39 The Crane’s Nest

Bourgys’ Oasis.

Near Lake Tolowa. Outside the City-state of Crescent Moon.

A young man in his late teens was seen wandering on empty streets. It seemed that he was looking for something.

This young man had white hair, pale skin, and blue eyes. His hair had blue strands that seemed to glow every so often.

‘This explains what this poor guy was doing here. The crash happened not too far from here.’

Eren remembered the crash that had resulted in him having a second lease on life. The crash site was not very far from where he was standing.

‘What’s done is done. Thinking about my past won’t help me now.’

Eren said to himself as he looked at the spectral screen only he could see. The geotag on the map he had accessed through his spectral screen had a glitch it seemed. It was jumping across various places in the vicinity.

The previous Eren had come here to look for someone named Bruce Lee. he didn’t know who this person was. But it seemed that Eren had given him too much importance in his notes.

It was an artificial construct, he had called it.

Eren had realized that the previous Eren had come to find out the truth about how Oshos were created. His side projects had made him aware of a lot of things he wasn’t supposed to know.

Eren still had difficulty remembering everything related to this segment of memories from the previous owner of this body. However, he realized that the person he was seeking had not been created using those white flames.

The digital construct was artificially created using memories and events described and recorded via various means. These memories were then given a human-like ego by Axela the ASI (Artificial Super Intelligence). Eren had used a backdoor search method to find out about this unique construct.

There was also the magical part at play here. It was just that the original Eren could not get access to the information related to that part when he was researching the topic. His reach and capabilities as a non-ranker were severely limited.

According to Eren’s memories, this digital construct contained refined knowledge about the bygone era’s martial arts. It had stored within itself the teachings and experiences related to Judo, Karate, Kung Fu, Muay Thai, Taekwondo, Wushu, and Mixed Martial Arts.

The ASI had compiled the experiences of a range of martial experts from different schools and different backgrounds. Then it chose to create a digital construct containing all these experiences.

Lastly, Axela gave it an AI-driven ego that was based on Bruce Lee’s personality and his experiences. The previous Eren had found footnotes when he was reading the source script of the digital construct. The footnotes explained what had been done to create an Osho named Bruce Lee.

The unknown creator of these artificial constructs was a super genius. One couldn’t know what methods he had used to combine the martial arts and weapons techniques humans of bygone eras knew. Or how did he create the ego of Bruce Lee. Least to say, the previous Eren was impressed.

Eren had come across clues about the creator while researching Oasis. The young man had found the creator’s digital signature hidden inside many backdoor scripts injected into Oasis, which were still working. That’s how he found out about Bruce Lee.

Eren wondered if this Bruce person really existed in the past and how different he would be from his digital construct. He also needed to figure out how he was able to digest his experiences.

If this digital construct was half as capable as the previous Eren had thought him to be, then interacting with this Bruce Lee guy was akin to playing with fire even when the construct was supposed to be a mortal. He might beat Eren for the silliest of excuses. At least that’s what Eren thought of him.

Eren had decided to come here to accelerate his personal growth. He had also come here to forget about the exhaustion his real body was in. He didn’t want to experience that in Oasis too.

‘Hm? The geo-tag has stayed stable at this location?

Eren found out that the geotag script that the previous Eren had come up with after studying Bourgys’ Oasis had gotten stable. Eren had a high chance of finding the digital construct he was looking for here.

***

Cumberland Road. The Crane’s Nest.

That’s what Eren read on the board hanging over the gates of a small white house. It had white perimeter walls. There was a one-story house waiting for its guests to arrive some 8 meters away from the gates.

The Cumberland road had slightly different structures of houses and shops than the rest of the visual settings available in Crescent City. If the normal city’s cultures were city-like, the constructions on the Cumberland road belonged to the countryside of the past.

And rightly so. Because Eren had found out that Cumberland Road didn’t exist in Cresent city outside Oasis. That meant this part of the region had been altered to accommodate the location near Lake Tolowa.

Eren could get inside the Crane’s Nest just fine. That’s because it was also running a mini restaurant in its courtyard. There were no patrons though. Eren didn’t find it strange. Some Oshos in Oasis were famous. While others stayed away from the chaos, living their normal meta life.

“Oh, a guest? That’s a rare find in my humble abode. How may I help you, young man?”

Eren was startled when an Asian man in what looked to be in his late 30s sneaked up on him without his awareness. Eren didn’t think that sneaking up on him was his intention. Since he had been in tune with his surroundings, they had allowed his existence to blend with them. A perfect calm. A perfect storm.

Eren gulped as he stared into that Asian man’s intense eyes. He didn’t make him feel threatened. But his instincts as a hustler were telling him that this Osho could make him cry like a little girl.

“Are you, sir Bruce?”

Eren asked the Asian man who was a bit shorter than him with trepidation. Then he criticized himself for being so scared of an Osho who was only a digital construct. An emotion-based program based on a personality that may or may not has existed in the past.

“Yes, I am Bruce Lee. Were you looking for me?”

Bruce narrowed his eyes and watched the white-haired young man with keen interest. He saw the latter finally snap out of something before replying to him confidently.

“Yes. I heard that you make some really excellent Dan Dan noodles. Is your shop open?”

Eren said while looking around him. There were a bunch of small round dining tables with three chairs assigned to each of them in the courtyard. There were canopies provided for each of the dining tables, making it comfortable for the guests to eat even in the blazing sun.

The time in Oasis was around 5 PM when Eren arrived here. No sun. No guests. No noise. Just a calm evening with a calm evening breeze that carried the freshness of Lake Tolowa with it.

Bruce chuckled before bowing a bit in front of Eren and welcoming him to take a seat. Eren observed the digital construct he wanted to digest with keen interest as well. He knew a conversation with this guy was going to be a unique experience.