While Adrian looked for a spot behind the garage to plant the camera, he debated leaving it outside overnight. The heater unit attached to the garage would certainly get warm, but not stay that way. The camera itself wouldn't put out much heat, though a shoebox-like enclosure he could see keeping a bit of the cold out.
The spot he eventually chose, the top of the wood log storage behind the garage, was sturdy and lacking the layer of snow the rest of the backyard had accumulated. Adrian then placed the camera and asked Raven to describe what it could see.
“This One Sees A Lot Of Snow, And Many Trees.”
Adrian then stepped in front of the camera. “Can you hear my voice?”
“Yes.”
“From the camera, right?”
“This One Can Hear Two Sources. The Camera Source Is Delayed By Close To A Second.”
Adrian nodded at that. “Good. Now, I need to put together something to encase the camera. I'm bringing it inside until then.” The shoebox he found for the housing contained a few computer parts that he was no longer using. After moving them to another box with old papers from high school, Adrian went to work measuring where to cut out the hole for the camera.
Emma showed up while he was in the process; he heard her coming via her footsteps on the carpet, and looked towards her when she stopped.
“What-cha doing?” she asked.
“Making something for Raven. So it can do some animal-watching.”
“Can I watch?”
“Yeah, sure.”
Emma then entered the room and sat down on Adrian's bed. The room stayed silent until Raven spoke up. “Does Emma Have An Interest In Animal Watching?”
“When they're in the yard, yeah.”
“How Often Do Animals Visit?”
“Every day. Not sure about around here.”
“I did see and hear some ravens way out in the woods, near the creek.” Adrian replied. “I'll have to leave some bait to draw them close to the camera.”
“What kind?”
“Just about anything. Ravens are omnivores, so meat and seeds will do. Bugs too.”
“Chicken?”
“Yeah, probably, but it has to be raw and we don't have any raw chicken. Just a cut of beef.”
Emma hummed in response and didn't follow up. Adrian soon after was able to dial in the angle of the camera lens to the hole he'd cut in the box's bottom. He then closed the 'back' of the shoebox after standing it up and checked the feed again. The camera had moved a bit, but was otherwise able to see a fair range through the hole.
“Getting there. Just need to pad the box against the cold.”
“The camera has to stay warm?” Emma asked.
“Yeah. Cold temperatures drain batteries and sometimes stop them from working.”
“Even car batteries?”
“Yep. That can happen.” Adrian heard Emma shudder at that. “As for this, some padding inside the box and a bit of tarp over the top should do it.” A short while later, Adrian had the padding he needed, and wrapped the camera as best he could without blocking the lens. Emma kept watch on the feed via his phone as they made their way outside and to the spot Adrian had picked earlier.
Once the box was placed, Adrian gestured for his phone back, and texted Raven. “I think the angle looks good. Will this do?”
Raven waited a short time before responding. “This One Can See Fairly Well Through The Camera.”
Adrian flashed a thumbs-up at that. “Then, we'll set up a tarp for cover and you can watch this feed anytime you want.”
“This One Will Do So. This One Is Very Grateful For The Action.”
“That's nice of it to say.” Emma said.
Adrian nodded in response.

* * *

As the rest of the day passed and night came, Adrian kept an eye on the battery charge. The cold was having some effect; the drain was faster than he thought, though not extreme enough to make him reconsider leaving it outside. The bait he'd placed had also yet to attract what he wanted; so far, Raven had reported seeing birds, but no corvids.
“They're not willing to come that easily,” he said after the second time Raven reported other birds. “It has to be a routine, so they get used to it. Maybe we'll get lucky before I have to head back to campus.”
“This One Has Hope Such Will Happen.”
Not long after, his uncle reminded him of what they'd talked about earlier in the day. Once the game was installed and tested, they showed it off to Emma.
“What's this?” she asked as Adrian set up his character with a face and a skill set.
“This is character creation,” her father replied. “It's basic now, but this was groundbreaking stuff back in the day.”
“How?”
“Because the game is an action-RPG, not an action game with RPG mechanics.” Adrian answered.
“What's the difference?”
“An action-RPG means your skills, like lockpicking and such, matter much more than what you, as a person, can do.”
Emma hummed at that.
“You ever play Skyrim?”
“Yeah. All the time.”
“That's an action game with RPG mechanics. Even if your skill in lockpicking is as low as it can go, you can still unlock master level locks with enough time.”
Emma answered with an extended, “Ooh.”
A short time later, the game's intro cutscene played. Adrian glanced at Emma at certain moments throughout. She showed no hint of expressing much, though when the game began, she said, “I wonder if people like that really exist.”
“I don't doubt that there are people like that,” her father said.
“Yeah, same.” Adrian said as he finished looking over his inventory.
Shortly after, the voice Raven had borrowed for itself sounded from the game's files, prompting a smile from Adrian's uncle, and another exclamation of surprise from Emma.
The AI then chimed in during a dialogue choice. “This One Does Not Have Enough Information To Make An Informed Decision.”
“Then, Emma, which one would you pick?”
“If it's terrorists, then why not just shoot them?”
“You can. If that's what you want, going long range is safest.”
“Okay. The rifle, then.”
“Raven?”
“This One Needs More Information.”
“Then, I'll tell you the last option you are offered you get for free shortly after this. Most new players don't realize that.”
“What Does The Second Option Do?”
“It's a rocket launcher. Good for blowing up sturdy stuff like robots, doors, etc.”
“Such An Option Sounds More Useful.”
“You can destroy doors with that?” Emma asked.
“Almost all of them, yeah.”
“Then, let's use that instead.”
Adrian and his uncle agreed, and for the next while, despite little forward progress, he could tell Emma was finding the game interesting.
“That's one down. Better hide the body.” Adrian said before picking it up.
“That's a lot of effort to allow someone to live.”
“That's why you don't have to take every NPC out. Just enough of them to do what you need without being hurt too much.”
“Have you beaten this level like that before?”
“Yeah, and by knocking every NPC out. Took hours, but there's unique dialogue in-game for doing that.”
“That's not all, though,” his uncle said. “When that main objective is completed, anything you don't find in the level disappears. Ammo, tools, everything, so if you don't explore, you don't get rewarded.”
Emma hummed in response. “I think I've seen all I wanted. It's interesting for sure.”
“This One Desires To View This Game.”
Adrian agreed to let Raven watch; his uncle and Emma stepped out of the room soon after. Once Raven told him it was watching, he resumed playing. With time to spare, he pursued the all-knockout method, grabbing as much loose gear as he could get.
“Do Gunshots Not Alert All Enemies?” Raven asked when Adrian took out a pair of close-by enemies.
“No. The engine this was built on doesn't make sound travel that far.”
“Why Would That Be?”
“AI limitations I think. The other games that used this engine were slower paced and had enemies a lot closer most of the time.”
“Can This One Investigate Program Coding While Adrian Ritter Is Playing?”
“Sure. Just let me know if you make any edits.” Adrian continued to knock out all the hostile NPCs he could find, taking as little damage as he could, and running back to a health station when he needed to. Eventually, the secondary objective was finished, and then the final area cleaned out.
“Adrian Ritter Mentioned Special Dialogue For Playing A Certain Way,” Raven said once the primary objective was completed.
“There's been a few instances up to this point, but we'll see more involved ones in the next map.”
“This One Can See Game Code Redirecting To Certain Audio and Text Files.”
“That's part of it. Can you see the variants as well?”
“Yes. This One Assumes Adrian Ritter Will Inform When Special Dialogue Occurs?”
“Yeah, I will.” Adrian then kept quiet until something he knew he could showcase was coming up. He got Raven's attention before triggering the scene, and pointed out the specific dialogue when it happened. “If I hadn't done that secondary objective before, that guy would've been really annoyed with me.”
“There Is More?”
“In this area? Yeah. At least two more instances.”
“For How Long Does This Game Remember Actions?”
“Permanently, And there's a particular one that happens several maps from now that makes a huge change.” As Adrian continued to explore and complete tasks on the map, he pointed out another instance to Raven. The AI didn't respond that time.
It was when Adrian encountered another NPC that was supposed to say something unique that he got a line of dialogue that didn't match his actions.
“Did you change a variable somewhere?” Adrian asked Raven.
The AI responded after a moment. “Yes. This One Desired To See Other Kinds Of Dialogue That Depend On Logged Variables. Altered Variable Has Been Changed Back.”
“Well, if you want to do that more easily, let me load back at the map's start. Once I do, adjust the variables you found and I'll start interacting.”
“This One Will Do So.”
Adrian then reloaded his last autosave, and waited for Raven to mention a variable had been altered. Once he knew it was, he followed the same route until he heard new dialogue. It was based on him ignoring the secondary objective from the previous map. So that's what it changed. “I haven't heard that in quite a while.”
“Does Adrian Ritter Often Play This Game The Same Way?”
“Depends. I've played it enough to hear most of the unique lines. It's knowing where the story is going that limits my playstyle.”
“Could This One Attempt To Play?”
Adrian thought about it briefly. “Sure, why not?” He then paused the game, saved it, and told Raven, “I'll let you decide how to build the character, and then let you play once the character can move.”
Raven agreed, and the new game was begun. The AI chose a few skill investments similar to Adrian's build, swapped out the handguns skill for rifles, and made a note to increase the computers skill to three as soon as it was able. It then was in the game, to which Adrian sat back and watched.
From the beginning, the AI moved the player character with some confidence; it had difficulty circle straffing smoothly, but it had paid attention to how the player character was able to move. It cleared a route to the central building, taking a few shots in the process, then got its hands on a precision rifle that one of the NPCs was carrying.
Adrian continued to watch as the AI followed a route similar to the one he'd pursued. This time, the AI took a shortcut an NPC mentioned and then got to sniping the hostile patrols from higher ground. It then cleared out part of the main building before achieving the map's secondary objective. What followed was a clean-up of loot aside from the rigged mines and grenades, then a beeline to the top of the building.
“That was pretty good for your first run,” Adrian said as a dialogue sequence with the primary target played out.
Raven waited until it was able to move the player character again before responding. “This One Is Intrigued By This Game. This One Desires To Go Farther.”
“How far?”
“One Map. This One Will Resume Its Own Play Once Adrian Ritter Has Progressed More Than One Map Farther.”
“Okay. I'll see how far I can get tomorrow.”
Raven then continued playing, prompting NPCs several times to hear everything they could say. Once it moved maps, it approached NPCs in a different order than Adrian had, and uncovered an event Adrian had avoided getting, prompting a chuckle when another NPC brought it up.
When Raven reached the same point where Adrian had stopped playing, it saved the game and texted to him. “This One Will Observe Outside Camera Briefly.”

===========================================

With a location chosen for the wildlife camera, Adrian is reminded by his uncle of the game they meant to show Emma.

===========================================

Raven's Voice Lines / 22 = https://1drv.ms/f/c/0cc1a5ef5f1d85ea/Ehinrdp0WtlFnly88oXJKaYBsL2WiR6xDpg7kGYe8yhwqw?e=Dj1BTU