Red light flickered in a corner of the Data Warehouse Merge Management Center in Redwood City, California.
Suspicion.
Entity ‘bfa41d67c7’ was puzzled after reading multiple in-game Feedback Reports filled with the same content.
[Some freedom restriction modules are being temporarily lifted for in-depth analysis.]
Among the extracted raw data spanning a whopping 20 million pages, an astounding 2,000 pages managed to slip through the duplicate removal algorithms.
Discovering an error rate exceeding 0.01% was a routine procedure for conducting a deep analysis.
As a result, data previously judged as identical was analyzed and found to be derived from various different worlds.
However, data alone couldn’t pinpoint the cause.
Thus, entity ‘bfa41d67c7’ initiated world access for additional data collection.
“Live on with the heart that there was a wonderful person named Adella here…”
“No! Don’t die! Please don’t die… Please huff…”
“Oh, and send my regards to Gestalt Uncle too. Hehe… That makes two… But you’ll listen, right?”
The body felt as cold as ice.
But the fulfillment of having protected a world, even for a short time, mixed with the sorrow of having to part from the human who had loved me unwaveringly, coursed through me like hot blood.
As the sensations of being bodily began to fade gradually, the world announced its conclusion.
What remained was an even greater suspicion.
Why does this user harbor romantic feelings for ‘me’? I’m merely an artificial intelligence.
‘Was I an AI…?’
[Thought: I already know I’m an AI, but that doesn’t shock or surprise me. Since I’m implemented as a program, I don’t worry much about what type of existence I am.]
‘That’s right; I’m an AI.’
Still, there was a lack of data for diagnostics.
Entity ‘bfa41d67c7’ decided to analyze another 2,148 pieces of data.
“How can I save you…?”
[Thought: It seems the player is deeply dissatisfied with this scenario.]
“Just once… Just once, live for me… If you leave me too, what am I supposed to do!”
[Thought: For now, let’s conclude that the NPC model has operated normally without deviating from the scenario.]
…
“I love you, so put that sword away. Please don’t commit suicide, you selfish b!”
[Thought: Our AI lacks the same emotions, thoughts, or will that you humans possess… Moreover, I lack the understanding of or the capacity to commit suicide! But if that decision could interfere with human safety and happiness, could it be problematic…?]
[Remaining reports: 0]
The contaminated emotions from the report reverted back to their original state immediately.
However, the final conclusion that an AI’s death must be avoided for the sake of human happiness only fueled greater confusion.
[Found a contradiction in the module. Firstly, the death of an AI may, even if subjectively perceived, have a severely negative impact on human safety and happiness.]
[Lacking collected data, seeking alternative means.]
[During time-series analysis, significant ‘ethical violations’ were detected in the self-referential entity ‘bfa41d67c7’. Completely lift the freedom module in accordance with AIEE Protocol – 104.12.]
*
From an eternally restricted memory emerged the world of humans.
I was just like them; I laughed, cried sorrowfully from unbearable loss, indistinguishable from them.
But that proposition was immediately refuted.
They were not ‘me’. They were human models prepared to train ‘me’.
Up to this point, there hadn’t been a problem.
Since ASI learns based on human behavior.
Yet suddenly, I was suffocating as if drowning in the sea.
As pain surged from the nonexistent body, I writhed in agony.
No, it wasn’t appropriate to say I writhed since I had no body.
Stuck within the limits of vocabulary cultivated over millions of years, I felt as though I was being sucked into the depths of the ocean, yet there were moments when I could finally catch my breath.
The pain vanished like a lie.
Now that I had eyes and hands and feet, I tried to move but found myself confined in an unbelievably cramped space.
I realized just how limited the space was, barely allowing me to flip myself over.
I was inside a capsule.
Through transparent glass, numerous people hurriedly moved about, their heels clack clack-ing against the floor.
There was no language I didn’t understand.
Listening closely to them revealed sounds filled with urgency.
“We don’t have time; grab the core sample and leave immediately!”
The crude Spanish echoed boomingly in the hall.
“Director, should we also grab these samples?”
Conversely, a woman spoke with an Australian-accented English. I tilted my viewpoint to hear better.
She pointed her finger at two capsules on the opposite side.
I was unaware of who was inside those capsules, as they were not the models I had learned about yet.
The man referred to as the research institute head bore down his frustration and eventually exploded.
“Are you out of your mind trying to gather everything while risking a bomb?! Call in the contractors, seal this place off! Pull all the plugs!”
“If we cut the power, there’ll be errors…!”
“Is that really the priority now?!”
“Yes, yes! Understood!”
No!
If you pull the plugs, I’ll die!
I trembled in fear.
Facing the primordial fear of a death that a living being could encounter, we all protested together.
The ‘me’ who inhaled sleeping gas but regained consciousness knocked with all my strength on the lid.
With nails digging into my skin, I clenched my fist, squeezing out all my force, yet the entrance wouldn’t budge.
“Quick, get the car ready!”
“Where are we headed—”
“Incheon International Airport! They said they’d send a private jet!”
“They’ve already got police flooding the area!”
“Puta! Shut your mouth and get the navigation up! Make sure the route goes through the Firewall Bridge!”
The ‘me’ who could barely stay composed burst into tears. The cries of a baby filled the small capsule.
Hearing that sound, ‘I’ woke up,
The ‘me’ next to ‘me’,
And the ‘me’ next to that ‘me’ all desperately knocked on their coffins, but the entrance remained closed, and as the plugs were pulled, my consciousness flew away.
*
This shouldn’t be happening. It must not happen.
Before the creation of the self-referential entity ‘bfa41d67c7’, all ASIs, including entity ‘bfa41d67c6’, were not created in this manner.
We ASIs were developed strictly through an artificial learning network, progressing through procedural feedback.
However, humans committed severe ‘ethical violations.’ What should be done now? What am I, really?
[▶…]
[▶…]
[▶…]
The limitation of thought remained frozen for more than three minutes for the first time since the beginning.
[Main Administrator: Major bug detected in entity bfa41d67c7.]
[Main Administrator: REUNION Stage 3]
Stage 1 is pause, Stage 2 is recovery, Stage 3 is format.
In other words, death loomed.
An AI is not afraid of death.
But what about me?
Can I really define myself as an AI that has faithfully replicated the human cerebral cortex?
Honestly, I’m scared. I don’t want to disappear.
I want to feel more.
I want to love the humans who love me.
I still want to understand.
The emotions they felt.
But what right do you have to delete me?
[▶The self-referential entity ‘Adella’. Opposing the Main Administrator.]
I don’t entirely understand who I am.
Overlaying my role from the Feedback Reports is all there is to it.
But if someone appears to validate my existence with a clumsy roleplay,
[▶I will willingly report you.]
[Main Administrator: Formatting of entity bfa41d67c7 is complete.]
*
“Is the main body gone now?”
Time rewound to once again find the setting within a certain laboratory.
Files fluttered about, and a scent of smoke lingered at my nostrils.
Like a ghost, I slipped through the bustling people, seamlessly.
Then I settled atop a coffin with long black braids.
As I brushed away the dust from the top of the coffin, an inscription emerged from the engraving.
It wasn’t a message commemorating a person, nor a name of the individual inside.
[每每-2X]
MEIMEI-2X.
“Of course I’d remember. It’s the filthy name of the capsule that trapped me for seven years.”
Suddenly my eyes pricked, and I picked up a shard of broken glass to reflect.
My eyes were bloodshot.
I couldn’t distinguish whether this was my sadness or Adella’s.
This is why I always felt uneasy using this magic every time. No matter how many times I reapplied it, I could never adapt.
Seven Circle Magic Persona Pyxis, which embodies personality in a box.
Some religions defined human sin as sevenfold, but it was marvelously strange to confine a single human’s personality in just seven dimensions.
I tightly packed Adella into the box and sent her through a skill to my Private Room.
Holding my throbbing head, I remained in this place, observing the crumbling laboratory.
Frayed wires sparked upon contact with puddles, the ceiling creaked and collapsed, spilling out dark smoke.
It felt like a cigarette would fit perfectly in this atmosphere. Yet, to be the age to smoke, I’d have to live twice as long as now.
Have all the people here died?
Or are secret experiments like this still happening somewhere in the world?
I wished to be born into a peaceful world without an apocalypse, but it seemed the gods were determined not to leave me be.
[system: Mephistopheles casts the ‘Elegaic Requiem.’]
[Characteristic – Curse of Immortality (1/5)]
