Arthur didn't wait until bedtime to go back to the Simulation suite.
As soon as his mother said he was too tired to do anything but to rest, he went straight to his room. His body was tired, but his mind was buzzing with corrections and adjustments that he needed to deal immediately.
He locked the door, closed the curtains, and quickly entered the virtual world.
He felt the strange feeling of changing between worlds, and then he was standing in the paddock with the Apex Guide already appearing in front of him.
["ARTHUR! WELCOME BACK! I SAW YOUR SESSION TODAY!"] The Guide's voice was loud with its usual enthusiasm.
["REAL-WORLD PROGRESS IS GOOD! NOW LET'S TAKE ALL THAT ROUGH INFORMATION WE GOT AND MAKE IT INTO EXACT DATA!!"]
"I need to work on my braking points. I was late on the brake at least three corners, and my throttle application coming out of Turn 2 was sloppy."
["SLOPPY?"]
["YOUR LAP TIMES WERE EXCEPTIONAL FOR YOUR FIRST REAL SESSION! YOU SHOULD BE CELEBRATING!"]
"Exceptional isn't perfect." Arthur pulled up the track selection interface. "Show me Cadwell Park. Mini-moto configuration."
The paddock area changed into one of Britain's most challenging race tracks. The track was a huge strip of asphalt that followed the hills, going up and down and requiring the rider to be both fully committed and accurate.
["CADWELL PARK! EXCELLENT CHOICE!"] The Guide bounced on his heels.
["THIS TRACK WILL TEACH YOU ABOUT ELEVATION CHANGES AND BLIND ENTRIES! IT'S GOING TO BE FUN!"]
Arthur paid no attention to what the Guide was saying. He then climbed the virtual mini moto that appeared beside him. This bike was different from his real Polini. Better.
Which meant he could push harder here. Learn faster.
He started his first lap with a lot of speed and aggression. The bike's engine made a loud noise through the Coppice turn, and Arthur felt his virtual body lean harder than his real one could manage.
This is too easy, he thought.
"Guide," he called out mid-lap. "Turn off all assistance parameters. I want realistic physics for my actual body weight and strength."
"ARE YOU SURE? THAT WILL MAKE THINGS MORE DIFFICULT FOR YOU!"
"Do it."
The bike instantly felt different. It was heavier and less responsive. Arthur had to struggle with it through the next turn. He kept turning too sharply because the bike was no longer doing exactly what he told it to do.
He ran wide at the Park corner, slowing down and losing tiny amounts of time.
The following lap was even worse. The Mountain part of the track nearly threw him off entirely when the bike slipped, and he wasn't strong enough to catch it properly.
["ARTHUR!"] The Guide showed up next to the track, moving at the same speed with the bike.
["YOU'RE FIGHTING YOURSELF! YOUR MIND IS MAKING PROMISES YOUR BODY CANNOT KEEP!"]
"Then my body needs to get stronger," Arthur said angrily, hitting the brakes late into the Hall Bends and almost crashing the front of the bike.
["YOU NEED TO BE PATIENT!"]
Arthur didn't even respond. He was too focused on trying to force the bike through the Gooseneck turn.
[Lap ten: crashed at Mansfield.]
[Lap fifteen: crashed at the Mountain.]
[Lap twenty-three: crashed at Park after braking far too late for the corner.]
Every time he crashed, the Simulation would take him back to the start line, and each time it happened, Arthur became angrier. This was supposed to be where he had the upper hand. Endless practice. Perfect conditions. No real consequences.
Instead, he was continuously failing at a race track he had ridden on countless times in his past life.
["WHAT IF WE TRY SOMETHING DIFFERENT?!"] The Guide suggested after Arthur's fifth consecutive crash at Charlies.
["ADVANCED BRAKING DRILLS? THROTTLE CONTROL EXERCISES?"]
"No." Arthur put himself back at the start line again. "I'm going to crack this."
[" YOUR DETERMINATION IS GOOD! BUT REFUSING TO CHANGE YOUR MIND WORKS AGAINST YOU!"]
"They are the same thing with different outcomes."
["ALRIGHT THEN. I'M ACTIVATING BOT OPPONENTS. LET'S SEE HOW YOU MANAGE YOUR RACING SKILLS WHEN YOU ARE ALREADY DEALING WITH YOUR OWN PHYSICAL LIMITS."]
Before Arthur could protest, three other mini-motos appeared beside him.
["THESE BOTS ARE PROGRAMMED TO RIDE AT YOUR SKILL LEVEL!"] The Guide announced.
["WHICH MEANS THEY'RE GOING TO PUSH YOU HARD!"]
The lights counted down to green.
Arthur took off from the starting line and he instantly had to fight to keep up. The bot riders were aggressive, defending their positions.
Entering the coppice turn, Arthur tried to quickly turn on the inside of the leading bot. The move was a big risk, probably stupid, but necessary if he wanted to prove he could win.
Then the bot defended, moving to cover the inside line. Arthur had to brake harder to avoid hitting the bot, making him lose speed and moving back to fourth position.
Arthur spent the next three laps studying the bot riders, using his Cognitive Accelerator to process their patterns at speeds his conscious mind couldn't match.
On lap four, Arthur prepared for a move he would never try in the real world. Coming into the Mountain turn, he braked impossibly late, the kind of late that would end in disaster almost every time. His Track Sense sent out warnings about grip levels and weight transfer.
Arthur didn't listen to any of the warnings and went ahead with the move anyway.
The bike almost completely lost control. For a moment, Arthur could see both possible outcomes: the one where he finished the turn smoothly, and the one where he crashed spectacularly.
He made it through the turn.
The bot beside him had braked at the optimal point and lost the position.
["THAT WAS INSANE!"]
["ALSO UNREPEATABLE IN REAL LIFE!"]
"Not yet," Arthur said in a low voice, already planning how to build the strength and accuracy to pull off moves like that when it was a real race.
He finished the lap in second place, only behind the lead bot that had avoided the chaos behind it. Not good enough. Second place was just first loser.
During the next lap, Arthur tried something even more aggressive. He faked a move to the inside going into the Park turn, got the AI to defend, then moved back to the outside line at the last possible moment. The bot hesitated, as it couldn't figure out the unusual move fast enough.
Arthur quickly drove past the bot and took the first position.
That's more like it.
But holding the lead meant he needed to ride perfect laps, and Arthur's body was still his biggest limitation. He held the lead for only two more turns before the lead bot caught him while braking at Mansfield. The bot made a very late braking move that Arthur was unable to defend.
The race ended with Arthur finishing in third place. He was behind two bot opponents who had raced flawlessly, while he had to fight against his own limits every time he took a turn.
The Simulation reset to the paddock area. Arthur stood there breathing hard, even though his real body hadn't moved from his bed.
["THIRD PLACE!"] The Guide announced.
["AGAINST BOTS PROGRAMMED TO MATCH YOUR SKILL LEVEL! THAT'S ACTUALLY QUITE GOOD!"]
"Third place is losing," Arthur said.
["THIRD PLACE IS LEARNING!"] The Guide responded, his enthusiastic tone changing to show something more serious.
["Arthur, you are just six years old. Your body is still developing. Your strength, your reach, your reaction times... all these things are restricted by your physical body, not by your ability. You cannot expect to win every battle at this moment."]
"Then what's the point of all this?" Arthur asked, his voice showing ow frustrated he was. "What's the point of having all this knowledge, all these advantages, if I'm still losing to bots?"
The Guide was quiet for a moment. When he spoke again, his voice was at a normal volume.
["The point is that you are building foundations. Every lap you ride, every mistake you make, your body is learning. Slowly, yes, but it is learning. In a few years, when your strength and size catch up to your knowledge, nothing will be able to stop you. But only if you don't burn yourself out trying to rush the development phase."]
Arthur wanted to argue. He wanted to say that waiting was the same thing as giving up, that patience was just another word for weakness.
But a small part of him, the part that had died with regrets about pushing too hard and fast, whispered that maybe the Guide had a point.
"Fine," he said. "What drills do you recommend?"
["THERE'S THE SPIRIT!"] The enthusiasm clicked back into place.
["LET'S WORK ON BRAKE MODULATION! IT'S ONE AREA WHERE FINESSE MATTERS MORE THAN STRENGTH!"]
The paddock area changed into a braking zone exercise, complete with markers and timing checkpoints. Arthur got ready for what he knew would be hours of doing the same simple drills.
But as he worked through the exercises, he noticed something unexpected. His thoughts became calm. The continuous flow of toxic self-criticism faded. There was something almost meditative about the practice.
Maybe this was what Ellie meant about him looking miserable while riding. He'd been so focused on winning, on proving himself, that he had forgotten racing could be more than just a battle against his own limitations.
Not that he would ever say that out loud. Or even admit it to himself, really.
Two hours later in the Simulation, only about twenty minutes had passed in the real world. Arthur's brake modulation scores had improved by fifteen percent, and his Cognitive Accelerator had recorded hundreds of small changes in technique that his body would slowly learn to do.
["EXCELLENT SESSION!"] The Guide announced as Arthur prepared to log out.
["YOUR DEDICATION IS IMPRESSIVE! JUST REMEMBER: THE TORTOISE BEAT THE HARE FOR A REASON!"]
"The tortoise also died of old age before anyone remembered its name," Arthur shot back at the Guide. "The hare at least took risks."
["AND CRASHED AS A RESULT!"] The Guide smiled in a wild way.
[" YOU NEED BALANCE, ARTHUR. YOU NEED AGGRESSION AND PATIENCE IN EQUAL MEASURE. THAT'S HOW LEGENDS ARE MADE."]
Arthur logged out without responding, returning to his dark bedroom where his body was exactly as tired as it was before. He lay there for a moment, processing everything he learned.
Ellie believed he wasn't having fun. The Guide thought he needed to be patience. His parents thought he was some kind of genius.
They were all wrong. Or maybe all right. Arthur couldn't tell anymore.
What he did know was that third place against bot opponents wasn't acceptable. That his six-year-old body was a prison he couldn't escape yet and every day he spent waiting for his body to grow felt like time stolen from his second chance.
But he also knew that crashing in the Simulation hurt less than crashing in real life would. That maybe the Guide's boring advice about patience had some point. That winning by destroying yourself wasn't winning at all.
He had learned that lesson once before, in a hospital bed, dying from injuries he got while pushing too hard in a career that went nowhere.
Arthur closed his eyes and tried to remember what it felt like to enjoy riding just because he liked it, not as a way to get what he wanted. The memory was there, weak and far away, from the time before racing turned into a need to prove something.
He wasn't able reach it.
Maybe that was fine. Maybe enjoyment was overrated anyway. What truly mattered was results and winning. Everything else was just noise.
Arthur fell asleep still trying to convince himself he believed that.