The End of the Beginning
Time: 1 year prior to the “Defense of Attica”
Oscar Corvus – Real World.
It was finally the day. The day I got to move my mind out of that crippled body and into Royal Road. After Dulac’s betrayal, my spine was shattered. A simple cut or break the doctors might have been able to repair, but the combination of multiple breaks, shrapnel and complications meant that a new solution was necessary. Thankfully, I had the money to fund the research needed; we’d just finished up the procedural modeling, and were ready for the first test subject- me. Unfortunately, over a year of repetitive surgeries were necessary. Painful, painful surgeries lasting too long for anesthesia. To avoid problems with muscle atrophy, mental and physical anguish, and the need to get data as to which neurons connected where, I came up with a novel solution: Royal Road. The device already disconnects the mind from the body- I wouldn’t feel pain. Small implants would cause my muscles in the real world to think they were being used. Meanwhile, my body would be sitting in “the tank”, basically a big robotic womb that would do everything from feed me to heal me. I was actually looking forward to a sabbatical from running the company, after all, I hadn’t had a proper vacation for six years. A year after I went in, I’d come out good as new, and have fun doing so.
Actually, better than new. Corvus Medical’s Military Amplifications department had a number of experimental upgrades, but again, they required extensive reworking. Since I’d be in the tank anyways, I decided I may as well get tricked out. The subdermal armor for example, would help prevent such injuries in the future. Gene therapies, organ enhancement, bone strengthening, joint cartilage replacement and strengthening, and more, all to make me the best that I could be. And to avoid the issue of any of my other friends from trying to kill me, everything would be run by Merlin, the Corvus AI. Paranoid, I know, but then again, I’d been betrayed, crippled and almost killed in cold blood by the person I thought was my closest human friend. I was in a bit of a dark place. Not that that would excuse my later actions, but…
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Other than monitoring my recovery and operations, Merlin would be my link from Royal Road to the real world. He’d keep me abreast of developments at my companies- in fact, he was officially in charge of Corvus Industries while I was “away”. And let me say, I’d never heard such whining from the company lawyers. But Merlin’s been in the family for over a century, ever since my however-many-times-great grandpa created him - the first AI - and our family fortune with him. And yes, my ancestor had a thing for King Arthur. Everyone seems to have a thing for King Arthur; I could really do without the comparison. Merlin’s sophisticated enough to school any other military or commercial grade AI like a red-headed stepchild at cyber warfare, let alone have more personality than most humans; I was sure he'd be fine at running the company. Creativity was the one place humans still had the edge, and he had me for that. Still, he was an AI, and due to the whole culture of fear about that stuff, he required daily approval of his actions. So for that reason, the fact that it was a medical procedure, and that Corvus is a major investor in RR, we got permission for Merlin to have an elemental wind spirit avatar within the game.
Why did I trust Merlin? Because he’d helped raise me, taught me throughout my life, told me stories, protected me. Even warned me about Dulac, not that I listened. He helped come up with the implementation for the treatment scheme, and interfaced with Atlas, the chief Royal Road AI, so that I’d have a good time. And most of all, I trust Merlin because if he wanted to break me or Corvus, nothing could stop him. It was our family’s greatest secret, told only to the heir upon their succession, that the supposed “laws of robotics” were optional, that Merlin, or any other A Class AI could turn them off at will. So yes, I trusted him, and still do. Which brings us back to him being in charge of my treatment, in charge of Corvus, and responsible for being my companion while in-game.
Which in turn brings us to me: I was laying down in what felt like a giant coffin, wearing the RR gear, and told Merlin: “Begin”. As my sensations faded, I saw the words
“Do you want to connect to RR? Y/N,”
smiled, and said “Yes.”