You will be graded on your technique and how far you make it. Timing is not an issue, so take as long as you want. Bonus objectives and items may be taken for additional points. The only gear you are allowed is what you have on you or find within.
Alan was silently thankful he didn’t have to do the exam without his power armor, but at the same time a bit disappointed he wouldn’t get to test out specialized items. Since absorbing the Black Rose Guild’s information, Eve had reclassified the Revenant Power Armor as Revenant Scout Power Armor (Basic). Apparently, while the basic power armor did have the invisibility field, which would hide Alan from passive scans and visual detection, there were more advanced versions that allowed the user to mimic things like sound, temperature, smell, digital signals, and the like, allowing the player to even avoid detection when faced with scanners.
Slowly opening the door, Alan emerged into another dimly lit hallway, his power armor’s invisibility field activated. These dull, metal hallways were starting to get a bit old, but Alan supposed he should get used to them. With Eve’s help, Alan easily avoided the hidden cameras and floor-plate traps, making it to the end of the hallway, the first checkpoint.
Alan noticed that he was able to move with much more ease and there was a sort of smoothness to his actions. Acts of balance felt simple, while steps felt more sure. Small details like an uneven place in the floor were noticeable without Eve’s help, demonstrating that the increase to his agility and perception attributes was having a definite effect.
Alan moved through a series of obstacle courses involving guards, hidden traps and walls. There were so many walls. Walls he had to scale, walls he had to crawl under, walls he had to hide next to, walls he had to avoid, walls he had to open up because of the hidden compartments inside, walls that weren’t walls at all but actually doors, walls that were just walls, blocking his way. Despite all the walls, Alan made good time, continually making his way deeper and deeper into this maze at a light jog.
After half an hour Eve had Alan find a safe spot, rest, and recharge the power armor’s energy. Then they resumed their journey through this labyrinth of walls. Alan proceeded with a smile on his face, sweat on his brow, leaping across ledges, vaulting over walls and dodging laser scans like a parkour artist. Still, Alan had never practiced many of these movements, and it wasn’t long before he accidentally tripped, misreading a move that Eve had instructed, positioning his foot in just the wrong way, landing off balance.
Before he could catch himself, Alan was falling backwards, and he landed on his back, moving through a line of lasers Eve had marked. He winced when he landed, more at the blaring horns that started playing in the background than the pain of the fall. Two spherical robot sentries emerged from hatches in the wall, actively scanning the entire room Alan was in.
With a desperate dash Alan tried to reach the nearest exit, but the sentries were simply moving too quickly, flying through the air above all the obstacles. Not even Eve could find a path out, but Alan still tried to make it to the exit. When it was obvious that the sentry would reach the exit before he would, Alan pulled out his laser blasters, and shot at both of the sentries simultaneously, but the moment the shots hit the examination ended.
Stealth Test Complete.
Results being gathered…
Managing to weave your way through multiple hallways and obstacles, you have gained a new ability, Acrobatics (Basic)!
+5 Agility +5 Strength
Ability Synchronization! The Enhanced Movements and Acrobatics (Basic) abilities form a combination that increases both respective abilities. Another ability may encompass the two.
Sneak (Basic) has been reclassified as Sneak (Intermediate) based upon the results of your examination, and you have been ranked according to your performance. You have gained the Stealth (Basic) Ability under the Rogue ability tree. Sneak and Acrobatics have been reclassified as sub-abilities of the Stealth ability.
Alan brought up the Sneak and Acrobatics abilities as well as the updated Stealth ability.
Skill Name:
Skill Rank:
Skill Proficiency:
Skill Rarity:
Stealth (Basic)
E
D134566322
F
The art of moving about undetected.
Skill Name:
Skill Rank:
Skill Proficiency:
Skill Rarity:
Acrobatics (Basic)
F*
???
G
The ability to perform miraculous feats of agility and balance.
Skill Name:
Skill Rank:
Skill Proficiency:
Skill Rarity:
Sneak (Intermediate)
E
F1559189361
G
An intermediate stealth ability.
Alan frowned slightly, unhappily looking at the mediocre results before him. He closed the windows resolutely, sure that he would do better on the next test.
A.I. Interaction Examination Initialized
The labyrinth of walls and traps slowly vanished, replaced by the original white chamber Alan had found himself in. A wall of chat windows appeared before him, and then suddenly without hesitation streams of numbers and symbols started appearing on all of them.
Eve frantically began to analyze them, trying to interpret for Alan. Line after line of text appeared in each of the windows as Eve slowly began translating all of the different lines to English, or at least computer code that was in English. Protocols, syntax, everything from letters to indentation were all over the place, and Alan couldn’t make heads or tails of anything any of the windows were showing him. He imagined the complexity of the hundreds of different computer languages that existed, and then he thought about the thousands or maybe millions of languages that must exist in the Game, shuddering at the thought. While the windows, each of which Alan assumed represented an AI of some sort, might be trying to communicate useful information to him, Alan certainly wasn’t getting the message, and Eve couldn’t help him due to the strange rules governing AI interaction in the Game.
As a headache slowly developed, Alan stopped trying to interpret the lines of code. Instead, he closed his eyes, reaching out with his mind, searching for a mental connection. To his surprise, Alan detected hundreds of “minds” or AI, but most seemed distant, foreign. If he really strained, he might be able to forge a connection with these “minds,” but Alan chose to initially ignore those that seemed too far away.
He re-imagined each possible AI as a sort of mote of light, a star in the sky, and a map slowly began to form in his mind, tenuous connections swirling about as each star seemed to move and react to others. Alan concentrated on the nearest, brightest star, easily within reach. A strong connection was established. Hesitatingly, Alan sent out a thought.
Hello?
Immediately, the connection was broken, and the star in Alan’s mind disappeared. Unperturbed, Alan continued to make connections, sending out the same initial Hello. Most responded similarly to the first, simply breaking the connection and vanishing. A few he was able to have a basic conversation with, introducing himself, but they were all uninteresting, and soon broke off their connections. As Alan started to strain to connect to the distant stars in his mind, he felt his headache slowly increase in intensity. It was a sort of dull, throbbing pain, rather than the knife-like pain that came when he was pushing his physical limits, but it seemed to underlie his every thought, his every action.
Talking to these distant AI was like trying to converse with a madman. They raved in different languages, talked in unknown symbols that Alan had never heard of. One repeatedly yelled the thought TWO with such intensity that Alan was forced to break off the connection with the fear permanent brain damage might be done.