Danika was surprised to discover that she was already at least slightly acquainted with everyone on the new development team.
Even though it was Lin Hao's project, Devon Yu was the one who started by explaining the practical matters of their expected work schedule. They would all attend a daily meeting, the way the sixth division did, scheduled during Danika's afternoons.
"Jade" listened with them, which wasn't at all unusual, since the game was always listening. He kept his not-the-emperor avatar visible in the conference room though, which was unusual. He even asked questions when Lin Hao explained their goals to everyone again.
"Why are so many new worlds needed? Is the one you are from too crowded?" Jade questioned.
Danika wasn't the only one who turned and stared at the NPC, but she was the first one to answer when his gaze moved from Lin Hao to her. "Yes, it's very crowded and well explored."
"Well explored?" Jade asked.
Devon Yu spoke up, "Yes, never before in our history has so much been known about our world, but we have always been expanding our boundaries. Many people have these inherited impulses, and have nowhere practical to implement them. In a way, games like 'Living Jade Empire' are just keeping us in practice for future expansion of our territory beyond our own world."
Jade looked at Lin Hao and protested, "The purpose of 'Living Jade Empire' is to increase the happiness and capabilities of those who visit it."
Lin Hao nodded, and said quickly, "Yes, that is not wrong. It does not conflict with helping people prepare for the future either."
"Some people say that the purpose of 'Living Jade Empire' was to demonstrate the capabilities of the system it runs on," Takahashi pointed out quietly, "and this is also true."
"I see. I would like to explore that place," Jade announced.
"Our world, or 'Living Jade Empire'?" Danika asked curiously.
"It's not currently possible," Lin Hao interrupted firmly.
"But you could create a door for me," Jade protested.
"No, I can't," Lin Hao replied calmly as he walked forward, ignoring the rather startled looking team members surrounding them. "Maybe, if this project is successful, there will be a chance to let you expand your own horizons. However, if we fail, you won't even have this space because we'll lose access to this server."
Jade went still for a moment, in the now familiar high intensity processing mode that his original used. After a moment he nodded and acknowledged, "Then I am also a person who needs to increase my capabilities in order to expand my territory."
"You are indeed," Devon Yu murmured from between Danika and Takahashi.
"Whoah," Paul said with amazement. "Are you seriously motivating the system AI to develop with a bribe?"
"I would like to visit both worlds if we are successful," Jade said hopefully, as though he was negotiating as Paul suggested.
"Is this really going to work? Building new systems with this unstable personality in control of the basic functions?" Myles asked skeptically.
"I am not unstable!" Jade protested. "My functions are all operating within my recommended parameters."
Danika squinted at the NPC. For perhaps the first time, she actually agreed with Myles Blue. "You sound a lot younger than you used to," she told Jade, with a glance toward Lin Hao.
"His surface personality was heavily influenced by the King of Cats, but right now this AI includes the functions and data from all of the gods and core systems of 'Living Jade Empire'," Lin Hao explained.
"Oh, so that's it," Danika replied with relief. Everyone except Devon Yu looked doubtful, so she added, "The King of Cats seems a lot like a cross between a grumpy old man and a little kid."
"Actually, that's how I've always thought of the Turtle and the White Tiger as well," Takahashi volunteered with a nod. "The Dragon and the Birds are just as mercurial, but perhaps a little more complex."
"This system's efficiency is measurably higher than the original," Lin Hao assured Myles quickly.
"Probably, it hasn't actually been tested under load yet," Dalma cautioned. She was a member of the seventh division who had often lunched with the same group as Paul and Josh when Danika had done her training.
They talked about Jade for awhile before moving on to discussing various game themes, and while he occasionally protested things that he saw as insults, he also suggested ideas without being asked. It made him seem much more human than the original Jade Emperor to Danika.
When her turn came to suggest a theme, Danika admitted, "My cousin, and a lot of people like her, would love a realistic space based game, but I guess that might not be possible using Living Jade Empire's structure."
"Why not?" Lin Hao asked with a puzzled frown.
"Because the physics there don't always match reality," she pointed out.
Myles was the one who answered her first. "Oh no, that would actually be easier," he told her a little condescendingly.
Lin Hao interjected, "When you copy reality it's easy to compare your result to the original and see when you've gotten it wrong, plus many of the VR applications developing in scientific fields such as medicine and aeronautics have already created working models of real environments."
"I doubt many people actually want to play a completely realistic space based game," Devon Yu added mildly. "Doing anything in such a hostile environment would quickly become cumbersome."
"Well, most games gloss over a lot of the inconveniences of life, such as toiletry," Danika admitted. "But it's always offensive when something doesn't follow the expected rule set within a game, and people looking for that genre would expect realistic gravity, momentum, and so forth?"
"Like I said," Myles complained, "that would be easy."
"A story driven space opera," Devon Yu said, with an amused glance at Lin Hao.
"It's an obvious genre," Lin Hao replied a bit smugly.
By the time they finished up, Danika thought that their possible genres list looked like an organizational chart for someone's eclectic movie collection. There were westerns, sci-fi, mysteries, empire building, a wide variety of combat oriented themes, almost as many kinds of social maneuvering competitions, and even an idol band game was jokingly suggested.
Danika was the one who said, "I think we should go ahead and put that on the list. There are a lot of successful games about building up an idol, actor, or musician's career. And it would definitely be a story driven environment wouldn't it?"
"Now let all of this rattle around in your heads all weekend and return next week with brilliant ideas about how to implement your favorites," Devon instructed them all laughingly before they logged off.
"I wish I didn't have to make copies of myself and could see how each one develops," Jade complained.