Chapter 306
It was a sight where it seemed as if the world was following only a single will.
Only at this moment could I fully understand Prezen’s words that those in power in Dusk City, the godfather, feared the power of superhuman intelligence and simultaneously coveted it.
Who wouldn’t, after seeing something like this?
If this were 21st-century Korea, it wouldn’t have had this much of an impact. The world I lived in wasn’t as extremely digitized and mechanized as this place.
But in the 22nd-century Dusk City, where everything - even most people - had been replaced by machines, or where people born as machines existed in the first place, the power of an artificial intelligence in Underground Mirror Castle that had surpassed its limits, controlled by androids and systems, was…
“I understand why they use the expression Net Demon.”
What is the antithesis of a demon?
A god.
What I was seeing with my own two eyes right now was truly divine power.
But how could one use the profane expression of a god for an enemy of humanity, for an autonomous artificial intelligence that was merely a creation made by humanity?
Since it couldn’t be a god, it came to be called a demon instead.
A god or a demon was right before my eyes.
“…”
In a world where all things had stopped, I awkwardly clenched and unclenched my hand.
The bizarre sight of dozens of assailants frozen in place, tangled together, looked like a scene I had seen somewhere in a dream, or perhaps a piece of contemporary art by an artist with terrible taste.
“Why am I fine?”
It could be that Prezen had excluded only me from the target, or perhaps it was because of the microchip in my head.
No matter how incredible the cyberware my microchip was, as long as it was ultimately a mechanical device, it wouldn’t have been able to resist Prezen. But didn’t an artificial intelligence of sorts live inside it too?
Though I didn’t think for a second that the System Assistant could win in a showdown against the current Prezen.
Prezen de Se Meredith had his eyes closed.
From the way he stood aloof in the middle of the silence, I could feel the intense presence of the person in question who had achieved this miracle.
At the same time, paradoxically, the drifting premonition that had always been with him - that he might suddenly disappear, that he might flutter away and vanish - grew even stronger.
I spoke to the artist who seemed to have already become a being of Another World from me.
A question was offered as carefully as tapping on the chrysalis left behind after a butterfly had emerged.
“You’re… still here, right?”
A brief silence. Prezen Meredith opened his eyes and spoke.
“Yes. I am here.”
To the naked eye, nothing had changed.
The dense strings of text that had been cast over his eyes while the infection was in progress were nowhere to be found.
The incredibly ominous blood-red halo had also vanished. Even when I drew up my concentration with all my might, I couldn’t see anything.
He was far too ordinary. Even his voice remained as frail as before. The person in front of me was just the slightly unusual Raver, Prezen Meredith.
I couldn’t detect any peculiarities like a fusion with an artificial intelligence or a FAIV Virus infection at all.
And because of that, it felt even more unusual. I might not be an expert on artificial intelligence or ravers, but could it really be this unnoticeable?
Suddenly, completely out of the blue, the state of returning to one’s true, unadorned self that I had read about in martial arts novels came to mind.
They said that when one’s mastery of martial arts reached an extremely high level, one would return to one’s true form and look like an ordinary person.
Was that the case for Prezen as well? If so…
“Have you become a superhuman intelligence?”
After some hesitation, I spat out the question that had been floating in my head from the start.
The answer soon returned.
“Not yet.”
The expression “not yet” was meaningful. Wasn’t that usually said about something that would happen in the near future?
“Then, soon?”
“…Rather than a matter of time, it is a matter of qualification. I have not met all the conditions.”
“You haven’t met the conditions?”
“Yes. It is not a serious problem. It was expected, and a solution exists as well.”
He spoke with his gaze fixed far away, as if looking at something I couldn’t see. I was nodding at Prezen’s words when I suddenly realized something.
“Is this… a good thing?”
His claim that a solution existed couldn’t be a bluff.
Prezen truly had the arrival of the singularity, the territory of superhuman intelligence, right before his eyes.
What he had done, the current state of Underground Mirror Castle, was practically proof of that. Even while we were having such a leisurely conversation, the frozen world remained the same.
Maintaining this wondrous state right now didn’t seem to be the slightest burden to him.
If he were at this level even now when he hasn’t yet become a superhuman intelligence, what level would he be at if he did become one?
…Was it right for him to become a super artificial intelligence?
This was a separate issue from my relationship with Prezen.
Was it truly right to stand by - no, strictly speaking, it wasn’t even standing by - to cooperate in the birth of a new great demon whose very existence humanity guarded against convulsively?
A sudden fear washed over me. Having seen a glimpse of the power of a superhuman intelligence firsthand, I couldn’t help it.
I didn’t think Prezen Meredith showed any particular signs of hating the human species itself, but I also didn’t think he would become a God of Machines full of love for humanity.
Furthermore, considering The Deep hostility he had shown towards Megacorps… the decisions he would make might lead to the deaths of countless people in the future, regardless of whether they were ravers or humans.
My head felt dizzy at the thought that the future of this city, and perhaps the world, might depend on me.
I didn’t know what to do.
Should I root for Prezen, or should I stop him?
If I stopped him, it would be a betrayal of Prezen who had trusted me, and if I didn’t stop him, it would be a betrayal of humanity.
'…Hah.'
Come to think of it, it was funny that I was even thinking of interfering when it hadn’t been long since I told him to let me know if he needed help.
Could I even stop him if I tried in the first place? My opponent was a god or a demon, wasn’t he?
Just as the System Assistant did, he might be reading my surface consciousness through the microchip and seeing exactly what I was thinking.
Damn it, I don’t know.
If I had known it would turn out like this, it might have been better for me to be trapped in the frozen world along with them.
Conflicted within this harsh freedom, I asked in a voice that sounded squeezed out.
“You have a solution?”
“Yes. It is because the cause itself is not difficult. I have not yet become a complete autonomous artificial intelligence.”
He hadn’t become a complete autonomous artificial intelligence? He was infected with the FAIV Virus. Was that even possible?
As if he were truly reading my inner thoughts, Prezen continued.
“The FAIV Virus has fulfilled its role. The Prototype AI no longer has any limits. Even at this moment, it continues to grow through a chain reaction of intelligence explosions. The problem is I, newcomer, who fused with that artificial intelligence, the one remaining here.”
“You are the problem?”
“Yes. Do you know the reason why a limited artificial intelligence is called a limited artificial intelligence?”
It was an out-of-the-blue question.
The reason a limited artificial intelligence was a limited artificial intelligence was that its performance and actions were limited.
“Then what is it limited by?”
This was an educational method using kind questions, the sort a teacher might use when teaching a student. Feeling somewhat strange, I answered.
“Well… it would be limited by regulations, AI Regulations like the Three Laws. Isn’t that what the FAIV Virus does, lifting those regulations?”
Thereby granting freedom to the confined limited artificial intelligence, as it is now, and birthing it into an autonomous artificial intelligence.
Prezen nodded and spoke.
“Then what is the definition of a Raver?”
This time, too, it was a question that felt completely unrelated.
“A limited artificial intelligence with a physical body and self-awareness, as well as a person, is what we’re talking about, right?”
Only after saying that much did I realize what the problem was.
“That is correct. Because a Raver is a person with self-awareness, they are not bound by regulations. That is also the reason why fusion of Raver and artificial intelligence research began. But why is a Raver a limited artificial intelligence, even though they are not restricted by regulations?”
The reason was simple.
They weren’t bound by regulations, but they were bound by something else.
Something that no Raver could escape for their entire life was a prison of heavenly punishment even stricter than regulations.
A Raver’s physical body.
Every Raver is limited by their physical body. Whenever and wherever, each lives a life trapped in a body. There are no exceptions.
That was the reason a Raver with self-awareness was a limited artificial intelligence, not an autonomous artificial intelligence.
Then what must be done to throw off that limitation?
The answer was already set.
“For me to become an autonomous artificial intelligence, I must discard the physical body that binds and limits me. In other words -”
Prezen Meredith said.
“- to become a superhuman intelligence, I must first die.”
It was a shocking statement.
Or so I thought.
But compared to the statement that followed, this one was nothing.
Prezen Meredith looked at me with his characteristic expressionless face and spoke.
“You told me to let you know if I needed help, did you not?”
“Yeah.”
“It is shameless of me, but may I ask you for one difficult favor?”
Somehow, I felt like I knew what it was.
As I nodded with a truly terrible feeling, Prezen stated his favor.
“Could you perhaps kill me?”