***
- Show your smartphone! - policeman from Rosgvardiya shouted at the same time heroically waving his baton over the defeated Ivan Stepanovich, while the other two tried to twist his arms in order to snatch out of them a box of new boots, into which he, like a holy relic, grabbed the weak but stubborn fingers.
- Where did you get the money for such expensive shoes? Aaa? You definitely stole them! Well ... give it back! - The second shouted and puffed, trying to snatch the box out of his hands.
The third, as if he was not allowed more by his rank, simply pulled Ivan Stepanovich by the hand, periodically kicking him in the back, helping the decisive actions of the other two.
- Now you will answer for everything! The parasite! - The first one shouted, kicking with a baton on the head, then vice versa on the legs of the old man …
- Well, drag him to the paddy wagon, - came the imperious voice of the fourth.
***
* Melodic sound *
Hearing a strange, but pleasant and most importantly, saving sound, Kaas woke up. Despite the disgusting dream, he felt like a winner.
"They never managed to snatch my shoes away!"
"But what kind of crazy dream? he thought."
How bleak and unfair his past life was, but even that was exaggerated.
"It turns out that since I woke up, then everything is not so unreal, unless it was a dream in a dream."
With this thought, Kaas continued to reflect on the current situation, examining his palm from different angles, and, as if not believing in what he saw, periodically clenched it into a fist and unclenched it back to feel the load on the skin, joints, muscles and tendons.
"So, I'm 10 years old, but now, I'm in a world where cameras are constantly recording everything and you are constantly being spied on. Not just spying, but everyone is spying each other, and so am I. And in which case, any event can be disclosed. In the old world, the government only dreamed of this, inventing means of spying on citizens. Fuck knows what is strange for this world and what is not. Now, if I want to scratch, for example, behind the ear?"
"Ahhhh ... remember the devil." As soon as he thought about it, his ear immediately combed treacherously and really not knowing what to do, Kaas turned on his side to lie on him.
"In addition, here I have parents and a grandfather with whom I will have to communicate, and also Aska ... she has already put me before the fact that I will have to steal some kind of device at school, otherwise I will constantly lie like this on the bed for half a day. ... And still work at my 10 years old? What can I do? Even with my past life experience, in a world where food appears from the wall, and the smartphone is inside the body and may even save your life ... heh, but the truth is not always ..."
- I'm back, now you can get up, - Aska's melodic and gentle voice interrupted his gloomy thoughts.
Kaas immediately jumped out of bed and, first of all, "pulled away" properly scratching his ear, which did not let him forget about himself. The power of self-hypnosis is not a joke at all, but, for some reason, making the ear itch is much easier than stopping it. Then, he began to stretch his neck and limbs tired from idleness.
- It really felt like torture, - he said, making another bend, unsuccessfully trying to reach the floor with his fingers.
- Then learn faster, I myself do not like the fact that I have to worry about what is happening.
Aska was again in her "looking glass", only the interior changed a little, the wall that was on the right became covered with a simple but very mysterious pattern of thick lines, and along it appeared a rack with strange figures, more reminiscent of bizarre tree roots and stones. It was unusual, but beautiful and gave the impression of high art.
Nature was in the same place, outside the "window" of Aska's room, with only one difference, the day was replaced by a moonlit night. More precisely, two lunar ones, there was one large moon in the sky, which provided just a stunning view of the night nature. And one more, small, less bright one, which moved across the sky with a slow but noticeable speed for the eyes.
- Are you ready? - She asked, considering how he does his "exercises".
- Wait a little more - he hastily answered, literally throwing himself in the direction of the already familiar cans of food and drinks. First of all, he grabbed a white can with two red and one blue stripes, it turned out to be quite tasty, sweet juice, reminiscent of ... He never came up with what he resembles when the juice is already over.
After showering and changing into the same clothes that again looked like they had just been taken out of their packaging, he drank the remaining can of food. The cans still changed color after use, turning pale gray, as if they were alive before, and their contents were blood that an evil vampire had sucked them of.
- What are you?... Didn't eat or drink at all this time? - She asked in surprise.
- You yourself said that I should lie down and do nothing, of course I was afraid to do something wrong, - he said in embarrassment, remembering how he didn't even dare to scratch his ear.
- It is clear, you can eat and drink whenever you want, PAK usually reminds you if necessary, and vice versa, if you suddenly want to overeat. I will leave this feature active today.
- Are you ready? - She asked again.
- Ready! - mechanically, like a soldier to his commander, he reported to Aska, who was still the same incomprehensible in her military uniform.
- Good, - he heard, and right there, he himself appeared in front of him, or rather, a highlighted image of Kaas from his past and a lot of symbols, icons, charts and indicators of an incomprehensible purpose to him, creating the impression that he suddenly became a terminator robot.
- Look, - she began, pointing to the largest of the messages, - There will be the text of the spoken words and sentences in the Kiva language, each word and letter will be highlighted in accordance with the pronunciation. And here, there will be the same text, but in your native language, so that you can read it and understand the meaning.
- These indicators show your progress from zero to one hundred percent, in addition, each of them will change color in response to your successes or mistakes, from red if you did something worse than before, to green when your results are better...
- The lesson will take place in several repetitions. You will first hear each sentence in the original and familiarize yourself with its translation. If this is important knowledge, then we will superficially analyze it so that the further text is understandable.
- Then, you will try to repeat this sentence, as if you are an actor playing a role. At the same time, an assessment of compliance will be made, for each aspect of speech and facial expressions, and the results will be displayed on these indicators.
- And then, we will follow the words, practicing and improving your pronunciation to a state until at least 30% compliance with the original is achieved. Of course, you need to strive to get better results.
Aska patiently and in detail continued to talk about how the training will take place and what exactly he sees on the virtual stage.
This was Kaas's optional annual report from the past. As it turned out, at the school, students who achieved a certain rating, at the end of the school year, could create and read a report on one of the topics studied over the past year, for younger students. Thus, Kaas took this opportunity for himself in order to receive significant merits. No, these were not the usual grades that the teacher could put in a journal or in a student's diary. These achievements directly influenced the school rating.
The quality of the report was assessed both by a specialized teaching artificial intelligence and a responsible teacher "from the shadows". In addition to the report itself, questions from listening students who could also improve or worsen their achievements were assessed, and the speaker's answers to these questions. For both sides of this event, it was all optional. Even the visit itself.
However, most of the students were interested in it as a significant number of points could be earned. The greatest benefit, of course, awaited the successful speaker.
The ratings and scores in the Kiva schools were not any convention or joke. Depending on the ratings, benefits were accrued both in special school currency and in real money that could be spent in everyday life.
These accruals were not just some kind of total amount, but were divided for each section of knowledge, both taking into account the year of study and without it:
Total points earned
Place in the ranking of the school
Place in the city ranking
Place in the ranking of the country (Kivas)
Game
Attendance
Behavior
Violations
…
Etc. It seemed that even an adult would not be able to understand all this. But since this was important information right now, Aska explained the basics. And as a result, it turned out to be not so scary. Children were taught not only subjects, but also life in society, in fact, giving them rewards for their work and achievements. The children also had both favorite items and not favorite ones. All ratings and earnings, it was always possible to study and evaluate, compare them with the achievements of all other students throughout the country. Thus, everyone could understand what exactly he would receive by taking the next step. It was a real intellectual and business competition.
Children were taught here practically from birth. Not a single child was ignored and the possibility was completely ruled out that the full scope of knowledge and opportunities would not be given. Everything else depended on the student himself.
The ratings provided powerful emotional and material incentives. It would seem that it is difficult for a child to explain such concepts, but everyone has a personal assistant who, like a more experienced friend, can explain and suggest anything.
Real money that entered the child's wallet every day allowed him to buy things, entertainment, favorite food.
School currency money was special and could only be spent at school. If the student attended school, then it could be, for example, school meals, but the most important thing, of course, it was gadgets and access to virtual games.
The gadgets and other items that were put up for sale were determined by the annual wish list of all students, as if they were making limited lists of gifts for Santa Claus. Their number was fixed for the whole year, and there was a real struggle to get what they wanted at an attractive, school price. Moreover, the desires of children are not constant, they could change several times in a year. In this list, as a rule, there was nothing unnecessary for them, because the children themselves filled it out. What is strange about the fact that any child, seeing him, would like to receive everything that was listed there? Therefore, items from this list could be acquired ahead of time by those who had not even thought about them before.
It was now clear that Aska hadn't offered to steal anything at school. This advanced PAK model had to be purchased from this school store, and its cost was not out of reach for Kaas. However, there was not such a powerful source of power, except that it was too expensive, it was simply not included in the lists. And really, why should schoolchildren need it if their standard devices and programs are enough to work without recharging for almost a whole year, and Aska needed almost a hundred times more capacity.
School virtual games differed from the rest in that only schoolchildren participated in them. These were real separate worlds. And of course, they were also at the level of school, city and country, with their own price tag for participation, and with their awards for achievements. Everything was done so that it was a real "carrot" for children. Firstly, it was much more affordable entertainment that everyone could buy for themselves for ordinary money. And also, they were much better quality and more interesting than the games available for free. Not to mention the fact that the game's school ratings made it possible to stand out among students and earn both real and school money.
But the main thing in them was not at all this, but the fact that all games were part of education. In fact, children learned the most skills in these games in a wide variety of areas. Although these worlds were virtual, the volume of experience gained was much higher than in real life, because not every day there are events that can provide new knowledge and opportunities.
The difference between how much the students earned depending on the rating was impressive. With a zero rating, the income was zero. Even a rating in a symbolic unit gave income, although it was just as microscopic. Outstanding, albeit in one direction, students earned really well, especially those who were at the top of the country's ranking. There were only a few universal geniuses, but even if you succeeded in one direction, then at the top of the ranking it gave income tens and even hundreds of times higher than the basic allowance.
"Is a virtual assistant enough to make kids grow so fast?" Kaas wondered. The details of the educational process were not yet clear, and he was especially interested in how children were motivated to develop and accustomed to such an adult way of thinking.
Right now, there was no time to go into details and numbers, and it was not urgent. Aska gave only general information that closed questions with what was happening at the school, and in this case, revealed the essence of what was happening on the virtual stage, where the former Kaas was paused right now.
- Let's get started, it is important that you get some language skills today, and your watching a movie while you are waiting for me is not completely useless.
With this, the scene was unpaused. The talk began with a greeting and a short introduction, but even that turned out to be a real torture for Kaas, although all he did was repeat words and lip movements. The indicators blinked like a Christmas tree, but after about an hour, most of the indicators were still below 10%.
The sentence was divided into words, words into letters and sounds, and they repeated the same thing over and over again. Aska's 30% match now seemed like an unattainable peak. The indicators were ruthless, unforgiving, and accurate.
- Let's take a break, - Kaas literally begged, - I want to drink and eat.
"And I'm damn tired", he thought to himself.
- Well, - as if doing a favor she nodded condescendingly, - But the next break, only when you reach an average result of 20%.
With these words, she waved her hand in the direction of the niche with drinks, for a minute, she again aligned with the wall as if it was closed by a luminous barrier. The letters on it were no longer such a curiosity for Kaas, and he clumsily and almost in a whisper tried to pronounce them. However, all the words there were completely unfamiliar. The door opened, empty cans were missing, and in addition to the leftover drinks, two more sets of food cans and two cans of drinks appeared.
"The cans are not so big, as if they were specially made for a child", thought Kaas, emptying another light green can, then took two drinks at once and stretched them out for almost twenty minutes, putting his thoughts in order and admiring the beginning flourishing.
The first flowering that he saw in this world.
The head was not overloaded as he had expected before, everything was remembered quite easily, but the constant repetitions of the same completely exhausted the nervous system, and the cheekbones literally cracked from dull pain. The last of the drinks had only one blue stripe and was simple, clean and cool water, which sip after sip, soothed him and seemed to wash away his fatigue.
- Aska, your name translates as "squirrel", but how is my name translated? - Kaas asked suddenly.
- Your name? It translates … "apricot" …, - she answered indifferently.
…..
- What???