Dan's desperate hope was visible in his eyes as he asked, "Can you bring someone back? Not like you, but the actual person."
She tapped her finger on her chin, her brows knitted in thought. "If you mean bringing the original body back to life then it's not possible."
Dan's face fell at hearing her answer, but she wasn't done speaking yet.
"Only way would be to go back in time to change the past."
"Is that even possible to do?" He asked, his hopes rising again.
"Well, I have never read any file on such a thing happening as it would take the entire energy of a universe" She continued after a brief pause, "But you could ask for administrative access to the whole system and try your hand at it."
Dan's heart raced in anticipation as he considered her words. Even if there was only a distant possibility, he would do everything in his power to achieve it; no matter the cost.
"So how can I get this reward?"
"Well, every variable is required to fulfill the tasks assigned to them, and if..."
Dan was quick to interject. "So I just complete them and get to choose what I want?"
"In broad terms, yes." She explained. "But it ultimately depends on your assigned role and how important you were to the ending state of the simulation."
Dan's frustration bubbled to the surface as he looked for a definitive answer. "Okay, so what is my role then?"
Her bright smile returned as she walked towards the kitchen. "Let's go and find out!"
Confused by her actions, Dan followed her. When they reached the fridge, he thought that maybe she was going to take something from inside.
"Can you have your drink later? Just show me the interface or something."
She gave him an inquisitive look before pulling away a paper that was attached to the fridge door. "Hmm? Of course, that's what I am doing."
Dan watched as she studied the contents of the paper. It showed all his stats and descriptions –– exactly like the image that he would see in his head.
"You put the interface information on the fridge?" He asked, incredulous.
"Of course! This is the most important part of you, it definitely belongs next to all the cute drawings you made!"
Dan's gaze shifted to the fridge door, where several sheets of paper were attached with more magnets. He only had a vague memory of them, but they did seem like the stuff he drew as a kid. He would have been embarrassed to see them again if not for his strange situation.
He sighed again and looked at her. "So why are you looking at these stats? Can't you just mentally access them since you're connected to it?"
"I don't know how to do that," she said without lifting her eyes from the symbols. "This is much easier anyway."
Dan felt defeated at her response. "For an AI program, you aren't very smart, are you?"
She feigned a pouting expression. "That's not a kind thing to say to your mother," she scolded mockingly. "This is the best I can do with the resources allotted to you."
Her enthusiasm grew as she started going on a tangent. "I read that the savior is given up to twenty percent of the total system resources."
"And how much am I given?"
"Hmm, it's around 0.00000..." she began but was promptly cut off once again when Dan said resignedly, "Okay, I get it. Forget that I asked; just tell me about these stats and what I need to do."
Her eyes widened and she stared at him in disbelief as if she had just realized an important detail. "Wait, you know these are stats? You can read and understand this information?"
Dan narrowed his eyes at her question. "Why? Shouldn't I be able to?"
Her mouth gaped open for a moment before she spoke again. "No! Of course not! Entities outside of the system can't even access any information related to it, let alone read it!"
She raised her voice as Dan wondered what she was going to say next.
"You are so amazing!" She looked genuinely delighted, but her expression changed to confusion the next moment. "But then why is there no role assigned to you? Even your stat values are extremely low for a variable."
Dan's mind wandered to how the stranger had mentioned that he was part of his interface while she continued her examination.
"This doesn't make any sense," She said, studying the skill section, "you can use time dilation and foresight?! Something like that would require immense processing power."
Dan then understood why he was overwhelmed with pain after using his abilities too much, and why he had been warned when he exceeded his limits.
"More than even what the savior you keep referring to can use?"
"For just one ability? Yes, far too much," she answered.
Dan thought about asking the stranger about the origins of these powers again but decided to prioritize getting more information. He reminded himself to do so later before turning towards her.
"Let's discuss that later. For now, tell me what I need to do to get that reward."
She was brought back out of her daze at his question. "I can't. If there is no role assigned to you then you don't get anything."
Dan's rage boiled over and he clenched his fists seeing all of his hopes crumble away.
"What the hell! What am I supposed to do then?!" He yelled out loud and stepped toward her but soon heard the stranger's voice.
'Leave it. Just ask her how others receive their rewards
Dan took a deep breath and contained his anger before posing the question.
"So how do the 'important people' receive theirs?"
"They get a token in the end after the system has accounted for all their achievements which they can redeem."
'I might be able to do something about it, maybe we can just steal it.'
Dan heard the stranger's solution and decided to discuss it with him later. It was out of his control so he couldn't do anything about it anyway.
"You also mentioned it before, but when does this thing end, or even start?"
"It is dynamic in nature so it is difficult to tell when it will start but there should be at least three months left."
Dan made plans on preparing himself by getting more practice with his powers. He decided to keep Audrey in the dark for a while until her emotional state stabilized and shifted his attention back to the present.
"You said my stats were low, how do they compare to the others?" He asked as he got curious about where he stood, he needed some kind of scale as they were just random numbers to him currently.
"Hmm, even just an average person would have three times as much as yours."
Dan sighed in resignation. "What about the abilities?"
"That part is harder to estimate, very few variables get access to abilities in the first place." She explained with enthusiasm as if she loved to provide information. "Even the top beings can only use one or two but a random function can result in more of them being available."
As Dan took in the information his attention was drawn to how she described people.
"'Beings'? Don't you mean humans?" He asked hesitatingly as he suspected he was stumbling upon something larger than he had anticipated.
"Of course, humans will be a part of it but this is going to be a class-III simulation so there will be beings from other worlds too - both intelligent and otherwise." She explained nonchalantly like a generic text-to-speech software. He couldn't get over how she would switch between a lifeless program and a perfect impression of his mother, complete with her quirks and mannerisms. But he shook those thoughts away as he realized that a truly world-altering event was going to happen soon. He berated himself for even considering abandoning his sister to such a future.
"This is strange." He was brought back out of his thoughts at her words.
"It says that you can use overclock but only programs directly running on the system can use that. It's probably an error."
Dan looked at what she was pointing to and realized that she was talking about limit break. He was confused at why she referred to it by a different name but after thinking for a moment he understood; he was able to read their writing but it wasn't a word-for-word translation. It seemed like he was interpreting it in his own words, making him suspect there might be inaccuracies in other stuff too.
"What does that do?" He asked her trying to see if he could spot other dissimilarities.
"It usually allows a program to request additional resources far exceeding its capabilities for a short duration."
"Why just for a short duration?" It had seemed strange to Dan that he wasn't able to use his abilities while in limit break. He also wanted to know why he couldn't sustain it for longer or even have the stats boosted permanently.
"Because It would shorten the lifetime of the program if used for too long."
Dan's eyes widened at the revelation, he had used it only once but it could still have drastic consequences. The possibilities raced through his mind, conjuring extreme scenarios that sent his heart pounding. However, before his imagination could run wild, she intervened, her voice cutting through his thoughts.
"But you are just a variable, so it shouldn't happen to you." she mused, her words tinged with uncertainty. "Yet, it's strange that such wrong information is displayed, considering the system never makes mistakes."
Dan breathed a sigh of relief but he wanted to know more as he was still curious about his capabilities while under limit break.
"Does it restrict the use of other abilities? The overclock I mean"
"No, other functions should work as they would normally, except...yours seem to be severely restricted " She looked up at him and smiled brightly, switching from her deadpan expression to one of motherly love. "You don't have to worry about any of that, as this is just a mistake."
Dan thought for a while before asking.
"What if I am actually able to use it? Can you remove those restrictions?" He expected her to deny it immediately and was thinking about ways to make her agree when she replied.
"Of course! Whatever my Dan wants!" To his surprise, her reaction was far from what he expected. With a bright smile, she moved her hand across the paper, her finger seamlessly blending into its surface. The words beneath her touch began to transform, it seemed like this was how he was able to change information himself when he had first discovered the image. Curiosity got the better of him as she continued to work.
"You are not going to report this to your supervisor...or the system?"
She chuckled, dismissing his concern. "Silly, you are just a common variable. The system couldn't care less about your details."
Dan rolled his eyes, having grown accustomed to her habit of calling him inconsequential.
A few seconds ticked by before she finally announced, "All done."
"Thanks," he murmured, his gratitude barely audible.
Drawing nearer, she playfully pinched his cheeks once again. "You're welcome, honey!"
Dan pushed her hands away as she still had some greasy residue left from when she was eating popcorn. He cleaned his face in annoyance and asked her.
"Why are you watching tv and...eating popcorn anyway? Aren't you just a program?"
"I've already told you not to call me that," she pouted, rinsing her hands in sync with his actions. "But to answer your question...again, I'm a living entity in this place. I need to occupy myself, or I'll grow bored. And trust me, there's nothing here apart from the TV."
"Does that mean this is a physical place?" Dan inquired, his curiosity piqued.
She pondered for a moment before responding, "Hmm, not exactly. Consider it like an advanced virtual reality with only enough resources to render this one small house in infinite detail."
Her words prompted Dan to take a closer look around the house, realizing he had paid little attention to his surroundings when he first arrived.
"Only if it was possible to have more of the world exist outside of this house." She said as she finished washing her hands.
As he observed her returning the paper to its place alongside his drawings, a surge of emotions welled up within Dan. Thoughts of his real mother, trapped in a dreadful place during the last years of her life, flooded his mind. Now, it seemed even in death, she couldn't find freedom. He knew that the one before him was merely a code granted life by an otherworldly system, but he couldn't help but approach her and give her a gentle hug, which she returned. He closed his eyes and vowed to bring her back even if he had to fight multiple worlds or alien beings.
Dan's eyes slowly fluttered open, bringing him back to the familiarity of his room. However, his thoughts still lingered on what he had heard from her.
'You shouldn't get your emotions mixed up. It is just a program.' He heard the stranger warn him.
"I know," Dan replied simply and changed the topic. "So it looks like you know more about this 'other world'."
'Hmm, yeah' the stranger seemed to be lost in thought, 'The people who killed me didn't look human, there's a good chance that they are from that world.'
"If the ones running this whole show are capable of something like this system, it makes sense that involving...parallel worlds wouldn't be too difficult for them." Dan speculated, trying to make sense of the situation.
'But they don't seem to be entirely omnipotent if they can't detect my existence even now.'
"They might just be ignoring it, she did say multiple times that I don't matter." Dan countered.
'Regardless, we will need to find whoever has the token. That's the best way to get to the creators of this thing' the stranger asserted, anger lacing his words.
"You still think you can do anything to some alien beings who can give supernatural abilities to random people?" Dan asked with uncertainty, everything he had come to know seemed to make them way out of reach of someone like him.
The stranger remained silent so he asked the question that was on his mind since he heard about the different world.
"Considering that you seem to know that place, you might belong to it."
'No, I may not remember much about myself but I know that I am not from that place.' After a brief pause, he added. 'Although, I did spend some time there.'
Lost in their contemplation, Dan's attention was abruptly pulled back to reality by Audrey's voice calling his name, prompting him to go downstairs. He then helped her with dinner as they talked about what to do with the house. After some discussion, they decided to keep it for now as there was no need to decide immediately. While they were still having a conversation, Dan received a text on Audrey's phone and he checked to find that it was details about a meeting place. After reading it, he deleted the message and handed the phone back to Audrey. He also let her know that he had spoken with the police about the threats and they were looking into it. He was uncomfortable with lying again but he was going to put an end to it soon either way. As he thought of his imminent confrontation and what he was about to do in a few hours, he hesitatingly asked her.
"Audrey...if I did something unimaginably violent, would you still accept me as family?" He was afraid of her answer and wasn't even sure about his reasons for posing such a question, but he still wanted to know.
As Audrey looked at Dan, a mixture of confusion and concern clouded her features. The sudden shift in conversation puzzled her, but his earnest expression and the fear in his eyes told her that something significant was weighing heavily on him. Memories of the recent police questioning resurfaced in her mind, where they had insinuated a connection between him and their father's gambling addiction. While she had vehemently denied any such association, she now realized the toll it must have taken on him. The relentless interrogation at the police station, mere hours after losing their mother, must have been an excruciating experience for him.
Meeting his gaze, Audrey recognized the vulnerability in his eyes and resolved to be there for him. With utmost sincerity and honesty, she responded, her voice filled with compassion.
"Of course," she said, reaching out to hold his hand in her own. "I know deep in my heart that you would never willingly do anything wrong. But if, by some chance, you did, I promise I will try to understand your reasons. We are family, Dan, and no matter what happens, it will always remain the same."
Dan's shoulders visibly relaxed as the weight that had burdened him seemed to lift, and a mix of relief and gratitude flooded his heart. He fought back tears that threatened to spill, knowing he had to remain strong for both himself and Audrey. Taking a deep breath, he reaffirmed his determination to set things right and the first step was to take care of the people who wouldn't leave them alone.
After they had dinner and Audrey had gone to bed, he made his way to the meeting place - a meat factory. The sheer number of vehicles parked outside, ranging from cars to trucks to imposing limousines, hinted at the scale of the gathering. However, the absence of people outside seemed peculiar until he entered the premises and understood why. The stranger had been right, it seemed like they had gathered all of their forces.
His gaze swept across the vast space, witnessing a menacing assembly of individuals. Dozens upon dozens of them crowded the floor, while others stood perched on railings above, armed to the teeth. His eyes focused on the row of machine guns, the heavily armored military vehicle with a formidable gun affixed to it, resembling a small tank. Unfamiliar weapons sparked intrigue, but it was the sight of men brandishing RPGs that drew his attention. It was clear that they intended to eliminate him completely, without concern for the destruction or attention they would draw.
The deafening sound of the giant doors closing behind him reverberated in his ears, sealing his fate within the battleground. As the encircling crowd tightened their ranks, their weapons aimed squarely at him, a deadly silence fell upon the warehouse. They allowed him to take a few steps forward, ensuring their line of sight and displaying unwavering confidence in their numbers.
Aware that time was of the essence, Dan knew he had to act swiftly. He hadn't tested limit break again but he had no time to do it. Without thinking further, he watched as the hands of a giant clock started ticking slowly while the warehouse momentarily illuminated beyond the glow of the ceiling lights with the flash of bullets being fired. With a surge of determination, he activated his limit break, fully unleashing his powers, and started the massacre.