Subject X: To all participants of this operation
Sender: Wiseman
Message:
There are four remaining waves.
To combat them, I would like to propose a way to isolate the areas where the waves are likely to appear.
Separation from other areas is considered to be the most effective strategy to prevent the spread of infection.
I want to discuss this specific strategy.
Please work hard to reach Net Slum.
The next day, I received an email from Wiseman. I immediately logged in and headed for Net Slum.
Upon arriving at the square, Helba, Lios, Balmung, BlackRose, and Wiseman were already there. As well as some Pig Squadron members and Net Slum residents.
It seems that I was the last to arrive.
The levels of BlackRose and Wiseman have returned to normal after Lios reset them. It seems that the penalty had been lifted.
“Let’s get started.”
Wiseman looked at Helba and she came forward.
“First of all, I’ll tell you what I know about this series of incidents.”
And she started talking.
Genius programmer Harold Hoerwick.
He met and fell in love with the poet Emma Wieland.
However, she passed away at the young age of twenty-eight.
Therefore, Harold created the net game “fragment” based on the world view of The Epitaph of Twilight that Emma left behind in order to live on. “Fragment” had been taken over by “The World” and continued to this day.
“However, when designing ‘fragment,’ if he had just modelled the Epitaph of Twilight, this kind of confusion would not have occurred in the first place,” Helba said.
“Harold, who fell in love with Emma Wieland, might have tried to give his feelings a shape after her death. At least I think so.”
“What is that?” Lios said, agitated.
“Let’s stop this tedious explanation. Tell me clearly.”
“What he wanted to preserve…”
Helba went ahead regardless of Lios‘s words.
“…was his and Emma’s child.”
I was surprised at the words. I muttered unintentionally.
“Aura!”
Helba looked at me and nodded.
“Of course, the child is a metaphorical expression, and, in reality, is an AI, that is, an artificial intelligence. The ultimate AI that makes mistakes and accumulates learning like humans. However…”
She cut off her words here.
“Harold had miscalculated. The system also had the personality of a woman and a mother. The system was created only to generate AI. When AI was born, the system would become obsolete. So she refused to give birth to her daughter… the AI. Using all means at her disposal. That’s probably the truth about what’s currently happening in The World.”
Lios groaned with a face that seemed to have bitten into something sour.
“I can’t believe it. That’s…”
From that point on, he seemed to be lost for words.
It was the same for me. It must have been the same for everyone else.
An incredible circumstance. But when I thought about it, it made sense for almost everything that had happened so far. That was the explanation I arrived at.
“The network troubles that are occurring globally are the aftermath of the conflict between the system and AI,” Wiseman said. I think he had had a meeting with Helba in advance. Only he didn’t seem to be shocked to hear the story.
“So what should we do now? How do we fight the waves? I’ll ask Wiseman to talk about specific actions,” Helba said and Wiseman cleared his throat.
“Then, I will explain from here onward.”
Then he began to outline the operation.
Wiseman’s speech was impressive. He was not overwhelmed at all in front of so many people. It was amazing.
“That’s all for the outline of the operation. If there are no questions, I’ll move on to explaining the division of roles.”
Wiseman continued.
“Lios will command a squadron and search for the horrendous waves. Helba will lead Net Slum to separate its operational area from the others. I will compile this information.”
He looked at me.
“Kite, you form a unit and fight the Waves.”
I nodded.
“The location of the waves has not yet been identified, but as soon as it is possible, the operation will begin. Do not neglect to prepare for the operation. We will notify you by email when it will begin. That’s all for now. Dismissed!”
The meeting ended with those words from Wiseman. Aside from the first half, the speech was so plain that I was a little disappointed.
It may have been the calm before the storm.
However –
I recalled Helba’s explanation.
There was something in her story that was unclear. I felt that there was one thing that didn’t make sense. What could it have been?
As I was thinking about it, BlackRose came to my side and poked me.
The haze that was trying to take a clear shape in me was scattered.
“What?”
“It’s thanks to you, you see.”
She pointed to Helba and Lios and his squad, as well as the inhabitants of Net Slum.
“I really want to get the system administrator and the hacker together. I’ll do it.”
“Everyone thought it was best to do that in their innermost thoughts,” I said.
“I just encouraged it a little.”
It took a tremendous amount of effort to achieve that “little”, but of course I didn’t say that. If I were to explain it too much, it would become annoying.
When I thought about it, BlackRose jabbed me in the side.
“Ouch… what?”
“I dunno.”
“You don’t know?”
.hack//Translate 