Reality Hack Read Online Free PDF

Exceptional Circumstances Unit. You’ve already met Detective Inspector Kellog. We come under the Specialist Crime and Operations Directorate, but you won’t find us listed, so don’t bother looking. We don’t, officially, exist. You are sitting in our base of operations, affectionately known as the Rabbit Hole for obvious reasons.’
    She paused and looked across the desk at Nisa, maybe expecting a response. Nisa decided she should give one. ‘I’m guessing that you deal with supernatural issues. It makes sense that you’d be… covert.’
    Hanson favoured her with a slight smile. ‘Norbery said you were smart. He’s our forensics technician. He and Sandra are civilian employees. We have one other member you haven’t met, and that is XC. All of it. And we do deal with supernatural issues, and you present us with such an issue.’
    This time Nisa decided to remain silent.
    ‘Allow me to lay this out for you then,’ Hanson went on. ‘You are, potentially, quite a powerful magician. Left to your own devices, you could be no end of trouble.’
    ‘Why? I don’t see what the problem is. I mean, it’s amazing, wonderful, but I don’t see why it’s dangerous…’
    Hanson stared at her for a second and then said, ‘Your first choice then. This one is not irrevocable. Are you sure that you want to hear this?’
    ‘Yes,’ Nisa replied without hesitation, but a couple of second thoughts.
    ‘All right, here is what we know . The world around you, that which we call reality, is not real. It began around five thousand, seven hundred years ago, and everything before that is faked. It is a simulation, software. You, me, and everyone else are programs executing on some kind of computer within a simulated world.’
    Nisa gave her a half-smile. ‘Is this where you offer me a red pill and a blue pill and ask me to choose?’
    ‘No. There is no outside. Or rather, there must be, but you don’t have a body there being used to generate power. Ridiculous concept anyway. We’re software. We don’t know why, and we have no idea what purpose The System serves. Maybe it’s some sort of experiment, or some way of preserving what humanity was, or a game. We know this is not the first iteration of The System, however. There have been others, failures we assume, but whoever built this thing didn’t scrub all the old code, and like any software there are… defects.’
    ‘Bugs and Glitches,’ Nisa said.
    ‘Exactly. Magic is one of those defects, in a way. It’s… an access violation issue. Programs can sometimes access aspects of The System they shouldn’t, allowing them to violate the rules. This is a simulation, not reality. The physical laws, like gravity, are programmed elements of the software, not some inescapable law of nature. But The System doesn’t like that kind of thing. When it happens too much, or the Bugs become too noticeable, The System reacts. Usually the effect seems natural. Disease outbreaks, accidents, people die and the world keeps going. If it gets too bad, you get more drastic measures. The Great Fire of London was probably one of those. Some people suspect the Black Death was.’
    Nisa suddenly felt very cold. ‘And if it gets really bad… You said the earlier iterations were failures.’
    Hanson gave her a nod. ‘I see you’ve got the hang of it. You’re taking this very well.’
    ‘I’ll probably have a nervous breakdown later. You said you knew this stuff. How?’
    ‘The System has… agents. They take various forms and when they turn up it’s usually very bad , but occasionally they just talk. Putting together bits and pieces from throughout history and across the world… We’ve had five thousand years to work out what we can, and what we’ve worked out is that we need to keep a lid on this or The System will decide it needs to start with something new.’
    ‘Keep a lid on it…’ Nisa said slowly. ‘That’s where I come in.’
    ‘That, as you say, is where you come in. I can