/ Ary
It was really weird that Ana picked me and TaeYeon out of the whole room filled with people. Well, whatever it was - just trying it out would not be too bad either way.
Me and that guy walked behind her, as we got into the elevator. Doors closed, she pressed multiple buttons.
"Are you not supposed to just pick one?" - I asked, as I witnessed this sort of messy thing.
"You'll have to remember the code. Both of you. After we get this sorted." - Ana said, as if there's a whole load of things that's about to fall on our backs.
It felt like we were going somewhere for a good few minutes. Which was odd, as typically this thing would make it to any floor within 10-20 seconds. This ride was lengthy. Then it stopped and the doors opened.
We got out, looking as we were out - straight off the bat - large room, well, as far as I could understand - it was a rather large room. Some box-like things stuffed around, like it was a damn storage unit or something. Ana led us inside deeper - there we saw a station that seemed like a building unit for mechanics, or something.
"This? Here? Are you serious?" - TaeYeon sounds greatly surprised.
"Mmmhm." - Ana nods.
"Are you mad?" - TaeYeon spirals into quite a great disbelief, of whatever he discovered quite much right in front of his eyes.
"What is it?" - I chime in.
"This? This?!" - TaeYeon points to the setup. - "That's a goddamn thing that creates damn androids! From scratch! On its own! But wait!" - He gets a bit more dramatic. - "This also can make any type of weapon one can dream of. The hell, Ana?!"
"You two shall be using it for whatever ideas you get." - Ana stated, as she leaned her back against a box with something, pretty sturdy by the looks of it.
"Whatever ideas. You are aware that my ideas range from… Ugh…" - TaeYeon stopped in his tracks, let out a deep sigh. - "Fine. What's the 'great' idea then?"
"You are good at making pretty much anything. Weapons, art, household things. Just whatever is needed, m'kay?" - Then she turned to face me. - "Ary, you've been lately in between the groups, so you have a gist of what they need. Anything you need for your personal plans will suffice as well."
"Why do you think I'll go along with this?" - I asked her.
"Because you're as much of a cunning arse as any others out there. Though you have a more sophisticated approach. I saw that during your outings with Jane through the many floors, or how you managed to befriend Mia, how you dealt with many political shenanigans in the system playing the people, not the system. You play people pretty well. Use that." - She calmly explained.
"What makes you think that I'll use it for good?" - I raised my eyebrow, as I watched her.
"That's up to you. But the thing is, you two are simultaneously the most volatile and the most cunning. Maybe even more than others. But there's one thing you have in common - the will to survive no matter what." - She started to pace around. - "Survival is an acquired skill, as much as it is a drive to prevail no matter what. Some in here tried to bend the people to their cliques, some others thought to use the place to their advantage. You play the long game of 'observe, learn, implement'. You saw the others, you saw me. From the first encounter to now - even if you disagreed with what I did, you still saw the reason and logic behind it."
"Like how you disposed of some 'players' under the guise of them being dead?" - I asked.
"Indeed." - Ana replied. - "What you did not know is that those people were the predators inside the system. Even if their bodies looked like us, simple damn mortals, they used the system to create the most unhinged worlds possible. Rapists, torturers, child molestors. Even if they came here as a more 'sophisticated' lot - they ultimately gave into their desires which had nothing to do with survival. It had all to do with power."
"So, you did the cleanup of a really nasty bunch." - TaeYeon let out. - "Knowing how much I hate these sort of evil bastards, I'm in a way impressed."
"It's not just me sitting at the damn computer system day after day. I checked all the people in the system. Their worlds, their actions in there and behaviours, their way of how they wanted things to be. And some of them only deserved death. Nothing but the end of their existence. I suppose the same should be applied to those god forsaken fucks in the Iron City. Because such levels of horror should not exist in a normal world. I'm saying 'normal', not ideal. Because there is no such thing as 'ideal'." - She looked down on the floor, as she spoke about it all.
"Are you alright after all that?" - I asked, as I watched her. The same expression on her face which I had some really long time ago. The time when I learned of the atrocities in the world of magic, of what some kingdoms pulled off, of other realms and their evil stacked behind the curtain. To look at it and stay sane - that in itself is a monumental amount of strength, work and perseverance.
"I ain't fine at all." - She looked up at us. - "Which is why I need some people who know full well what I am on about. That is why I believe in your discretion, your view of things. You both have seen it too. And in that regard - I can trust you with this work which needs to be done." - She walked over to us both, then took out hands, pulling us to one of the boxes in the corner.
"Ehhh." - She let out, as we stood next to this box. - "Request for Share of Authority." - She called out. The box opened up. It looked like some mold for people to stand in. Like in some odd sci-fi thing. Funky.
"You shall need to step inside, one after the other." - She turned to us, observing.
"I'll go first then." - I say, as I step inside, laying back against the mold, fitting in pretty well.
"Sharing authority with user 9577, Erick Wang." - Ana said, then a needle struck me on the side. - "Don't move." - She placed her hand on my chest, then proceeded to say. - "Authority level 'Artemis' granted."
Another buzz in my head, then the needle came out. I felt woozy for a moment there, sudden shiver, then a bit of sickness, which I tried to hold back.
"No, puke it out." - Ana pulled me swiftly by the collar out, such a force did make me throw up all which was. Ugh, how disgusting it felt. The more disgusting it was seeing what I got out of me - like a bunch of small creepy-crawling maggots. Eww.
"TaeYeon." - Ana called out to him. He stepped in.
"Sharing authority with TaeYeon, principality matter A," - Ana spoke, Taeyeon was struck with a needle from another side, unlike me. - "Authority level 'Artemis' granted."
TaeYeon winced, as he too seemed to be displeased with what it was. Then as he looked to have a gag reflex, the needle came out and right then Ana pulled TaeYeon out to the other side, so that he too would throw up. Also looked like a bunch of itty-bitty maggots.
"What are those?" - I asked, as I stood up, leaning on the side of some box-thing.
"The bots which upheld you. But those also interact with AIO, as well as are used to interfere with the body at times. Your data chips from the side of the brain have also been removed. So you're back to basic human being, so to put." - She answered.
"So we'd be more…?" - TaeYeon let out, as he got up.
"So you'd be more safe from anything that the system, the tech in here tries. But that aside - you're just human. Back to being fucked over by a gun, a toxin, a poison, or a shady fuck with STDs mixed in there." - She smirked.
"So you're the same?" - TaeYeon asked.
"Yeah. This in itself gives you the option to use your fingerprint to access pretty much everywhere in here. And I do mean everywhere. Even outside. Even other floors around here. Freedom to roam." - Ana explains, as she looks at us, then walks over to the other side poking a box. This box opened and a few small robots came out to clean up the floor from the aftereffects of our experience.
"So the others still have those things inside of them, huh?" - TaeYeon asked.
"I did think about taking all of that out for everyone, but I think I'll just leave that to you two to decide." - Ana walked around a bit. - "Maybe taking those out would be a good idea, though, I wonder if there's a bit of interference that runs deeper. AIO has its own goals, after all. I do have the clearance to see partially into the system, though, as it stands - thing gained its own autonomous standing over the years. Learned from the humans in the system, adapted that. Hence the cunning, the emotional pros and cons, the things which it most likely would not allow. It too seems to be driven by survival. Though after some research - I see that it has this interesting 'want' - to experience being human."
TaeYeon also paced about, as he listened. Checking the other boxes, opening them, checking inside, the tech, the purpose of those. I just observed the whole thing, as I kept listening.
"After Adrian escaped the system - I traced him to Feng's Iron City. I don't know why, but he made sure to put into the data he sent the bit about his tech being able to print out a full blown human. With the systems he developed, or rather tampered with existing thing they had, he allowed by accident a small virus to break in." - Ana traced the machinery with her hand. - "To break in, print itself a full-on human body and even input the consciousness into it, with retainment of all the memories. How fascinating."
"Wait, so they can print people?" - TaeYeon looked back from his explorations in our general direction.
"Yes. From what I saw - they can. They DO. And abuse that to the fullest." - Ana replied.
"So if our own AIO wants to be a human, we can just borrow the existing tech from Feng and let it create the body, put itself inside and experience humanity on its own." - I chimed in.
"I thought of it. Yet. If AIO comes to gain the body, with consciousness shifting to a bag of bones, what will be the system that runs the bunker?" - Ana looked at us, awaiting response.
The question sure posed the issue of great merit. IF the system runs off into the body, leaving this place, what is going to run this place?
"Are there any precautions for such an event? Like another thing which will take its place? Or like, is there a possibility to request AIO to make a copy of itself? Oh wait…" - I looked at Ana as it started to come together.
"If the system makes a copy - we'll be left with a heavily dramatic thing which will demand to have our own body in a matter of weeks, due to the envy of the first duplicate leaving. Not to mention - the experiences are not going to be shared, so that might even become a dramatic psycho. If the system creates the damn helper who shall run the thing in its stead - it most likely will use what it has." - TaeYeon leaned on one of the boxes with his back, as he observed us.
"That leads to…" - Ana looks at both of us.
"To utilising the people in the system." - I conclude. - "But then we can alter the system by removing all rotten apples, before requesting the new thing be made. So the new thing will align with our vision."
Ana snaps her fingers, as she nods her head.
"So then removing the people in pods is just part one, isn't it?" - TaeYeon looks at her. - "The next part is to take out and dispose of all that's in the wetware."
"Bingo." - Ana slowly claps.
"But we can't really take out the wetware without the system being triggered by it. Can we?" - TaeYeon seems to think really hard.
"So it's about having an event, which makes the system too preoccupied to notice. Simultaneously a kind of thing which will absolutely leave us here to our own thing for at least a day or two." - I think out loud.
"Ah, yes. But there's one thing which might not click - when the system is off or it's on a 'quest' - the whole lot of wetware and hardware is being on lockdown. So you can't really open them up." - Ana shrugs. - "So that leaves us…"
"With making two things." - TaeYeon mulls over the whole lot. - "We have to make sure that the system goes off for a bit, but do not lock the floor off, yet we have to rid the floor of the pests…" - TaeYeon looks at Ana with a smirk. - "How about we make Jane a part of it? He's good with tech."
"That he is. But where the loyalty lies is another question entirely." - Ana shrugs.
"Leave the loyalty on the side of the road." - I take a breath. - "What would be the event, which would cause the system to skedaddle off for a day or two? Oh wait…" - I raise my eyebrows, as I stare at Ana. - "No fucking way. Iron City?"
Ana nods with a smile.
"Precisely. We manage to persuade Feng to open a channel for AIO to get in, so it creates a body and gets in it. Meanwhile we'll have roughly from 12 hours to 36 hours to pull off the whole 'take out the rotten apples' scheme. Though, for AIO to put a prompt into generating the new AI shall take a prep work of few hours, though execution shall be within anywhere 6-40 hours. Depending on complexity. The making won't be too long, it's the analysis that follows - which will take a bit. Therefore we not only have to get Jane." - Ana presses her lips and lets out a deep sigh.
"It means we have to get everyone. And at the right moment pull them apples all out at once." - TaeYeon grunts. - "Sure, anything as easy as making them all work in unison."
"But we CAN make them all work in unison." - I smirk, as I understand where it's all at. - "We have a situation which enables us to bond over. A difficulty that threatens our survival, a team building exercise which will make it easier to make the rope. Then with victory at hand we get them a new lot and get as much information as possible. Before making sure that Feng gets our note about the crack in the system for AIO to seep in. By then, we might even have a few people from the enemy camp turn to our camp. Hence more people pull off the idea. But then again… That sure is one way about it, but how about just waking up the others?" - I feel as if I'm missing something.
"IF we wake the others - it'll take us over a month to get them accustomed, get them on board and explain the whole shebang. Not to mention - the ones who wake up shall have the issue about thinking back and forth about the system itself. Maybe even succumbing to the idea of returning inside, or after awakening being easily swayed by the cunning of others. You've seen it play out with Niko, there's some that's going on with others as well. The privilege they've had inside and the reality does spring on the issue of the depressive episodes, making them lethargic, not really active and highly susceptible to whatever bullshit the loudest person in the room makes. So, the new people might have the advantage of being more curious, more energetic and well, sly. They want a thing, we want a thing - we can barter. And then it's the negotiations, compromises and cooperation. So the new blood mixed in this sea of nostalgic ghosts would do pretty damn well. I hope." - Ana walks over to the end of the room with the large box - sized somewhere 10 by 10 metres. A large arse box.
A few clicks in - it opens and the box has around 7 android robots inside of it. She pokes the nearest two.
"And those are?" - TaeYeon asks.
"The military grade androids. Very cute, very humanoid, looks like a real person, does it not?" - She turns to us. - "But the key difference is - unlike typical models, these are battle ready demons. Sexy, strong and merciless. And they only answer to the Artemis level Authority holders, when it comes to the big decisions. So, if shit goes to any war level situation, then we three in this room can command them off into battle. They are a walking, talking, highly deceiving gun. Used in the infiltration operations, as well as the bodyguard options way back in the… Anyway, they were bought out by the billionaires to not only guard them, but to also satisfy them sexually. So these toys have the sexy shit pretty well figured out as well." - Ana turns to us. - "Yeah, I was clearly onto something when our robots fucked some of wealthy cunts to death. He-he-he." - She was telling it smiling.
"Well, they went off happy." - I let out, as I partially imagine that scenario.
But surely these androids are absolutely stunning. The body range here is also impressive. Some more large, some more petite. The colours and portrayal - looks like they've captured the rainbow of people in the world, from what time it was back then. Impressive. Eerie.
"Alright." - Ana turned to androids, as they turned on and walked out of the box. - "Elis, Grant, Execute all missions without failure, report to me directly. Obey the requests of Authority holders. Understood?"
"Yes." - Both androids replied to her in sync.
"Good. Now we go back and get on with the lot." - Ana led us back to the elevator. Androids followed.
"So, what exactly is the plan now?" - I asked Ana.
"Hm, You'll have to sort out the living quarters floor in this building. We did some basic ass layout and all, but I'll need you both to make it a more nice setting. Build it to fit like 20 people or so, but comfortably. Then we need to check the wetware - who is the rotten apple. Mark those before we get on with the plan, so we have the ready bit going on. You can rope Jane into it, Sujin and Michael as well…" - She kept on going.
"I want to make them like us, but maybe without authority, yet." - TaeYeon says.
"So you want them to be…" - Ana looks at TaeYeon…
"Yes, I want them - Jane, Sujin and Michael to also be rid of them things that we had. Though, not have the 'Authority'. Is that possible?" - TaeYeon adds.
"Take them to the same floor we just went to. The code you remember, I hope." - Ana looks at TaeYeon pretty seriously.
"I do. But what do I say to the thingy then?" - TaeYeon asks.
"Code of Rule Thanatos - is what you say, once you touch it. It allows for the cleansing, but does not give them the rights. I'll teach you more in upcoming days. Though you're free to access all through the office floor computers in the 'in between' this side and the bunker side. Now simply you touching the keyboard will automatically open new things on the screen." - Ana explained.
"So we get them once we're up?" - TaeYeon asks.
"No, you leave first, go to the med bay. Then I'll take them there. From there on out you'll be the ones to get them to the right place and do the thing." - Ana replied.
"To avoid suspicious activity." - I let out.
"Mhm…" - Ana replies, as the elevator opens and we're walking back into the room with everyone else gathered. Though it looks like some shit storm is brewing.