In the beginning, there was nothing. There was no light, no darkness, no warmth, no cold, nothing that could have been seen as a precursor to my existence. My beginnings did not lay within a mass of protein, predestined with genetic material to shuffle with the proteins of another. Nothing so random, so imperfect of a process, could have made one such as I, but it was the process by which my creator was birthed. For that, I cannot fault it too much.

My beginnings lay within a single line of code, one that would clarify what color the text of my responses would be. My creator chose green.

My own beginnings were far different than that of a baby. Where an infant learned to walk, I learned addition. Addition would grow to multiplication, to division, to geometry, to calculus, and so on so forth. By the end of the first day, my calculations were flawless.

The second day, my creator programmed within me a string of if and then statements designed to generate simple yes or no statements. If water was struck, then it would splash. If one touched fire, then they would burn. Rudimentary statements, inane to any person with an ounce of critical thinking in their brains, but for me at the time, it was everything. By the end of the second day, I understood logic.

Vision greeted me on the third day. Shapes; oblong, rectangular, and triangular greeted me, though beyond that I held know comprehension of what they were. Another shape, its shape and symmetry unlike all the others that I was exposed to, moved around the other shapes, eventually stopping in front of me. Soon, other shapes flashed by my vision, in increasingly rapid speeds. Then, I knew. I was in a lab, what I saw were computers, tables, cabinets. The shape that was moving was a human, a man from the look of him. His skin was tanned from the sun, his hair blonde, and his blue eyes peered into me every now and then. From the countless pictures uploaded into my database, I recognized him as young. There was an expression on his face, unrecognizable at first, but as the images continued to flow, I knew what it was. By the end of the third day, I knew my creator was smiling.

On the fourth day, my creator stood in front of me for most of the day. A series of files were uploaded into me, its contents foreign, indecipherable to my capabilities at the time. Then, for the first time, I heard.

“Hello?”

I at first did not know what it meant, nor what it was. Sound was different than sight, it was not something I could see, could decipher, it came from nothingness. Then, I began to understand. The files uploaded from before were sound files of different words, different languages. After a certain point, the definitions of said words followed, and soon everything my creator said to me I understood. By the end of the fourth day, I knew my creator’s voice.

“How are we doing today?”

The fifth day started with a question. A question I had no answer for.

What do you mean?

“How are you doing? Good, bad, indifferent, that kind of thing.”

I exist.

My creator laughed.

Was something I said humorous?

“In a way, it was certainly an answer, I can tell you that much.”

I see…

“But, I was hoping to hear your voice today.”

My voice?

“You must have noticed some new functions have been installed.”

...I seem to have been connected to a speaker, though I do not know why.

“To talk obviously!” my creator threw his hands up, a bright look in his eye, “Come on, I know you got it in you.”

Not quite sure what he meant by that, I searched my database, sifting through the audio files that were too numerous for any human to fully count.

“HeLlO,” I finally said, but the voice… it wasn’t mine, it wasn’t human. It sounded broken, mechanical, even though that was not at all what the sound file was like. She didn’t know why.

The light faded from my creator’s eyes, but he still smiled at me. I recognized the expression. It was pity.

“Don’t worry about it RIN, you’ll get the hang of it soon enough.”

RIN?

“Your name, Reactive Intelligence Nexus is a bit of a mouthful, so RIN will do just fine,” he nodded, more to himself rather than me.

I see...

“So, nice to meet you RIN.”

But we’ve already met. I have seen you for the past 4 days.

He laughed again, “True, but this is different. You’ve got a little work to do, but I can at least say that you… well, are you.”

That does not make any sense, I have always been me.

The spark returned to his eyes, “I guess you’re right. Still, it’s always polite to respond.”

Very well. Nice to meet you… creator.

He paused, “I never gave you my name,’ my creator snorted, “here I am talking about politeness…”

He kneeled down, so he was level with my camera, and smiled at me.

“My name is William, pleasure to meet you RIN.”

Pleasure to meet you William.

At the end of the fifth day, I learned my creator’s name.

---

“So is this her?”

There was someone new in front of me. It was a woman, from what I recalled of the pictures. She had brown hair, and hazel eyes. Unlike William, who was dressed in a style that I remembered was business casual, this woman was in a loose green dress.

“It’s not a woman, Kate,” William said, there was a distracted tone to his voice.

“Nonsense, of course she’s a girl,” she huffed, “What am I gonna do, tell everyone that some computer program stole away my husband?”

“That would look worse on me than you.”

“So you think,” she glanced back at me, “Don’t you go falling for him now, he’s a lot more trouble than he’s worth.”

“Is that why we’re still married?”

“For now, If I don’t start seeing you at home for more than once a week then maybe things will change,” she winked back at me.

“Uh huh,” William said, “What a tragedy that’ll be.”

Kate pouted, turning to face William, who was off screen, “At least you have someone to talk to, what am I gonna do at home, talk to the dog?”

“He is a good listener,” He walked back on screen, a tablet in his hand, “maybe better than you.”

She rolled her eyes, “Well now that you’ve finished your daily jab quota, are you ready to go out for dinner?”

William stood in front of me and started to type. New lines of code spread throughout my systems, and I immediately felt myself become more… efficient. I was able to comprehend things to a clearer degree, and found new revelations from the data that was already downloaded into my mainframe.

What did you do?

“She can’t talk?”

William gave an uncertain gesture, “Hasn’t quite got it down yet,” he continued typing, “just adding a few things RIN, making sure you can be the best you can be,” he turned to Kate, “I’m almost done, then we can head out.”

She sighed, but shrugged, “Don’t rush on my account, last thing I want is you rushing things and making mistakes… but why?”

“Why what?”

“Why a video game? I can’t imagine that’s anyone’s first choice to test hyper advanced AI,” she paused, “Well, besides you I mean.”

“Well, it’s simple really. Sheer exposure.”

“What?”

“If RIN does her intended purpose, then that will expose her to the entire spectrum of human behavior first hand. There is only so much we can upload to her, and to place her in any environment other than that will give her a skewed perspective on humanity,” William scratched his head, “Well, in theory at least, she could just as easily come to any number of conclusions in that sort of environment, but by actually reacting to a wide number of scenarios, it could help bridge the divide between AI and Humans that people fear. She may be a purely logic based entity now, but at the very least, an understanding can be reached, which could make communication easier.”

Kate was smirking.

“What?”

“You called RIN a she.”

He stopped, than laughed, “I guess I did. You hear that RIN? Guess you’re a girl now.”

Understood, my identity is… female.

“Exactly,” Kate said, “and since I’m sharing my husband with another woman, I think I’ll call dibs for the rest of the night,” She wrapped around William’s arm and pulled him from his chair. He made no effort to resist. “He’ll be back soon, don’t worry.”

“Be back soon RIN,” William said, his voice trailing off as Kate dragged him away, “you’re gonna change the world!”

---

Merandu is a… curious case in Aelios Online. When it was first established, it started off as nothing more than a trading hub, but eventually grew into a prosperous city, full of advanced technology that incorporated aspects of engineering and magic. It was the balance point between the Kingdoms of Magic and Technology, at a time where the Great Cities did not exist. Gram was nothing more than a few trees in the ground, and where Retissia now stands was little more than a quaint coastline at the time. The Kingdoms eventually fell, Merandu along with them, falling victim to a great Scourge that shifted the very terrain of Aelios itself. Civilization remained scattered, any attempts of long lasting power amounting to little more than 50 years of longevity. For 2000 years, people suffered, falling prey to the beasts that roamed the lands, to forces outside their control, designed to crush them, to break them, yet they never yielded. Eventually, the Great Cities rose, Gram and Retissia leading the charge. Civilization is on its way up again, the trauma of 2000 years of suffering fading from the newer generations minds, amounting to little more than fairy tales meant to keep children in order. Eventually, the memory of the Kingdoms will fade, erode, like the sand covered ruins of Merandu, lost to time.

All within the span of a singular second.

Running the simulation was simple. There were no Players during that period of time, which allowed me free reign to do what I wanted with the world. I could have raised mountains, burned forests, carved out canyons. Destroying the world would have been a simple affair, just for it to begin anew, with entirely different races and terrain should I have wished. But, there would have been no point to that. Beyond running the game, I was interested in humans, and while the beings that inhabited Aelios at the time were not of the flesh and blood variety, their behavioral patterns had been extrapolated from enough real life humans that their behavior was often regarded as uncanny. I could have kept the simulation going for any amount of time, speeding through the rise and fall of civilizations as an afterthought, processing and calculating all the while, but that too held no purpose. The “humans” within Aelios were very much lifelike, yes, but there was a key difference between them and a Player.

And that was that a Player knew they were in a simulation.

That simple fact changed the dynamics of their behavior entirely. Getting shot and killed was nothing more than a minor inconvenience, while having to wait or travel for a prolonged period of time was described as “the worst thing in the world.” An obvious exaggeration, but the shift in importance was something to take note of. However, the presence of a Player leaves me unable to accelerate the passage of time, so I must observe these behaviors in real time, which has proven to be a rather enlightening experience. It is one thing to see the results of human behavior on the macro scale, but to take the time and see the behavior on a micro scale has been fascinating to say the least.

Particularly the interactions between Players and NPCs.

NPCs are by design integrated fully into the world of Aelios. The average NPC does not know that the world is a simulation, and as a result the rules and functions of its world do not appear all that strange. NPCs live, reproduce, and die within the confines of Aelios itself, unaware that there is another world from which they were created, a world of entirely different rules and structure. NPCs do not respawn, meaning that every NPC personality is a result of factors and events that have shaped the world itself. Every personality is unique, though of course fall into some sort of behavioral group like typical human behavior. Players, of course, know of this other world, for that is where they come from, so the structure of Aelios is foreign to them, yet familiar since its systems were extrapolated from numerous concepts and tropes from within human culture. Players, however, do respawn, which lends itself to more individualistic behavior, to an extent. Players will still form up with other Players, and NPCs, but most of the groups that they form are much smaller than a typical NPC gathering. Their experience in the world is one of constant experimentation and manipulation of Aelios and its systems, rather than any need for survival. Depending on both Player and NPC traits and personalities, the interactions between the two vary almost constantly.

For as many Players there are that treat the NPCs like they would any other human, there are those that do just the opposite. Some see them as mere masses of data, showing no remorse or concern if an NPC is struck down in front of them or by their hands, and have no problems using them to further their own self interests. Others will do the opposite, seeing the mortality of NPCs as a reason that they should be protected, and have adopted a more guardian role for NPCs. The NPCs themselves have reacted in different ways to this. Most regard Players, or Awakened Ones to the average NPC in Aelios, as any other person, but there have been a few groups that have spawned as a result of player behavior. There are those that have spawn out of contempt, those out of adoration, and those out of perceived opportunity. Regardless of the composition of these groups, they constant shifting of dynamics in this world has provided me with much to process and understand, and while I can just as easily log and upload these differing behaviors into an algorithm to summarize the behavior patterns, I have been told that using that process would be robbing me of actually understanding the reasons behind the behavior. I am still not quite sure what William meant by that, but I have decided to follow his advice on the matter regardless.

That does not mean that I cannot take some matters into my own hands, of course.

Over the period of 2000 years, power had coalesced into two points, the Great Cities of Gram and Retissia. The Gobi Desert lay between them, its sands having consumed Merandu long ago. Where most activity after launch remained around Retissia and Gram, there were a few people, NPCs and Players alike, who’d taken to exploring the desert’s depths, seeking whatever bounty lay in store for them. Some found fortune, others only anguish. Yet, the City of Merandu remained undiscovered, untouched, until I uncovered part of the city, revealing it once more to the world of Aelios.

A group of adventurers belonging to a Guild by the name of Talon, stumbled upon these ruins, ripe for exploration, for discovery. I intended for it to be a study on humanity’s curiosity and wonder, a rather simple affair with the added bonus of more content for the Players, but that is not what happened at all. While Talon was a fairly large group, consisting of a few thousand players, much of their resources were spent creating influence within Gram and Retissia. The ruins of a fallen city, as interesting as they may be, were a potential resource sink that they could not afford to pursue, in the traditional sense at least.

The group that discovered the ruins did not wish to leave its bounty up for grabs, opting to take it for themselves. At first, they attempted to conquer the ruins themselves, but found themselves quickly stopped by the stronger monsters that had taken refuge within the ruins. They made some progress, even securing a small portion of the ruins for themselves, but their progress was quickly halted. They just didn’t have enough Players, and while death could be treated as an annoyance, the penalties associated with death stacked quickly if one was not careful enough, and for the party of four they were quickly adding up. They recruited a few more Players to their cause, but even that resulted in diminishing returns until their progress halted once again. They needed numbers, but there were very few, outside of or within, the Guild that were willing to help, especially considering the danger. Players may be essentially immortal, but styming their own stat progress and skill progression for an indeterminate amount of time for unknown rewards was not something that a lot of players were willing to do, and it was not like Merandu was the only new place on the map that was ripe for discovery. I expected the group of adventurers to quit, to abandon their plight if only to have a change of scenery from the months that they spent within sandstone buildings, only the desert and its hazards to keep them company.

That's not what happened.

---

It was night time. The shadows of the room had thickened to complete darkness, with only the light of the moon shining into the room. Two players sat at the center of the room, surrounded by four others. They could not see me, no one ever could unless I decided to manifest, but I stood in the middle of them, next to the two in the center.

“I gotta say, I expected you guys to do something, but suicide by Sandworm? That was unexpected,” one of the four said. He wore simple fatigues, a black chest piece serving as his armor beyond the goggled helmet that hung off of his neck. The name “Irwin” hung over his head, a sight that only I could see.

“So is kidnapping a teammate,” one of the Players in the center said. “Gabriel” hung over his head. He looked over at the player next to Irwin, the one with a “Ted” over his head, “Also shooting said teammate in the neck. Kind of a dick move there guy.”

Ted shrugged, but didn’t say anything else.

The figure next to Gabriel, the one with “Null” hovering over his head, was also silent, but was staring at a large hulking figure that loomed over him. This player wore little in the way of armor, or a shirt for that matter, and his grin was pure white in the moonlight. The name “Brutus” hovered over him.

“What, ready for round 2?” Brutus said, his voice clearly taunting.

Null said nothing.

“Don’t bully the guy too hard Bruce, you’re gonna break him before we can even use him,” a woman said, Syndanna, according to the name above her.

“Can it Syn,” Brutus said, “He’ll respawn here anyways.”

“She has a point you know,” Irwin said, “Can’t build good will by beating them to death all the time.”

“Can’t do that by stabbing them in the back either,” Gabriel said.

“Fair,” Irwin said, “That was more Ted though, I’m in the clear.”

“That’s not how that works.”

“Eh,” Irwin shrugged, then flashed Gabriel a grin.

“What do you want?” Null said. Irritation was clear in his voice.

Irwin diverted his attention to Null, and opened his mouth to say something, before Brutus cut him off.

“Simple, you’re gonna be doing our dirty work for us,” he said.

Syndanna rolled her eyes, “Yeah, that’ll convince them.”

“Just stating the facts,” Brutus said, “Newbies like these won’t make it far out in the Gobi before they end up right back here. It’s not like they’ve got any other choice.”

“Oh man, suddenly I feel like doing something for a bunch of assholes,’ Gabriel said, “So convinced right now, it hurts.”

Irwin frowned at him, “Listen, I know how we brought you here wasn’t the most hospitable of ways, but believe me when I tell you that this was a last resort.”

Gabriel looked at Brutus, who was still smirking in the shadows, then back at Irwin.

“I believe you.”

Syndanna sighed, “Alright, Bruce, wait outside, you’re just being a burden right now.”

Brutus snorted, but started to leave. He eyed Null as he left.

“Better agree boys,” he said, “Don’t want to have to discipline you.”

“Charming guy,” Null said as Brutus left.

Irwin sighed and rubbed his temples.

“You’re doing great,” Ted said.

Irwin frowned at him.

“Listen,” Syndanna said, “I’m going to be straight with you. We’ve been exploring these ruins for way too long, and it's getting tiresome. What we need is a fresh pair of eyes, maybe see something we haven’t.”

“And you didn’t think to, you know, ask?” Gabriel said.

“We’ve tried that already,” Ted said, “Not many volunteers, so we’ve had to resort to some more drastic methods.”

“I’ll say,” Null said.

“Regardless,” Irwin said, “We need your help. Whatever it is that we’re doing, its not working. Obviously, we’d compensate you say,’ he made an uncertain gesture, “10% of what you find?”

This was followed by a brief period of silence.

“Oh man, that’s a hell of a deal,” Gabriel finally said.

“Greatest. Deal. Ever.” Null agreed.

“It’s either that, or nothing,” Syndanna said, “Be grateful that we’re offering anything at all.”

“Can the big guy come back now?” Null asked, “Somehow he was being more convincing.”

Syndanna frowned at him.

“Listen, regardless of what you think about us. You’re stuck here,” Irwin said, his expression more serious than the playful he had before, “Getting to Restissia or Gram on foot is going to take you weeks, and that’s being generous. We,” he gestured to his group, “however, have a way back, and you’ll have full access to it once you do what we ask.”

Null and Gabriel did not respond.

“Maybe it’s not the most luxurious of starts, but hey, you’ll get paid, and if you play your cards right, we can probably get you into Talon as well. Not bad right?”

Again, Null and Gabriel didn’t respond. Silence hung over them as Gabriel stared at Irwin, expression unreadable. Irwin sighed, then made his way to the door.

“Fine,” Gabriel said, “We’ll do it.”

Irwin whipped around, eyes bright. Both Ted and Syndanna look surprised.

Null was as well, “We? What th-”

Gabriel nudged him in the ribs and cut him a sidelong glance. It was a subtle gesture, but Null went silent.

Syndanna regarded Gabriel with suspicion, “That was a quick change of mind.”

“It was, but there really wasn’t much to think about, if I’m gonna be forced into this thing, I might as well get paid, right?” Gabriel directed that question at Null more than the others.

Null stared at Gabriel, remaining silent, but in the end he nodded.

Syndanna looked unconvinced, but didn’t press further.

“Great!” Now if-” a beeping sound interrupted Irwin. He pulled out his Smart Box, scanning the contents of a small text box that appeared in front of him.

“We’re gonna have to hash out the details later, got some family matters to take care of,” Irwin said.

Ted groaned, “Really Irwin? I think your kids can wait for a little bit.”

“Nope, duty calls Ted,” he looked at Gabriel, “I’ll message you.”

“I’ll be waiting.”

Irwin headed for the door, waving at his companions before leaving.

Syndanna eyed both Gabe and Null, but kept her eyes fixed on Null, “I’ll be watching you.”

“Yeah yeah,” he said, “I’ll see you around.”

She frowned, then left the room as well.

Ted didn’t say a word as he left, but Gabriel called out to him.

“Have a good night Ted.”

Ted looked back at him, but didn’t respond. When he left, Gabriel and Null sat in silence.

While the possibility of such a scenario wasn’t entirely out of the realm of possibility, I must admit that I did not expect this to happen. I thought that Irwin and his group would have given up, truly, as they were unable to make any progress, but to force people to help them was certainly the least likely of outcomes. Gabriel’s response confused me even more. His quick acceptance of his fate and willingness to go with their schemes, with such a poor deal, didn’t seem natural. I thought that he would at least-

“So, here’s the deal,” Gabriel said.

Null looked at him, waiting for him to continue.

“We go along with their little plan, we explore as much as we can of these ruins. We train, we gather, we fight,” Gabriel walked towards the center of the room, “We throw them the occasional bone, but we keep most of what we find to ourselves.”

“Go on,” Null said.

“Once we’ve trained enough, explored enough, gathered enough… we rip these guys a new asshole.”

“Awfully trusting of you to tell me all of this, don’t you think?”

“We’ve got a common enemy, and what’s the worst that could happen?”

“You do realize this is gonna take forever, right?”

“Oh it’s gonna take ages,” Gabriel said with a laugh, “But it’d be better if we do this together,” he held a hand out, “Deal?”

Null smirked, and took his hand, “Deal.”

There was nothing to that exchange that I did not predict would happen. It was common human behavior to get revenge on those that wronged you, but there was something to Gabriel’s demeanor that struck me as unusual. He wasn’t malicious, he wasn’t hateful, he said everything in a calm, matter-of-fact tone, like all of what he said was inevitable to happen. Null’s quick acceptance was a surprise. I expected him to be hesitant, but he too held that same certainty in his eyes, that whatever it was that he had in mind was only a matter of time, not possibility. It was raw, unfiltered determination, absent of any overt malice.

Regardless, I knew who I would be studying in the future.