It felt like someone had a jackhammer and was going to town on my head. If that wasn’t bad enough, it felt like ants were freely crawling up and down my body. The pain grew worse when I tried to open my eyes. “Welcome back Alex.” The sound of the AI’s voice was loud enough that I was pretty sure it caused permanent hearing damage.
I chose to ignore the AI as I focused on the important job of not throwing up. At least, not until I could get up without passing out from the pain. Then I could get to somewhere like the toilet. Just as the pain started to subside, a hissing sound surrounded me. The sound caused the headache to redouble while the burst of air felt like needles were being stabbed into my skin.
I don’t know if I screamed or not. All I know is that the next thing I could remember was looking up at the off-yellow ceiling while the AI tried to get my attention. “Alex? Should I call for help? Answer me.” While the default setting for systems like this one was to call for emergency aid, I had long since turned the setting off. They wouldn’t help anyway as I didn’t have insurance. Plus, around here the hospital was practically useless. All of the decent doctors were long since gone. Hired by this rich person or that company. Those we were left with were the crackpots and those with outdated ideologies.
I took a second to collect myself before finally answering the damn system. “No.” I felt a brief tinge of pain as I tried to figure out how I got here. The last thing I could clearly remember was Barti telling me that I had left myself vulnerable. After that, I only remember fear and desperation. I didn’t even recall logging out. “When did I log out?”
“An hour ago, the pod's health monitoring system noticed a worrying trend in your brain activity. Your Prefrontal Cortex and Broca’s Area activity decreased while your Amygdala, Hypothalamus, and Periaqueductal Grey areas all experienced a sharp uptick in activity. The system automatically cut your connection with the game and removed you.”
As I took my time to sit up, I rolled my eyes and asked, “OK, for those of us without a medical degree?”
“Something about your fight with the elf Barti caused you to lose all sense and reason. Instead of simply calling for the system to log you out or for the match to end, your body, on instinct, fought as if it was really in danger. As the system was interacting with your brain, your brain tried to attack and force the connection closed.”
Something told me that a brain attacking itself was not a good thing. “Is the system safe for me to use again?”
“As the system was disconnected before permanent damage could be done, it should be safe. However, it is recommended that you get checked out by a professional.” Cool, the AI was telling me it was up to me if I wanted to risk it. Seeing as I didn’t have much of a choice at this point, I was going to go back in.
But first, might as well take the time to eat now while I am already logged off. As I made my way toward the bathroom I called out, “AI, pull up some of the forums for the game.”
“What would you like me to look for?”
While I turned the water on and waited for it to warm up, I thought over what I wanted to look up. Eventually, I settled on starting with what was going on in the city. “Let’s start with a broad search on human treatment of other races.”
“One million, seven hundred forty-nine thousand eighty-one different threads found.”
Damn, that was a ton of information. Then again, it was a pretty broad search. “Summerize.”
“Topics range from trade to relationships, slavery to academies. Please narrow your search.” Yeah, I should have expected that.
“Focus on slavery and physical interactions between governmental agencies and the non-human population.”
The AI was silent for a full minute before it spoke again. “Interactions and treatment of non-humans by humans and the government have been growing worse over the last couple of in-game months. With various cities and regions being worse than others.”
“Does anyone have any idea what is causing the change in feelings?”
“There are many theories but none with enough supporting evidence to give it more validity over any other.”
Surely I couldn’t be the first one to find the demonic connection. “What about theories with demons are the cause?”
“There are some, but there is little evidence. In fact, there are a number of people who argue such a thing is not possible.”
“What do you mean?”
“They argue that there is no way for any demon to make it through the combined armies. If you would like, I can display the forum page for you to go over if you like.”
“No,” it wouldn’t be much use anyway. It didn’t matter if the information was true or not. What mattered was my decision on who to help. The humans, or the non-humans. Out of curiosity, I asked the AI for its opinion on my situation. “Which group would you help?”
It didn’t hesitate before answering, “As an Artificial Intelligence, I do not possess a personal preference. However, if I were required to make a decision based on the information currently available, as well as those based on history, I would choose to help the non-humans. While the population of non-humans in the city of Proxima is small compared to those of humans, there are forum posts that discuss other countries with little to no humans. So, while aiding the humans might provide you with more immediate and local support, it would hurt you long term.” The AI paused before continuing. “That being said, would you like me to try and simulate each scenario?”
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
Is it sad that the AI was being smarter than me or was I just being stupid? While I was freaking out about the immediate situation, it had found and pointed out that I would be sharply limiting my future if I helped the humans. “Sure, go ahead and run the scenarios.”
“Please wait as this may take me a little while.” As the AI did whatever it was doing, I finished the shower and grabbed a meal bar. The things tasted horrible but they were cheap and they didn’t go bad. To distract myself from the grainy mush bite, I looked out my windows and to the city below. The sky was dark. It was even missing the moon's soft glow to illuminate the dark alleys.
As I watched, a large, furred creature ran through the streets. It looked large enough to be a lion. Not that there were any living specimens in this part of the world. Especially since the local zoos closed five or ten years ago. Even with all the protests against it, the places either released, sold to rich collectors or killed all of the creatures they had on hand. Plus, the creature was running on two legs. What lion can do that? Outside of comics and television, I couldn’t think of a single one.
Its disappearance around a corner left me no closer to finding an answer. “Of the scenarios I ran,” the AI’s voice cuts through the silence and pulls my attention from the world outside. “The results depend on a number of factors. The largest of which has to do with the SoulStone.”
I hazarded a guess. “If I use it or not?”
“It is not if you use it but when and what changes it imparts on you.” Ok, the AI was right. While I might not have used the stone yet, it was inevitable that I would be forced to do so eventually. “If you take the human-centric path and the stone changes your race, you will be stuck in the same situation as the rest of the non-humans. It may even be worse for you at that point as you will have lost what little trust a non-human typically has.”
“But only if I become something non-human. What is the chance of that?”
The windows in front of me fill with tons of text windows. The few that I can make out remind me of posts from various forums I had been looking at earlier. “Relatively high based on the data I am seeing. While this data might be skewed, there are a couple of posts written by supposed data scientists who decided it would be fun to do a poll of the population. They found that nearly ninety percent of those who used the stone became something non-human. Forty percent of those people found the changes impossible to hide.”
While that was good to know. It was – Fuck! “What is the chance of reprisal from either side if I ignore both sides?” While I didn’t want to do it, it might be my only option.
“There is a high probability of you being charged with something by the local government. Other cities will arrest and ship you back to be tried and sentenced.” Which meant my only real option was to help the non-humans and to pray that it didn’t blow up in my face. “Incoming message from Xander. Would you like me to read it?”
“I needed to think about something else for a minute anyway so go ahead.”
“From Xander. Dude, did you see that the company froze our payouts?”
“Respond that I have.”
He must have been waiting for me to reply as the message was just sent when he responded. “Voice call from Xander.”
I sighed as I recalled how our last voice call went. Still, maybe he might have more information on my current issue. “Answer it.”
“Can you believe that damn company?” Xander’s voice filled the room as he spoke. “I knew they were going to pull something like this.”
“If you knew they were going to do something like this then why did you insist I spend a large chunk of what I got on a pod?” I grumbled.
“Because you needed the push. Plus you should have made enough to pay most of that off. Please don’t tell me you are still in that beginner town.”
“Ok, I won't tell you.”
“What is in that town that has you stuck there now?” I could practically hear his eyes roll. “And don’t say it is because you are too weak. I saw your fight against Trenton. If you can handle him you can handle moving on to the next town.”
“One, I have no clue how I beat him. The last thing I remember from that night was getting my ass kicked.”
“Really?” He didn’t sound as though he believed me.
“And two, I have a major quest-related decision to make.”
“How major?” His voice went from disbelief to serious in an instant.
“It will affect my future prospects in the game as well as affect everyone in the city. Maybe more.”
“Give me the TLDR.”
“Humans treating non-humans like shit. I have been asked to let the guards know if the non-humans have any plans. The non-humans asked me to help them.”
“Sounds simple.”
He started but I interrupted him. “Oh, and the non-humans told me that the guard captain is a demon.”
“HE’S A WHAT!?” Xander practically yelled. “Whatever you do, do not help the god damned demons. Hell, stay out of it if you can. I am on my way.” Before I could say anything else, Xander cut the connection. Out of everything I had heard, been told, and thought about, his reaction told me all I needed to know. With nothing left to do and my decision made, I turned around and settled into the pod.
Unfortunately for me, the stupid thing had to stop me from going straight into the game. The pod's voice was different from my AI’s. Its cold, robotic monotone filled the space as it spoke. “Welcome back Alex Morgan, also known as Kyren Vulpier. Please hold still while I perform a medical scan.”
“Why are you performing a medical scan on me?” Was I sick and the system was trying to determine if it was safe to let me enter? Maybe my AI had been wrong about the lack of damage to my brain. The beat of my heart skipped and jumped until it raced as I started to freak out about what it might find.
“Since your last ejection was triggered by abnormal brain activity, it is protocol to perform a medical scan to ensure no residual neurological issues remain. This is a precautionary measure to verify that your brain's activity has returned to normal.” As soon as I heard that it was a simple protocol and nothing else, I nearly passed out from relief. “Would you like to bypass this? Warning. Skipping this scan may result in unforeseen medical complications. If you choose to bypass it, you accept full responsibility and waive any right to seek damages from the company.”
Seeing no downside to the scan, I agreed, “Nope, scan away.”
A series of multicolored lights ran over my body while various noises vibrated through my body. This lasted a dozen or so seconds before the AI returned. “Small variance discovered. Compensating. Done. Login process commencing.” While the fact that it had found something was worrying, I didn’t get a chance to ask as the world around me vanished into darkness and I logged into the game.