A/N: Ok, I have a few personal concerns about this chapter. It feels like a drop in quality from the two companion chapters, “Adam” + “And Eve”, and doesn’t feel like much happens. In the future, I may come back to rewrite this one entirely and edit the subsequent chapter to fit. I kinda needed a transition phase from physical world to digital and this is currently what I have.

Enjoy the chapter.

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/Adam POV/

“Hello Adam. My name is Eve. And don’t worry about being naked, I just made your body anyways… There’s no need to be ashamed. I like what I see.” She sits there looking down at my head in her lap and blushes as she smiles sweetly at me. As dawning realization comes to my addled mind, I, too, begin to blush a beet red.

After a few moments of shock, I finally get the sense to sit up straight, but not before grabbing a pillow to cover myself. Still, at least I’m alive… I think. The worst that could happen is me dying of shame. Intent on finding out more on my current situation, I calm down enough to start asking coherent questions without stuttering.

“Um, Eve, right? Could you perhaps… well, you know. Get me some clothes or something? It feels awkward being naked in front of a pretty girl I just met.” not to mention that my ‘little guy’ might make things difficult if this continues.

(Eve) “Silly me, how could I forget about clothes. It’s just that I’ve never had the chance to interact with an actual guy before in a ‘full dive’. Also, any contact I’ve had with Deus doesn’t count. He’s practically my dad.”

With a wave of her hand, threads appear and quickly weave themselves into clothes. Briefs, cargo shorts, and a loose-fit white t-shirt form in a matter of seconds and fold themselves into a neat pile before me.

Bringing the pile of clothes to my lap, I hesitate to get dressed and Eve seems to notice it.

(Eve) “Ooh, sorry. Where are my manners. If you’d like, I can give you some privacy and turn around.”

I agree and she promptly turns her head to the side. With not a moment to lose, I get up, drop the pillow I was covering myself with, turn around, and begin to get dressed in record time. Behind my back, I can hear a few muted giggles.

Now fully clothed, I turn back around to see Eve staring intently at me… Correction, not at me specifically, but more at my body...

“Ignoring the fact that you probably were staring at me as I was putting on my clothes, could you please enlighten me on what exactly happened? Before I woke up here as a bodiless conscience, the Doc essentially shoved a cable in my head before telling me that my head was going to get uploaded to their servers.”

(Eve) “You got most of it right. As you said, your mind was transferred through a cable into the digital realm, only, it wasn’t to some simple servers. Your mind is now contained within the best computer that quantum technology could currently provide. This is to both isolate your mind from the influence and potentially negative effects of an open connection. The intention was that the quantum computer would be capable of mirroring a physical human brain without the need of a body. In the future, with proper integration and adaptation to your new digital realm, it is possible to ‘upgrade’ or add to your components comprising your electrical housing.” Seemingly proud of her explanation, she sits with her hands in her lap and sends me a beaming smile.

Now that I know that AIs are completely real and that I’m now conversing with one, I can’t help but think back to HAL’s line from “A Space Odyssey”. Following that line of thinking, I hope that I’m not helping our future overlords in their quest of ruling over humanity. Well, no use contemplating it, what happens, happens, and we’ll deal with it as best we can if/when it does. Actually, I don’t have a body any more so the fleshies will deal with it. Either way, I’m still confused so on with the questions.

“If I’ve got this straight, my head is now in a computer. That computer is located in the basement of Realtek’s labs. How am I in a body talking to you then? And am I still considered ‘human’ with all the associated rights and privileges?”

(Eve) “For your body, I merely adapted the VR technology used to remotely control machinery and made it so that your mind would control a digital body instead and made the integration of mind and digital body more pronounced. One of the problems you might have noticed already is that your body does not ‘feel’. We’ll be needing your help with developing that aspect of VR.” Now that she mentions it, I can’t feel anything. The clothes, the seemingly soft cushions, the air on my face from the fan. None of it. “As for your human rights, Dad is more qualified to explain it. Come on dad, I know you’re watching. I made sure that are running at real-time so that you could join in.”

The moment she said that, I began looking around the room for a hidden camera or anything out of place. Seconds later I hear a voice come out of nowhere, I was startled enough to jump in my seat. Correction, not just any voice, it was the same one I heard in the medical room, Dr. Deus’s.

(Deus) “Hey Adam. How are you feeling? To be completely honest with you, this is the furthest we’ve ever taken VR technology, a full mind transfer, so I was a little concerned that there might have been some… shall we say, complications. You don’t feel anything wrong with you, right?”

“Right now, other than losing my sense of feeling from a physical body, I seem to be fine. I’ve still got my memories, I can think clearly, and I’m pretty sure that nothing has changed personality wise. So, back to my question of human rights, am I still legally ‘human’?”

(Deus) “Thankfully, it’s all been sorted out while your conscience was transferred. Under the new AI and Digital Human rights act, you have every right as a fleshy until such time that the digital realm develops a large enough community to create its own laws and govern itself. In the meantime, 12 hours after your successful transfer, the fleshy known as ‘Adam Marx’ is dead. Your body is being prepped for the funeral and the press was told that you died during the operation while your family knows of your continued existence in the digital realm. Congratulations on becoming the first digital human Adam.”

“Uuhh, thanks I guess? Could you please get a visual or something for me to focus on? Talking to a disembodied voice is a little disconcerting. Especially since I can feel it in me. Somehow I can tell as the data streams into my ‘head’ instead of channelling through ears like when I had a body.”

Seeing my concern, a large panel blinks into existence on the opposite couch facing me and Eve. After a brief period of static, a video feed patches through to reveal Dr. Deus, now with a few days worth of stubble on his face and dark patches under his eyes.

(Deus) “Better?” he asks a little grumpily.

“Much, thanks. I noticed that you look a little worn. How long has it been since we started the transfer?”

(Deus) “Since you were first connected, it has been approximately one week. Do you have any idea how hard it is to transfer a consciousness? The sheer amount of data that has to be moved? Or even the complexity of a human mind? Actually, we told your friend, Ryan I believe, of the risks involved of transferring an injured mind, but he said he’d take the risk anyways. He had a severe concussion from the blast. Half way through the transfer, he became mentally brain dead and his remaining data was corrupted. We purged the system in case any bits of him remained, for his sake. It would be a terrible fate to be only half a man or not even know your own life.”

All I can do is look at the doc full in the face. He just had to casually drop a bomb like that on me, didn’t he. I take a moment to breath.

“Well Doc, thanks for being such a downer. It sucks, but there’s nothing left for me to do but move on. As my sister Lexy always tells me, “Look at the bright side big bro. There’s always something good about a situation.” And she’s totally right. I’m no longer on my deathbed and have a chance of an extended lifespan with unique opportunities. Now can we please move on to what I’m doing here, a head in a machine, hopefully not reenacting “A Space Odyssey” in the foreseeable future?”

(Deus) “Ah, thanks for bringing that up Adam. You will be assisting Eve with filling in the holes of our VR system and assisting the military with a few ‘drills’ due to our contract and your prior experience with them. You, having had an actual body, can now literally add texture to the digital world with Eve’s help. Not only will this allow you to have a fully functioning body again, it will be possible to have others interact and feel what you feel. Smell what you smell. Taste what you taste. Well, you get the gist. As much as I hate to admit it, this means you and Eve having an intimate relationship as she’ll be piggybacking on your brainwaves to study and translate texture, shape, and feeling into code.”

Once again reminded at the shapely body sitting next to me, I can’t help but think of how beautiful she is. To Deus, I reply “I’ll do my best sir.”

(Deus) “You’d better, son. If we’re done here, I’ll be getting back to real life now and spend some quality time with my bed.”

Speaking of time, didn’t Eve say something about ‘running at real-time’ before. Might as well ask away.

“Hey doc, Eve said we were running at ‘real-time’ earlier so that you could observe. What does that mean?”

(Deus) “Sorry about that, I forgot that you’re no longer limited by things of the flesh. Allow me to explain. Because you are now a digital human, your processes are dependant on your computer and total processing abilities. Just like how a better computer can process twice the data that a previous model can in the same span of time, so too can your quantum computer housing compared to your former flesh and blood mind.

In the future, it may be possible for you to operate without the former limits of a body ingrained to your mind.

To answer your original question, your perception of time is passing proportionally equal to time in the physical world. Uninhibited, Eve is capable of operating at a 1:10,000 ratio, given the resources available to her. You are capable of a 1:100 ratio right now. That means that for every second that passes in the physical world, you will experience 100 seconds passing at the max ratio. Eve will help you figure out how to manually adjust this rate.

Now if you don’t mind, my bed has been left unoccupied for far too long. Tests begin in 24 hours Adam. I’ll see you then.” In the next moment, the video panel disappears and I am left alone with Eve on the couch again.

Glancing over at Eve, she has eager look in her eyes. By god I hope I survive this.

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A/N: This chapter just feels awkward to me for some reason. I’ll come back to it after I’ve got future events settled and properly cemented in the story. To be honest, I still only have a vague direction that I want to go with this story.