Chapter 116 - Improvement

Gray sent Caleb a message with an invite link to the private room Kelly and himself were in.

"What's up Gray?" Caleb asked.

"Need your opinion on something..."

"Regarding?"

"Caleb, what do you know of cloning technology?"

"Officially, cloning is banned for purposes of creating a complete person, but it is still used widely to grow replacement organs and for gene therapy in a highly regulated lab environment... That and whenever they've made a complete human, nothing happened, it was a lifeless doll. Research into cloning is actually what made our own physical bodies possible."

"What do you mean by that?" Kelly asked.

"We were all raised in a virtual environment without a physical body, but now we have one... they couldn't just let them grow in a vat over all of these years so they had to construct one for us."

"Ah, so that is why the character creation wasn't as extreme as other games." Gray said in realization.

"Yes, I imagine most of us just went with what our perceived physical appearance was, and notice that your appearance changed in the virtual world to match what it became in the real world over time?"

"Huh, and here I thought I just got a six pack back in the virtual world because I stopped eating like a slob..."

"Gray, did you get fat?!?" Kelly said surprised.

"Shhh, I blame it on Mountain Dew, the nectar of the gods! I haven't had one since we last went to town."

"You know you can get it added to the Diamond-Tier rec room, right?"

Gray slapped his own forehead "Well, I do now! But... maybe it is for the best that I forget about it... Back on topic though! So are you saying it is impossible for someone to make a clone of themselves and then move themselves into that body?"

"Yes, it is almost impossible with what we know, but remember, I am not an expert, Dr. Sara Watts and Edward Teach would know better, and I suspect that we don't want to ask Edward Teach."

"Certainly there should be more neural scientists and doctors than those two, right?" Gray said.

"Amazingly not really, the population of the world has dropped dramatically since the last war and might've been lowered further had it continued. Officially, Terra Research and Development was the only legally sanctioned cloning provider."

"Well, how can we get in touch with Dr. Sara Watts?" Gray asked.

Both Kelly and Caleb laughed at Gray's question, Kelly finally stopped laughing and said, "She may now only be an AI, but she is still a celebrity and it is impossible to get in touch with her without being able to provide a very very legitimate reason."

Gray figured that made sense, then he remembered the video of her at the company picnic, "You don't supposed nostalgia would be a legitimate reason, do you?"

"No, but that would be up to her, still, getting in touch with her might be difficult anyways as it's not like we can just send her or an assistant of hers a message, and even if we could they would probably ignore it."

Gray smiled and said, "I actually know someone who has worked with her before, I'll message him tonight!"

"We can see how that goes then. Also, you suddenly ask me about cloning and then nothing, what is this about?" Caleb asked

"Edward Teach and Stephen Seegall. Kelly and I both thought that Stephen Seegall might be a clone of Edward Teach and if so that would make all of the pieces fit!"

Caleb furrowed his brow in thought, "Indeed, that would make everything fit, but that doesn't explain the reason for marrying Yurika."

"Oh yeah, forgot about that..." Gray said while scratching the back of his head.

"Well, let's see if your friend comes through Gray, the tournament is in a week and we need to work on our coordination!" Kelly said.

"Agreed, who holds a tournament on a Monday though, seriously..." Gray said dejectedly.

"War doesn't take weekends or holidays, day of the week doesn't matter." Caleb said seriously.

"I know that! I'm just saying that a lot of players might miss it because of that."

"I suspect the military did that intentionally, they may consider themselves superior to players, but they would still prefer as little competition as possible." Kelly suggested.

"Agreed, so Caleb, want to stick around for our brainstorming session or do you think a free for all among everyone else would help loosen things up?"

"I don't think a free for all is wise, but maybe a few team matches made for fun rather than winning or losing?" Caleb suggested to Gray.

"That does sound better, yeah, having fun together will encourage teamwork more than trying to ram it down their throats. Setup a Capture the Flag match or something else where you can respawn, pick random teams and have fun. I don't want to see our 7 versus Kelly's 7 so mix it up!"

"As you wish sir!" Caleb said to Gray while saluting, then he left the room to go pass on the orders to everyone else.

"You guys have a good team, if I hadn't known the girls I'm with since the academy then we wouldn't be nearly as close as you guys are."

"Well, it helps that we're all gamers for the most part so we're easy going and trust people like us easily."

"True, but remember this isn't a game, and the fact that all of them stuck with you after revealing the truth shows that you are capable in their eyes."

"Eh, I'm not really, but let's let them keep thinking that."

Kelly laughed and said "Your secret is safe with me! Shall we finally get this started? I kinda want to join everyone in the objective games, we never get to do those in the military so let's not take too long!"

"Yeah, me too, I enjoy casual objective games like those more than just straight up killing!"

Gray and Kelly finally started nitpicking their own teams and each other's teams based upon the previous game footage and what they knew of their own teams from other matches. While it is good to pick out the strengths of everyone, they also made sure to point out glaring weaknesses.

Gray focused the camera on Paul and Jono when they were closing in for the attack as Kelly's team was moving towards the quicksand.

"See Paul get in front of Jono like that? He is naturally inclined to protect others, but he is also blocking Jono's shot as well." Gray said analytically.

"Yeah, but if he has a shield and that can be shot over it would prove advantageous in some cases."

"Yes, that's why he normally has one, I had him drop it for our match because the terrain and weather combined made it more disadvantageous to have one."

"Good idea" Kelly rewinded the match playback and focused on Caitlyn when she was shooting at Xyra and Caleb. "Caitlyn is emotional, but a good shot. She also doesn't use every system available to her, had she paid attention to the drones sensor feed she would've seen that one of your mechs was still able to fire at them instead of assuming she got both of them."

"Drones?" Gray asked.

"Yes, spider drones, that's why we didn't have a scout. We can deploy drones that are about the size of a cat that are basically just walking sensors but are too small to be picked up usually. Had the terrain been different they would've easily been detected."

"Any other weaknesses of these drones?"

Kelly thought about it for a moment, "Only an hour of charge, not as fast as a mech at full speed. The airborne drones are a little better, but they are easy to spot."

"Makes sense, so what other toys can we expect from the military?"

"I am not sure, I only have clearance to use up to current generation technology, some have access to prototypes and I suspect that this tournament would be a good spot to debut them if they want to win people over."

"True, but remember, just because it is a prototype doesn't mean it is better. Just cause it looks good on paper doesn't mean it is good."

Kelly nodded her head "Agreed, but still, they could have some nasty surprises. They'll probably give them to our flagship teams, Kyam is the vice captain of one of those teams."

"That a-hole? I thought he would've been relegated to cleaning toilets or something!"

Kelly rolled her eyes, "He isn't an a-hole, he just... is terrible at expressing himself clearly. As often as he used to talk about you we thought he might've been gay!"

A chill ran down Gray's spine thinking about that, "N-nothing wrong if he is that way, but he should know I'm straight!"

"He is straight! He just really... let's stop talking about it, no need to get off topic again! Why do you always do that?"

"Do what?"

"You know what Gray! Why do you always change the subject!"

"I don't do it intentionally, my mind just kinda wanders a lot... but now you're doing it!"

"Oh my god you're rubbing off on me already!" Kelly looked genuinely horrified.

"You make that sound like a bad thing!"

"It is! I was trying to be your counterpart and make up for your lack of focus, your ability to overthink everything, and your fear of failure!"

"Oh? So does that mean I make up for your overconfidence, inability to see the big picture, and unwillingness to share the burden?"

"I see you still remember how I was like... I hope it has improved somewhat!"

"It has! Have I improved?"

"Not in the least..." Kelly said with a smile.