Chapter 12: First Thoughts on Adaptation

Outlast was a first-person survival horror game that had scared the shit out of Jin when he had first played it shortly after the lockdowns had started in his last life. Considering that at the time the game's graphics had been more than five years out of date. That was very impressive since it suggested that the horror of the game had come from the elements of it that weren't purely visual. Any studio could create a grotesque high-definition monstrosity, but most couldn't make an atmosphere with just the music, storyline and game mechanics.

Outlast also fulfilled his biggest requirement for the scenario, namely that there would be no combat ingrained into the core elements of the game.

Combat systems were much more intertwined into games than most people thought. If you took any amazing game based on combat and removed the fighting, one would be left with an empty husk. The surrounding designs which had been input to accentuate the combat, or the other way around, simply didn't work anymore. Outlast in this case would require the least reworking to fit the psychological purposes of Jin's project.

Of course, there would be numerous things that would have to be changed, however, that would only require plastic surgery, not a full osteotomic makeover of the core elements. It was always easier to change the surface than the underlying structure.

These were the thoughts that occupied his mind as the two mad monk's disciples gave him a very brief but informative tour of their little asylum.

Even if they didn't call it as such.

They simply referred to it as "The Place of Rest".

The horrified and insane people that Jin got to see, hear, and smell in some instances were resting all right, it just wasn't anything resembling sleep. It was rather an absence of responsibility due to a lack of sanity. He was sure everyone present would have preferred to not be resting if this was the definition.

In the end, however, he had to conclude that the Mad Monks Sect was actually one of the good guy sects. Relatively speaking, of course, in comparison to the mostly non-existent moral standards of Cultivation Land.

Naturally, locking away the people they'd helped drive insane with their flawed cultivation methods into small rooms was hardly nice of them, but it was more than most other sects would have done, which would have simply been to outright kill them.

Shen also confided in him that those divergents who weren't as insane as to be completely dependent, or violent, weren't locked up here but kept at a separate part of the mountain where they could go out, breathe the fresh air, touch some grass, grow some cabbages. That was how the crazy lady that Elder Flower had killed in the bamboo forest had escaped. She'd retained enough of her sanity to be able to pretend that she was not murderously insane. She'd used that higher amount of freedom to escape. She'd stolen a staff and had run away. Simple as that. She must have gotten lucky in some way as other divergents were killed upon making escape attempts. There must have been patrols and such. The only real cruelty the Mad Monks allowed was the fact that none of the divergents could ever leave. They wouldn't be killed, but they would die on the mountain. They knew cultivation secrets that weren't allowed to come to light to other sects or mortals in general. They would die after perhaps a hundred or so years of living in an asylum under strict guard without ever seeing their families again.

Jin would have just preferred to kill himself and wondered if he would have been allowed to do that.

The atmosphere in the fortress was daunting, and neither of his two new friends spoke throughout the tour. They simply walked through the corridors and let him look through the small food doors of the cells. Patient confidentiality, what was that? Personally, Jin had never been so uncomfortable in his entire life. In either one of his lives for that matter. It really was something, even at such an advanced age you could still learn new things and experience new emotions.

There was just something disturbing about looking into the crazed or empty eyes of people who had lost their sanity and reasoning, arguably the thing that most closely defined a human. Empty pitiable husks with no chance of recovery. Once one diverged, that was it, unless a sect was willing to put in the same amount of resources they needed to create an Elder to unfuck you, which would only return you to a baseline human unable to ever cultivate again. Suffice to say, there was no such sect.

Jin only ended up glimpsing into two of the cells, not having the stomach afterwards to continue doing so, despite the reproachful look of his guides. They thought he needed to horrify himself to properly motivate himself to help create less of these people. He didn't have the heart to tell them that projecting their lack of professionalism onto him was a sign of an inferiority complex. He did his best in any job he accepted, this whole thing had just helped him come up with new ideas, it hadn't actually been necessarily to steel his resolve.

He exited the fortress not long after his entry, with the screams and the babbling of the insane following him on the way out like the bad stench of moral decay and neuroses that clung to a high-level business executive as they flew out of Davos after having visited the World Economic Forum.

Jin was shaken, even if he tried not to show it. Inner disciple Shen seemed to respect that, not speaking as he started the long walk back to the visitor's pavilion. Maybe he was just shaken himself, who knew.

The journey dragged on as Jin yearned to either eat or sit down and start creating. They passed the little villages they had traversed on the way to the asylum and Jin saw that all the outer disciples were already going into secluded meditation and that no other sound was to be heard.

At best he could hear a cricket every now and again, or the sound of wind passing through the bamboo forests and the high grass enclosing the small paths they walked.

Jin had seen all that he needed to see, had decided on the template and now he could distract himself by thinking about the practical aspects of the scenario he was developing.

If nothing else he did genuinely think that this scenario would help the Mad Monks Sect better weed out those too mentally fragile to follow their preferred cultivation path.

Being scared for one's life because one had to play a scenario that was completely optional and fake was much better than eventually losing one's mind down the line. If one couldn't handle an illusion, how was one meant to handle reality?

In fact, it was good to know that asylums existed in this world as well. This meant that the concept wouldn't be too foreign to those doomed to experience his version of Outlast. Many things would have to be changed, but the madhouse wasn't one of them.

The main story arc would be simple enough. The main character of Outlast was a freelance investigative journalist. Journalism obviously couldn't really exist in a world of cultivation, but the narrative justification for the experiencer going to investigate the Mount Massive Asylum could easily be fabricated with some changes. The main character simply belonged to some faction which was interested in figuring out the disappearances in the region. After all, even presuming that the Mount Massive Asylum took only those that wouldn't be missed, the insane, the sheer scale of the operation would elicit attention. The experiencer could be led towards the asylum by a whistleblower, and then once they got trapped inside while trying to investigate, they would have to escape. Simple enough, from that point onwards the gameplay could essentially stay the same.

The Murkoff corporation, the pharmaceutical and weapons giants that they were, had created the asylum to experiment on the mentally deranged, and whomever else they could get their hands on, to find a host for a supernatural entity existing outside of human reason, the Walrider. They'd done so through the morphogenic engine program, which tested different patients for their host compatibility. Those who weren't compatible degraded on a physical level and those that survived the process became the variants that made the asylum dangerous to explore. Easy enough. The Murkoff corporation would become the Murkoff demonic sect, who were trying to find alternative ways to cultivate immortality, such as by hosting a supernatural entity in their bodies. Project Zero was simply established to test the feasibility of the theoretical process. Worst case if the host became too mentally unstable, but still had the power of what was essentially a dark god, they could still release it on their enemies.

Considering how comically evil the Murkoff corporation was, changing them into a demonic sect wouldn't really take a lot of work.

The devil, as always, was in the details.

One of the main components of the atmospheric horror of Outlast came from the fact that the electricity was killed throughout the whole building at some point, which forced the main character to see through the night vision lens of the camera they had with them. The fact that this camera ran out of batteries, which one then had to find and replace, increased the urgency of the escape and also the resting heart rate of the player.

If there was even anything resting about the heart rate of the player when they went through the game. Jin remembered taking numerous breaks to avoid what he felt was an oncoming heart attack, but was probably just him about to shit his pants.

The camera could be easily replaced with some sort of enchanted recording lens. Cultivation was magic and magic didn't always have to explain itself. The lens would obviously need to be powered by the occasional spirit stone, and these would be strategically placed around the map in the same places that the batteries had been in an attempt to mimic the camera part of the gameplay and thus raise the urgency of the escape.

Then there would be a thousand other things. Electrical appliances would have to be switched out by more mediaeval methods of achieving the same thing. The room in which the Walrider was being summoned would have to lose its computers and its high-tech pod machines, and become a chamber with a high ceiling decorated with seals and artefacts which invoked suspicions that someone was messing with forces they really shouldn't. Some blood splashes here and there?

Guns would be replaced with crossbows, medical files with scrolls, computers with large ancient tomes and the tactical gear of the security company that had failed to establish a perimeter by leather armour.

All of this was doable but would require him to go through the entire scenario with a fine-tooth comb to eliminate any indications of his nature as a transmigrator before he showed the product to Elder Flower. He wasn't really looking forward to having to relive Outlast the amount of times it would doubtlessly necessitate to get anywhere with the scenario.

But, now that he had decided on the direction he was going in, everything else was simply a matter of time and effort.

And, as a cultivator in a world where hours were treated as minutes and weeks as days and months as weeks and years as months and decades as years, time was something that he had.

Effort, motivation? This was an opportunity to recreate something amazing and share it with the people in Cultivation Land. Additionally, he would be helping potential disciples not go insane, which was always nice, and at the same time, he would be bettering his own position in the Illusion Room Sect by successfully fulfilling a contract and presumably improving their relations with an allied sect. The motivation wouldn't be an issue and thus the effort also wouldn't be.

"Thank you for your guidance inner disciple Shen," Jin said to his silent and oftentimes confusing guide as they arrived back at the pavilion where they had started their journey earlier that day.

The sun had started sinking instead of rising in the meantime and it was soon getting to the point where Jin needed another meal before he secluded himself into his room to work through all the ideas he had and all the things he had to change. He needed some fuel for all that thinking he'd be doing.

Inner disciple Shen slightly bowed his head. "It is an honour to work and to work is an honour. Especially when the task is honourable and aims to change the karmic inversion of the wheel and create a change worth risking heavenly retribution for," he said and promptly turned around and left.

His sandaled feet clicked on the cobbled stone path as he walked away before quickly disappearing out of view and leaving Jin alone standing in the front arched doors of the temple tower seemingly designated for visitors.

"What a fucking weirdo," Jin muttered to himself, shook his head once, turned around and walked inside.

Thankfully he knew how to get to the room with the food on his lonesome by now, since nobody was idling around to ask for directions.

-/-

It was several hours later that Jin was sitting down in a small room with many fully scribbled notebooks in his lap.

Elder Flower was also there.

They were having the obligatory tea necessary to be drunk by all cultivators whenever they were doing anything but training and cultivating. They'd just started discussing the inner disciple's idea and what he had experienced that day.

"So they showed you the Place of Rest?" Elder Flower wondered idly and sipped at her brew. Her long hair seemed more lustrous than usual and to Jin, it seemed like she had spent the day at a spa. It must have been nice being an Elder, the young man grumbled internally. Just sit there pretending to be wise and let the inner and core disciples do all the work. The rewards would just fly in. He wasn't bitter, he wasn't bitter. Going to the Place of Rest had definitely been more rewarding than going to the spa would have been.

His eyebrow twitched.

"Yes. I think they were trying to properly motivate me for the task at hand, by showing me that the goal was worthwhile in a moral sense." Elder Flower raised an eyebrow at him and Jin clarified. "Of course, it was completely unnecessary as I give my all at every task. Nevertheless, I did gain some new ideas. It's a dreary fortress and a horrible place quite frankly. It's something that if it were unleashed on the psyche of a mortal, would have a quite debilitating effect."

"Are you thinking of replicating the Place of Rest?" Elder Flower asked. "You think that scaring them with what they could become if they fail will weed out those who wouldn't manage?"

"Not completely replicate of course. I just think that losing one's sanity and with it one's humanity is one of the scariest fears that one can be confronted with. Trapped within one's own body perhaps, watching as a crazed intelligence takes control of your life and destroys it, confining you to imprisonment until you wither away and die. It is a quite rational fear, why not recreate it? Confront people with it?"

"What would this confrontation look like exactly? I'm curious as you did say that you were aiming at a scenario that had no combat. I agree that it would miss the point of the scenario, but it does mean that my largest area of expertise becomes less useful," she admitted with what seems to be a slight inflexion of humbleness.

It was a bit shit for Elder Flower that her greatest area of expertise became unnecessary, which in a way sort of forced her to rely on Jin more than she otherwise would have had to.

This was on the one hand a good opportunity for Jin, but on the other hand, also an opportunity to make an enemy and lose brownie points if he handled the whole thing badly.

"I was thinking of a larger scenario. The fact that I'm developing for mortals means that I can decompress the data that goes into determining the sensory definition of the experience. It allows for more space and at the same time more characters and a more complex narrative."

"Narratives are relatively unpopular, but that only makes sense when one is aiming for combat experience. When one tries to evoke a feeling, narratives become a very necessary aspect of any scenario," Elder Flower mused.

Jin nodded. "I agree. Although after having read some literature on it, I think that narratives would also be useful in furthering the experiencer's combat potential since it would create a higher emotional investment and immersion."

Elder Flower shrugged. "Of course, but for that to be worth it the narrative would have to be good enough, which is not as easy as it might sound. Anyway, tell me about your idea. I'm curious what you've come up with."

Jin considered how he should start explaining this before deciding that it was best to start at the beginning.

"The premise is relatively simple, similar to many of the fiction novels that scatter the libraries of the young and impressionable. A demonic sect has set up a base in a relatively uninhabited region of the Empire. They are conducting experiments to see if by summoning an outside entity, a dark god and hosting it within the body they can break through the cultivation barriers they have imposed on themselves by splintering away from the traditional way of achieving immortality. Worst case they are planning on using the body that hosts whatever they end up summoning as a bomb against one of their enemies. Simply drop it in the middle of an inhabited place and watch the chaos."

"Technically you wouldn't have to include any details of cultivation in the narrative. It is catered to mortals after all," Flower pointed out.

"Well, I think that making it as realistic as possible, and fitting into the world that the mortals are trying to enter would make it seem more real and thus more scary."

"I understand what you mean," Elder Flower said and waved him to continue.

"Regardless, the demonic sect, the Murkoff demonic sect in this case, has started abducting the people that nobody misses, the insane and the homeless. They have created a process in which they've isolated the dimensional pathway towards a particular outsider, the Walrider and are cycling through the people they've kidnapped to check for compatibility. Upon failing the compatibility tests the inmates of the asylum -it is essentially a prison for insane people- start degrading physically. Their flesh rots and their skin develops sores, whatever mental issues they had before are exacerbated. Those lucky enough to be at least slightly compatible become mutated with some supernatural abilities and bodily changes. They become variants, who haunt the asylum and make it impossible to fight through for a mortal,"

"As is always the case with experimentation like this, eventually the Walrider finds a perfect host, which allows it to exhibit some of its power and come to this world through the body it is attached to. Quite naturally it has no particularly warm feelings for the demonic sect who has been trying to summon it and starts going on a rampage."

"Demon summoning, a classic," Elder Flower muttered with a small smile.

"This conjoining of the perfect host and the Walrider coincides with a mortal investigator sent by a faction I haven't decided on yet, to look where all the people have been disappearing to. Perhaps a demonic cultivator who had a change of heart can lead him to the asylum before running away. Our investigator then enters the enclave but gets trapped inside as a wall behind him collapses. He then has to essentially escape, as investigation becomes a secondary purpose to surviving the ordeal to reveal what he has found.

"As he escapes he is caught and mutilated by different variants who have become even more insane with the appearance of the Walrider and whose powers have been strengthened by the proximity to their source. Solving puzzles and walking through a continuously self-destroying asylum/demonic sect outpost, the experiencer is faced with a variety of enemies which are to be avoided and a variety of what are essentially puzzles which test for intelligence, to open doors and pass security measures that were left by the now dead demonic cultivators. There will be several records which can be read to heighten the sense of immersion and a recording device of some sort will be used to provide enough vision to see after the lights go out, however, the recording device will need to be charged with spirit stones which eventually run out, this should technically increase the urgency of the scenario and also the stress on the experiencer. That's all I have right now. In a week or so I can perhaps have the introductory scene for you to look at."

Elder Flower sipped at her tea while tilting her head to look at the ceiling thoughtfully. "I mostly wanted to check where you are at with the process. It seems you're at least going in the right direction. I would just suggest not including a demonic cultivator with a change of heart. It's not really something that happens," she said.

Jin nodded in understanding. "Perhaps it can be one of the subjects who escaped with most of their sanity intact who can point the investigator towards the asylum," he decided.

Elder Flower continued. "Otherwise, I am mostly curious how you will design a scenario so that the experience doesn't result in combat with these variants as you call them. I would say that you should start designing a sketch of the first part, upon which I will probably be able to give you better feedback."

Jin nodded. "Good, I'm glad that's settled then. Now it's just the easy part. Actually making the thing," he joked.

Elder Flower laughed. "Whatever you say."