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Chapter 302: Cortana
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“Hello son.”
“Dad!”
“Before anything else, I will assume that by now, you have at least remembered fragments of the things that happened in the Genesis Chamber. If I am wrong and you haven’t remembered anything, you can just skip on this video file and re-watch it when you remember at least what the Genesis Chamber is and how important it is to you and your mission because none of the next things I’m going to say will make sense to you….”
There was a long pause after this and Rex tried to control his breathing as to wait the next part of what his father is going to tell him.
After a while, there was a static fluctuation on his father’s body and the same warm smile was on his lips as he greeted Rex.
“Hello son. If you’re seeing this then perhaps it all went well since this video file is only encrypted with a facial recognition security measure. But I did hope that that scientist will successfully deliver this package to you….”
As soon as he heard these welcoming words, Rex immediately knew that the man that the Manang had bumped into earlier this morning wasn’t just an ordinary scientist.
Neth wasn’t here with him right now. This is just a recording and so he just had to listen to whatever his dad has to say.
“…his name is Eosin Bozkovich, if his file is still not edited. In the memory database of Cortana, I uploaded four video files that will only be opened with the right prompt and the right circumstances that I thought will be helpful to you once you have decided to go after your revenge. But if you also don’t, and only focus on raising Baron, then those video files will never resurface until Cortana ends up being hacked and the files forcefully retrieved –which either cases still ends up with you either dead or the device is confiscated… but that’s just the worst case scenario because The Warden will make sure that nobody else will be privy to the files saved on your device. Assuming that you’ve successfully utilized its usage, Cortana will always make sure that these files will never be retrieved no matter what. Anyways, enough of the boring part…
“You might be wondering who is Cortana. So to answer this question, just think about her as my apprentice. She is the complementary program of the entire Warden Protocol package. When the entire Warden Protocol was still just a mere program, there were three parts in it; first is the ACTIVE INDEX that was the main core program of the entire package, serving as a watchdog and a knight that guards the only exit and entrance of the Terran Universe from the real world. When I followed you before your mother back then, it was my Warden Avatar that became a sentient being. I was locked for a long time. The Warden used me as a blueprint to create his own personality index, and eventually, by the time I woke up, the tragedy had already taken place.”
After this part, Neth paused as he seemed to give Rex some time to digest the words he was telling him.
He knew that it will confuse Rex and he was right.
Rex was in a daze, trying to absorb it all, trying to process it. When he came to, it was just about time that Neth sighed and spoke again.
“The Second part of the package was the INDEX CONSOLE, or in other words, ACCESS PANEL. It serves as the bridge. It was made up of unique sequences and complex adaptive capability that adjusts according to the reactionary outputs of the [Active Index]. To explain it better, an [Authority] cannot manifest its power if it can’t reach the ‘target’ where it had to be applied… the Terran Universe. Such is the importance of the [Access Panel]. But when The Warden gained its sentience, it abandoned its [Divinity] and lost all its ability to use its [Authority], becoming a mortal soul in the Terran Universe at which, he lived on the Terran Universe’s version of Planet Earth and experienced the invasion of the LAGRAM Alliance. He did survive and became his own person with a unique personality and an entire history of his own. If you can remember it, The Warden’s [Authority] is centered to protecting the Terran Universe from any threats that may come from outside, as well as ‘locking’ any kind of threat that may come from within that, one way or another, will threaten the real world. When The Warden abandoned its Divinity, it got exposed to the threat of death… and I with it; and so the [Access Panel] became useless as well.”
The last part made Rex gasp in surprise and for some reason; he felt his breathing shorten after that as if there was a very deep sense of regret and hate that came along with it.
Regret that he couldn’t stop it.
Hate that it involved him for some reason he can’t explain. His head begun to hurt and the same splitting pain was threatening to snatch his sanity.
Rex tried to grab his head only to realize that he can’t move. He could only endure and wait until the video file finished playing or he stopped it here and now.
He chose the former.
“And then the third and last component of The Warden Protocol Package; Cortana. In simple terms, she is like the ‘adviser’ of a classroom, the road signs in the streets, or like a car’s GPS. She is the ‘conscious’ being that will make sure that the guidelines of the [Authority] will be followed to the letter, and that whatever adjustments done by the [Access Panel] is always recorded and saved for future references.”
“The Organizer.” Rex couldn’t help murmuring.
Rex finally understood how to use Cortana. While she may seem like a complete package on her own, she still needed something to organize.
When he first discovered that Cortana was trying to read his neural activities, it wasn’t because she was trying to develop or create something, or just record how he thinks, it’s because it was really part of her programming.
She already said it herself, she can’t change it.
Of course she can’t because that’s her very self that Rex requested of her earlier.
In other words, Cortana is the organizer, the Console that he saw earlier was the ‘tools’, while he, Rex, himself was now The Warden that can use the two of them.
The three of these things, him included, is now The Warden Protocol of the Terran Universe.
And as if to confirm this, Rex heard his father speak of the words he was thinking of.
“Son, here inside, Cortana is but a useless program that cannot function without The Warden core program —which is me, at the moment. But in the War of the Braves, 56 years ago, as soon as I came face to face with the real Warden, we immediately locked this world and sealed the Genesis Chamber. By the time I realized it, your mother… (sigh) your mother have already made a promise with Terra and since I don’t want to make your mother lonely, I also switched places with Neth so that I could accompany your mother in the Genesis Chamber. While in its locked state, the Genesis Chamber will not be accessed in any way from anywhere, aside from those with the same [Authority Level] as The Warden… which is you and your girlfriend, Scion.”
“….”
“Instead of letting [Cortana] float here like a useless pile of codes, I extracted their program components and adjusted their complementary functions, then uploaded them into a hardware, which is the NanoPaper that I sent you. You may have been pricked earlier when you activated the NanoPaper. Don’t be scared. It was my doing. I had to do it to make sure that only you and no one else will be able to use the device once you’re done with the designing. And just like what I have said earlier, although Cortana could give you a big hand on resolving your privacy issues in that house, you and her are still far from being enough to stand in front of your enemies…..”
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In the middle of Neth’s sentence, while he put his all to listen, Rex clenched his fists as he muttered a promise in his heart.
“I know, dad… I understand.”
“….so what I want you to do is focus your efforts into saving your little brother at all costs. We can’t always know what is happening in Terroa and in the real world because we have a bigger enemy that is always keeping a watch on the slightest bit of opening in the Genesis Chamber. So, son, you must do your best to save your brother. If you managed to save him in Terroa, you can just use your [Authority] to access the Genesis Chamber and put him there. After that…”
When Neth’s voice came in this part, Rex felt the hairs in body standing on ends because what he was seeing on Neth right now was a frown and an unbridled killing intent.
For the first time ever, Neth was actually showing his fangs that were enough to frighten even Rex.
“….after you save Baron, son, as your father, I am really against you committing violence wherever you go; but only in that one instance am I allowing you to unleash your wrath against the enemies that broke our family. It pains me so much that I can’t do anything to save my family. So only you, son…… only you can save Baron. It is only you now that can save our family.”
Until the end of these words, Rex could feel the anguish that his dad was suffering.
Because while Neth sounded firm and strict on the surface, he actually didn’t hide the unmanly fact that he was crying in front of his own son as he told him some absurd things any parent would never tell their children.
But to Rex, what he saw there was anger and a very deep sense of despair… as well as hope and a father’s pride and wishes.
He was yet to fully remember everything that had happened inside the Genesis Chamber but he do recall there his mother that was helplessly crying when they met… vaguely.
Also, in there, he received a mission: save Baron and bring him to the Genesis Chamber.
His father was crying as he told him his own personal wish that if he could, he wanted to do it himself.
After all, he was also a man; but more than that, he was a father.
What father won’t be maddened when his family was put into this kind of state and he himself was unable to do something to better the situation?
In his deep anger, he cried; and the only person who can do something with their family’s situation, and as well as the only person who’d understand his pain, was his own son.
To Rex, this side of his father only shows the fact that he really did loved his family.
As such, Rex a cried as he listened to his father’s words and reassured the promise in his heart.
“Don’t worry dad. *sniff* by all odds, even if I have to fight the world… even if I have to become the villain in their eyes, I will save Baron! And I will not stop until I made him safe. I promise.”
And as if it was a conversation, Neth beamed a smile as he whispered, “I know, son. I know you will save Baron.”
The video ended and Cortana’s voice rung in his mind while his surroundings came back with his senses.
[Sir, would you still want to proceed with the main tutorial?]
Rex dismissed it. He wasn’t in the mood now.
[Sir, this is the list of Personality Algorithms I have summarized. I also included an active personality control panel so you can customize your settings.]
Rex was now lying in the bed and he was looking up at the ceiling.
His vision was cleaned and only a few handful of information was displayed in it.
When he thought that he wanted to have a normal vision without any info-display, it immediately opts out on the next second.
Cortana’s behavior analysis and active reactions to his wants and needs were something that was to his liking.
Cortana was adjusting herself to his inputs.
There was just a single holo-panel floating on his vision and its difference from the house’s panel is that its background was coloured a lighter shade of greenish white than the house’s lighter blue.
Rex was looking at the list: references Cortana can ‘imitate’ so that it would be easier for Rex to communicate with her.
These references included not only personality, but also appearance and voices, as well as other factors that can render Cortana like a real person.
“Can you show me your default appearance and personality settings?”
[I don’t have a personality settings yet but I do have my basic reactionary reference index. Would you like me to include them?]
“Yes. And please change adjustment matrix to a drag and drop interface.”
[Confirmed.]
From the single panel window in his vision, it then changed into a four-panel matrix where the one on the very left was the source; the second was the drop; the third was the preview; and the last being the adjustment panel.
On the third panel window was Cortana, on her default ‘pilot outfit’ appearance that was just plain dull… albeit the perfectly curvy and sexy figure.
She was just standing there and looking at Rex as if they were in a flat room, waiting for his input.
“Can I just ask, where did you get this appearance from?”
[This is a random default appearance that I came up with from the moment I heard your voice.]
Her voice was still monotone. Rex thought that it was the first thing he had to adjust.
“Well, I think that since we’re going to be sticking together for a long time, I would want to have a few long conversations with you but not get tired of it. Can you adjust your voice according to my preferences? I can’t seem to pinpoint it so please, try to adjust it as I imagined it.”
[Yes sir.]
Rex can’t seem to determine how he wanted her voice would like so he just imagined and pictured it on his mind while Cortana reads the data and then apply it according to how she saw it.
“And while you’re at it, you can also adjust your personality algorithm according to my mental image of it.”
Right after he spoke, five seconds later…
“Is this alright?”
A smooth and very amiable, not enticing, not even sexually appealing or arousing, but a voice that is very gentle and sort of…… kind; a voice that was like a mother’s but had a tinge of a big sister’s, resounded later.
Her new voice was just exactly the approachable and pleasantly soothing, the friendly voice that Rex wanted a conversation partner to be.
“Better.” Rex said and nodded as he also looked at the new appearance of her wearing that silky smooth thin satin dress that although highlighted her figure did not show any enticing skin at all.
Aside from that, she now had an expression on her face, a face easy to like, easy to accept, easy to talk to….. and easy to get aroused with.
Her smile was not wide but not shallow; it was a very sincere smile –if Rex had to put it into words.
Put differently, she was a pretty big sister-next-door –kind of pretty. She was the kind that any young lad will fall in love to, but any adult will find to be comfortable to talk with.
Rex was satisfied by this result.
Cortana didn’t change her face or her hairstyle.
What she changed were only her clothes and her movements, becoming more graceful with a tinge of being reserved.
“Hmm… now that we’re finished with the initial adjustments, would you like me to also list out all my capabilities?”
“Yes please.”
Rex knew that this was the most important matter that he was concerned about so he did not dally and immediately went on to study his familiarize himself on his new device.
BAM!!
It was a list of over a hundred items.
“God, you’re some multi-purpose fellow.”
“Hmm… I can’t seem to understand the picture you’re trying to imagine right there. I am not a real person so I don’t know how to be surprised. My personality algorithm is only for reactionary inputs on your prompts. I am also not considered an AI since I am not capable of thinking myself and am only using referential calculations to respond to your mental outputs. And yes, sir, you’re right. I’m exactly just like a wild orchid. I cannot exist on my own and my responses will only be based on how you think. My abilities have been limited purely to recording and archiving your data. I may talk, look, and respond to you like a real human being, but I am nothing more than just a program designed to cater to your needs so I cannot be offended.”
Rex didn’t ask any question but Cortana answered all his confusion and doubts as soon as they had appeared in his mind.
On the other hand, it was amusing to see a very pretty and sincerely honest smiling face like hers speak those bland-sounding words with a straight face.
Really, it was harmfully and divertingly amazing…
…especially her next sets of words.
“Yes sir. This is the power of my 500 Yottabytes-worth of processing capability.”
Again, Cortana answered a question that popped up in his mind before he even gets to think about the thought itself thoroughly.
Then…
“Yes sir, I am wearing panties.”
“…”
And then………
“Should I scream ‘Kyaa, where do you think you’re touching me?’ in here?”
“….”
“Yes sir. I am forever a vir—”
“—Okay, okay! Enough, enough! Just…. please stop! Geezer’s mice!! In the future, I want you to ignore these thoughts of mine and archive your reactionary prompts whenever my thoughts went in this direction so that you may not accidentally mind-burn me.”
“Acknowledged.”
It was a good thing that Rex still had a modicum of self-control or he would have gone overboard and went all the way and punished Cortana.
Rex bitterly thought, “Dad, just what kind of toy did you send me in here?”
Apparently, Rex discovered that as much useful as this gadget was, there is also a dark side in it.
—it’s because he can mentally torture the poor girl in his mind whenever he liked….
But that’s a story for another chap—ah, no.
It was absolutely another title and story.
.
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Will Cortana becomes Rex’s secret weapon…
….or will she be his downfall to corruption?
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