The Trio sat in a circle, the only thing battling away the darkness was the softly crackling fire within the garbage can. Together they listened to the words of 'Mother' and then individually listened to their individual guides lay out their options for them.
Seth himself was staring into space as he listened to Angel speak inside his head.
[This has never happened before, so Mother had to design special gifts, each tailored to a different purpose. They were designed with the understanding of the most important purposes your technology performed as well as the most important aspects as determined by collective thought.
You have three options; Knowledge, Communication or Transportation. Once you make your choice you are unable to rescind it.]
He gnawed on his lip and scratched his chin pensively. He looked over his options and then glanced at his companions. It might be best for them to each take one, that way they had access to all three. But it was unclear whether one had more practicality than the other.
While communication was necessary for things such as large scale war or any degree of socialising, among other things, it wasn't as useful in a direct fight. While it was good to plan for the future, those plans mean nothing if you cannot make it to the future.
There were simply too many variables, too many unknowns. He needed more information before he could make a proper choice, choosing on instinct would be bad. Yet before he could ask Angel for any more information, he heard a shrill and panicked voice shouting from beside him.
"What?! Oh god. No service?! You mean I can't call my parents without… Communication! Give me communication!"
Amy shouted at the air in front of her, to the invisible interface that only she could see as she clutched her phone tight against her chest.
Seth furrowed his brow, taking out his own phone and checking it. Sure enough, just like the girl had said there was no connection. He tried making a call but it immediately threw up an error tone and hung up. He wasn't even able to get online. He clicked his tongue in annoyance before letting out a resigned sigh, putting his phone away after showing Cynthia the result. It seemed she had lost her phone, along with everything else, in her transformation.
A bright flash caught his attention, as he turned to see a small rectangular device sitting on the ground in front of Amy. She immediately tossed her phone to the side and picked up the new device. From where Seth was sitting, it simply looked like a new phone, yet when he got a small look at the screen it was nothing but incomprehensible symbols. A fact that didn't seem to stop Amy as she started using it like she'd had it for years.
'So… Communication is just a new phone? Is that it?'
[Not necessarily. The rewards will come in whatever form is deemed most appropriate for their user. The same reward may look completely different in two different hands, or it may look the same. They are also not limited to their initial forms.
As for the purpose of the Communication gift, yes it performs many of the same functions as your old devices, after all they are designed to replace them, but there are also other features Mother deemed necessary to Communication for your species. That is as much as I am allowed to tell you without you picking that option.]
Angel said succinctly, and although she purposely didn't go into much detail it was enough for Seth to understand not only that gift's purpose but all the rest. Replacement and enhancement.
So, with that in mind, he thought more about the remaining two gifts. Based on the last exchange he knew asking Angel was pointless, they wouldn't tell him more than he could figure out.
Transportation and Knowledge.
Knowledge obviously had to, in some form, concern the internet. With his access down it was safe to assume that it would allow him to regain said access or at least store the information in some other way. Perhaps it would simply stream certain information into his mind, like how to fight or do other survival based things. Or maybe it would simply give him access to some sort of 'Inspect' ability like he'd seen many use in anime and games.
Any of these would be useful in their own ways, never mind the unknown enhancements they would get, but the information might be useless too. Knowledge would be useless if he didn't have the chance to put it to any real use.
Transportation on the other hand was more difficult. In this mind it came down to two options. Cars or an Inventory. The transportation of himself or of other things, but which one it could be he had no idea. While a mode of transport would be amazing for getting out of here, he couldn't guarantee that's what it could be.
On the other hand, there was the inventory branch. While he had a lot of personal experience in how useful such a thing could be in video games, those same games also introduced companions. Or in this case, Pack Mules. Naturally he didn't mean Amy or Cynthia, but Coal. He could simply create a puppet to carry anything he didn't want to lug around himself, it didn't even have to be Coal, any puppet would do. Since all it had to do was walk, a purely subconscious action, it wouldn't take away from his focus.
However, this too came with flaws. For one he still wasn't sure if he could raise a second one without his mind melting, and even if he could the items would be subject to theft or loss. It was risky.
"Uuuuuugh."
He let out a long annoyed groan as he rubbed his head frantically before running his fingers through his now dishevelled hair to fix it. He always hated choosing between mystery rewards in games, always focusing on the thought of what he might miss out on. It was just another time he lamented the fact that life didn't have a walkthrough he could look up… not that he could look it up with his phone disconnected.
It took a few minutes of mental arguments with himself before he finally came to his ultimate decision. With another groan and a sigh, he signalled to Angel which gift he wished to receive and held out his hand.
Another bright, momentary flash filled the room, attracting the attention of the others. When the light faded, what rested in his hand was a brown, leather-bound journal with weathered pages and a crimson, silk bookmark.