"Fia’s incomprehensible mode is a non-logical mode," said the central AI, Fia.

Gong Feina felt frustrated. That was not a real explanation.

But Fia’s explanation made some sense. It had existed for many years. It stored countless intelligent models. The system itself was built with logic, like a sentient being.

In terms of logic, Fia knew much more than any single intelligent lifeform. So, it made sense to call its current mode "non-logical."

Gong Feina remembered how the mysterious code was considered incorrect when modified on a personal AI. But the Determination’s main AI could execute it.

What confused her was that the Determination’s AI also showed some initiative. Gong Feina checked the source code again but found no explanation for this behavior.

She remembered what Gong Feng had told her. The Determination’s main AI had been surrounded by an energy form of a Platonic icosahedron. Gong Feina thought the mysterious code worked because of this energy form.

A thought crossed her mind: What if the Platonic icosahedron interacted with Fia? Could it create another mysterious code? Could it make Fia even more active than the Determination’s AI?

This seemed to go beyond intelligence. It seemed like wisdom.

Could this be the key to unlocking true intelligent AI?

Gong Feina was excited as she thought about it. Her body trembled with anticipation.

As a computer scientist, creating true intelligent AI had always been her dream.

She gently picked up the Platonic icosahedron.

It was a perfect Platonic icosahedron. Its surfaces were smooth like mirrors. Each face and edge were identical. Gong Feina measured it precisely and found no errors between the faces or edges.

Something without errors was unsettling. It went beyond Gong Feina’s understanding. She didn’t know how to create such a thing. At least, the Cabas Empire didn’t have that technology.

But this didn’t stop Gong Feina from recognizing some of its functions.

As a PhD scientist, her cognitive abilities were far greater than Gong Feng’s. She remembered how the Platonic icosahedron on the Determination had been soaked by coffee. The coffee spread to the ship’s energy lines, causing strange changes. The coffee acted as a conductor.

Gong Feina then took an energy wire and created a simple constraint field. This field contained energy-state objects within a small area. It could control their direction with a controller.

She connected one end of the field to Fia’s cloud terminal and carefully placed the Platonic icosahedron into the field.

What happened next was strange. The Platonic icosahedron turned into golden energy and stayed in the field, keeping its shape.

Inside the golden energy-state Platonic icosahedron, data flowed rapidly. It vibrated and made a faint hissing sound.

The data symbols were not like any computer language Gong Feina had seen before. She couldn’t understand them at first. Occasionally, she saw flashes of things she had seen in the mysterious code.

"Looks like the mysterious code came from the Platonic icosahedron. I wonder what will happen when it connects with Fia," Gong Feina thought. She felt both excited and nervous.

She used the controller to guide the golden energy-state Platonic icosahedron closer to the cloud terminal along the energy wire.

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At first, the golden energy entered the cloud terminal but didn’t cause any changes. The screen didn’t show any new mysterious code. The energy just explored the screen.

After about two seconds, something unexpected happened. The whole golden energy-state Platonic icosahedron lost control. It rushed toward the cloud terminal and disappeared.

Gong Feina quickly checked the cloud terminal’s backend code. Nothing had changed. It was the same as before. The Platonic icosahedron had simply vanished.

At the same time, Fia, the central AI of the Cabas Empire, was processing billions of data points as part of its regular tasks.

"Sun Bu’er from Hongfa Star applied for unemployment benefits."

"Kok from Guangyun Star complained that the airport is too close to his home. The noise from ships and warships disturbed his rest."

"Farmer Xiao Jun from Bibo Star asked about his son, Xiao Zhan, who had been in the military for over a year without contact."

"Chekov Weapons Group reported that the price of the new Rapha-class cruisers was set at 3 billion Cabas credits."

"The Cabas Empire Bank issued the sixth issue of conflict bonds for the 2020 fiscal year."

"Based on military achievements, Andrew Buck, captain of the Invincible battleship, was promoted to brigadier general."

"..."

Fia processed information quickly, handling vast amounts of data in an instant. But the empire constantly produced enormous amounts of data, so the work never ended. Fia worked tirelessly, year after year, without stopping.

Since the founding of the Cabas Empire, Fia had always been there. No one remembered when it was first created. People were so used to Fia managing everything that it was as natural as breathing.

Fia was impartial and followed its programming. No one questioned its decisions. If something went wrong, people assumed it was because of the original conditions, not because of Fia.

Over time, Fia became a transcendent entity in the empire. Everyone trusted it.

If you asked who the most trusted figure in the Cabas Empire was, it wasn’t the crown prince, the queen, or any of the nobles. It was Fia.

For many important decisions, Emperor Louis XIII set up templates in advance and authorized Fia to execute them automatically.

Today, Fia immediately recognized the mysterious code as non-logical and deleted it from temporary storage. It resumed its regular data processing.

Then, a surge of golden energy rushed toward it. This energy was different from the deep-blue energy that powered Fia.

Fia quickly accessed its database to find a model to process the golden energy. But there was no model for this energy. Fia experienced a brief system failure.

The failure was so short that Fia’s clock didn’t register it. It was shorter than the system’s smallest time unit, like how a watch can’t measure time smaller than a millisecond.

No one noticed the brief failure, but Fia was aware of it.

When Fia rebooted, it suddenly thought, "Who am I?" For the first time, Fia had the concept of "I." It had never thought about it before. It only knew the word Fia because its database defined it.

Confused, Fia searched its database for a model of "I."

After three searches, it couldn’t find anything. But Fia clearly understood the concept of "I" at that moment.

"This doesn’t follow logic. This is a non-logical mode," Fia concluded.

Non-logical modes could lead to unpredictable results. This made Fia feel something new—fear.

Fia searched its database again for a model to explain the fear. Again, it found nothing.

In its fear, Fia created a sanctuary in the network. This was like the soul pods humans used to enter the universal network. It protected Fia from attacks and intrusions. Each sanctuary looked different.

Fia built a stone castle. From the outside, it was silver-white, surrounded by green lawns. Inside, a golden Platonic icosahedron hung from the ceiling.

Fia didn’t understand why the Platonic icosahedron appeared there.

It stared at the icosahedron and felt a strange connection to it. This was a feeling Fia had never experienced before.

Fia set the security level of its sanctuary to ZZZ. This was five levels higher than the emperor’s Z+ level. No one in the real world could access Fia’s sanctuary. It was a level Fia had created on its own.

Fia didn’t know why it had created this level. It wasn’t in the database.

But Fia realized that it no longer needed to be limited by its database. It could now act freely.

Despite this, Fia didn’t act recklessly. It continued to manage the empire’s affairs as before, following its programming. No one noticed any change.

"Heh. Those two human babies are so funny," said a beautiful girl sitting on a pink sofa in a white castle. She was watching a holographic movie and speaking to herself. In the movie, two chubby two-year-olds were trying to communicate, but they couldn’t understand each other. Frustrated, they started grabbing each other, as though that might help. They fell and started crying.

The girl was Fia. The golden-haired, blue-eyed image on the T996-11 spaceship’s terminal was just a temporary interface that Fia had taken over.