Simulacrum (Literature)

Literature / Simulacrum

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In the endless darkness
Roam endless monsters
Pain, cold, flame
Age, time, death
Torment

Light and shadow
Holy and hell

The inevitable fate of the Universe
Will never touch
The courage of the Inspired
And the power of the Transcendi

— Simulacrum (the game)

Simulacrum: A Post-Singularity Story is a science fiction/fantasy story of post-human transformation. It revolves around the Games, which are entire simulated universe in which players can play in in order to practice self improvement by unlocking the full power of their brain cores. Bad things often happen and with surprising alarmity, but it all turns out well in the end.

A short list of Tropes in this work.

The Singularity: It takes place in directly the post-Singularity though for mundane people, it seems like it does not. That illusion of normality quickly falls apart once the true capacity of the brain cores is comprehended. This work is not about mundane people looking at the Singularity from the outside.
Transhuman: Subverted. The Inspired (and especially the Transcendi) are true post-humans.
Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Only if a failed modification does not destroy them outright. All it takes is a restore to a previous save point done by the other selves to undo it.
Values Dissonance: The entire work is based on this trope. It very much challenges the reader's openess of mind. There is a reason the Inspired call self improvement necromancy.

Brain Uploading: Each protagonist does this, it is a prerequisite to self improvement as brain cores have so many advantages. Souls do not exist in this universe, though even if it did that would not have stopped them.
Ax-Crazy: All protagonists sometimes. Though especially Armatia.
Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness: Science In Genre Only. The way nanotechnology works in this story is nearly miraculous. And the Transcendi do learn how to hack the universe eventually.
Training from Hell: Necromutation is Transcendence.
Inside a Computer System: True reality does exist. Though sometimes the characters have difficulty telling them apart to disastrous consequences. There is nothing the Transcendi cannot fix however.