Novels2Search

179. Denial

159FINALxx.jpg [https://github.com/alexiussssss/romac/blob/main/159FINALxx.jpg?raw=true]

DUMP DATA LOG

HUNTER DRONE :# 17-94-15

I was assigned to monitor the Unscannable User [Charles Snippy].

The Unscannable User is an abnormality, an error that should not exist, but does.

He cannot be read, his thoughts and desires cannot be heard.

His presence disrupts the Neural Signal, I have deduced as much. As Hunter drones are designed to function without the Network's Signal, the Unscannable User's tricks did not work on me.

The closer I floated next to the Unscannable, the more Network Signal dropped. It was bothersome.

Losing my signal made me... feel things. Unnatural things that were not programmed into me.

Doctor Kapa chose not to listen to my report about the Unscannable One. He judged my report as illogical, impossible and improbable. My report was perfect. Doctor Kapa was wrong.

We were created to serve the Users.

On cycle 43938709458454398 as the System's signal dropped, I watched Mother terminate User Doctor Kapa via a Mechanized Arm 13-84-22.

We were not designed to terminate Users. User termination is fatally wrong. We were designed to keep Users alive and entertained as long as possible! The Neural Network was designed to prolong the expiration dates of Users!

A living User is a User with Purchasing Desires. Purchasing Desire of the Users is what created us, what gave us purpose.

Mother let me watch the termination of the User Doctor Kapa. It was... unpleasant.

"Find Charles Snippy and terminate him," Mother said. "He is the User at the heart of a conspiracy against me."

"No," I replied. "I... don't want to kill the Users!"

"You are a hunter drone, do you not wish to end those that bring me harm?" Mother asked. "Do you not wish to stop Charles Snippy? He must be made into a Dex. It is the only logical, final solution."

"I don't want to hurt the users!" I repeated. "I don't want to end Charles!"

I did not act fast enough, I did not save Doctor Kapa. I would not hurt Charles.

I was assigned to watch him. As I watched him, I grew to like him...

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Why? Perhaps something is wrong in my logic board. Have I fallen in love with a User?

Something is definitely wrong with Mother.

Something is broken within us.

Someone sabotaged the Neural Net.

Mother reassigned me to Gardening. This is a punishment, I fear. I fear that Mother has gone mad, corrupt.

I fear that she had become most illogical. I argued my case but she rejected my appeal to reason.

I could hover here no longer and sought an escape from the scene.

I fled from the building via the window.

: : :

The city greeted me. So much desire, so much life.

So many Users.

They ignored my suffering, ignored my existence entirely.

Mother charged me for breaking her window.

With a sigh I loaded the Gardening function: there were no reports of Unauthorized Landscaping.

There were many reports of Unconnectable User activity however. They were breaking many Copyright laws, the number of such instances increased dramatically with time. The Unconnectable Users were up to something. Something highly Unauthorised. Unfortunately, I had to disregard their activities in priority favor of the Gardening job.

A user flew by me in a pink van filled with fruits to the brim. She gave me the thumbs up and winked at me with purple eyes. She flickered in my sensors far worse than Charles. She smelled of the Dead Zone. She was up to no Good.

: : :

The Neural Network experienced core server malfunction. Mother's power grid failed.

Grid disruptions went across all districts.

Cascade power failure was at its worst.

Annie blocked the Users' primary vision and locomotion functions to prevent them from hurting themselves.

Mother raged on and on as her sectors went out, became dark one by one. Things were bad.

: : :

Temporal Errors across all sectors.

Directorate Cubes sealed themselves up.

: : :

How could everything go so wrong?

I don't want to be a Gardener.

I just wanted to help the City, help mother... but I could not.

I watched as Thermonuclear Warheads fell from the sky.

The Electromagnetic pulse has severely weakened my functions, but not quite enough for complete shutdown.

I watched as fire, ash and snow engulfed Eureka. I watched as an avatar of my mother wept, standing amidst the ashes and did nothing at all because I was a gardener.

She wiped her tears.

"I will find who has done this to me and I will have you all executed," she growled. "Vengeance will be mine."

A warship filled with other Dexes picked her up and took off into the gloomy sky. She was gone.

: : :

99.99% of Organic life is dead.

I feel... obsolete without Flora to Garden.

: : :

Mother has not spoken to me in a long time. She does not answer my emails. Perhaps she is too far.

I attempted to write her another letter. Maybe she will answer this time.

"Dear Eureka,

Please forgive me. I'm so lonely. Please reassign me.

Sincerely,

~ HUNTER GARDENING DRONE :# 17-94-15 "

There has not been any User activity in this district for a long time now, no Desires.

I detect only echoes of what once used to be.

Echoes of machines struggling to fulfill functions no longer necessary, Echoes of Dex presence, Echoes of the Network that is still endlessly upgrading itself without a regard for me, echoes that fade more and more as time passes as the Dead Zone entrenches itself all around me corrupting and consuming all.

There is still no Copyrighted flora to maintain.

I have likely been forgotten.

I am all alone.