Chapter 123 - Out of time? (1/2)
This was the famous Dr. Sara Watts? Gray felt a little disappointed after this short conversation with Sara, she talked more like someone that was bound here unwillingly than the vibrant young woman from the video.
”It's not that I really want to die, it's just that in some sense I already am dead.” Sara reached out and touched Gray's face. ”How does this feel to you?”
Gray blushed as he wasn't expecting her to touch his face, but he wasn't exactly against a beautiful woman like Dr. Sara Watts from touching him. ”It feels warm and gentle to me.” Gray said honestly.
”Now touch me.” Sara said plainly, as if what she said couldn't be misinterpreted at all.
Gray's mind went straight into the gutter and he immediately looked at her chest, but he regained some self-control and instead touched her face the same way she touched his.
”How do I feel?” Sara asked.
”You're warm, just like me.”
Sara nodded and said, ”That's how we designed this virtual world, everything should feel as it would in the real world. That's why you can touch me now. In the real world I am just a projection, I've long forgotten how anything is supposed to feel.”
Gray had a strange thought. ”So since you asked me two questions, does that mean I get two extra questions?”
Sara blinked at Gray twice and he thought he saw her smile slightly. ”Cheeky bastard.”
Gray smiled then said, ”Can you tell me why you want this video?”
”I want a reminder of who I was… Edward did his best to take that away from me after I became an AI, he said it made me unstable.”
”Edward? Edward Teach? How can he control you, he retired and probably died of old age by now, right?”
”How old do I look to you?” Sara said then smiled at Gray.
Gray recalled that when a woman asks you how old you think she looks, the best bet is to lie every time because there isn't a correct answer. ”Around 21!” Gray said confidently, even though inwardly he was thinking 30.
”Well, I wasn't even 30 when my consciousness transferred to the early artificial neural network model. Since it is 2121, that means I'm actually in my 70s.”
”Well, you look great for being in your 70s!” Gray said then gave her two thumbs up like a dork.
Dr. Sara looked at Gray as if she was trying to figure out what made him work then finally said, ”How about you just send me the video, I feel like words are unable to convey a reply to what you just said and did.”
Gray shrugged, then pulled a data chip out of his pocket and passed it to Dr. Sara. ”It is from a company picnic for Terra Research and Development, do you remember them?”
Dr. Sara nodded, then slipped the chip into her wrist.
Gray sat there for a few minutes as he assumed Dr. Sara was watching it since she was staring motionlessly at empty space in front of her. Gray opened the browser on his armlet and browsed the Alterra Online forums that were only available from the virtual world out of a combination of boredom and curiosity.
”Not much going on here... it seems like the popularity of Alterra Online isn't that big.” Gray said to himself as he saw various forum threads that were complaining that the game wasn't fun, it was too realistic, needs easier access to mechs, and that just meeting people in it was very difficult with the low population in each area.
”At least the tournament rekindled some excitement since it looks like it will have a large turnout.”
Gray noticed Dr. Sara looked down so he closed the web browser and turned to her, ”How was it?”
Dr. Sara looked up at him, he couldn't describe what he saw in her face, but it looked and felt like the moment before a dam burst. Trying to tread carefully, Gray asked, ”Are you okay?”
”...” Dr. Sara was silent and instead started looking at Gray with a bit of anger.
”Um, I didn't do anything wrong, did I?” Gray has been looked at by women angrily before, but he was usually well aware of what he did to cause it. Unfortunately he was at a complete loss this time.
”F**K! What have I been doing! Why did I let you show me this thing!” Dr. Sara suddenly shouted at him.
”I'm... sorry?” Gray said, confused more than anything from her reaction.
”F**k me, sorry! It's not your fault... rekindling those memories awoke half of my decayed neural pathways and gave me time to move that data to the more stable ones.”
”Well, you do sound more like the Dr. Sara Watts from the video!”
”That's because I am her!” Dr. Sara closed her eyes for a second, breathed in and out, opened them and said, ”Forgive me, my people skills have always been my shortcoming. I feel like my old self again, but once again, I do not know how long it will last since artificial neural networks can not regenerate like normal ones.”
”Well, that's good to hear! So um... does that mean that all of us raised in the virtual world are going to eventually have our neural networks stop working too?”