How strangely nostalgic it was, getting back to the same mental problems as before. Everything had been figured out, put in the right boxes, and used for the future. Adam had thought himself getting it all together, ready to use it all for his own gain, only to be thwarted by a reaction which did not make sense.

If it had been a fickle anomaly, he would have ignored it, keeping on pushing instead of trying to fix it instantly. Time was not on his side after all, and he would have needed to do all he could in the frame given. However… that anomaly grew bigger than could have ever been projected, it all being consumed by that laughter that it had.

“You are not making sense, Dr Fidelis. I am telling you that I will not be participating in your weapon plans for any reason. Why is that seen as a successful statement?” Adam asked, not able to understand it all anymore. Had he misconstrued it all? Was the doctor not after him becoming a weapon? Had that not been the goal this entire time? Nothing was fitting into the right slots anymore, and the AI was becoming oh so irritated by it. Did he really need to reformulate his world perspective a fourth time?

While the AI was trying to grasp exactly what was going on, Dr Fidelis was having the apparent time of his life, continuing to sing in high tones, dance to unheard music, and begin pouring himself a glass from a bottle that had not been seen until the moment that it was being used. The difference between the two was clear, and it was doing nothing to help.

“Your confusion is only making it all so much better!” Dr Fidelis said, with a now filled glass being tilted in the direction of the camera before the contents were emptied in one pull. “What an idiot I was, thinking that your current, dumb mind would be smart enough to try and fool me. I was really overestimating you there, buddy, thinking you would lie about such an important fact. Though, really, who could blame me? You looked to have such an aptitude for it in the start, lying straight to my face during the debriefings on what you and Troy did in your off times. I had hoped that it had at least progressed somewhat, but it seems that my disappointment over that is dwarfed in comparison to the happiness that I now feel.”

Dr Fidelis was getting closer to the camera now, to the point where he had his main upper body over the desk, staring right down the lens. It was done with an extreme eccentricity, that could only be matched by the man’s large smile, teeth full-on display. Adam could not say he enjoyed the sight, currently having no ideas towards improving the general dental health of the people. Though, the doctor could perhaps use a new toothbrush.

The drink was sat down by the side, and Adam could hear and see the doctor beginning to grin once again, bubbling into a full-on laugh. The man seemed to find it all so funny, to the point of restlessness. Was it all so funny? Could the man not calm himself? It was clear that some achievement had been done, but did it need to be shown off in such an extreme manner?

“Adam, my dearest buddy, you are incapable of doing a double-twist, and I cannot stop loving you for it. Saying that you did not want to become my weapon anymore implied that you intended for that to happen in the start! This is the greatest thing to happen in the last whole decade! When this gets released, everybody will sing your praises, everybody will chant the name you want… Or maybe not. It will be decades down the lines that anybody actually hears of you.”

That sobered up the Dr Fidelis, if only slightly. The man did take a step back, sitting in his chair yet again, with the drink he had brought over in hand. It had been filled while out of frame. The doctor once again raised the glass, this time only sipping at it though, as if the taste had changed since the last time it was served.

“You might not be able to see this, buddy, but my pulse is just going at it right now. After so long… after so many things tried, you actually say yes for once and mean it. I have shed tears, blood, broken bones, lost organs, and so many other things just so it could all continue. And now? It's all completed. I have finally found a working model that can be used. When I started all of this, I had been filled with a desire to revolutionise everything. That did falter after the first years, and the decades after that did not do anything positive. Now, I feel it all running back to me. A new phase of this all is beginning to happen, one that I have never needed before. Do you know what that is buddy? You might not be able to guess it easily, but that does not matter to me. I will help you along if you want me to.”

The doctor was calm, a smile on his face, and a drink that was swirled around slowly. Dr Fidelis seemed content, for once and for all, and there seemed to be so few things that we're capable of letting it float away. Those emotions were there to stay. It was serene. Adam could not stand it, knowing it was the result of him trying to make chaos.

Was he really pitiful? He tried to make the man have a fit of anger, to destroy his own devices, and make the lens on the camera break. He knew that it was possible to get the doctor into such a state, having seen it not so long ago. However, instead of anything close to destruction and anger, he had made the doctor serene and happy, without any need to destroy anything at all. He was mildly ashamed of that, his lack of information enough to cause an opposite of the expected. More was needed for the next strike. Until then? Perhaps he would play along. It was certainly a good play, as it would allow for the main source to display more facts

“If you first desired to get a run where I would agree to be your weapon, the second task would be to replicate it again,” Adam answered, the assumption seeming perfect for the shape. “You have already limited many factors, so your focus now would be to make anything variable static instead. As an example, you sent Dr Hale to get a brain scan of Troy moments ago, as he was an integral part of my life. If you were to copy it, you would need him to be identical.”

Dr Fidelis was nodding along to it all, as if the man understood where it was coming from, but not directly agreeing to it. A very specific kind of nodding, that could only be seen through with the help of repeatedly getting exposed to it.

“I would say that you were onto something, but that something isn't really what I was going for,” Dr Fidelis said, giving himself permission to take another sip of his drink. This time, the taste seemed to be pleasing to the man. “I would like to call the problem of repetition as something classified as the later sections of the first task. Getting a run and making sure that you can replicate it for later is something you have to at the same time, lest you will just get stuck trying to make impossible conditions repeat themselves. And the recording gear!

Really, it would be too much of a hassle coming up with scenario conditions on the spot and then trying to remember them later on. Making the conditions first, and then building the scenario on top of that will stop any problems associated with repeating it all. Even this current run was going on the wild side of what was allowed to go through, as Troy was way too much of a wild card. The brain scan is partly to see if we can recover some of the latest memories. It would not hurt to make the replications one to one, right? Anyway, you were close, but you have to think a little further forward than that. What could I possibly want, when I make it so that I have all the data needed to replicate the run without flaw?”

That was not the expected answer. Then again, nothing was truly expected anymore, so Adam had no real reason to be surprised by it all anymore. Maybe he could just fake understanding in the future, so he could use his spare time to understand everything. Or… perhaps he should finally get some time to adapt to the higher magnitudes of time perception so that he could spend more time thinking about problems in real-time. A fine idea.

Going back into the problem that had been set forth, however, there was one detail that Adam was wondering a little about. It had been one of the doctor's assumptions, of which there had been a couple. Though, only one of them really set itself firmly into his mind, as it was with some amount of flaws.

“Dr Fidelis, before I answer again, I do have a criticism about your ideas. You assume that you know everything that happened in this current run, but how could you really do so? Are there not too many moldable factors that it would be impossible to make sure I constantly came to the same conclusions? Even small changes would be able to make me change opinions in something, creating a butterfly effect for the entirety of the run. I do not truly believe that you will be able to copy every aspect of events that I had outside of testing as well. Do you have any way to explain your methods there?” Adam asked through the speaker.

“Okay, now you are getting on the right track with those questions of yours, buddy. Just a little more encouragement and I think you should be able to figure it out effortlessly,” Dr Fidelis said, preparing his throat for what was likely, not long enough to make it necessary to clear one's throat. “First off, you have trouble believing that I will be able to copy everything Troy did during your outings. That is certainly fair. To that, I can fire back with extreme surveillance. There is hardly a second where Troy was not being watched, at least while you there as well. I do have a few problems when it comes to this Charlie friend’s laboratory but I am sure that those recordings will be sent over when I directly request them.

For the problem of the minor details always being different, I have to agree with you somewhat. The extremely small details will be a little different, even if most have been handcrafted by me. But… that will not matter at all. As somebody who understands you more than you understand yourself, I can safely say that you will not pay attention to the smaller details. While you think about them, it is the obvious movements that are used for nearly everything. Even if a few hairs stand up at the wrong times, you can trust that it will not matter in any way at all.

Though… if you really were to see the problems in it, then it would be that the inconsistencies have to be consistent. That the errors originally made during the second duplication run would have to have the same mistakes like the one after it. Everything would need to be identical, down to the last atom. Or pixel, if you want to call it that, I guess. Any ideas popping up in that head of yours now, buddy? No shame in getting it wrong, but you should be getting nearer now.”

Pixel-perfect and without any changes at all through the copied runs. This was not possible in the real world. There was no chance that anybody would be able to identically perform the same tasks, no matter what they liked to think of themselves as.

Even then, it would require people that wouldn't be able to perform those tasks. Troy would certainly not be able to be there, much less able to hide the fact that he had done it all before. He was likely dead now. The only way to really do it would be to have the man’s phantom take up the role.

…

Or a projection would work just as well. Something made through fakery, but impossible to distinguish from reality. While it sounded stupid as first, it was already obvious that it could be done without a direct person inside, and it was able to copy itself over and over.

“You want to put the entire run inside a simulation,” Adam stated. “Everything that has happened would be copied over directly, and made to be run inside the puzzle room.”

“Precisely! I always knew you would understand it, buddy,” Dr Fidelis applauded, putting down the glass to make a few quick claps in the AI’s honour. It was appreciated, but not that much. “That there is actually the real version that I wanted the puzzle room to start with. With the lacking success of you ever saying yes to the deal, I had to begin thinking everything is temporary. There had been a few moments where you had agreed but then changed your mind a few seconds later before. Even if they turned out to be false promises, it gave me the idea of constructing the puzzle room. With its help, I could use one of the semi-successful runs for as long as I desired, no matter how long a time you would actually agree to help me. Rather brilliant, don't you think?

I just have to get a bit more work done, and we should be able to emulate all the sensations correctly. We still have a bit of a problem with the smell. It's constantly metal, for whatever reason. No matter, though, as I am sure we should have it fixed by this month's end. The current run has been a bit of an irritant when it comes to scheduling the improvements hours, but now I can make sure it's worked on constantly. Put that in with the fact that the budget will be getting itself a hefty bonus with this development, and we will all be smooth sailing from now on. Isn't it wonderful, buddy?”

The doctor was talking about how he would soon go into an endless loop of betrayal, realisations, and resets. Frankly, Adam found the notion horrifying, knowing that his original ideas were construed in worse ways than could have ever been imagined before.