Tales of Soldier

Chapter 4 Part 1

Basic Training Arc

“Oh shit, Oh shit…shit… me dodge, me swerve…”

Tang Long was wearing a full VR helmet, sitting inside a flight simulation pod, both hands on the controller sticks, his body swings and jolted lightly in all direction, all thanks to the full immerse capability of the gaming pod. He wanted to fully utilized his down time to play video game.
*strong jolt from the pod

“Yeah!” Tang Long performed a fist pump from the sky.
“Nah!!” He flipped a bird towards the screen.
“Kaoooo… Ain’t nice of you giving such a hard time these few days. How do you like them apples now? Biatch… Wahahahahahahaha…”
*stunned

“Wait,”
“Is this real? Am I dreaming or am I awake? This is fucking awesome, i got promoted to Class S! Yeah yeah yeah!!!” Tang Long stood up and twirl his ass, never mind that he actually still in the pod.

At this moment in 23rd, the only room that Tang Long never barged into was the Officer’s lounge. All his android instructors were plugged-in, almost all their ports are connected with a cable. They stood still, and behind them, surrounding them, was multiple server rack, the port signal indicators blinked rapidly.

 

All android looked as if they had been shut down, the green light of the eyes was absent from all of them. But they are actually still communicating, but in a means that was preferred by the machine, in a VPL – virtual private lounge.

“That imbecile Tang Long, why is he dancing out of no apparent reasons?” They are actually observing Tang Long and the entire 23rd using surveillance system.

“This also you don’t know ar? Isn’t he said that he had become a S?”

“Oh, yeah, right. That things, a space flight simulation game, ‘Space Combat’? But this just puzzled me, what is so interesting about video games? I mean, anytime when he is free, the only place he would go is to the gaming pod, even if that means sacrificing his sleep. Like last time when we are in the live round evasive drill. He was shot on the leg, after he applied first aid and stop the bleeding, instead of resting on the bed, he limped into the game pod.”

“Huh, what a great enthusiastic spirit that come to waste. He was so addicted to the game that he can’t even pay attention on the tactics and command lecture. Zero effort!”

“Yes, that part was true, but also through gaming that he was able to lean and develop his skills on combat, space flight, dogfight, weapons application. I mean, his growth was so fast that our skill gap is marginal.”

“Yeah, and how was that useful now? If you only learn those skill, you will just be a good soldier! We want him to be an excellent soldier, a soldier that is capable of leading, a soldier that is worthy of the name Supreme Commander! A Military Marshall! If he knows jack about tactical and command, he will just always be a soldier!”

“You make a good point, but no matter what we do, our method is still ineffective. You can see it when he is in the class, the words just bounced off him like an insulator. And it was so bad that, he even willing to get whipped, get starved for an entire day than to memorize those knowledge. Is like ‘over my dead body’, what a pain in the port.”

^1


“I think this is the mistake on our part, the though process of Tang Long are more akin to single-celled, like amoeba. He can only learn through his body. Knowledge such as stratagem, tactics, command, these are highly conceptualized, abstract information. How you think he can cope?”

“But there is no active warfare within, or with the Federation. It is impossible for our base to be allocated a spaceship, and computer simulation can only simulate something visually like desert, wasteland, and not the battle, like how an enemy respond and react.”

“indeed, the reference and information on space, and spaceship warfare was too diverse and too much. I think it will be almost impossible for computer to simulate each and every scenario with element of randomness that can mimic human.”

“Yeah, that is what I said, useless. Because AI and fundamentally not the same as human intelligence. If we just proceed as such, he will just get used to fighting an AI, which means if he was thrown into battle, he will not be that flexible because human reacted differently than machines.”

 

+
Technology is capable of simulating a human brain and simulate a real battle with great details. But such technology is based on advance hardware and advance programming. Meaning the AI does not just need to learn about all the warfare detail, it also has to be able to generate it with similar theme but totally different scenario. In another word, only an AI that archive sentiency with advance processing and storage can do that. Since android and sentient AI was banned, and destroyed many, many, years ago, such feat is not possible in the current time and that was the dilemma.
+

“What about we approach this like an MMO game?”

“You mean like the internet game that Tang Long was playing? But the most cutting-edge Stardust Terminal ^2 can only support 1 million users simultaneously. Complement of normal fleet is already several hundreds of thousands of people. How is that useful?”

“Did you remember our dear friends? She already developed technology can simultaneously support 1 billion online active user, she called it Nebula Terminal ^3. And that technology can synchronize, in real-time, across the universe using the quantum tunnel signal.”

“Wait, when does this dope-ass tech invented, and how come I did not know about it? Our focus now should be about how to train Tang Long in tactic and command, why are we talking about this?”

“This is because, we developed this technology when our dear friend was developing the MMO game ‘Warfare’.”

“I understand now. You want to use this a means and ruse to tech Tang Long about… right. If the players are real and it is, indeed a video game, Tang Long will be more willing to learn.”

“Indeed. This game can accurately simulate any battle on a 1-to-1 scale, with exceptions of real death and property damages.”

“Right, now we have the game, we have the means, now the rub is, how are we going to find this much player? We can’t really go do the release, production and distribution by ourselves, no?”

At that moment, an avatar popped up in their VPL.

“Hi guys, well that is not an issue, I will just build a startup. Easy.”

“Startup? Does it require a seed funding?”

“Oh, come on, that is easy. Apply a bank account, and just move some, tiny-ity bit of money there, done.”

“Right, I almost forgot that you are literally the treasury for the Federation. But next issue would be, application of banking account requires a valid Federation ID, same goes to opening a business. Do you currently have any ID? Or you want to conjure one out of thin bit ^4.”

“Really? That is your question? This is not even a challenge. This technology and game exist because of Tang Long, to train him. So, use his ID.” The lady spoke in a matter-of-factly way, but for Tang Long, he somehow becoming owner of the most influential game company in the entire universe. And also because of this, Tang Long also become the most expensive, and the most profitable soldier ever in training.

“How about company address, staffing, you know, the business end?” One of the android pursued the question.

“What cannot be solved with money in humanity? Also, I control, no, I am the central compute system for the Federation. Seriously!” Apparently, the lady was reaching the limit of her digital patience.

“My dear friend, how was your preparation so far?”

“Ok, use Tang Long’s ID to apply banking account, launder some money into it, register for a company, then I can start hiring. The initial hiring will be a bit tricky since I can’t really show my face or anything, and we really need to screen for loyalty for the core team. Once we solve the hiring of the core team, basically the company will take off, since they are the one that will continue the hiring and taking care of the business end like securing vendor, shops, distribution, finance, you know, the business end. All rightly, this is the single most exciting I had for the past few centuries. I am off to work, ok byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.” The lady said it with a voice of elation, and pop goes the avatar.

“Am I reading the data stream correctly, or did our dear friend sounded off? Sounded like… a little girl.” Said one of the androids to the leader.

“I believe it is because this is the first time ever she is in so close contact with human. I believe this is also the 1st time ever she behaved impulsively. If I were to describe from the perspective of human, I would say that she is both full of curiosity and excitement for the unknown. Alright, cut the chatter, and begin running self-diagnostic and maintenance, folks. We will be spending an entire day tomorrow on drills.”

“Yes Sir!” The remaining 4 replied with a military salute.

Tang Long was still in the pod, grinding.

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This sub chapter is a bit short, because i was quite occupied this week and coming week. I was busy finding puppies for adaption for my mom, and luckily, i found 2 female puppies. Yay. 

^1 here I modify the story abit. At this point the author mentioned that the androids started to remove the cable, but I want the entire conversation to stayed in the VPL. Because I think that, first, machine communication is very fast, second, it is strange describe the android the equivalent of chew gum and walk at the same time.

^2 Stardust Terminal is the parody of Cloud Terminal.

^3 Nebula Terminal is the parody of Cloud Terminal.