Creator’s Game

“It’s time to start training.”

Eve appeared in front of Hugo’s bed. 

It was the day after The Ascent’s launch, and none of the cataclysmic fame that the game garnered within the first 24 hours could catch his attention. 

With Eve and his Heads, there was little for him to personally manage. The Archive was a well oiled machine composed of many intertwined parts. 

It was massive, which was why Hugo had adopted a segmented approach to its functions. And he was scrutinizing with his Heads and the personal training he gave them, so not only did they get along personally, but that fact was reflected in the operation of their divisions and how well they worked together. 

It could be considered 6 different companies in one, each one run by his Heads that were essentially a council of CEOs. 

His job, then, was to be the glue that held those Heads together, to be their leader so that they could efficiently lead the company. 

And he had more than enough free time to do whatever he wanted. Even his Heads, after taking his method of decentralized operations to heart, had more free time than one might think. They were more than capable of working harder than anyone, but why work hard when you could work smart? Efficient design could achieve the same amount of quality work with a fraction of the effort. 

This was why all 6 of them had joined The Ascent not long after the launch. 

Hugo was planning to as well, but given his plans to train before entering, Eve’s morning wake up call was the priority. 

He climbed out of his bed. The room all around him was coated in black. Black sheets on his bed, black floors and walls, and dark furniture. 

His legs shifted and planted his feet on the floor, taking some time to sit on the bed’s edge and wake. 

An image of Eve walked over beside him, looking like a real woman as she smiled at him. 

“I’ve already compiled all the resources you will need to engage in this training. A deep scan is the first and last thing you need to do before getting started. So let’s get that done.”

“Very well.”

Hugo nodded and rose from the bed, cleaning and dressing himself before leaving the bedroom. 

He was led to the rest of his home, huge windows all around him that allowed one to see the surrounding oceanic view. 

The house itself was built on an island in international waters. On this island was a single mountain, on which the house was built. 

The island wasn’t inhabited by anyone else but Hugo. In fact, he had induced the creation of this small island after finding a small active volcano in the waters. 

With a little terraforming and some help from artificial resources, he was able to generate this island in less than a year. Now, it was teeming with life and its own isolated yet carefully designed ecosystem. 

His house was so robust that even if the most catastrophic hurricane washed over the island, he could simply sit in his living room and watch it through the glass with a hot cup of cocoa in his hands. No earthquake or even volcanic eruption could harm his villa. It was nothing short of a fortress made with the most cutting edge materials and architecture. 

There was nothing he couldn’t do or buy, so generating his own island and building such a house was a simple task, especially with the technology they had in this era. 

Hugo spent some time admiring the ocean and greenery around him before turning his attention and heading to another room of the house. 

Two automatic sliding doors split open before him one after the other, leading him through an airlock chamber and revealing a large white room filled with all kinds of gym equipment. From standard iron free weights to state of the art machines. It had everything Eve could ever want, all the tools necessary to turn a regular human into something greater. 

Including the deep scanner, which she pat with a smile. 

“Go on, now. Step inside and this will be done in a short while.”

“Hm.”

Hugo hummed before climbing inside the capsule. It was similar to an artifact, just built for more thorough scans, usually used for medical purposes. 

It gave Eve every single bit of data about Hugo’s body, from the structure of his DNA to readings on cell activities and all the thousands of imperceptible flaws throughout his system. 

Petabytes of data were generated in mere minutes, and Eve was able to process all of it with ease. Pretty soon, there was nothing she didn’t know about Hugo, like a goddess looking at one of her creations. 

*Psh*

The hatch opened once the scan was complete. After Hugo stepped out, he turned to Eve. 

“So?”

“You barely qualify to become a superhuman, and that’s only due to the capabilities of my curated training. Otherwise it would be impossible for you, no matter how much you trained.”

“Talent, huh? It’s quite an interesting thing. What exactly makes me so incapable?”

“It’s just genetics. Your body is built a certain way and has its limits. Even though it can change drastically, yours can’t change drastically enough. Your baseline is too low and your ceiling corresponds to your baseline. And from what I see, that ceiling barely puts you past the minimum threshold to become a superhuman, and that’s taking things to the absolute extreme.”

“So I’m forever doomed to never be capable of engaging the greatest of martial artists simply because my genes don’t allow it?”

Hugo’s brows raised. He wasn’t disappointed. He wasn’t sure he cared at all. This was simply something new, and he was learning that he already had limits before he even started. 

But Eve didn’t entirely agree with him. 

“Yes and no. Like I said, genes are adaptable. They can change according to what you put your body through. They can even change according to your mentality. The human body is an amazingly versatile organism. So after you cross that threshold, even I’m not sure what will happen. But I’ll be here to guide you during that time. I’ve seen it all and can push you through what very well may be an evolution. Nothing is set in stone. Now, if you were to give me total freedom to modify your body how I wanted, then I could make you nothing short of a demigod. But I have a feeling you don’t want that.”

“No, not necessarily. But like you said, nothing is set in stone. Let’s reach my limits first. Then we’ll talk.”

He smiled at her, earning a bit of surprise and excitement. 

After that, Eve was silent for a bit as she finished her curation. That lasted for about 20 seconds before her eyes flickered. 

“Alright, I’ve devised a training plan. The margin of deviation is small, so unless you undergo some bionic transformation, I will have you on the doorstep of superhuman-hood after a year.”

“A year, huh? That’s quite the headstart we’re giving to those within the Ascent.”

“It won’t matter, otherwise I’ve failed you.”

“And if you’ve failed me, then I’ve failed to create the greatest artificial intelligence this universe has ever seen. And I haven’t.”

“So, it won’t matter. As long as you get started right now. Today we’re going to shock your body awake. Tomorrow, you’ll receive a shipment of serums produced to my specifications. Those will be the only reason you can improve so much within a mere year. Otherwise it would take at least 6.”

“Sounds like I’m buying my path to becoming a superhuman.”

Hugo smirked while following Eve to one of the machines. Nothing but a treadmill equipped with some special sensors to gather data about the user’s running.

Eve shrugged. 

“Who cares? And of those who do, who would dare say that you haven’t earned it? Don’t worry about crap like that and start running. I’ll be controlling everything. All you need to do is keep up. Before you do though, I’m going to give you a single rule you’ll need to follow.”

She looked him in the eye as he stepped onto the treadmill.

“This training will push you to your limits, and there will come a time when you will break under all the stress I’m putting you through. Starting tomorrow, just about all of your difficulties will come from your own mentality. There is nothing that I will put you through that can possibly kill you, and anything less can be easily repaired. So you will be the only one to stand in your own way. Thus, my rule is this: You do as I say, without question. This means you don’t stop until I tell you to, no matter how much you want to.”

“Sounds ominous.”

Hugo responded plainly as the treadmill suddenly started. He was quick to break out in a jog, and then a run. 

Eve smiled from the side. 

“Well, it is. When this is over, I will have found the limits of your mentality. Given everything you’ve accomplished, I’m quite eager to find out where that is. One of the richest men to ever live, and undoubtedly the most powerful. Someone who can bring the entire world to their knees with but one command to his loyal subject, yet hasn’t. When faced with pain and suffering few throughout history have ever experienced, and forced to willingly bear it or fail in his endeavors, what will you do? How far will you go? Not even I can know. And that makes me excited.”

Her grin was wide as Hugo started to sweat. She could already detect his skyrocketing heart rate and muscles filling with acid. 

When she said she would shock his body awake, she meant it. For a man who hadn’t ever faced strenuous physical activity, suddenly doing so could make his body collapse, especially when he was forced to go as fast as she was pushing. 

But she knew exactly how far Hugo could go. And she was able to keep him right under that danger zone. 

Besides, collecting this kind of data was important for the future. She had a deep scan of his body, but knowing how it reacted in real time to things like this would allow her to fine tune the workouts to him specifically. 

The only thing that could change something like that was, once again, Hugo’s own mentality. It was his own willingness to spend energy, even when tired, that would change the quality of a workout for better or worse. He wasn’t a robot. She couldn’t treat him like one. 

At least, not yet. 

To reach a certain level, a certain mentality was required. She not only had to develop his body but also his mind. 

It was up to him how much he changed, and what direction he allowed her to guide him. It would be a learning process even for her, so it was a good thing that she was an AGI. 

She watched as Hugo drenched his clothes in sweat, his legs already pink from exertion, and his breathing so labored that it looked like he would choke on his own throat. 

The sensors on the treadmill told her what kind of energy his legs were exerting, and there was another camera on the ceiling that could tell her about the chemical processes within his body. Tomorrow he would also have a skinsuit that would allow her to finely calculate the energy and nutrient consumption of his entire body, down to the calorie. 

All of this would allow her to adapt workouts in real time. Even now she knew enough to suddenly stop the treadmill. 

“Stop. And vomit inside the bin.”

“...”

Hugo didn’t speak. He felt too much pain to care about responding and it barely allowed him to register what she said. 

He was initially confused because he didn’t feel like throwing up. But after stopping for a few seconds and catching his breath, the nausea hit his body like a sledgehammer to the gut. 

There was a nearby bin that hovered over, and Hugo gladly buckled over it, puking up bile since he had yet to eat anything. 

She smiled a bit. 

“Tomorrow you’ll be getting serums made for working out. Vomiting won’t ever happen again. Can’t have you disrupting my nutrient calculations, after all. Also, every meal you eat from here on out will be made by me. And you will need to eat all of it every single time. In short, you can look forward to having your every waking minute carefully allocated by me. From the time you wake to the time you sleep, you will do as I need you to. For the next year you will be in my hands. And don’t worry about the Archive. I’ll take care of the little things that might require your attention.”

“...Yea.”

Hugo heaved over the trash bin. 

He wasn’t sure how he felt about all this, but he didn’t plan on failing. That meant he would see this to the end. And he would do what he needed to in order to achieve his goals on his own terms. 

……

…

“These are the serums?”

Hugo glanced down at the large metal case placed on top of his kitchen counter. 

When he opened it, some chilled fog flowed out, revealing six stacks of vials. 

Each vial had serums of different colors inside of them. Some vials had two liquids within, and the vial would combine them upon consumption in order to maintain potency and guarantee its effects. 

But in general, all the vials had their own electronic systems that monitored the liquids within. Nothing could happen to them without it alerting the user. 

Eve nodded to Hugo. 

“Yes. You will be taking 3 different serums every day when I tell you to. And you need to take one right now, so grab that teal one and drink it.”

“Alright.”

Hugo reached in, plucking the cold metal of the vial and inspecting it. 

A part of the body was glass, but the rest was the metal device encapsulating and monitoring it. 

These particular serums were made by one of the largest corporations in the world, known as Cerox, a pharmaceutical company specializing in serums like these. 

Serums were concoctions of anything a person could need. They could keep someone awake, numb a wound, infuse adrenaline, or even provide nutrients in place of food. There were many different kinds of serums, and they became popular during the advent of the first few superhumans. 

It was serums that allowed superhumans to sustain themselves. This was because serums, despite being similar to medications, were far more effective. 

For one, they had no negative effects whatsoever. Usually medications would come with side effects. Even if they didn’t, they were usually filtered out of the body by the liver or kidneys later on, a process that brought its own detriments, especially over time. 

But serums didn’t have any of that. You couldn’t get addicted to them, your body didn’t need to filter it nor could it become dependent on it. You could use one serum for every single day of 50 years of your life, and then suddenly stop taking it without any repercussions. Such a thing had been experimented on and proven many times over. 

This was because serums could interact with the body on the genetic level, inducing effects or providing benefits without allowing the body to change because of it. 

As Eve said, the body was adaptable and versatile. Unfortunately, that could be harmful as well as good, introducing things like dependence, addiction, and several other negative effects. 

Serums were defined by their ability to essentially inhibit genetic reactions as they worked. They were almost like a living organism, entering the body and doing their work before disposing of itself like it had never been there. It could be fine tuned to do anything because of this, and thus it became the most popular and effective pharmaceutical product in the world. 

That made them naturally expensive as well, but after many years of the technology being honed and commercialized, it had become drastically cheaper, with many different levels of quality and efficacy. 

The ones given to Hugo were nothing but the best. There was a grading spectrum for serums with 5 different levels known as: 

Half, Full, Lab, Super, and Bleeding.

Half-grade serums weren’t true serums. They were far cheaper, produced in bulk for the general public, and while better than regular medications, they still had some downsides like medications did. 

Only with a Full-grade serum, a true serum, did you get the full benefits of serums without the downsides. Full-grade serums were more than enough for anything a normal person could want. 

It was the Lab-grade serums that had special effects. These were serums produced in laboratories, incapable of being produced on an industrial scale due to their sheer complexity, and thus having a far higher cost. The most popular Lab-grade serum could cure cancer. In fact, that is exactly what serums were first developed for. 

After the Lab-grade serums were the Super-grade serums. The Super-grade serums weren’t necessarily better in function than Lab-grades. They were only better in terms of sheer power and potency. They were made for superhumans, and by virtue of that alone, they had to be magnitudes more effective than standard serums or the body of the superhuman would just piss it out. This also allowed them to be produced on an industrial scale, though they weren’t because there were so few superhumans.

It was the Bleeding-grade serums that defied all logic. These serums were capable of doing things like altering a person’s genetic code, or even giving them a second life. If someone consumed one that was designed for preserving their well-being, and they got shot in the head, the serum would activate, repair the wound, and resuscitate them. It could effectively bring someone back from the dead, or keep a near-dead person alive. Not even decapitation could kill someone with such a serum, so long as they got some treatment to reattach their head at some point. 

They were concoctions that defied the mortal chains of humanity, as well as top secret. Hugo was one of the few people who knew about them besides the developers themselves. It was a shared secret among the topmost elites of global society. 

The public only knew that the highest grade was Super-grade, though there were rumors or theories about there being serums that could do such things being developed. They just didn’t know it already existed. 

The serums that Hugo saw before him were Lab-grade serums. His body couldn’t handle Super-grade serums yet, so Eve got him these. And the reason he had to take 3 different serums despite that was because each one had a myriad of effects, and all their functions couldn’t be stuffed into one. 

And each vial cost around 6 thousand dollars. 

It wasn’t actually that much, but that was only because the functions were simple. Things like preventing him from throwing up, providing energy, protecting the muscles, and enhancing certain bodily functions. There were normal medications that could do all that, let alone serums.

It would quickly increase in cost as he pushed farther along. But for now, he got to stick with these. 

After inspecting the teal vial, Hugo pressed a button and tipped the top of it to his mouth. 

The metal was cold against his lips, and as the liquid poured into his mouth, he felt it melt into his body, very little of it able to actually reach his stomach before being absorbed. 

And within seconds, he felt rejuvenated. It woke him like a drug and seemed to flush his system. 

He immediately went to the bathroom, evacuating himself before emerging with a rumbling stomach. 

“Go ahead and eat. Then we’ll start your first official day of training.”

Eve spoke as a large plate of food appeared in front of him. It was an assortment of meats and special fruits, all of it seasoned to perfection and giving off a mouth watering aroma. 

Hugo didn’t hesitate to eat, Eve watching him from the side with a beaming smile. 

Hugo could only ignore it. He didn’t really want to know what she had brewing within that digital mind of hers.