Epiphany

"It is unhealthy to spend this much time working, sir." A nurse chided the patient laying on the bed, only to receive a careless nod. She sighed at the sickly man with exasperation. His condition was poor, one need only glance at the various monitoring devices, tubes and needles attached to his body. Yet, despite his dismal condition, he was relentless with his work.

He stared at the laptop before him with great intensity, scrolling and typing occasionally. His expression grew more and more macabre and anxious every passing second.

Suddenly, his phone beeped with a message, drawing his attention.

[John, it's not working.] It read.

John scowled at that message, closing his phone and ignoring it, before receiving another message.

[I'm sorry but we've tried everything dude.]

John snorted at his colleague's pessimism.

[You do realize I can see that you've read my texts right? Stop ignoring me.]

…

[There's only little under the month before the deadline, our results aren't good enough and inevitably those funds won't be coming through without results.]

…

[Listen man, I'm sure Combat Sports Research will cancel the contract entirely.]

John's scowled intensified, but he had to admit there was truth to those words. He closed his phone and ignored the beeps, sighing melancholically.

"Is there nothing that can be done?"

He glanced at the data that his colleague had sent him that morning, the results were indeed despairing.

It wasn't pleasant to see a research project he'd been working on for nearly ten years to meet its demise.

He scrolled down to the report and summary that his colleagues had written almost fearfully, before braving himself to read it.

[The goal of this study was to verify the viability of the Project Water and the Variable Objective Inverse Deduction algorithm, VOID algorithm, as an applicable combat system. The prevailing hypothesis was that the VOID algorithm was too data intensive for a human to be able to learn and apply to achieve higher rates of success within a UFC setting. We set out to confirm or deny this hypothesis by gathering empirical data on the rate of growth of combat prowess as measured by the rate of growth of the mean number of victories(X) of a given normal distribution of 100 matches under UFC rules. We controlled for all metabolic and physical variables and have created a model for the probability of success of the application of the VOID algorithm in a UFC setting, after a three-year-period of data gathering, we concluded the study, compiled and processed the datasets, and have arrived at a conclusion.

The data is clear. The VOID algorithm is not a viable combat fighting style. We observed that the rate of growth in combat prowess in training with the VOID algorithm is inferior to the rate of growth in the average registered MMA gym, the existing data in the databank of the Combat Sports Research co. Further verifies our results for all parameters under all settings.

We can safely conclude that Project Water and the VOID algorithm are failures.]

He already knew what it would say before he even read it, but reading was excruciatingly painful. He felt his heart rip to shreds as his colleagues brutally described why his dreams had failed.

He shut the laptop down, unable to bear it any further. The stress and the despair he felt was triggering his asthma. He gasped for air as he looked at the picture of his idol; Bruce Lee that he had on the cupboard beside his table.

"I'm sorry... I guess... I couldn't Be Water after all." He murmured softly.

Project Water was his dream project of creating a systemized fighting style that embodied Bruce Lee's martial philosophy. He'd wanted to create a systematic and generalized fighting style that could adapt to any other fighting style. This was Project Water. This was his dream.

A few years ago, he had even made huge progress and significant breakthroughs. One of them was the VOID algorithm.

Variable Objective Inverse Deduction algorithm, or VOID algorithm for short. The VOID algorithm was a systemized approach through which a fighter could completely adapt to any fighting style and defeat it every time, in theory.

The algorithm had gone through various iterations and stages. The earliest application was simply having fighters learn to analyze balance and range to partially predict his opponent's intentions and moves ahead of time, and then choose a course of action that was best suited to countering said moves.

This was VOID mark I. A prototype intended to be proof of the concept. The initial algorithm was a success and was integrated into the UFC and MMA rather quickly. John Falken had gained a vast amount of prestige thanks to this groundbreaking breakthrough.

Still, it was not perfect, there were many, many holes and competitors eventually came up with tactics that could exploit its shortcomings to counter it.

Yet, the sheer success of the initial iteration and its high viability that allowed top MMA and UFC fighters to apply it was what gave John the courage and confidence to dedicate the rest of his life to creating a complete VOID algorithm that could viably be used by fighters.

The following iterations of the VOID algorithm became more and more sophisticated, accounting for more and more variables and parameters each time.

Mark II accounted for breathing.

Mark III accounted for line of sight

Mark IV accounted for and muscle twitches.

By Mark V the algorithm had become extremely complicated and sophisticated. It even accounted for physiological and movement patterns. It employed heavy pattern recognitions that allowed the VOID algorithm to recognize deep and multi-layered patterns to be able to predict the successive course of actions of the opponent.

The research was funding-intensive, but thankfully his initial success allowed him to sign a funding contract with the Combat Sports Research co. A world-renowned UFC and research and data analytics firm.

Thanks to this rich supply of funds, the research team of Project Water managed to successfully create a finalized version of the VOID algorithm that truly embodied Bruce Lee's martial philosophy.

There was only one final stage left; viability. The end goal was to allow humans to fight and win with this style.

Meaning humans would need to learn the VOID algorithm and apply it in a UFC setting.

This was what killed the project in the end.

The report he'd just read before basically confirmed that his project was doomed. It was not powerful for ordinary humans with their ordinary cognitive capacity to be able to master and apply this algorithm. The human mind was not powerful enough.

John never gave up on the Project, using every ounce his own personal wealth to sustain the Project until he died two years later due to his health condition.

Rui woke up with a jerk, gasping for air wildly.

He looked around confused, before remembering where he was.

('Sigh... To think I'd dream that memory.')

It was his second least favourite dream, after the dream of the day he was diagnosed with asthma.

Thinking back to the ambitions of his previous life made his heart ache. He also felt complicated, he was reborn in a world without the powerful information processing technology that existed back on Earth, furthermore he didn't have access to the sea of data his team had collected.

This meant researching the VOID algorithm the scientific way he did was impossible. Furthermore, he had already developed a new ambition.

The sight of the Martial Squire destroying a tree trunk with a single strike had etched itself deep in his heart. He was willing to sacrifice almost anything to becoming a Martial Artists and walkind down his Martial Path and forging his Martial Art.

But it didn't feel good living with the memories of the failure of his past life.

"What can I do though?" he pessimistically muttered. "it's not like I can be both a scientist and a Martial Artist in this world. It's not like I can somehow focus my life on developing the VOID algorithm and developing my own Martial Ar-!!!"

His eyes flew wide open in shock as a thundering epiphany struck him. In his mind he had always separated research and Martial Art in two far away separate categories. This was the common sense on Earth, after all, it was impossible for a human on Earth to dedicate his life to combat sports and research at the same time.

"I cannot do both of those separately... But what if they were one and the same?" He murmured with wide-eyed shocked expression.

What if his research and Martial Art were the same?

What if the dream of his past life and the dream of his current life were the same?

What if... his Martial Path was Project Water?

Rui's heart shook as he began breathing heavy. The answer was so simple, but the strong divide between research and combat sports that his previous life had created, prevented him from realizing that they could be one and the same.

What was impossible on Earth may not be so on Gaea!

Rui glanced at his palms, before closing his eyes.

"It fits." He realized.

The sensations of certainty matched those that his instructors had told him about!

"This... is my Martial Path."