District 42-Chapter 189: What to do?
The cafeteria was empty at that hour. It was past midnight, after all. Generally, just some people cleaning here and there would be seen throughout that place, but not so often since the tidy up of the headquarters was encharged for the own soldiers to do at the end of the day.
The only one that stayed until so late was Casper, usually. Just half of the lights were turned on at that hour, but he didn’t bother by this little thing, he wouldn’t mind even if they turned off all of them.
The soldier would be studying and finishing to do some work with his prototype of AI by that time, however, it was a different occasion that kept him awake until so late, and he wasn’t the only one sitting on the table there.
Together with him, were the triplets, still with concerned looks, but don’t saying anything for the time being.
With Casper, they wouldn’t let any information slip out, but among them, they would always whisper and discuss something.
"Well, Casper, we need to tell you about what happened some hours ago. Are you calmer now?" Third was the one asking.
The soldier had a panic attack during his time inside the simulation. And even after it ended, his body was still suffering from the consequences of it.
"I think I will be staying awake for the rest of the night, but I am completely fine by now. No need to worry about me at all." He assured, taking a sip of the water he was drinking.
He had sweated a lot before. His clothes were all wet. So, he ended up being very thirsty afterward, when he had time to think about his basic necessities.
"What the machine did with you was to bring you to a simulation, as per usual, but simulating a memory you already had, right?" First started, breaking the silence.
Casper nodded, gazing at his glass of water. He was still a bit aloof, but everything would be alright, and he was understanding and paying attention to what the man was saying to him.
"Well, the machine wasn’t supposed to do it, indeed... Except in certain cases..."
Third took his place, continuing to talk.
"However, that’s not impossible. There were some cases in which we ended up finding the same peculiarity in other soldiers, always after the fourth time that they used the machine. In your case, it was the seventh."
Finally, the harshest part obviously was concluded by Second.
"There is just one way to make it happen: the person using the machine must have a deep trauma that influences their mind so badly that can affect the operation of the machine. In your case, you seem to have a trauma at the days serving in the army of your homeland, so it should have triggered it."
After she finished, they stayed under more silence for some time. Since the soldier got out of the room he didn’t say anything, and he decided to open his mouth, finally, that time.
"So... My past ended up affecting that machine...?" But he was not concerned about that at all. He had something different to worry about. "And did I pass into the test with this, or will I pay for something that’s already in the past?"
The three looked to be as confused about that matter as Casper. They didn’t know how to proceed, either.
The fact they would analyze was if Casper had still the numerous flaws that Third had identified on him, as well as his general performance inside the simulation.
If he was improving quite a lot, then it meant that it wouldn’t be bad to trust him and get him to learn new things through experimentation. However, if not, then it was better to hold him in the preparation for more time.
Nonetheless, that situation broke all these things they had set up to rate the soldier, so they didn’t know exactly how to proceed.
"We don’t know at all, Casper... I mean, you didn’t finish the test, but you didn’t get defeated as well, so it’s quite tricky to know now."
Second raised from the table, looking to her two siblings. She seemed to be very angry with them.
The short-tempered woman slapped her hand on the table, which caused a huge echo across the cafeteria.
The other three looked at her startled, and Casper was rather confused.
"Tricky!? There is nothing tricky on this matter. I already told you all what we need to do, but for some reason, I keep being ignored! If you don’t remember, this trauma is all Casper’s fault! The lack of emotional control and bad psychological rehabilitation is his fault. He is the one to be blamed for it!"
Those were harsh words, which wasn’t something unusual for her, bit sincere ones as well. No one could deny it when looked in that way.
"But, can we make him fail in the test because of it...?" Third insisted.
"Man, you are a soldier, don’t you, Third!? Stop being so softy, and you, too, First. What’s happening to you?? Will you pity a grown and skilled man like him? I am so sorry, but I won’t! He has to take responsibility for his own limitations, and a traumatized person isn’t able to stay in the army!"
Casper was sure to have had heard that quote somewhere, and he remembered well. It probably was on his final days at the army, when he was already half disconnected with that place, and everyone there knew that soon he would possibly be retiring from his military career.
It was a logical thing to say. A soldier needed to have control of both his mind and body. If he lacked one or another, he would just be incomplete.
First and Third tried to argue, but anything that they said would be outrightly refuted by Second. There was nothing they could do to maintain Casper as a valid soldier. They would need to extend indeterminately the duration of his preparation.
"So... We will need to assume that you failed, Casper..."
The White warrior shook his head, looking serious at them.
"Failed...? Why? Wasn’t it you three that ended the test all of a sudden. I had not died at that point, right? And the mission didn’t fail as well. Those were the requirements for a failure on the test, after all."
Second, for the first time since Casper knew her, gave him a satisfied look. She seemed to understand what Casper was saying, and to agree with what he would decide to do.
"What are you implying, White warrior?" First asked.
"I want to redo the test. This time, until I die, or fail in the mission. And I have a theory of how I need to do things to overcome the bugs that were happening in the System of the machine." He finished drinking his water, putting silently the glass on the table, and looking at the triplets with confident eyes.
They were interested in what Casper had to say and just waited until he continued with that.
"I realized some time ago when remembering of the things that happened inside that simulation, that the bugs occurred just when I walked against the flow of my memories, and did things I wasn’t supposed to do.
"The machine is always trying to make the perfect simulation, so when she finds something out of the normal, something unreal, illogical; she resets it. The problem was that I was the uncommon thing there, so she needed to reset all the simulation at once, to fix this mistake."
"So..." Third understood his line of thought. "You are planning to just go with the flow and repeat what you are supposed to do according to your memories?"
Casper nodded.
"Yes. You said that the machine always tries to bring my fears, memories, and limitations all together to make a simulation in which I will be in a dangerous and challenging situation, so I can improve, right? If that’s the case, the System of this machine wants me to overcome this trauma I have since... since the day it happened.
"The difficulty will lay not on how I will pull through this situation since I know everything that will be happening to start the mission until the end. The problem will be do everything without letting the will to change my decisions dominate me."
First agreed, snapping his fingers.
"Acceptance. That’s the keyword, then. Your traumas need to be worked, so you can accept your past problems and look to the future, right?"
"Yes, that’s it." The soldier smiled for him, satisfied.
The triplets looked to each other, nodding with their heads.
"Well, we are ok with this, if that’s what you want, and if it will help you to improve. However, we need to say that there is a risk. The machine was exhausting too much your brain in that simulation. It can be harmful to your body, somehow..." First warned him.
"Don’t worry. I will be prepared for this. By tomorrow I will be ready, right in the morning."
After they set up a specific hour, those three left, letting Casper alone at the table.
