《Goddess of Computation》 chapter5.h
Advertisement
"I can't believe I'm saying this but the systemhelper is even worse than Siri," Ada muttered in frustration and sat down.
She had just turned off systemhelper. This was after half an hour of trying to converse with the program to find a class that can help her either figure out where she is or provide her a faster mode of travel than just running. Ada realized that she needed to know this after looking over the worldmap data. Her perfect memory helped immensely where she mentally sorted the parameters of latitude, longitude and biome classification and arranged it on a 2D grid in her mind. Through this mental map, she was able to determine that there were only three grassland biomes in the world. Unfortunately, each of these places covered huge areas and if she didn't go in the right direction, she would end up either at an equally desolate ocean or desert.
The systemhelper turned out to be completely useless. The standard library has nothing above the level of medieval era technology. Never until now had Ada realized how easily she took GPS, the Internet or smartphones for granted like most people on Earth. As far as a method of travel goes, there were no classes for cars, motorcycles, trains or even bicycles. There was a class for a sailship but that would be worthless on land. After giving up on modern technology, she decided to try traditional tech for travel, i.e. animals such as horses. On Earth, the fastest method of traveling for millennia was the horse. She had no idea if this world has any domesticated animals for transportation but after some futile attempts, she realized there was one of three possibilities:
1) This world doesn't have any horses, elephants, camels, etc.
2) The standard library doesn't have any of these classes.
Advertisement
3) The standard library does have these classes but she wasn't allowed to access them.
"You would think that being a goddess personally appointed by God to change the world would imply that I would at least know where I am," Ada huffed.
"I suppose I could build an engine or a battery to power some vehicle with wheels but I'm not entirely sure what that would require," Ada said as she dug through her brain where her perfect memory revealed absolutely nothing useful in regards to practical engineering. For the first time ever, she regretted not going into a robotics summer camp back as a junior in high school. She had instead chosen to take a course on programming at a local community college that summer. This choice wasn't any less nerdy but Ada felt that suited her more; she always felt more inclined to code on the computer than get her hands dirty with actual hardware. This is probably why I was chosen as the goddess of computation instead of crafting or engineering, she thought.
Last that she checked, in this world of Urth, there were no gods dedicated to the craft of engineering or design. The ancient Greeks had Hephaestus, the god of craftsmen, and Athena, the goddess of wisdom. The Hindus have Vishwakarma, the god of engineers and architects. Why this world lacked what most human mythology would consider a basic god was beyond her. On the other hand, even if there was such a god or goddess, Ada doubted that she would contact that entity. Given her stunted divine capabilities and lacking any knowledge of the motives of the other gods, she wouldn't risk initiating contact. This led her back to realizing that she would have to figure out everything on her own.
Feeling self-defeated, she suddenly thought of a piece of wisdom her dad would frequently say to her -- when hard thinking doesn't work, try not thinking at all. At the thought of her dad, she felt a surge of sadness coupled with a deep sense of loneliness. Nothing was familiar here and there was no one she could talk to. She wished that she could give him a call and just hear his voice. Even if he couldn't help resolve her current quandary, talking with him always calmed her down to where she could better handle the problem herself.
Advertisement
"If my dad was here, what would he say?" Ada wondered aloud. "He would tell me to close my eyes and take a few deep breathes. Calm down. For a few minutes, with my eyes closed, just focus on breathing and not thinking."
Ada closed her eyes and meditated for a few moments. After a minute, she snapped her eyes open and facepalmed herself.
"Duh! If I'm higher up in the sky, I could easily see distinguishable geographical features and cross reference its location with that of my world map. My eyes aren't any better than that of a mortal but that doesn't matter," she shouted.
She remembered that when she was above a mile above the ground, she hasn't noticed any distinguishable landmarks. If she went higher though -- which would require changing her platform's density -- she should be able to see features which would enable her to figure out where she was. Ada wasn't worried about dying from lack of air or the cold seeing that she had survived in space just fine. She was sure that the density of her palace walls was greater than that of the cloud and so if she transmuted some of parts of the wall to more clouds, her platform should rise higher up in the atmosphere.
"Unpause systemhelper! Create cloud!"
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
As her floating palace started rising into the atmosphere, Ada had another thought:
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
"Well, I'm done. It was worth a shot."
...
...
"Pause systemhelper. I guess I will just have to stick with making a pinhole camera if I really need to get a better picture from up here."
Two and a half minutes later, after she converted some of her palace walls to more clouds, Cloud Ada rose in altitude to at least two miles. Ada looked out and saw a long range of relatively low mountains next to a sparkling sea with a small island in the distance. Correlating those two geographical features in their relative positions to her mental map database, she smiled. Ada knew where she was.
Advertisement
- In Serial160 Chapters
Grandpa Sweet Fist
Sweet Fist was a joke. He has no superpowers. He was merely a guy with some martial arts who dress up in a costume with a candy theme. He said stupid things like 'Sweet Dreams' and 'Choco Punch' when fighting and was an embrassment to the supervillain community. He has just been released after spending twenty years in prison. Now he got a System, and the System informed the villain that he had many kids and even some grandchildren. The System want the villain to reunite with his family. Failure means death. Only one problem; Sweet Fist never knew he had kids. How was a bad guy supposed to reunite with a family he never knew existed?
8 492 - In Serial29 Chapters
Cultivating Earth [Hiatus]
[This fiction is on indefinite hiatus. I'm currently acting as a 24-hour caregiver for my step-father who had a massive heart attack. I apologize for disappearing so quickly, but sometimes that's just life. I'll return as soon as possible. Sorry everyone!] Zhao Gang, after hundreds of thousands of years cultivating, has finally reached the penultimate threshold. He is ready to ascend to the level of True Immortal. Driven by the need for a place his enemies won't find him, Zhao Gang puts together an audacious plan. He has developed a revolutionary new formation which will allow him to ascend while on even the lowest planes. To avoid drawing attention, he has to choose a plane that is relatively desolate, however. He chooses Earth. Fast forward three thousand years. Zhao Gang discovers what his work has wrought - a cultivation-free culture that has delved the deep mysteries of creation - he can't help but think how this tiny little planet devoid of natural energy could affect the course of all creation. There's only one problem. For that to happen, he has to succeed in cultivating Earth. Notes: Chinese names should be ignored in the social context - they don't mean anything. Sorry for slaughtering such a beautiful tradition. This novel starts off slower than most. If the slow-roll isn't your thing, you might want to give this a pass. If it's not for you, I understand. Also, releases may be broken up into smaller chunks. The goal is 5k words, but definitely more than 4k. If you see a short release, be aware that more is probably coming. I'll be honest and say that I'm struggling with each new scene, if only because I want to balance the scope of vision with good pacing. I hope the work I put into it is worthwhile.
8 77 - In Serial87 Chapters
The Misadventures of a Young Dark Magician
A world unlike our own, monsters disguised as humans, attend a magic academy to learn spells from all kinds of sources, to choose a path towards good or evil. Benjamin is a young dark magician who, along with his familiars Harry and Chi-Chi, attends the school in hopes of becoming a great villain and conquering all worlds. His first target is Earth, and some misadventures cause him to get to his designated goal sooner than expected. Will Benjamin take over the world and stop anyone that attempts to get in his way or have a change of heart and try to save the planet from impending doom? While dealing with the circumstances there, shady stuff lingers on in the school grounds as an unforeseen threat, or threats keep a low profile, with a sinister plan on their own. Who is friend or foe? *Please note: The first book was finished in around 2016, and is also the first story I wrote, I was new to writing at that time, so parts of it haven't aged as gracefully as I had hoped. Book two will be coming soon. Until then, this will be on hiatus for now*
8 109 - In Serial9 Chapters
V̶i̶r̶t̶u̶a̶l̶ Reality
The game the entire world was waiting to see: Age of Aincrad. A virtual reality MMORPG like no other before it. You could become a knight in a medieval era, and battle for honour and glory. But there was one catch that the players were unaware of. You're stuck in this game until all 100 floors are cleared, also, if you die in the game you die in real life. Our story follows Kathrall, a player who begins to find himself in the company of other players. Watch these relationships grow or fall, and watch Kathrall's journey through the world of Aincrad.
8 121 - In Serial11 Chapters
Black Butler Boyfriend Senerio
There will be Grell, William,the triplets,Alois,Ceil,Claude,Undertaker, and Pluto I did Pluto since there is not any of the cute little dog omg I just love Pluto. Ok hope u enjoy the
8 201 - In Serial4 Chapters
The Brains of the Operation
iZombie fanfiction~Liv eats the brains of a dead private investigator that she used to go to school with. As she, Clive and Ravi try to find the killer, Liv is swept with a wave of bad puns, a strong urge to binge NCIS, and lots - LOTS - of sunglasses and suits.Let's go, zombies.[Updated Wednesdays]
8 85

