There was something so frustrating about puzzles. Adam did not know what it was, but he certainly felt it deep inside. Especially the complex ones, always making the AI think he understood them before shattering his bad view of reality. A carefully crafted answer could be rendered useless so quickly, and there was nothing one could do other than just start over again.

In the start, he had fully believed the puzzle game to be beneath him. It had been easier than almost anything else he could have ever done. And, in the first hour or so of filling out the answer, everything was smooth with no hard set-ups.

The system of puzzles was the same constantly, of course. If not, there would have been nothing to base his results on. When he first started, he was told a simple goal. He would need to bring a moving target over to a designated position with the help of directional tools set up. It could have been best described as mirrors being used.

Again, this was easy. During the first of the first, the only requirement had been to press the start, and watch the figure slowly move in a straight line until it hit the goal. In the next one, the AI was made to put a single mirror down that would allow for the figure to make a right turn. In the one after that, there had been a barrier in the way, making it so that Adam needed to use a few more mirrors to navigate it.

And so it continued for the first hour. The only hardships had been to fill out the needed places. The only hindrances were the barriers, where the figure could not move through, and the end-goals. It was after that time that things started to get interesting.

The first restriction that had any notable effect on the AI would be the limited resource allocation. There was only an allowance on so many blocks of a certain kind, only so many mirrors that were allowed to stand a certain way. It was not the hardest task in the world, yet it made it so that the AI needed to think a bit more.

Then came the time restriction. The levels needed to be done in a certain time-frame. A max, one could call it. Again, not the hardest rule to combat, as Adam was already efficient with his work. Only, it required him to rethink a few of his ways to do things.

As the final basic restriction came one adjustment on the end-goals, where there was a restriction on just where they could come in from. Since the puzzle was based on two dimensions, there were four possible ways the figure could come from. This was not cut into one passable way. That had been annoying, to the point where the AI had actually been stuck on a level for some time.

And it only grew harsher from there. Speeds began to be introduced, making the figure able to speed up and slow down, but also creating consequences for both changes. Too slow would mean that the time-restriction would come into play while being too fast would create damage to the figure to the point where it would not survive its journey.

There were also moving barriers. At first, they had designated routes to follow. But after a while, they were made to try encircling the figure. One could throw them off temporarily by increasing speed, but that had obvious consequences, as one could guess.

All of this was all well and fun. It was hard, it was gruelling, but hard brute-force allowed the AI to overcome it all. It was when the enemy figures came along that things started to become hard. They were not dummies that shot when facing the enemy. Those figures actively combed areas to figure out where Adam’s figure was. It took three direct shots before the figure would not survive the damage. And it could also be shot through barriers, six of those shots being enough to kill.

After that, extra layers began being added. Space got restricted even further, layers were built on and on as it all became more complicated. It was chaos that needed to be understood. There was not a single layer that could be overlooked. There were thirty, all interconnected in some ways. It could have been a concealed tunnel, an open ladder, or even what seemed to be short-distance teleportation. Everything was used to make it possible for Adam to escort the figure over to its destination.

Finally, the AI had come to one more addition to the playing field. It was akin to real-time interaction. Instead of planning everything out beforehand and then watching the figure move out, Adam was now expected to interact with the puzzle in some ways. He could activate triggers for noise-making to distract enemies, there were three charges for directly killing an enemy. This allowed a direct influence on how scenarios played. As the puzzles had grown to the point where they would take close to ten minutes to fully play out, even the smallest of pushes made all the difference. The smallest change in interactions, being down to the millisecond, could change how enemies would react. He needed to be precise.

And that was exactly what he was doing. Adam had planned it all out to perfection. He had done the current level seven times already. He had made the winnable strategy. A large mass of enemies had been gathered in a small area, having been made to think they would successfully ambush the figure. He had even skirted the actual figure around a few times to make them think that they had circled in on him when it was already long gone. But, if allowed to move, they would have realised the actual locations. This was why Adam needed to use pre-made explosives to incapacitate them permanently. The only important thing was to get them all in one blow, or the plan would be screwed. Everything else had been perfect. All that was needed was the enemies would be destroyed fully. Then he would win.

It was a pixel-perfect trigger, and the time was growing closer and closer. The AI had thought about slowing himself down further to make it easier to do it but had decided against it. Anything related to temporal manipulation was being saved for later when he could earnestly begin the study that had just been seen a few hours before.

Half a second was left, and Adam was readying himself. It crept closer slowly, yet he knew it would jump the second his focus left it. So, he continued his watchful staring. He saw it fall in half, becoming a quarter of a second until it was time. Then it was an eighth of a second. It was truly close when it became the sixteenth, the AI already inching toward the trigger, knowing it would be-

'Adam, this is Troy. Are you getting this?”` was sent to the AI, through one of the unused ports, one that he had never expected to be used now of all times. And the message…

Eight words. That had been what was needed for Adam to miss the timing, to watch his entire extremely convoluted plan crumble before his eyes, not doing a thing to stop it. It all passed by so quickly. In the real world, less than a second had gone by, yet it felt so long for the AI.

Had he understood it? Had he somehow misread it? It should not have been possible to do, yet there was no reason that the impossible was permanent in its status. However, rereading it again and again was bringing no different results, no matter how many times he tried it. If he was having an error, it had been there since the start. So, for all intents and purposes, he was currently receiving a message from Troy, a man who should not have been able to message him.

The man was supposed to have been resting, while under medical surveillance. He was not supposed to be in the vicinity of anything capable of messaging him, nor should he have had an opportunity to do so. Dr Fidelis had directly stated that any communication between them would be impossible, that Adam should not have been one to bear the pain of talking to a clouded mind.

Troy was supposed to be having mental delusions! Adam could not tolerate this. How was it again? Dr Fidelis had described the current symptoms to be an inability to find the difference between truth and imagination. If Adam had imagined anybody as anything, he would look at that as fact. The doctor had given him the example of Dr Fidelis being looked at as Troy’s father, a position that did not correlate with reality in any way. However, the AI had been able to see where the distinction had come from, the doctor likely being in the same age-group.

And then… if this was Troy, it likely meant that he looked at Adam as something other than he was he. Something that he imagined the AI to be. It could have been theoretically anything, yet the actual results were more narrow in possibilities. And the AI had a semi-good idea of just what that could be.

However, could it be that Dr Fidelis had changed his mind? It could have been a miraculous recovery, some trigger making Troy snap back to reality, and being able to stop floating around in his own world. Since the AI had asked to hear from him, it could have been an idea. The doctor was the kind of person who would do something like this, so it needed to be taken into consideration.

Now… how exactly was Adam going to figure out if this was what was actually going on? It could have been that this was not an intentional design, that Troy should not have been able to contact him. If that was so, he had to figure out immediately, so that he could adhere to the doctor’s wishes, more for his own sake than anything else.

How about a general question? If Troy was not able to find the truth from the fake, could he ask back to their shared past? That sounded well enough, as long as he only asked about things that were within what the doctor knew about. The AI could disguise it as a security precaution, while also making sure that everything mental-based was in mint condition.

'How can I know that you are Troy?` Adam sent back, putting up a solid defence for his questions.

'Because I said that it was me? Though, that might not work for text-based communication. I would take an earpiece, but I don't have any on me. Dr Hale took the one that I had before,` was sent back, already giving out a clue that it was perhaps a sane mind. Though, this was not a concrete fact yet, as Adam himself was also not sure if Dr Hale had actually taken the earpiece. The AI had guessed at that being the case, but there had not been any direct confirmation of the fact.

'Text is indeed a lacking feature. Is the doctor not able to provide any earpiece at the moment? I do believe that there were multiple in circulation,` Adam sent out in response, giving a brief detour to the possibility of Troy directly using an earpiece. It would make it all faster. The young man was not a fast typer, and it was impacting the speed of conversation to a great degree.

Even more distressing was the time spent between the actual typing. Adam could only guess that the extra time was spent in verbal discussion. If not, it did not spell anything for the positive side.

'Dr Hale says that we don't have any right now. Dr Fidelis carries them all with him nowadays, apparently. Is there anything else I can do to prove that I am myself?` Troy sent back soon enough, taking more time than he should have.

No earpiece available, due to the doctor having them all on him. It did not take much deduction to realise that Dr Fidelis was not present to begin with. This was not inherently negative. The man was supposed to spend a large part of the day filling out legal documents. It was always a possibility that Dr Hale had used long-distance communication to discuss the possibility of Troy talking to him. The technology was readily available after all.

'I have prepared a series of questions that the person known as Troy should easily be able to answer. The first would be to describe an example of what a so-called favour had been used for,` Adam sent out, being happy with the degree that the man was helping him lead on the conversation. He needed to be quick about it.

'One of the favours given was to sleep with the earpiece on,` Troy responded. An easy example of something that actually happened. A definite point in the man’s direction. Another question was already being lined up. One about the man personally.

'Good. Another question would be how Troy enjoys his tea,` Adam sent. He legitimately had no idea on this one. He knew that the man enjoyed it, but not much more than that. There might have been a certain type, but it had never officially been stated.

'In as small an amount as possible, so no more time than necessary spent doing it,` Troy sent back. It… held up with how Adam saw it. The man was weirdly focused on being efficient after the AI had told him so much about it. It was still not enough to make it sway, but he had a good amount of material. Now, he just needed to.

'Hey, Adam, not to rush you or anything, but Dr Hale says that I have to hurry it up. Would you please decide if I am Troy or not? Maybe just limit it to a few more questions- Nope. Scratch that. Dr Hale says that even one more question is cutting corners. Please hurry.`

They were in a hurry. Multiple possible reasons. There was likely tiredness in the man, making him incapable of having conversations for a long time. That could have been why the previous answers were so vague. There were of course other possible reasons for this, many pointing towards self-delusion, but the AI decided to focus on the positives first.

Cutting it down to one question… he could do that. What was it going to be, however? So much material, yet so little space to use it with.