Took long enough, Troy had thought to himself. He wasn't too sure himself, what he was currently thinking. Putting enough effort into trying to remember seemed wasted, in comparison to simply procrastinating the time away.

 

Or, would it be called procrastination, if the time off had been ordered? He wasn't sure, and debating it seemed too hard.

 

Just looking at his hands seemed much more fun, and certainly took less effort on Troy's part. Just tracing the length of his veins, kept his mind occupied up to the level, where the mind would wander towards another subject while keeping the mental pressure as low as was humanly possible.

 

But, such dedication to not working would have to be put on the backburner. Adam had come back from his discussion with Dr Fidelis, making any chance of not working to the grave.

 

Troy got himself off the floor, much to the dismay of the joints in his legs. At this age, they shouldn't be so abrasive in their opinions, but Troy had certainly done something in the last couple of days, which upset them.

 

´Do a quick look around, where you try to focus on all three grounds of perspective.´, Adam said trough the brain implant.

 

This request dumbfounded Troy.

 

“What do you mean, three grounds of perspective?” Troy asked, having a definite need for clarification.

 

´Foreground, middle ground, and background. Try to focus on different distances, which you can see ahead. This will help me in getting a clearer mind map, of the spatial locations, which we are residing in.´, Adam constructively informed him.

 

So, Troy just needed to look up and down in a straight line, trying to not turn his head at all? Sounded easy enough.

 

He proceeded to do his best impression of a primitive searching algorithm, focusing on every conceivable part of the forest. It wasn't any fun to do so, but it wasn't hard either, so Troy didn't really find any ground to whine about it.

 

The task was concluded after a small while, and Troy just stood still, in bliss with the momentary pause.

 

“What now?” Troy asked. “Do you want another go at-”

 

´Quiet´, Adam ordered.

 

That was unusual of him. Usually, Adam would at be least a little polite, when asking him to shut the hell up.

 

“The ones, who try to be accepted into society say please when they ask for the silence of others,” Troy began saying, not taking heed of Adam´s more strict kind of request. “Making others ignore their personal free speech is incredibly hard when the person ordering them around is making such-”

 

´I believe that when you accepted this job, you also agreed to follow all of my requests, as long as they had something to do with the current test. My request of your tongue not moving is one of such class.´, Adam said, again stopping Troy from speaking fully.

 

So, the efficient piece of electronic brainpower needed some silence to think things through? Fine, Troy would obey, like the little, pretty assistant that he was. Didn't even have any problem, with being straight up told to be quiet, so others could focus on anything other than him. Nuh-uh, no problem at all.

 

And, frankly, even thinking such a thing about him was scandalous, Why, Troy had half a mind to just begin shouting a the bastard, who-

 

A chirp came from his right.

 

The inner hyping to throw a temper tantrum was immediately stopped, instead replaced with confusion.

 

“Wasn't this forest meant to be low quality, in the details?” Troy questioned, noting that he wasn't immediately silenced by Adam. “Why the hell are there birds here?”

 

´My thoughts exactly.´, Adam sent back, not chastising Troy for his talking. That must have meant, that he was interested in the reasons as to why as well.

 

The chirping picked up the volume, making Troy wonder how he hadn't heard it earlier. The high tones coming from it was piercing his ears in just the wrong way, making his facial features cringe.

 

´Don't waste your time trying to ignore it.´, Adam said, with Troy easily making the distinction of, where the voice was coming from. When sound came from the brain implant, it seemed weirdly deafening to all the others. It wasn't overpowering, in the way that it was loud. No, it kinda just made the other voices seem lower compared to it. How hadn't Troy noticed this before? He used to regularly hear music using it, and this kind of feature would have been excellent then.

 

And, where the hell was the chirping coming from? When Troy thought it came from the left, he would turn his head accordingly, before realizing that it was behind him. On the process would go, with the sound coming from anywhere, where he wasn't looking.

 

“Do you have any idea, where this little birdie of ours is at?” Troy asked Adam, his search not stopping. “I can't seem to catch it with my eyes.”

 

´First, of, this hypothetical bird is not of our possession. Second, I do not believe that there is any bird to be found.´, Adam sent back.

 

This confused Troy. Could Adam not hear the very obvious bird noises?

 

“Then… where exactly is the sound coming from, if not the bird?” Troy said, putting Adam´s statements into questioning.

 

´I believe that they are randomly generated, from an outside source. Most likely Dr Fidelis.´, Adam said.

 

“And, why would Dr Fidelis do that?”

 

´The most probable reasons were explained to us just a few minutes ago. The problem with this test is the limited work, which has been put into it. This small budget, and the detail that comes with it, has forced Dr Fidelis to be creative in his design choices. Before, when I complained about the eyes being the only worthwhile, and usable, the sense in this test, he must have decided to change that fact, by adding in something for us to hear. Therefore, the bird calls appeared just after our conversation with Dr Fidelis, which makes this theory even more probable.

 

But, again, just because there are the sounds of a bird, does not mean that there is an actual, simulated bird flying around us. It is merely meant to seem like it.

 

Which is poorly done, now that I have gotten more data on the sound design. Dr Fidelis has clearly made it, so looking at where the source is supposed to be completely impossible. While this might work with some other sounds or environments, like dripping in a cave system, it does not work, when, in reality, the movements should be physically impossible.

 

I expect, that there is no bird on this planet, which can move in a circle around you, with no starting momentum, in less than half a second.´, Adam full out explained.

 

The reasoning was solid, and Troy didn't want to look further into it than that. Putting a few last attempts at seeing this maybe non-existent feathery, creature, he finally gave up, before the quick movements would make his neck hurt.

 

“So… we just ignore the non-existent bird, and move on with our lives, as in, during the actual test?” Troy asked. “Because, I'm beginning to realize, that we haven't done much of the original objective yet, and we should probably start on it soon.”

 

´Do not worry about our time expenditure too much. All of our current actions can easily be filed down as ´extensive analysis´, depending on Dr Fidelis´ mood during the debriefing.´, Adam said.

 

“No need to macro analyse everything about an unrelated event, now. Just get on with the description of the environment, like you were supposed to do, from the very start”, Troy lithely complained. He had another go at sounding commanding, but he still felt like it sounded more akin to a teenager breaking his voice over and over again.

 

´Very well. One moment.´, Adam sent, before going silent.

 

Troy wondered, why he hadn't waited to answer until he had set up a full description. During the complicated work of the previous tasks had taken less than a second. So, why was that not the same here?

 

Was it more complicated? Troy would have to define, what complicated was, in this instance. To himself, trying to analyze every thought a person has, purely from the way their left ear moved forward seemed impossible to him. Yet, to Adam, it must have been as easy as figuratively breathing, seeing as he didn't even hesitate when answering questions like that.

 

But, here, the answer didn't come even nearly as fast. Troy could have given a reasonable description of the landscape himself, at this point. And, he had, having written it down on his side of the description-filled tablet for writing. It wouldn't be close to having gotten top grades, but it wouldn't have been too terrible either.

 

The difference between the two became highlighted at this point. While Troy was terrible at the analysis of body language and mediocre at describing landscapes, Adam was phenomenal in inspecting the fine language of the body and absolutely slow at this. This was not a negative at all. Troy would never call it that. It was just a reminder, that some people, or entities for that matter, were not created perfectly, and that we all had-

 

´You should just begin writing, as soon as my description begins. I can already guess that you will not be able to remember all of it. Here it begins.

 

At first glance, the main character of this environment can be its use of the colour green. Yet, after closer inspection, the truth is realized. The same colour never shows itself again. Nuances will only seem similar to the untrained eye, and the whole spectrum can show itself with time inside this place. It is only our restriction of placement, which stops us from realizing this.

 

Nothing here is symmetric. This is normally categorized, as a negative thing. But, in this instance, it showcases a form of beauty normally untamed. Pure, undaunting chaos. Nothing here is set in order. It is all there by chance. It can live. It can die. The world around it will live on.

 

But, in this landscape, there is shown an important attribute of all nature. Unknown corporation. In the simple minds of all the celled organisms here, their personal survival is the forefront of their thoughts. Anything else comes second to this goal. With that mindset, it should have all been razed into chaos, with all dying due to selfishness. Yet, that isn't so. For in nature, only those who learn to live with the balance survive.

 

The nutrients in the dirt get slowly sucked up by the trees and the plants. The unseen animals consume these nutrient-filled entities, drawing the cycle of life one more step. They then perish, like all things, putting all they have taken right back down to the earth, restarting the whole cycle yet again.

 

And, the sounds of this forest is nothing to bark at either. It is full of unique sounds if one has the right attributes to hear them.

 

The most obvious would be the gentle and soothing bird calls, natural communication at its finest point. Fine-tuned tunes, delivering long messages, in a short time, over long distances.

 

Another fine sound could be the wind, delicately or fiercely, moving through the air, pushing away everything in its path. A gust of wind sings a song of history, which we will never fully grasp, with our ears only.

 

We can learn so much else about this environment. We can describe the texture of the delicate ground, the beautiful leaves, or even the rough tree bark.

 

But, as always, time is finite. Time will make the moment change. It is only through the impossible concept of infinity, that we can fully grasp a single instant of time. Yet, that is beyond us, limiting us to only, what we can observe in retrospect.

 

That is all. Want me to repeat it?´, Adam ended it off with.

 

And, sometimes Troy was oh so wrong, that he just felt like skydiving off the floor, without a parachute in sight. Some entities were just perfect, at all they did, no matter the time it took them to complete it.

 

Now that he was thinking about it, he wasn't too sure if the time taken would be as long next time. Getting exponentially faster was something, which Adam had showcased before.

 

How depressing.

 

“Yes,” Troy said, beginning to type in, what he remembered. Adam had told him to do so, at the start, but his expectations of the length had been slightly lower, than what it had turned out to be. “Slower this time, please.”

 

´Slower, as in more pauses between the individual words, or, as in, pauses between the individual paragraphs?´, Adam asked.

 

Troy wasn't even going to try, and think about how he knew when there was a new paragraph.

 

“Both choices sound too good to pass up,” Troy answered. “If we do it that way, we might just be able to finish it up, in one repeat.”

 

This couldn't be called anything close to efficient, with Troy having to relay everything Adam said. Every single mistake Troy made, of which there was plenty, further delayed the whole answer by another ten seconds. This added up to way too much time wasted.

 

Why couldn't Adam just get access to the screen, and write on it himself? Would it really be so hard to do? It sounded simple, to Troy. Just hook it up the same way Adam was hooked up to him.

 

Wait, no, that wouldn't work. The writing screen probably didn't have the same input features, or any, for that matter. It was only designed for physical touch, so why would it need anything more?

 

Troy needed another conversation with Dr Fidelis when he got the chance. Or, when he remembered it. He had been missing so many missing conversations with people lately. Troy had an immense backlog, which needed to be sorted out before he began adding even more onto it.

 

Finally, after too long a time spent proofreading, Troy finalized Adam´s answer, making the screen disappear briefly, before reappearing, with the screen blank, like at the start.

 

The environment disappeared too, but in a much more… extreme manner.

 

It collapsed on itself, becoming an amorphous bound of various colours. If not for the barriers, which stopped the environment and Troy from interacting, they would have been overwhelmed with it all.

 

Waves began appearing, at first being small, but steadily growing larger and larger. It came to a point, where Troy was sure, that the sheer pressure of the liquid would shatter the barrier, but it never did. Most likely, because it wasn't designed to do so, but Troy didn't put too much thought into that perspective.

 

Over time, something like a maelstrom began appearing, with Troy at the dead centre, able too upwards to see the very realistic, simulated sky. At the same time, the liquid began changing colours, from darker nuances of green to various shades of light blue.

 

Troy was beginning, to realize, what he was seeing transpire before him. An ocean was appearing before him.

 

And the surface was long above him.

 

“This isn't fun, at all”, Troy muttered, his not so mild thalassophobia beginning to kick in. The knowledge, that you would soon be buried in water, simulated or not, was a disturbing thought.

 

´I do not believe fun is meant to be the main function of this test.´, Adam said, as informatively as ever.

 

Troy felt the need to give an answer, which was on that same level.

 

“No shit.”