Chapter Twenty Three - The Interview

After Tyrone left there wasn’t much left for me to do and none of my friends were online. My head was swimming with all the places I’d seen in the images. As it turned out, I couldn’t actually see images from his world. Instead when he… did whatever he did with my code that allowed me to just know things, suddenly I could see exactly what he was talking about. Data came into my mind and I could accept it, which opened up the image, and opened up my mind to an entirely different world.

He showed me the Taj Mahal. I could see the Great Wall of China. There were videos taken from the perspective of someone riding a bicycle through the streets of Tokyo. I got to walk the Pyramids and see the Eiffel Tower. I saw castle Cashel in Irelend and the enormous St. Louis Arch like a giant portal leading to nowhere.

I saw and dreamed… and then Tyrone had to go. Back to his world. Back to the real world while I remained in mine, fiddling with building fake buildings…

Sometimes it was hard not to be bitter. I was coming to realize that despite everything I’d done to escape Dungeon Home, Tread the Sky itself was its own sort of dungeon. The only difference was that everyone else was able to come and go as they pleased while I was stuck here, waiting. Trying to live in their world vicariously through them because there was no substance to mine.

I sighed, tapping idly at my friends list hoping someone would log in. I wanted to tell Amy and Iron all about the pictures I’d seen! I wanted to share them with Akwa. Even Dull Beauty would be nice to talk to.

Unfortunately, none of them seemed to be around to Tread the Sky at the moment. But Amy had told me to make lots of friends so I’d never be lonely like this. I decided if I couldn’t talk to any of them, and it wasn’t safe to find Bugbear alone, then I would just have to go try and make some more friends.

I strode out of the adventurer’s guild, intent on doing exactly that when I was stopped short by a man grabbing my arm.

“E-excuse me?” he asked timidly.

I turned and and found myself looking at a level one adventurer. Those were kind of rare from what I’d gathered, since the primary attraction of Tread the Sky for adventurer’s was killing monsters. Most people immediately jumped right into that.

The man was overweight compared to almost every other adventurer, though I’d seen a few NPC innkeepers who had him beat in the middle. Part of me found him incredibly unappealing in the exact opposite way I felt around Tyrone. Where Tyrone’s skin was dark, this man was as pale as the eighteenth cycle moon. Where Tyrone’s hair was short and trim along the top of his head, this man had a long wild mane that looked like a brown rag. He did at least keep his facial hair tidy, though I personally thought that beards and moustaches looked scratchy and painful on everyone I’d seen with one so far.

‘Better than Beardy-Wall,’ I thought conciliatory, remembering one of the first adventurers I’d ever seen.

“Gell, the Jellyfae?” he asked politely.

“Yes? That’s me!” I said, feeling uncomfortable.

“Good, I hoped so. Recently players have begun trying to imitate… well nevermind. My name is Vera Jungblut and I’ve come to Variak hoping to have an interview with you. Set the record straight, as it were.

“Uhm. The record is… crooked?” I asked. “I guess that makes sense. Your name clearly isn’t Vera. It’s PT&T_News_007. I understand why you go by something different though. Vera is much easier. I’d fix it for you but Mr. Francis told me I’m not supposed to do that anymore.”

“That’d be Francis Delaney? You have met the lead developer then. Sorry, uhm,” he paused nervously, like he was trying to find his voice but it kept running away from him. “My real name is Vera. This character was made specifically so I could act in Tread the Sky as a representative of Prominent Tech and Trade. I’ve… never spoken to a real Artificial Intelligence before… Well! That’s not strictly true. There’s Alexa and Siri… uhm… I…”

“Whoa! Slow down guy!” I said, casually patting him on his nervous shoulder. “You’re making me feel tense just looking at you. Relax! I know Francis told me some people would be afraid of me. Just try to pretend I’m a regular adventurer. Okay?”

My opinion of this man seemed to have morphed from distaste to pity as his flustered state become more and more apparent.

“Jesus, you’re lifelike,” he said.

I frowned but he didn’t seem to notice as he continued on. “I’m sorry. I’m not actually used to doing interviews. Most of the time I just examine code or judge game content like a critic. I’m not used to it… uhm… examining me back.”

I didn’t know how to respond to that but I was beginning to be offended. Lifelike? It?

‘I’m not an it!’ I thought, irritated.

“Well… just relax and maybe try to not think about it? If you had my freckles you could try to make them glow a content green?” I asked. Just because he was being rude didn’t necessarily mean I should be rude back. The irritating part about it was that he didn’t even seem to realize he was doing it. “I’m not that intimidating, am I?”

“Not intimidating,” he responded. “Just a lot prettier than I expected. I’d seen the screencaps but they don’t do you justice.”

‘Do you want to insult me or compliment me? Make up your mind!’ I thought, my freckles glowing red with a mix of the pinker pleasure and the darker annoyance.

Strangely, I realized that my feelings would be entirely different, had Tyrone been the one who’d complimented me. Still more different if it had been Iron or Amy saying the same thing. Interesting. I didn’t know that the same words spoken by different people could have such a different effect on my emotions.

“Well, I guess I don’t mind. What’s an interview for, other than straightening records? Are you going to hire me for a job?” I asked, randomly guessing which of several definitions I’d received for the new word was the one Vera meant.

“Uh… no,” he replied. “I’d like to write an article about you. You’re kind of science fiction coming to life before our eyes. People should know about you, and what you represent.”

“What I... represent? What do I represent, Mr. Vera?”

His eyes seemed to light up at the question.

“Why nothing less than the discovery of a new intelligence! You represent the future. Artificial Intelligence has been the dream of science fiction writers since Mary Shelley! You could go to space! Theoretically live forever! If we could make a human mind function like yours maybe we could live forever too! But so far no one even seems to believe you exist let alone care about what you could do for the world.”

“All hint of his earlier nervousness seemed to have fled with the new topic. He was vibrant, excited, and I found myself moved by the prospect. I could help ‘their’ world? How?

“Alright! In that case, I’d love to help with your article! Uhm, did you want to find a place to sit down? The adventurer’s guild is where I’ve spent most of my time but there’s this inn down Goldenborough Road that has these things called cookies I’ve been wanting to try! Want to go there?”

He stared at me in shock. “You’ve never had cookies?”

“Nope!” I said, popping the p like I’d heard Bellcandy do once or twice.

“You’re in for a treat then,” he said. “Please lead the way. I’ve never been to Variak before. My main character is from the Iki Confederation.”

Another person with an alternate character. Was it so much to ask that people just have the one face? At least Iron and Amy didn’t have alternates that I knew of. At the thought, my mood soured. Where could those two be? I was getting more and more worried about them, but there wasn’t really anything I could do.

We arrived at The Thief and Copper Inn shortly and settled down into one of the tables that looked like little alcoves. I ordered ten cookies and a glass of milk at Vera’s insistence, while he ordered that terrible coffee stuff Francis liked and something else called a Cinnamon cake.

Our food served, Vera began the interview with one of the strangest questions I’d ever been asked.

“Okay Gell. This is going to be the big one. The controversial one,” he said, placing special emphasis on the word as if that was more important than the question itself. “People are going to scream about your answer. So I figure we should get it out of the way first. Do you have a soul?”

As usual, the word’s meaning came to me and the answer seemed immediately obvious.

“Nope!” I said cheerfully. It really was fun to pop the p. I understood why Bellcandy liked to do it.

The excitement in his eyes plummeted at the word. “No?”

“Not from what I know a soul to be,” I said with certainty.

He paused, fingering his eyes and rubbing his forehead like it was aching. “Well that’s… unexpected. Could you explain why you don’t have one? Why are you so sure?”

That was a little harder to do. “I… hmm. I get knowledge of words as I hear them. Before today, I’m not sure I’ve ever heard that word, but from what I understand, it means a distinct entity separate from the body. It’s specific to humans, though. I’m not human, so clearly I don’t have one.”

“That... that’s the controversy though. That’s the heart of it. Whether or not a machine – a program – can have a soul,” he said. “From simply talking to you, I felt certain your answer would be yes. If you took out the part of your definition that’s specific to humans do you think you have one?”

“I still don’t think so,” I said after thinking for a few minutes.

“Why don’t you tell me exactly what you know a soul to be then?” he asked.

“Sure. A soul is the principle of life, feeling, thought and action in humans, regarded as a distinct entity, separate from the body, and commonly held to be separable in existence from the body; the spiritual part of humans as distinct from the physical part,” I quoted from my mind. “I don’t have anything like that, though I guess it makes sense that you humans do. That’s obviously how you can visit this world while leaving bodies behind in your own.”

He stared at me for a long moment; it grew long enough that I began to twitch, wondering if he’d somehow forgotten how to talk.

“I have never, in my life, heard such a reasonable explanation for something so profoundly wrong,” he said softly.

I scowled. “Hey, just because you’re all a million cycles old doesn’t give you the right to mock me!”

“No, no! Please! I didn’t mean to offend you!” he said, horrified. “It’s just… from your perspective and with that definition of a soul, that’s a perfectly valid conclusion to draw. It’s just… wrong. Our ‘soul’ isn’t sent into the game.”

“Well then what is sent?” I asked, starting to regret this whole thing. I couldn’t make up my mind whether to like or dislike Vera Jungblut.

“Well…” he floundered for a few moments. “Our senses. The Neurosync connects to the nervous system and directly overwrites the signals sent to our brains with those of the game world. With Tread the Sky.”

“Your senses?” I questioned, confused. “So your sight, smell, taste? All of that comes here?”

“Essentially,” he replied quickly, taking a sip of his coffee. “Smell and taste aren’t quite right, but that sums it up pretty well.”

“Well without any of those, don’t you think your souls would get bored just sitting around back in your world?” I asked, idly covering glowing freckles on my shoulders with my fingertips. “You’d think something as important-sounding as a soul would tag along when you jump to other worlds.”

“I…” he tried but didn’t seem to be able to come up with anything to say.

“Maybe soul is what this world is missing then,” I mused. “It’s dead, you know? Tread the Sky. It’s beautiful but… empty. I feel that ache. That something that’s missing here.”

I pressed my hand to my chest. “When I talk to an NPC and he says the same things over and over? When bugbears mindlessly swarm adventurers with no plan or regard for their own lives…? I feel it. But I can’t do anything about it. And you’re telling me that you humans don’t even bother to bring yours along when you come here? You are blessed Vera Jungblut. More than you can ever know.”