Digitas Chapter 8

Chapter 8

“There must be something about an override somewhere. There just has to be.” Henry growled to himself as he prowled Pru-City’s e-library for any form of resemblance of knowledge pertaining to his predicament.

 

“So, you are saying these people are…. dead?” Jon interjected; sitting cross legged on the lobby’s sofa, his armor now fully removed revealing his trademark polo Tee and short pants and reading a downloaded book from the library servers on his console. He eyed a pacing Brandon who have thankfully calmed down from his induced rage. Now that the rage has subsided, anxiety filled the gaps.

 

“Perceived dead would be the correct answer. I have no way confirming it from here. Never happened before has it?” Henry replied grimly as he continued pouring over his company’s database.

 

“Why can’t you just give me a straight answer? It’s either a yes or a no!” Brandon bellowed as he gets visibly irritated each passing moment.

 

“Wo. Okay calm down Brandon; you are going to throw another fit!” Henry replied with a sudden sense of urgency; he had no intention to pacify the grisly man yet again; spell casting was taxing to the mind.

 

“I- I am sorry. Occupational hazard. Brandon grunted in response.

 

“Digitas is very much more like a living organism then a set of codes although admittedly, it is exactly that at its core. Perhaps it was hacked. But I find that highly unlikely. Dr. Raj was never good at sharing; even the work done by his thousands of staff around the world is highly encrypted. Most of the core’s programming is made known only to him.” Henry reasoned to himself as he sat himself down on the sofa opposite Jon’s, his hands locked upon his chin in contemplation.

 

“Interesting book here.” Jon drawled, breaking a momentary silence. “History of Patina Volume 1; it has your name in it, you are Henry Cheer aren’t you?”

 

“I was mentioned in one sentence. One.” Henry replied holding out his pointer upwards to emphasize the point in unison with his heightened tone.

 

“And it was an important sentence. The Four Founders was indebted to you? That’s some history you got going for you. You knew the Four Founders?!” Jon gushed. 

 

“One of them was a dear friend yes. But we have not been talking for some time now. You know, we drifted; wanted different things.” Henry replied biting his lip. It wasn’t always good memories. To be put it precisely, it was more of bittersweet.

 

“Which of the founders was it? Was it the Great Creator Kirin? No-no- don’t tell me it’s the hormonal rage inducer; the reason for the insecurities of half the male population, Elle?” Jon queried excitedly. The Four Founders were the strongest players around of their age; leading the team that established the cities in Patina, having defeated the Beast of the Continent to earn that right.

 

Digitas duels and regional politics were closely followed across both reality and the virtual world. It was a sport loved and with it came the funding, status and of course pressure to remain on top. In the highest level of play, no one could consistently win in every match, but as far as the world was concerned, the Founding Four were the heavy favorites.

 

“No. It’s that one they call ‘The Commander’.” Henry replied stoically.

 

“Uhuh. That one huh? Never really liked his style. Lacks flair. Too calculated.”

 

“Wasn’t always like that. Or I wouldn’t have needed to heal him that much.”

 

“And for that, you appear in the histories of Patina for the years to come. A good trade-off, no?”

 

Henry didn’t answer. The friendship was as old as he could remember, yet it left a dissonant note in him; a memory of his younger days. They knew each other even before Digitas came to being and were even in the pioneering batch of players when it was first announced, waging their safety out of their passion for the world. But, soon came the time when the fun died down and everything was suddenly uncomfortably serious. It was no longer about the adventure but the efficiency; a game of numbers.

 

He wanted power and strength but Henry was quite the opposite. He saw his friend consumed by the virtual world; cutting ties with everything once considered ‘real’; and soon that included Henry himself.

 

Perhaps this explains his reserved nature? He couldn’t tell.

 

“Hey, you don’t need to answer it alright. I totally understand” Jon spoke, breaking the silence yet again. “I really didn’t mean to dig out old wounds.”

 

“We should really focus on finding out what’s going on. There isn’t time to linger in the past.”

 

“Agreed. Well, I am no expert in academic research as you clearly are, but Digitas is an extremely large program. I would expect that a program of such magnitude will have certain automations in place for the sole purpose of troubleshooting. I should expect that they have already been triggered. Perhaps we can start there?” Jon promptly answered, lowering his handheld and putting on a smug grin.

 

“A computer program designed to handle errors? That actually makes a lot of sense. It was written in various publications covering the previous controversies of Digitas. It is well known that Dr. Raj was an accomplished artificial intelligence programmer which led him into the advancement of the virtual reality scene in the first place.” Henry stood up in realization.

 

“But if that is so, it sure as hell slacking really really REALLY hard right now.” Brandon groaned.

 

“Artificial Intelligence can’t slack. They were made that way.” Jon dismissed.

 

“Exactly. Exactly! The program isn’t slacking, it couldn’t solve it! At least not yet…” Henry exclaimed in the same excitement one would expect of a scientist discovering a major breakthrough. “But why? It should have access to just about every pixel in Digitas.”

 

“Well, what in Digitas would not consist of mere pixels?” Jon queried rhetorically as Henry's eyes narrowed.

 

“Us. Actually, to be precise, our consciousness.” Henry muttered slowly before pausing in thought.

 

“Jon, who are you exactly? We didn’t find you by accident did we?”

 

Jon smiled.

 

“No. You did not.”