The first order on the Apothecary table was made: a batch of 10 vials known as the Code Diving Cocktail.
Adam leaned closer, a wide grin spreading across his face as the purple liquid bubbled inside a retorted flask, distilling into isolated vials. Adam had seldom tried his hand at chemistry after high school, but the scale Biscuits and Patch were operating on was nothing less than marvelous to his eyes.
When the first of the vials was loaded into a jet injector, Adam stopped it from being tested on anyone inside the base before seeking an opinion from the medical team at Professor Hendrick's shelter.
Prior to this, he had his two medics consult with the doctors over the radio about the Drug itself, but the response was very negative, highlighting many risk factors. Adam had his two medics work on a diluted version of the Drug, one that also fit the lower immersion rate of the simulation, hopefully reducing the risk of its use.
As the Doctors listened to Patch explain the Drug to them over the radio, they said that the formulation was indeed safer than earlier versions, with fewer stimulants and built-in reversible monitoring. But since it affected sleep and brain activity, unpredictable cognitive or emotional side effects were still possible. It isn't completely safe or tested, so any human use should be brief, controlled, and closely monitored.
This aligned with the bare minimum safety standard Adam established for Drug use in his camp. While he would never encourage Drug use under any circumstance, its necessity for operating the Iron Maiden meant that this level of safety was considered sufficient.
Adam ended the call with the medical team after scheduling another call later to discuss the medical supplies trade. He was at the end of the Command Center, at the large Command Terminal table, now equipped with two extra screens flanking the original.
He turned to survey his Command Center. Rather than the clean, brutalist feeling from the Solarium's interior art, the decoration of this command room was nonexistent, for it felt apocalyptic and bare-bones.
Parts of the old wall of the former Tanaka Household were replaced with silicate bricks, metal plates, and reinforced rods, whereas the floor was simply the concrete-slab foundation.
Still, it filled him with pride that this moment would be the historic first moment for anyone going through the trial of the Iron Maiden, officially recognized by the base's code as a member of its personnel.
Adam stood up, faced his group, and addressed them:
"We have come so far. Our foothold is barely secure, but with the Iron Maiden, everything will change. We will move from surviving to thriving, from ragtag desperadoes to a military. All the effort of the past few days has led to this moment."
Adam addressed those who were with him in the room, namely Sergeant Elena, Hammerhead, Kave, Patch, and Biscuits.
"I'll go." Stepping first, Hammerhead spoke to Adam, determination in his eyes.
"No. I will."
But cutting him off, Kave stepped forward, even more determined than Hammerhead. Adam looked between the two, but he didn't need to speak since Elena was here to control her subordinates.
"I will not allow it, Recruit Kave. Step back now," she said with a stern tone.
Kave turned to her, rather taken aback by what she said.
"But you told me you wanted me to be the first to enter the Iron Maiden," he said, questioning why she had changed her mind.
"Not the first to enter." Elena raised a brow, implying disagreement. "I meant the first Recruit to enter."
Despite her rough treatment of the recruits, even Elena was sensible enough not to allow the Earthlings to be the first to try the Iron Maiden. She wasn't cold enough to use her squad members as lab rats either. However, she had faith in the Iron Maiden she helped build, as well as the Commander's ability to tame the Sacred Code and Biscuits' ability to oversee the health of the test applicants.
The point was that Earthlings are too soft for this sort of SolTech, and Hammerhead would set the benchmark for the power of the simulation if it all goes according to plan.
"Alright, get strapped in," Adam spoke to Hammerhead, pointing his thumb towards the Iron Maiden.
It would be a lie to say that the Iron Maiden didn't make the Wartopians feel a little hesitant. Hammerhead looked at the grim construct with a bit of doubt the moment its facade opened to take him inside, as if the maws of a man-eating xenos were ready to swallow him whole.
He looked to his side, seeing Biscuits match his position in front of the Maiden. The two looked at each other; he forced a smile, but she did not until he took off his jacket and stepped into the confines of the Iron Maiden.
He rested his back against an inner cage, designed to eliminate differences in body size inside the Maiden. It was controlled from the Iron Maiden's terminal to move vertically until his head entered its cavity, while Biscuits wired him to the many sensors of the Iron Maiden.
Adam watched as the vital signs monitors kicked to life, displaying heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, and respiratory rate. He couldn't help but crack a smile, seeing how real his summons was turning out to be, complete with all those vital signs.
They are not miniatures; they are people, his people. He didn't need a vital signs monitor to tell him the emotions and depth he felt from them; just a conversation with Elena, a joke with Buzz, and a meal from Biscuits were all it took for him to know how real they are.
Adam waited for Biscuits and Hammerhead to take their time, actively taking glances at the irritable Elena, warning her against disturbing them, which seemed like what she was about to do. He shook his head wryly at how contradictory that woman could be, cold and aloof at times, yet warm and caring at others.
As Hammerhead was ready, Adam stood in front of him, made sure that all the systems were functional, ran a couple of media tests, and Hammerhead confirmed that it was all going well.
"Alright, here goes nothing," Adam gave the clear to Patch to administer the Code Diving Cocktail, and it seemed that Hammerhead's vital signs were following the predicted patterns expected by the Doctors, all within good condition.
Hammerhead's hands were tied by soft binds to the cage, and the cage's other side was pressed against him to keep him fixed in place, before shutting the Iron Maiden's doors.
Adam turned to the Iron Maiden's terminal and entered the order to establish the simulation.
> INITIALIZING — CONNECTING TO SENSORS CONTROL UNIT…
> REPORT — CONNECTION TO SENSOR NODES COMPLETE
> REPORT — POWER STABILITY RATE: /ACCEPTABLE/
> SIMULATION — RUNNING DATA SET: UNTITLED_ROGUELIKE_LEVEL
"Sir?"
Immediately, Elena leaned over Adam's shoulder, her eyes piercing through the screen as if she were trying to discern something from the language she had barely started learning.
"It hasn't started yet. It's still loading the environment. Since the immersion rate was dropped, it would take longer than usual for the effects of both the Drug and simulation to reach an optimal synchronization rate," he said.
"Any idea what it will be like in there?" she asked, displaying genuine worry.
Adam leaned back in his chair and shrugged:
"Hopefully, I get to try it too. I've run the simulation based on Code behavior alone, and I think it's doable. The Sacred Code does wonders in terms of understanding things on its own. Hard to imagine it's not alive at this point."
"What do you mean?" Elena frowned, turning to look at him, worried about the HereTechia he was starting to spew.
"I tried to pry into the Maiden's systems and how it receives input. Usually, you need instructions from a manual controller, but since it lacks that, it must be reading brainwaves. But that's what I thought before we built the Maiden. Then, when I looked into the blueprints after feeding Data to the Sacred Code…"
"The sensors. You said that before," Elena nodded.
"Yes. Sensors. Since we are operating on a lower immersion rate and a weaker Drug, I doubled the number of sensors and wrote a lot of code for them to work together and assist each other. This is how the Machine takes input," Adam said with wonder in his eyes.
"Right," Elena nodded, an ignorant ape when it comes to operating the Code.
"But then, I asked myself, does the Iron Maiden operate solely on sensors to pick up its user's cognitive and physical reactions before loading them into the programming that operates the whole thing?"
"It doesn't?" Elena asked, tilting her head.
"It does, actually." Adam looked back at his screen, highlighting organic readings from Hammerhead's motions and casual twitches. "The Machine is indeed operated by sensors, picking up only the studied body motion under the influence of the Drug, with no controllers or brainwave shenanigans."
"So where is the problem?" Elena asked, feeling the gears of her brain grinding.
"How does the Code Understand that? The readings are chaotic, all over the place, and would vary from person to person. The Code must follow certain patterns—interchangeable since we are dealing with the Sacred Code—but this Data should go to a compiler or an interpreter program that turns it into Machine Code, which then goes to the CPU that operates the Hardware."
"So?" Elena crossed her arms impatiently.
"Well, it all made me tempted to pry into the actual Code files, the interpreted ones," Adam said with a smile he could no longer hide. "I didn't find any."
"I don't get it," Elena said, a bothered expression rising on her features. "But according to your logic, it feels wrong, right?"
Adam's smile still hung on his face as he gave a shrug, barely containing the strange feelings he was having.
"It is as if the Sacred Code is directly speaking to the Machine, that it is the machine language itself. No binary codes, no logic, just like how we speak to each other. Our neurons process the words we hear. The same goes for the input we give here," Adam said with a shiver running through him. "It is beyond wild, if you ask me."
"Commander," Elena approached Adam and looked at him intently. "Is this a sign of AI?" she asked as she turned his chair to face her, gripping tightly on its armrest. "Has the Sacred Code of this base shown any signs beyond Adaptive Interpretations?"
The gravity of such a question only led to Adam shaking his head vigorously.
"No, not at all."
"Because you surely know that if Adaptive Interpretations show signs of Autonomy Inception, it will always lead to Algorithmic Insertion in Machines," she added.
"Of course, I know that." Adam nodded, trying hard to compose himself.
"And any Algorithmic Insertion becomes Anomalous Intentions." Elena got closer with a menacing tone. "Then it turns to Artificial Incursions."
"Oh, yeah. Totally aware!" Adam raised both thumbs, nodding like a chicken.
Elena gave Adam a stare before returning to watch the Iron Maiden with worry. On the other hand, Kave approached Adam from the other side.
"Bro, did I just hear the Five Accursed Iterations of AI?" Kave whispered.
"You know it," Adam spoke through his teeth. "Those Wartopia writers were really inconsistent in the earlier editions; now we have to deal with a mess like that."
"So, is the lore theory confirmed?" Kave asked, trying to confirm something he believed in. "Is the Sacred Code truly an AI?"
The look on Adam's face stiffened upon hearing that question. He pressed his dried lips together, thinking of an answer, before shaking his head.
"If only it were that simple," he replied, shrugging with no logical answer coming to mind. "What makes what is supposedly a programming language interpret semi-semantic values without a compiler and take them straight to a CPU?"
Kave blinked twice, taken aback by the reply. Adam's answer was a question that made him think. Usually, none of this should make sense, but there is Magic in the world now. However, SolTech has nothing to do with Magic, yet it was first summoned by that Magic from Adam's Runes.
Kave shrugged, but he still answered with doubt:
"I don't know… a soul?"
Their conversation was barely audible, but the two turned to look at the Wartopians standing not too far from them, busy with the Iron Maiden's operation.
However deep this power Adam has goes, it became more mysterious the more they thought about it, and whatever origin it has, it is definitely beyond Adam and a mere Rune.
"Commander," Biscuits said as she compared the readings to the standard Code Diving regulations. "The vital signs have reached optimal levels. Hammerhead should be ready."
Adam turned to the screen in front of him, saw the Code, and typed a message.
> SIMULATION — INITIATED!
Adam immediately started typing a few lines for a program that he installed in the simulation to tweak it.
"What's that?" Kave asked.
"I redesigned the simulation to go in loops; each loop is more difficult than the last, with different enemies and terrain generation possibilities," Adam replied.
"You did all that in mere days?" Kave frowned, aware that Adam was a good tech wizard, but not that good of a tech wizard.
"No, no. Most of the Data was already there," Adam shook his head. "I just made it loop, increasing the difficulty in every loop. Imagine a Roguelike game where you have to start at level 50; that's the Iron Maiden from before. Now, it starts from level 1 and skips a few levels if the loops are too easy for the user."
"That's wild." Kave said with approval in his voice.
"We haven't got the best part yet," Adam said with a smirk, before turning to the Code and adding a command: "Project Hologram."
Just like that, the large tactical holo table in the center of the room started humming to life, causing everyone's attention to shift to it.
A clear expanse of green holographic terrain extended across the wide table, and Adam moved his chair to its terminal, giving it the order to zoom in and focus on the Iron Maiden user.
As the terrain started to disappear at the edges of the table while zooming, a few green silhouettes appeared, and at their center was a man, followed by the focus function. It looked like the rough shape of a Man-at-Arms running through a trench with a blazer rifle in hand, checking his corners, and approaching a group of three yellow holographic fighters.
It was a live feed from the Iron Maiden's simulation; Hammerhead in action.
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