Data Dragon Danika

Neither of the original plants were as magically active as the grasping aspens that ZipZing had dealt with. She even had a few snapdragons in her own garden that Shrubbery had given her seeds for, and they seemed like ordinary flowers. But the resulting plant when the two species were combined produced crying dragon heads.

Danika could see why it had been reported, it was kind of disturbing. The dragon heads didn"t only weep either, they also emitted an eerie wail.

After thinking for a bit she sent a question to Devon Yu. She reminded herself sternly that the Director of Design Integration, or as it would be written in "Living Jade Empire" terms: the honorable celestial servant of the sixth cla.s.s, Devon Yu, first among his rank, serving the Jade Emperor in the construction of the Living Jade Empire; had reminded her to keep asking questions.

While she waited she decided that the sound they were making was the only intolerable thing about the strangely active plants. Thinking about what kind of sound they might make instead made her recall Aishin telling her about VR applications that would let you play any instrument.

Her celestial dragon a.s.sistant had wandered off, or faded out, as it tended to when she left it idle, so she summoned it back. "What instruments are available, and can any of them magically play themselves?"

"Any instrument can be enchanted to play a particular tune. There are over three hundred different types of currently constructed instruments within the Empire, would you like me to list them all?" her dragon asked helpfully.

"Wow," Danika marveled. "Er, no, can you show me the most common five and tell me which of the others might make a snapping noise?"

Her a.s.sistant conjured a harp, a flute, a zhuiqin (a two stringed lute with a bow), a gong, and a drum. Then it listed a number of kinds of percussive instruments that it thought might make sounds that could be described as snapping. Danika was again impressed by its AI.

When she asked later for plants that weren"t half species that made sounds, the dragon offered a variety of plants that apparently had exploding seeds with pods that would pop open to fire the seed away from the plant. Other plants that were referred to as snap or snapping besides the snapdragons included peas, beans, and a variety of carnivorous plants.

She asked for a half snapdragon, half flytrap plant out of curiosity. The system produced a fairly predictable plant with little dragon heads that snapped at insects.

Devon Yu commented cheerfully, "Those are cute, what"s the problem?"

Danika jumped and spun to face him. After a moment she collected herself enough to have her a.s.sistant bring back the weeping dragon plants.

Devon winced at their eerie wailing and examined them for a moment. "Oh, I see, they are willow hybrids. All the half willow tree crosses do really weird or amazing things when the system generates them."

"Why?" Danika asked.

"The base willows have real world data to restrict them into being ordinary trees, but willows feature in tons of stories and legends as cursed, transformed, or magical," Devon explained.

After he said that Danika could even think of a few legends that mentioned willows off of the top of her head. "The question is, should I alter them? They are pretty loud and creepy, but if magical willow crosses are a normal result then they aren"t actually incongruent?"

Devon grimaced at the weeping dragon plants and then shrugged. "I"d probably at least tweak them to either wail only when disturbed or to sob quietly," he suggested.

"I could do both," Danika agreed. "I can make them so they only cry when disturbed and the extremity of it increases with the amount they are troubled."

"Sounds good," Devon agreed. "So do the underlying changes to NPC response patterns and the way quests could then be distributed as an overlay that Lin Hao told me you suggested. You"re doing great."

Danika blinked and asked, "Overlay? He was saying I suggested a modular design, is that the same thing?"

"Kind of?" Devon replied. He described what Lin Hao had laid out to him that morning.

"Wow," Danika exclaimed. "That sounds a lot more integrated into the NPC response patterns. No wonder he said I was asking him to change the fundamental structure of NPCs. But he said that he was going to sleep and that I wouldn"t hear back for a couple of days?"

Devon chuckled and told her with amus.e.m.e.nt, "He probably thought of a better way to a.s.semble it and started on it as soon as he woke up. I gave him my approval and we"re going to apply to the first division to make the change this afternoon."

"The change won"t happen this afternoon will it?" Danika questioned uncertainly.

Devon laughed at her, and his strangely mixed green-brown eyes sparkled. "No, of course not. Even if we get permission it will still take at least a week for the changes to be debugged and the best of the seventh to go over Lin Hao"s work before it can be implemented."

"A week is still ridiculously fast," Danika replied fervently. "This idea is more of a major expansion than the actual expansion isn"t it?"

"It is," Devon agreed with a wicked grin. "And it may effectively put some of the seventh out of a job, because the system will take over a great deal of future quest implementations. But I"m only guessing, there might be even more for them to do if it doesn"t work out as smoothly as Lin Hao and I expect."

Danika regarded him with such wide eyes that he chuckled again and patted her shoulder. "Don"t worry about it. Just keep on as you"ve begun."

After he left, Danika made the changes to the "Weeping Dragon" plants. Or rather, as Devon had just pointed out, requested the system to alter them to her specifications. When she finished she sent it off for approval.

That evening she ate dinner, did her exercises, and bathed before logging in to "Living Jade Empire". It was only the second day of the new "routine" but she thought that it would work out.

Two days later she realized that "Living Jade Empire" wasn"t just tracking her search history and her social media. It was also watching her at work.