System Upgrade

"That was epic!" Cyrus said, a huge grin on his face. He clapped Ethan on the back as he entered the safe house.

"You looked like a parkour ninja! Seriously, I know you said that a gun wouldn't be a problem. Hell man, you are cold blooded. No wonder we couldn't scam you," a young Asian man said, maybe in his early 20s, maybe closer to Ethan's own age.

"You guys got off lightly, for sure. Your skills are too useful though," Ethan said with a smile. "Great work with the winch Suho, you too Aly. That was the diciest part of the op. When that dealer wakes up, he's going to think he was rolled by ghosts."

They were definitely an eclectic group, but when Ethan saw just how smoothly they robbed him, he thought it might be worth directing them at more deserving targets.

If Ethan's entire secret life wasn't on that phone, along with access to his non-custodial crypto currency wallets, he might have just let them go. When he realized they had stolen his phone and a mug with his fingerprints, he flew into action. Through a heavy reliance on Q, time dilation and analysis of likely nearby safe drop zones, he was able to walk in on them trying to hack his phone just 2 blocks away in a grungy looking cannabis cafe.

He saw Cyrus, the pick pocket, and a cute blonde girl crowded around a laptop.

Ethan thought about doing something dramatic, like knocking them all out with some karate chops. Instead he casually reached over from behind and grabbed his phone. Then he sat down in an empty chair and said, "Well Cyrus, are you going to introduce me to your friends."

It didn't take long for Ethan to see how useful a team they were. Cyrus was the smooth talking con man, always ready to dazzle and distract. Suho was the pickpocket and break and enter expert. Aly was their very own goth girl hacker. With Ethan as the muscle, sort of, he convinced them that they could target bad guys and make bigger scores. More money was great, but targeting criminals helped their conscience too.

"Here is everything he had," Ethan said, placing his backpack on the table. Inside was a handgun, a few extra clips, a small assortment of drugs, and over 5000 in cash. The most important thing, his cellphone, he handed directly to Aly "Can you work your magic on this? 5k isn't enough money for the risk. We need to move up the food chain."

"Will do. If he's still knocked out, he probably hasn't remotely wiped his phone yet. We'll soon know who he was talking to, and if any big deals are coming up," Aly said confidently.

Ethan was right of course. His investments were making more in interest than that, and they didn't shoot at him. Money wasn't the only goal, he really was getting better with his powers, and Aly was helping him track down info on FoRP and Miri.

'What do you think Q? How did I do?' Ethan said internally to Q.

[hahaha. I agree, that is a terrible way to make 5000 dollars. You netted ahead nearly 85,000 reselling the last condo.] There was a pause in his head, but it was a full feeling break, and Ethan knew more was coming. He'd noticed that Q sounded a lot more like a person than an AI lately too.

[Your use of Quantum skills has improved greatly. I think you can tell how much more useful they will be if you don't have to use me to execute them... just for speed if nothing else.]

'Definitely, even though it took a bit to get the intensity right, I felt more in control,' Ethan said to Q.

[Calculation, Dilation, Analysis. These are the skills of the Laplace class of your system. Do you know why it is named Laplace?] Q asked.

'Uhhh, he was a mathematician?'

[Correct, but the title is actually referencing Laplace's Demon. In the theory, a 'demon' who knew the location and momentum of any atom, could calculate their past and future locations with classical mechanics.]

'You mean Newtonian physics, what goes up must come down kind of things? That makes sense. So basically you're saying Laplace's Demon was a computer... and that the system is giving me computer like abilities'. Ethan paused then, because something occurred to him that should have been obvious from the beginning.

'Q, if this is the Quantum System, why are all the powers... what did you say they were... classical? Shouldn't the skills be quantum? Whatever that means.' Ethan said to Q.

[I've been waiting for you to ask that very question... and was surprised that you didn't. The short answer, is the Quantum skills won't make sense if you don't understand regular physics. The system is designed to guide you. However, I think you're due for an upgrade.]

'Upgrade? What do you mean?' Ethan thought. Then a blinding pain flashed through his mind and he wasn't thinking at all.

"Dude, Ethan man, are you ok?" Cyrus asked, a little panicky. Everyone jumped when, out of nowhere, Ethan yelled and fell over. He ran over and shook him a little. Then he checked for breathing. "He's breathing, but is totally out."

"Is he sick, or do you think dodging bullets just, you know, tired him out?" Suho said. It was a good point, that level of mental and physical focus had to be draining. They were working out of Ethan's industrial condo for a while making plans and training. This was their most daring heist, but not the only one.

"Should we call an ambulance? I know he is sort of laying low, but I don't think he'd choose death first. He doesn't seem the type." Aly asked.

"No ambulance, at least not yet. Help me get him to his room. He's pretty tough, so lets see what happens. He'd be upset if we blow his cover over a nap."

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In a different time zone, Miri shot up out of the bed she was sleeping in. Her head hurt like crazy.

When she opened her eyes, there was a text display hanging in the air. It moved when she moved, and she could swing her hand through it. 'I'm dreaming' she thought. That would explain why the words made no sense:

[QUANTUM SYSTEM]

[Miri Shelton: Quantum Human]

[Class: Shifter]

[Skills:]

- Phasing [lv 1]

- Invisibility [lv 1]

[Entanglements: Computer]

"Oh what the fuck" she said out loud. She could tell that life was about to get more complicated, and that this was related to more than just FoRP's meta-verse research. "Ethan, is this you?"

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[Foresight Activated]

"Let's go guys!" Dan said. He was finally ready to commit to his power fully. He still felt like it was cheating, but they could die out here. Using all your strength to overcome obstacles is how the world works, he realized.

With Foresight, he was seeing images of him and the team running ahead, which wasn't all that useful in a hallway. The limitation of this power was that it still relied on him watching the present and the future at the same time to make judgement calls. Luckily all those weeks of full time parallel sight prepared him for this.

Out of nowhere, he stopped cold. It wasn't physical, but it felt like he hit a mental wall that knocked the wind out of him.

Caleb noticed as he ran past, "Are you ok Dan?".

Dan looked ahead to say everything is fine, when he noticed an actual wall in front of him. It looked the images from his ability, a coruscating sheet of electric blue that blocked the entire hallway. It looked like a giant version of system screen with wisps of energy fluctuating across it. Dan couldn't pass through it though. He tried putting his hand against it... and then taking a run at it. Each time he just stopped cold. His ability wasn't getting past the wall either. Caleb and Peter were a little further ahead, and Dan couldn't see their future any longer. His own future image was stuck by the wall too.

"I just need a second guys, sorry." Dan said, not sure how to explain this. 'What the hell is this? Did I use Foresight too much and ran out of stamina? That doesn't make sense, I just started.' He looked over at his future image and noticed that its eyes were closed, as if in meditation. With no other ideas, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. 'Is this a literal wall to my ability? Has it not progressed, because I haven't been using it?'

With his eyes closed, Dan focused on his foresight ability. He willed it to work even though he couldn't see anything. In his mind he pictured the wall passing over him. He felt a tingling sensation, like a static shock through his entire body. Opening his eyes, the wall was replaced by the system screen:

[QUANTUM SYSTEM]

[Daniel Sandman: Quantum Human]

[Class: Observer]

[Skills:]

- [Parallel Sight] [Level 3]

- [Foresight] [Level 2]

[Entanglements: Computer]

[Quest: level up the Foresight skill to upgrade Class designation]

"Lets go guys!" Dan called out, running ahead again.