Aesril L. questioned him. She had boarded at their last stop before leaving Google space. While he had began and the beginning of the route, at Shinamo. Several of their pickups at Shinamo had debarked at Aesril L.s homeworld.
"Why Go?" she continued. "I've never heard of it. No one has ever heard of it. There's a thousand challenges you could try, even the super-hardcore fighting games."
"The Compound AI spoke with Toyota central AI, they believe I would be well adapted to quickly pick up the game. And as to why Go? The game shows up in a shadow form in Toyota's historical records, what little still remains. It was a very popular game in Ancient Japan. For it to dominate in a culture of British Asian "Google" expats, while it is forgotten by Toyota, it is very strange.
"Toyota wants me to bring the game back to Shinamo, and establish a Go Masters Challenge."
"Well, I suppose I should wish you the best. But you'll be missed. Who could find a training like you. I mean reaching 6-1 to even be eligible fo your training was a very grave challenge"
They were in the Sword Fighting arena onboard Sephiroth. Real sword fighting, real medical recovery bots
Aesril L tried her Tier 6 tactics, was rebuffed by his parrying, foot work dodges, push backs and leans, following by unambitious counterstrikes.
"My full repertoire was for the Grandmaster," Michael M said.
"That's why you only counter-attack now?"
"I don't want you to be in med-bay when we land," he said.
After three more sound defeats, Aesril L had enough. She brought up the video screen projector.
"Grandmaster battles playlist 17," she said to the projector. "I kept accumulating your fights with Shin B."
"Really," he said. He didn't know how to think about leaving battling Shin B (9-1) behind. Sure, he had to train the up-and-comers, and do some basic morale & discipline work, basically run the Sword Masters' Challenge, the parts that the Compound AI left to him.
It was shocking to see the blur of activity between him and Shin B. Neither of them hesitated once Yoshi R. ordered the fight to start.
The video recorder used couldn't pick up all of their movements as they dashed around the circular Elite Battling Ring. Sword cuts and manuevers on both sides were rapid fire.
"You've slowed down a bit since then," Aesril L said.
"I can't fight like that unless I'm in the zone. Having fought two or three warm up rounds against Shin B. After sparring with him for 17 months. Training with him for 6 months before the spars started.
"You developed a defensive style because attacking style was insane against him," she said.
"You become a great spirit of sword fighting when you face Shin B. And he's always been a great spirit. Why did you agree to leave this behind. It's almost religious to watch it, yet alone be part of the art."
"Shin B showed me conclusively, with help of the Compound AI, that I would never beat him. I approached his level, but never reached it. The AIs agreed with my master, that they wanted to put effort into training a new second. That I could returned when that second was ready, and regain my old level, so that there would be 2 8-4 swordfighters in the future. The process goes on, and someday the winner of a growing collection of fighters as my level would advance to 9-1, but Shin B would advanced to 9-4 ahead of time. 9-1 was never meant to be a real level. It was just a sign that he was unapproachable."
"If you become as good at Go as sword fighting, I fear for Exeter, and New London's Go scene," she said.
After a few hours of Sake and toasts to the old days, when Aesril L had been in the SMC and reached the height of 6-2, they headed seperately to sleep. Sephiroth would be arriving in the morning.
<>
Exeter Local Time: Thursday, July 01, 2697 0615
Michael M and Aesril L were the only passengers onboard Sephiroth, but a group of 10 locals were waiting for the rare opportunity to travel to Toyota space.
"What's Toyota network like?" one of the guys asked. He was slightly paler of tone than normal Toyota, but still had a rather Japanese look to him.
"Challenging, but worth it. Go for one of the competitive activities if you really want to enjoy yourself. If you want an advocate for ractives, Michael and I are not your best choice. We both were active martial arts competitors," Aesril L said.
"What are you here for? Go or Table Tennis would be the most competitive, but we have a lot of master chefs here on Exeter. Most of the competitive pastimes are still centered in New London."
Michael spoke up this time, "I'm going to play in the upcoming tournament. I believe we are meeting with Exeter AI shortly. Aesril L is headed to New London to enjoy some caligraphy."
"It was a hobby of mine after I got discouraged by Sword fighting," she said.
"Well good luck," said the man.
The locals boarded Sephiroth, as a woman (clearly Holographic) waited for Michael and Aesril.
"You can call me Uno. I feel more comfortable when you are comfortable," said the holographic woman. "If you must know, I am AI #1, Director AI of Exeter colony. Because of the rarity and unusual nature of arrivals from outside our network, I would like to invite you back to my office to discuss your situation and the rules of Google UK network and Exeter."
"We'll follow you," Michael said.
They followed the holographic representation of Uno into a waiting shining white car. There was two rows of seats, no drive controls or even nav system. They sat in the back.
Uno's hologram disappeared.
The car immediately sped off.
Eventually they felt the thump as the car turned and went into an underground structure, clanging against grates of some kind.
Finally the car stopped and they got out.
"This way," said the Uno hologram.
They climbed up a series of steps into some kind of massive skyscraper. They immediately turned left in the darkened hallway and went into an elevator. Another row of elevator floor buttons soon reveleaed themselves (-1, -2, -3 down to -100).
-96 automatically depressed itself. The elevator shuddered and descended.
"Floor -96 is our evaluation floor. We can determine if you have access to illegal cheating methods, imported computer equipment, nanomachinery or anything else inconsistent with the Google UK network charter."
The elevator dinged at another darkly lit hallway.
"Michael M, if would would go through that door.
A doorway had a big blinking green light at the top. Michael went in.
A separate Uno hologram appeared in front of him, as he sat down in the illuminated seat. He had noticed the other Uno still walked with Aesril.
Bright florescent lights lit up in the room.
"This is the Go examination room. Normally, Exeter's residents are born and begin to play Go outside the home at 6 years old, and are classified at Beginner A - 200 to 800 elo. As they play league games and tournaments they gain elo and eventually gain whatever higher classification they can reach.
"Casual Go players, who focus on one of the other activities on Exeter, sometimes start playing Go later, maybe 12, or even 18. They start at Beginner A as well, and have to prove their way. But I know since they've been in Exeter, they don't possess any illegal performance enhancements.
"On the other hand, I both don't know if you've played Go before, neither do I know your performance enhancements, if any. Asking to play in the annual tournament after no league play history is rather a lot. But, I am able to accomodate, if you will agree to my Go evaluation, otherwise, if you don't want to play Go, you only need the Google UK network entrance eval, which is much less involved."
Michael M smile. He wasn't going to give up Sword Masters for a period of years just to quit. "I'm willing to go through any testing." He said.
A holographic game board appeared in front of Michael's chair.
It had a bunch of squares on it. Hundreds of squares. Michael got a little nervous, but then excited. This many squares would surely mean there was a lot to learn, but what did he know about boards and game pieces.
Suddenly these little black and white stones were all over the board.
He noticed that there seemed to be patterns and groupings of the colored stones, but they still seemed to be jumbled every which way.
"Look closely, study the position," said Uno.
There were areas with a lot of empty space, and something like fences of black or white stones. He couldn't put anything together however.
He noticed the stones had numbers on them, and followed (slowly, agonizingly) the line of numbers. White and Black alternated.
It was a rapid progression of what he guessed were Go puzzles, games, structures, patterns and so on.
Finally, part 1 was complete. "You have the mental capacity to start working things out, but you have no recognition, nor familiarity with Go or games in its family at all. You are used to uncertainty rather than the certainty of games like Go."
"Next I will evaluate whether you have any method of cheating, or violating the terms of the Google UK Peaceful People policy. This means you may not use mind alteration or chemical alteration to provide an advantage. This policy is regulated at the highest levels by Google UK network, to remain free of unfairly superhuman cheaters."
Lights flashed, a gust blew through the room, sounds of buzzers, and other weird things happened in that. He felt like a lot was happening that was on the edge of his awareness.
"This next part of testing will sedate you. Please speak up if you want to abort the proceed."
Michael blinked, this was a lot of testing, even for a serious pastime like Sword fighting. But he continued, sayng nothing.
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