Life Hacks/You have some questions first(Wells House/Roni/sucking)

"Okay," you say, "before you decide anything, I'd like to be able to weigh in on the subject . . . but I really need to know a little bit more about the situation to do so. Would you be willing to answer a few questions before you make your decision?"

"Interesting," he says, "go ahead. What would you like to know?"

Finally, some answers! You take a moment to organize your thoughts. You really wish you'd had more time to prepare. You are certain you'll miss asking some of the things you need to know, but hopefully with your improved mental processes those will be few.

"Okay, first off . . . the duck. I saw you pull it out of no where. How did you do that, and can I somehow do it? Also, what happens if I loose the duck or it gets stolen? Where can I get another one?"

"Oh, the Infinity Pocket hack. That's a hack that lets you access an unlimited inventory 'pocket dimension' from any opening. Really any opening. A pocket, a desk drawer, a crack in a wall, your mouth . . . basically anything that has the semblance of an opening. It uses the neural interface to ascertain what you want to pull out or put in so you don't have to rummage around to get what you want. There was actually a bit of a hub-bub about it when it first came out for using the neural interface because it uses a LOT more processing power than the virtual physical interfaces used by Life's UI and pretty much every other hack. That's really old news now because processing power has grown so much since then, but there is still a limit on the number of neural interface modules, hacks or DLC, that you are allowed to have active on an account to limit overtaxing the server. I guess I can give you a copy. It's not a huge deal and it could come in very handy. It's memory managed automatically, so lifies will just ignore it's use whether you want them to or not. Let me just . . . there." Suddenly a screen appears in front of you.

User: Loki would like to transfer the file InfinityPocket6.431.7 to your account.

Care should be taken when accepting file transfers. Omega Games takes no responsibility for damage to your system from files transferred between players.

If a player transfers a malicious file to you please report it to a game moderator. Do you accept the risk and wish to save the file InfinityPocket6.431.7?

Accept and Install

Accept and Archive

Decline

As you know of no way to access the "archive" they mention, you press "Accept and Install". A progress meter briefly appears and you see the bar quickly move from left to right under the word Transferring . . . to be quickly replaced with a fresh bar under the word Installing . . . which also quickly disappears, replaced by the words Installation Complete: no errors found, which slowly fades from view.

"Give it a whirl," says Loki. "Put the duck in the Infinity Pocket." You look around for your pants, then take the duck from the pocket. You try to decide where to put it, then looking at Roni's open mouth you can't resist, you gently try to put the duck in her mouth, focusing on putting it in an imagined pocket universe instead of her actual mouth. You notice that the duck appears to have disappeared completely.

"Okay that works," you say, "thanks Loki."

"No problem."

"So what about if I loose the duck or it gets stolen?"

"Well, a player would just spawn a new one from the World Module . . . which wouldn't do you any good since the duck is the only way you can open the hacks menu . . . so don't loose the duck."

"Less than optimal," you say. "I guess I'll just have to be careful. Next question: You said you hacked my code. What did you do exactly?"

"That gets a little technical, and even though you maxed out your technical skills, we're much more advance in the re . . . I mean my universe. Basically I did everything I could to trick Life into thinking you are a player. If I spent some more time on it, I could probably get a bit better. Basically what it means for you is that the game will respond to you as though you were a player instead of a game character in most situations. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to open the UI to you due to a negative response to a query to your interface helmet . . . because you don't have a body in my universe with an interface helmet on. In time I could probably find a way to spoof the signal, but I got bored."

"Okay," you respond, "so how would the game moderators react to finding out that I am using game hacks?"

"To tell you the truth," says Loki with a laugh, "I have absolutely no idea. It is not listed as an infraction on the TOS, but I think that's just because no one thinks that it is even possible. It should be pretty amusing when they find out . . . but I wouldn't go up to a moderator and tell them if I were you."

"Yeah, that's not the first thing on my list of things to do. Okay, so I saw you select me without touching me. Is there a way to select multiple people, and do a mass changing thing using hacks?"

"Maybe I should have gone over selecting people. Sorry about that, I really had to go. Anyway, get behind me so you can see my interface, and I'll demonstrate." You take up a position behind Loki as he activates his duck, looking over his shoulder.

"A target is individually selected by touching them," he touches the top of Roni's head and she glows faintly red, "or even just make a motion like you are touching them from afar," he makes a motion toward Trish, and she begins to glow while the glow disappears from Roni. "You can choose a group by putting the index fingers and thumbs of both hands together and drawing them out into a rectangle," he says while demonstrating the technique, "which will select everyone in the field of view of the rectangle," he relaxes his hands and you can see that they are both selected. "'Touching' a selected target, selecting a new target, or group of targets will void a previous selection as will closing out the UI," he selects Roni and Trish is unselected. "If you want to modify a selection without changing the other targets that are selected, you hold one of your hands in a fist" he shows you as he clenches his left hand, "and 'touch' the selected individual you want to add or remove from the selection with your other hand." He selects Trish and Roni stays selected. "You can select individuals that you have a relationship with in the relationships panel, even if they are not present in the location. And that is selection in a nutshell."

"That's very helpful. So is there any way to store the values on a person so you can reset them later?"

"It was talked about, but the hack builder hasn't implemented it. I don't think he sees it as an important improvement to the hack."

"Okay, given the nature of the world, I am assuming this isn't a child friendly game. What are the social reactions to a game with things like murder, rape, child molestation, and bestiality in your world. Are these just acceptable practices?"

"Not at all," says Loki. "We have very similar morality . . . well, we are a bit more liberal. One thing that we do enjoy is exploring our darker side in a safe way. Games like Life let us do things we would never do in reality without hurting any 'real' people. It takes on a whole other light when you're in the know like me that both realities are simulations and the only real difference between us is in who is simulating whom. Luckily I'm not one to dwell on moral quandaries, otherwise I could go mad."

"Okay . . . ummm," you say, running out of questions, "other than privacy mode and the Life Controller module is there any other way to keep people from noticing what I am doing when I use the duck?"

"Without magic, psionics, or superpowers enabled? There are a few other hacks that can do similar things, but none of them are as good as Life Controller. Anything else?"

"I guess not."

"So I guess I'll let you choose. Do you want the new module, or do you want me to try to enable privacy mode?"

Which do you choose?

• Get privacy mode
• Get a new module

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