Jake watched on as his simulacrum made yet another miraculous escape by leaping out a window and rapelling down four stories before swiftly making it over the fence to the forest. The guards were a bit distracted by the gunshots from their boss earlier and had, of course, gone to investigate only to find the man dead.
Back in the forest, sim-Jake kept running as he spoke once more, a smile on his lips.
“I wasn’t even paid for this one, you know? I just didn’t like the guy. He tried to hire me a year or so ago, and when I refused the job as the target wasn’t my kind of thing, he threw a hissy fit and tried to have me killed. Naturally, he failed, and I killed the people he sent, and the idiot probably thought that was the end of it. Or not, based on the guards, but hey, I enjoy the added challenge. Sometimes you got to sneak a bit as not even I can survive the barrage of an entire squad of gunmen. Too many bullets. Even if I can feel the trajectory of every one of them, it would be like trying to dodge the rain itself.”
He talked about himself more and explained things that Jake, of course, understood. Ah, but the rain was dodgeable; he just had to get strong enough. If it wasn’t, Jake would have been torn apart by the Sword Saint.
As for the philosophy of his simulacrum… Jake also understood. Understanding and agreeing were not the same, though. He himself had felt and still at times felt similarly. His Bloodline was, in the end, partly about being at the peak of the food chain, and looking down on others was just inherent to him. Be it an unwanted side effect or a necessary part of his ability to ignore presences, it was there.
Jake could only imagine how it must have been to grow up with his Bloodline on full display. The real Jake could at least meet actually powerful individuals after he fully awakened his Bloodline to get some perspective. People so strong he would not be able to land a single injury on them no matter what methods he deployed. Those so powerful they could wipe him from existence with a mere thought. Looking down on those individuals was something not even Jake could do. However, that was still different from recognizing them as superior. To Jake, someone being stronger than him was just a temporary state of things. One day, he would stand at the top, or he would die trying with a smile on his face.
Sim-Jake did not have that kind of perspective at all. It was entirely possible he was the strongest individual on the planet. That there truly was nobody, he couldn’t kill, and Jake could understand why that could be… boring. But, something else was also readily apparent:
This Jake had way less empathy than the non-simulation Jake, and damn, Jake was not the most empathetic person to begin with. Never had been. But his family had ensured he had some “humanity” in him. He could confidently say that he truly loved and cared for his brother and parents. His simulacrum never had anyone that he judged worthy of recognizing as worth caring for. Especially not if he disconnected himself from humanity early on. Jake had seen no signs of lovers or even friends in any of the visions he had seen. Sim-Jake was always alone. In some ways, it was a bit sad.
“I sense a trace of disapproval. Why? I know you understand. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t that I like to kill humans for sport. There is no sport in committing a senseless murder. It would be like a pathetic loser sitting back with his rifle to shoot a rhino. There is no danger, no challenge… no meaning in such an action. I also do have some rules. I will not kill people I believe genuinely contribute to making the world a better place or if I believe their deaths will cause too many issues for too many innocent people. The last rule is the reason why I haven’t killed nine out of ten politicians,” sim-Jake said. The last part was only half a joke.
His simulacrum ran through the forest a bit more before making it to a boat at the edge of a river. He jumped on and started the surprisingly silent motor as he sailed the thirty-odd meters to the other side.“You may ask if I couldn’t look for my challenges elsewhere… and I did. Underground fighting rings, hunting in the wild, or even fighting animals. None of it was able to truly scratch that itch. Sadly I could never do anything official or even try to perhaps compete with the peak of humanity in sports as I have not been viewed favorably by the law since I was a teenager. I don’t even think I am officially alive anymore. And even if I competed in sports, it would all just be too fake. A challenge without consequences is just not as good, and fencing competitors don’t want to use real swords during combat. What true combat I could find, such as in the underground fighting ring, was not interesting either. They were too weak, and even their rules ruined the fun. Ah, but I did have a handful of life and death fights, but after four opponents, no one wanted to fight anymore. Understandable, I guess,” sim-Jake further explained in a defensive tone.
Getting off the boat, sim-Jake went up a hill and into a camouflaged getaway vehicle.
“I would never claim to be a good person, but I would not call myself a bad one either. I am just me. I don’t kill without reason, but I also don’t spare those I find undeserving. I have rules I abide by, even if they conflict with what society believes I should do. I fight, I kill, and I try to challenge myself. I do what I want, eat the best food I can get my hands on, and go wherever and do whatever I want. So let me ask you…“ the simulacrum said as he turned to Jake, who sat beside him on the passenger seat, flying along as he couldn’t actually sit on the seat.
“Why do I feel so fucking miserable? Why does this world feel so utterly meaningless? Why do I feel like I am just waiting for something to happen? For true meaning to appear? Tell me, oh silent observer… will things ever change, or am I doomed to live in this meaningless reality surrounded by weaklings till I die of boredom? I do not expect an answer, I ju-“
The real Jake had already floated in front of sim-Jake by this point. As the simulacrum drove the vehicle, Jake appeared In front of the window. Jake then moved to the right to answer a confident yes. Jake saw his simulacrum smile through the windshield with relief as the scene changed abruptly once more.
Jake saw himself standing within an entirely white room that he instantly recognized. A humanoid figure that wasn’t quite human sat in a chair with sim-Jake right in front of him.
It was the Introduction. This was the very moment the integration began, and the Tutorial was about to begin. Sim-Jake seemed to instantly notice and turned around. He looked at Jake, but Jake was more focused on the apparition of the system that ignored him entirely and directed sim-Jake to select a class or profession like Jake had – minus the possibility of a profession - but his simulacrum instead asked the system:
“Are you aware of someone else than us in the room?”
The system-construct answered instantly. “Yes. Now please select a class or profession.”
“Was this the change you spoke about?” sim-Jake instead asked Jake. Jake moved to confirm, and the man smiled. “You are telling me life gets better from here?”
Once more, a solid yes.
Sim-Jake turned to the system construct again. “I choose light warrior.”
With that, two daggers and a set of basic armor appeared on the table just as the scene ended.
As the transition to the next scene began, Jake noted how the first major difference in the Tutorial was already made. Firstly, he could pick either class or profession, something the real Jake could not do in his. Additionally, his simulacrum had chosen light warrior, which made sense based on his prior fighting style.
The new scene appeared soon after. A huge hall, filled with individuals wearing their starting gear, with dark elves and other high-level individuals scattered around. Jake instantly realized this was the Tutorial he had seen in the preview and the one Caleb was meant to be in. This was further hammered home when he saw the two people Caleb had entered the Seat of the Exalted Prima with, called Matteo and Nadia, if he remembered correctly. What he did not expect was the next scene.
A circle was formed. A circle around a certain individual. Jake had been told this Tutorial included a lot of former assassins and contract killers. Criminals. It also seemed like people quickly realized who he was and backed away as the Organizer of the Tutorial stepped up on a platform overseeing them all. Jake was amazed at feeling the presence of an S-grade there, and when the aura of this entity bathed the area, all of the assassins were affected by it.
This was clearly a moment to establish dominance. No mere newly initiated G-grade could stand against a mere fraction of an S-grade’s presence, as everyone was forced to their knees.
Everyone except for one.
Sim-Jake stood tall, surrounded by over a thousand kneeling or squatting individuals. Even all the dark elves were pressured, leaving only two entities in the entire Tutorial standing at that moment.
The S-grade stared at sim-Jake as sim-Jake just looked back and made a toothy grin. Jake felt the excitement. One he had felt himself. However, his moment was when he saw the Malefic Viper during his vision from the mural back in the dungeon.
It was an emotion born from standing before something so much more powerful than yourself you couldn’t truly comprehend it. It should lead to a feeling of powerlessness or inadequacy, perhaps humility, but to both Jake and sim-Jake, it meant only one thing: a new goal. A new mountain to climb and a peak to shatter. Jake could imagine his simulacrum thinking: “I want to beat that person one day.”
“What are you?” the S-grade asked as it looked at sim-Jake, all attention gathered on them.
Sim-Jake just kept his smile as he answered. “A hunter.”
The scene ended a mere moment later, sim-Jake not even acknowledging Jake in this particular scene. Then again, it was a relatively short, if impactful, one.
A brief flash showed the next scene: sim-Jake standing before who he assumed to be Umbra. No words were spoken that Jake could hear, but he saw sim-Jake extend his hand as the being of pure shadows humored him and shook it. The scene ended just as sim-Jake turned around to look at Jake.
As the scene changed again, the environment was very different. Sim-Jake stood in a dark cave, with the dark mana almost palpable in the air. Monkey-like creatures hid in the crevices as sim-Jake turned his head towards where Jake had just appeared.
“It’s been a while,” he smiled. Jake could already see the changes. His smile was far more genuine, and looked far happier than before. “In case you are wondering, this is about a month into this Tutorial. You truly did not lie. Tell me, is your presence here related to this system and the multiverse?”
Jake smiled a bit himself as he did his old dance routine of stepping to the right to confirm.
“I see,” sim-Jake nodded. “Are you a god?”
That one Jake had to deny. He wasn’t a god. Not yet, at least.
“I kind of figured you weren’t based on not even that god Umbra being able to detect you despite being quite impressive according to, well, everyone. Which must mean the system is directly involved, am I right?” he asked. “Ah, by the way, no one is watching or listening in right now, but I reckon you already knew that. I made it clear to Umbra I knew and shut that shit down instantly.”
Another change. Jake felt the level of distrust from his simulacrum was as intense as ever, and from the looks of it, he was hunting alone. Nothing wrong with that, but Jake had a feeling this Jake was always alone. Again, solitude was nice, and Jake liked his alone time, but that didn’t mean he never wanted to interact with others.
Sim-Jake was the opposite. He distrusted everyone else heavily, which was a bit odd if you thought about it. His Bloodline offered him an intuition that allowed him to quickly get a gut feeling about others, so shouldn’t that help him trust people a little more? Sure, Jake had been wrong about people, but he had also been right often. Miranda had given him a good feeling, and he felt like he had hit the jackpot there.
Meanwhile, he did not see his simulacrum ever forming a city. At least not without being the City Leader himself and ruling it with an iron fist. He would also no doubt be shit at running the city as he didn’t trust anyone, so he wouldn’t delegate and, of course, wouldn’t do stuff himself as he was too busy hunting.
Such an existence had to be lonely, as Jake noted before. Lonely but also limiting. Jake had gained a lot from talking with Villy, sparring with others, and fighting people like the Sword Saint. Would sim-Jake also learn a lot through fighting? Yes… be he would not have an enlightening conversation afterward with his opponent.
Sim-Jake would also be far less receptive to feedback and would have probably just ignored all he had been told during the D-grade test dungeon in the Order of the Malefic Viper. A lot of issues could crop up from that… but it would also lead to something unique. Sim-Jake would perhaps forge a far more unique Path, and at least it did seem like he took pointers of some kind or at least embraced the skills of Umbra based on his aura.
Anyway, Jake confirmed the question of the system’s involvement, making his simulacrum nod in understanding as he followed up.
“Is this part of some test or something?” he asked.
Hm… Jake thought. It wasn’t really, but then again, it kind of was? Maybe? The system event description wasn’t very clear on that, and Jake was unsure if he could describe what happened as a test. So he stood still.
“Partly, huh? Odd. But the objective stays the same, right? Observe and learn about and from me?”
Jake confirmed that one.
“Well then. Let me teach you,” sim-Jake said. Dark mana began revolving around him as Jake saw dark veins appear on his skin.
“No, let me show you my Path.”