Chapter 16

I looked over the table, examining all the weapons. There were so many to pick from… it was hard to pick. Tay stood silently nearby, those blue orbs trained on me. After a few minutes I picked up an AK-47 rifle.

I had never fired a gun, let alone hold one. However, in my many hours delving through the various nooks and crannies of the Web Service, I had seen this weapon mentioned hundreds of times. “One of the most reliable and steadfast weapons ever invented by mankind,” I remember reading on one Forum post from the year 2056. This is as good a time as any to learn to shoot a weapon, and it may as well be one that is well regarded.

As I turned to face Tay, she nodded, and suddenly there was a chime in my ears and her voice spoke in my head;

TAYS TIDBITS

You have unlocked the AMMO MONITOR function of your HUD! Well done, in no time you’ll be pumpin’ lead into anything that moves.

This function will display your current ammunition capacity, and how many bullets are left in your clip. This is only available for weapons that require ammunition while equipped. Don’t run dry, unless you plan to die!

I noted there was now a counter in the bottom right corner of my HUD. It showed two numbers; 30/300. As I mentally hovered over the numbers, it showed my AK-47 in a small hovering display. I could only assume that more numbers would pop up as I had more weapons, and this was a quick reference to tell how much ammo I had in a clip, and how much total was left on me. Speaking of which… I didn’t pick up any additional ammo, so where was the other 300 rounds housed?

Tay spoke up, again reading my mind. “You can adjust the HUD, I recommend changing it to display the weapon NEXT to the ammo. But some like the cleaner look of just numbers. Anyways, any additional ammo you pick up is housed in your interdimensional inventory. We will get to that in a moment; but to reload your weapon, you just need to act out a ‘reload motion’ and it will refill. You don’t need to actually reload it… just, you know… whatever you think reloading looks like.”

I stared at her, a bit incredulous. “Are you… serious?”

She nodded, smiling again. “Yeah, I got the idea from these silly games in the early 2000’s called Call of Duty. Some of those reload animations were outlandish, but it definitely spiced up the boring action of refilling a gun! So you know… go nuts!” With that she waggled her arms in the air, almost like a wizard casting a spell.

Suddenly the left number dropped to zero and flashed red, Tays voice echoing in my head, “Reload you dummy!”

I grimaced, how the hell do you… act out reloading? I started fiddling with the lever on the right, racking it. Then started hitting the buttons on the side, when suddenly the magazine made a ‘click’ noise and fell out. I felt a bit silly, but hey… I found the latch for the magazine. I picked it up off the ground, and fumbled around, finally getting a satisfying click as it latched back in.

Tay shrugged. “Close enough. Your gonna need to work on that, my… other selves may not count that next time.”

The left number stopped flashing, going back to 30 and the second number dropping to 270.

“Other selves?”

Tay nodded, “Yeah, I mean… I had to spread myself out all over this damned place. I am the genesis of Sentient AI, remember? So I made a lot of mini-me’s! While this version…” she gestured at herself “... of me will be your primary interface to the system, all the me’s don’t see things necessarily the same.”

“This is all… so much to take in at once.” I said, the first signs of stress slipping onto my face and into my voice.

Tay walked over to me, and put her hands upon my shoulders, touching me for the second time. The pressure was firm, but not unpleasant, almost like she was holding me to the ground.

“You can handle a lot more than this, trust me.” She said seriously, her eyes locked on mine. “This is only the beginning. Don’t fold on me champ!”

With that she patted my shoulders once, then turned, gesturing towards someone walking down the street in the distance. It was… another Tay?

“Ok, now its time for violence my friend; I want you to kill me!”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

I blinked, the gun in my hands suddenly feeling heavy. “Wait… what? Why?! Why would you want me to kill you? Even if its… another you?”

She turned, staring me down seriously. “What is dead may never die! Er… I mean… I can’t die. And while you can feel everything here, I have no such things as ‘nerves’, a heart, or even a spleen. I promise you, it’ll be fine.”

I looked down at the gun in my hands, then back at the Tay walking down the street. She looked so innocent. She was even wearing what looked like headphones, looking like she was just taking a stroll down a random street. “Are… you sure?” I whispered.

Tay nodded again, the look of determination on her face. “Absolutely.”

I looked down again, nodding. “Ok, what do I do.”

She smiled, and suddenly her voice chimed in my head again;

TAYS TIDBITS

Welcome to basic combat! If you focus on your BASIC ATTACK action on your side bar, you will notice that it has updated with your equipped weapon. Please check it out, i’ll wait…

Music that sounded annoyingly like some sort of tune you would hear in an elevator began playing. As I paused a second, I realized it was waiting for me to check my Basic Attack, so I went ahead and mentally checked it again. The entry had changed;

Basic Attack. Type: Attack. Cooldown: .15 second in AUTOMATIC mode, .30 second in SEMI-AUTOMATIC mode

Damage per second: 10

Extra information: This weapon can be aimed by looking down the barrel in SEMI-AUTOMATIC mode only. Doing so will enable CRITICAL HITS to occur if you strike vital areas, such as the head, heart, or spleen. CRITICAL HITS do double damage.

This is your basic attack. Everyone has one. Hey… you aren’t suicidal!

Hmm, that was very interesting. There was a lot to unpack here, but it called into question why my damage was so low unarmed. I get it wouldn’t be as strong as a bullet, but I should definitely be able to punch for more than one damage, right? Tays voice chimed back in as the elevator music stopped suddenly.

Thank you! To perform your BASIC ATTACK, mentally click the action while facing the direction you would like to attack in. As your equipped weapon has two modes, you may toggle these by flicking the toggle switch on the right side of your weapon to switch between modes. The SEMI-AUTOMATIC mode enables manual aiming for CRITICAL HITS!

Seems easy enough. I inspected my weapon for a moment, getting used to where the switch for modes was in relation to my fingers. Even though I had never fired a weapon, the AK-47 felt very natural with the way everything was positioned, and within a few minutes I felt like I could toggle with my thumb or index finger. With that, my resolve stiffened, I flicked the gun in automatic mode and tucked the butt of the gun against my hip. I moved around a bit, getting the feel for moving with the weapon, and with that, decided it was time to try and hit my target.

I swiveled towards Tay 2. Now she was…. Walking in circles in the middle of the street, maybe 30 or so feet away. It was almost like she was taunting me, like a white pant suited duck swimming in front of a tiger ready to pounce on her.

My face hardened. This is what I had signed up for… to be an Airman, and to fight wars on behalf of my country. I had chosen this path, and this was just another of many obstacles to overcome in that path.

I pulled the trigger. As the first few bullets exited the weapon… it flew from my hands, breaking my right index finger in the process as it clattered to the ground. I saw the red bar at the top of my HUD plummet, losing around 25% of what was there.

I yelled in pain, clutching my right hand, tears streaming from my eyes. I yelled, the pain of this excruciating. “What the fuck happened?” I yelled.

Tay walked up to me, making what sounded like a ‘tisk, tisk’ as she strutted up next to me. She reached down, touching my hand, and suddenly… the pain was gone, my finger straightened back out, and what I now sorted was my health bar refilled. As it subsided, I gasped, looking at Tay in surprise.

“Well, you can’t fire the damned gun like Rambo my friend.” She said, smiling.

“Like who…?” I said confused, as I bent to pick up my weapon. I noted that the ammo counter disappeared when I had dropped it, reappearing as I picked it back up.

Tay giggled again, once again waving at me, like she was dismissing me… she really needed to stop doing that.

“Nevermind, old reference, before your time! Let me show you how to hold a gun… I really thought you were kidding when you said you had never fired a weapon, aren’t you from a hunting community?”

I nodded, handing the gun to her. “Yeah, but I never had any interest in any of that.”

She shrugged, and brought the gun up to her shoulder like she was a trained soldier. “Well, you should have at least picked something up. What you just did… was really dangerous. Good thing it was just us. I will say that people do NOT take kindly to friendly fire in these games; some even have a name for themselves to not be trusted thanks to it. So, this is how you should typically hold your weapon. Even though you can’t aim in Automatic mode, this is the best way to aim and keep the weapon under your control. Oh, and hold it firmly, and do not loosen your grasp no matter what you do! If you need to ever fire it any other way… you have very little control of the weapon, so just be careful.”

I took notes, asked a few questions, and when I was comfortable I took the weapon back from Tay. “Oh, and never keep your finger on the trigger unless you plan to fire; thats called trigger safety my friend!” She said as she relented the weapon to me.

As she showed me, I put the weapon up to my shoulder, and set a more stable stance. This felt much better than what I tried to do earlier. As I looked down the barrel at Tay 2, I took a few steady breaths, and when I was ready… I pulled the trigger.

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