The City: PuzzleLocked Book 1

Alastair woke in a boat making its way toward an island. He skipped the cut scene and skipped to the manacles puzzle.

Your rage increased by 1.

As soon as he was free, he checked every pocket. His toga-like shirtdress had two surprising hidden pockets. He dug through the pockets, exploring if he still had the memory cube. Ah, maybe. He dug deep inside where he noticed a heavier weight. He worked it out of his pocket, carefully avoiding shifting any of the cube faces.

This time taller and more filled with giant muscles, Flor met him as he dug the cube out of his pocket. He held it up to her. “This! This feels like progress!” He offered her the cube, but she declined, so he put it back in his pocket.

“I’m still upset with you. Are you over your pettiness with Horace?”

“Oh, I had forgotten about that. I was so focused on the cube. I…yes, I think I’m over the pettiness. I’m not trying to sabotage us getting out of here. And yes, I realize that antagonizing our friends probably hinders our eventual escape. So, yes. I apologize. I’ll be more considerate.”

The rain fell around them while Flor considered his words. “Fine. Just remember that having a positive disposition helps us. If we’re stuck here forever, these people will be our friends. If we could escape, they’re likely to help us.”

“You’re right. I’ll not let my anger at former employers affect how we play this game. Now, maybe more pressingly, should we go directly to find Mida?”

“No, let’s eat, and I’m considering that we should earn money in case things go awry.”

A little over two hours later, Alastair and Flor showed their badges to the scribe at the university entrance, who accepted them with a wave. Both of them had been surprised to find that those items were persistent and wanted to speculate on it later, preferably with Mida.

Since they had no idea how to return to Mida’s closet, they asked a dozen scribes along the way. After thirty minutes of getting lost, they finally knocked at Mida’s door.

Mida looked furious as she opened the door. Alastair started at the fury, especially since she had been chipper the night before. Oh, she’s probably not realizing her cube is gone!

“Hi, Mida. I’m Alastair, and this is Flor. You gave us your memory cube last night.” He dug into his pocket and handed it out to her. Mida’s eyes grew wide. She snatched the cube and slammed the door.

“That went swimmingly. Should we wait or see if the cafeteria has coffee?” said Flor.

“Let’s see about coffee. Even if the cube placates her, I expect it’ll be a while before she calms down.”

They found the cafeteria with the assistance of several questions. For a coin between the two of them, they were presented with the first, notably terrible, coffee they had drank in a week. But they savored it, nonetheless.

“I’ve been wondering. Do you think her notes are persistent, even though her memory isn’t? Like, how does that work from a programming perspective, even?” Alastair asked Flor.

“It is curious. You remember I told you about variables, however long ago?”

“Yeah, the basic stuff.”

“Indeed. So, assume there are variables for the introductory state of things on the island. But those variables have to have an initial value stored in them. Every time that something changes, the variable stores the new value. So, perhaps things like NPC disposition and their notes are variables. But, even though the day counter doesn’t roll to plus one, the value in the variable remains what it was at the end of the previous game day. Hence, Mida’s notes would show what she wrote yesterday.”

“Why doesn’t it affect everything? Like those knives we looted from the thugs after combat?”

“Maybe the NPCs are programmed to follow the same rhythm each day. Persistent memory NPCs may start each day roughly where and how they ended, but to save game memory, the drones start in the same position with the same loadout each game day.”

“I’ve no basis to dispute that. Sure. I believe it makes as much sense as anything else here.”

“That’s not a bad theory.” Alastair looked around. Mida was walking up to them. “I’m sorry about my reaction earlier. I had significant notes but no memory cube, so it was almost as if I wrote the notes with no basis in truth. I still need to review them again, but after I decoded the cube, I realized I might be missing an opportunity if you took my reaction poorly.”

“There is no need to apologize. You anticipated it might happen last night, so we figured it would be worthwhile to wait you out.”

“Let me get a cup of coffee and a refill for both of you, then we’ll go to my office. Do you mind if I take a bit to thoroughly review the notes and fill in any plot holes that might appear?”

Alastair shrugged while Flor said, “Easy enough.”

Ten minutes later, Mida was reading through the notes. She asked questions for clarification but otherwise had little to comment upon.

“So, what now?” Flor asked.

“Can you give me a few minutes to think things through? I have some ideas, but they’re immature and I don’t like thinking through them out loud.”

“Sure. Before you do, and I hope this isn’t insensitive, but do you mind if I play around with your memory cube? I solved something like that once before,” Alastair asked.

“What do you mean by ‘solve’ it?”

“Well…there is a puzzle on Earth that is like a memory cube, but the goal is to match all colors on a side so they match. Once they are matched, it’s solved. I realize you’d have to reset your cube again later, but I’m a bit fidgety right now and want something to do with my hands.”

“That’s interesting. But rude,” said Mida.

“Yeah, Alastair. What are you thinking?”

“I just…sorry. I’ll just knead my hands or something.”

Mida huffed, then started looking at her notes again.

Flor leaned over and whispered, “Did you forget what we discussed earlier this morning? How are you the one who is so concerned about getting out of here but you’re so clueless about dealing with people? What’s happening in you, Alastair?”

“I don’t know. Maybe that we’re stuck in the same day seemingly forever?!”

“Be that as it may, stop being a jerk.”

Mida looked up from her notes. “I have a crazy idea. Do you want to hear it?”