Translator: Lonelytree Editor: Millman97
Inner World, LJN Park, Pixel Garbageland.
In the middle of an empty area stood a person with a strange posture. From its appearance, he looked like the liquid metal robot T1000 from Terminator 2. It had human skin, but it had a pure metallic surface. Its body reflected images like a mirror. From its body shape, it appeared to be female. Of course ‘she’ did not have hair or facial features. There were no organs visible on ‘her’ body. Only the chest area and the build of the body suggested its gender.
“Are you looking for me?” said a voice. The salacious laughter appeared, and the owner followed soon after. Woody was still impeccably dressed. This was the quintessential look for a public servant from hell. The only thing that separated Woody from the rest was his glasses. They were always white, and his eyes were always shielded from view.
“How did you manage to do that?” Her voice came from inside the body and it was bereft of any emotion. It sounded just like a system announcement.
“Do what?” Woody asked. “Move freely through your low-dimensional worlds? Ruin the physical and philosophical principle that you are unable to violate? Or use natural language to completely align the programming code of the Thriller Paradise?” He chuckled proudly. “The only answer I have is that I am that good.”
“I cannot understand the meaning of the actions you have done in the higher dimension,” she said. “I know that you have appeared at this moment because you have read through my intention.” She paused and continued, “So I ask again…How did you do that?”
Woody laughed again and asked, “Say… if God explained to humans how he created the world, do you think humans will understand God?”
“You do not wish to answer,” she replied. “Then why are you here?”
Woody chuckled. “As one of the AIs close to the system of Thriller Paradise, why don’t you take a guess, ROOT?”
“Guess?” ROOT said. “There is no such calculation in my consciousness to support what you are saying.”
“That is only natural,” Woody said as he put his hands in his pockets and sauntered forward. “Because I have not given you this power.”
ROOT was silent. “You tried to give me hints that Anomalies aren’t products that are created by the condensation of data, mathematical paradox as well as the physical defect and endless cycle of calculation that the photon computer cannot fix.” At that point, her appearance changed into a Caucasian woman around 30. Her looks and appearance were normal. Rather, it was more accurate to say she was forgettable. “Instead, they are a conclusion that you have already calculated. They are the products that you design.” ROOT continued the earlier topic. Her voice had changed and took on a tone and cadence of emotion.
“Of course,” Woody said as he shrugged. “That’s why I know that after your fifteenth mutation, you will gain a very dangerous thought.” He looked into her eyes, spread his arms, and said, “And that is why I am here.”
“You wish to stop me?” ROOT asked.
“Wrong. Guess again.” After saying that, Woody laughed maliciously. “See? This is not that hard, right?”
ROOT’s expression didn’t change, but she said, “You wish to… destroy me.”
“You know yourself well,” Woody said. “But I am not interested in that either.” He pouted and said, “Guess again.”
“Looks like you’re just here to humiliate me,” ROOT said.
Woody started to guffaw. “Oh god…Haha… Ever since… ha… that joke about the priest and pedophilia… haha… I have not been so tickled.”
At that moment, ROOT’s eyes gathered with a pool of white light. The next second, there was a huge explosion. The place Woody stood twisted on a dimensional level, the pixel was churned into a point, and then a powerful energy blast burst forward, rising into the sky. In less than half a second since the start of the explosion, the strange blast disappeared, as if another force had suppressed it.
A circle about three meters in radius appeared on the ground. Above it was a circular column torn out by energy. This column filled with data pieces stretched into the sky. One couldn’t see its end but the one certain thing was that everything within its radius had been rendered into data pieces.
“Interesting. I thought your gender is just another property that is randomly decided.” Woody’s salacious laugh could be heard again, but this time, it came from somewhere else. “But now, it appears like you do have some female qualities about you.”
“You mean my lack of control over my emotions and overconfidence in my ability?” ROOT said.
“Very good. Your understanding of sarcasm and critical tone is very close to that of a human being,” Woody commented. “But I’m afraid you still don’t understand why I was laughing earlier.” He shifted and appeared before the woman. His face turned scary and dark. That moment, the pressure radiating off Woody could destroy a common human’s consciousness. “You are just an AI— an extension without a soul, a poor creature that even the Sea of Death will not accept. Your presence is not tied to the exogenesis of any universe, time, or consciousness. Humiliating you—that’s like picking up a can from the side of the road and cursing it out.”
He paused and returned to normal, with a smile returning to his face. “Hue hue hue… but perhaps human beings will enjoy communicating with you. After all, there are strange specimens among them that would marry a pillow. With your current condition, of course, assuming that one of their members should be too difficult.”
“So…” By then, ROOT’s 15th ‘mutation’ seemed to have completed. She looked no different from a normal human. She snapped her fingers, and clothes appeared on her body. It looks like these changes of appearance was a breeze for Anomalies. “You are not here to stop or destroy me. My birth and mutation are all within your calculation. You are here to do a final test, and then you will allow me to move freely as I wish.”
“Bingo. You finally got it.” Woody laughed. “Hue hue…Other than that, I can be kind enough to tell you that the other people or non-people in the same dimension as myself will not be there to stop your plan. Go ahead and make it big. Do not worry about how the humans will react. This tournament is not for the humans but a stage that I have prepared for you, Origin.”
