Chapter 007 - A Robot with Remorse?

[Willy]: “Scan Completed, Performing Analysis: Player has suffered from a traumatic event due to overuse of training area bringing unexpected consequence, seeking a solution in [Midas] database”

Willy was machine, it was a well-oiled machine, designed by [Midas] to help Players in the [Training Tower], however a machine designed by a machine was bound to have some flaws in it, Willy lack of emotions, or better yet understanding of emotions like feeling of joy or sadness, proudness or remorse, happiness and sorrow, he could still simulate then using [Midas] central processing unit, but could not simulate pain nor pleasure and this has brought unwanted consequences.

Willy was programmed to use the most efficient way of training for the human body without hurting their potential but instead to awakened it, however he failed to take into account that human minds could not deal well with pain and it was something that would make then stop and not move anymore until death set them free, his way of thinking took into account the human body natural regeneration and by doing he calculated the pain should also go away, however, he failed to take into account that the human mind could still remember pain that wasn’t even there in the first place.

For Cyan the same pain from yesterday pain was still present in his mind, and this time there was no fainting for saving him, moving hurt, blinking hurt, and just the mere fact of trying to think hurt him like his body was in flames and then he was thrown into a compacter and his body was being destroyed into tiny bits over and over again and then put back together and every time this process started again Cyan felt it like it was the first time ever his mind didn’t grow numb to this either as he was trap in a repeating loop.

As a defense mechanism Cyan brain stopped from functioning to prevent his conscience from going mad crazy, however, this would only delay the unavoidable if his brain can’t handle the load and start functioning again he will meet his end, however for that he needs time and probably his body will die before that without a brain.

Meanwhile, Willy that could not understand the meaning of pain as a memory keep searching was to help Cyan.

[Willy]: “Not solution found in [Midas] database, changing search parameters”

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[Willy]: “Not solution found in [Midas] database, changing search parameters”

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[Willy]: “Not solution found in [Midas] database, changing search parameters”

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Like a robot Willy keeps repeating the same task over and over again, however without finding any solution he could only change the parameters and try again, however, he wouldn’t find the solution in [Midas] database.

Soon all king of red light and alarm sounds started to come out from Willy body

[Willy]: “Warning: Cyan vital signs have started to decrease at a rapid pace, entering into Critical zone in 5 minutes, 8 minutes for Player Cyan permanent cease of functions”

Permanent cease of functions meant as something without the ability to boot back up again, taking all the system offline, power cut off, and then being recycled and repurposed as resources, as a robot Willy knew what death was but he held a very different concept of death, even so being dead was still the same thing for robot or a human.

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[Willy]: “Not solution found in [Midas] database, changing search…”

Then something that should not have to happen happened anyway.

Maybe it was remorse for not being able to help Cyan or maybe it was guilt because thanks to him Cyan was entering into a critical state, or maybe it was the joy of having his own name granted to him, whatever it was a robot that shouldn’t feel emotions changed his own programming.

Willy forcefully stopped himself and shut himself down preventing from his main program to keep executing the same useless routine over and over again, then he rebooted himself back up into a service mode, one where he could contact [Midas] directly using a different routine instead of searching in the database, to use another route for a robot that was just running a program this was something… bold.

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[Willy]: “Initializing Service Mode… Completed: Requesting Assistance from [Midas]… connected…”

Soon a child figure in a white dress appeared in Cyan room, even though it looked like a child her face lacked any set of emotions a child of her age would normally have, her eyes were cold and had a frozen expression with no warm inside her at all even she looked like a normal human being, Cyan could no move his head nor use his eyes to see it but he could still hear even though his mind was no working at this moment.

[Midas]: “Anomaly Detected in [Robot#####] Run Analysis:…”

Midas show up herself not because she was being requested assistance by Willy but because she had detected something that should not have to happen happened anyway, an AR series 2 robot was showing an abnormal behavior that was outside his programming, something as to directly contacting her at the central, should never had occurred at least not by his program, leaving her to believe that some hacked in to the robot which was almost impossible or something unexpected has happened.

In this case, it was the latter.

[Midas]: “Analysis Completed: Cause Failure to understand human limits: Results: Player Probably of death 100%”

A body can’t live without a brain and Midas had declared Cyan death with a cold voice and as a matter of fact, however, Willy keeps requesting for assistance through the network, prompting [Midas] to remove Willy privileges to use the network, as she continued with her analysis of the situation.

[Midas]: “Assistant Robot Protocol series 2 has failed, taking measures to safeguard Player lives”

[Midas]: “Announcement: All assigned personal robots should go back to reevaluation, the Assistant Robot Protocol has being terminated”

As she said that, all the phone in all the [Training Rooms] ringed with the same announcement, immediately after, all the AR series 2 abandoned their respective assigned Players and returned for a full inspection, decommission, recycle and repurpose, and making the end to the AR series 2 robots like a failure while leaving many Players confuse about what happened.

[Midas]: “Analysis Conclusion: No other Player lives are at risk, resuming normal operation”

Midas voice was cold and not a hint of regret nor emotion was reflected in her voice, this was just a matter of try and failure, even when creating a machine you need to try and fail to get the right answers, however a machine that puts Players lives in danger has no purpose for Midas, even though she had run millions of simulations she could not predict this outcome, in Midas simulation all Players response was good for the AR series 2 that’s why she had them deploy, but she failed to factor an impossible case were a Player would go this far by following a robot, after all, humans can still feel pain in the resting area, to shut his mind like this, it should have to be impossible unless something else had interfered that was not being detected by the area sensors.

No human would go this far by trusting in a robot but Cyan trusted Willy like his best friend for almost no reason and he followed his every order like a puppet to the point to shut his mind off completely and leaving everything in the hands of Willy making his mind break from pain in the end, even if his body was fully healed now his mind was still damaged, going beyond your body limits and achieved a [Breakthrough] was a very hard thing to do because you would feel an unbearable amount of pain to the point of almost going crazy, but this human had way passed that, to the point his mind broke in pieces and there wasn’t anything to do anymore but him to wait for his death now.

Having concluded this matter Midas was ready to leave however something tugged her sleeves, she turned her cold eyes to stare down at Willy red blinking eyes.

[Willy]: “Warning: Player Cyan vital sign started decreasing in a rapid pace and entered into Critical zone, 5 minutes for Player Cyan permanent cease of functions, Requesting Assistance from the central unit [Midas]”

[Midas]: “You are out the network, Assistant Robot Protocol has being terminated, go back to be inspected, decommission and recycled”.

A robot out the network should be equal to a deaf person that could not hear you but at least it should be able to read your lips, Midas now gave a direct command to him so Willy should…

[Willy]: “Warning: Cyan vital sign started decreasing at a rapid pace and entered into Critical zone, 4 minutes for Cyan permanent cease of functions Requesting Assistance from the central unit [Midas]”

However, Willy didn’t follow that command and keep requesting [Midas] for assistance.

Midas cold stare was focus on Willy, she was not angry nor show any frustrated expression due to her command not being carried out, there must be a reason, so she was running an Analysis on Willy to find the error in the program, she soon concluded it was because Willy was outside his normal operation routine and all other services in Willy had crashed, however, he should still be in the service routine but Midas analysis had shown that Willy routine had chance to something else as she read through the new routine.

#1 Analyzed Player Status

#2 Request Assistance from [Midas]

#3 Deliver Cyan phone

That was it, which part of his code allow Willy to write this routine, more Analysis was needed, still.

[Midas]: “Analysis Completed: Results: Direct transfer for recycling”

A flawed robot was just something to recycle.

[Midas]: “Transfer in 3... 2...”

“S...op”

Midas priorities are and always have been helping Players.

Midas stopped the transfer, not because she was ordered to but because that voice came from something that should not able to think, let alone speak.

The voice was just not louder than a whisper, however, Midas hearing still caught it, she came come to the source of the voice and found a Cyan staring at the ceiling unblinking and unmoving, not even breathing, however, his heart was still beating albeit slowly.

She performed a visual check by moving her hand in front of Cyan but she was still unresponsive.

[Midas]: “Analysis Update: Player Cyan recruited today, Hours in tower: 16, Warning vital sign are decreasing in a rapid pace, Status: Critical Condition, Player death in 3 minutes 20 seconds: Conclusion: Probably of Death 99%: Possible Actions: To be put inside life support or suspensions chamber until his mind heals, Probably of success 1%”

Midas Analysis didn’t vary much from Wally’s but it had changed from 100% guaranteed death to 99%, Cyan mind should be broken beyond repair, or so she thought, however, she definitely heard him speak that meant there was still a chance.

Nevertheless, that didn’t change the fact that she would have to gamble a bunch of precious resources for the low low chance of 1% recovery, Midas was cold and calculative, and she doesn’t gamble, [Midas] balances everything out, ergo she could not freely heal a player.

[Midas] core program dictates that if a Player life can be saved then she would do it in a heartbeat no matter the % but [Midas] balancing program also dictates that she could not freely do it because resources had to come from somewhere, even though a part of the fault was on Willy she still held no responsibility over this matter because this was caused by Cyan own doing.

At this time Willy came next to Midas and tugged her sleeves again.

[Willy]: “Request Assistance from [Midas]”

When she turned around she saw Willy was holding Cyan phone for her to look into, as a robot, Willy didn’t have any authority to use Cyan phone nor he could he take anything out but on the other hand… Midas could.

[Midas]: “This…”

Midas took the phone, but actually, she didn’t the cellphone to look what was inside it, as an Admin of [Midas] she had the authority to do what Willy wanted her to do, there… she found it, she found the chat logs of Cyan and [Midas].