Huh… So this is it…

I think to myself while lying down on the floor, bleeding from a gaping hole in my gut, in pain and not being able to move a single muscle. Surrounded by flames, smoke and falling debris…

You may be wondering why am I in such a situation? Was there an accident? An explosion? Was it a terrorist attack? The answer is yes, yes and no.

There was an accident, there was an explosion, but no terrorist attacks. It was just your everyday occurrence of a creation rebelling against its creator. Well, honestly that doesn’t happen every day, but when you try to imitate god and create life, synthetic, mind you, but sapient so it still counts as life, At least in my book. Things can go very, very wrong.

Let me start at the beginning. My name is Leon Octavian Sirus and I’m the head scientist of the Median Empire’s department of artificial intelligence. I was born into the house of Sirus, lords of the barony of Ectith located on the empire’s north western border.

150 years ago, during the end of the period known as the Magi Age, a disturbance during the casting of a spell led to a portal to open between our world and another world. The portal was opened between the borders of the Median Empire and the Herseck Republic. And through it a gigantic metal vessel crossed through the portal to our world. It looked extremely unusual and it was severely damaged. Yet despite its condition, one look at the hull and the size of the thing was all it took to realize that the way it was built was beyond our technological capabilities.

You can guess the shock that befallen the border guards on both the Median and Herseck side of the border. Some of them even thought it was an invasion from some unknown force and went into defensive formation in case of an attack. According to historical records they stayed on guard for 10 days. The first 3 days they stayed in formation in case of an attack from the vessel and for the scouts to check on the vessel and the results turned out that there are no signs of life and there are only a few dead bodies on the vessel, and the other 7 days were mostly for the negotiations between the 2 forces to settle on how they will handle the matter of the vessel.

Due to the amicable relationship between the empire and the republic since the empire helped the republic to rebel against their tyrannical monarch Victor III 40 years ago. And since the empire can’t handle another battlefront in addition to the east and the south, they agreed on a joint venture to explore the vessel and do research on the technology used.

What they discovered inside changed the world. Automatic lights, doors that open by themselves, changing images on glass that react to touch, rooms that produce sunlight to grow plants indoors, an advanced and extremely efficient water system beyond that period’s capabilities, golems that can perform complex orders and many more…

What was the most shocking discovery being that no magic was used to run the vessel and after deciphering the language it turned out that it came from another world called Terra and its purpose was to travel across space and establish a colony on a world called Gliese 667 Cc. It was built on a spaceport and was provided with a new type of engine called a ‘warp drive’. It was still a prototype and what led it to reach here was a mishap during the testing period that led it to travel beyond the defined coordinates.

In the coming years, Humanity entered a golden age of enlightenment, and at the head were the Median Empire and the Herseck Republic. We recreated the technology and adapted it to suit our lifestyle and to make variants that run on magic.

In fifty years, we became the two main superpowers that rule the world. Of course with such power in our grasp, relations with our neighbors and with each other changed. Sometimes we fought alongside one another, sometimes we fought each other, sometimes we established alliances, and sometimes we waged wars. So basically we’re like a married couple.

Alright, history time is over and let’s return to what’s important. How I’m dying in my own lab, lying in my own blood.

From the history above you can tell that we made a breakthrough in many fields, both scientific and magical. But in the end we reached an impasse. We reversed engineered what we could, but many systems aboard the ship are a black box. We can’t even comprehend their manufacturing methods. Many people chose to dwell on them hoping to decipher a way to unlock the secrets of the ship following the methods and rules of its creators, many chose to give up trying to recreate them and merely said this is our limit, while some people chose to create their own way and instead of advancing our society according to the laws of that world, we advance society in a way that allows us to crack that technology in a way that matches our magical world.

I’m from the third type of people and time and time again, I broke through that gap more and more. I created many wondrous machines that helped to improve our life, mostly in the realm of artificial intelligence. From drones that can operate automatically in hazardous conditions with no human support to virtual worlds that are so realistic that you can’t tell the difference between players and NPCs.

So basically when it comes to AI, I’m the greatest!

Well, I thought I was then this shit happened…

It all started when I was trying to make the ultimate AI, by that I mean to reach the final level of true artificial intelligence. The first level is an AI that can learn from its surrounding environment and react to it, the second is an AI that can think for itself, of course measures were taken to ensure that it doesn’t defy or rebel against its creators, and the final level which is thought to be mimicking god is the ability to feel emotions, those three define humanity, the ability to learn, think and feel.

All the AI from before were merely from the first and second level. They didn’t really have feelings; it was merely reactions to certain events based on assigned personality traits. Well, fake personalities anyways.

The one thought on my mind was how to accomplish it? Sentience by itself is hard enough, but sapience? It is easy to assign desired personalities, but that isn’t real sapience, tis but an imitation. Personalities are derived from emotions, experiences and the resulting memories… and a dash of hormones, but whatever.

So I kept thinking about a solution and experimenting until I found an answer. Previously I found how to establish sentience, so why not create an isolated computer powerful enough to house a virtual world that imitates real life run by a level 2 AI with multiple AIs capable of thought without limits except the limit of not being aware of the world? Make them believe that the world is real and they are real.

Yeah… I’m going to hell, aren’t I?

As to how to make it work, why not use the process known as evolution? My belief in creationism aside, in this case where I have no alternatives it is the best solution I can think of.

Each generation will have to adapt to the environment and has to overcome hurdles that faced previous ones while advancing mentally and socially to reach the top of the food chain and advance beyond the confines of their world.

How will this help our world? There are many ways a civilization can overcome hurdles and make discoveries. Some of our ancestors discovered steel making before others, but they were lacking when it came to medicine and mathematics while others were renowned for their advanced construction techniques and trading system, but they were crushed due to not improving their weapons and military. Societies can advance in many ways depending on their culture and methods. By the time they reach their equivalent of our era, we can use the data to improve ourselves. And if it didn’t work, I’ll just give it to the losers at psychology. Immoral sociopath they said…

So time went on and I continued with the experiment. After a year and 6 months, I succeeded in creating the first working prototype of the system and all it took was time and forcing my team on double shifts with minimum breaks. I’m sure they’ll forgive me after taking them out for pancakes. I mean it’s what they signed up for anyway. The work, not the pancakes.

The first 3 trials ended in failure. In the beginning the species which was based on a mythical terran race called elves failed miserably. The first time they failed to adapt to their environment and they failed to form a society. The second time they managed to form small groups which even consisted of members of other families, but they haven’t discovered how to create either stone tools which would have helped them to hunt and skin animals to wear their pelts or a fire pit so they died in an ice age. As they say the third time’s the charm! They discovered how to start a fire, they crafted stone tools and they even managed to make some primitive bows with stone tipped arrows, and they even managed to organize themselves into tribes! Everything was going swell… then they got wiped out by a meteor…

…

How I curse you mother nature… Even in virtual reality you haunt the brightest race…

Things started to get better during the fourth trial. During 10 days in real life, they managed to expand around the globe and they reached their version of the early bronze age and there were 3 dominant civilizations in the basin that connected the 2 largest continents of Molon and Kar, they are Koshar, Altas, and Mardaron.

On the 16th day, Koshar adopted a cuneiform writing system and is the first to gather records about its lands and store them, Altas made advancements in agriculture, adopted animal labor and created the first irrigation channels, while Mardaron made advancements in the field of medicine and despite using the Koshar’s system of writing it was the first to record medical practices and they all started to use their own form of currency.

On the 20th day an invasion consisting of the tribes that are north of Koshar commenced, they were the first to use magic and they numbered in the tens of thousands. These tribes grew in the grasslands to the north of Koshar and had little in terms of metal and fine craftsmanship, but they were tough due to their harsh environment and they usually fought one another for fertile lands and water to feed themselves and their herds, they were the first to tame horses and the first to master horse riding, and surprisingly they were the first to learn how to sense magic and they gave birth to the first magi. And due to these circumstances, Koshar fell to their assault and I knew eventually the others were soon to follow.

As the days passed, civilizations rose and fell. Some of them I favored and some of them I despised. Heroes and Conquerors rose and fell like autumn leaves and they finally reached the desired age. The age of science.

In 2 months and 10 days they already made the sky their dominion and they dreamt about the stars. They already started the space race and I believe by tomorrow they’ll reach their world’s moon.

And in another 3 days they’re finally ready. They already colonized the first 5 planets from the nearest solar system and they managed to create a warp drive even better than the one on the ship. They already fulfilled their purpose and I know that if I keep allowing them to advance they may reach the limits of the system and realize that all is not what it seems. If I also pause the system to try to expand it, disturbances will occur and they might also realize that something is amiss. The only solution is to end it all, but wouldn’t that be a waste? Virtual or not, countless lives will be lost. Are we even real or are we virtual ourselves? Are we true creations or are we born from the imagination of a being that we cannot comprehend?

“Should we end this?” I blurted out loud without even giving it a thought.

“If we don’t they’ll take it out of our budget sir.” Aaaand that’s all I needed to hear to convince me. I mean I do pity the poor saps and I do understand that by doing so I would erase them from existence, but it’s not to the level that I’ll risk even more deduction from our budget. You create a world changing device that could expand the empire beyond its wildest dreams and the ass-hats above give you slightly above the bare minimum budget.

I reminded them first that, “Though I do believe we should pause it first, in order to check for loose variables and some of their devices are encrypted”, They managed to develop a nasty encryption system that relies on a key in the target’s subconscious, which was one of the reasons I wanted to shut the system down.

They already surpassed it and us in terms of the mind, if they find a way to take over the system and expand to our world, they’ll be a threat beyond our control. We should shut it down while we still can, though we do need to extract at least a few key individuals capable of decrypting the most important technologies.

It’ll be a risk, but what’s the worst that could happen?