment he was feeling panicked fear that he was falling to his death, the next he was calm, like floating bodyless in a void was just another Tuesday. Did I die? He wondered. Is this the start of my afterlife? Now what? Was he awaiting judgement? Was he stuck in limbo? Would he be isekai''ed? Since he didn''t have lungs or a mouth, he tried mentally yelling into the void. HELLO? ANYONE? GOD? ADMINISTRATOR? TRUCK-KUN? Nothing. With nothing to do but wait, his thoughts turned to the future he had planned ¡ª go to college, finally get laid, maybe go into cancer research. He honestly wasn''t certain what he wanted to do beyond college. Science interested him, and he thought he might want to go into research, but he also liked the idea of getting involved in the space industry, maybe go into space, or at least work on something that got sent into space. His thoughts eventually quieted, and he found himself just being. But as his mind drifted, he felt like he was expanding, becoming, somehow, more. More what, he didn''t know. It was a strange, but oddly pleasant, sensation. He did not know if minutes, hours, days, years, or centuries had passed, but eventually a series of message in glowing gold text appeared. They didn''t appear in his vision, but directly in his mind. Yet despite their purely mental nature, they still felt gold and glowy. [Synchronization Initiated] [WARNING: Soul strength below threshold] [Synchronization Paused] [Initiating emergency soul enhancement] [Soul strength has reached minimum threshold] [Synchronization Resumed] What? Soul strength? Was this a System, like in the novels he''d read? The first few messages, the ones prior to [Soul strength has reached minimum threshold], felt distorted, like hearing voices under water or trying to read a sign through a torrential downpour. They also felt old, like they were generated some time ago. He assumed this was because of his soul''s weakness, preventing him from properly receiving them until it grew stronger. Then two more messages interrupted his thoughts. [Synchronization Complete] [Genesis Heart Installation Complete] Genesis Heart? Before he could think further on the origin and meaning of the messages, his mind was flooded with physical sensations. The smell of dirt, pain, and thirst. A thirst more intense than any he had ever felt or imagined he could feel. It drowned out all other sensations as his body demanded he give it water. Ugh, what happened? His mind became fuzzy. His mouth felt like it was coated in sticky paste, and his tongue was stuck to the roof of his mouth. He tried to open his eyes, but they burned like they were coated in sand. Desperate for water, he reached for his backpack drinking tube. A rustling sound filled his ears, and something pressed against his arm, preventing him from moving it. Am I trapped?! What is this?! Still fuzzy headed, he flailed in a panic, trying to escape whatever was holding him. The rustling intensified. Eventually, it registered in his fuzzy mind that his hands were brushing against branches. When he grabbed one and shook it, his fuzzy brain put two and two together and he realized he was tangled in a bush. Finally understanding that he wasn''t trapped, just embedded in a bush, his panic receded, and he slowly worked to free himself. He didn''t know if he had somehow become tangled in the rhododendron he was previously traversing, or if this was a different bush. Finding and grabbing onto branches with both hands, he slowly pushed himself out of the bush''s grasp until he was half sitting, half kneeling inside the bush. Once his arms were free, he again reached for his drinking tube, only to find nothing. Shit, where is it?! He felt around, desperate to find his drinking tube, but found nothing. His backpack was gone! No! Where''s my backpack, my water?! After painfully blinking his eyes a few times, he cleared them enough to see and looked around, desperate to spot his backpack. Chapter 2: Head Trauma? Chapter 2 - Head Trauma? Jack looked around desperately for his backpack but only found dirt, rocks, bushes, and arm''s length away from him, just past the rhododendron, a cliff edge. He was kneeling in a rhododendron bush, and it wasn''t the one he''d been traversing before. He looked up the slope, searching for his backpack, but didn''t find it. Damn! Did he lose his grip on the rhododendron and lose his pack while tumbling down the slope? With the memory of the golden, glowy messages still fresh in his mind, he wondered what had really happened. He wasn''t certain where he was, but it was possible he had lost his grip on the rhododendron he''d been traversing and taken a tumble down the slope. If this was true, then it was possible he''d struck his head, and the messages were just some kind of head trauma induced hallucination. His head was throbbing painfully, but when he checked, he couldn''t find any blood, so he wasn''t sure if he''d struck his head hard enough to cause a hallucination. His thirst demanded he find water and, given that water flows downhill, going down the slope would have been the wiser choice. Except, on the other side of the bush he was in, was a sharp drop and a long fall. There was no way he could safely go that direction. He pulled out his phone and checked the time. It was two in the afternoon, two days later. He''d been in the nothingness for two days! No wonder he was so thirsty. At the start of his hike, he''d put his phone in airplane mode to conserve battery charge. There was no reception on the trail and he didn''t want it to drain the battery trying to find a cell tower. And, since he was outside coverage range, there was no point in taking his phone out of airplane mode to call for help. He looked up the slope. This is going to suck! He thought. Even on his hands and knees, he would just slide back down unless he had something to hold on to. So, he plotted a course through the small trees and bushes, hoping there would be enough hand and footholds to make it to leveler ground. As he began his climb, he noticed other aches and pains. Besides his head and back, his hips, right knee, and left ankle also throbbed with pain. As he climbed, he felt lethargic and weak and realized he was also extremely hungry. Part of him just wanted to lie down and rest, but his overpowering thirst drove him onward and upward. The nearest source of water, assuming this was terra, was near the trailhead, only a few hundred meters from his car. In the other direction was Lake Valhalla, but it was further away than his car and wouldn''t solve his hunger. As he climbed, he thought about the chain of events that led him to be on that trail two days ago. His parents, both orphans, had died in a car crash when he was ten, killed by a drunk driver. Having no next of kin, the government placed him in the foster care system. Still reeling from the loss of his parents, he was bounced around from one foster home to another. In each case, the family was not prepared to help a boy cope with devastating loss. It was sheer luck he was eventually placed with Fran and Jacob. Their practical, no-nonsense worldview was like that of his birth parents and provided him with the sense of familiarity, of family, he had thought lost. By the time they adopted him, he was already thinking of them as his second parents. Disaster had struck his life a second time when Jacob had died in a car crash while delivering parts for his employer, a national auto-parts supplier. At first, the investigators had thought Jacob had just fallen asleep at the wheel. But when the toxicology report came back, showing signs of carbon monoxide poisoning, they realized he had succumbed to exhaust fumes. Fran, both distraught and enraged, had sued Jacob''s employer. Jacob had complained about the exhaust fumes many times, but the company had ignored his complaints. Fran had won the legal battle and collected a large settlement, but the struggle had left her emotionally exhausted. Throughout the ordeal, Jack had tried to help as much as he could, doing all the household chores, but Fran insisted he focus on studying and maintaining his grades. Disaster struck a third time when Fran was diagnosed with cancer. She had been suffering minor symptoms, like weakness, headaches, and nausea. And they had assumed the symptoms were caused by the stress of her legal battle against Jacob''s neglectful employer. But when the symptoms didn''t abate after their victory, the doctors were forced to re-assess her condition. When they finally diagnosed her, it was too late. She had stage 4 cancer and her prognosis was bleak. Throughout her battle, she had remained firm in her stance that Jack should stay focused on his academic future. She had been very pragmatic in her outlook, telling him, "No amount of wishful thinking is going to change the outcome. I will die. The best we can hope for is that I last a little longer. And I will be happy if I live long enough to see you graduate with honors." In the end, she got her wish and attended Jack''s graduation ceremony, but died a week later. She was a fighter, and it seemed fitting that her final resting place be somewhere named Valhalla. So her final wish was to be cremated and her ashes scatter on Lake Valhalla. He''d just finished that and was heading home when he''d blacked out and received Genesis Heart. His climb was getting more and more difficult, his strength waning as his dehydrated and food starved body struggled to support his strenuous effort. Eventually, his need to rest overcame his desire to continue, and he stopped, rolling over to lie on his back with his feet pressed against the root ball of a bush to keep him from sliding back downslope. As he lay there hoping his body could dredge up some more energy, he wondered, did he really get a System? Or did he suffer some kind of head trauma induced hallucination? He didn''t have any memory of falling down the slope so he wasn''t sure if it was the Genesis Heart installation that had caused him to lose his grip on the rhododendron, or if he had just slipped and the head trauma had erased his memory of the fall. And, after the [Genesis Heart Installation Complete] message, there had been nothing, no indication that he had a System. In many web novels, the System only responded to certain words or gestures. So, even though he was alone in a forest and there was probably no one for kilometers, he still felt embarrassed when he said out loud, "Status". Nothing. "System Activate." Nothing. "Help, Tutorial, Information, Abracadabra, Shazam, Talk to me damn it!" Nothing, Nothing, Nothing. No response. Was it all just a hallucination? He''d checked the back of his head and there was no blood. He had miraculously avoided getting cut or impaled during his tumble down the slope. And no blood implied that he didn''t hit his head very hard. In fact, the earlier throbbing had already reduced somewhat. What had really happened? He didn''t remember reading any novels that involved something named Genesis Heart, so he wasn''t sure why he would hallucinate about one. Why did systems need verbal interfaces, anyway? Why not have an intuitive mental connection directly to the System? Remembering the sensation he had when he''d first "blacked out". He focused on what it felt like before the messages appeared. As soon as he tried again to feel that calm floating in nothingness sensation, his vision went black and he, again, found himself floating in nothingness. Does this prove I''m not suffering from brain trauma? He wondered. Thinking about returning to reality, his vision returned, and he found himself again laying on his back on a steep slope. Then he focused on the nothingness and again found himself back in the calm nothingness. He exited, then re-entered the nothingness. Then again. As he repeatedly transitioned into and out of the nothingness, he found that the nothingness gained tangibility in his mind. Like it was a separate space, he could enter and leave. When he entered the nothingness for the fifth time, a message appeared in his mind with the same sense of golden glowyness. [Achievement: Solidified connection to Soul Space] [Reward: White Room] Before his mind fully registered the new messages, a plain white room replaced the nothingness. Chapter 3: White Room (1) Chapter 3 - White Room (1) Jack was standing in a plain white room with a softly glowing ceiling, white walls, and light gray floor. Unlike in the nothingness, he could feel his body. Looking down, he saw he was still wearing his hiking clothes. He also noticed an absence of pain, hunger, or thirst! It was bliss compared to what he was feeling just a moment ago. He looked around the room. It looked real. He bent down and touched the floor. It was slightly rough and had just a little give to it, like hard rubber. The walls, when he checked, were hard, like concrete, and had an orange peel texture. It all felt too real to be a hallucination. And if this it was real, then this Genesis Heart had nearly killed him! It couldn''t wait another minute?! And for what, a plain white room? What good did that do him? The absence of thirst, or any other bodily complaint, made him briefly consider just staying in the white room, but he discarded it as a foolish idea. This was his soul space, and that implied his actual body was still lying on the slope, and what he now occupied was some sort of soul space manifestation. So, if he stayed in his soul space, he would eventually die of thirst. He took a few calming breaths, then turned his attention to the tangible space in his mind that he associated with the nothingness. When the white room appeared, it had changed. Its previous amorphous feeling had resolved to a more tangible and box like shape feeling. He assumed this was his soul space, though he wasn''t certain if this white room was his soul space, or merely in his soul space. Besides the soul space box in his mind, there was also now a block of information. When he focused on it, it felt akin to opening a third eye that could only see a screen, or game like interface. Energy Points (EP): 1/1000 :-: (0/sec [1/sec]) Genesis Points (GP): 0 Soul Space Cost: 1/sec Well, this is...something. What he found was very much like a simple status screen from a game or system. There were three items present. When he focused on numbers associated with Energy Points, he learned what they represented. The first two numbers were current EP available and total EP capacity. The second two numbers were EP/sec generation rate available for use, and total EP/sec generated. His current Soul Space Cost was 1 EP/sec, so his available EP/sec was zero. When he focused on Genesis Points, he learned nothing, so it left him wondering how he could earn them, and what he could do with them. [Achievement: Longest single Soul Space visit exceeded 1 second] [Reward: 1 Genesis Point] [Achievement: First Genesis Point earned] [Reward: Genesis Store Unlocked] [Achievement: Total Energy Points consumed exceeded 1] [Reward: 1 Genesis Point] And just as he was wondering, he got an answer. Two separate achievement types, each awarding Genesis Points. The first, for longest time spend inside his soul space, wasn''t much of an achievement at one second, but if Genesis Heart rewarded him for longer durations, then he could see spending a long time in a plain white room as an achievement. A few hours might be fine, but a few days could kill him from boredom. The other achievement felt almost gratuitous. Use EP to earn GP? Isn''t that a bit like use Mana to earn experience? Whatever, it was what it was. If Genesis Heart wanted to make it easy for him to earn GP, who was he to complain? Though, there was the little matter of almost dying. He''d be sure to file a complaint as soon as he found the customer service button. Most importantly, besides the two achievements, there was a store! When the [Reward: Genesis Store Unlocked] appeared, his interface changed, and a new section appeared that contained a list of items. In some web novels, the MC could purchase healing potions or even flasks that produced endless water. Eager to see if this newly unlocked Genesis Store might contain a solution to his dehydration, he examined the list. But, after skimming through all the store items, looking at their names, he found nothing that looked helpful. Damn. Was Genesis Heart a dud? Was he the MC of a new lame web novel titled "Jack received the lamest system and his life continued to suck, forever"? Silly thoughts aside, he still needed to rest and had nothing better to do for a few minutes. So he despite his disappointment, he looked at the details of each item to see if there was something in their description that might prove his initial assessment wrong. Increase Energy Points Generation Rate: 2/sec -Cost: 1 GP -Description: Increase your Energy Points generation rate to 2/sec. Increase Energy Points storage capacity: 2000 -Cost: 1 GP -Description: Increase your Energy Points storage capacity to 2000. The first two items would allow him to increase his EP generation rate and EP storage capacity. His soul space only needed 1 EP/sec, so he assumed the other items, once unlocked, would need more EP. Increasing his EP wasn''t immediately useful, so he moved on to the next item. Unlock Template Catalog -Cost: 10 GP -Description: A catalog of templates that can be instantiated inside your soul space. The catalog comes pre-loaded with a basic set of furniture and room amenities. What is this, "Pimp my soul space?" What was the point of decorating his soul space, anyway? Was it going to give him a soul space girlfriend that he would have to appease? If he could only instantiate these templates inside his soul space, they were of no immediate use. Even if he could summon a sink with running water, would it help? Him not feeling thirsty was a strong evidence that, even if he could drink ware in his soul space, it would not help his physical body. Unlock Time Acceleration -Cost: 100 GP -Description: Accelerate time inside your soul space so that it advances faster than time in the outside world. Damn, if only I''d had this during my AP Physics final! The last question was especially tough, and just a few more minutes would have been enough for him to get a perfect score. There had also been times when even a few seconds might have been enough for him to think of a witty reply. As for his present predicament, it was worthless. Waiting more time inside his soul space would not speed up his recovery outside. [Achievement: Longest single Soul Space visit exceeded 10 seconds] [Reward: 10 Genesis Points] [Achievement: Total Energy Points consumed exceeded 10] [Reward: 10 Genesis Points] These two new achievements did not surprise him. If Genesis Heart rewarded him for a measly one second, and one EP, then it stood to reason that it would reward him more time and more EP consumed. And the jump from 1 to 10, suggested a geometric progression. His guess was that the next set of rewards would happen at 100 seconds and 100 EP. He checked his interface. Energy Points (EP): 1/1000 :-: (0/sec [1/sec]) Genesis Points (GP): 22 Soul Space Cost: 1/sec He now had 22 GP. If his guess was correct, the next set of achievements would show up in 90 seconds when he had been in his soul space for 100 seconds. He''d only been inside his white room for ten seconds and that was not enough time for him to rest and recover enough energy to resume his climb up the slope, so he decided to stay in his white room at least long enough to earn the 100 second achievements. While he waited for the 100 second achievements, he continued examining the items in the Genesis Store, hoping something might prove immediately useful. Unlock Snapshots -Cost: 1000 GP -Description: Take a point in time snapshot of the world around you. The snapshot contains all the information needed to reconstruct the portion of the world included in the snapshot. Snapshots may be examined, or used as the starting point for simulations. Despite the fact that Snapshots were of no immediate use to him, he could not help but fantasize about what he might be able to do with them. What was the level of detail? Could he see inside a bacterial cell or see individual atoms?! If this feature allowed him to examine a snapshot at the atomic level, he could make breathtaking advances in biological science in a staggeringly short amount of time! His mind filled with endless possibilities, including the possibility of creating a universal vaccine or even a universal cure for cancer. Chapter 4: White Room (2) Chapter 4 - White Room (2) Jack was still fantasizing about the possibilities opened up with snapshots when he received his next set of achievements. [Achievement: Longest single Soul Space visit exceeded 100 seconds] [Reward: 100 Genesis Points] [Achievement: Total Energy Points consumed exceeded 100] [Reward: 100 Genesis Points] With three consecutive achievements at 1, 10, and now 100, he felt confident that the geometric progression would continue. The next achievements would almost certainly arrive in a 889 seconds when he had been in his soul space for an additional fifteen minutes. And the achievements after that would take about two and a half hours. A minute and a half did not seem like enough time to rest and recover energy for his climb, but fifteen minutes probably was, so he figured he might as well stay in his white room until he''d earned his achievements for 1000 seconds and 1000 EP. He checked his status. Energy Points (EP): 1/1000 :-: (0/sec [1/sec]) Genesis Points (GP): 222 Soul Space Cost: 1/sec He had enough GP to unlock Template Catalog and Time Acceleration. He wasn''t going anywhere for a few minutes, so he might as well unlock those two features and explore them while waiting for his next set of achievements to arrive. Then he''d exit his soul space and continue his climb. [Template Catalog Unlocked] [Time Acceleration Unlocked] He checked his GP balance. Genesis Points (GP): 112 With each unlock, he felt an addition to his interface. The first thing he looked at was the new Time Acceleration section. Time Ratio: 1:1 (max 10:1) Elapsed Time (Soul Space): 102 seconds Elapsed Time (Outside): 102 seconds Nice! The maximum ratio was 10 to one. It wasn''t mind blowing, but it was still useful. Gaining ten times more seconds per question on a test was huge. And even ten seconds to pause and think before responding to someone could be very helpful. He was also pleased to see the elapsed times. It would make it much easier for him to keep track of how much time had passed in the outside world. But, when he tried, he found he could not increase the time ratio. He only had one EP available, and no spare generation rate. His EP generation rate was in outside seconds, but his Soul Space Cost was in soul space seconds. So, if he increased his time ratio to 2:1, then his soul space would consume 2 EP per outside second. If he wanted to increase his time ratio, he would either need to leave his soul space and wait for EP to accumulate, or he would need to increase his EP/sec rate. He was planning to stay in his soul space until he earned his 1000 second and EP achievements and that would earn him enough GP to unlock snapshots and still have plenty left over. So he figured he could spare some GP now to increase his EP generation rate and capacity. Then he''d be able to play with time acceleration while he waited. [Energy Point Rate Increased: 1/sec -> 2/sec] He was please to see that, after spending one GP to increase his EP rate, the item in his store catalog updated. Increase Energy Points Generation Rate: 3/sec -Cost: 2 GP -Description: Increase your Energy Points generation rate to 3/sec. However, he noticed that the cost had increased from 1 GP to 2 GP. Wondering if the cost to increase his EP rate was the same number of GP as his current rate; he increased his rate again. [Energy Point Rate Increased: 2/sec -> 3/sec] Increase Energy Points Generation Rate: 4/sec -Cost: 3 GP -Description: Increase your Energy Points generation rate to 4/sec. So, each EP rate increase would cost 1 GP more than the previous increase. Remembering that 1+2+3+4+5+...+n could be calculated with n(n+1)/2, he did some quick mental math. He would have to spend an additional 51 GP to get his EP rate up to 10/sec. He liked nice round numbers, and while GP was a lost cause in that respect, he could still manage it for EP, so he spent the 51 GP to increase his EP rate to 10/sec. [Energy Point Rate Increased: 3/sec -> 4/sec] +++ [Energy Point Rate Increased: 9/sec -> 10/sec] When he looked at the item again, it showed that the next increase would cost 10 GP. He checked his GP total. Genesis Points (GP): 58 He had still enough to increase his EP capacity, so he did that once. [Energy Point Capacity Increased: 1000 -> 2000] When he checked the item, however, he was pleasantly surprised. Increase Energy Points storage capacity: 3000 -Cost: 1 GP -Description: Increase your Energy Points storage capacity to 3000. The cost to increase his EP capacity had remained one point. So, unlike EP rate, the GP cost to increase his EP capacity remained constant. Pleased, he increased his EP capacity to 10,000. [Energy Point Capacity Increased: 2000 -> 3000] +++ [Energy Point Capacity Increased: 9000 -> 10000] He checked his status. Energy Points (EP): 18/10000 :-: (9/sec [1/sec]) Genesis Points (GP): 49 Soul Space Cost: 1/sec With 9/sec EP gen to spare, he checked the Time Acceleration section of his interface and found he could increase the acceleration rate, so he pushed all the way to 10:1. It didn''t feel any different. Energy Points (EP): 18/10000 :-: (0/sec [10/sec]) Genesis Points (GP): 49 Soul Space Cost : 10/sec His status showed that his EP/sec soul space cost had increased to 10/sec, but there was no other indicator. Time Ratio: 10:1 (max 10:1) Elapsed Time (Soul Space): 104 seconds Elapsed Time (Outside): 103 seconds However, when he checked the Time Acceleration section of his interface, he could see that his Soul Space elapsed time was ticking faster than his outside elapsed time. If the "longest single Soul Space visit" achievement worked on soul space time, instead of outside time, then his physical body would have only rested for about three minutes. Probably not enough time. So, he set the time ratio back to 1:1. He''d play with it more later. Since he still needed to wait and rest, he turned his attention to the template catalog. He didn''t expect to find anything useful, but needed something to pass the time. When he focused on the template catalog section of his interface, he found that each item in the catalog had a name, a cost, a mental image, and sometimes a description. Wood Chair -Instantiation Cost: free -Operation Cost: negligible Wood Table -Instantiation Cost: free -Operation Cost: negligible So much for "Pimp my Soul Space", he thought. Unless it''s the Amish addition. He chuckled to himself. Looking at the wood chair and wood table, noted that they had separate instantiation and operation costs. The costs were free and negligible, so he didn''t know if costs would be EP, GP, or something else. Since it was basically free, he selected the chair. As soon as he did, he felt a mental prompt that allowed him to place the chair anywhere in the white room. He set the mental projection in front of himself, then confirmed his selection. The chair appeared in front of him instantly and silently. One moment it wasn''t there, the next it was. When the chair appeared in front of him, it also appeared inside the box in his mind that represented his white room. He focused on it and realized he could sense himself and the chair inside. It wasn''t like seeing, but more like a really clear mental visualization. It was like a mini-map of his soul space. He looked at the chair. It was simple and unadorned, no carvings or decorations. And yet, it gave off a luxurious air. The wood was a rich, dark reddish brown color and when he ran a finger over the surface, found it had a satin finish. There were no seams, no joints, no nails, no screws, or bolts. As far as he could tell, it was made, or carved, out of a single piece of wood. It was the finest piece of wood furniture he''d ever seen. Fran had dragged him through several furniture stores, including some with high-quality furniture, and this chair made all the other chairs he''d seen look like nothing but scrap. Finally, he sat in his new soul space chair. It was surprisingly comfortable. Chapter 5: White Room (3) Chapter 5 - White Room (3) While sitting in his unusually comfortable soul space wood chair, Jack continued perusing the template catalog. Room (Rectangular) -Instantiation Cost: 1 GP/100 square meters of surface area -Operation Cost: 1 EP/sec/100 square meters of surface area -Description: Length, width, and height are adjustable. Room (Cylindrical) -Instantiation Cost: 1 GP/100 square meters of surface area -Operation Cost: 1 EP/sec/100 square meters of surface area -Description: Height and Radius are adjustable. Room (Domed) -Instantiation Cost: 1 GP/100 square meters of surface area -Operation Cost: 1 EP/sec/100 square meters of surface area -Description: Radius is adjustable. Room (Spherical) -Instantiation Cost: 1 GP/100 square meters of surface area -Operation Cost: 1 EP/sec/100 square meters of surface area -Description: Radius is adjustable. Hallway Segment (Rectangular) -Instantiation Cost: 1 GP/100 square meters of surface area -Operation Cost: 1 EP/sec/100 square meters of surface area -Description: Length, width, and height are adjustable. Hallway Segment (Cylindrical) -Instantiation Cost: 1 GP/100 square meters of surface area -Operation Cost: 1 EP/sec/100 square meters of surface area -Description: Length and Radius are adjustable. Why would he need more rooms? Nothing he''d seen in the Genesis Store suggested he''d need more rooms. So why provide them? And who needs spherical rooms or cylindrical hallways? Whatever. At least his earlier question was answered. The instantiation cost was in GP and the operation cost was in EP. There was no indication of size limits, so with enough GP and EP, he could theoretically make room big enough to hold a planet. Though the cost would be astronomical. He briefly thought about what would happen if he made a room the size of the sun and filled it with chairs. Would the gravitational force be enough to ignite fusion? He shook his head; the idea was just too far out there, so he discarded it as fanciful and looked at the next set of items on the list. Room Door -Instantiation Cost: 1 GP/10 square meters -Operation Cost: 1 EP/sec/100 square meters -Description: Width, height, and locking modes are adjustable. Security Door -Instantiation Cost: 1 GP/10 square meters -Operation Cost: 1 EP/sec/100 square meters -Description: Width, height, and locking modes are adjustable. He''d tried listening to "The Doors" once out of curiosity. They sounded like drugged out hippies that accidentally wandered into a studio. Very much not his taste. As for these doors, what was the difference? They had the same description, yet one was labeled a security door. Maybe if he instantiated both, he''d find out. Just not now. Environmental Controls (Normal) -Instantiation Cost: 10 GP -Operation Cost: variable -Description: When installed in a room, allows control of lighting, temperature, and interior room surfaces. Light and temperature ranges are limited to levels that would not cause injury to room occupant. At first, he thought this was just a combination light switch and thermostat. But then he noticed it could also alter the interior room surfaces. He wondered if it was just color, or if he could also alter the room''s surface texture. Could he give the walls an eggshell texture, and the floor a carpet texture? He''d find out when he created one. Environmental Controls (Weather) -Instantiation Cost: 100 GP -Operation Cost: variable -Description: When installed in a room, allows control of lighting, temperature, interior room surfaces, and weather. Light and temperature ranges are limited to levels that would not cause injury to room occupant. Weather is limited to non-disaster levels. Weather meant rain! But even if he had enough GP instantiate a weather control, it probably wouldn''t do him any good. He wasn''t thirsty in his soul space, so drinking water inside it would probably do him no good. Re-reading the description, he wondered what the Genesis Heart considered disaster level weather. In Puget State, snow was infrequent, so a meter of snow might be considered a disaster, but in Ouisconsin a meter of snow was just another winter day. Some places saw golf ball sized hail at least once a year, so that might not qualify as a disaster. Though hurricanes and tornados were probably considered disaster level, no matter where you were. Environmental Controls (Extreme) -Instantiation Cost: 1000 GP -Operation Cost: variable -Description: When installed in a room, allows control of lighting, temperature, interior room surfaces, atmospheric pressure and composition, and gravity. Levels are limited to what can be sustained with available Energy Points. Gravity?! Okay, now this was impressive. Though he still didn''t understand why such a feature was offered. Athletes would kill to be able to train under higher gravity. But what good was it to him? Zero-G might be fun, but without that soul space girlfriend, how was he going to make the-beast-with-two-backs in zero-G? Wall -Instantiation Cost : variable -Operation Cost: variable -Description: Width, height, and thickness, and material composition are adjustable. The item title said, "wall", but it felt like it meant wall in the abstract sense, as an obstacle. This item could be used to form any shape of any size he wanted. And he could also select the material properties. He wasn''t certain, but he thought he could make it as soft as gelatin or harder than a diamond. He could also make it opaque, or transparent, or anything in between. Target -Instantiation Cost: variable -Operation Cost: variable -Description: Size, shape, and material composition are adjustable. The target item appeared to be the same as the wall item. Same size, shape, and composition options. It was only when he focused on the item, like he wanted to actual instantiate one, that more information became available. He learned that, unlike the Wall item, the Target item was destructible. So, if he shot an arrow at a gelatin wall, it would bounce back, but if he shot a gelatin target, it would punch through. Training Dummy -Instantiation Cost: variable -Operation Cost: variable -Description: Size, shape, and material composition are adjustable. Movement can be programmed. The last item, the training dummy, went well beyond size, shape, and composition, it could be programed! There was no indication of the degree and complexity of programing possible, so he didn''t know if it was limited to something simple like walking in a circle, or if it could be programed to do something as complex as mimic a wild animal, or martial artist. The presence of the target and training dummy items hinted at possibilities beyond pointless decoration. If he practiced a martial art in his soul space, would the results of practice transfer to his physical body? If only he could instantiate one of these in the outside world. A giant spider would have no problem climbing the slope. If only... [Achievement: Total Energy Points consumed exceeded 1000] [Reward: 1000 Genesis Points] He was just about to focus on the target dummy, like he had with the target item, when he received a new message. Then two seconds later... [Achievement: Longest single Soul Space visit exceeded 1000 seconds] [Reward: 1000 Genesis Points] It was time. He briefly considered just staying in his white room, but discarded the idea as foolish. If his physical body died, would he die, or would he be trapped in his white room forever? He''d go insane with boredom. So, reluctantly, he left his white room to resume climbing. He needed to find water. Chapter 6: Rescue Chapter 6 - Rescue When Jack left his soul space white room, his senses were again flooded with thirst, hunger, aches, and pains. He was still tired, and he didn''t feel like he''d recovered much energy. He was worried that he would only get more tired over time, and would lose any chance of finding water, so he rolled over and resumed his climb. From tree to bush to boulder, he crawled up the slope. Each time he thought about resting, he reminded himself that he might not wake if he fell asleep, so he pressed on. He had just passed around a large cluster of bushes and was plotting his path upward when he spotted an oddly shaped rhododendron. The rhododendron''s branches were closer to the ground than was normal, and he wondered if it was the same one he''d been trying to traverse before blacking out. Having some hope that the trail was near, he felt revitalized and climbed faster. Soon he was certain that it was the same rhododendron, and a few minutes later he crawled up onto the trail, then rolled onto his back, breath labored. He''d made it. With the appearance of the white room, he had mostly concluded that he was not suffering from head trauma. That left the question, what was Genesis Heart? Was it a system, or something else? If it was a system, was he the only one, or was this some kind of system apocalypse? If this was a system apocalypse, the kind that spawned monsters or caused animals to rapidly grew stronger, then he was probably screwed. He rolled over and laboriously clambered to his feet. He could barely walk, let alone fight for his life. So with some trepidation, he stumbled down the trail, trying not to make too much noise. His progress was slow, and he hoped his strength would hold out long enough to make it back to his car, hopefully before it got dark. He was approaching the fork in the trail that lead to either Lake Janus or the trailhead when he heard voices. Without even thinking, he yelled, "Help!" Or tried, but it came out more a gasp than anything. He swallowed a few times and tried again. "Help!" This time, he succeeded. The voices stopped. He yelled again, "Help!" louder this time. The voices drew closer and soon a couple came into view, headed towards him from the trail that lead to Lake Janus. "Oh, my god," cried the woman. "Are you alright?" "Damn," said the man, "What happened to you? You look like a zombie." Shit, is this a zombie apocalypse? "He does not look like a zombie," said the woman. Then she scolded him. "You and your fascination with zombies." She approached Jack and took his face in her hands. "You are incredibly pale. What happened? Did you lose your supplies? Are you starving?" Her questions were not reassuring to him. Was she asking him as one hiker to another, or as one survivor to another? "Can you spar some water? Salt? Food bar? I haven''t had anything for two days." "Oh, shit," exclaimed the man. He pulled out a bottle and shook out several tablets, then handed them to Jack. "Here," the man said, "These are electrolyte tablets." Then, after Jack tossed them in his mouth, the man handed Jack his drinking tube. Jack grabbed it and pulled some water in his mouth before crunching on the tablets. He didn''t wait for them to completely dissolve before swallowing them and sucking greedily on the man''s drink tube. The water was heavenly, and he just kept drinking. Eventually, the man grabbed the tube and yanked it out of Jack''s clutching hand, saying, "Whoa, there. Don''t want to guzzle too much all at once, or you''ll just puke it back up." Jack nodded, wordlessly. He was still thirsty, but understood the advice. The woman had pulled off her pack and was fishing around inside it. She pulled a food bar and handed it to Jack. He tore it open and took a bite. It was mint chocolate flavored. Normally, he disliked that flavor, but right then, it was the best thing he''d ever tasted. He resisted the urge to wolf it down and instead chewed each bite thoroughly before swallowing; the couple watching him in silent concern. After several bites he said, "Thanks you so much. I''ve been dreading heading down to my car, worried I wouldn''t have the energy to make the trip." "I can imagine," said the man. "What happened?" asked the woman. Jack pointed back down the trail towards Lake Valhalla. "You know that section of trail that eroded and is now blocked by a rhododendron?" he asked. "No," said the man. "Yes," said the woman. "I read about it in a comment on my All Trails app." "Well, I was passing through it when the branch I was holding onto broke." "No!" the couple said in unison. "Yes. Almost died on the way down. If it wasn''t for a rhododendron, I would''ve fallen off a cliff and died. Lost my pack somehow during the fall. It took me two days to climb back up, and I finally reached the trail about an hour ago." He wasn''t about to mention Genesis Heart or being in a void for two days. So he lied and said it took two days to climb back up. It was technically true, if you ignored the fact that he "waited" two days before starting his climb. "That must have been rough. I''m glad you made back up to the trail," said the woman. "I''m glad we heard you," said the man. "Are you parked at the trailhead?" "Yes, that''s where I was headed when I heard your voices." "Well, I''m glad we heard you," said the man. "If you''d tried making your way down to the trailhead in your condition, you could take a second tumble and crack your head open." When Jack finished the food bar he was holding, the man handed him an energy jell packet. "Here," he said. "This''ll give you more energy." Jack tore it open and sucked out the sweet jell inside. As soon as he''d squeezed out the last bit of jell, the man handed him a second packet. Four packets later, Jack was feeling closer to normal, if still thirsty. The man looked at the woman and said, "I think we should escort him down." "Here. These should help keep you from falling." The man handed Jack his hiking poles. They were like walking sticks but more ergonomic, with easy grip handles and wrist straps. Much of the trail down was too narrow for people to walk side by side, so the man went first, followed by Jack, with the woman at the end. They figured if Jack stumbled, the man might catch him before he cracked his head open. As they hiked, Jack tried to think of a way of asking if everything was alright without sounding like a lunatic. "So, where were you headed? Lake Janus?" he asked, trying to sound casual. "Yes, we were planning to go up to Heather lake, but got a late start and decided to spend the night at Lake Janus, then continue on in the morning. We even thought about going all the way to Pear Lake but, with the late start, there''s no way we could make it that far and still get back in time for work." It was Friday, so if they were just planning a weekend getaway and were worried about returning to work on time, then an apocalypse seemed unlikely. "Ah, well, sorry for making your late start even later. I''m just glad I ran into you," he said. "So are we," said the woman. "It would have been horrible if you didn''t make it and we found out we missed you by minutes. Besides, we have head lamps. It should be no problem to make it to the lake this evening." Just to be sure, Jack asked, "So, anything interesting happen in the last two days? Any world-shaking events I should be worried about?" "Well, the seagulls just took a crap all over their chances of making it to the world series. So I guess that could be world shaking if you''re a fan." The way the man said it sounded like he really didn''t care. "I was never a baseball fan, anyway. Or sports in general." said Jack. He was about to continue when his foot slipped and he barely caught himself with the hiking poles. The woman said, "Focus on where you''re putting your feet. You can worry about chatting when we get to the bottom." Jack just nodded. He''d accomplished his goal, anyway. It sounded like nothing unusual had happened. No system apocalypse, not zombie apocalypse, no magic anything. It didn''t mean he was the only one to get something like Genesis Heart, but at least he didn''t need to worry about world ending events. When they finally reached the parking lot, the man asked, "Do you want us to try and call you an ambulance?" "No. Thank you, but I can''t afford to pay the hospital to tell me what I already know. Drink electrolytes, get rest." "Are you sure?" asked the woman. "Yes. Thank you so much for your help. The trip down would have been hell without your help," he said. "We wouldn''t be able to live with ourselves if we''d let you hike down by yourself and found out later that you''d died," said the man. The woman nodded, then looked at the man. "It''s kind of late now. Maybe we should follow behind him and make sure he gets home safe?" "That''s not necessary, really," said Jack. "I''m already feeling better, thanks to the food and water you gave me. I should be fine driving home." "Are you sure?" asked the woman again. "Yes, I''m sure. Really." "Okay." As Jack climbed into the driver''s seat of his old Nissan Sentra he groaned in pain and pleasure. His hips still ached, but it felt so good to get off his feet. He started his car and pulled away; the couple watching as he drove down the gravel road. Still tired, hungry, and a little thirsty, he felt like he''d make it home in one piece. He was still worried that he wasn''t the only one who had received something like the Genesis Heart. For that matter, he still didn''t know what Genesis Heart was. It seemed like a system, with its achievements, Genesis Points that mimicked experience, and Energy Points that mimicked mana, but that wasn''t conclusive proof it was a system. System or not, if it knocked out other people like it did him, then there might be news of accidents or something. He hoped he was the only one, not just because it made him special, but because he didn''t want any competition. If everyone had systems, some of them would have ridiculously over powered systems, and he had no interest in fighting monsters. Neither the system spawned variety, nor the human variety. Chapter 7: Gold Mine (1) Chapter 7 - Gold Mine (1) 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 still 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. When he''d finally arrived at home the previous night, he''d gobbled down two food bars, guzzled some water, then promptly collapsed in bed, out in seconds. His dreams had been weird. The only part he could still remember was being chased through a forest themed mall by zombies in lab coats groaning "crisper". He shambled out of his bedroom and down the hall to the bathroom. After showering, he stared at himself in the mirror. He was tall, at two meters, and lanky, and had no real muscle definition, and was just a little soft in the middle, but not fat. There were no bruises on his face, but he could see bruises forming on his hips, knee, and ankle. It was amazing he''d escaped serious injury. He must have hit every soft bush on the way down. After putting on some sweats and a t-shirt, he entered his kitchen and grabbed some eggs and bacon from the fridge. 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 ¡ª losing his parents, then losing his adoptive father, and then losing his adoptive mother ¡ª 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. While he ate, he checked the news on his phone to see if there were any signs of other people getting systems. He only found the usual political BS, fear mongering, drama. No sudden spate of car crashes, and no news of strange behavior, if you excluded the usual social media drama. It wasn''t conclusive, but it was at least reassuring. 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 didn''t think his body disappeared, but he needed to confirm. He also wanted to know if it would be obvious to anyone that he was "away" while he was in his soul space. Would his eyes close, would his face go slack, would he drool? He''d been laying down last time, so he also wanted to know what would happen if he was sitting up, or standing. Without that information, it could be risky to use time acceleration. He placed his phone on the coffee table and leaned it against a bowl of mixed nuts, switched 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. After counting to ten, he exited his soul space, stopped the phone recording, and then watched the video. He''d been staring at the juncture between the wall and the ceiling behind his T.V. 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 the same section update again. When he examined that section, he learned 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 would look 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 accurate 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 its 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 simulations of groups of people, cities, or countries. It is not sufficient to precisely replicate the thought processes of a sapiens. 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 statistically 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 its precise state is captured. In a simulation based on a snapshot of this level of detail, nearly everything will behave identically to that of its real-world original. This includes sapiens and most complex technology. However, this level of detail does not capture quantum 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 subatomic particle. There is nothing and no one on terra capable of distinguishing a simulation from reality when operating at this level of detail. Chapter 8: Gold Mine (2) Chapter 8 - Gold Mine (2) 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 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 Approximation 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. 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, or 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 three 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 night''s 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. He had enough GP to unlock the Template Creation feature and extend his Snapshot range, but would have to wait for more 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 120,000 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 only needed 111,000 GP to unlock the items in his store, but if he wanted to extend the range of snapshots very far, he''d need more. And since unlocking snapshots had revealed new store items, he expected that unlocking the three features he had available would reveal even more items. So earning GP now, for later use, made sense. 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. 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. Chapter 9: Gold Mine (3) Chapter 9 - Gold Mine (3) 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 ten 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 one hundred 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. So he increased his snapshot range once. [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: Total Energy Points consumed exceeded 10,000] [Reward: 10,000 Genesis Points] [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): 11,121,049 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): 11,120,049 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): 10,120,059 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: Total Energy Points consumed exceeded 100,000] [Reward: 100,000 Genesis Points] [Achievement: Total Energy Points consumed exceeded 1,000,000] [Reward: 1,000,000 Genesis Points] [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): 11,106,728,614 Eleven billion points! He looked at his store catalog and saw that two 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 the original. The export cost varies depending on the degree of change. A template can be updated to match an instantiation at no cost. 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. Chapter 10: Gold Mine (4) Chapter 10 - Gold Mine (4) The Linked Templates feature was similar to the Linked Self feature but for objects, and it could make a laptop in his soul space more useful. Assuming the cost wasn''t crazy. 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. 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. Cannot be used in conjunction with Linked Self. He had encountered the concept of split mind, and parallel minds skills in web 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. He was a little disappointed that he could not use Parallel Self and Linked Self at the same time. It would have allowed him to study and sleep at the same time. Or sleep and exercise. 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 he disappointed her. Even if he couldn''t use Parallel Self and Linked Self at the same time, he could use Linked Self and Time Acceleration at the same time, so he could still effectively gain more hours in a day. Being able to complete a two-hour workout in 12 minutes would be nice. 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 to 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. Maybe this soul space assistant could answer his questions about Genesis Heart. Chapter 11: Madison (1) Chapter 11 - Madison (1) Jack had just exhausted the figurative gold mine of sapiens-in-snapshot achievements, and was excited to maybe finally get his questions answered, when he heard his doorbell ring. At this time of day, it was almost certainly solicitors, and he was planning on just ignoring them, but then they rang the bell again. And again, and again. Seriously? Thoroughly annoyed at whoever was answer-blocking him, got off his bed and stomped towards the front door. If this wasn''t a solicitor offering a god damn free blow job, he was going to be doing some yelling. Not bothering to look through the peephole to see who it was, he just jerked the door open. Standing on his doorstep was a young woman with frizzy reddish-brown hair pulled back into a ponytail, wearing baggy black denim jeans and a gray hoody large enough to qualify as a short dress. She was looking down with slightly hunched shoulders and flinched when Jack yanked the door open. "Madison? What was she doing here?" He''d known her since sixth grade, and she was the only person he considered as a friend. They spent a lot of time together during the school year, but her home life was complicated. Like him, she was an orphan, but unlike him, she had living relatives, and had ended up living with her aunt and uncle. They were weird; controlling, and permissive in strange ways. They hardly ever let her out of the house except for school and didn''t let her have a cell phone. But at the same time they give her a laptop and Internet access, never seeming to care what she did with either. So, he was surprised to see her on his front porch. "Um, hi?" she said, timidly. She was unusually subdued. It was at that moment he noticed she was also wearing a backpack and had a small roller suitcase next to her. "What happened? Are you okay?" "Maybe? Can we, um talk inside?" "Sure, okay." He stepped back, holding the door open, and waved her inside. She picked up the roller case and hunched her shoulders as she squeezed past him, stopping just at the edge separating the hardwood foyer from the carpeted living room. He close the door, then walked past her to stand closer to the middle of the living room. "So, what happened? I thought your wardens never let you out." Calling her aunt and uncle her wardens was a morbid inside joke between them. Still looking at the floor, she took a deep breath, paused, then let it out. Then she did it again. It seemed like she wanted to say something but was having trouble building up the courage. He opened his mouth to say something, not sure what, when she took another deep breath and spoke. "I left. I had to! I just couldn''t take it anymore. They were getting worse and worse, and I just knew if I didn''t leave, they would do something awful! So, I left. I came here because Fran said I could. Please don''t make me leave." Everything came out in a rush, and she said the last with such desperation that Jack almost walked over and gave her a hug. The only reason he didn''t was because she had made it clear very early in their friendship that she did not like being touched. He really wanted to know what she meant by "they would do something awful". Who was "they"? Her aunt and uncle, her cousins? And what awful thing? And when had she talked to Fran? "Fran told you? When?" He wasn''t comfortable asking her about the "something awful", but he had no qualms asking her about whatever Fran was supposed to have told her. "During graduation. I wanted to talk to her one last time, before, you know..." she paused, probably worried how he would react to her referencing Fran''s recent death. "I understand. Go on." He did. He wasn''t going to get mad at her for bringing it up. And he certainly couldn''t fault her for wanting to talk to Fran one last time. The few times she had been allowed to come visit him over the summer breaks, she and Fran had seemed to get along just fine. "So, um...when I talked to her, she asked me if everything was alright. I said things were fine, but I don''t think she believed me. She, um...she said if I couldn''t take it any more, I should come stay with you. She said you wouldn''t kick me out. She also said if you looked hesitant, that I should remind you of the shelter. What did she mean by that?" At the end she had looked up and was looking at him, with a look of desperation, and hope and confusion. The shelter. The woman''s shelter. During Fran''s last days, they had discussed what to do with her clothes and some other possessions. In the end, she had declared that she wanted him to donate all her stuff to a specific woman''s shelter that was unaffiliated with any religious organization. So, if Fran was telling Madison to mention the shelter, then it was possible that the "something awful" was physical, or maybe even sexual abuse. He felt a rage building inside him. If they were abusing her, then they would pay. "Did they do something? Do we need to call the police?" he asked, almost growled. "What? No. No police! They...they didn''t do anything illegal. Not yet, anyway." The way she said it left him wondering if that was true, that they had done nothing illegal. But he wouldn''t force the matter. And he had no reason to think she was lying about talking to Fran, not after mentioning the shelter. So... "Okay, you can stay. The other bedroom is mostly empty, so you can use that. We''ll need to go buy you an air mattress, though. Unless you like sleeping on the floor." He said the last jokingly, trying to lighten the mood. "Um...I can just sleep on the couch. There''s no need to spend..." He interrupted her. "It''s not a problem. They are not that expensive, way cheaper than an actual mattress. A week''s worth of lattes from Stetle Brew would cost more." She chuckled at his reference to the famous coffee chain known for their expensive coffee. "Okay. Thanks." Chapter 12: Madison (2) Chapter 12 - Madison (2) "Come on, I''ll show you the room." Then he led her down the hall and opened the door to the former office/storage room. It had an empty desk in one corner and a small pile of boxes in the other. Seeing the boxes, Jack was reminded that he still needed to take Fran''s things and donate them to the woman''s shelter. While we wanted to just go to his room and dive into his soul space, he also didn''t want to leave Madison alone. Still, he needed to go get her an air mattress, and he might as well make the donation trip while he was at it. "So...I was thinking," he paused, "since I have to go out to buy an air mattress, I figured I might as well take care of donating Fran''s things as well." She nodded. "That makes sense." Then she pointed at the small pile of boxes in the corner, "are those it?" "Yeah, that''s most of it. But I still have a few of Fran''s things I need to pack. I...was not looking forward to it. So, I''ve been putting it off." "Do you want help?" "Yes!" he blurted. He really didn''t want to deal with the emotions that would almost certainly get dredged up as he was packing her remaining clothes. "Do you mind if you do it by yourself?" She shook her head. "No, I don''t mind." "Great, let me grab a box. The sooner you''re done, the sooner I can get going and get back." ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª Jack loaded the last of the boxes into the Gray Nissan Sentra he had inherited from Fran, then closed the passenger door. He''d filled the trunk, back seats, and the front passenger seat, managing to cram everything he planned to donate into the car. The car was so full that he could barely see out the back window through the rearview mirror, but at least he would only have to make one trip. He found the thought of giving away any of Fran''s things unpleasant, but he intended to carry out her last wishes, and this was one of them. He turned to Madison, who had helped load the boxes, "Are you sure you''re okay to be here by yourself? It feels kinda rude to leave so soon after you just got here." She sighed, "It''s fine Jack. Really. Besides, it will be nice for once to be able to take a shower wi...in peace and quiet." It sounded like she was going to say something else, then changed her mind. With? Without? Without what? Without her uncle or cousin creeping on her? He really wanted to know what was going on there that caused her to flee, but he wasn''t going to ask. If she wanted him to know, she''d tell him. "Okay, I don''t think I''ll be able to avoid evening rush hour, so It will probably take me at least three, maybe four hours." "It''s fine Jack. And thanks for letting me stay." "Hey. What are friends for?" He got in the driver''s seat and pressed the button on the garage door opener. As he backed out of the garage, Madison waved once, then turned and walked back into the house. Pushing the button to closed the garage door, he backed out onto the street. He hoped he could avoid the worst of rush hour. He was tempted to try and activate Parallel Self, so he could play with snapshots while he drove, but he wasn''t certain how it worked and didn''t want risk crashing. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª The women''s shelter was a small three story building that had originally been a hotel. When Jack walked into the lobby, he noticed an older woman behind the reception desk and two women standing in front of the desk. One was a younger woman that couldn''t be older than twenty, and the other was of indeterminate age, not young, not old, with shoulders hunched. As Jack approached the desk, he noticed that the woman with hunched shoulders turned to hide her face and hunched her shoulders even further. He wasn''t certain, but figured the woman with hunched shoulders was staying at the shelter and the younger woman was a volunteer. Stopping at the desk, he said tentatively, "Hi, I''m Jack. I talked to Melody about donating some stuff. She said I could drop it off with you?" The older woman behind the desk frowned slightly before saying, "Melody didn''t mention anything to me about receiving a donation." She paused, then started, "Let me-" But before she could continue, the young woman interjected disdainfully, "Well, don''t you just feel special, swaggering in here like you''re god''s gift to woman? Like we should be grateful to you for gracing us with your largess." Then she hmphed and continued, "We don''t need your man things. Get lost!" Still emotionally raw from his loss and not entirely comfortable parting with Fran''s possessions, he felt rage building inside him. This girl, he''d subconsciously downgraded her from woman, was shitting all over his memory of Fran, over her choices, over her possessions. The woman behind the desk gave the girl a look of admonishment. At the same time, Jack turned to the girl and said, "They are not my things. They are my mother''s things, and one of her dying wishes was for her possessions to be donated to this shelter. So, please, by all means, continue shitting on my dead mother." He thought about making a template of her, so he could...he squashed the thought. The girl looked like she would rather double down than admit she overstepped, but before she could mouth off, the woman behind the desk said, "Fran? Is your mother Fran?" "Yes," he replied, turning back to look at the older woman. "Yes, she is...was my mother." She turned to the girl and, while pointing at the woman with hunched shoulders, said, "Take her to room five and help her get settled." Then turning to Jack, she said, "I''m so sorry for your loss." Then she then continued, "Melody did call. She failed to mention your name, but did tell me a bit about Fran and the help she has provided this shelter in the past." Chapter 13: Madison (3) Chapter 13 - Madison (3) The girl looked like she would rather double down than admit she overstepped, but before she could mouth off, the woman behind the desk said, "Fran? Is your mother Fran?" "Yes," he replied, turning back to look at the older woman. "Yes, she is...was my mother." She turned to the girl and, while pointing at the woman with hunched shoulders, said, "Take her to room five and help her get settled." Then turning to Jack, she said, "I''m so sorry for your loss." Then she then continued, "Melody did call. She failed to mention your name, but did tell me a bit about Fran and the help she has provided this shelter in the past." This was news to Jack. Both Fran and Jacob had mentioned a few times that they believed any good deeds should speak for themselves and didn''t need an advertisement. So, here was proof that they followed their own advice. The older woman continued, "We all appreciate you taking the time to bring her donation to us. Do you want any help?" "No," he said, "I can handle it. Where do you want me to put the boxes?" "I''ll show you when you bring in the first box." He nodded, then turned and went outside to fetch the first box. When he returned, the older woman came out from behind her desk and gestured for Jack to follow her down a hall that led off the left side of the lobby. As he followed her, she turned to him and said, "Please don''t be too angry with the girl. She didn''t know." Still angry, he said, "And, what if I was donating things I purchased myself? Would you still be apologizing for her?" She stopped walking and turned to face him. "As much as I hate to say it, we have had a few unpleasant experiences in the past with male donors. And because of those unpleasant experiences, we have had to institute a policy of only accepting donations from women, or women-owned businesses. It isn''t out of discrimination, but out of necessity that we made that policy. It has made it harder to support this shelter, but it has allowed us to remain independent and, more importantly, it has increased the security for all the women who shelter here." He wondered what had happened that forced them to turn away donations from men. He also noticed that she was not using the girl''s name, just referring to her as "girl". He suspected it was for security reasons. She continued, "If it had been your donation, I would have thanked you for your kind intentions, but politely declined, due to our policy. I would have also apologized for the girl''s rudeness." He sighed, "Okay, I think I understand. I didn''t know about your policy. Thanks'' for not..." "It''s okay. It''s not really your donation, anyway. It''s Fran''s donation and you''re just delivering it. So, it''s not a problem." She winked at him, which helped take the sting out of her "not your donation" claim. He nodded, and she turned and resumed walking down the hallway. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª Jack pulled into his garage, happy to be done driving for the day. His earlier prediction of it taking between three to four hours had proved correct. He left around one, and it was now just after four. Traffic had been worse than usual for that time of day, but not as bad as it could have been. He grabbed the air mattress off the front passenger seat and headed into the house. The door to the garage was in the kitchen, and as he passed through it on the way living room, he noticed a plate and glass sitting on the kitchen table. He was a little embarrassed to realize he hadn''t considered if Madison was hungry when she had arrived. He also realized he was starving. His last meal had been breakfast. As he headed for the hallway that led to the bedrooms, he decided he was going to order pizza for dinner. As he entered the hallway, a stunning young woman walked out of the room he''d given to Madison. She had hair the same color as Madison''s, but it was loose and arrayed around her head like a frizzy halo. She was wearing a thin camisole and cotton shorts, and her athletic figure was on full display. His first thought on seeing the woman was, Nipples! She was clearly not wearing a bra and the camisole material was thin enough that he could see a faint outline of her areolas framing two sharp points, tenting the fabric of her top. His second thought was mild irritation that Madison would invite someone over without asking him first. Then his eyes focused on her face and dropped the air mattress in shock as he realized who she was. "Madison?!" He had no idea she was this hot. She''d always worn baggy clothes and now he was beginning to understand why. There was no way guys would leave her alone if she showed off this figure. "Eep!" she squeaked, then dashed back into her room, slamming the door behind her. "Just a second!" she yelled through the door. "Is that the air mattress?" "Um...Yes?" he replied. Still confused by what he was seeing. When did she get hot? A few seconds later, she opened her door and stepped back out into the hallway, this time wearing baggy sweatpants and a large t-shirt. He could still see more of her chest than he ever had before, but it was still less revealing than what many girls at school had worn regularly. She walked over to Jack, bent over and picked up the air mattress, then turned and headed back towards her room. As she walked away, she called over her shoulder, "I''m hungry. Can we order pizza?" "Um...sure? Yes! I was just thinking the same thing." He turned and headed towards the living room. The image of her in her thin camisole and cotton shorts was etched into his brain, and his pants were still tight. As he sat on the couch, he rearranged himself so he was more comfortable, and less obvious, then opened the pizza store app on his phone. At the same time, he turned on the T.V. and opened the WebTube app. He needed to distract himself and hoped his earlier arousal would subside before Madison came out of her room.