He was working on an Artifact that would duplicate the signal of other artifacts. As for the artifacts he wanted to copy, there were none.
Artifacts were meant to stay ahead of the curve. Different cultures and environments meant different requirements. A Nano-Suit that was good at its job might have an unexpected advantage in other countries. The United States would not permit this kind of vulnerability so it covertly exfiltrated this data by including it in other things that depended on math but weren't related to math. They would then hire external consultants to piece the equations back together. In the end, it was his job to solve equations and figure out what the enemy was working on.
Artifacts were a series of equations resulting in a tangible application. Since he didn't know what it was, he had to build it. The first equation was about how to amplify sound. The sound had different bandwidths that worked in tandem with one another. The second equation was about magnitude. It asked how wide or narrow the bandwidth needed to be in order to simulate valleys and peaks. The fifth equation was about classical music. Did the intricacies of a frequency result in a more profound song?
The more he solved, the more confused he became. Did he get unrelated equations? If he did, that would be a problem. The keywords were related but the overall message was garbage. Sound. Magnitude. Music. Then he solved more equations and the results were all over the place. Happy. Sadness. Anger. Joy. These were emotions in a song. They dictated the tempo, beat, and rhythm of an orchestral piece.
He got so frustrated that he stood up and walked out of the room. Paced outside under the infinite sky. Under the unending moon, he looked at the eternal stars and noticed how they formed constellations. Ursa Minor, or the Little Bear roamed around the darkness. It sniffed everything, curious. Aries, or the ram, joined in on the competition. The two clashed and suffered injuries. Cassiopeia was sitting nearby with Canis Major tugging at her sleeves.
As they battled for control, the bear and the ram looked on with hypnotic anticipation. They were bewitched. A truck. It hit him like a truck.
A composer. All the equations required a composer. This was a person who would listen to the whole piece and determine which parts needed to adjust their frequency and tempo. This equation was needed to control the mood of the song and project the right message. The equation for the composer was not needed because he knew exactly what it would look like.
He ran back into the room and wrote the final equation. It was a complicated 1000 line long formula. Under his shocked eyes, golden text from his Nano-Suit devoured the equation and transformed.
The Composer! Dictating the tempo and beat of any operation, this mode didn't specialize in offense, defense, or support. It was like a joint that connected every other mode together. Through the composer, he saw that by carefully analyzing the situation, danger would turn into fortune.
A temporal clone broke from his body and sprinted into the night. He ran and ran and then jumped. There was a black feather in the distance that turned into a bird. It tapped the bird and thus the illusion broke but not before the Sharpshooter fired a quick shot. The Composer performed a clever trick that allowed the Sprinter to retrace its steps without affecting the continuum.
…
…
The bird was lying on the ground, dead, over 1000 feet from where he had been standing. The Sharpshooter could see very far, but not through objects. At outline at best but to hit the heart, would required details. What the Composer did was direct a clear path from A to B, using the barrel of the gun as point A and the birds majestic wings as point B.
The Composer knew that point A would never change, so therefore, it only had to direct the orchestra to follow along with point B. The end of the song dictated the final destination, but sometimes the piece was so complicated that the end of the line was a prerequisite to another sequence in the operation.
—
It was 10 P.M. when Leo Skyfang turned in his progress to the supervisor.
"Skyfang. This is a weak haul. You're short 180 questions"
There was chatter amongst the other workers.
"I know the expectation is 50, but you normally give me 200"
What??
"I can overlook it this time since you always over deliver…, but"
They never said you could get paid over the budget!!
"If this becomes a problem, then we'll have an issue"
"Sir. I promise you it's only happening this once"
The supervisor took a while before nodding.
"Ok. Let's see. Differential equations. Einsteins theory. Quantum loops. Jesus. What a mess. What on earth are they sending us?"
Actually, without the main part, everything else was belligerent, but he couldn't show the main part, and he wouldn't regardless, because it had been consumed. He didn't recall any of it. He was greatly gaining from it though. If they found that out, he would be in danger.
"Okay. Come back tomorrow. 8:00 - 10:00 PM like always. I know you have extra jobs but please remember that your personal health is the most important thing"
So a genius that has multiple jobs? Sheesh. Privileged!
As soon as he stepped out of the building, he saw a bright line. He recognized the path. It was the route he usually took but there were variations. Unsure of what they were but also curious, he followed one. 2 blocks west, on the route he would normally take, there was a fight. He recognized the people involved. Dangerous thugs. Was this why the path was different?
There were other variations and every time, he would look at the path he normally took and realized all of them were dangerous. Was this the Composers ability? It seemed to always be on.
He arrived at this next job uneventfully. It was a nighttime game design gig. He was responsible for creating interesting content that would entice the player.
He had been working on modifiers to gear that would impact the gaming experience while also removing deprecated modifiers that didn't do so much. The game had 1000's of modifiers and 90% of them were useless as voted on by the players.
It was an easy $2,500/month gig due to the fact that this was his 3rd major assignment. Ever since he had been hired on, the game had experience a 3x increase in revenue and 5x increase with DAU. The number was increasing every month which meant the boss was happy.
His job was to literally look at every modifier, test it out, then determine what player feedback meant. The first modifier he changed was '+10 to ice damage'. If a skill did ice damage, it would now output 10 more damage. He could see why it was boring.
What if ice damage chilled the opponent and once it hit enough, would freeze them? What if there was a legendary or unique power that permanently slowed the opponent if they were frozen long enough? If the freeze was maintained for 10 seconds as an example.
After testing it out, noticed that it was basically impossible to trigger chill, let alone freeze. He looked at the code behind the affix to determine what the problem was.
There was no code to represent chill or freeze. Everything was centered around damage and that was it.
He wrote an entire document detailing how it would work. Every attack had a 25% chance to chill the opponent. Every 3 chills, there was also a 5% chance to freeze the opponent. If the opponent was frozen 3 times in a row, then they would be perma slowed until they died or an inferno pot was used. There would be affixes and rare stats to increase the rate of success for freezing.
The document was emailed to his team leader for final approval. Every week, the approved changes would get sent to the programmers to implement. He had worked on 19 such modifiers already. He was currently on the 20th and there were 6 changes that would be sent by the end of the week.
He then focused on the next modifier which was the burn effect. He had a genius idea. What if burn interacted with chill, but positively instead of negatively. Fire usually negated Ice, but what if the two could stack without interfering with each other?
This idea came from the Composer. Not the mode but the concept. The Brawler, the Sharpshooter, and the Sprinter were not able to operate without giving up control, but the Composer removed this restriction. There were rules that prevented fire and ice from mingling in real life, but this was a game. He could ask for all the elements to stack endlessly.