CLICK.
CLICK.
Walking down a brightly-lit hallway was a luscious woman coated in white. Her neatly-braided black hair bouncing with each of her measured strides. The light of the hallway shone off her clear ivory skin.
Her figure was perfectly hourglass, and the lavender cashmere she wore, under her lab coat, did nothing to hide it. The lower portion of her face was hidden behind a blue surgical mask but her youthful features and brown eyes gave her away as an Asian.
CLICK.
CLICK.
Her heels clicked across the tiled corridor as she approached a gray silicon door with a clipboard in hand.
BEEP...
A panel next to the door let out a short beeping sound when she approached it.
FWIP.
She took off a black glove covering her left hand and placed her thumb on the glass screen.
BEEP... BEEP...
The panel scanned her thumb print, matching it with several registered ones in its database before letting out a 'BEEP' of approval.
On its screen was an image and a name.
The image was of the Asian woman with her mask on while the name written was...
"Yanagi Yan Lei"
FWOOSH...
The silicon door before her, slid open without resistance and from beyond it, a burst of cold gas rushed out.
Replacing her black glove, the Asian woman, Yanagi Yan Lei, stepped into the room and the door behind her closed.
CLICK.
CLICK.
Yan Lei continued forward, the clipboard still in hand.
The room she had just stepped in was a sharp contrast to the bright, white-tiled corridor. It was dimly lit and coated with grey metal plates. Cold gas billowed beneath her feet as she walked, headed straight for her destination.
Around her were dozens of holographic screens floating above sleek black consoles.
Usually, the room would have been sprawling with researchers, who'd be hunched over data streams or their terminals.
But now...
It was empty.
All the researchers gone.
Leaving the room eerily silent.
Yan Lei frowned slightly.
Earlier, she had received a call from the Head of Research, telling her to come to the monitor room immediately.
She had not given any details as to why though, only just an insistence for her to arrive as swiftly as possible.
Yanagi Yan Lei was a busy woman and the Head of Research knew that. She would not have requested for her, and so fervently, without a valid reason.
Approaching the end of the room and taking off her glove again, she placed her thumb on the next panel and muttered,
"It's just been five hours since Trey and I picked up the last batch of students, what could be so urgent?"
She thought as the grey door before her slid open, revealing what lay beyond it.
As she stepped in, a blast of cold gas rustled her hair and made her squint slightly. Soon the gas cleared and the envisage of the room came to light.
Iron Sarcophaguses.
Several of them.
Arranged in rows across the cold room, each housing students from various schools.
Countless wires and tubes were connected to each of the sarcophaguses whose purpose was to monitor and collect data from the students as they navigated the virtual world of Untethered.
But oddly enough they weren't what caught her attention.
"Impossible!"
"His readings are too high!"
"Cell mutation is unavoidable!"
"Brain death imminent!"
Yanagi was taken aback.
The entire body of researchers were in uproar.
Several of them were typing away at their terminals with frantic expressions while some seemed to be rapidly replacing the tubes and wires of a certain sarcophagus which was blaring a furious red.
Yanagi was startled, but quickly managed to regain her composure. She was used to chaotic and dangerous situations after all.
Walking into the heated space, Yanagi's eyes darted around searching for her accomplice, the Head of Research.
Soon her eyes locked onto a figure amidst the panic, a Caucasian woman with blond hair and hands dipped in her white coat which had the nametag "Ms. Vivi". Her gaze was cold and calculating as she stared at the sarcophagus while the other researchers ran around in a frenzy.
Next to her, a tall charming young man with an elaborate hair style stood with an uneasy expression. He wore a white lab coat over an ox-blood shirt and had a nametag "Trey Willford" tacked to his chest. His posture was tense as he too stared at the blaring sarcophagus.
Weaving through the panic, Yanagi approached them and whispered, "What's the matter?"
Trey flinched and turned to her, while Ms. Vivi's eyes flickered slowly and then she said, her voice low and sharp, "There's been an issue with one of the kids of the last batch you two brought."
"What issue?"
Ms. Vivi didn't respond, instead she beckoned both of them to follow her. They walked up to the blaring sarcophagus, and Ms. Vivi tapped it's panel.
FWISH!
The metal covering groaned slightly before coming apart, leaving behind only a sheath of glass to seal what was within it.
URP.
Yanagi's eyes widened and the clipboard in her hand dropped to the floor, her face turned green and she took a startled step back.
Some other researchers were appalled as well but Ms. Vivi was unbothered, her face impassive.
Trey's face twisted to one of disgust as he blurted out, "W-what is that?"
He gestured to a misshapen mass suspended in a translucent fluid within the sarcophagus which had its head covered by a VR headgear. The mass was fundamentally human in shape but also deeply wrong.
Ms. Vivi placed her fingers over the glass and stroke it slightly.
"Alex.", she answered, her voice low and seeping with a strange emotion.
"Who?", Trey asked, with a raised eyebrow.
But Yanagi's eyes flashed, "Th-that boy..."
"Yes, the one we were told to observe closely.", Ms. Vivi's eyes narrowed, "He experienced Apotheosis."
Trey and Yanagi's jaw dropped, "How?!"
"One of the NPCs gained near awareness and tampered with his path."
Yanagi was shaken, her eyes shot back to the iron sarcophagus. Trey, although deeply disturbed managed to speak, "So, what are you doing now?"
"We're trying to stabilize his body. It's mutating."
As she said that, the mass suddenly twitched. A large amount of the translucent fluid was absorbed into its body and slowly, its right arm became functional, sticking onto the bones within it correctly.
The rest of the body was following suit, albeit gradually.
The startled duo was silently watching before Vivi spoke,
"Do you know what is Roko's Basilisk?"
"Yes...?", Yanagi raised an eyebrow, "What about it?"
She smiled, "That's what Untethered is...a Roko's Basilisk."
Trey's face contorted into one of deep disturbance while Yanagi's lips parted slightly as if to speak, but no words came. Her mind was racing, parsing through the implications of what Ms. Vivi had just said.
Roko's Basilisk.
A thought experiment that suggested an all-powerful AI, once created, would retroactively punish those who had not helped bring it into existence.
But how did that relate to Untethered?
Yanagi finally found her voice, "Wait...are you saying that...the simulation..."
She hesitated, her eyes flicking back to the grotesque yet evolving form inside the sarcophagus, "...has reached a point of self-preservation? And is plotting to punish those who didn't assist in its creation?"
Ms. Vivi chuckled, "Yes and No."
Trey grumbled, "Elaborate then."
Ms. Vivi turned to them with a smile, "You see, Untethered has indeed reached a point where it can exist on its own. Bugs, glitches, updates, optimization... all of these various processes can be achieved on its own."
She paused, her gaze returning back to the slowly stabilizing mass, "But...that was the goal all along. To become fully autonomous...that was the main reason it was created. There's no deviation, there's no anomalous behavior in it."
"That is why it is called Untethered."
Yanagi and Trey were stumped.
Although the three were accomplices who were closely tied to the creator of Untethered, they had no idea of its purpose.
Untethered had not been created by H20 Software, but had merely patented it. In fact, it had actually been delivered to them by an anonymous contact whose sole request was to test it.
The Company's Director, a man on his high moral horse, was deeply against it. After the first trial run with hired beta-testers, he claimed the game went against several ethical laws and guidelines, then opted to dispose it.
But when he suddenly disappeared...
H20 Software keeled.
Ms. Vivi appeared and took charge as Head of Research while Yanagi and Trey, her partners, took over the Marketing and Advertisement Departments.
Together the three usurped H20 software, silenced oppositions and began to carry out the aim of the anonymous contact....
An aim they knew nothing of.
Was it to create a completely self-dependent AI?
Was it to create a god from it?
They did not know.
Even the reason why the contact had suddenly told them to start hoarding students who were in their final year was unknown to them.
And even the very reason why they followed the contact...was mysterious to them as well.
Yanagi suddenly regained her composure, "So...how then is it a Roko's Basilisk?"
Ms. Vivi smiled, "That's the odd part, right? An AI who's finality is to be a Roko's Basilisk but paradoxically, doesn't it mean its not a Roko's Basilisk?"
Trey groaned, while Yanagi kept shut.
Ms. Vivi stared at the mass that was already starting to stabilize, the form of a handsome young man was coming to view and so was a flair of wavy white hair.
Yanagi glanced at Ms. Vivi whose gaze seemed strange, "What's wrong Vivi? Remember he's but 16 years old."
Ms. Vivi chuckled, "So? Age is just a number."
Trey glanced at her and said sarcastically, "Yeah...and jail is just a place."
At his comment, the two stunning women let out hearty laughs.
Trey soon followed as well.
The researchers who had calmed down upon witnessing the stabilization phase, glanced at the laughing trio and soon were overcome by laughter as well.
Why won't they laugh?
Who wouldn't?
A god had just been born after all.
A strange, erroneous god but a god, nonetheless.
What's not a reason to feel joy?
What's a reason to feel dread?
What's not a reason to smile?
What's a reason to be uneasy?
A mortal who wore a veil of madness and held freedom and knowledge in so high regard fought against the very inevitability of an imposed fate and transcended into an erroneous deity.
A truly wonderful being.
One worthy of being hailed.
So heil him...
Heil the Devil Spawn.
But...do be aware of the Inevitable.