The Gamer Chapter 1333 – Depth of Incomprehensibility (Patreon)

Enigma engineer was a term sometimes used in games, particularly those of the sci-fi variety. It described a person or civilization that was either so advanced in their applied technology that other races could not comprehend them, crafted their constructions in a unique way, or a mixture of both. In game terms, this manifested in resistance to technology theft and research speed.

In reality, the latter also was the case, as Hailey’s tinkering over the subsequent two hours proved. Scarlett threw as many challenges at her as she could organize materials for. At the end, they had a metronome, a Rubik’s cube, and a small robot that passed butter. The Rubik’s cube was remarkable because it was in no way outstanding. Hailey’s ability to put things together in a borderline incomprehensible way scaled up with the complexity of the task. Even an enigma engineer could not make things more complicated than there was room for. The magic-powered metronome was a bit more complicated. The robot, Scarlett was sitting in front of, exceptionally frustrated.

“What is my purpose?” it asked.

“Ya pass butter,” Hailey drawled.

The tiny thing looked at the hands it had been given for that task with its single lens eye. “Oh my God.”

“Right here, liddle fellah.”

“Is it actually sapient?” the Gamer asked, wary of ethical concerns.

“Nah, I simply thought that would be funny. Here.” Hailey flicked an on and off switch at the side.

“What is my purpose?”

“Ya weave baskets.”

The tiny thing looked at the hands it had been given for that task with its single lens eye. “Oh my God.”

“How does it have a voice?” Scarlett asked, repeatedly tapping the floor with her heel. “There was no modulator in there, how does it have a fucking voice?”

“Rerouted some excess power from the motion core. Gotta say, mana sure is nifty, flowin’ around freely like that.” Hailey checked her smartphone. “Anyhoo, this has been fun. Same time tomorrow? There’s more to show liddle ol’ me than some basic tinkerin’.”

“Yes,” Scarlett responded with a single word, still staring at the robot. “I’ll have more advanced shit ready. I’m interested to see how far I can push you.”

“As long as you don’t make me a lab rat,” Hailey drawled in an amused tone. “How do I leave?”

“Just raise your hand like this,” the Gamer explained and put his palm up in the air, “and will it.” He shifted out of the Protected Space first. Hailey manifested five seconds later. “Technically speaking the raised hand is not necessary, but it makes it easier for beginners like you.” He led the way back to her car. “Well, that was thankfully quite easy.”

“People ever tell ya you say ‘well’ a lot?”

“All the time.” John chuckled. “Being able to call stars from the heavens does not protect you from verbal ticks.”

“…Is that a metaphor?”

“Not exactly.”

“Okay, pause, I gotta see that. Does it have to be night time or…?”

“No… Well, I guess I got a moment. Drive me out a bit.” Technically, he could have created a short-lived barrier right there. Teaching Hailey how to enter one of two barriers in a specific space would have taken a moment.

“Hop into my dusty clunker,” Hailey invited him. Soon, the engine was switched on and they were driving down the road. “How far? To the Illinois?”

“Would be a bit much to drive two states over, I think?” the Gamer asked, confused.

“Not Illinois, the Illinois. The river, purrdy boy.”

“You mean the Arkansas River?”

“…I forgot you outsiders call it that.”

The Gamer chuckled. “Well, in any case, just until the border stone is enough.” John pointed at the marker of the neighbouring properties. A minute later, they stood in a new Illusion Barrier.

The day had progressed towards noon and it had gotten way hotter than before. Hailey was visibly hot in her work clothes and probably could not wait to get out of those boots. Keeping his staring to a minimum, John looked out into the semi-wild countryside in front of them. Mana drained from his pool.

Skyfall slammed into the distant woods with the force of a tank shell. The silver explosion created a visible, arcane ripple. Particles continued to hang in the air like a silver veil, as pieces of wood and other debris rained down in the distance. The shockwave made the tips of Hailey’s wild hair tremble. “What in the…”

“That was one of the weaker ones,” the Gamer told her, keeping his boasting tone suppressed. “They get stronger the longer they take to fall and the more mana I invest. Strongest spell I ever fired effectively levelled a city.”

Hailey gulped, her eyes trained on the mana still tinting the air silver. The reality of the new world she had been pulled into once more dawned on her. “How many are there… like you?”

“Several hundreds, maybe a few thousand,” the Gamer told her. “That is if you take the entire range of people with impressive destructive capabilities. Of them, I am in the upper crust. Eventually, I will stand equal to the Apex or even surpass him.”

Silently, Hailey kept staring. Was it fear in her heart, or awe? Excitement or regret at her decision to contact him? It was impossible to say, even for John, without resorting to Observe or other methods. He had a hunch that even Observe wouldn’t give him a definitive answer. She was still working this out.

“I’ll walk back,” the Gamer assured her, once they had left the barrier. “Drive safe.”

“I’ve been drivin’ for longer than I had a license – but do not let the Fed hear that.”

“In my world, I am the Fed,” John reminded her.

“That may be the most terrifyin’ thing I heard you say,” the country gal joked with a weak smile on her lips. “Til tomorrow, John.”

“Until tomorrow.” The old engine of the car overpowered any further words they could have exchanged. Heavy, the smell of gas hit John’s nose when she drove off. For a little while, he watched the vehicle get smaller in the distance. Eventually, he turned around and started the short trek back home.

When he returned to the workshop, Scarlett was still sitting on the stool. The robot had been disassembled. Mumbling something technical to herself, the redhead was too concentrated on the task at hand to even notice John was approaching. The temptation to startle her was great. After some deliberation, he elected not to. She was too deep in doing something important.

Instead, he cleared his throat and stepped into her field of view. Scarlett acknowledged his presence with a hum. “You’re less ecstatic about the news than I thought you would be,” the Gamer noted. “I figured a Latebloomer with engineering power would make you incredibly happy.”

“I’m split.” The technomancer shoved the disassembled robot away from herself and fully turned to her man. Hard, she put an elbow on the workbench, supporting her head with her palm. “I can barely understand what she’s putting together at the current scale. Once we cross from basic artifice into arcano-tech, it will take me days or weeks of mapping the mechanical and magical applications to understand each piece. More importantly, her solutions are ingenious but they’re fucking complicated. They cannot be mass produced. I’m not even sure if they can be reproduced reliably.”

John nodded, all of that was what he had expected. “There is one thing I’m wondering about: anything about her approach that’s actually magical?”

“Nothing obvious.” Scarlett reached into her breast pocket and pulled out a packet of cigarettes. The workshop was ventilated well enough that John did not mind her igniting it right in front of him. “There’s no additional mana in any of these constructs and I’ve found no meddling with enchantments either. From a raw engineering perspective, these things are sound. If there is something magical going on, it’s in her comprehension of engineering knowledge and how steady her hands are.”

“Makes you wonder if Einstein was just an undiscovered Latebloomer,” the Gamer joked.

Scarlett blew a plume of smoke into the air. “Might have been, who fucking knows? No idea if Hailey’s abilities stop there either. Who knows what kind of bullshit she could get up to in higher levels?”

“If I’m any model of a Latebloomer – and I am more powerful even than most of us – then the majority of her power will manifest in her utilizing already discovered schools of engineering in an absurdly efficient way. That, and a few moments of absolute bullshit like Combination thrown in.” The Gamer softly massaged Scarlett’s shoulders as he talked. “In any case, how valuable do you think she is?”

“In purely economic terms, she may be as invaluable as I am, with sufficient resource investment,” Scarlett stated.

“High praise.”

“A clear-minded analysis. Engineers are the backbone of every industrial society.”

“Even if her inventions aren’t replicable?”

“Just put her on massive projects that seem unsolvable or have a low number requirement.” One last huff and Scarlett dropped her cigarette on the concrete floor. A swift stomp of her heel, and the final embers died. “That’s just a first analysis. Give me a couple more days to figure her out.”

“You’ll doubtlessly have a larger audience as the days pass.” For today, John had been able to convince most of the girls to stay away easily. That would not be the case as the days continued, especially not once the wooing began. A haremette was naturally drawn to investigate a new addition to her circle.

“They better know how to sit the fuck down,” Scarlett groaned. She leaned into his massage. Because he knew she needed that sometimes, he grabbed both of her shoulders, put his knee between her shoulder blades, and pulled. There was a satisfying little crack and the redhead gasped with relief.

“You really should lie down more often,” the Gamer told her.

“If I get any back problems, it’s either because I have to carry your entire fucking budget on my overtaxed ass or because you keep hanging me from the ceiling.”

“Guilty as charged on the latter.”

“On both.”

“You’re taxed at 5%.”

“If I only steal 5% of your money, it’s still theft.”

“Yes, yes,” John responded in an amused tone. This was not an argument he wanted to repeat at the moment, not even for banter’s sake.

“Hmmm.” Scarlett’s pleased hum was her reaction to the continued massage. “From a purely strategic perspective, you must get Hailey on board. Fusion has an overabundance of capable fighters. That’s to your advantage as long as you have targets that you can war against. If the Guild Hall didn’t produce so much raw material, we’d have a massive deficit.”

The Gamer sighed as his mind turned to domestic affairs. Weapons of war generally made for terrible investments. They had an indirect return that could not be measured, in that a standing army kept foreign bad actors at bay and thus increased the amount of stability within the borders. Outside of that, unless used to plunder the resources of another nation, an army was a consistent loss. That was still not the whole picture, government jobs could be used to facilitate the flow of money into certain areas. It was applicable enough to this situation though.

Scarlett was right. There was no caveat to it. From a purely strategic perspective, Hailey was the kind of asset that could not be left in the proverbial ground. Assuming her power scaled up and that she could do more than just improve on previous designs, which was a safe assumption, she could supply Fusion with a great number of economic marvels. What would she be able to do, given a few months to learn, levels to increase her powers, and access to the Guild Hall’s stockpiles?

“If we unleash her on Magnus’ current self-sufficient Mobile Barrier project, we might be able to pull ahead of our timetable considerably,” the Gamer mumbled. “Between her, you, Lee, and potentially Delicia, we’d greatly increase our research and development power across notable Abyssal sciences.”

“Engineering, Illusion Barriers, and alchemy… what are the chances you’ll stick your dick in an Apothecary?”

“Not zero,” the Gamer responded honestly. “Although I doubt I’ll find another Latebloomer.”

“You should ask Lorelei about that.”

“I think I require a specific sexual appetite for that to work.”

Scarlett shook her head, then slowly got up. “What a weird life I ended up in.” By the collar, the Gamer was pulled into a kiss. He let it happen, but a hand at the back of her head made it clear who was actually in control. A soft smack accompanied the separation of their lips. “Personally, my first impression of Hailey is positive.”

“I wouldn’t have guessed,” the Gamer teased. “You were always an enemy of people with a do it yourself attitude.”

“No.” Scarlett poked his chest with her index finger. “I will not let you get away with sarcasm on that one. People that can work are the only respectable people on Earth.”

“That so? How hot is it to you that I’m building a house from scratch?”

“Depends on how good it is in the end.”

“That’s fair.” John gave her another quick kiss, then they separated. They both had work to do. After bringing her to the teleporter, he marched over to his cement slab and took measure. Nothing was yielding or otherwise seemed out of place. Happily, he walked across the wide, smooth cement. The feeling of accomplishment that rose within him was enough to blow away the little bit of mental exhaustion he had gotten from the contemplation of national issues. He hated looking at people as resources, potential love interests doubly so, but for the sake of his country he had to do that sometimes.

In the corner of his vision, he caught movement. Wearing only her choker and a leather bikini, Eliana took her usual spot in the plastic chair by the construction site. Before she could say anything, John tossed his shirt at her. It was way too hot to work fully clothed under the sun. “You know you should be wearing something to protect your body from the giant glowing celestial fuckball in the sky, right?” Eliana asked.

“I’m not exactly worried about heat stroke or skin cancer,” John shouted back.

Then he got to work.