Chapter 42: Probable

When Hong Fu finally opened his eyes, it felt like he has been woken up from an indulgent afternoon nap. His head is buzzing, his legs warm and his skins are boiling. He blinked a few times as the lights in his room that woke him up turned even brighter until it felt like he is outside in the morning. No, not his room.

Something is wrong. Reaching for the object in his pocket immediately, Hong Fu is thankful that it is still with him. But how the hell did he end up wherever he is? The last thing he knew was helping Lady Lily handle one of her...businesses. Oh, and there was a Rocky named Vindy that he tried to recruit. What has happened to her?

What has happened to him? Hong Fu had so many questions, but there is no time for him to think as a hologram of Lady Lily appeared in his bedside. When her cursed beautiful face appeared, Hong Fu already knew half the story.

'What do you want with me now?' Before Lady Lily can say anything, he cut to the chase and cut her off impatiently.

'This is what I like about you, Hong Fu. You are direct, and efficient.' Lady Lily said with a satisfied look on her face, 'welcome to Base L2. Let's meet and chat.'

A directional order was activated in his personal interface, as an arrow is projected in the air, showing where Lady Lily wanted Hong Fu to go. The base he is in is not so different to some of the other bases that Hong Fu has been to when he paid some visits to Zero in various bases a while ago. The Absolute Being, despite all of their grandeur, preferred a more efficient way of operating. This place looked like a manufacturing complex, but upon a closer look, there are lots of equipment and items that Hong Fu cannot recognize outright, but certain saw them in action back in the Marble Casino.

Those things mimics the functionality of artifacts, and that's why they are called Pseudo-artifacts, or pseudo's for short. Compared to the immensely powerful and useful items, the pseudo's are limited, bulky and expensive, which makes sense that they are being manufactured here in the center of intergalactic trade and resource processing. With easy access to whatever raw and processed materials they will need, it wouldn't be hard to pump out pseudo-artifacts at large numbers.

However, that doesn't seem to be the case. Despite all of Zero's and Lady Lily's brilliance, they just can't seem to perfectly replicate the artifacts, and whatever they came up with is extremely complex, meaning only the best of the soldiers are trained to handle those devices mechanically, compared to the intuitive control of the artifacts.

The arrow took Hong Fu to the second floor of the complex into a big meeting room that overlooked the views outside. The conventional spin gravity generated from the rotation of the orbital ring gave everyone an earth-bound feeling, yet the view of the ring that extended all the way up and the sites of a living breathing planet overhead is something that Hong Fu think he will never get used to.

To his surprise, the big three of Absolute Being are all gathered in the room. Zero sat in the middle of the room with Sir Deva standing against the wall and Lady Lily sitting on the table next to Zero, the two seated person each held a tea cup in their hands.

'Hong Fu!' Zero stood up when Hong Fu entered the room while Lady Lily remained seated, and yet Hong Fu knew that this enthusiastic young man that leads this organization is the most dangerous person in the room, despite the histories of Lady Lily, 'welcome back! I am sorry Lily had to do something to bring you here, but we are afraid you will be...otherwise preoccupied.'

'How could I?' Hong Fu said with a professional fake smile and gave Zero a nod, a happy tune in his voice, 'Whatever you wish to do, master, I will happily offer my help.'

Here is the difference that Hong Fu is trying to establish. His relationship to Zero is different from the relationship between the other two to Zero. They are cooperating on somewhat equal grounds, while the other two are subordinates of Zero's. However, the feeling of a sliding scale is what prompted him to prepare for a way out, and it appeared more relevant by the second.

'This is what I love to hear.' Zero gestured towards a seat that's been half way slid out from underneath the table, and Hong Fu took a seat there.

'So, how may I help here?' Taking the initiative, Hong Fu were the first one to open up. By now, he realized that Lady Lily has indeed knocked him out after the success of their 'initial' agreement on the mission, but obviously she and by extension Zero wanted more out of him, which is to be expected, though he wasn't prepared for how rash they are with their way of communication. Instead of sending a transmission like any normal human beings, they like to...kidnap them and welcome them personally.

'As you know, thanks to your and Vindy's cooperation, Elmyra and her artifact is in our hands finally.' Zero explained before bringing up a schematic diagram of a network of machines, centering with a pod in the middle of it all. Hong Fu isn't a technical genius or engineer like most other artifact users, so he had no idea what that diagram is supposed to represent, 'you may have a vague idea of what her powers are, but you don't know its nature.'

'To be straight forward with you, her artifact enables her to control fate.' Zero explained, 'on a macro-scale.'

What? Hong Fu has always been good to control his emotions by always being mindful with his facial expressions, however, it is obvious that everybody in the room caught his reaction.

'Any questions?' Lady Lily chimed in, and Hong Fu turned to look at her. For some reason, looking at her brings him back into the room, as all of the spiraling thoughts were slowed down.

'What is the mechanism?' Finally, Hong Fu managed to squeeze out a full sentence. Then, he forced a big breath of air into his lungs and try not to shake his legs out of nervousness and anxiousness.

'Not sure yet, but Lily observed that she can visualize the trajectory of things.' Zero explained before looking at her with an impressed smile.

'All of our artifacts manifest powers on a variety of scales. The micro-scale manifestation of our powers are typically what we used to pass our tests, however, the nature of our artifact's powers can reveal so much more possibilities of what we can do.' Lady Lily said, 'which is why Zero came to the realization of her power ceiling.'

'And what exactly is this fate that you are tyring to alter?' Hong Fu asked, 'what could you possibly be wanting now? Be the head chancellor of the Galactic Senate?'

'A war is going to happen.' Zero explained, 'someone who looked angry at the galaxy has obtained an artifact, and he will wage war against us.'

'What do you mean, us?'

'Us, as in all of us.' Zero pointed his finger down on the table and pressed into it, 'to win this coming war, we need more artifact users.'

'And you think you can just somehow make Elmyra do that?' Hong Fu leaned forward, the smile that slipped through his inner defense showing how unbelievable everything is, then the smile quickly went away as he assessed what Zero's statement could hint at. He knew better, and Hong Fu know he knew better. So there must be another factor at play that he doesn't know about yet. However, he knew that Zero will eventually lay everything on the table.

Zero gave Lady Lily a nod, and she brought the holographic projection of the systemic diagram directly in front of her.

'I found a way to enhance the power output of the artifact users.'

'It is a lot easier to push a system in motion in a certain direction than to understanding the intricate mechanics of such systems, so despite our struggles with the pseudo-artifacts, we are indeed able to create the artifact enhancers.' Zero explained, 'and Sir Deva also helped by being our test subject when we are pushing the systems in all of the directions. Eventually, we found the right things.'

'How does it work?' Hong Fu asked, 'what you said is true, but it shouldn't be this easy still.'

'It is not easy, and that's where you come in.' Lady Lily said, 'so far, we have had sucesses, but it wasn't sustained constant success. How well the system works depends on probability, or luck.'

Hong Fu leaned back into the chair and lets out a sigh, so this is where he comes in.

'The state of a higher equilibrium where we want the user to be is constantly changing due to a combination of the user's mental and physical state as well as the artifact's inner workings. Sometimes if we are lucky, we can maintain the desired output for a long enough time, but with your help, we will always be able to find the optimal point.'

'That is your power, controlling probabilities, isn't it?' Lady Lily said without a hint of holding back.

'OK. But how is my power different from Elmyra's?' Hong Fu asked, but nobody can provide him with an answer. Zero may be able to figure out if he uses his artifact's power, but in terms of physical and mental demands, his artifact are the most demanding of them all, without any question. Despite his various enhancements, the usage of his artifact to find out something like this will knock him out for at least a little while.

In this universe, knowledge is the most powerful weapon after all.

'We don't know. But we know you can control the probabilities, so this is where you come in.' Lady Lily pointed towards a station that is labelled with Hong Fu's name in Chinese, which also means great luck in its literal translation, 'Sir Deva and Sadie Allen will be the one to ensure the entire process goes smoothly, master will be operating the system, and I will fix up any emergencies.'

'What do you mean emergencies?'

'Well, with that amount of energy output, we don't know what is going to happen to Elmyra's body.' Lady Lily said, looking over to Zero who shook his head, 'my job is to ensure that she will hold up until all of the activation are complete.'

'...So that's all you want me to do?' Hong Fu said, scratching the back of his head, 'no wonder you don't wish to speak through transmissions.'

'The operation will begin as soon as we are ready in three hours.' Zero said, more details will be given to you when you reach your station. Meanwhile, let me know if you need anything.'

'Get me a glass of Aquarian Shocker. and send me on my way...' Hong Fu said, standing up from his desk looking at the three people in front of him. You crazy bastards, he thought, the earlier I get out of here and get away from this upcoming war, the better.

He had a vague understanding of Zero's artifact and its powers from way back, and it doesn't look like too much about it has changed. Despite his age, Zero has always had an innate understanding for everything he set his minds to, and obtaining the artifact, which to Hong's knowledge, grants him access to more information than otherwise possible, only made him want more knowledge and control. That's why he founded Absolute Being, and that's how he tracked him down later too.

With great physical and mental cost, he could use his artifact to learn about other artifacts. However, this is like a trump card of his and it should not be used lightly. Back before he was enhanced, he would be knocked out for an entire week after the procedure while enduring an amount of pain during the procedure that he felt his mind is being ripped into a million pieces.

And yet he endured through weeks and weeks of artifact usage nonetheless. That was way back when he had a lot less responsibility compared to now. Now, he can't afford to be knocked out for a long while, so he reserved his powers to obtain other kinds of information.

Going into the designated room for him, Hong Fu noticed a set up that looked exactly like that in his office, with all of the decorations being in the exact location that he liked them to be in. A pot of tea is already brewed, and a fresh glass of Aquarian shocker also sat on the table.

'Those bastards.' Hong Fu said underneath his breath. This nice room is a message, that Absolute Being knew his every move. However, when he was using his artifact to manipulate the probabilities of each of the chest pieces to shape into words in order to communicate with Vindy without giving too much away, he made it certain that the chest board is positioned in a way that only Vindy's eyes can see clearly what is going on. A reverse of a sleight of hand trick in a way.

Reaching into his pocket, he took out a shining silvery metal ball which turned opague upon contact with his skin. If you look closely, millions of tiny silvery veins run through the glass-like marble ball, and as Hong Fu looked into the probabilities of all of the events that are about to unfold, all of those tiny veins behaved like neurons of a brain and pulsed orange lights individually like a calculating computer. The entire marble turned orange before settling down into a nice dark purple and deactivating, returning to the default silver.

When he activates his artifacts, he can see the probabilities of various events all around him, and through placing varying amount of mental energy, those improbable events will become events of absolute certainty and vice versa. He can see into the future trajectory of events in time, similarly to Zero and Elmyra's powers, but instead of seeing events that are closely related to certain objects, or seeing a clear image, Hong Fu sees smaller and smaller flashes, like a frame of a movie. With the possibilities branching out at every important instant from his perspective, those frams became ever harder to look at before eventually becoming indistinguishable.

However, from looking at the more detailed instructions in his room, he just have to tell Zero what the next adjustments and prompt he should use to maintain Elmyra in the state of maximum artifact activation and usage.

During the minutes in which everything will be happening, Elmyra will seek for the future that all of the artifacts will have been activated, and work backwards from there with prompts from Zero, forcing as many of the artifacts to be activated or accelerate their process of activation as she can before her vital body functions are overloaded by the amount of energy and information going through her.

Sounds brutal for the girl. Hong Fu shook his head and hoped that whatever happens next, Elmyra will get over this. In a way, he still doesn't by Zero's reasoning, but he really doesn't have any choice in whether he agrees with his interpretation of the future or not. Despite both artifacts offering similar glances into the unknown, their methods of interpretation of those information differs simply due to the way future manifested through their artifacts. Hong Fu's artifact, the Probable, shows him probabilities of all of the future that can happen, a very statistical approach to viewing the universe and a popular model in the modern to late modern age.

Elmyra's intepretation is similar to his, but Zero's gateway into the future is allegedly a lot more different, and a lot more vivid. He sees the worst case scenario, and he prepares for it.

Perhaps the artifacts choose the users to suit them, or the users simply come across the artifacts that suits them. Hong Fu can never know. Probable ending up in his hands is due to luck, but a calculated luck. And now, he is hoping to use that power to bring the best luck for Elmyra. He never knew this girl, never had the chance to, but unlike the others in the organization, he also doesn't want to hurt anyone deliberately if he can.

This is one of those scenarios that he may not have a choice, and it simply is too bad for Elmyra.

Hopefully Vindy can find the other group of artifact users somehow, Hong Fu thought, as he did indeed gave her possible future a shove in that direction when preparing her plans. What happens next is really up to her now.

The hours of preparation went by quickly while Hong Fu is simply resting in his new 'office', the Probable placed on top of the table and kept stationery. Sometimes, he liked to envision himself looking into the marble like a witch looking into the crystal ball and telling the future, however, the feeling of artifact activation felt more like the syncing of his brain with this brain in the artifact, which calculates and displays all of the possibilities.

And he is about to do some serious calculation soon.

There was a countdown before the final process began, and as Hong Fu breaths steadily to control his physical state and activates Probable, looking into the future of Elmyra, and ground shakes all around him as if something crashed into the ground.

'Stay on course regardless of what is happening.' A soldier's voice came from behind him, and he realized that he wasn't alone in this room. Having no other choice and certainly no means of defending himself, all Hong Fu can do is to carry on.

Damn, where are you, Vindy?