Nolan finally knew the truth about keeping her memory when she reincarnated. However, the truth was not a pleasant thing for her.
It was harder to accept that you were just the product of a program than to find out that the world was actually a virtual program. Although Nolan had much more calmness and wisdom than anyone else, she was not prepared to face the truth.
“You don’t have to care too much about it.” Lily leaned against the console desk to enlighten Nolan. “Oh, by the way, I haven’t introduced myself. My name is Lily. I also help you guys to ‘move house’. I heard landlord say something about your world. Humans have been transformed into virtual worlds, right? If you think about it, they’re actually being transformed into data. You are also data, the souls are all data, so there’s no difference between you and humans now.”
Hao Ren tilted his head and glanced at Lily. This husky could always give them some help in an unexpected way. Her open mind was a good fit for the situation now.
Nolan just smiled and said, “it’s okay. I understand it. I just got a little upset when I realized my real identity. When I first learned about the existence of the real world, I thought about what I was like in reality. I also thought about my life before I entered the virtual world… But now it seems that I really think too much. So my life started when the virtual world turned on?”
“All the people of Zorm are at the same starting line. The planet has been completely burnt down at the material level, and everyone is left with data. On this point you are identical with them,” Hao Ren reminded, but he also had to admit that her other views were right. “But without ‘past’ is really a problem. When the people of Zorm wake up, they will recall all the life in the virtual world. But your memory… Sorry, the beginning is indeed 0 and 1.”
Nolan lowered his head. They could not guess what she was thinking. Finally, she raised her head and said, “It doesn’t matter anymore. Whatever it is, it’s still my life. At least I’m still alive, better than dying at the end of the world. Then… What will happen to me in the future?”
Nolan eventually mentioned this topic and it made Hao Ren anxious. He slightly swayed uneasily and Nolan noticed it. “Is it… What else has happened to me?”
“According to the original plan, you should be with other people of Zorm, and you’ll be able to get a new body and enter the real world with them after the Firstborn has reshaped the biosphere, but a small a problem happened in the process…”
Hao Ren explained while observing Nolan’s expression. When he saw that Nolan was calm, he decided to tell her everything. “Because your data coding is not compatible with the UAV link, I can only store you on my spacecraft’s mainframe by force. And there is a certain degree of damage to your soul in this storage process. Now the mainframe of the spacecraft is re-encoding the damaged part. The good news is that you survived, and the bad news is… You have become part of this spacecraft.”
Nolan was shocked and did not seem to understand what it meant.
“In other words, you have changed from the mechanical AI of the Dream Ark to the mechanical AI of Petrachelys. Because of the incompleteness of the soul, it now relies on the common data from the spacecraft to maintain its operation, which is equivalent to a program that can only operate in a particular system environment. You can’t separate yourself from the system now.” Hao Ren tried to explain to her in a simple way. “Defects and complementarities are very complex. It’s difficult for the conventional technology to solve this problem without causing any damage. To prevent another damage to your soul, I can’t separate you from this spacecraft for the time being.”
The astonished look on of Nolan’s face gradually faded. She looked around uneasily. She was not looking at the control room of the spacecraft, instead, she was right inside the mainframe of the spacecraft, and watching the weird data world from the perspective of a built-in program. She murmured to herself, “Will I be trapped in this place from now on?”
“It shouldn’t be permanent.” Hao Ren told her the best scenario. “The soul has the function of self-healing. This kind of self-healing is superior to any manual intervention. Maybe one day your soul will be able to sustain itself, then I’ll be able to separate you from the spacecraft.”
Nolan was listening to Hao Ren quietly, but suddenly she asked a seemingly unrelated question. “I have a soul, too?”
Hao Ren nodded and said, “Of course you have. I’ve mentioned it several times just now. You have a soul.”
“Oh… So AI also has a soul…” Nolan whispered to herself, but because now she was part of the system of the spacecraft, therefore, it was automatically amplified. Hao Ren could still hear it clearly.
Nolan seemed to notice that too. She frowned awkwardly, then smiled and changed the subject. “Anyway, I have to accept it. But what do I do next? What can I do here? What should I do? This empty place… Is this always like this?”
As Hao Ren was about to talk, an unexpected voice suddenly interrupted them. “I wonder how come none of you thought of asking an expert. I have a lot of experience in this!”
Hao Ren turned around and saw a blue light swished from the console slot. The data terminal flew to the front of the holographic projection and began to shout loudly, “Hello, newcomer! We’ll be colleagues from now on. No matter how many years of human experience you have before, you need to clear up the moment you become a plug-in on the host. As a senior, I want to tell you some truth…”
Nolan was startled by the alloy brick that suddenly popped up. “This is… What is it?”
Hao Ren poked the data terminal and let it flip in the air. “You’ve seen it. This is Pattie. And this is how ‘she’ looks like in the real world.”
“I look more handsome now, right!” Data terminal said and spinning proudly. “Look at the edges and lines of my body, look at the SpongeBob… Why do I have SpongeBob on my body?”
Lily stepped aside and said, “I don’t think you believe if I said it was battie who did it.”
Hao Ren looked at data terminal in surprise and asked, “You can see your body now?”
“I suddenly found this function!” Data terminal shouted, and suddenly realized something. “Eh, wait, it sounds like… Do you often put stickers on my body?!”
Hao Ren immediately quietly looked at Lily. The only one that would do it was this husky.
Nolan was stunned. It took her a long time to remember who ‘Pattie’ was. It was difficult for her to associate the poor blonde girl with the talkative alloy brick. “You are a… What are you actually?”
Hao Ren showed the data terminal to Nolan and explained, “This is called Mobile Data Terminal, every inspector has one. It’s like our personal assistant. I got it as soon as I started working.”
Nolan murmured, “Is it?”
The data terminal jumped out of Hao Ren’s hands, swaying before Nolan’s eyes. “Look at me, do I look better than that blonde girl now? And you see, I never care about whether I’m AI or not. I look like this when I come down from the production line. I’ve always been an AI but you see, I’m living a good life! It doesn’t matter if I’m a human or not. In the future, I’ll have the opportunity to tell you the benefits of being an AI…”
Hao Ren realized one thing: No matter how hard Lily and he tried to comfort Nolan, it was actually useless. The best way was to let the data terminal show Nolan the superiority of being an AI. There were two reasons that Nolan was unhappy when she suddenly knew that she was actually not a human, one, she was confused about her identity, and the other was the sudden sense of loneliness.
Now the data terminal was jumping out happily. She finally had a companion.
And left Nolan there, trying to process what the data terminal had just told her. Then, she began to look at Hao Ren. It made Hao Ren uncomfortable. He scratched his face and asked, “You… Why are you looking at me this way?”
“No, it’s just incredible. Your partner was a dead person at first, and then she became a senior cerebral thrombosis. Now she has become a brick… Is your life always this wonderful?”
“… Yes, it’s always been so wonderful.”