The morning dew outside my window wafts its smell into my bedroom as I stretch out of my bed. Wait, that’s not right… I press a button, and the screen retracts upwards into the wall, revealing the bustling noise and movement of New York. Mhmm. I walk into my living room and pour myself a cup of coffee. Clicking the slick black remote sitting on my brown couch, I turn on the television.
“...In other news, the technology conglomerate TEMPERANCE™ has finished its secret project, and one lucky person will get to experience it firsthand!”
“Well, how do we sign up, Mark?”
“It’s simple, Jan! All you have to do is go to their website and hit the enroll button! That’s www…”
I flip the channel before they finish talking. Never was interested in Temperance. If it's on the news, though, it must be life changing. I nonchalantly click ENROLL on the website and go on with my day.
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At work, James is once again insufferable as usual. "...the Ministry of AI Administration needs to let that shit run! Implementation FrugAI in farms would cut produce costs by-"
"Would you shut the fuck up, James? I'm trying to fix this engine," I say.
"The hell's your problem? What's the point of tagging along with you if I can't even make small talk?"
I pull a nut with my wrench before wiping my brow. "So you can learn, which you can't do if you're yapping the whole time."
"Why are we even doing this?" Asks James. "This thing is a relic."
"It's not our job to question why the client wants us to fix a gas engine," I say. "Rich guy stuck in the past, I guess. It's a nice car, though." I think back to the times before all this crazy AI stuff. The world in conflict, third world countries starving to death, new strands of disease devastating the population. All this fixed in 2035 when three of the world's largest tech corporations joined to make Temperance and designed an AI model capable of solving all these problems. Hell, even aging is almost completely negated by nanobots.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
"It all seems so far in the past, James," I reminisce.
"I would agree," says an unknown voice behind me. I turn to see a figure in a bathrobe imposed in front of the luxurious mansion we're working at. It's our client.
"Hello, sir," I say. "We'll be finished in about an hour."
"Oh, I didn't come out here to talk about that," he says. "You won the contest."
"...What?" I question.
"Yeah, you won."
"How could... how could you possibly know that? I didn't win! Everyone signed up for that," I rebuke. James looks around awkwardly.
"Check your phone." Sure enough, I have a missed notification.
"What the hell? Who are you?" I ask.
"It's no coincidence you're here fixing this car. Finish up and then come inside. Sorry, James, but you can head home after this job."
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The mansion is gloriously furnished on the inside. Since around 2038, no house can rightfully be called poor, but compared to this mansion, my apartment looked like a shoebox.
"So who are you?" I ask as I sit across from the mysterious client on a lavish chair.
"I'm the founder of Temperance."
...
"Pff... seriously?" I mock. "That guy's been dead for five years!"
Without warning, the man grabs a knife and stabs himself in the chest. I jump back in fear, but when he pulls it out, there's no blood.
"...How did you..."
"Ha!" He laughs. "I am very much alive, I assure you. This body is an android. Realistic, but not real."
"Okay... is this the, uh, prize? For the contest? I get my brain put in a robot? That's hardly a new thing."
"No, no, it's not anything like that. You're going to be our... guinea pig."
"Uh... hell no. You want me to volunteer myself for some lab experiment?"
"I assure you, it's no experiment. The procedure is very safe. We're pushing humans into the next stage of evolution."
"What the hell are you talking about?" I ask.
"Godhood," he says. "Come outside with me." As we exit the mansion, he pulls a remote out of his pocket and aims it at the sky. What I previously thought was the sky shifts and morphs into a gargantuan sphere, dwarfing the sun.
"Jesus Christ!" I shout. I hear people in the street shouting, sharing a similar reaction to my own.
"That is your prize. You see, I'm sure you're aware of the concept of transferring someone's mind into a digital media. Simply doing a brain scan would create a copy of the brain. But we've found a way around it. Theseus's ship. By replacing parts of the brain one part at a time, we can fully convert the brain into a machine."
"That's... cool, I guess? How does this affect me? What is that thing?"
"It's a spaceship. The shell of a god."
"You're gonna put me in that thing? To what? Wander around space forever?"
"Aren't you tired of doing the same routine every day? This is a chance to take life by the reigns and do whatever you want! And I really do mean whatever you want!"
I think long and hard. This decision could change everything...
"I guess I'll give it a shot..." And then everything went black.