Experiment 37B

This Monday promised to become just like every other. After getting up at 8 o clock, as usual, Ivan then went to his University class. Since last year he had been studying mathematics at the University of Kess. Although it wasn't a top university in the country it was not bad either and would allow him to get a job after finishing his studies.

In class, he sat alone in his place and listened attentively to his teacher. He had never been able to interact well with his classmate or with any other human, to be honest. Instead, he had always preferred to be by himself, something that showed in all parts of his life.

He had moved out of his parents' home as soon as possible and started to live alone. By relying on a stipend of the university this was possible even with the bad economic situation of his parents.

But one should not think that the reason for moving out was that he did not love his parents. No, it was only his drive towards a solitary life, with nobody who could tell him what to do. It was a permanent desire to be in control.

So, while he sat at his place and listened, he was silently hoping that the days could continue on like this. After school, he would go home and read a good book or play some games. He also had to still finish some work on the commission of the website development he had received and what was which he used to have a small but adequate income.

But while he was dreaming of continuing on his common and boring day, he was interrupted by a mechanical voice, that suddenly appeared in every person's brain at the same time.

"Attention! Your planet has been selected to take part in experiment 37b. Please be prepared to receive the changes due to your participation.

For the duration of the changes, time will be locked for all relevant living specimen on the planet."

Before anyone could even react to this weird mechanical voice, everything froze.

Something happened to the planet and all its inhabitants, but nobody on the planet was capable of witnessing it just yet. Only later would they be able to directly experience these changes.

Nobody knew how long it lasted until everyone was unfrozen again. But to those who had been frozen, it didn't seem as if any time had passed at all. Instead, it appeared as if the next message came directly behind the one just now.

"Congratulations! You have all become part of experiment 37b. To find out more about the current changes please refer to your new Artificial Intelligent Assistant. We wish all participants a successful experiment."

After these words, the voice once again fell silent.

Although one might have expected chaos or something else to break out after such a sudden announcement that appeared in everyone's mind, something that surely wasn't possible with current technology, nothing like this happened.

To Ivan and everyone else, it didn't seem like anything significant had changed. It was just like something had come into their life that should have been there all along. Something that they hadn't missed before, but now that it was there seemed extremely natural.

Of course, it helped that the only visible indication, that anything had happened at all was the small icon flashing at the border of their viewscreen. This was the menu for the AIA.

Instead of panic or huge change, life continued seemingly like before. Everyone was somehow thinking of only checking out the new weird menu after they had finished their normal activities.

And as such, Ivan's normal Monday continued. After attending his classes, he, just as usual went back to his dorm. His dorm was a four-man dorm, where everyone had his own bedroom, but the kitchen and bathroom were shared. There was also a shared seating area which was much more spacious than the small rooms, so someone would often relax there instead of in their room.

After entering his own small room, which could barely contain his bed and his table with his PC on it, he sat down on the bed and prepared to check out the menu that had just suddenly appeared. Although the one who had started that experiment had ensured that no mess would be created because of them, this didn't mean that people wouldn't be curious about what had happened.

Together with the menu button itself had also come the information on how to use it as well as AIA. So, it was no problem for Ivan to activate the button.

As soon as he activated the menu, a screen appeared in his field of view.

[[ Character Info

Name: Ivan King

Gender: Male

Age: 19

Nanite-Suit: Stage 1 F "Primitive"

Cultivation: None

Skills: None

]]

This was the most basic character screen, which was just like the character screen one could find in an MMORPG or RPG. It was something he was already used to because of this. Seeing it made him feel as if he was in one of those books, where the protagonist got a system, or where the whole world seemed like a game.

Focusing on any part of the screen could provide more information. Of course, some of them were self-explanatory such as name, gender, or age. Then there were the other three which weren't as easily understood.

Nanite-Suit was a description of the nanites currently inside his bodies. Nanites were nanomachines that could do many tasks inside him. For example, the head-up display was something that was available to him because of nanites working inside him. Another use of these machines was to improve the body, making him stronger, faster, and even more intelligent.

The description for the other two on the other hand was extremely lackluster. They basically boiled down to 'If you get them you will understand'.

So, all in all, the information this screen provided wasn't much at all.

Besides the character info screen, another icon had also appeared in his view. This was the icon that would open the dungeon browser.

Since there wasn't anything else to see on the character screen, Ivan opened the dungeon browser. The dungeon browser would list all the available dungeons he could currently enter. After selecting a dungeon, he would then be teleported into this dungeon.

Dungeons were separated spaces that were artificially generated to provide the player with a challenge. Not only was it possible to get drops from the monsters but there were also rewards for completing one. It could be said that these dungeons were the core mechanic of the experiment.

And of all dungeons, the core dungeon was the 'Tower of Challenge'. If anything was the main goal of the experiment, then it would surely be how people managed to grow until they were capable of finishing this multilevel dungeon.

The loot provided by the dungeons always fell into the categories: money, artifacts, materials, and information. Money had the form of Experiment Credits or EC for short. It could be used in the store, which could be unlocked after finishing the first five levels of the 'Tower of Challenge'. It wasn't clear yet as to what was buyable but it should be something good.

Artifacts were tools and machines that could be used by the players in and outside the game. Basically, it wasn't any item that didn't fall into any of the other categories.

Materials were items, that didn't have any direct use but could be processed into machines, tools, or anything else. For example, ores or chemicals.

And the last category was information. According to the info, Ivan had gotten, these were acquired in the form of something like a USB-stick. They could be absorbed via the nanites, which would make it possible to directly learn them or just store them. This information could be skills, cultivation techniques, or basically any form of knowledge. It was for example possible to find information on the English language which would allow the user to perfectly learn that language.

They just might be the most valuable thing to find.

Of course, it wasn't that easy to get through a dungeon and earn the rewards. Dungeons were a combination of fights, puzzles, and other forms of skill and knowledge checks. But what was most common were monsters that had to be fought, just like in any MMORPG dungeon. It could be said that the principle was exactly the same.

Besides rewards, there were also penalties for failing. While there were many forms of failure, the most common one was death. If you died inside the dungeon, you wouldn't die for real but you would be banned from entering any dungeon for one year.

This was a massive disadvantage and could mean that it would be better to not even try again and instead try to live a normal life without dungeons. Well, if you were young enough you could try again, but you would most likely always be behind those of the same age as you. And during this one year, you would be unable to earn money from dungeons.

Having understood all this information, Ivan took a look at his dungeon browser. As expected, there was currently only one dungeon available for him to enter. It was the first level of the 'Tower of Challenge'.

'I should get prepared first.', he decided. Although it might be impossible to get a real weapon, he could at least get a baseball bat and a large kitchen knife. Maybe even an ax. Everything would be better than going in unprepared.

He had just finished making his decision when a voice rang out inside his mind. 'You will get a starter packet after entering the dungeon.', AIA reminded him.

'I'll still get some tools first.', he insisted, not knowing that with this he would be able to circumvent a trap that had caught many of those who had entered before him. It was true that he would get a starter packet but there was no guarantee that it would contain a usable starter weapon. This had resulted in many people already having failed even their first run and now being banned from entering during the next year. This basically meant that they could just continue in their old life.