Adventurer: Simulator Problem

By R. Richard

I’m standing, naked, on a largish flat rock at the edge of an ocean, judging from the salt water smell. I find myself surrounded by six large, powerful looking males, each as naked as I am. They’re perhaps seven feet tall with slate gray skin. They’re heavily muscled, to the extent that they look like bodybuilders. I’m not a doctor, but there are just enough differences in skeletal structure and musculature that I’m certain that they’re not men, but aliens. Each alien has a club. The aliens don’t seem at all friendly.
I turn my back to the ocean and advance upon the aliens standing around the rock on which I stand. I howl a challenge at the aliens as I move.
The aliens move toward me. At least the aliens in front of me and to either side move toward me.
I have to assume that the couple of aliens still behind me also move toward me. The assumption is my only chance. I suddenly whirl and jump to the edge of the rock nearest the ocean. Luck is with me and an alien is attempting to climb up onto the rock I’m standing on. I kick the alien in the face hard and then use his sprawled body as a sort of barrier against a remaining alien on the ocean side of the rock as I leap from the rock to the sand, scoop up the club that face kick alien dropped and then I dive into the ocean. The ocean that I dive into seems the same as an ocean back on Earth. Diving into an unknown ocean could have killed me. However, the large, powerful aliens certainly would have killed me, unless I jumped.
There’s no way that I can fight six large, powerful aliens at once, hand to hand and win. However, from the looks of them, they’ll be too muscular to be very good as swimmers. (Fat floats, bone and muscle sink. The aliens appear to be mostly bone and muscle.) I swim under water and straight out from the beach. I’m hampered a bit by having to carry the club I picked up, but any pursuer will probably be similarly hampered. I finally run out of air and I flip on my back and surface.
One of the aliens has pursued me, wading into the water until he’s up to his neck. He doesn’t try to swim after me, but waves his club and glares at me in very unfriendly fashion.
I glare back and hyperventilate for a bit. I then flip dive and head back toward large and unfriendly. I stay deep and get back to him after a bit of swimming, using pretty much leg kicks only, since I’m still carrying the club I obtained from face kick alien.
Large and unfriendly tries to hit me with his club. The guy might have the strength of a gorilla, but there’s no way he’s going to damage me with a club, as deep as I am. The club thuds on the surface of the water but it doesn’t even get as deep as I am.

• Language: English
• Publisher: R. Richard
• Release date: May 5, 2022
• ISBN: 9780463339633

R. Richard

I'm the co-author, with Sunset Thomas, of Anatomy of An Adult Film.I have 48 novels and over 299 short stories currently published.I spent my early years in the part of Los Angeles known as the South Central. I was known as Whi' Boy, which was sufficient to identify me in that place. I'm a skilled Kung Fu player, using a system that I learned from a Korean I knew only as 'Pak.' It would be easier to tell you the places that Pak wasn't wanted by the police, rather than the places where he was wanted by the police. Pak's Kung Fu system, augmented by some bits and pieces from some Chinese practitioners is quick and effective, or I wouldn't be alive today.My early education was mostly obtained by stealing books from the public library (I always returned them and the Librarian even began to provide me with reading lists.) I did go to high schools, but I never really learned anything there. I eventually graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles, UCLA, with a degree in mathematics.I work as a Systems Analyst and also make a part of my living as a professional gambler (legal in Nevada.) I write science fiction and erotica. My published novels are:Anatomy of An Adult Film (With Sunset Thomas)1. Second Chance: God Killer2. Second Chance: Sky Pirate3. Second Chance: Scroll Seeker4. Second Chance: King of The Islands5. Second Chance: King of Zaya6. Second Chance: Duke of Averon7. Second Chance: King of Golomon8. Second Chance: King Of The Sky9. Second Chance: Warlord of Ifrequeh10. Second Chance: King of Ariby11. Second Chance: King of Mesodania12. Second Chance: King of Avuls13. Second Chance: King of Kemet14. Second Chance: King of Zorran15. Second Chance: King of Two Worlds16. Second Chance: King of Averon17. Second Chance: King's Duties18. Second Chance: King of The New WorldAdventurer: Simulation ProblemAdventurer: Pannar ProblemA Programmer's GambitAmateur StripperBeach MurdersBondage HouseCorporate Sex SlavesFriday NightGo Naked In The SoftwareGrasshopper WinterInvoluntary NudeLayoffNot A HeroPirates of The KeysSummer of SexThe LakeThe Last Moon DanceThe Nude Adventures of Plain JaneThe Secret Life of Wanda WilsonTails of the Pussycat LoungeTo Keep A JobTopless RestaurantToy WhoresVix: The MarineWayward BoyShort Stories:A Christmas Visit

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Adventurer: Simulator Problem

By R. Richard © 2022

Chapter 1: Comes A SEAL

There are certainly easier ways to make a living than what I do, but the other ways aren’t nearly as much fun. Then again, neither are the easier ways as risky as what I do.

I got into the business of risk after I dropped out of high school, got my GED and fibbed about my age. With the GED and the fib about my age, I initially managed to get into the Coronado SEAL Teams and I worked very hard to keep up with the other guys. I had a little success and a little failure. I was involved in what became a one man operation and I beat the odds to make it a success. However, due to the methods I used, they threw me out of the SEAL Teams, when I got back.

I got a few jobs as a result of a little publicity that leaked out about my first operation. I managed to make the jobs I took on a success, often by using unusual tactics.

I’m now offered a job for more money than I have ever made in my whole life. The job seems easy enough on the surface, but there’s this one little problem. Apparently no one has ever come back from the job alive.

I sit across the desk from Janice. Janice is an old lady of oh, maybe a bit past 30 years old. However, she’s kept herself in shape and she still looks damn good!

Janice looks searchingly at me for few moments and then tells me, James Aquila, we have a reality simulator beyond anything you have ever even imagined. It should allow us to train personnel in a variety of situations, without having to move the people to remote locations. Right now, we only have one training location, a location that seemed ideal for our initial evaluation. However, the people we send into the simulations die.

I ask Janice, Are we talking simulated death or actual death here? I then watch the lady’s face closely as I wait for her answer.

Janice grimaces and then says, "James, a volunteer is strapped onto a sort of table. He’s then hooked up to the reality simulator and sent into a simulation. While the volunteer is in the simulation, he lies blind and deaf on the table and appears to be almost dead. The problem is that the volunteers have been actually dying before they can get back and tell us what happened. We had one volunteer go into a simulated world and then immediately return, for our first test. The entry and exit from the simulation were exactly what we expected and everything seemed fine. When we sent the same volunteer back for a second, longer trial, he actually died before he returned from the simulation. Every subsequent volunteer has also actually died.

I say, Please call me Jim. The volunteers actually died of what?

Janice sighs and says, Jim, we don’t know. They just seem to turn off. There’s nothing wrong with the body, except that it’s dead.

I say, But, the first volunteer did return. So the simulator machine does work and doesn’t just kill the user. I continue to look searchingly at Janice’ face.

Janice looks back and says levelly, We think so. The first user did go into a simulation and then return unharmed. I say he was unharmed, but it goes well beyond that. When the user returned from the first test, we tested the guy for everything known to medical science. There was nothing medically wrong with the guy when he returned. Then we sent him back and he died during the second simulation.

I ask, How long did it take him to die?

Janice says, "The exact time is very classified. However, it was a few minutes. He didn’t die instantly.

I ask, What can you tell me about the one volunteer who did come back?

Janice says, The simulator is located on a Marine base. Like all of the volunteers, he was a Marine. He was 22-years-old, six feet two inches in height, some 206 pounds, muscular and trained to survive in almost any conditions. His vital signs were at the top of the range and he had no known defects or handicaps. The lady then shrugs to indicate that she has no idea what could have killed the Marine.

I nod and say, In a war situation, it’s well known that the Marines go in first. They frequently land on a hostile shore, secure the landing area, set up a perimeter and then lead the rest of the troops, when the other guys land. Do you know how the Marines know where to go once they land?

Janice is obviously a bit puzzled by my question. She says, slowly, Well, I assume they’re told where to go by the command.

I say, No, they’re given orders by the command as to where to land and then, when they land, the Marines follow the markers left by the SEAL Teams. I’m SEAL trained. When do I go in?

Janice sighs and says, Well, we can quit worrying about a lack of confidence. You’re 18 years old, real age, not the two years older from the fib about your age you told the recruiters. You’re six feet six inches in height, 240 pounds of lean muscle and your vital signs are even higher than the one guy, who did come back. You have really not been trained for the simulation that you’ll enter, but you have all of the necessaries. You have a security clearance that’s currently inactive, but I can have it reactivated with a phone call. With that, Janice seems to make a decision and calls someone on the phone and murmurs some information into the phone. Most of the information is my name and Social Security number.

Janice finishes on the phone and then asks, apparently in honest puzzlement, Why are you willing to risk your life to try to discover why the simulation is killing people?

I reply, Some men can do routine work. I’m not one of those men. I’m quick, strong and I’m trained. I can survive in situations where other men might die. If I’m to make a success of my life, I must take some chances. The chance you have been describing is one I need to take to establish myself.

Janice nods and says, Well, you’ll have the same physical skills in the simulation that you have in real life. However, your strength may not help you in the simulation.

I say, From what I have been told before and what you have just told me, I’ll have the same physical skills in the simulation that I have in real life. I’m strong, as you have noted. However, my quickness is more important than my strength. My size and my reach are also very important. I’m larger than most guys and first time opponents tend to underestimate just how close I have to be to effectively strike them. However, most important of all is my mind. I can routinely analyze a situation in a fraction of a second and then make the right move while others are still blinking with befuddlement.

Janice digests what I have just said and then continues, The simulation you enter will find you naked, on a remote island. The island is perhaps seven miles long by two miles wide. A very high volcanic ridge runs down the center of the island for very nearly the seven mile length of the island. The ridge and the area near the base of the ridge are each pretty much covered with small trees. The trees are of only two types and are perhaps two to three feet high. The trees are too small to have anything that would be of any real use as a weapon. There’s a narrow beach pretty much surrounding the island, although there are a few places where the ridge goes directly into the sea, with no beach. There are a few coconut palms on the windward side of the island. What do you do? Now!

I ask, How do I interact with the environment? Can I seem to physically affect items in the simulated environment?

Janice says, From what the man who designed the simulator says, you will seem to be a real person in the simulated environment. You can do anything in the simulation that you could do, if you were actually there.

I say, If I start on the beach, I quickly scan the area for something I can use as a weapon, driftwood or whatever. If I can grab a weapon, I do so. In any case, I then begin to gain altitude as quickly as practical. I need to get up the ridge so that I can see as much as possible. Up on the ridge I’ll also probably find a rock or two, split off from the volcanic ridge, that I might use as a weapon. I’ll also look for anything else that might serve me as a weapon.

Janice says, What of animals on the island?

I say, If it’s an isolated island, there should be nothing that can harm me unless it’s insect based. If the island were inhabited by, say, some sort of fish eating lizards, the first time guy would have seen and noted something like that. He didn’t, so there isn’t a herd of small predators. A large predator really can’t exist on such an island, as there’s nothing for it to eat. Birds would be fishing birds and would not likely bother a man. The main problem might be some sort of insect, particularly if the insect is poisonous. However, there really can’t be too many insects, they would lack enough to eat.

Janice asks, What if the birds do attack?

I say, I lie down and use the little trees as shelter. The birds could still dive on me, but they would get tangled in the trees if they miss. I’m not too worried about the birds. I do have a major worry.

Janice asks, What are you worried about?

I say, If the only man to actually experience the island was there for only a brief few minutes at best, how do you know so much about the island?

Janice nods and says, A very good question. The man who operates the simulation says that the one man who made it back provided the general details and then they did some psychological work to estimate the size of the island from his observations.

(The explanation has more holes in it than a Swiss cheese. Something isn’t right here. The something is very probably behind why the volunteers are dying. The only way I can determine what’s happening is to become a volunteer. I can see the risks, but what the hell, everybody dies sometime.)

I ask Janice, There are other simulations, many of them games. If a person is controlling a game character and the game character dies, does the person also die?

Janice says, Of course not! However, the characters in other simulations aren’t so tightly coupled as in the simulation we’re talking about.

I say, Okay, I go into the simulation. I find out things, perhaps including why the other volunteers died. I then return. How do I return and where do I return to?

Janice says, You appear, in the simulation, on the top of a large, flat rock, on the beach. Apparently the rock has some sort of properties that allow it to serve as the entry and exit point. Once you’re in the simulation, you can leave the rock, but you must then return to the same rock in order to exit the simulation. You don’t have to do anything special to exit the simulation, just return to the rock and stand on it.

I ask, Does it occur to you that the man who controls the simulation might just be behind why the volunteers are dying? I again watch Janice’ face very closely.

Janice says (in a very shocked and suspicious tone of voice,) Why would you think that?

I say, The matter of the volunteers dying seems very strange. The person most directly connected with the matter is the guy running the simulation. There’s no proof, but it might just be suspicious.

Janice says, I can assure you that Doctor Smith is a very well respected professional and you’re way out of line.

I say, Okay, but it’s something you just might keep in mind. (I can see that Doctor Smith is protected politically. However, I’m hoping that I might at least have planted the seeds of doubt in Janice’ mind.)

Janice then produces the contract documents. She says, If you’re willing to take the risks, here are the conditions.

I read the contract carefully. What I’m signing up for is just what Janice has told me. I then sign the papers that commit me to being a volunteer for the simulator. The papers also commit the government to pay me a hefty sum, for being a volunteer.

Once I’m signed up, I go to the Marine base where the simulator is located. I then go though a lengthy sequence of medical and physical tests.

The government wants to be sure I’m healthy, find out exactly how healthy and also baseline my psychological state for post simulation comparison.

My main concern is that there will be a post simulation comparison of my psychological state when I return from the simulation. The key item here is, ‘return from the simulation.’

While they run the various tests, I move into the Marine base. I eat where the Marines eat, I sleep in a Bachelor Officers Quarters (BOQ) and I work out where the Marines work out.

This last may seen as a little strange. The heroes of fiction normally train by doing 12 ounce curls with a beer glass in a bar crawling with sexy women. Instead, I pump iron