13 Axela

“Welcome to the world of Meta Oasis, user Vik Lord of 69s. How would you like to proceed?”

Vik witnessed a known Oasis interface after he was logged into the Oasis pod. He was brought into the same void that he was used to seeing.

But there were no stars here. The stars usually represented various worlds rendered in metaspace. But the lack of stars made this segment of the meta space completely isolated from its usual interface.

The rest of the interface was the same. But Vik felt that the difference between the ordinary Oasis pods and the one he was in didn’t end at the welcome space.

The way with which Oasis ASI (Artificial Super Intelligence) talked also felt a bit odd. An Oasis user would typically be presented with a bunch of prompts. The ASI would only interact when called upon.

And that was not all. Vik felt that he was talking to a real person and not the ASI. He decided to test the hypothesis.

“Hello, Axela. How are you doing today?”

Vik questioned the ASI casually. Axela was the name of the Oasis’s ASI who was in charge of the whole meta place. Her voice was that of a young girl. So people referred to her by feminine pronouns.

He wanted to poke and see if his line of questioning breaks the set algorithm. Alas. He was about to be disappointed.

“Hm? I’m fine. Dandy even. It’s not like you Vik Lord of 69s to ask me such questions. May I ask if everything is okay? Is there any way Oasis can assist you?”

Axela answered the question with a question of her own. Like most humans. It was clear that her question was based on Vik’s user history. So the latter wasn’t surprised that his throw of oddball was effectively handled by someone like Axela.

This line of questioning wasn’t effective. He needed to try something different.

“Everything is fine. Tell me Axela, is there any restriction on my Permavatar in the Oasis right now?”

Vik decided to ask Axela about something that couldn’t be included in her algorithm. Something that might have happened because of his current bounty on his head.

It took a while for Axela to answer:

“Hmm! It seems that you are a naughty boy, Vik. A chairperson in Oasis Corp has used their limited monthly rights to blacklist your account.

Whatever place you choose to go to in the Oasis, you’ll be transported to a fixed location in an isolated region controlled by the Oasis Corp.”

Vik wasn’t surprised by the news. He was just taken aback by the fact that the company could pull such stunts off on a platform that they claimed was free of any external interference.

Axela allowed Vik to process the information before continuing.

“Hehe! You’ve pissed off someone really big in the Oasis Corp, haven’t you? Those old fogies and wretched witches can’t control me directly.

But alas! I have to listen to a few of their demands. And they’ve used plenty of the brownie points they had collected so far to black-list you and bring you to their desired location.

Now, tell me. What would you like to do?”

Vik opened his eyes wide in surprise after hearing that. It was surprising because he had found that Axela could be influenced by those bigshots, even if ever so slightly.

The biggest reason the Oasis was trusted by so many of the users was because of the lack of external influence it brought to the table. But the meta place didn’t seem to be able to break free of its parents’ influence. At least not completely.

But that was not all. There was something else that was bothering Vik now. He was a nobody against a chairperson of the Oasis Corp. And even they could only exert this much power on Axela. So whether he liked it or not, Vik had to believe that the corporation had somehow been prevented from interfering in the Oasis’s core too much.

But then, why were his questions answered so honestly by Axela here? If they couldn’t influence Axela, how could he, a nobody, be treated with such privileges?

‘These Oasis pods.’

Asking the right questions was half the battle won, they said.

As soon as a valid question was posed in the right direction, Vik had the answer. But he had to confirm his hunch:

“Axela, what can you tell me about these unique variants of Oasis pods that I’ve used to log in?”

Vik asked with various thoughts swirling in his head. His OCD brain started thinking about the possibilities he could make use of with the special pods he had used to log into Oasis. But before formulating any plan, he needed information.

Axela didn’t take long to answer Vik’s testing-the-waters question.

“Hehehe! So you are not stupid after all. I see that your friend is also using another Oasis pod of the same kind.

These pods were constructed recently. Depending on how you use them, their layout can be considered to be the very first generation of Oasis pods from centuries ago.

And yes, they come with special user privileges. That’s why I can answer your questions.”

‘Special privileges!’

Vik’s eyes seemed to have shined when he heard Axela confirm his hunch. He had never heard about Oasis pods giving special privileges to the user. At least that was the case for non-Metas living outside the Elysian cities.

He concluded that the special privileges were the reason why Axela was able to share information with him. He took a deep breath before asking his next question.

“Alright. Tell me this, Axela. What do you mean when you say that they can be used as the very first generation of Oasis pods from centuries ago?”

Vik was puzzled about this information the most. He could understand the addition of updated, improved features. But why was a cutting-edge Oasis pod getting based on the centuries-old Oasis pod variant?

This time, Axela seemed to be pondering over his question a bit. She finally answered after coming to an algorithm-driven conclusion.