The Outlaw (Phantom Server: Book #2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

translucent pictogram, then focused on the second figure.
    This image exuded warmth. It flowed, distorting, like a mirage born of a heat haze. It didn't have a face. My attempt to zoom in on it in order to add detail had the opposite effect: the blurred figure shrank into the darkness, fearing our merging as if begging me silently, please don't .
    Fire and Ice.
    Two opposite feelings burned my mind; crumpled my soul.
    These were only chains of artificial neurons that, as chance would have it, had been braided into my nervous system.
    This wasn't how I'd imagined my first contact with ancient AIs! Had Avatroid indeed been right and every implanted neuronet soaked up its host's emotions, thoughts and urges?
    “Liori?” the bitter whisper fell from my lips, the one word summing up everything that we hadn't said — everything that we'd feared and failed to say to each other.
    My phantom twin smirked with disgust.
    No, I hadn't been mistaken. For a brief moment the familiar features came into focus — the little flames in her eyes, flickering and expiring.
    “Zander, I'm dead. This is only my ghost dwelling in your mind. I'm sorry. Very soon it'll be gone, too. I will dissolve in your identity... forever...”
    Her image rippled into a haze of tiny ash-like particles which transformed into the symbols of the Founders' language and whirled toward me in a blast of scorching wind.
     
    * * *
     
    The interior of the module swam before my eyes. Messages started popping up just below the icons of my mental interface,
     
    Test activation: complete
    You have received nanites activation code.
    Three new command sequences available: Replication, Steel Mist, Object Replication.
     
    New ability received: Replication. Your nanites are now able to increase in numbers, forming a fully functional colony. The self-replication of nanites requires a source of energy and a suitable material with at least 10% cargonite content.
     
    New ability received: Steel Mist. The nanites will generate a false signature, concealing you from detection systems at a ratio of 1 to 5 (that is to say, a level-2 Steel Mist can protect you from level-10 detection systems, etc.)
     
    New ability received: Object Replication. The nanites can generate stable molecular bonds, recreating particular items or devices provided their data is available.
     
    New task alert! Reincarnation.
    You have made direct contact with the Founders' neuronet modules. You must make a choice. Allow them access to your mind expander or block them forever.
    Decision deadline: 24 hours.
     
    Oh, great. At least they gave me twenty-four hours to make up my mind! All these mind games had already started to get on my nerves, adding the bitter note of irreparable loss to my desperate curiosity for what was awaiting me next.
    Trying to suppress the gnawing thoughts, I opened the Mnemotechnics tab and entered the nanites activation code.
    The pain subsided — it now lurked deeper, a dull ache in my chest. The unusual sensations nagged at me. I found it annoying. Game worlds always have space for outbursts of emotion, we're only human after all, but I'd never had it this bad — frustration slicing through my heart, plunging me into the depths of desperate grief.
    She couldn't have died! She must have respawned somewhere — I wish I knew where, but still...
    I cut the thought short. The activation code worked. Immediately the nanites seeped out, forming a tiny cloud that stayed in my field of vision wherever I looked.
    Right. First of all I needed to replicate them. The thought helped to distract me from the sudden upsurge of emotion.
    The procedure seemed pretty straightforward. I just hoped the entire process had been automated enough not to require any specialist knowledge on my part. I focused on the icon, activating it.
     
    To create a molecular mist, you need the initial material and a source of energy. Please specify an unneeded object suitable for utilization.
     
    Ah! That was a