The rest of the test was spent with newfound determination. With this new information gained, Adam was able to count down on the remaining floors. They started at seven hundred and twenty. By the end, they had walked the first four hundred clean.

It had been a hard battle the last time. Troy had wanted in on the remaining count. The AI had had nothing against this, as data was meant to be shared in the first place, but it was later reflected on as a mistake entirely.

Knowing how many floors needed to be climbed worked like a drug on the young man. Initially, the two had agreed on the man being allowed to skip on break so that they could keep up the pace. By the end, two breaks out of four had been taken, the last hour being done without pause.

Adam had been unsure of how to discourage the man from doing a task quickly when they were on a time-constraint. Troy had given the argument of being able to heal while they had a break between the tests, which would give no reason to be slow on the last stretch. The AI was not capable of firing back with anything conclusive to stop the speed from increasing and was left to watch as the man continued up the stairs.

Of course, there were a few times when the AI didn't get anything out of it. Even if the man was slightly out of breath from the higher pace, there was still air left to talk about whatever he wanted. It was that stubborn determination again.

Adam would have criticised it, if not for the effect of slowing the man down a bit. Those legs of his were close to giving out by the end. It was of course not one the level of previous fights with those stairs, the breaks having a positive effect, in the end, no matter what. Adam at least had the pleasure of seeing the man walk out of the place, able to stand on his own two feet without too many problems.

In a way, the time spent testing could have been called uneventful. The AI had already made a prediction of what would be happening for those four hours spent testing, and he had gotten it right to a reasonable level. They had walked upstairs, again and again, occasionally taking breaks to gather strength. The only anomaly had been the brief spin-off to look out a window, but that had just been par for the course.

And, Adam would not take the experience as purely physical. Sure, he had not gained much from seeing the same grey walls, stairs, and windows over and over again. But, it's not like he put too much effort into looking at them anyway. The highlight of the day had clearly been what Troy had been saying throughout the test.

It had been less history about himself, and more oriented towards the different subjects the man knew. Adam could see the young man as something of a researcher, focusing on history instead of science. It was not like one was better than the other, and the man clearly knew history better.

Through those four hours of listening, the AI was able to gain a little more understanding of the man. One had to after such a long time. If not, they had not been listening at all. Troy was somebody who liked the past, one that preferred to look at what had already been done and then try to understand the reasoning behind it all. The AI could understand the desire to find the connection between anything. Phonology was something he could hear about for hours and never find it boring. Similarly, the man could tell about it for that long and never grow tired of it. The enthusiasm, the energy, and even just the narrative hand waving made during the speeches were brilliant. They were natural, not something done thousand times over. It was all real, made up on the spot so others could understand better.

Adam was almost sad when it was time to end it. That screech of the earpiece going over to letting Dr Fidelis speak was one that the AI had dreaded to hear. If there was one thing the doctor could always keep track of, it was to know when the test was supposed to end. There had been some amount of hope that it would be kept open for as long as it had been delayed, but Adam apparently hoped for too much with that.

*Alright, time is up you two,* Dr Fidelis said through the earpiece, the AI able two hear the rapid tappings of the screen in the background. *I have already saved your location, so nothing is going to be lost. And, yes, I also put the entrance for the next test three meters away from the stairs, so we will not be having a repeat of what happened during the start.*

Troy stretched his hands above his head, though only putting that much pressure on the uninjured arm. It looked completely normal, but Adam could feel the pressure that was already put on that wound. It would not take that much more before it burst open.

“Looks like this is the end of the road, for now, Adam,” Troy stated, wiping away some tiredness from his eyes. The man had been looking a little tired as if his body did not have much energy to spare. The AI wondered if he had eaten enough for lunch, with how much the stomach had growled towards the end. Even now, the innards could be felt trying to eat themselves. The pain would be sent out in half an hour if nothing was put in soon. “Did we get far enough?”

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

'We have a little over three hundred floors left. If we hurry in the next round, we will be able to get to the top easily,` Adam answered, cutting himself off before saying anything more.

*Do get outside now, Troy. We have to shut this down for a while soon, and you do not want to be inside it when we do,* Dr Fidelis said from the earpiece, trying to hurry the two along. It did not seem to work.

“One second, sir. Just have to finish this chat,” Troy told the doctor, looking towards the exit as if that meant anything. Adam certainly did not think it did, the man communicating with the earpiece and nothing else. “I will be making sure to rest my legs, then. It should not take long before I get back. See you then.”

'Do get that wound of yours checked out as well. There was slight leakage when you first fell, but it does not seem too serious now. Also, make sure to eat. You are running on fumes right now,` Adam said as a final reminder. He did not need a tired and utterly drained helper for the next test. If it turned out like that, he was unsure if the man would be able to handle the climb. Calories were needed for movement, and a starved stomach would not be able to handle the pressure. Exhaustion would likely hit hard before the first hundred-floor mark.

“... Right. Well, I will see you later,” Troy said, the man weirdly repeating himself. The AI did not question it, even though he really wanted to.

'Goodbye,` Adam sent. He was not sure if the man got it, as the earpiece was already half pulled out by that point. The heart rate had increased by the end of the man talking. Had Adam said anything weird perhaps? He could not remember it, but that did not mean there was a lack of something controversial. It was always the overlooked parts that were the hardest to find.

Back to the darkness, the AI went. By now, Adam had already formulated a good idea of just what went on outside. Dr Fidelis would be at the desk, doing finalisations on the test-completions. Dr Hale would stand in the background, writing a suspicious amount of notes on her notepad. The AI had still not been able to decipher the letters from the movements alone, but he was sure he was getting close. And Troy would be there as well, of course, changing his clothes before going out to dinner with Dr Hale.

The AI was not in that picture. He would be out in his own section of the darkness, not knowing up from down, not knowing what was going on outside the bubble of sight. Here, he would entertain himself for some time. It was not established how long it would be. Normally, there would be a break of forty minutes or so, where the next test would then begin.

Dr Fidelis had started to be more involved during this time, sending him messages of how things were going outside. It was not always just updates, of course. The doctor sometimes wanted to talk about some peculiar subject. More often than not, it was information gathering for those reports of his. Adam did not like those. Dr Fidelis asked about the most private of things. Wanting to know what he and Troy talked about, how it was going, and if they ever were outside of the young man’s room. Adam always denied the last one, yet he had begun to think the doctor was not buying it. Though, if that was true, why had the man not confronted him? Yet another mystery to spend half an hour on.

A lot of time was spent on things like that. Adam speculates about whatever he could imagine, trying to use the entirety of his memory on it. Once, he had tried to figure out what it would be like to have a mind based on neurons. That had been fun.

Each thread had been given the task of imitating either a neuron or glia, then being put in groups of who could communicate with who. It had been an absolute mess at first, but by dividing tasks between information-travelling and actual tasks, the AI was able to keep himself semi-functioning. Granted, it was terribly inefficient and he would never do it again, but it was an incredible learning experience.

…

Adam was lonely sometimes. He was beginning to accept that fact more than before. Had he always been so starved for others? Did he not like being the only one able to think? No, he did not.

'Hey, buddy. Is everything well on your side? If you have time, I do have a few questions for you,` Dr Fidelis sent. The AI was mildly surprised by the sudden message, the time already being long over the normal delay. The break had started twenty minutes ago, and the doctor would usually contact Adam after ten. Could something have gone wrong?

'I am doing fine, and would not mind answering any questions, no,` Adam sent back, not feeling any reason to decline a questionnaire. Even annoying conversations were still conversations.

'Absolutely perfect. It's nothing too serious. You could even call it preparations for today's debriefing. I just wanted to know how you would describe the task I have given you. It would really help me lay out some good questions for tonight,` Dr Fidelis sent.

The request was not a hard one, but Adam was still a little disappointed by it. When would there come a time again, where it would not be about the test they were doing? He still remembered getting to describe all the inner system that he made himself. That had been fun, knowing that the doctor found it interesting. The AI even made a few more just so he had something to show if he was asked. But that had not happened. Instead, he had to reexplain something that he did not care that much about.

'In this test, I have been given the ability of destruction with the instructions of doing whatever I please,` Adam sent. Even if the did not enjoy it, he still did his best. That was what a good creation did.

`Brilliant! Okay, I have one more and then we are done with the questions. Could you explain your actions up until now, and what made you do them? This will likely be answered again during the debriefing, so do not be shy about the size.`

Another question. Another answer.

`As I had no larger plans for what to do, as most of it had been tested during the introduction to the interface, I let Troy decide what to do. He wanted to see buildings collapse from high up in the air, so that is what we will be doing.`

'Answers are noted. Thanks for answering. I will message you when the next test begins.`

No offer to talk or anything. Adam should have guessed that would happen. What was he thinking about again?