Words formed in his mind, but as Jake was about to type them in, he realized something. He didn’t know how to write. His fingers hovered over the virtual keyboard displayed on the screen of Isra’s PDA, but he couldn’t start. It felt strange, and he wasn’t even sure what was wrong. He had no trouble placing a few more pins with empty labels on the map, but when he was ready to fill the first one with words, he found himself unable to do so. The words he intended to write formed in his mind, but as he attempted to type them on the screen of Isra’s PDA, his mind seemed to resist. His thoughts became so muddled and mixed up that he couldn’t even remember what he wanted to write at all. When he simply mulled his thoughts over in his head, they were clear, but as soon as he tried to type them out, his mind immediately began to play tricks on him. It wasn’t just a matter of struggling to find the right words; it was much more severe. His mind seemed to shut down, making him forget the meanings of words and even the letters themselves. As soon as he shifted his focus away from writing, his thoughts returned to clarity. It was an experience unlike any he had ever encountered before.
So much for Enhanced Intelligence, he thought with frustration.
While Jake wasn’t certain about what was happening in his mind, he was fairly certain that it had something to do with his being a morphus. While his mutant mind excelled in sharp thinking, observation, memorization, and strategic planning for various tasks, including combat tactics, it seemed to create difficulties for him when it came to writing. Perhaps this struggle was a trade-off for all the advantages that came with the Enhanced Intelligence skill.
“Can you write?” he heard Irsra’s voice.
He looked up from the PDA in his hands to meet Isra’s gaze, her expression clearly reflecting confusion. It seemed like she was starting to doubt his writing abilities. Her companions, positioned a few yards behind her, were also observing him with a mix of confusion and skepticism on their faces. For some reason, this stirred a feeling of anger within him. He knew he could write; after all, he had no difficulty crafting coherent sentences in his mind. His Enhanced Intelligence had granted him a mental capacity far beyond that of an average human.
He nodded vigorously at Isra and then lowered his head once more, focusing on the screen of the PDA.
Forcing his mind into overdrive, he concentrated with all his might, struggling to remember the letters of the English alphabet and how to string them together to form words. After what felt like an eternity, he completed the task. He had achieved a seemingly monumental feat. It had taken nearly two full minutes of intense focus and mental exertion, but he finally succeeded in forming three letters to create a single, straightforward word: YES.
Feeling mentally drained after the task, he experienced a level of exhaustion he had never known as a mutant. Sensing that he had expended a significant amount of Mana Points, he gave a mental command to check his mana count. To his astonishment, he discovered that almost half of his mana had been depleted through his intense concentration on writing a single simple word. The realization left him stunned, causing him to stare at the PDA screen in disbelief for a few moments. The realization that the substantial amount of mana that could have lasted him a couple of days yet was depleted in a mere two minutes due to the immense concentration required to write just one word, hit him hard. It was now obvious that he could indeed write, but at a significant cost in terms of time, effort, and mana points. This realization weighed heavily on him, serving as a crushing reminder of the challenges he faced despite his enhanced abilities.
“Did you just write something?” Isra asked, her attentive gaze indicating that she had been watching him closely all this time.
Jake turned the PDA toward Isra and displayed the screen to her. She took a few steps closer, squinting at the screen as she tried to make out the word. Once she managed to read it, she shifted her gaze to Jake’s eyes, an incredulous expression crossing her face.
“Yes? That’s all you wrote?” Isra asked, attempting to conceal her frustration in her tone but failing to do so convincingly. For some reason, her disappointment in him stung a little, even though he couldn’t quite comprehend why.
“What did it write?” the leader of the group asked from behind her.
“Just one word,” she replied, looking over her shoulder at Frank. “Yes.”
“That’s what it wrote?” Archie said. “Yes? Just this short word, huh?”
Jake heard Frank chuckle.
“Now I feel bad for entertaining the idea that this freak could actually be intelligent,” he commented.
The three men made their way down the corridor to join Isra.
“He did write a word,” Isra pointed out, casting a quick glance at the leader beside her.
“It took him like 5 minutes to write a single word,” Frank remarked.
“Just two minutes, or even less,” Isra corrected, though her tone unconsciously reflected her agreement with the leader’s point.
“Even for a single word, it shouldn’t have taken that long,” Frank commented. “Maybe the freak doesn’t even understand the meaning. Could have just memorized it from somewhere.”
“But it can understand our speech,” Isra said.
“Or so it seems,” Frank said. “The freak can’t write, though.”
“Why did it ask for a PDA to begin with then?” Archie asked without directing the question to anyone in particular. “I don’t get it.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Frank interjected, cutting off any potential argument before turning to Isra. “We’re done here. Have him return your PDA.”
Isra shifted her focus to Jake. “Can I have my device back?”
He could see the disappointment in her eyes. She had believed him to be sentient, but now her belief seemed to have shifted. Strangely, it affected him. As a mutant, he seldom experienced emotions, but witnessing her dismay made him feel a sense of sadness for the first time. He wanted to prove to her that he was sentient. So he shook his head and withheld the device.
“It’s not returning your PDA,” Rick stated the obvious.
“The fuck?” Frank growled. “Don’t play games with us, you freak. You hear me?”
Jake looked directly at Isra and raised his palm, signaling for her to wait a bit longer, hoping she would comprehend. And she did. He could see it in her eyes. It was remarkable. His Enhanced Intelligence allowed him to read people effortlessly, yet his mutant mind posed great challenges for him in writing.
Jake lowered his head and refocused on Isra’s PDA he held in his hands.
“It’s toying with us,” Frank growled as he noticed Jake’s refusal to return the PDA.
“Let’s give it a few more minutes, Frank,” Isra suggested.
They kept arguing, but Jake no longer paid attention to their conversation, fully concentrating on the PDA screen. He now knew he wouldn’t be able to write what he had initially planned. Still, he wanted to let Isra know that he was intelligent and that she had been right about him. It felt important to him, though he couldn’t explain why. He just felt the need to do it.
It reminded him of a short story from his childhood. It was about an intelligent beast that couldn’t communicate effectively. The lead scientist and her assistant kept the beast in a cage. She provided the beast with lettered cubes, asking him to use them to spell out his name. The beast overheard the lead scientist telling her assistant that if the beast was intelligent, it would be able to spell its name. The assistant was very skeptical, doubting the beast’s abilities. The beast wanted to prove to the lead scientist that he was intelligent. He tried playing with the cubes but struggled to form his name. Despite understanding human speech, the beast couldn’t speak or write for some unknown reason. He yearned to show the lead scientist his intelligence, but no matter how long he played with the cubes, he just couldn’t spell out his name.
It was a sad little story. Jake had read it so long ago that he couldn’t even remember the title or the author’s name anymore. Yet it lingered in the recesses of his mind, resurfacing at that moment. He felt akin to the beast in that story. He yearned to write his name and present it to Isra. He believed she would recognize it as his name and see his intelligence, just as she had originally believed.
It was at that moment that he noticed a tab at the bottom edge of the screen that he had never seen on his own PDA before. It was labeled AskMeAnything. He instantly recalled his efforts to save up enough money to purchase the upgrade for his PDA to unlock this exact app. He was only a few credits shy of the required 100,000 credits for the upgrade when he was drawn into the Black Void to undergo his transformation into a morphus.
He tapped on the AskMeAnything app, and a search bar appeared on the screen. An idea struck him, and for the next several minutes, he was engrossed in typing his name. Fortunately, he only had to input the first three letters of his name. When he successfully typed J, A, and K, the auto-fill function activated, displaying a full list of survivors whose names began with those letters. Surprisingly, there was only one person listed as Jake Turner. It appeared that out of all the people who shared his name, he was the only one who had managed to win the game of chance and enter the Gameverse.
As he tapped on his name, a brief overview of his stats appeared on the screen.
Jake gazed at the perplexing information on the screen. The System declared him dead. How could this be? The Black Void didn’t end his life but instead altered him into a mutant. Yet according to the System, he was now classified as deceased. What could this mean?
Before Jake could give the matter any more thought, he heard Frank exclaim, “What the hell is that? Have y’all ever seen anything like that before?”
Jake looked up from the screen. While he had been using the PDA, the other survivors seemed to have lost interest in him and had begun exploring the corridor they were in. They had stumbled upon the elevator shaft with the magical platform inside. Frank and Rick had stepped inside, while Archie stood at the entrance, peering in. Isra had been standing not far from Jake, but upon hearing the leader’s cry, she couldn’t resist her curiosity and had stepped to stand beside Archie, looking into the elevator shaft. The two of them paid him little attention at the moment.
Jake realized it was his chance. His goal was to get them into the elevator shaft by any means necessary. He knew Isra could still see him in her peripheral vision, but if he acted quickly, he could reach the elevator entrance, push Isra and Archie inside before they could react, and then quickly enter himself. With him inside, the platform would transport them all to the next unfinished level of the tower.
With that in mind, Jake rose to his feet.