Ava
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After Gilbert said such words, a heavy silence has surrounded their atmosphere.
But despite that, Gilbert remained calm and collected as he stared straight into the woman's eyes, awaiting her answer.
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After a while, the woman, as if giving in to something sighed and then started talking.
"No... When your soul was born, it could be said that I was almost born at the same time, so it would be hard to say such a thing. Though if you like to be called such then I won't mind calling you father, daddy, or whatever..."
Hearing such words, Gilbert couldn't help but smile.
He was just messing around earlier in an attempt to learn more about her.
And from her reactions, it was enough to have a bit of grasp about her.
Is she really an AI?
Shock, confusion, annoyance, and then acceptance.
Although it was very subtle excluding the sigh, Gilbert had managed to read it from her.
And the way she tried to be calm and stay dignified to hide her emotions only added to her genuineness.
She was really like a real human being.
Gilbert recalled what the manual advertised the game as such.
100% simulation.
Is this really just a game?
He took note of what the woman said earlier.
About her being born from his soul.
Logically, he would only think of it as part of the game's setting, but for a second, he had almost believed everything to be true.
He could take her word for it, and try to believe it is real.
That means even before he was reincarnated, her soul must be inside him by then, making her a fellow otherworlder.
Still, ever since he had been reincarnated, Gilbert had accepted the fact that anything could happen.
The game being another reality or world with real people could perhaps be another truth no matter how minuscule the chances are.
Though, it still currently remains as a possibility.
Gilbert looked at the woman and then asked casually, "For someone who looks like a grown woman like you, are you really okay calling me as Daddy?"
Hearing Gilbert's words, the woman however remained calm this time.
"If it is what you wished... then I don't mind"
Seeing no changes in her this time, Gilbert stopped messing around.
"Well, that's enough messing around, my name is Gilbert Cross... You can call me either Gilbert, Gil, or Cross... How about you? How should I call you?"
On a normal game, he would be the one to name a pet or something like her, but taking note of her humanity, she might already have one.
"Then I will call you as 'Master' then... And about me, it would be good if you called me by the name, 'Ava'"
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Master...
That was not even included in the choices.
Well, nevermind that, but her name.
"Ava..."
What does Ava mean?
Gilbert is curious about Ava in many things.
If they keep chatting to satisfy his curiosity, it would probably take a lot of time.
Much that a whole night won't be enough.
A few things could be saved for later, but what's important to him right now would be to know what Ava could do, and how their partnership works.
Soul weapons...
How do they work?
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"Master, I know what you are most curious about... So, I will just explain everything to you at once..." Saying such words, Ava's eyes shifted around the surroundings. And when her eyes landed on a painting, her eyes shone in curiosity. She then started walking towards it as she continued, "I can talk as we admire these paintings..."
Gilbert, not minding that it would be his second time doing such, then followed Ava as she began explaining further information about her and soul weapons.
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Soul weapons...
Weapons born from the soul of an individual.
Her, an individual that named herself as Ava, is a so-called soul weapon born from his soul.
Or it would be more appropriate to say that her soul was the thing that was born from his.
Having the ability to be summoned as a weapon only came to be when she was summoned by him and an unknown power using a mysterious method.
Together with it, she had also received a series of information from the unknown power.
Ranking up.
Weapon Skills.
And other strange things...
Hearing this, Gilbert then asked, "Then you must know that we are inside a game right?"
Hearing his words, Ava only replied in a tone of acceptance, "I know... A game, for you, maybe... But its the reality, at least for me..."
Gilbert didn't know. But if he wasn't who he is, Ava probably wouldn't say these words.
Ava then explained what she can do as a soul weapon.
In this game, Gilbert could level up by acquiring exp from killing monsters or completing quests, but levels alone had limits.
These limits are called level bottlenecks.
The first bottleneck would be at level 20, then 40, 60, 80, and 100.
Currently, these are the current known bottlenecks from the information she had received.
No matter how much monster Gilbert kills or how many quests he completed, if what he does is only acquire exp, then he would be stuck at the bottlenecks.
And in order for him to break pass such bottlenecks, then there is only one thing he could do.
Rank up his soul weapon.
In other words, make Ava rank up.
Then the question is how to rank up?
And this is where things got weird.
It seems that soul weapons have 2 types of ranking up.
However, because of one type of ranking up, the soul-weapons way of ranking up can be different from each other.
The two types of ranking up are called Forced Rank up, and Natural Rank up.
Soul weapons have rank up percentage.
From 0 to 100%.
If your soul weapon reaches 100% then they could rank up to the next stage by evolution and would receive new abilities and new forms while undoing a player's level bottleneck.
How you increase the percentage determines the type of ranking up.
Forced ranking up is when a soul weapon devours soul stones to increase their rank up percentage.
However if soul weapons would as much as devour one soul stone during a stage, then even if the soul weapon increases the rest of 99% while cultivating naturally, the soul weapon wouldn't have a natural evolution during rank up but a forced one.
Compared to a natural evolution during rank up, a forced evolution would only have limited benefits which are mostly random, but at least it would remove a player's bottleneck.
Natural Rank up on the other hand is where every soul weapon differs.
In order to rank up naturally then, they must increase the whole 100% of ranking percentage by cultivating naturally.
And to cultivate naturally, Soul weapons needed to cultivate their passions.
Passion...
For example, if a soul weapon had the passion of killing, then the owner together with the soul weapon must keep on killing to accumulate the rank up percentage naturally.
And this is where the soul weapons differ.
Different soul weapons could have different passions.
If a soul weapon had the passion of fishing, then the owner together with the soul weapon must fish.
If a soul weapon had the passion of cooking, then the owner together with the soul weapon must cook.
If a soul weapon had the passion of dancing, then the owner together with the soul weapon must dance.
If a soul weapon had the passion of sex, then the owner together with the soul weapon must indulge in sex.
If a soul weapon had the passion of beating up children, then the owner together with the soul weapon must beat up children.
Well, the last 2 were just a few extreme examples.
If the owner doesn't really like cultivating such passion then they had no other choice but to cultivate their soul weapons forcefully.
Hearing such words, Gilbert could determine the sense of imbalance the difference of passion in soul-weapons could do in the player base.
It seems that for the sake of uniqueness, the balance was sacrificed.
The officials would probably get a lot of complaints regarding such a system.
Officials...
Now that Gilbert thought of it, he didn't know a lot about the game officials.
Even on the web, the only thing everyone knows is that this game is a joint project of the 3 superpowers.
It was strange, but a lot about this game is already mysterious, to begin with.
Well, back at soul weapon's passions.
He still didn't know what is Ava's passion.
"By the way, Ava... What is your passion?" Gilbert asked Ava.
Hearing his question, Ava, for the first time, with shining eyes suddenly smiled beautifully at Gilbert.
As she then said.
"My passion... is satisfying curiosities..."
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