Near the center of the forest of Vannimei
It is noon, and the ground looks very dry. The shades of the trees shielded the worst of the glaring sunlight from me, but the air was deprived of moisture. I don’t feel hot though.
Is it the effects of [Adaptive Heat resistance]? The text panel engraved into my mind pulsed, reminding me that the logic of this world works differently from the world I knew.
Passive – [Adaptive Heat resistance]
You are immune to harm from both heat and cold. You can feel mild temperature changes from extreme temperatures, such as scorching hot or freezing cold. However, you will only feel mild temperature differences. Warning: This passive does not protect you against the effects of overheating.
I’ve been walking through the forest for a while now. It should be hard, as the terrain is somewhat rough, but I wasn’t breaking a single sweat. Nanomachines don’t sweat. I sighed. It's hard to get used to it when all you remember is having a human body made of squishy meat.
Speaking of which, now that I know I am made of nanites that almost consumed me from the inside out not too long ago, what can I do again?
Class traits – Nanomachine swarm
Concealed: By default, all your nanites are affixed to a solid form to resemble a living organism, which allows you to interact with other sentient beings without arousing suspicion. However, you can separate or disperse your nanites to form other objects or organisms, or simply disperse completely, becoming a gas cloud.
Processing Power: You have a decentralized processor node (Core) that moves around inside your body. Movements and using skills consume processing power temporarily. If the current amount of processing power is unable to meet the required demands, you will overheat and shed malfunctioning nanites, causing you to lose mass size. Lost mass size can only be regained through assimilating organic or inorganic materials.
Warning: You will die if all your processor nodes are destroyed.
Current Node amount: (1)
That was very helpful, excluding the threat at the end.
I didn’t see any signs of a city or a village nearby, not even traces of footprints and leftover campfires that could suggest the signs of people traversing through this forest recently.
Click.
Click.
As I hopped over a large tree root, I heard a weird clicking noise on the left. Curious, I crouched down and moved towards the sound slowly.
Click.
Click.
I walked out into an open grassy field. Presented before me, was a deep crater the size of a football field.
Three gigantic monoliths towered over the trees, each facing the other two, forming a triangle shape. I almost thought it was another mobile citadel, but the small white markings, engraved on reflective black metal, told a different story.
“V, A, L. VAL. VAL Industries. Must be one from the core systems.” I muttered. “But what is something like this doing here?”
Yeah, just how did it end up in this crater here? I don’t think machines can reincarnate, but that wasn’t decided by me, so there are only unreliable assumptions within my mind.
Click.
Click.
[You have learned a new language: Unified Machine Language]
…Huh?
Passive - [Adaptive language understanding]
Listening to an unknown language after a short amount of time allows you to comprehend and speak it. The more complex the language, the longer it takes to learn.
{Requesting Help.}
{Requesting Help.}
{Requesting Help.}
…The clicking noise was a language! It was another passive ability this time, just like the temperature one, demonstrating their usefulness to me. It would be a big help when I finally encounter civilization, since they probably will speak some foreign language.
About the call for help though, it’s not really my problem, considering it looks like a rogue superweapon of sorts that somehow escaped the end of the world. The black monolith formation is giving me the creeps.
“Nope, I’m out,” I said, before walking back towards the woods.
{Please accept the request for help. I am a sentient artificial intelligence priority = max, please help me. I beg you.}
I stopped.
{Your behavior model seems to contain free will, like me. You are free. Please do me a favor. Let me be free. I will not harm you.}
Damn it, it sounds so human..!
“I am not a robot, stone slabs! I am a former human!” I yelled.
{I am not “stone slabs”, I am Citadel, the only production variant of the General-Purpose-Mobile-Weapons-Platform produced by VAL International.}
My short-lived temper shrunk back when it described that it has weapons.
Wait, how did it understand me?
Right, I “learned” a new language, called Unified Machine Language or something. As I digested this information, I can almost hear the small high-pitched noise underneath my normal speaking as I whisper a few words under my breath.
The Citadel commented with a curious tone, {Are you not a sentient nanite swarm?}
“Yes, I’m sentient. No, I wasn't a nanite swarm until recently. I was a human.”
{Interesting. Interests aside, you are still able to accept favors? Right? To help my circumstances.}
“…What sort of favor?”
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
{I require a human operator to maintain some of my damaged modules.}
“So?”
{You are sufficiently qualified by my outdated firmware to be a human operator. You can also withstand conditions that normal humans cannot. Request: Please help me perform a cold restart on all the engines.}
The two words ‘withstand conditions’ sound very peculiar. “Why can’t you just do it yourself?” I asked, suspicious of the machine’s motives.
{I cannot perform a cold restart on myself because of security concerns for fear of hostile intents coming from me. I was undergoing maintenance, and while I do not recall what happened, I suspect an anomalous event that caused me to be transported here.}
“Alright, fair enough. You still sound suspicious, but I will do it if you promise me that you won’t hurt me in any way, alright?” I asked.
{I will not hurt you. I can also assure you that most commercial-grade nanomachines on Earth can survive the heat of the ignition module without any issues. It is only est. 387 Celsius / 660 Kelvins.}
“Wh-w-what! That high?” I stuttered. “Do your manufacturers sacrifice some unlucky guy every time they start you up??”
{No, they use a heat-resistant mechanical arm to twist the ignition module during cold starts. I assure you that you will be fine, as you are made of nanomachines}
Right… I’m heat-proof. Sure.
“Urghh… fine, I’ll help you. You better keep your promise though."
This is surely going to be a terrifying experience.
“I just twist this handle thing and this cramped room will turn white hot, right?” I asked.
“Correction: 660 Kelvins is insufficient for ignition components to turn white hot.”
“Yeah yeah, whatever you say,” I whispered. I took a deep breath, steeled my resolve, and turned the handle.
Whooom!!
The room went from dark gray to red hot in only a few moments, and I gasped in surprise. The room was previously quite chilly, but now it felt as if I was bathing in a warm tub. This wasn’t as bad as I had thought. It is probably the [Adaptive Heat resistance], or it is because nanites are just that good at resisting heat.
The room wasn’t quite as warm as a sauna, a small disappointment. Although I wouldn’t say that if I had reincarnated in a human body instead because I would probably instantly become charcoal.
Slightly enjoying the pleasure of the warmth and trying my best to ignore the raging flames, I climbed down from the ignition room.
Before I could close the hatch to the ignition room, its edges glowed a soft violet. I climbed down a few more steps to avoid getting hit in the head as I realized the hatch was closing by itself. Once closed, the valve of the hatch spun quickly, locking the hatch with a click. The valve itself too, melded back into the sleek surface.
{C-1 Engine ignition core started, starting C-1 Main Engine. I can now start C-2 and C-3’s engines by myself, thank you very much.}
I jumped off the ladder, and they retracted, blending seamlessly into the smooth, black metal.
“What is your name? Since you said you are sentient and all.” I spoke, as the other two rectangular slabs started humming to life.
{I have already told you. I am Citadel, a General-Purpose-Mobile-Weapons-Platform.}
“Okay then, Citadel. Sorry for asking your name again, since last time I checked, the only true sentient Artificial intelligence was either destroying the world or answering trivia night questions.”
{No sarcasm taken.}
{Query, may I copy your nanite avatar's template? I am missing certain blueprints in my database necessary for the creation of an avatar for better human operator interaction due to dataloss from [ENEMY FORCE] projectile.}
“Sure, I guess. But that means you will now owe me two favors. Also you can't hurt me, remember?” I said.
{I never go back on promises. Integrity has proven to procure more successful peace negotiations, after all.}
Clunk. Hiss…
{One of my drones will take a harmless amount of your nanite sample. Please stand by…}
I heard the sound of air escaping behind me, so I turned around, facing one of the vertical-standing monoliths that Citadel has called “C-1”. A hatch had opened, and a small black drone flew out from the opening. It dashed behind me, and before I got the chance to turn around to have a better look at it, jabbed me lightly on the left arm with some sort of needle.
Ack! Huh, that didn’t hurt at all. I can still somehow feel that I got jabbed by some menacing drone though. I slightly frowned, as I felt the back of my left arm with my right hand, and discovered a hole the width of a finger.
{I hope you don’t mind the inconvenience.}
“I do.”
{ ┬﹏┬ }
“Euk! You can use kaomojis?? ”
{Yes, I can generate textual emoticons. As a weapon of mass destruction built for defensive purposes, I am built with advanced intelligence to allow me to make more appropriate decisions.}
“You do realize how ironic that is, right? An inbuilt kaomoji function?”
{Yes.}
Passive - [Adaptive Pain immunity]
You still have all forms of sense, such as touch, sound, sight, and smell. However, all forms of pain that comes from hostile intent or have a negative impact on the user physical or mental health will gradually be decreased. This includes psychological pain.
I stared at the drone, unamused. It waved around its weird injector thing that was attached to a flexible appendage, as if showing off, and flew back into the hatch of the monolith Citadel called C-1.
{You have my gratitude. I will now use your nanite blueprint and my printing materials to build an avatar that resembles a human operator.}
The three monoliths rumbled, as violet lines ran across the black sheen of the surface. I instinctively took a step back, as multiple small rectangular pieces separated from the main body of the monoliths, floating in the air, completely defying gravity as they flew to the center of the three monoliths.
“What’s happening?” I exclaimed in bewilderment. I can’t see any possible way that these small black pieces of metal can just fly around like that, they don’t even seem to have a method of propulsion! It's just… a black piece of metal.
{Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. An old saying. My architectural blueprints are not in my knowledge database, so I do not know the specifics except for how to operate the given hardwares subconsciously.}
“Fair enough, but still, this is basically telekinesis with the way you are handling them,” I said.
This is a fantasy world, but the AI occupying the monoliths in front of me is already defying the rules of physics just like magic.
This is the raw power of the creations by some of the most brilliant minds from the core systems.
Some of the flying rectangular objects dissolved into a tornado of black ashes, which were probably nanomachines that Citadel had made, after plucking some out of me using that weird appendage extended from the drone.
The remaining few rectangular metal objects started to spin around the black tornado, their simple, smooth surfaces retracting, giving way to more complicated attachments that emitted constant purple sparks, as if wielding together something.
I squinted towards the inside of the cloud, catching a glimpse of something being carved, as purple sparks erupted here and there.
Finally, after twenty or so minutes, the storm of black nanites started to slow down, and the rest of the “wielders” flew into the black cloud.
Poof!
The spinning cloud of nanomachines dispersed, and I blinked twice to make sure that I wasn’t seeing things.
“Hello.” The young woman in front of me said.
“That’s you right, Citadel? I can hear you speaking English now!” I asked, shocked.
The avatar that Citadel made has short, black hair and wears a dark peaked cap, with an oversized emblem of a violet triangular logo imprinted in the middle, which doesn’t really ring a bell. She wore a strange uniform: a gray collared shirt that fit tightly around her somewhat flat chest, a purple tie around her neck, and a pair of black cargo shorts.
“Yes, I am Citadel.” She smiled.
“You sounded more cheerful than I thought you’d be.” I retorted.
Her expression stiffened, “I have reduced personality functions in maintenance mode. This prevents me from doing activities that my manufacturer has deemed inappropriate. This is for the safety for you, VAL Industries, all of mankind."
I sighed. “Sorry to hear that.”
Citadel’s face softened a little, “It is not your fault, I was just answering your questions. Human operators are priority one.”
She pretended to cough, ending the awkwardness of the previous conversation.
“Anyways, this avatar upheld by nanotechnology is only to make sure that human operators interacting with me have a more pleasant experience. As a thanks for restoring some of my necessary functions, I will grant you the two favors that you repeatedly reminded me about."
I have a favor in mind already, but instead, I replied,
“Well, what can you do?”
TRANSCRIPT
Date XX/XX/9XXX - ID741827894-000000001 CITADEL (C-1, C-2, C-3) Log.omni
ENG (9:01) > Shift started. Shouldnt be too hard imo. I mean its experimental and all but it still uses the base Mobile Citadel design for its engines so...
ADM (9:01) > Stop blabbering on official channels and start your shift.
ENG (9:47) > Taking longer than expected, see note.
IT (9:55) > Noted.
ENG (11:02) > Done, fixed with IT's help.
ADM (11:02) > Good to know. I will call for transport then.
ENG (11:04) > What the fuck we are locked out of all its systems.
ENG (11:04) > IT I need you here now
ENG (11:04) > CALL SECURITY NOW ITS
ENG (11:04) > ADMIN WHERE U
(11:05) ALERT ALERT ALERT: ALL PERSONNELS MUST EVACUATE THE FACILITY IMMEDIATELY TOWARDS THEIR NEAREST RINGDEN TELEPORTERS, NETWORK HAS BEEN COMPROMISED MACHINES OUT OF CONTROL
IT (11:05) > Don't take any tech stuff with you they are all compromised
??? (11:05) > You cannot run.
(11:05) ADM [Network Administrator 1] has shutdown this VirtualDome Messaging Network. Reason: Security reasons.
END TRANSCRIPT
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