Philo could almost imagine the clear blue sky was not a simulation. That the ancient, cracked roads he and Hamon walked along were not carefully built a few months ago. At least the colorful storefronts looked their age. “Another baguette shop opening? I would have thought that we had enough of them.”
“Hmph, I…” Hamon peered past the shop, to the dead end street beyond. There were a dozen children in red and blue, playing a ball game. “Oh, they shouldn't be playing there. There's something wrong with the server divide in that area.”
As they watched, on of the players ran across the street. As she reached the middle, for a split second there were two of her. The sudden disruption momentarily confused her opponent, who only managed to get in the way of the copy who disappeared.
Philo stared in wonder. “No, I think they are using the network latency as part of their game.”
“That's horrible! Here we are, spending so much time, money, and effort to make the world whole and ideal for the future. We are building a legacy for them, and they are just trampling it! I will call the technicians to fix this server boundary.”
“No, don't. Let them play.”
“It is already done. Let's leave this place.”
As Hamon walked on, Philo hung back.
One of the children in blue threw the ball at the red goal. Suddenly, a red player dove down the center of the field, sliding along the boundary of the servers. He dodged back and forth, preventing the servers from telling each other where he was, and so made the length of the field in less than a second. Just as he caught the ball, the servers tracked him down and updated his position. In a blink, he stood in the center of the field, still holding the ball.
Philo smiled. “I think I like this legacy better.”
