Chapter 13. Decision!

"Aska", Kaas called without getting out of bed, "it turns out that if I can take 10 out of 10 victories, then in a year I can earn 10 sapphires and buy the energy package you need?"

"Even more", she replied, "if you really plan to take 10 out of 10 in the entire beginners tournament, then all 20 stages can be completed in a year. 100 golds for a victory are given only in the first tournament, 10 golds are added for each next one. The exception is the last, twentieth tournament, 500 golds for a victory and the opportunity to pick up 5 sapphires. After that, you will officially move to the rank of a fighter, this is the dream of all children your age."

"But do you really think that this is easy to achieve? In each tournament of the next level, there will be only those who have gone the same path as yourself. Stronger, more experienced and more confident."

"I understand", Kaas replied, "but if you don't set your own goals right away, then how can you make a way to them?"

"Aska, is there a pen and paper here?" asked Kaas getting out of bed.

Aska thought a little, and right on the table for food, a futuristic-looking easel 'grew'.

"There is only this", she explained, "Kaas tried to draw before."

Next to the easel was a 'brush' that just looked like a comfortable, long handle.

The pen and canvas had their own interfaces with tons of customization, they were really fine art tools.

"Aska, I just wanted to do a little bit of math on paper, it's going to take a lot of time until I figure this stuff out."

"In what language are you going to count on paper? Just tell me and I'll do the math myself, later when you decide to take notes, make sure to use the Kiva language."

"I wanted to know the minimum and maximum income from completing all 20 stages."

"It's easy, to fulfill the minimum you need only 6 victories, if you do it in all 20 tournaments, you will earn 24660 golds, which is almost 2.5 sapphires. If you take everything, you will receive 4,110,000 golds or a little more than 4 emeralds. Such an amount, comes from 200 wins without a single defeat, to which an additional coefficient is applied to the total prize pool."

"It turns out that if I need 10 sapphires, then in any case I have no other choice but to win several tournaments, taking all 10 victories." summed up Kaas.

"Aska, what if someone stays at the zero level and collects 5 wins in each tournament? wouldn't that be easy money and good workout? Can opponents meet at the initial level whose strength and experience are much higher than that of a beginner?"

"This path is a fairly well-known mistake, usually no one chooses it deliberately, because it will destroy their statistics and ratings. At the lower levels, those who are too weak to move on tend to get stuck. After all, if you immediately go through 20 stages with 6 victories in each, this will already be a pretty good result and will give you an additional 100 golds per day. What is the point of sitting at level 0 if, on average, you will earn 50 golds per day and at the same time worsen your statistics?"

"And if I take all 20 as a whole, how much can I get?"

"This is the peak value for the rookie rating, 1000 golds or 10 rubies per day. It's another matter if you can maintain such statistics in the rating of fighters. After completing 20 stages in the tournament of fighters with the same ideal result, will give you 1 sapphire per day."

Kaas involuntarily began rubbing his hands and smiling, as if the money was already in his pocket.

"You rejoice early", Aska chilled him, "if you suddenly, unexpectedly become strong enough to participate in tournaments, then why did you decide that you can beat each and everyone? In the entire history of such tournaments in Zemtsu there were only 2 children of your age who were able to pick up 200 victories in the beginners tournament."

"I can't know what will happen tomorrow, but these bonuses motivate me quite strongly to give my all 146%."

Aska looked at him in bewilderment, clearly not understanding how there could be more than 100%.

"Do you really think that the rest of the participants are not motivated by their parents, assistants, bonuses, fame?"

"Not like me", he replied with a slight grin, "here I am, in fact, a migrant, and I need to work harder than others."

"You must remember that you do not have exceptional physical data. Although the blood of all three main races flows in you, their advantages do not dominate in you, neither strength, nor speed, nor intelligence. These are genes, while you are a child, nothing can be done about it."

"What are you talking about?"

"There are three main races on Assia, although they are all people, the differences due to the historical environment of their habitat and preserved in their genes are quite large."

"These are the Leisas who lived in the forests and hid from predators and insects in the trees. Their height and physical characteristics are average, but their speed, agility and reflexes are innately much greater than those of others."

"The Draags, living in the highlands, are larger and stronger than the rest."

"And of course, the Skaves, who have had to live underground for a long time, are mostly slightly below average, do not have a powerful physique or mobility, but their average intelligence is even higher than that of the Leisas."

"There are many hybrids, but this is not essential, in different places on the planet, people were different from each other."

"Today, these differences are largely erased, because the world has mixed and become more homogeneous. Sufficient food became available to everyone, and predators were no longer a problem. But all the same, the advantages of each of the races cannot be written off."

"Aska, but who am I?" Kaas asked.

"You are a hybrid, you have the blood of each of the races, but also, you are not dominated by any of their characteristics. In comparison, you are of average height, your intelligence is above average, although you could be considered smarter than most purebred Draags, but this will be only slightly above average among the Skaves, whose genes are in you the most. Your constitution and reflexes are below average."

"Aska, does it mean that I cannot in any way resist the stronger Draags or the faster Leisas?"

"It doesn't mean anything like that. But if your opponents have better genetics, their training will be easier and they will have better results."

"But isn't there any means to improve my physical data? Some kind of genetic therapy? Drugs?" He asked, remembering the stories from the books he had read.

"There are such technologies, but they are not for children. The only exception is when parents planned in advance to improve the genes of their unborn child. This is a very controversial procedure, and there is still no single solution, because it gives certain advantages over others from birth. But there are also many people with natural benefits. Therefore, the controversy does not fade away and may never end. The only fact is that additional modifications are closed for children and this is true for most of the countries of Assia."

"Kaas, this is certainly necessary knowledge, but it will not make you stronger right now. You only have 1 hour left for sports."

"You're right", he replied with a sigh, and began by removing the bed and pulling out the exercise machine. He chose in the interface the direct hit program, the bag and immediately clicked 'Start'.

Adri reappeared and began training. This time it was the same blows to the bag as before, but in addition, a series was added with the change of the stand to the left-sided one.

In total, the training took 7 local minutes (approximately 50 Earth minutes). And although the muscles after yesterday's training in the dynamic suit for some reason did not hurt, now, his legs and arms literally ached and demanded rest.

Adri left, and Kaas had 8 local minutes left to shower, eat and rest.

Kaas first went to the shower, quickly undressed, washed himself and sat under the warm showers to do his breathing exercises and rest.

Feeling that he was much better, he put himself in order, dressed and returned to the room just at the moment when a new box and the traditional two drinks appeared on the shelf with food.

The format of the food was the same, only instead of beige balls there were cubes of the color of ripe watermelon pulp and almost the same consistency, but the taste was more like carrots with honey and nuts, very strange, but quite acceptable.

According to the plan, half an hour was allocated for rest and Kaas wanted to spend it profitably, of course asking Aska the questions that he managed to come up with while he was in the shower.

"Aska, you say I have weak genes, but what about my health?" he asked, setting aside the last empty can of drink from the new set, feeling the tiredness receding in some unknown way.

"You are absolutely completely healthy, no deviations. You should know yourself." she replied, sitting at her table and sipping a silvery drink through a fancy pipe.

"Yes, I want to clarify, if I exercise more, will my body cope?"

"Earlier, Adri gave you a short-term load of + 60% and planned to give you double, so I suppose there are no problems."

"Excellent", Kaas exclaimed and hurried to the shower. There he changed into a dynamic suit, set it up for an additional 5% load, and returned to the room.

"Didn't Adri tell you that you shouldn't practice in a suit until tomorrow?"

"I won't, but I'm going to wear it all the time. Didn't you say that my diet will be adjusted according to the load? Wouldn't adding 5% of the load speed up my body's development?"

"This is certainly true, but ..." Aska began with a doubtful voice.

"Don't worry", Kaas didn't let her finish, "this is a normal experiment, anything that doesn't lead to exhaustion, but accelerates development will be a good addition. The suit does not interfere with rest at all, and you are constantly observing my state of health."

I wonder how quickly I adapt to the load to add another 5%? Thought Kaas experimenting with the suit. He clenched and unclenched his fists, stretched, tried breathing exercises. Each time the suit accompanied his actions with an additional load, even when he breathed in and out, he noticed the corresponding light backlighting in the interface.

It is possible that the rest will not be so smooth, since the suit interferes with breathing, I will have to work on the lungs additionally. But it is likely that my language training will help just in this.

"Aska, it's almost time, let's start early." he asked.

"You better just take some time to rest, you're too excited right now", she replied, looking at the indicators.

"Okay, just tell me when to start". Kaas just shrugged and focused on breathing exercises. Along with this, he changed the settings of the suit, smoothly adding load, listening to his feelings.

It's really cool, but it's best to take off that costume at night, at least until I get used to it. Kaas made such a conclusion for himself, returning the previous 5%.

"Time", Aska said, and turned on the familiar scene where the old Kaas was repeating phrases. Aska fulfilled her promise, and while he practiced repeating phrases, he could watch a peaceful feast scene that, albeit slightly, expanded his experience.

So passed the allotted two hours during which Kaas advanced only 1.5% in his skills, which resulted in 40.5%. And it was not small, if he added 3% every day, then for the remaining time this number will exceed 75%. Even if this is not knowledge of the language, but only the ability to imitate, this will allow him to avoid many problems and move on.

The break passed in complete silence, Kaas was eating his new set of food and taking a break from his practice conversations. Aska calmly stood by her window and admired the nature. Nobody could tell what exactly she was thinking now.

During these 5 local minutes of a break (36 Earth minutes), Kaas managed not only to eat and rest, but even doze off while he tried to do his breathing exercises while furtively watching Aska.

"Kaas", called Aska's enchanting voice, "you will sleep at night, now is the time for language lessons."

Reluctantly Kaas woke up and the lesson resumed. It was rather monotonous and brought almost no new knowledge about Kiva. Kaas's mouth was tired from the endless repetitions more than usual, perhaps due to the fact that he was getting an extra 5% load from the suit, which was more like a spacesuit, not allowing a single muscle on his body to idle.

He reluctantly looked at the new portion of food, and reluctantly opened a new, round box, where there was a slide of something resembling a salad and a spoon, which he had already seen during his lessons.

"Look", Aska said, distracting Kaas from the gloomy thoughts of his fatigue.

"Your sync has increased from 9% at the beginning of the previous lesson to 12.7% by the end of this lesson, and as a result, your speaking skills have increased by 2.1%, up from 1.5%. The ratio is pretty good. And the fact that you decided to start the morning with sports activities was really the best choice, it allows you to get to optimal condition before all other activities."

"This is great", he agreed, "but only if tomorrow morning, there will be no 2% again, because my health will be even worse than it was today."

"It should not be so, most likely it will be about 3%, which will even improve the ratio."

"Why are you so sure of this?"

"At your age, rapid change is the norm. The body works much more intensively, I see it, your PAK sees it, and the medical center agrees with this, which creates requirements for the composition of your food. It has become 30% more saturated than yesterday, and most likely, this is not the limit."

"You have one more session with your coach ahead of you, I am sure that this will give a result to your dinner, and the whole tomorrow's diet will become noticeably richer."

"Aska, tell me, why didn't Kaas' parents give him some improvements to make him smarter and stronger?"

"Do you think it's that simple? Even the very minimum, this is already a star service, which significantly limits access to such procedures. If you could just create clones, it would be easy, copy copies with popular genes and that's it. But cloning is prohibited because it reduces the diversity of the species. And most people want their genome to be the basis of their child, and making a qualitative modification is not a trivial task. Although existing technologies make it as simple as a constructor, but what lies behind this constructor: development, people, knowledge, research, do not allow this procedure to be made cheap."

"But you said that I had a rich grandfather, couldn't they take money from him?"

"Of course, they could not, no one can take money. From anyone. Neither can you from your parents, nor can they from you. And I think you should be glad, because the smarter and stronger Kaas would not have got into such a catastrophe and there would not have been such a chance for you." Aska chuckled.

"I understand everything, but private property ..." he said in confusion.

"Private property in Kiva is absolute. You have earned, you have bought, and this is only yours, you can dispose of it, spending only for yourself. If you need to get rid of things, there is a recycling or auction for this, there are no other ways."

"No one has any right to take anything from you, but you yourself have no right to give anything away. This is the law."

"But why such restrictions? If I want to make a present for my parents, for example?"

"Make a gift yourself, hand-made can be given, but such gifts cannot be re-donated or sold. This system completely closed all fraudulent schemes with other people's property. Think for yourself, if your grandfather could do anything for you, what could it lead to? You must have witnessed such stories yourself."

Kaas thought, being a golden boy is probably nice, but not necessarily useful, there would be no incentive to learn anything, but just be a drain on grandfathers bottomless wallet, with supergenes, but what next? Will the wallet be bottomless forever?

"The whole system in Kiva is built so that a person is interested in doing something, there is no eternal money, but there are eternal people."

"Aska, what will happen when there is nothing to do? You talked about work, but really, what kind of work is it? to practice martial arts?"

"To your disappointment, martial arts are not considered work. This is entertainment that allows you to earn money for achievements. Almost 20% of the population is engaged in any kind of sports. Would it be correct to assume that they all work?"

"But then, where to find time for everything? Why is sports not considered work? After all, sport takes a lot of time."

"Why do you need a lot of time to work?"

"You said yourself that in order to get advanced medicine for free, you need to work at least half the time."

"You have to work not half of the entire time, but at least half of the standard working time. Is it really hard for you to find 1 hour a day?" She asked in surprise, "if 1 hour a day is too much or inconvenient for you, you can spend it on work in no particular order, 292 hours a year."

"But then what will be considered work?"

"Adri has done training courses and accompanies them, this is work."

"There are virtual games in which the player's skills are used for training and simulations, this is work."

"Your grandfather, a scientist, although he is secretive enough and does not reveal his developments, but he sometimes lectures, this is also work."

"There is actually a lot of what is called work, you should not bother with questions of the distant future. Work will only become important to you when you become an adult, and now, it is quite normal to focus on your studies."

"You can earn money without working, on your own entertainment and hobbies. And some of them may be or become work."

"As scary as it sounds, right now, your task is survival. To do this, you need to learn the language and laws of the Kiva. Learn more about your predecessor and his entourage. The equipment you need at the moment, this is only a more powerful PAK that can be easily obtained at school, you just need to indicate it in the wish list for the new school year, which will begin soon. And buy a powerful energy pack so I can cover for you on school trips." Aska brought him back to reality in a cold tone.

Kaas listened intently and without stopping. He had only been in this world for 7 days, and still could not get used to his new tasks.

"Aska, I definitely intend to take all 20 tournaments", he suddenly said resolutely, "I don't know what it takes, but if you have any ideas, tell me about them."

"Where did you get such determination?" she asked.

"I still have to fight, why not do it in the best way?"

"Then, now the main thing is to learn the language faster so that you can start working with the club and the coach. He will not teach you like a virtual Adri, but he will measure your progress, create training plans, and organize your participation in tournaments. Participation from the club will benefit not only you, but also the club, the coach will be very interested in you becoming successful."

"Aska, do you think I will be able to achieve 90% in the remaining days?"

"It's hard to say, it depends on your synchronization. I'm pretty sure the adapter helps your lessons. You are advancing too easily. Don't you think so?" She asked, sitting down in her chair.

"Aska, I've always only known one language, and I didn't have any talent for that. How should I know?"

"Then just believe, in your current state, such results in 7 days, it's really great." she answered, taking some white fruit from a vase, which had not been there before and put it on a plate.

"How long before the start of the workout?" Kaas asked.

"3 minutes." Aska replied, looking at her interface.

"I'm going to the shower for a while to freshen up", Kaas said. He went into the shower, and without taking off his suit turned on the cool water. After standing this way for a while, he turned off the shower, went through the dryer and felt completely ready for the next workout.

It's time to turn a sissy into a warrior, Kaas thought, decisively taking a step from the shower room into the room as if he were taking a step out into the gladiatorial arena.