[Last Hope] 11 – the First Division

"You want to intern with all of the Divisions?" Charlotte Plourde, the Director of Advanced Systems, asked me again, baffled.

"Yes, Ma'am. I have a wide skillset, and if I were to limit myself to just one division, I'd stagnate. I wish to use my skills to their fullest, and that is not possible if I limit myself to just one Division, and I know that sounds arrogant. Which is why I want you to test me, see if I am even worthy of such a thing," I suggested and explained, noticing her frown at my arrogance.

She looked me over before moving her gaze back to Ben, "And you vouch for her?"

"I do," Ben answered with a smile before continuing while patting my back, "She'll surprise you. She's a natural with commuters."

Her eyes swept back to me, more praising than before, "Is that so?"

"Yes, ma'am," I nodded, showing confidence.

She didn't comment on my bravado, but she did climb out of her seat.

"Come, we will see if you are as skilled as you think you are," She briefly spoke, walking past the three of us and leading us out of her office.

Following behind, I wondered what sort of test she would put me through as she led us through the various labs where I could see many people working at various stations and even a few shooting range before eventually leading us to a lab where multiple old Gen 1 and 2  Synths could be seen lying around on tables while the heads of synths were mounted on devices hooked up to the machines.

"Is this where you program the Synths?" I asked, curious.

Walking over to one of the Terminals, she briefly glances over the code flowing across the screen before just wiping it clean.

She turned around and gestured to the computer, "Show me what you got."

"That's...it? You don't want anything specific?" I asked, confused and bewildered by her statement. What sort of test was this?

"Ben said you have some computer skills, so show me what you can do. Take all of the time you need; we will review when you are done," The woman explained, unhanging from that natural and stoic expression.

"...Alright," I said, walking over and seating myself before the computer. That's when it came to me, and I spoke my thoughts: "Ma'am? I have an alternative suggestion. Instead of writing a program that would take a few weeks to complete, what if I could prove my skills by debugging any faulty Gen 1 and 2 Synths?" 

"You believe yourself skilled enough to do so?" She asked with a questioning look.

"Yes, ma'am," I answered with confidence.

"Alright, hey, Emily?" Charlotte called out to the only other person in the room with us, one I didn't notice till now.

"Okay, I can take it from here and let you know," the woman I just noticed said, getting up from her computer.

With a nod from Charlotte, she calmly left the room, leaving us with the quiet woman who was messing with one of the computers.

"Alright. This Gen 2 Synth crashed while out on the field. I want you to find the problem and the exact reason for its crash," She explained, poking at the mounted head of a Gen 2 Synth.

Gesturing for me to get to work, I wasted no time and sat down at the chair.

The first thing I did was check the logs, and not long after, I found that it was a series of errors that caused the Synth to 'crash' and shut down. It was a simple logic error. The Synth came across someone or something above that was listed as both an 'Ally' and 'Enemy.' It could not attack an ally but was ordered to attack enemies; this caused a loop of errors that eventually ended with the Synth's CPU overheating and then crashing.

It took me only five minutes to find the problem, but I couldn't exactly fix it.

"Miss Emily? I found the problem," I gestured to the computer, waiting for her to lean down. She took a few moments to see the problem I saw.

"Good catch, let's try a harder one," She pulled the head off the device, walked over to a shelf, and grabbed another head with a tag on it.

"This one should be a bit harder here," she explained, inserting the head onto the mount.

As the Terminal connected to the Synth's head, I began checking the logs. While this Synth did not crash and overheat its CPU like the other one, it did have a logic error. This error messed with its targeting parameters. Specifically, it seemed as if the Synth was having issues with its vision and its connections with the photoreceptors inside its eyes, making it have a lower accuracy than normal, as in, it hit only 15% of its shots.

While I initially thought this was a hardware issue rather than software, I soon found that it was a combination of both. Some of the wiring in its eye was fried, and some of the coding was redundant, causing it to take longer to shoot and also causing it to miss more when the target moved.

Test after test, and eventually, Ben and Allie leaving me, I realized one thing. The people who programmed the Gen 1 and 2 Synths were incompetent. It felt as though they programmed each unit individually, filling these Synths with redundancies, logic fallacies, and countless errors. The Synths were just so...inefficient, especially when considering that the hardware each Synth had could support a fully functioning VI  or AI rivaling a Human. 

Yet, they just used them as basic workers and soldiers, going as far as to fill their memory with junk data that left hardly any space for more.

Regardless, I passed my 'test' with flying colors and officially became a Debugger and Intern for the Robotics sub-division of Advanced Systems. For now, they wanted me to continue debugging the Gen 1 and 2 Synths, then eventually Gen 3 synths, though it was a complete waste of my potential, as I could, more than likely, make an AI better than everything they have made combined. 

[You have completed the hidden quest: Joining a Division]

[You have leveled up!]

[You have earned x1 Uncommon Lootbox]

Barley glancing at the screens that popped up, I headed back to my quarters, knowing that tomorrow I'd need to convince another Divison, likely BioScience, as Synth Retention would likely be the hardest division to get into.

As for the level-up, I realized the best option for me now was, of course, Biology, raising it to 45 and giving me an even wider range of information, this time information about various marine animals, mammals, and reptiles.

For example, I did not need to know how aggressive Dolphins were to their own species and other aquatic life, such as a dozen or more Dolphins all ganging up on a female and aggressively mating with her, all of them.

As for the perk I chose, I realized I didn't have very many appealing options. Eventually, I just chose a simple one that seemed more like a trait than a perk: [Ambidexterous], allowing for the full use of both hands with precision, which would no doubt come in handy in the future.

Laying down in bed with a slight headache, I reached out and 'opened' the uncommon Lootbox.

[Bag of Rainbow Stones (Elden Ring)]

I frowned.