Chapter — Overclocked
General Voss trained Torin personally.
This was unfortunate for Torin.
The first week involved running.
The second involved being hit.
The third involved discovering that Voss considered running while being hit a perfectly reasonable compromise.
But before any of that, Voss had needed to answer a considerably more important question.
What exactly was Torin doing?
On the first morning, Voss stood opposite him in an empty training chamber.
"Hit me."
Torin frowned. "You're a General."
"Excellent observation."
"You'll win."
"Second excellent observation."
Torin sighed and raised his fists.
He attacked.
Voss hit him once in the stomach.
Torin folded.
Voss waited.
Torin slowly stood again, wheezing.
Voss struck him a second time.
Torin stumbled backward.
Then something changed.
The pain remained.
The injury remained.
But Torin straightened.
Voss's eyes narrowed.
"Again."
Torin stared at him. "You seem unusually enthusiastic about hitting me."
"Again."
Torin attacked.
Voss struck his ribs.
Torin felt the impact.
Felt the damage.
Felt his body begin the chain of reactions that should have followed it.
Pain.
Loss of balance.
Muscular inhibition.
Shock.
His body made a decision.
Torin disagreed.
Not consciously.
Something inside him simply pushed the consequence somewhere else.
Later.
Torin remained standing.
Voss smiled.
"There."
Torin looked confused. "There what?"
"Your technique."
"I have a technique?"
"You've apparently been using one for years."
Torin looked genuinely offended.
"Nobody told me."
"Your body attempted several times."
Voss pointed toward his ribs.
"You kept ignoring it."
Torin looked down.
"What am I doing?"
Voss walked toward the display.
"Every event produces consequences. Normally those consequences remain causally attached to the event that produced them."
A diagram appeared.
IMPACT
↓
TISSUE DAMAGE
↓
PAIN
↓
PERFORMANCE LOSS
↓
SHOCK
Voss separated the sequence.
"You're not eliminating consequences."
The final three stages moved away from the first.
"You're postponing when selected consequences are permitted to resolve."
Torin stared.
Voss continued, "The injury still exists. If your ribs break, they're broken. But the pain doesn't necessarily have to arrive immediately. Neither does shock. Neither does the corresponding reduction in performance."
Torin looked impressed.
"So I can ignore damage?"
"No."
Torin's enthusiasm immediately disappeared.
Voss continued, "You can make damage wait to collect its debt."
"Oh."
"Which is considerably more dangerous."
"Oh."
Voss folded his arms.
"Consequence Deferral. That's what we'll call it."
Torin looked at the diagram.
"So when Kaosu hit me..."
"You should have stopped functioning."
Torin became considerably less cheerful.
Voss continued, "You didn't."
"Why?"
Voss shrugged.
"Apparently your body had somewhere to be."
Torin laughed.
Voss didn't.
He brought up another display.
"There's something else you need to understand before we train it."
A collection of technique classifications appeared.
Voss pointed toward one.
MODIFIER TECHNIQUES
"Modifier techniques aren't usually attacks themselves. They alter another technique's properties—duration, range, efficiency, priority, output, conditions."
Torin nodded.
"And they're difficult?"
"Extremely."
Another term appeared.
OVERCLOCK
Voss continued, "Overclock is one of the rarest advanced modifier techniques. It forces another technique beyond its naturally accessible output."
A percentage appeared.
100% — THEORETICAL NATURAL COMPLETION
Torin asked, "So Overclock means going past one hundred?"
Voss actually laughed.
"No."
Torin frowned.
Voss changed the display.
STANDARD USER: 0–20%
TRAINED MODIFIER USER: 20–50%
ADVANCED: 50–75%
ELITE: 75–90%
90%+: EXTREME MASTERY
Torin stared at it.
Voss explained, "People misunderstand the percentage. One hundred percent doesn't mean ordinary maximum effort. It means the complete theoretical expression of the technique."
He tapped 90%.
"Getting this close is already monstrous."
Torin pointed at one hundred.
"Has anyone reached that?"
"Yes."
"And beyond it?"
Voss looked at him.
"That's where the word Overclock earns its name."
Torin's expression brightened.
"Can you teach me?"
Voss replied, "First I'd like you to survive thirty percent."
Torin's first attempt reached seven percent.
He looked at Voss.
"Good?"
"No."
His second reached eleven.
His fifth reached sixteen.
By the end of the week:
21%
Perfectly ordinary.
Torin hated that.
By the second week:
29%
Then:
37%
Voss began paying attention.
Torin remained physically unimpressive.
His Binary Energy manipulation remained embarrassingly primitive.
His speed was below Corps standard.
His strength was still below Corps standard.
His weapon scores were so mediocre that Voss eventually stopped bringing them up for morale reasons.
But modifier techniques?
Torin understood them.
Not intellectually.
Instinctively.
Consequences already felt negotiable to him.
So changing the rules governing his own technique came strangely naturally.
After another month:
54%
Voss stared at the number.
Torin lay on the ground.
"Did I do good?"
"Don't speak."
Torin stopped.
Voss examined the data again.
Fifty-four percent.
Already advanced.
Far too quickly.
And then Voss discovered the problem.
Torin wasn't merely Overclocking Consequence Deferral.
He was beginning to use Consequence Deferral on the consequences of Overclocking.
Voss turned.
"Torin."
Torin looked up.
"Yes?"
"Explain what you just did."
"I Overclocked."
"I know."
Torin thought.
"Then it started hurting."
"Yes."
"So I delayed that."
Voss stared at him.
Torin continued.
"Then I could Overclock longer."
Silence.
Voss walked toward him.
"And what happens when delaying that consequence strains Consequence Deferral?"
Torin thought harder.
"I delay that too?"
Voss closed his eyes.
There it was.
A recursive modifier loop.
An extremely stupid one.
Which unfortunately meant it might work.
Voss opened his eyes.
"Do not do that again without me."
Torin smiled. "So it worked?"
"That's not what I said."
"But—"
"Torin."
"Right."
By the end of the second month, Torin crossed 70%.
Then 81%.
Voss stopped treating the sessions casually.
At 87%, Torin remained conscious.
At 89%, blood ran from his nose.
Then, during one test—
90.03%
The training chamber went silent.
Torin dropped onto his back.
Voss stared at the display.
Torin weakly raised one hand.
"Elite?"
Voss looked down at him.
"Barely."
Torin smiled.
"I'll take it."
"Don't."
"Why?"
"Because now you're going to want ninety-one."
Torin considered this.
"Yes."
"I hate predictable students."