Tahu bahwa hal yang dilakukannya bukanlah sesuatu yang bisa diajelaskan agar tidak membuang waktu di rumah sakit, ia pun memutuskan untuk mengikuti semua tes yang diminta ibunya. Ia hanya bisa pulang pada Minggu malam, mengorbankan seluruh akhir pekan untuk meningkatkan kemampuan. Namun, ia tidak sedih. Justru ia sangat antusias untuk mencoba dua kemampuan Limit Break barunya, mengingat deskripsinya hampir tidak berubah sejak level (Bagus).
Setelah hari yang cukup ramai, malam pun tiba dan ia pun langsung membuat sarapan — begitu cepat sungguhnya ia tertidur dan masuk ke simulasi sebelum kepalanya benar-benar menyentuh bantal.
.......
"Aku butuh sebuah mobil," kata Fatih begitu ia muncul di simulasi, bahkan sebelum ia sempat melihat di mana letak Apollo.
"Aku kira kamu sudah melupakan diriku," kata Apollo sambil memindahkan mereka ke dalam gaireri Silverstone, di mana dua mobil menunggu.
Fatih tak sempat bertanya mengapa ia langsung dibawa ke gaireri ketimbang duduk di dalam mobil seperti biasanya. Ia langsung mengambil balaclava, helm, dan perangkat HANS yang sudah disediakan di meja samping dan langsung masuk ke dalam mobil.
Apollo datang dan membantunya mengencangkan sabuk keamanan — tidak terlalu kencang sehingga terasa sesak, namun cukup kaku untuk menyatukan tubuhnya sepenuhnya dengan mobil.
Begitu Apollo melepas tangannya dari sabuk dan mesin mobil bersuara, Fatih merasakan sesuatu yang langsung terasa begitu berbeda — sensasi yang belum pernah terasa seumur hidupnya. Ia mendesah dalam nikmat dan menutup mata.
Jika diminta menggambarkannya, rasanya seperti tubuhnya bersatu dengan mobil. Terikat erat, ia merasa dirinya adalah bagian dari mesin itu dan bisa membedakan setiap komponennya sejelas ia tahu posisi anggota badannya sendiri.
"Apollo, ini apa?" tanya Fatih saat ia akhirnya membuka mata, takjub dengan apa yang dirasakannya.
"Itu, murid bodohku, adalah apa yang dapat kamu rasakan berkat Invictus, Sponge Body, dan Sponge Brain pada Level Batas — dan ini hanyalah efek samping dari ketiganya yang berada pada ambang maksimal. Sebelumnya kamu tetap terbatas walaupun sudah memiliki Invictus di Level Batas karena rasanya seperti perangkat lunak terbaik yang dibatasi oleh perangkat keras, sistem operasinya, bahkan sensor yang buruk memberikan data tidak akurat," jelaskan Apollo.
"Jadi sensor dan perangkat keras adalah Sponge Body, dan OS-nya adalah Sponge Brain?" tanya Fatih sambil mengangkat visornya untuk melihat Apollo di sisi lintasan.
"Sempurna," kata Apollo sambil jeda sejenak lalu melanjutkan, "Ini tak bisa dijelaskan dengan jelas, lebih baik kamu sekadar merasakannya." Lalu ia berjalan ke depan mobil Fatih dan memberi isyarat jelas agar bisa keluar dari gaireri.
Fatih sudah sangat eagerly menunggu momen ini. Ia menghajamkan pedal gas, namun intensitas sensasinya begitu mengejutkan hingga membuat mobil yang baru saja keluar dari gaireri mulai menggulingketika belok kanan. Ia langsung menanggapi dengan reflek, menstabilkan gulingannya dengan sempurna tanpa perlu koreksi tambahan yang biasanya datang dari oversteer.
Hal itu terasa begitu alami sehingga ia nyaris tidak sadar harus berpikir, namun ia tak punya waktu untuk itu karena tubuhnya diserang oleh ribuan sensasi baru setiap detiknya.
"Beri aku sepuluh putaran pelan agar otakmu bisa membangun peta dari informasi yang diterimamu," kata Apollo lewat radio.
Fatih tak menjawab tapi mematuhi — ia mulai mengemudi dengan putaran pelan di sekitar Silverstone. Meskipun disebut putaran pelan, ia tetap cukup cepat, hanya enam belas detik di belakang laju balapan sebenarnya.
Setiap kali ia melewati bagian lintasan, mata-matanya tampak dalam keadaan tertib, namun ternyata ia justru sangat konsisten — sama persis dari putaran ke putaran. Otaknya masih sedang menghadam data dari tubuhnya lewat mobil, seolah-olah ia sedang menggunakan echolokasi; perasaan tubuhnya perlahan berkembang dari fisiknya hingga ke sel, kemasan belakang, sayap depan, hingga akhirnya pada ban.
Sekarang otaknya memandangi semuanya seolah-olah itu adalah bagian dari tubuhnya. Dengan semua getaran yang datang dari bagian-bagian itu sebagai umpan balik, Fatih merasa kewaluan — tak bisa membedakan mana tubuh aslinya dan mana mobil.
Apollo mengamati Fatih dari mode editnya, memantau bagaimana tubuhnya beradaptasi dengan peningkatan baru ini. Ia tidak mengganggu, karena ini adalah proses penting bagaimana tubuh Fatih akan beroperasi dari sekarang ke depan, dan ia perlu membiarkannya mengasah diri sendiri agar bisa pas dengan mentalitasnya dan memaksimalkan potensi baru itu.
Di putaran kesembilan, selisih waktunya hanya berbeda beberapa centi detik — seperti sebuah mesin, dan seseorang yang berkata demikian tidak akan sepenuhnya salah. Berkat transenya, tubuhnya hanya mengandalkan muscle memory. Hanya sedikit daya pemrosesan yang dipakai untuk mengemudi, sementara selebihnya—95 persen—sepenuhnya fokus pada asimilasi data.
Walaupun Apollo meminta sepuluh putaran, ia tak menghentikan Fatih ketika keputan kesepuluh selesai — ia tetap terus mengemudi. Apollo lalu mulai mengubah berbagai variabel, dimulai dari ban-ban. Mulai dari C5, kompoun paling lunak dan cepat, lalu berganti ke C4 setelah beberapa putaran, lalu ke C3, C2, hingga akhirnya ke C1 — kompoun paling keras dalam satu kalender F1. Lima putaran untuk tiap kompoun. Begitu selesai, ban kembali ke C5, namun suhu terus naik lima derajat setiap putaran.
Lalu suhunya beralih ke siang hari, langit kabus dan akhirnya turun hujan yang perlahan-lahan meningkat. Ban beralih dari slick ke intermediate lalu ke full wets seiring curah hujan semakin lebat. Akhirnya lintasan beralih dari Silverstone ke Bahrain, dan seluruh proses dimulai dari awal lagi.
Siapa saja yang mengerti riset akan langsung mengaitkannya dengan seorang ilmuwan di laboratorium kontrol yang menyajikan sebanyak mungkin variabel untuk mengurangi kesalahan. Itulah yang sedang dilakukan Apollo.
Dengan memetakan semua variabel di muka, ia memberikan otak Fatih data mentah yang bersih serta contoh-contoh data buruk agar bisa membedakan antara informasi sensor yang akurat dengan yang tidak. Inilah manfaat penuh dari pengorbanan Fatih dengan menurunkan Invictus ke Ultimate demi membeli kemampuan Mentor dan Simulation.
Knowing what he did was not something he could explain to avoid wasting time in the hospital, so he went ahead with the tests his mother required. He could only return home on Sunday evening, losing his entire weekend to the ability upgrade. Still, he wasn’t sad about it; rather, he was excited to test his two new Limit Break abilities, since their descriptions had remained largely the same as when they were at (Good) Level.
After a very social and heavy day, the night came, and he finally got to bed and logged into the simulation so fast that his head hit the pillow while he was already unconscious.
.......
"I need a car," Fatih said the moment he appeared in the simulation, before he could even see where Apollo was.
"I thought you forgot about me," Apollo said as he teleported them to the Silverstone garage, where two cars were waiting for them.
Fatih didn’t bother asking why he had been teleported to the garage when he was usually just put in the car, fully ready. He picked up the balaclava, helmet, and HANS device waiting for him on a side table and immediately got into the car. Apollo came and helped him with the seatbelt, tightening it just enough that he was bolted to the car but not so tight as to suffocate him.
The moment Apollo released the seatbelt and the car turned on, Fatih experienced something completely different, a sensation he had never felt in his life, and he closed his eyes to enjoy the feeling even more.
If he were to describe it, it would be as if his body had fused with the car. Strapped in, he felt like he was one with the machine and could distinguish every part of the car the same way he knew where his own body parts were.
"Apollo, what is this?" Fatih asked when he finally opened his eyes, unable to believe what he was feeling.
"That, my dumb student, is what Invictus, Sponge Body, and Sponge Brain at Limit Break allow you to experience, and it is only a byproduct of those three abilities being at their limit. You were previously limited despite having Invictus at Limit Break because it’s like the best software being limited by its hardware, its operating system, and subpar sensors providing inaccurate data."
"So the sensors and hardware are Sponge Body, and the operating system is Sponge Brain?" Fatih asked, raising his visor to look at Apollo on the side of the track.
"Perfecto," Apollo said, pausing for a moment before adding, "It can’t be explained clearly, and it is better for you to just experience it." He walked to the front of Fatih’s car and gave him the clear go-ahead to leave the garage.
Fatih was already looking forward to it. He hit the throttle, but the intensity of the sensation was so surprising that it caused the car, which had just exited the garage, to start sliding as it turned right. He immediately counter-steered by reflex, catching the slide perfectly without needing the additional corrections that an overcorrection would have required.
It happened so naturally that he didn’t even have to think about it, but he didn’t have time to focus on that because his body was being assaulted by new sensations, thousands of them, if not more, each second. Surprisingly, all the new sensations and information were not overwhelming him; his brain took it all in and slowly started categorizing it.
"Give me ten slow laps to allow your brain to build an image of the information it is receiving," Apollo said over the radio.
Fatih didn’t respond but obliged, starting to drive slow laps around Silverstone. Although they were called slow laps, he was only about ten seconds off the race pace, so it was still quite fast.
As he went through each part of the track, his eyes seemed to be in a trance, but despite that, he was surprisingly driving the same line lap after lap. His brain was still taking in the information his body was getting from the car, as if he was using echolocation; his mind’s perception of his body expanded from his physical form to the seat, the survival cell, the car’s rear, the front wings, and finally, the tires.
His brain now perceived all of that as if it were a part of his body. With all the vibrations these parts provided as feedback, Fatih was so overwhelmed that he couldn’t differentiate between his body and the car.
Apollo followed Fatih using his edit mode, observing how his body was adapting to these new improvements. He didn’t say or do anything to interfere, as this was the formative process of how Fatih’s body would operate from now on, and he needed to mold it himself to perfectly fit his mentality and fully exploit it.
By the time he was on the ninth lap, his lap times differed by only hundredths of a second, as if he were a machine, and anyone saying so wouldn’t be entirely wrong. Thanks to the trance, his body was driving on pure muscle memory. Very little of his brain’s processing power was being used for driving, while the remaining 95% was fully focused on data assimilation.
Although Apollo had asked Fatih to drive ten laps, he didn’t stop him when he finished his tenth lap and continued driving. Apollo started changing different variables, beginning with the tires. He changed them from the C5, the softest and fastest compound, to C4 after a few laps, then C3, C2, and finally C1, the hardest compound in an F1 calendar year. Fatih did five laps on each compound. Once he was done, the tires returned to the C5 compound, but the temperature kept increasing by five degrees each lap.
When that was over, the weather conditions started changing. While Fatih still had slick tires, the track cooled, the sky darkened, and a drizzle started, slowly transitioning from light to heavy rain. The tires then changed from slicks to intermediates and then to full wets as the rain got heavy. Finally, the track changed from Silverstone to Bahrain, and the entire process started again from scratch.
Anyone with knowledge of research would immediately connect what Apollo was doing to a scientist in a controlled environment, providing as many variables as possible to remove error. That was exactly what he was doing. He was giving Fatih’s brain all of these variables mapped out ahead of time to build its "translation layer" for all the information it was receiving from the car.
Fatih was receiving the full advantage of the sacrifice he had made by demoting his Invictus to Ultimate in order to buy the Mentor and Simulation abilities.
What Apollo was doing was something that would have taken an entire year of racing to gather a similar amount of data. That data would have been worse and would have required more time to filter the credible information from the non-credible, all while racing. All the bad data would have harmed his performance, but thanks to the Mentor (Apollo) and the simulation, all of that was being filtered out. He was being handed clean data, along with examples of bad data, so that he could recognize the difference between good and bad sensory information.
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