《Artificial Jelly》Chapter Thirty Three - Another World: Five
Advertisement
Chapter Thirty Three – Another World: Five
Tatiana had felt curious as she read through her messages, musing about the endorsement she’d accepted for her stream.
All thoughts of the advertising money she’d begun making evaporated the second she’d seen the subject line. She’d immediately opened the message, as soon as she saw it.
She was getting quite famous in-game and received almost constant messages lately, but not enough that she didn’t try to read them all.
This one sent a cold chill straight down her spine. Someone else had found her.
Gell.
… anyway. Sorry to bother you with all that. I’m just incredibly concerned for her and we cannot for the life of us figure out what she is. Is she an incredibly well programmed NPC, or a person in a coma? Someone trapped in the game? With all the conflicting information I wouldn’t rule out an A.I. at this point. It’s frustrating, you know? Sorry for the long message and thank you for your time.
Iron Crock
She opened the screencap, terrified of the Jellyfae she knew she was about to see, then stopped in confusion.
The character was… beautiful. But not Gell. Rather, she looked like Gell would if the little jellyfish were anthropomorphized. Her skin was a teal-green-blue. She couldn’t quite tell, and the job was made more difficult by the glowing freckles.
The effect was eerily reminiscent of the glowing Jellyfae, too, though that was where the similarities ended. A teal skinned woman, with a young body that would make an in-game avatar envious, was covered by a ragged tunic that was also familiar. The fucking bugbears wore those!
“Oh God,” Tatiana breathed, reading the message over and over again.
Goosebumps rose on her arms and her neck as she took in the message with trembling fingers. The image of the avatar presented before her was not familiar. Not directly. The ways in which she was familiar haunted her though. The tendrils that formed her hair shimmered blue just like the creature she’d killed so many times. They even floated unnaturally just like the dungeon mob had.
“It’s really her,” she thought, still unable to shake the shock of it.
This creature. This human-jellyfish thing was the same NPC she’d killed over and over again to become as strong as she was! She wasn’t sure how she knew, but she was sure. Looking at the screen cap, the wide smile on a childish, curious face.
Advertisement
This was Gell, the Jellyfae.
“She looks so happy,” Tatiana thought.
Part of her wanted to just continue on. Maybe one day she would run into the creature in game and they’d nod to each other. Gell would understand, would know that Tatiana had never meant to hurt her.
A shiver crawled down her spine though.
She remembered those words that day. It was weeks ago now, but nothing she did could erase that horrible wail from her mind. ‘Why are you the only thing that changes?’ and ‘When will you be satisfied?’ Both echoed inside her mind like hammers whaling on a giant bell of guilt.
‘She thought I was eating her!’ Tatiana thought with a shudder.
Knowing she was able to think. Sentient? Sapient? Fuck she always confused those two. Just thinking of how awful it had been to realize that she had been systematically torturing that creature and being called on it had been bad enough. Now, seeing the happy expression and knowing that the little creature was out there, with a very justified grudge against her made her…
She grabbed for her trash can and dry heaved, thankful that nothing actually came up.
‘I… need to do something about this. Apologize, if I can. Before it's too late,” she thought worriedly.
Gell wasn’t a person. She was sure of that, but that didn’t make her any less dangerous. She shiverred as another realization came over her.
‘The developers at Tread the Sky are experimenting with A.I.,’ she thought with rising panic.
No one had been messing with her. There was no plot to trick her into leaving her favorite farming mob alone. No. Gell was just… alive. And…
And possibly loose.
‘What the hell could they possibly be thinking?’ she thought, worriedly. A.I. dungeon mobs? That was… monumentally stupid. Were they trying to find out what they would do? Figure out how an AI would react? Were they so desperate to make engaging enemies that they were ignoring the implications of creating a sentient digital creature that was set against humanity?
More importantly, what the hell could she do if Gell actually held a grudge? She’d somehow gained her own damn body. What else might she be capable of?
Advertisement
Gell’s only experience with people was being murdered by them. If she’d been a person, Tatiana didn’t know what she would do with herself. She covered her mouth with shaking hands. She was guilty and terrified in equal measure.
She could apologize, but what if Gell didn’t care? What if…
What if…?
There was no way to know what a sapient A.I. would do. Would she have the capacity to forgive? Would she understand remorse? Or would engaging her just invite more anger?
The lump lodged in her throat refused to go away. She’d killed a person dozens of times!
“Would Gell try to do the same to me?”
She’d never been much of a computer person. Could Gell read her emails? Could it use Tatiana’s webcam to spy on her? Oh god, could it access her nervous system if she put the VR helmet on? What about her money!? Fuck, when was the last time she’d even seen physical cash?
She didn’t know if what was possible. Artificial Intelligence had been a part of her life since she was born, but not just from her favorite movie series. Companies constantly advertised “A.I.” but until now what they’d always actually meant was “automated learning.” Their… “A.I.” could pick up on what she probably wanted based on what she’d done before. Convenient. Private. Time-tested. Targeted advertisements had been a thing for years, and while they’d become more sophisticated, that was all they’d ever been.
No one had ever actually had to worry about sapient A.I. because one had never actually been made, as far as she knew. Year after year, the projected dates for when they might really pull it off were pushed further and further back.
She’d never been against them either, and didn’t think she would be in the abstract. At least, in that she’d never cared about them and the idiots trying to develop them. If she hadn’t personally pissed one off she might even be excited about it!
But she had. She had. And if she didn’t stop it while it was… hopefully still imprisoned within the game, who knew what might happen to her?
“I’ll… I’ll apologize. I’ll try to reason with it. If… if it attacks me though… ah fuck, what can I even do? Never use a computer again!?” She screamed in frustration.
These morons who’d developed this game should be thrown in jail.
She opened a message to reply to Iron Crock, but was seized by another thought. Did Gell know about this? Was she being watched right now…? Inside the computer?
If it didn’t respond to her apology… if it were still hostile to her, then it had to go. If it was evolving inside a video game who knew what it might do. That said, there was nothing she could do about it.
Unless...
She looked at the clock. Work in two hours.
Fuck that.
She opened an email to Joanna Prescott, deciding that if the A.I. could monitor her, it would've made itself known by now. Hopefully her private life was still private, but who knew what an A.I. could do? The lump in her throat didn’t go away as she began to type.
The idea of reporting the problem to the mods in Tread the Sky was laughable. Who knew what Gell might become by the time they actually got around to doing something? But a gaming company like Gypsenergy was subject to the media, and Tatiana was confident that people would be very interested to find out that there was a Sapient A.I. learning how best to kill humans wandering around in their most popular game.
Luckily, Joanna, one of her friends from high school, had become a journalist, and she doubted any reporter would turn down a story like this.
Hopefully going so public with Gell’s identity wouldn’t be necessary. Hopefully it would forgive her. Maybe they could even become friends?
But if it didn’t, she wouldn’t let it have its revenge.
She finished the email, saving it to her drafts before taking a deep breath and grabbing her headset. She had to try. She owed it that much, at least.
Advertisement
- End1023 Chapters
Godfather Of Champions
This is a story about the pursuit of victory.— «I subscribe only to the theory of victory. I only pursue victory. As long as I am able to obtain victory, I don’t care if it’s total football or counterattack. What is the ultimate goal of professional soccer? In my opinion, it is victory, and the pinnacle of victory is to become the champions. I am a manager. If I don’t wish to lose my job or be forgotten by the people, there’s only one path for me to take, and that is to lead the team in obtaining victories, in obtaining championship titles!»The main character was not well-liked by people.— «⋯We conducted a survey which had been deemed by Manager Tony Twain as extremely meaningless. In a random street survey conducted, ninety-three percent of those surveyed chose the option ‘I hate Tony Twain’, while only seven percent chose the option ‘This person is rather decent, I like him’. It is worth noting that nobody chose the option ‘Who is Tony Twain? I don’t know him’. Mark, do you know why Manager Twain felt that our survey was very meaningless?» Parker, a reporter from laughed loudly and said when he was being interviewed by BBC.But there were also people who were madly in love with him.— When Tony Twain was forced to talk about the survey conducted by during an interview, his reply was : «I am happy, because Nottingham Forest’s fans make up seven percent of England’s population.»And he did not seem to care about how the others saw him.— «What are you all trying to make me say? Admit that I am not popular, and everywhere I go will be filled with jeers and middle fingers. You all think I will be afraid? Wrong! Because I am able to bring victory to my team and its supporters. I don’t care how many people hate me and can’t wait to kill me, and I also won’t change myself to accommodate the mood of these losers. You want to improve your mood? Very simple, come and defeat me.»His love story had garnered widespread attention.— «Our reporters took these pictures at Manager Tony Twain’s doorsteps. It clearly shows that Shania entered his house at 8.34pm and she did not leave the house throughout the night at all. But Manager Tony Twain firmly denies, and insists that that was merely the newest-model inflatable doll which he had ordered.He was the number one star of the team.— «⋯ Became the spokesperson of world-wide famous clothing brands, shot advertisements, frequented the fashion industry’s award ceremonies, endorsed electronic games, has a supermodel girlfriend. His earnings from advertisements exceed his club salary by seventeen times, owns a special column in various print medias, publishing his autobiography (in progress), and is even said that he is planning to shoot an inspirational film based off his own person experiences! Who can tell me which part of his life experiences is worthy of being called ‘inspirational’? Hold on⋯. Are you all thinking that I’m referring to David Beckham? You’re sorely mistaken! I’m talking about Manager Tony Twain⋯.»He was very knowledgeable about Chinese soccer.— «⋯ I’ve heard about it, that Bora gifted four books to his manager Mr. Zhu before your country’s national team’s warm up match. After which, the team lost 1:3 to a nameless American team from Major League Soccer. The new excuse that Mr. Zhu gave for losing the match, was that Bora gifted «books» (‘books’ and ‘lose’ are homophones in the Chinese language). Here, I recommend that you guys find out what that one specific book is. Which book? Of course the one that caused you all to score a goal. After that, tell me the title of the book. Before every match, I will gift ten copies of that same book to you. In that case, won’t you all be able to get a triumphant 10:0 win over your opponents every time?» An excerpt taken from Tony Twain’s special column in a certain famous Chinese sports newspaper.He was loved and hated by the press.— «He has a special column in at least four renowned print media, and he is able to get a considerable amount of remuneration just by scolding people or writing a few hundred words of nonsense weekly. While we have to contemplate hard about our drafts for three days before our boss is pleased with it. In an article inside his special column, he scolded and called all of the media ‘son of a bitch’, announcing that he hated the media the most. But every time he publishes an article, we flock towards him like flies which had spotted butter. Why? Because the readers like to read his news and see him scold people. I dare to bet with you, and Manager Tony Twain knows clearly in his heart as well, that even though he says that he hates us, he knows that the present him cannot do without us. Similarly, we also cannot do without him. Is this ultimately considered a good or a bad thing?» Bruce Pearce, a reporter from said with a face of helplessness when talking about Tony Twain.But no matter the case, his players were his most loyal believers.— Gareth Bale, «No no, we never had any pressure when playing on our home grounds. Because the pressure is all on the manager. As long as we see him standing by the side of the field, all of us will feel that we will be able to win that match. Even the football hooligans are like meek lambs in front of him!» (After saying this, he began to laugh out loudly)The reply from George Wood, the team captain of Nottingham Forest, was the most straightforward. «We follow him because he can bring us victory.»The legendary experience of Tony Twain, the richest, most successful, most controversial manager with the most unique personality!Debuting this summer.Thank you for reading.
8 341 - In Serial117 Chapters
Ouroboros Ascendant
Ouroboros Ascendant is a story about friends you meet on the internet, and then spend entirely too much time together hunting monsters, doing quests, earning experience, and risking your life. Except for Jack, Erin, Rory, and Layla, the video game they play together every Saturday isn’t nearly as real or as threatening as the primal world of Ayrgard. A mysterious force has drawn them across the darkness between realms for its own purposes, and they’ll need to survive monsters, politics, and a lurking threat they can’t yet imagine. In the interest of disclosure and ease of access, Ouroboros Ascendant features gay, bisexual, and straight main and supporting characters, and features elements of romance between some of those characters. However, OA is not a story about romance. If you're hungry for more chapters, there's always Patreon.
8 156 - In Serial43 Chapters
Big Brother - Hunter x Hunter (Fanfic)[BL]
What if the Zoldyck family had one more son? the eldest among all of their children. The Zoldyck family was considered, by far, the most infamous and deadliest group of assassins in the world and they had one more son who had disappeared in the eyes of public for 13 years. He is named Yilluzu the eldest among the Zoldyck family's children.-------------------(A/N): This is a fan fiction, I do not own hunter x hunter nor it's characters. I only own Yilluzu(oc). Everything belongs to the rightful owner.There are some BL shipping in here like hisoka x Illumi so read at your own risk. If you are a homophobic bitch/bastard then--- get lost!!! Head's up!!!: The MC doesn't have any ship...
8 195 - In Serial68 Chapters
Crossing Seventies With Space
Not my story. For non-commercial purposes only. https://www.shubaow.net/185_185676/Author: Tenderness in the RainAction: Join the bookshelf , vote for recommendations , go straight to the bottomPosting time: 2021-04-07Latest chapter: Chapter 675 (Chronology) Rebirth and revenge, waiting for the end of the world with space, but traveled to the 70s.In the face of another world, Ye Yuxuan said that soldiers came to cover the water and earth, and space was in hand, so there was no worries about eating and drinking.When he first saw that he was threatened, the man hated Ye Yuxuan's teeth and vowed to take care of her, but he didn't expect to lose himself.
8 162 - In Serial19 Chapters
I don't own characters and one monster too."IN 1998 LONG TIME AGO AT NEW YORK THE REAL ORIGINAL GODZILLA WAS DESTROYED BY THE U.S ARMY JET. THE CREATURE WANTING HIS REVENGE FOR HIS CHILDREN AND HE FAILED HIS BEST...BUT THERE WERE 4 SURVIVORS/ (Y/N) (L/N) CONSTANCE A BOY SCIENTIEST THAT HE STILL THINKING ABOUT THERE SHOULD BE ENOUGH OF EGG FROM GODZILLA. THE ZILLA. JR TILL (Y/N) AND MAJOR'S MEN WERE SEARCHING IN THE ATTIC OF CAVE FROM GODZILLA HIDING SOME EGGS IN THERE...WHEN (Y/N) WAS LOST HIS WAY TO FINDING THE WAY OUT OF HERE BUT HE FOUNDING THE EGG OF GODZILLA. UNTIL THE EGG HATCHED WAS OPEN AND REVEALED BABY GODZILLA. JR.THE BABY WAS SEARCHING FOR HIS PARENT. THEN HE FOUND HIS ADOPTED FATHER WHAT HE WAS LICKING AT (Y/N) UNTIL THAT SOMETHING ELSE WAS ZILLA. JR DIFFERENT THAN ORIGINAL GODZILLA. RIGHT NOW (Y/N) HAVE ALONE BY HIMSELF TO DOING HIS WORK WITH GODZILLA, ZILLA. JR BECOME GROWN UP TO ADULT REAL GODZILLA.YEP THE KING OF MONSTERS.(Y/N) WAS WORKING ALONE WITH GODZILLA TO DEFENDING AND PROTECTING HUMANITIES AWAY FROM THOSE CREATURES MUTATION OF GODZILLA. ALSO MONSTER WARS HAVING ALIENS TECHNOLOGY...BUT (Y/N) DONE HIS WORK THAT HE NEED HIS VACATION TO GOING THAT ISLA NUBLAR...ORIGINAL JURASSIC PARK. SOMETIMES (Y/N) WAS STILL A YOUNG MAN THEN ZILLA. JR FOLLOW HIS FATHER TO GOING."
8 229 - In Serial25 Chapters
Peacekeeper // Green Lantern
Hal Jordan isn't the biggest fan of authority. As a high-ranking peacekeeper in the Green Lantern Corps, he's willing to defy any and all orders if it means getting the job done. So what happens when he becomes the authority? When the Corps gains a new recruit, it's time for Hal to ditch the solo act and take on a trainee.
8 179
Prev Chap
Next Chap
Chap List
Boy
Girl
