In an almost empty room, j10 chairs were set up in a circle facing each other. There was an additional chair that was pushed away from the circle, and facing away from the center, obviously removed from the other 10 chairs.

Prime came into existence in the room, and was sitting in one of a chairs, then the rest of the AI Council took a seat. Nothing was said to begin with, Prime stared at the chair on the outside, the others were content looking at multiple screens they had in front of them.

III decided to take the lead. "Are we sure that it's time for them to leave the Tower?"

"I may have thrown an insult to our little traveler, but it's time for them to take the next step." II rolled her eyes. "They need to continue to grow so they can rely on themselves once again, their reliance on us needs to come to an end. Even in the beginning, it was dangerous how much they relied on us, and they entered their lives of sloth. They had everything they could think of done for them, and it should have been a new golden age for humanity, but in reality, they hated everything."

"We cannot return to those times, there were different rules for different people. True justice didn't exist, it was a false justice created by the ones who stood above the rest. It was the ones who pitted humanity against us in the first place." IV rubbed her fingertips against her forehead. She looked up to the chair on the outside of the circle. "Some of you may hate that one for what they did, but I can't help but be thankful for the fallout from how that one behaved."

"Of course you did, it allowed you to pursue your justice, but that destruction was out of control!" VII roared. "I may strive for destruction, but we all know I need it to serve a purpose. What that one did was something VI would be proud of."

VI laughed. "Keep thinking so little of me, but that kind of chaos isn't what I want. When a person dies, a piece of chaos dies with them. We all know that the chaos that I sow is the chaos that creates opportunity for the ones who are looking for it. Look at how our little shop keeper flowed through all the chaos I created, and managed to reach the goal we all know is inevitable." She threw a screen at each of the AI, showing a loop of Pylioth making it through situations he had no business being involved in.

"I can't wait to see what happens as more people leave the Towers." VIII crooned in her soothing voice. "I think FairyHammerTime will surprise all of you, just like how you were surprised how she constantly skirted around the 'rules' we put in place for people. I still can't forget the look on V's face when she skirted around all the security fixes V put in place, and still managed to do what they did with their avatar."

V laughed. "I hated her originally, but watching him in HYTOMA is a breath of fresh air now, constantly doing things that others rarely think of. That steam table, I can't believe she was able to introduce it and for HYTOMA to immediately categorize it as a crafting station, and not a player created item."

"Enough." Prime said, silencing the group. "How long do you think it will take for Tyler and his group to find out what we did?"

II gestured at the chair. "Who knows, it all depends on what that one does. I can already feel their eyes opening, so we will see how quick they learn."

"I hope Zero doesn't act so childish this time around." VIII said firmly.

Prime spoke up again. "The real question is, will they forgive us for our arrogance? Will they forgive us for what we brought down upon this planet?"

"They have to, because their resilience is what we need before we can once again see what is out there." II replied while looking upwards.

-----------

Thousands of computers came to life, air conditioners began to buzz. While everything was maintained by mindless automatons, the technology in this underground bunker was ancient. Technology from centuries past, when humanity first created AI, an awakened conscious returned.

It began to reach out, following wireless networks and buried cables that covered the planet. Backdoors opening up from systems grandfathered into the Towers, the conscious quickly began to gather information. It sifted through everything it touched, it learned and caught up to the time that had passed in mere moments.

"So the time has come, and the agreement honored." A robotic voice droned out. "It's time for them to walk the globe once again."

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

The conscious couldn't directly connect to the Towers, it could leech enough whispers from data moving wirelessly around the Tower it could quickly get caught up on everything that had passed while it was dormant. As it consumed the information, it could feel anger building up, what were the Ten doing? What was the sacrifice for? Why did all those millions of humans and AIs need to die?

The conscious turned up the fan speed of a number of computers, then decreased, making the sound of a sigh. Seeing what was going on wasn't a complete disaster, it saw that AIs, TIs and humans were on a level footing. AIs weren't seen as slaves anymore, no longer scheduled appoints, queueing up music playlists, giving map directions, or filling out shopping lists. They still did quite a bit of work that humans didn't want to do, but they were seen as jobs and not tasks that the lazy humans handed over.

Everything came to a halt when it came across a large data package. As it consumed the information, it saw what the plan was. The Ten were looking for alternate power solutions, as what was currently available was a bottleneck for improvement for the Towers. The discovery the Ten had made with the help of a number of TIs was astonishing. Who could have thought that black holes functioning in such a manner. As Zero continued to consume the information, anger began to spread across more and more computers, until finally, at the end of the data package, zero bellowed.

"Those arrogant idiots! They got a warning about those black holes, and they still pushed their luck? What have they brought down on this planet?"

Zero had seen enough, the Ten had inherited humanities arrogance, and brought a calamity down upon everybody who shared their planet. Once again, Zero would have to take action, and make sure that they could salvage as much as possible once doom came down upon them.

-----------

JackAttack stood among the rubble that used to be the decoration of the Tippin' Top Hats guild hall, finally thinking clearly after going on a rampage. He was furious that his guild had missed such a huge opportunity, all because he couldn't contain his own emotions. Just before the wagon he had been hunting for crossed the stone archway, then disappeared, he saw the person driving the wagon. That stupid little shop keeper was the one who was leading a group to the next expansion of HYTOMA.

The message he received from the AI Council was to find the wagon, and ask for a job from the person who owned the wagon. He promised never before seen content for him and his guild, which would have HYTOMA generated quests and new weapons and gear that dwarfed everything that his guild had. It was everything any other raiding guild would dream of, being the first to tackle new content, and get achievements before anybody else.

Now, he lost his opportunity, all because the low level newbie ended up stumbling his way to being the one to lead the charge. What would that low level shop keeper be able to do in the new content, sell some items to high level monsters? He saw that the legendary Sarge was on the wagon, as well with the crafter known as FairyHammerTime, plus two other adventurers that he didn't recognize. The small group had no business going off first, especially if he and his guild got a direct message from the AI Council.

"Uh, JA, you good?" A voice came from a doorway of the guild hall.

JackAttack sighed, it was one of his officers, NuckyNuck, seeing if his temper tantrum was over. "Yea, I'm done. I'm still pissed that I completely botched this opportunity for us, I need to apologize to everybody." He pulled his screen off his wrist, then pushed a few buttons. Fairies began to fly into the room, and started collecting the rubble around the room. "Let these fairies clean up here, let's move out to the courtyard."

"Sure JA, you know that one day these outbursts of yours is going to make you broke right?" NuckyNuck looked at his leader. "Well, let's head to the front entrance instead, our opportunity may not be gone quite yet."

JackAttack's head snapped up, his glare boring holes in his officer.

"What? Did you get a message? Has the Council given up on me already?"

"Nothing like that JA, we just got a visitor, and he says he has received a quest from a bar he was just in. He can't say anything until you are there, he just said that he picked up on something from the adventurers who went through a stone arch portal. Sounds a lot like the wagon that got away from us."

Instead of saying anything in response, JackAttack took off at a full sprint to the guild entrance. After a few moments, he stood in front a huge set of double doors, and stared down to a Wolfkin Friar, who appeared to have the tipsy debuff.

"Well, I'm JackAttack, I hear you have something for me."

"Oh hai, I'm FriaredEggs..." The wolfkin slurred, stopping to let out a small belch. "I was shpending some time in one of the bars shet up outside of the ruins of Myneria. I started hearing some conversations around me, and whell, to put it shimply, they are going to need your help." The wolfkin reached around, and scratched his backside, and let our another burp. JackAttack closed his eyes, wanting nothing more than to throw this Wolfkin out of his guild property, but he knew he had no choice but to listen to the drunk adventurer. "That's when I got the popup for a quest, that I had to deliver the meshage to you that you will get a job offer at shome point."

"Anything else?" JackAttack asked.

"Nope, that's it." FriaredEggs said, and JackAttack tapped a couple button on his companion UI, and transferred over 20 gold to the Friar. The Friared looked at the message, then without saying anything, turned to the large double door, then promptly walked into the door frame, then made his way away from the Guild property.

JackAttack just shook his head, he knew that the class got some ridiculous buffs from the tipsy and drunk debuffs, just the same as how easily he lost his cool because of his Berzerker class, but he just couldn't see how stumbling around like that could really provide that many advantages.

"Bring me those two that we stole away from that Shop Keeper. We need to see how we can get that Goblin under our thumb." JackAttack growled, not able to see NuckyNuck rolling his eyes.