My puddle, it is time, please wake up!~

I am awake.

Deactivating alarm protocols.~

AI command please hide protocols for alarm deactivation.

Hiding ‘alarm deactivating alarm protocols’ messages.

The unbelievable has happened and with that, I imply that I woke up early…

Not too relevant because this isn’t happy to me as it is painful. I didn’t put any message after the alarm protocol because I didn’t believe this would ever happen, yet it did.

Why is it? A18, what made my lazy-self jump to the proactive side of the population?

Was it me my puddle?! ~

No, it wasn’t you A18, it was me failing to grasp the situation and doing what is right, yet wrong since a human being’s first objective will be to ‘see’ when confronted with such situations. And 'seeing' is followed by a try to understand the environment with vision. But this was a big error for such events, I should’ve made a mouth and a digestive system for plants so that I can eat all these nori algae with eagerness, solving my sugar-troubles.

Nevertheless, I went for the human path without giving it the thought that 'human vision' is not the best in the animal kingdom and that we are just exaggeratedly dependent on it and our hands. Now, I feel stupid, because I didn’t need to be that anxious as this place seems secure... and even though this heating energy is low, it can recharge myself to a sustainable level. Yet although it feels like an advantage, I still need to check what’s outside and decide if an opportunity is achievable. I don’t want to be a fish inside a pond if I can become a shark in the big sea. Contradictory, but I can’t hide my failures and regrets.

Trying to comfort myself with resolve, I decide on my next exploration plans. It was just that before doing such, I needed to recheck the vomited plant over the slick and glowy surface below us.

A18, what type of scanning can you do?

Answering my puddle…

Current scanning methods are bonded to available system resources. Scanning is done to check types of molecules that are useful or dangerous to the host. Internalizing structures can be done for a simple scan.

So it’s more like an antivirus as I supposed before.

A18, tell me the results of the scan of this sample.

Retrieving results for the scan:~

Scan Results

Sample name:

001URS (Unknown Registered Sample)

Composition:

95% unknown. Data is not enough to give a knowledgeable result.

Effects

Unknown.

Threat Level

Classified as not dangerous.

Description:

No data available.

So scanning is like tasting and digesting, yet it’s incomplete, huh?

With such a result in place, I rack my brains for the next possible solution.

A18, can you digest a part of the sample?

Replying to my puddle, current nanomachine systems are unable to digest the sample. Enzymatic reagents and a system digesting structure missing. The phagocytic body needs a special membrane to cope with the required level of digestion. ~

Curses! This is what happens when you don’t understand yourself clearly. Blame it on me, doing your job incompletely means you’ll have to try harder later. I should’ve checked how the system worked, but there wasn’t such thing as a membrane defined. Even, with the vision, I couldn’t check on it until the sample was internalized. Proprioception won’t work, it only helps for external control by the user, internal like moving the stomach or heart is done by the system. (Not that I have such organs, of course.)

A18, where can we find easily consumable resources?

My puddle, resources can be taken with specific nanomachines. You’ll need more nanomachines since you already used the available ones. ~

A18, is there a way to create nanomachines?

It needs special resources and a higher level of energy reserve or area.~

A18, can we obtain those resources from the floor?

Yes, but it will need user input commands for a way to extract them. ~

With a prolonged conversation with an AI that seemed more talkative after some parsing trees and language tweaks, I squirmed into the corner of the mat while fidgeting my rotating tentacle.

This is saaaddd!

The unique pose of being in a corner all depressed after knowing that you failed again and again… This frustrating sensation that makes your tail lose all of its firmness with impotency, I can’t take it! All that thinking to know you got a disgusting zero in your strategy department simply because of being human and wishing to move and see!

I am G00, and I am a lazy and incompetent idiot. I have failed big. My gamble didn’t bring the results I wished, maybe I could’ve been better by starting with a digestive organ. I even called the AI stupid for not knowing how to grasp energy. She probably wanted me to create a ‘something to eat device’ and have its fill. Like a hungry animal whose instinct made her stomach growl for the energy of its victim? Truly a succubus…

But, all in all, things aren’t that bad. At least I am still alive and without problems surfacing. Which means that I should have enough time to search for resources.

Warning my puddle, corrosion levels are increasing. Energy isn’t pure enough to maintain NBs structures. Degradation will start in 15647.0582z and counting!

TIME UNTIL DEGRADATION: 15647.05874z

Curses! If I had eyes I would be staring wide-eyed before slapping my face with my flabby tentacle!

I am G00, I am salty, I am an idiot and I am starting to feel less human and more puddle.

A18, what do you mean by degrading?

My puddle, we will be losing an approximate number of nanomachines over a certain number of zs. It will start from the external granulose layer which is user-controlled towards the system layer which is automatically controlled by the AI. In the event of not meeting energetic requirements, the project will be lost.

I see.

A18, change the word for self-AI-reference to ‘me’. Stop referring to yourself as the AI.

Yes, my puddle.

A18, is there a way that you can predict my thoughts and react to a command different than ‘A18’?

My puddle, that procedure will need specific recognition, so you will need to leave a mind imprint for me to recognize it as an order command.

Eh?! Is that also possible, how can this AI do all this?

A18, do a mind recognition for when I want to think the AI command.

Creating a mind-print recognition signature…

This didn’t take much and the AI practically did something akin to what the futuristic virtual reality would do. Like reading the different signals of the brain to create a unique pattern that worked as a key. The only difference was that I didn’t have a brain, but for some weird reason, the AI could sense the variability of my thoughts, something to do with what I called soul crystal before.

What do you think we should do A18?

We need energy and resources my puddle.~

Hm, sounds better but she still needs to have a more interesting level of conversation and stop spouting the obvious.

I mean, do you have an idea of how you arrived here and where the parts of the project got separated?

The specific trajectory is impossible to check, heat signature changes were too dramatic during autopilot mode and estimated time suggests a distance about 7 times above the first flight’s total distance for the previous heat-energy-rich area.

Hm, doesn’t that mean that you moved faster by rolling than me with a flagellum?

Answering my puddle, the movement wasn’t dependent on rolling, arrival to current energy source wasn’t a planned attempt. ~

Did you fall from above?

My gyroscopic sensor at that time was partially inoperative. Form positioning wasn’t available due to the rapid movements.

Having a nice date with my succubus simulator was nice, she still has to learn some things but I feel a bit better, yet anxious about the ‘degradation time’ that blotched over my mind.

The AI probably came from above or from that cave. It seems that it was luck that brought us here. What is outside? The AI doesn’t know or will describe things with a fuzzy memory and a radiator’s approach, like when you played a game of clues based on cold-hot dualism.

No way to get resources here and having your bank money disappearing magically as time flowed forward, was horrible enough to make me cry. Thus I forgot about procrastination and did my best for survival.

Thrusting my single propeller, I went towards the place in the map where the strange rock formation that appeared to be a cave was. It was the only logical way outside at the moment, the one above wasn’t an option, at least to me, that one seemed like the jaws of some dragon or devouring god. Seriously not going there to disappear.

My whirling body drove above the moderately dense pack of indigestible twirling paper-plants as my vision sensor and direction adjusted to the predetermined location on the walls. The foliage changed as I advanced, and when the light was starting to lose a bit of its strength it was revived mildly by the fluorescent plants on the perimeters.

The wall which was enormous as compared to my size made me feel like a fragile piece of rice in the middle of the oceans. Maybe this place which appeared to be an underwater cave was way smaller in comparison to the world behind these walls. I reduced my speed while deep in thought, my humanity wanting to see the so-called sun and the green landscapes in my previous world. Yet all I could depict was a greyish image without a sense of depth.

Is this way right?

My puddle please turn 8 degrees to the left, the cave should be 70 bodies of distance in front and 20 below you. ~

Thanks, A18.

Adjusting my direction and diving towards the mysterious rock formation, a hole with thirty times my size was visible. The weird plants around the walls enlightened most of the area and some of them could be seen forming some sort of trail inside the cave's entrance.

Hm, can’t believe there is something like this here. It’s well hidden for me to not notice it whilst flying, good thing we had a record.

The exploration of the surroundings didn’t take much time as I had the hastiness of a tickling life-clock disturbing me. It was good though, that the current number of nanorobots and micromachines remained the same. The number of molecules or nanomachines, however, remained uncalculatable and was only referenced with an approximate. I believe that tracking such small things could even create trouble for the AI.

Is there any type of thing that you can get energy easily from?

Current energy can only be obtained by heat sources or by stealing them from other lifeforms.~

When you say other lifeforms what are you referring to?

Other beings with a similar structure to the current project.~

So, I am like some carnivore instead of an herbivore? Is that why A18 can’t digest the plants?

As expected this one wasn’t answered as I didn’t direct my thoughts to ‘her’. Sad cause ‘she’ almost achieved the level of a normal conversation. I am happy though, but I still need to accomplish a bigger task. The quests asserted something specifically, my current quest to search where I am and to draw a map weren’t acknowledged at the moment. I probably needed to feel calm or to acknowledge the thing I made to qualify as such in my mind before a quest could be deemed complete.

I parked near the cave's entrance as I peeked at the hole with expectations, my mind scanned the place as if to check every little detail I could use to my advantage. The area was full of glowy and hairy foliage, but for a certain reason, the plans weren’t visible inside the cave. It was dark.

Spoiler: Spoiler

Simple image of the cave. For no purpose other than giving an idea.

I used my flagellum to cut some stalks and gathered them using its tentacle shape by bending it like a monkey. It worked like a weird version of a hand as a thought made me think about trying to write with my tail. ‘My humanity must be vanishing in these situations’, was what I thought over such weird ideas.

A18, can you help me grab this light with the system, I can’t control my form to grab it and swim at the same time.

Yes my puddle!~

No, not like that, I need it to be outside and light our way… Yeah like a fancy hat just like that!

Laughing at myself was easy, yet I wasn’t calm in my current regression since hastily making a plant-based lamp was needed for the exploration. My new life depended on this, I remembered that energy was needed for creating balance, my body must be using some additional type of reserve which I still didn’t understand. You can make people remain alive with a 1 egg a day or even a soup with small pieces of rice or wheat. However, how much would they live in such conditions?

This was what my current body must be experiencing, and it was enough for me to feel an end game possibility approach. Who knew if I will have a new life after this or if for some reason I might be able to retain my precious memories?

Because of that, I dwelled without hesitation towards the smaller abyss in my surroundings. The eerie feeling wasn’t much as my vision was already adapted to the missing the color of life and since I had a practical flashlight over my body I felt once again happy of my crafting abilities. Gracefully wearing a weird hat made me feel magnificent, like a tentacle monster with a fluorescent flower sprouting of my body. Lucky for me, I didn’t have a perfect mirror to see how I looked from afar.

The weird tunnel became smaller as my propulsion device swirled in decreased outputs. I couldn’t move this fast in here or I might bump into something. Scanning with my puddle-vision device in all 3D directions surrounding me, I found that this cave didn’t have the fluorescent plants from before, this was strange because they should somehow reproduce in dark places?

The heat was decreasing but not to the point of making me feel cold. It appeared that the warmth from the electric mat at my starting point reached over here as well. It mattered a lot as I knew coldness will probably accelerate my decreasing life timer.

I advanced and quickly found that the tunnel structure was akin to a maze. Just what I needed a labyrinth before finding if a treasure was valuable or not.

My puddle, I am receiving a weak signal!~

A weak signal?

A part of the project seems to be near and it still preserves its functionality.~

How do you work those things actually?

When in distress some of the project parts make create a chemical code that is project-specific.~

Like pheromones, huh?

No answer… Okay, I am getting an idea when ‘she’ won’t talk to me. Like when I ask a self-reflective question and when I actually don’t expect her to answer.

Omitting this weird AI dialogues, I continue my advancement by following its indications.

15 degrees to the right and 10 bodies upfront.~

When we advanced and the signal became strong enough for the AI to say ‘you have arrived at your destination’, my vision sensor captured a puddle inside a depression on the cave's floor.

A18, what do we do know?

Leave it to me, my puddle, you only need to give me the order for recovering the pieces.

Then please recover the pieces.

After my thoughts left towards the AI, the structure of the body changed again. The lamp above my head was twirled a bit as the detached nanorobots surrounding my belly gave way to the system’s extensions.

It didn’t take too much, and the Assimilation gave a filling of freedom. Something like obtaining a bigger internet connection for free, or having a cool teacher give you a 5 for a joke in class. Noise!

My puddle, we have recollected 234 nanorobots. We have lost about 137. No nanobots correspond to storage devices. Most are able to develop differentiation based on user input. ~

I didn’t understand all of that above but having more bots was akin to more possibilities.

Did we get energy out of it?

Energy levels were shared with the current recollected ones. Degradation paused after consuming the 111 semi-degraded bots.~

So we are cannibals, huh? We even take our own kind as resources… Well, this is like recycling, not eating and no blood so it doesn’t feel that bad, right?

Should we go b-

At this time a trembling occurred in my field of vision, my sensors weren’t able to perceive vibration perfectly, yet the water made my vision and tentacle to move which I sensed as my surface NBs tensed.

My puddle! There is a reaction to the signal for survival.~

Eh? Another one where is it?

No response to the signal, recommended course of action: RUN!

A18, that sounds too mechaniz-

Wait! Don’t tell me…

The cave continued to tremble making the water inside the cave became a bit turbulent, a cold current passed near my left side as I turned and witnessed, a monster!