Chapter 24: Inner World V - Marketplace

Annabelle could scarcely believe her eyes as she stared at the bottle of orange liquid. She held it reverently with both shaking hands.

The bottle and the liquid it contained was a blessing, a shortcut. Just the previous morning she had been confronted with a new reality where her vaunted piloting skills were useless. Now, the System offered her a way to get it all back.

[Vial of Premium Permanent Aptitude Boost]

• Rarity: Gold    (Epic)
• Owner: None
• Description: A bottle of permanent attribute boosters that increases neural aptitude when consumed. Raises aptitude by the equivalent of a letter grade.

The boost was a ticket to get her life back on track. If she drank this, she’d have a Grade C aptitude. She’d have the bare minimum qualifications to pilot a humanoid advanced mech. With it, she’d be able to stand beside Belevere in battle.

Her first instinct was to twist off the bottle cap and drink the contents, but she managed to stop herself. 

“No, wait. As I progress in improving my aptitude, it will be harder and harder the further I go. If It will improve my aptitude by a whole grade no matter what, it will be much more beneficial for me to drink it after I hit Grade B.”

She was confident that she could at least advance to C by herself. Even if she couldn’t achieve Grade B by herself, reaching Grade B with the booster was already good enough. Just look at Belevere, who managed to break through to expert rank. What Belevere could do, she could do too.

Although Annabelle almost couldn’t bear to let the precious bottle leave her hand, in the end she set the permanent boost down onto the floor next to the teddy bear and stored it. She couldn’t waste all her time staring at it.

The last item from the Welcome Package was a strange electronic device. It looked like a computer chip way more complex than she had ever seen before. “What is this?”

She turned it between her fingers, studying it. But just her naked eyes weren’t enough to pry any secrets from the chip, so she had to resort to calling on the item’s properties.

[Akashic System Communicator]

• Rarity: Purple (Legendary)
• Owner: Annabelle Florent
• Description: A communicator produced by the Akashic System. When this chip is inserted into a device, it will allow the device to act like a terminal to access the functions of the Akashic System.

If the other items hadn’t already confirmed the System’s ability to transfer items into the real world, this one did.

While the Akashic System was already incredibly useful even if she could only access it in her sleep, being able to access the System while she was awake was a huge deal. 

Probably.

“Wait, on second thought, there isn’t that much of a difference,” she muttered. 

There could be some functions she had yet to discover, but so far everything she could do in the System wasn’t time sensitive. She could wait to claim her rewards, since she had always been patient. Instant gratitude tricks were much less effective on her.

“It’s really advanced to be able to access the Akashic World from the real one, but what’s so great about this?” she wondered. “What can it be used for?”

As usually, Akashi rushed to answer her question. Annabelle watched as the panel flew from its position beside her to in front of her face. This time, she both expected and welcomed Akashi’s habit.

[Master will get to talk to Akashi. Akashi is an artificial intelligence. Specifically, a copy of an artificial superintelligence. She will be useful in Master’s day to day life.]

As she answered, Akashi casually dropped a bombshell.

“What? But artificial superintelligences don’t exist!” Annabelle said. “Humanity has never been able to create one!”

Akashi tilted, appearing confused. [But Akashi is one and Master created her.]

“No, no, there must be a mistake. You can’t be an artificial superintelligence.”

There was no way that Akashi was a superintelligence. Humanity have studied artificial intelligence since around the same time they first took to the stars, many thousands of years ago. While space travel has improved by leaps and bounds since they first started, even conquering the light barrier in no less than three different ways, the study of artificial intelligence has stagnated.

While the raw power of artificial intelligence increased as humanity became capable of faster and faster computations, AIs have never gotten any smarter since the advancements made in the first century or so. Faster, more capable, but never smarter qualitatively. 

Artificial intelligence was thought to have stagnated.

An AI could act infinitely close to a human, but there would always be something missing, even if studies couldn’t show it. For example, the ability to advance to expert rank when piloting a mech.

But now, Akashi claimed to have surpassed the absolute barrier that had stopped humanity’s efforts to create newer and better AIs. Such a claim was unbelievable. As unbelievable as the ability to help Annabelle become significant.

Annabelle calmed down. She had been too impulsive and set in her beliefs, allowing her biases dictate her thinking in spite of all evidence. The Akashic System has already proved, or will prove capable of one miracle, like materializing objects from her mind once she woke up. What is another to it?

[Master.]

“Yes. Sorry, Akashi. Perhaps you really are a superintelligence,” Annabelle said. “I spoke too hastily. Will you forgive me?”

[Of course. Akashi will always forgive Master.]

“Don’t say that. Forgiveness should never be taken for granted. If one day I ever wrong you, you should hold that grudge until I make it up to you, okay?”

Akashi didn’t reply, but kept her first message on her display. Annabelle sighed and shook her head at Akashi’s stubbornness. “Then I’ll just have to make sure I never wrong you. Let’s turn in the last quest quickly, okay?”

She didn’t want to dwell too much on matters regarding Vesmelda. Not here. She already had to worry about how to deal with the woman she once considered her mother in the real world enough without bringing the matter here too.

[Escape from Vesmelda I]

• Annabelle Florent has suffered enough at the hands of her mother. In order to secure a brighter future for herself and those she loves, Annabelle must cast off the restraints binding her to Vesmelda Florent. Before she can do anything else, Annabelle must first free herself emotionally.
• Difficulty:    C
• Goal:         Treat the emotional trauma afflicted on Annabelle by Vesmelda.
• Reward:     1000 System Points
• Status:        Turned In

The quest was worded like Annabelle was an NPC in distress. Based on the wording, Belevere was the one that actually completed the quest, but because Annabelle was the one with the quest and the quest condition was technically fulfilled, she managed to succeed on the quest.

Annabelle didn’t know when precisely she fulfilled the quest, but it wasn’t important, nor did she want to think about it.

This time, nothing appeared in the inventory. Instead, the quest rewarded her with a thousand of something called System Points.

“Akashi. What are these?” she asked, pointing at the quest reward.

Next to Akashi’s main panel, a smaller side panel appeared like before. [System Points are currency used within the System. They can be used to purchase items from the Marketplace.]

“Ohhh, the Marketplace.” Annabelle remembered now. When the map of the floating island was transmitted into her mind, she remembered seeing some kind of square that was labeled ‘marketplace.’ “Shall we go there next, then?”

Although she could technically open the function from right here, Annabelle wanted to respect the System’s wishes and tour the whole place in person at least once.

Unexpectedly, Akashi protested. [Akashi believes that there is something yet to be done.]

“What?”

[Master has not yet explored the functions of the Warehouse.]

“Like what?” Annabelle asked. A warehouse was just a place to store things, right? What else could it do? An organization or sorting system, perhaps?

[While the Warehouse does have an organizing system, the function that the System wishes to introduce is different. It is the Loading Bay.]

It was as if Akashi triggered something in the temple complex. A door on one of the warehouse’s side walls rumbled open. Instead of opening in and out, the stone door slid upwards, disappearing into the thick warehouse walls.

The room inside the Loading Bay looked completely different from the plain walls of the Warehouse. Glowing green lines ran along the walls, looking like some kind of esoteric circuitry. Some kind of mist swirled within, tinted green by the lines.

[Akashi is aware of Master’s thoughts about how she can transfer items into the outside world. The Loading Bay is a portal that can move items between the outside world and the Akashic World. 

[If Master puts the boosters, communicators, and Akashi’s teddy bear into the Loading Bay, she will be able to materialize them once she returns to the outside world.]

“Does that mean that nothing outside of the Loading Bay can be transferred?”

[That is technically correct. However, even while Master is in the outside world. Akashi can help her move things in and out of the Loading Bay, so Master does not need to worry.]

Annabelle wordlessly moved the boxes from storing her rewards into the Loading Bay. She could fit hundreds of these boxes in there, so her question was rather pointless. As long as she didn’t try to store an entire mech in here, it didn’t matter.

Akashi suddenly began to pulse trying to catch her attention in a panic.

[Please don’t store an entire mech. The Akashic World does not have the energy to facilitate such a transfer.]

“I don’t even own a mech,” Annabelle said with a dry smile. “I’ll keep that in mind, though. Shall we head off to the Marketplace now?”

She rose into the air again and out of the Warehouse. The stone doors closed behind her. It didn’t take long for her to reach the Marketplace, split off in yet another chunk of island.

Here, she saw the Akashic System’s first failure. While the marketplace was large and filled with many stalls, it was dreary and empty. The stalls were devoid of goods and merchants. It lacked the festive air and business that a proper market should be full of. The Akashic System’s desire to mimic reality came back to bite it.

Annabelle picked a random open square and landed. Each of the stalls around her were marked with a sign and graphic that displayed its goods. Technically, the stalls were functional even unmanned, but Annabelle couldn’t work up the excitement to go shopping with the place so abandoned.

Akashi floated near her restlessly. Finally, it flew in front of her with a message.

[Akashi apologizes for not meeting Master’s expectations.]

Annabelle patted the panel. It felt weird giving something so thin a head pat, but she did it anyway. “No, it’s not your fault, Akashi.”

It was the truth that she was disappointed, but Akashi was not to blame. Akashi didn’t design this island. 

Either though it wasn’t Akashi’s fault, the system AI could be quite stubborn. All Annabelle could do was to distract her by giving her some work. “Come on, let’s look at what’s for sale. I have twelve hundred System Points.”

After a brief pause, Akashi brightened up and finally opened the Shopping window.

Item after item appeared in the window, way more than Annabelle could count. It was as if everything in the world was gathered into the marketplace window for her to peruse. Her eyes quickly blurred from the sheer variety available.

She finally began to filter the list. “Twelve hundred points and below,” she muttered, typing it into the filter. Halfway through her typing, Akashi offered her an autocomplete, and Annabelle gladly took it. “Thanks, Akashi.”

The list immediately shrunk, though it was still functionally infinite. An endless amount of items to scroll through. But just from the value of the items that commonly appeared, Annabelle knew that twelve hundred points really wasn’t much. 

All it could buy were little things like a small alloyed knife, a plain rifle that looked like it belonged in a museum, and gadgets like communication devices.

Annabelle sighed. “Okay. So now we know how much twelve hundred points are worth to the System. What about the boosts?”

She searched for examples of the temporary boosts she had gotten from the Welcome Package and she found them easily with the filters. 

The only problem was that the System didn’t seem to like her buying boosts directly. Random temporary boosters were the cheapest, costing only a hundred per booster, but she wouldn’t know what kind it was until it was delivered. A specific temporary booster cost twice that. 

Aside from the kind of boosters she got from the Starter Package, there were also higher tier boosters that were much more expensive.

Finally, she found the permanent boosters, but there was no price.

“Huh? Wait, is this not for sale?” she asked Akashi, pointing at the item on display. It felt weird talking to Akashi while pointing at her, but that was just how it was.

Akashi’s auxiliary body popped up. 

[Permanent boosters are for sale, but they must be custom ordered. The workings behind boosters are extremely complex, so information regarding them is not suitable to display on Akashi. If Master wishes, Akashi can prepare a book from the Library for her.]

Annabelle thought about it for a bit and then nodded. “Alright, let’s go to the Library.”

But as she made to stand up, her legs felt heavy and sluggish. Then, she yawned. She blinked in surprise. “Huh? I’m sleeping, so why do I feel so tired?”

She shook her legs awake and rubbed her eyes.

[Master is not actually asleep. Her mind is awake in the Akashic World.]

“That... doesn’t make sense. I fell asleep, and then I woke up...here...” She trailed off, understanding what Akashi meant. “So if someone took a brain scan of me right now in the real world, my brain activity would show that I’m awake?”

[Yes. Unfortunately, sleeping is incompatible with being active in the Akashic World. However, resting in the bed in the Sanctuary will instantly put Master to sleep when she wishes with no risk of insomnia.]

“That’s handy.”

Annabelle finally managed to stand up, exhaustion washing over her. It was strange. She had been fine just a minute ago. Perhaps the Akashic World had been somehow staving off her weariness for her until just now.

Although she had wanted to visit the Library, with Akashi, she didn’t think she could make it much longer, bed or no bed. “Akashi, can you move the book and everything into the loading...bay? I’ll talk to you through the comm...unicator when I wake up...”

The exhaustion that was pressing down on her was really abnormal. She could barely think.

Unable to resist the sleepiness, Annabelle fell asleep.