The next morning, Jack groaned as he slowly rolled out of bed. Everything ached, and he felt like he'd been trampled by a herd of buffalo. His left foot still throbbed in pain, but when he stood, he found that the pain wasn't any worse. So at least he could still walk on it.
When he'd finally arrive at home, he'd gobbled down two food bars, guzzled some water, then promptly collapsed in bed, out in seconds. As he shambled out of his bedroom and down the hall to the bathroom, he wondered what he would discover when he unlocked Snapshots.
After taking care of his morning business, he entered his kitchen and grabbed some eggs and bacon from the fridge. After placing four strips of bacon in the pan and turning on the burner, he turned and leaned back against the counter, but winced in pain when the counter top pressed into his lower back. Grumbling, he pulled out a chair from the kitchen table and sat down carefully. Even his ass was sore, but at least the pain was bearable.
Despite the many disasters that had struck his life — losing his parents, then losing his adoptive father, and then losing his adoptive mother — he had experienced some blessings as well. His birth parents had taught him to value hard work, perseverance, and rational thinking. And his adoptive parents had reinforced those ideals and given him the support he needed to grow and thrive. Their loss still hurt, but the ideals they had taught him meant that their loss would not break him.
The bacon was sizzling, so he reluctantly got up from the chair, wincing from his various aches and pains, then went to turn the bacon. Once the bacon was cooked, he laid them on a paper towel lined plate and cracked four eggs into the still sizzling bacon grease.
Once his food was cooked, and while he ate, he checked the news on his phone. He only found the usual political BS, fear mongering, drama. No sudden spate of car crashes, and no news of strange behavior, if you excluded the usual social media drama. It wasn't conclusive, but it was at least reassuring.
After eating, he put his dishes in the dishwasher and wiped down the counters and stove top. Bacon spatter tended to get everywhere. When he was done, he went into the living room and sank into his favorite spot on the couch. He was finally awake enough to start thinking about what to do next.
He started by looking at his status.
Energy Points (EP): 10000/10000 :-: (10/sec)
Genesis Points (GP): 2049
Soul Space Cost: 0/sec
His EP was full, and he had enough GP to unlock Snapshots. But before he did that, he wanted to know what happened to his body while he was inside his Soul Space. He didn't think his body disappeared, but he needed to confirm. He also wanted to know if it would be obvious to anyone that he was "away" while he was in his soul space. Would his eyes close, would his face go slack, would he drool? He'd been laying down last time, so he also wanted to know what would happen if he was sitting up, or standing.
He placed his phone on the coffee table and leaned it against a bowl of mixed nuts, switched to the front facing camera, and sat back to make sure he was fully in frame. Satisfied, he started recording, leaned back and entered his soul space. He tried to keep his eyes open as he did.
Remembering that he had not altered the Time ratio setting from late night, he checked his status again.
Energy Points (EP): 10000/10000 :-: (0/sec [10/sec])
Genesis Points (GP): 2049
Soul Space Cost: 10/sec
His EP was full, which meant his soul space didn't consume any EP while he was outside of it, regardless of the Time Ratio setting. He changed the Time Ratio setting back to 1:1 since he wanted at least a few seconds to pass in the outside world and didn't feel like waiting longer inside his soul space.
After counting to ten, he exited his soul space, stopped the phone recording, and then watched the video. He'd been staring at the juncture between the wall behind his T.V. and the ceiling when he entered his soul space, and he could see that his eyes remained open and staring at the same spot for a count of ten before looking down and into the camera lens. His expression didn't change, and he continued blinking, so he didn't need to worry about his face revealing that he was "away".
Next, he repeated the experiment, but this time, he sat up so that he was almost balanced, but would fall back onto the couch if he relaxed. When he came back out of his soul space, he found himself in the same exact position. This was looking promising. The fact that his body remained in the same position meant there were more situations where he could enter his soul space safely without giving away that he was doing something.
Going a step further, he stood then squatted down so that if he relaxed he should collapse onto the couch, instead of face planting into the coffee table. When he came back out of his soul space, he was still in the same position. He was feeling the strain of maintaining his awkward position, so he dropped back down onto the couch.
He wanted to know what would happen if he entered his soul space while standing, or while walking, but didn't want to risk face planting onto the floor and breaking his nose, or giving himself a concussion. With his safe testing options exhausted, he turned his burning curiosity towards the next item on his agenda, Snapshots. He could access his store catalog without entering his soul space, so he located the snapshots item and purchased it.
[Snapshots Unlocked]
[Assessing...]
What? He wondered why unlocking snapshots would trigger an assessment. What was it assessing? But, a few moments later...
[Assessment complete]
[Atomic Level Detail Unlocked]
[Subatomic Level Detail Unlocked]
He had felt a new section appear in his interface, and as each new level of detail was unlocked, he felt same section update again. When he examined that section, he learned he could make a snapshot at four different levels of detail, and higher levels of detail had progressively smaller snapshot ranges. Each snapshot would include a sphere of area centered on himself.
Snapshot Detail (Approximation)
-Range: 100 km
-Cost Per Snapshot: 1 EP/100 kilometer radius
-Description: Like a quality VR game, everything would look normal from a distance, but up close, the lack of detail would become apparent. This level of detail is sufficient to capture the structure, composition, and general function of everything, but is insufficient to support accurate simulations of life forms and complex technology. This level of detail is especially useful for reconnaissance, and filling in areas of a simulation outside the area of interest. In simulations, everything captured at this level of detail will only be an approximation of its real-world self.
Snapshot Detail (Nominal)
-Range: 1 kilometer
-Cost Per Snapshot: 1 EP/1 kilometer radius
-Description: A simulation based on a snapshot of this level of detail will be indistinguishable from the real world in all but the most exacting of circumstances. This level of detail still represents an approximation, but the approximation is so close to reality that events in a simulation would only slowly deviate from those in reality. While this level of detail can recreate functionally identical equivalents of most technology and life forms, the greater the complexity, the more likely the recreation in a simulation is to deviate from the original. This level of detail is suitable for the simulations of groups of people, cities, or countries. It is not sufficient to precisely replicate the thought processes of a sapiens. The behavior of a sapient in a simulation that is based on a snapshot of this level of detail will subtly differ from that of the original. Many scientific instruments will produce results that are statistically similar to the real-world equivalent, but a trained scientist would eventually notice that something was wrong.
Snapshot Detail (Atomic)
-Range: 10 meter
-Cost Per Snapshot: 1 EP/10 meter radius
-Description: At this level of detail, every atom and its precise state is captured. In a simulation based on a snapshot of this level of detail, nearly everything will behave identically to that of its real-world original. This includes sapiens and most complex technology. However, this level of detail does not capture quantum level detail, so experiments, like particle accelerators, that probe the structure of atoms will produce results that are statistically similar to the real-world original, but the relevant scientists would eventually realize something was off.
Snapshot Detail (Subatomic)
Range: 1 meter
-Cost Per Snapshot: 1 EP/1 meter radius
-Description: At this level of detail, every subatomic particle and all quantum state is captured. A simulation based on a snapshot of this level of detail will proceed identically to the real world down to the quantum state of every subatomic particle. There is nothing and no one on terra capable of distinguishing a simulation from reality when operating at this level of detail.