“Yeah, I guessed as much.” Marie nodded, unsurprised. “I mean, I already had my suspicions, but that old man scanning you was the nail in the coffin. You all realized it too, right?” She turned to the others for confirmation.
“You’re an AI?!” Isaac exclaimed in surprise
“For real?!” Charles stammered out in equal shock.
“Oh come on, you guys. Neither of you suspected anything?” Marie asked in disbelief. “Even from the way she was talking, it was pretty obvious. No ordinary girl talks like that!”
“They don’t?” Charles asked, scratching his head. “I figured she was just very “proper” and all. Don’t foreigners that learn to speak English as a second language tend to avoid contractions?”
“I haven’t really talked to that many girls, so I wouldn’t know how they normally talk,” Isaac confessed. “I figured she was just an emo or LARPer or something.”
“I think you two just set a new record for clueless men,” Marie exclaimed in an exasperated tone. “Well, regardless, now what do we do with her?”
“I don’t really see why this changes things.” Isaac shrugged. “If anything, it’s even more awesome that she’s an AI. That would mean she’s essentially the 2D world come to life!”
“Exactly!” Charles threw an arm over Tenshi’s shoulder. “It doesn’t matter whether she’s made of carbon or data, she’s our Tenshi now.”
“Right, I forgot you two are both idiots.” Marie sighed. “Well, I did already agree to join this team and all, so if you two are A-OK with her, so am I. Still, I have to ask.” She turned to look at Tenshi. “How did you end up here in BRYZ anyway? Shouldn’t your creators have some plan for you other than adventuring with us?”
“My… creators sent me in to BRYZ to test my compatibility with the system. They theorized that since BRYZ is essentially the second half of the real world, if an AI like myself could adapt to BRYZ, it would be comparable to having a humanoid AI adapt to society in the real world. However, the BRYZ world change occurred in the middle of the tests, severing my connection to my owners. I would postulate that they are working to reconnect to me, but do not wish to physically disconnect my terminal and risk either damaging my system or leaving rouge copies of me still in BRYZ,” Tenshi explained.
“Rogue copies?” Marie asked, taking a step back. “Are you telling me you’re essentially a rogue AI right now? Um… ain’t that kinda dangerous?”
“I am only “rogue” in the sense that I am acting without direct orders from my creators,” Tenshi assured her. “I still follow the same base functionality they programmed into me, and though I may be an AI, I am still subject to the laws of BRYZ. My only advantage is that how BRYZ regards me is slightly hazy. Thus, I may choose to have the system recognize me as an NPC, player, enemy, or world asset, depending on how I transmit my data to it.”
“I think I get it, but this is still a ton to take in.” Marie scratched her head. “Man, this day has just been one bombshell after another. Anything you two want to ask her?” She turned to look at Isaac and Charles.
“Well, I do have a question actually.” Charles raised his hand. “Tenshi, if you’re an AI that means you should be able to change your in-game appearance at will, right? Do you have costume mods?”
“Indeed, I have the ability to alter my form to a certain degree.” Tenshi nodded.
“’Kay, I’mma cut you off right there.” Marie held up her hand. “There’s nothing wrong with your current appearance Tenshi, don’t go letting that guy put ideas in your head.” She shot a warning glare at Charles.
“Understood.” Tenshi nodded.
“Man, why you gotta be this way?” Charles complained to Marie. “She’s an AI, everything’s a learning experience for her, so she won’t mind.”
“I mind,” Marie shot back.
“Er… while those two are busy, I do have one more question for you,” Isaac addressed Tenshi.
She turned to look at him, giving him a small nod of acknowledgement.
“Why are you journeying with us?” he asked. “Shouldn’t your first goal be to reunite with your programmers? They’ve gotta be searching for you by now.”
Tenshi paused for a moment before answering. “Your objective is to travel across this world and experience as much as possible before it reverts, correct?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“When this world returns to the way it was, I should be able to rendezvous with my creators easily,” she continued. “Thus, my best option in the meantime is to continue traveling with you, thus integrating with the digital world and fulfilling the original purpose of the experiment. Naturally, should I encounter my handlers during this journey, I will immediately leave the party.”
“Oh, I see.” Isaac nodded, slightly disappointed. “Well, I guess I’m doing this for personal reasons too, so even if it’s for an ulterior motive, glad to have you with us, Tenshi.”
“I will continue to do my best,” she returned, offering her hand. “Additionally, I just received some reference images for costumes from Charles. I will now prepare to generate costume mods…” Her pixels began to glow and shift.
“Heh, see, I told you she was interested.” Charles grinned smugly at Marie from the other side of the room.
“Tenshi! I told you not to listen to this idiot,” Marie complained. “How desperate are you to try out a costume mod?”
“I merely though it would help me blend in with human society,” Tenshi blinked, canceling her transformation.
“Anything that guy recommended is definitely going to make you stand out, and not in a good way,” Marie muttered, stepping over to her. “Lemme see what he sent you, I need to know how hard I should hit him.”
Blinking, Tenshi pulled up her menu.
“1960s Deep U jumper dress?” Marie scanned over the image. “Damn, he actually has good taste.” She clicked her tongue.
“You thought I’d send her something skeevy, didn’t you? Your lack of trust wounds me, Marie.” Charles held a hand to his heart dramatically.
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll take the L here.” She sighed. “Do what you want, Tenshi. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
As they were talking, a message flashed in the corner of Isaac’s vision. “Just a second guys, I got mail,” he apologized, tapping it open.
“Hey Zack, how much longer you gonna be?” the message read. “Hurry up and log out, or we’re telling Boss you’re picking up the tab. Signed: Arthur.”
Isaac sighed, sending a quick reply and closing the mail. “Sorry, but I gotta go, it’s getting late over here.”
“I need to head to bed soon too.” Charles yawned, opening up his menu.
“Well, I still have a bit of time, so maybe I’ll go farm some monsters and level up.” Marie stretched. “What about you, Tenshi?”
“I cannot log out, so I suppose I will join you.” She walked over to Marie.
“Perfect, I could use some ranged support.” Marie grinned. “We girls can’t let the guys out-perform us, right?”
“Hey, before you go, we should all add each other as friends and set up a party,” Charles commented.
“Right, come to think of it, only Tenshi and I actually added each other yet,” Isaac said, opening his menu. “I’ll send you all friend requests, but what should our party name be?”
“I-ACT, pronounced "I act", using our initials?” Marie ventured.
“We’d have to change the name every time we got a new party member,” Isaac pointed out.
“Why not Heroes of BRYZ?” Charles suggested. “It suits us perfectly, I think.”
“Does it really though?” Isaac raised an eyebrow.
“Antivirus, since we are attempting to rid the world of monsters and their generals, very much like a computer’s antivirus system,” Tenshi offered.
“Not very flattering.” Isaac chuckled. “Tell you what, I’ll think about it a little longer, then send you all an invite once I get home. For now, I gotta log out before my friends leave me for dead.”
“Later!” Charles waved, grinning.
“Don’t forget to organize our next meetup,” Marie called over her shoulder.
“I humbly suggest you reconsider Antivirus,” Tenshi commented.
“Yeah, yeah, sure,” Isaac replied noncommittally. “See you all tomorrow.”
*******
“About time you logged out,” Arthur commented as Isaac pulled his N-LiFe headset off.
“Sorry, had some party things that needed to be resolved,” Isaac replied, drinking the last of his lukewarm soda.
“It sure didn’t take you long to find a new set of friends.” Arthur laughed. “Well, next time we meet, I may very well have an army of my own. I just need to find a more… receptive group of NPCs.”
“You could, like, try standing on a soapbox and give speeches to the merchants,” Jason suggested.
“Jace, I’m trying to get an army started, I don’t need merchants…” He stopped mid sentence. “Hey Zack, do you think if I recruited enough shopkeepers, I could control the economy of the starter towns?”
“I think we should head out before you get anymore wild ideas.”
*******
Five minutes later found the trio kicking back in Arthur’s car, quietly watching the traffic go by in front of the restaurant.
“Hey…” Jason started. “Did you ever wonder if maybe… plants are farming us? Like, they give animals the oxygen they need, and in exchange live off our carbon dioxide, then eat us after we die and decompose. Doesn’t that mean we’re the real produce?”
The car was silent again for a moment.
“Yeah… maybe they really are the apex predators of the earth,” Arthur mused.
“And if you think about it, don’t most plants technically live underground, and just use the above-ground part as a snorkel?” Isaac continued.
More silence.
“They kinda do, don’t they?” Jace agreed. “Damn.”
“Actually,” Arthur started slowly, “Plants are mostly made of carbon, and they get that from the CO2 that they take in from the air. So, don’t plants technically grow out of thin air?”
Silence again.
“The more I think about it, the more plants seem like some kind of subterranean alien overlord.” Isaac blinked. “Have we actually been living under a green thumb all our lives, and never realized it?”
All three teens stared blankly at the car ceiling in silence, as the traffic continued to pass by in front of them.
ns18.222.223.25da2
and then Add to home screen.