[Last Hope] 5 – Computers

Yet another month passed as I worked my ass off in the Clinic in the Facilities and to advance my education in the classroom. I realized about a month ago that continuing my 'basic' education was a waste of time. The stuff we were learning in class, while more advanced than something I had to learn at their age, was still something I could manage. With my frequent sessions in Archives studying the old technical documents, books, and holotapes stored within its shelves, I have started advancing my education by taking whatever tests they threw at me and acing every one of them, allowing me to rise up in a few grades to a class with older students.

I stopped at that grade because the tests were slowly becoming harder and harder, to the point now that it felt like I had to go through the SAT or TSI only multiple times harder and with even more questions, but at least it got more eyes on me. While most would not like me due to my mutation, I knew a few would be interested enough to look past that if I proved myself knowledgeable or skillful enough for their particular field.

Even then, this month, I managed to level up another two times because of the Daily Quests since I was already halfway to a level up from last month's quest.

If I do all of my daily quests for 30 days, I am left with 150% exp, enough to level me up once and set me halfway to the next level.

So, since I leveled up twice, I had 30 more skill points to allocate at my leisure.

Of course, when I first leveled up, I immediately put all 15 points into Computers, raising it to 40, and much to my surprise, I got the option to select yet another perk, figuring that it would mean that I  would get to chose a perk every level, I felt a lot more relief. However, that relief didn't last, as I knew that with each level, it would normally be harder to level up again afterward. Who knows if these Daily Quests will stay or would stop showing up at a certain point?

When it came to the perk I chose, I ended up choosing Computer Whiz, as it could prove invaluable.

When I  leveled up again half a month later, I put 10 more points into Computers, raising it to 50, before placing the final five points into Engineering, raising it to 10. Now, I had a few new options combined with all of the old options.

I had two new options for Perks when it came to [Computers] and a new perk for [Engineering]

For Engineering, there was a skill by the name of [Structural Weakness], essentially a perk that would help me find the weaknesses of whatever I make. What kind of weaknesses, I had no idea.

As for [Computers], the two new Perks were [Logic Processer I] and [Digitilized].

The first confused me with its name at first, but after reading its description, it essentially makes my mind process information faster. All information? I had no idea.

The second, on the other hand, was...unique. 

[Digitilized—Computers 50—Description: You've taken your first step into the Digital world, and it welcomes you. You'll find that programs begin coming naturally the longer you delve into the Digital World and that the longer you stay in the Digital World, the more inspired and focused you become, but beware, delve too deep, and you may not come back out]

Both were obviously interesting, but I just couldn't help myself. I chose [Digitlized].

Of course, the first thing I did was want to try it, so I hastily left the class and made my way to the Archives, which had a few Terminals I was constantly experimenting with.

Robert House's OS for his products was...confusing, to say the least. Something I noticed with Houses's OS was that it was simple compared to some of the things I remember seeing in Class in my old life. Not to mention the fact that all of the terminals still used vacuum tubes and simple circuitry that made House's OS even simpler compared to what I was used to. As I made my way through the halls and corridors, I couldn't help but suddenly groan as I grabbed my head.

Something I hated about leveling up was the headaches and floods of information that came with raising my skill levels. Something I did notice, much to my annoyance, was that the technical information and knowledge I was getting was, so far, only Fallout-related—nothing yet about Modern Computer designs or even Modern programming. Don't get me wrong, it was helpful, but not really that helpful if I wanted to improve the computers and programming of Fallout.

When I reached the archives, I moved to the corner of the large room where I was currently experimenting with a few spare Terminals.

I may or may not have torn apart multiple of the Terminals in the Archives and used the parts of broken Terminals to begin creating a...well, monster of a Terminal.

I was trying to make my own CPU using the tools I could scrounge up and figure out how I could get past House's OS and make my own, piggybacking off his work. While I have made some progress, it's not as much as one would expect, as for some reason, a lot of his machines used only Machine Language, as in only 1's and 0's. What I was trying to do was see if I could upgrade the hardware to the point where I could use more advanced machine languages. Once I could get to the step, I could use House's OS as a base and basically refine it to make it more suitable for my needs.

However, if I did want to go beyond, I would more than likely have to go up the generations until I eventually reach the Modern Computer. If I could guess, the computers of Fallout seemed more like first-gen computers, and while pushed to their very limits in terms of hardware, they were still only first-gen computers.

But to make a second-generation computer, I would need to make my own circuitry and resistors.

Of course, if I had the technology, I would just go straight for microprocessors and superconductors and try to recreate many of the other components of a modern computer. Still, if I jumped straight into modern computers, I feel that it would draw too much attention to me, which is why I wanted my own little workshop hidden away from prying eyes.

Though, at this point, creating a modern computer was more for entertainment than anything. Sure, the Modern Computer could perform much more complicated and complex calculations that would no doubt gain the attention of the Institute Scientists. Still, a second or third-generation computer would be enough to convince the Institute. I mostly wanted to create a Modern Computer or device similar enough for the sheer challenge of it, I guess.

However, I guess another reason why I wanted better computers was to create my own version of the internet or try and make my own AI or VI. How they managed to create AI with these computers when we struggled in our own world, I have no idea. Maybe they just had a breakthrough? Maybe it was reverse-engineered from Zetan Technology? I just couldn't see how they managed it. Sure, their Fusion and Fission power made it to where they had no need to worry about power, which would mean that they could fully experiment with laser-weapon and power armor technology despite their energy-intensive nature, but actual AI? How the hell did they even manage it? Especially with their shoddy hardware and software? It just didn't make any sense to me...perhaps I should start investing points into Robotics to see if it has the answers. No...too wasteful.

Perhaps the answer lies somewhere in the thousands of documents that the archives held.