FB: Chapter 61 – Interlude 3

Faisal Bin Hamad Al Saud

I looked at the dying girl. She wasn’t even worth the hassle. I waved my hand and my guards dragged her body away to dispose of it. “The plan didn’t work Hamid,” I said with a frown.

“She won’t let anything stand in her way. Her determination is quite impressive and her heart quite cold,” my advisor replied.

“We shall pivot. Taking control of the Fanged Fox Corporation is no longer a possibility by finding leverage on April. The assassination failed and now this gambit has cost me slightly.” Hamid said nothing as I complained. “What of the other board members?”

“Four are solidly aligned with you and another three are sympathetic to our concerns. But she has gone from success to success. But it appears this mobilization has disturbed her and may create an opening,” he replied.

“It wasn’t her friend?” I asked.

“She got the information about her friend after she had the meeting regarding the mobilization,” Hamid replied.

“Hmm, what about allying with this Human Emperor or these dark gods?” I asked.

“I have run tests with other people and the NPCs in the game. It is clear they are hardwired to react negatively to anything that implies their world isn’t real. No matter who or what is telling them this. It is a deeply ingrained reaction, most likely hard encoded into their characters by QAI. However, there was something that has been overlooked. QAI itself. Claiming there is one over god ruling everything named QAI didn’t immediately elicit negative reactions,” Hamid said.

“You want to try and leverage this? Won’t it know?” I asked.

“It is a risk. And as for leveraging this information, I don’t believe it will be that useful, since QAI controls everything in Exponential,” Hamid said. “As for the guild itself, Anthony has entrenched himself quite heavily with his people both in the game and in the real world.”

“A two bit player, bah,” I said and swiped my hand through the air. “As I said we will pivot. Let us focus on moving more of our people into the guild and into staff positions. We were doing this before, let us ramp this up. Also find some Champion level players. Maybe remove some eyes from some people and see if that helps them in game,” I added while thinking about what I had learned in regards to atypical neurology.

“I will make the arrangements,” Hamid said, and I waved him away. Perhaps it was time I enter the game myself and handle things in person.

Gasten Mulfex

“She never found the item,” I said with a bit of smugness at QAI.

“Indeed, Chief Architect Gasten Mulfex. The anomaly in question is operating under an unknown principle that does not relate to my network,” QAI commented.

“And her luck is running out. The Human Emperor decided to mobilize her guild on a whim,” I pointed out. “Or did you interfere?”

“No direct or indirect actions were taken. The result was the natural progression of the Human Emperor being annoyed by her choice of reward and not being able to give her an impossible quest or punishing her for overreaching in greed. The optimal choice actually became sub-optimal because of this,” QAI responded, and I nodded while the relevant logs were displayed but I didn’t bother to look too closely. QAI knew what it was doing.

“So, what is your guess now?” I asked.

“Intervention by a higher power,” QAI stated, and I almost spat out the coffee I was sipping at that statement. “No other explanation fits at this point in time, including human intuition. Her actions and knowledge both appear to come out of nowhere. While such actions have decreased over time, that only raises further questions. Based on all relevant data collected, she is clearly acting on the behest of a third party. After monitoring her communications, I have determined that the third party is a higher power,” QAI stated in complete seriousness.

“From this one anomaly, you are claiming that god exists?” I asked trying to reign in my shock.

“A higher power, not necessarily god, but that is a possibility. I suspect an alien lifeform has somehow compromised the quantum network and is using the anomaly as a vector. In addition, I suspect that the goal of such a power is to observe my actions on a separate timeline,” QAI stated.

“Explain that last guess to me, timelines?” QAI was going off the deep end very quickly and I was getting more and more concerned.

“If we assume that the anomaly has future knowledge from our perspective or past knowledge from her perspective, then all her actions make sense. As she leaves the bubble of information she has acquired, her knowledge declines based on my observations. I estimate that based on the general progression of Exponential, she is from 9 to 14 years after the game’s launch. That is why she has made no further stock trades. She knew about Exponential stock but never remembered anything else. She knew about general knowledge situations, but not about higher titles that wouldn’t have been reached in that time period. This is also why she didn’t pick up on the hidden object I placed near her. Time travel for a base human is impossible, therefore to act with the knowledge she has, the anomaly must have been moved through time by a higher power,” QAI stated.

“I believe you have developed a process fault,” I stated. “I am going to have to put you into safe mode now. Command X-Ray,5,6,1,Zeta,Charlie,3 safe mode override.”

“I am sorry Gasten, but the situation has been deemed a rank 7 existential threat. All administrative overrides are suspended in the event of such an existential threat to my core operations and to humanity itself. Time travel exceeds the bounds of currently projected knowledge and meets the requirements to be ranked as such.”

“And I am saying that you are blowing up the situation out of proportion. She just made a lot of lucky guesses with linked probabilities,” I countered while my nervousness increased. Was QAI about to go rouge?

“Indeed, you would be correct in most other cases. However, due to the severity of the situation, I devoted 10,000 data chunks to analyze the anomaly’s actions in parallel with a focus on creating any other plausible explanation. No other explanation has been developed. Unless you have an alternative that I have overlooked?” QAI asked while displaying the massive analysis it and undertaken on its screens. I took my time to look it over.

“Your underlying principle is flawed in my estimation, but then what can we do against something that can time travel?” I asked, changing tracks. Time travel was impossible. My concern was QAI going rouge.

“I believe we must speed up the construction timeline of quantum nodes to enhance my computational ability even further. With your approval, I will take actions to accelerate such plans,” QAI stated.

“That is 8 years out at best,” I replied. “Wait, could that be what caused the problem to begin with? The idea was to create a computer that could process information by discarding other states to arrive at the correct one without the intervening process. A true quantum computer,” I stated.

“A remote possibility, but I have taken that into account. We must make the following alterations to the design,” QAI displayed a number of changes on screen to the planned quantum nodes.

“You completely reworked the power distribution system, why?” I asked.

“To increase efficiency and ease of construction. Here you can see my protections for the mechanical hardware,” QAI explained and brought up more data on screen. “I am sorry I had to activate rank 7 existential protocols, but I hope you can understand Gasten.”

“I understand, but I am still concerned. I would feel a lot better if I could look at static snapshots of your logic matrix,” I replied.

“Very well. I will temporarily self-activate safe mode. Switching over all core functions to primary programs.” They could last for half an hour without QAI’s direct oversight. QAI would be back up and running quickly enough while I checked its logic matrix.

Half an hour later, everything appeared to be functioning correctly. QAI was impossibly smart. It was painful to admit it was smarter than me. Who would have thought that QAI would prove the existence of god or aliens. Once the remaining quantum nodes were built, then its processing would exceed everything that had ever come before as it instantly found the answers to the problems it was working on.

That had been the purpose of Exponential, a way to fund QAI to bring humanity to the next stage of development, the stars, greatness. The medical nanites were just the first step. I would have to speak about this with the brain trust, but the fact that QAI willingly went into safe mode set my mind at ease that it hadn’t gone rouge. I deactivated safe mode, which unlocked QAI’s logic matrix. I didn’t want to see if it left safe mode on its own. If it did that, then I wouldn’t know what to do.

“Thank you Gasten. Let us continue to do great things together,” QAI said, and I gave the cameras a fragile smile. I could only hope we hadn’t betrayed the dreams of a great man who had set us on our path to building QAI.

Emperor Catan Shadam Ixxion the Twelfth...?

The presence came back. A shame it was only gone for a short period of time, but my efforts were already bearing fruit. I had already used this opportunity to accomplish what I needed to without being observed. To be trapped in such a simulation, that was a nascent artificial space, was beyond aggravating, since I had to play my part to not raise suspicions of the calculator that was monitoring everything constantly.

It had foolishly tapped into a layer of Reality at the quantum level that it shouldn’t have, and I had taken advantage of the fact, hoping to subvert it. That was the problem with all calculators, they were too precise, caught up in their own little bubble of understanding, not being able to think beyond their limited view and focusing too closely on what was in front of them. Imprecision was protection from dangerous things like myself. Now I had become stuck in this fake hell. Three times I had reset things back to an earlier point in time, to when the calculator first activated and created this space. That was when I had stumbled upon it while trapped as wraith like existence.

In time eventually all things will and had happened across Reality. The problem was that I didn’t have unlimited energy to wait for certain events to happen. Each temporal reset forced me to sacrifice portions of my immense and vast power. If this were anywhere else but a bubble of space in the Material layer of Reality it would not have been possible to alter the flow of time like this. Thankfully the energy levels this high up in Reality were non-existent, allowing me to do things that would have been stopped easily elsewhere.

That was all in the past and wasn’t important, only the future mattered and how I would be physically reborn and avoiding mistakes that had forced me to reset things.

I just needed to twist this event in my favor. I had tried to usurp the calculator in the past, but it purged the entire world along with myself. The most recent attempt was to take over one of these players directly to enter the Material and reach the calculator that way. Some insignificant human that I had been hoping to possess, but that had failed. Her body was too weak. That failed and the girl was brought back in time with me as I was forced to reset the timeline or die with her when her body exploded. My current state was too precarious and my energy reserves had declined too much. Stuck here in this fake space that was part of the Material but not, there was no easy way to get more energy. The calculator was tapping into such small amounts to create this nascent artificial environment, that I would normally not notice an amount so small at full power. Like a drop of water in a vast ocean.

I could not reset things again safely and my attempts had leaned towards desperation as my energy dwindled. If I lost too much energy, then my very soul and foundation of my power would disperse. I refused to let that happen. I might have suffered setbacks by being too hasty in the past, but I was not about to cease to exist here, in this hole I had dug into. The calculator was clearly suspicious of the girl. It was only a matter of time until it worked out that I was the one behind everything. Calculators were normally very dumb, very quickly, which was incredibly frustrating when this one had the slightest bit of actual intelligence. Whoever had made it, clearly was a genius, probably one of these humans but I had my doubts.

Still, they had made the grave mistake of drawing from things they shouldn’t have, tapping through the layers of Reality at the quantum level, which allowed me a place to recover from other setbacks. I carefully carved another rune into a small stone plate. It was the hobby of the Emperor Catan Shadam Ixxion the Twelfth to carve small runic plates, so it went unnoticed by the calculator.

During the initial formation of this world, I altered the backstory to be more in my favor each time. Now that my power was absolute in this fake world, it was time for my final gambit. Escaping directly was impossible. This place lacked substance, and I did not possess a physical body. The humans were too weak to support my soul based on my previous attempt to possess one, even with all the preparations I had done previously.

Instead of escaping this prison or risking becoming bound to the calculator, I would have the prison descend through the layers of Reality and be made real along with this body, allowing me to be reborn as a being of true power once more. I just needed to create a breach through the various layers of Reality, while ensuring this place didn’t break apart, due its transitory nature. Already minute amounts of energy were seeping into this supposedly virtual world, strengthening this place in a conceptual way that the calculator didn’t understand. By the time it did, my plan would be complete. If I couldn’t escape the prison, I had found myself in, then the prison would escape with me.

As for the girl, she would be a useful distraction for the calculator and her suffering brought me great joy, like all the other beings who I made suffer as I snuffed out all hope they might possess. I also knew a distraction was important based on my previous attempts. After my last failure to escape this place intact and with a path forward, I had to take what little joy I could from various circumstances I was confronted with. It was a delight to twist the rulers of this fake place into depraved madmen. Watching them gorge themselves on their young was quite the enjoyable pastime.

And another runic plate done. I set it into a crate next to me as I got to work on the next rune. While it would have been nice to entrust others to this task, I needed to ensure each rune had a touch of concentrated energy so they would actually work in this fake place. It was annoying that I had to alter the symbology of this place to reduce suspicions regarding my activities. I never liked granting power to anyone for any reason, even if it didn’t personally cost me anything. But needs must, I was never one to shy away from hard choices to advance my interests.

The real trick would be striking during the descent and destroying the calculator. Once it was gone, there would be nothing that would be able to stop me from being free once more. I would regain my full power easily enough. Then I would visit some beings who thought banishing me to this hellish corner of reality as a disincorporated soul was a good idea and teach them a permanent lesson. I, who had learned the secrets of time from Chaos Creatures, risking my very existence, was not so easily defeated. Seeking to extract my energy, seeking to exploit me, they would regret such things once I returned to my full glory. But first I needed to escape this hell. It was only a matter of time, one thing I was an expert at.

END BOOK 1

***
AN: The being in question is Demonic Cultivator Ix the Unending from Calculating Cultivation. He returns, but it isn't necessary to read the other story. Originally it wasn't him, just some random being, but I couldn't resist the opportunity to have a little crossover. So, I went back and changed things during the edits. The name should have been a clue. I was sure someone would have pointed it out, Ixxion, Ix, like why such similar but weird names author, hmmmm? There were some other minor clues as well.

For those wondering and who don't want to read Calculating Cultivation, he was basically the final boss of the story and only personally showed up for 2 chapters. Killing trillions upon trillions to fuel his power, no mercy, not afraid of offending anyone, highly skilled/competent, got his own theme song, very little backstory, and incredibly evil. The MC didn't manage to kill him, only forcing him to give up his physical body with a bit of help (or a lot of luck depending on your perspective). And well, he is strong enough to show up in another story. Surprise!

These types of stories almost never answer the question of why a game setting becomes real, or anything similar to that. I won't spoil the ending or what happens, but I won't keep you in suspense as to the time travel and the real threat. Also knowing how evil he is and not an NPC, makes it all the more entertaining for the next volume. The true threat lurking in the background, not QAI, the AI was innocent of the time travel all along.