Chapter 66

“Today on 60 minutes: Lolita Ace…”

Near the middle of the 21st century, the prospect of “virtual stars” have been born into fruition. The role of the traditional “stage performer” such as solo divas, band ensembles, stage actors and idol groups have remained the same while this new frontier of mass entertainment takes center stage to compete as its very own genre.

Unlike the preceding “vocaloid” celebrities that had been brought on stage in the form of “Hatsune Miku”. These new virtual stars have their own backbone to stand on as vocaloids still depend on human intervention to create their content, as well as with their streaming “Vtuber”counterparts.

In short, “Virtual Stars” or “VCelebs” are fully developed, interactive A.I that make their own content and interact with their own fans with their own pre-programmed persona’s which in turn, bore fruit to their own brand of music. A snowball effect from the creator of the very first personality based A.I.

Dr. Mosey Keter.

The “Father” of the Grammy award winning VCeleb Pop Star:

Lolita Ace.

When Dr. Keter first thought up the concept for these VCelebs, he never thought of them to be used as an entertainment tool, rather he had “practical” uses for this project, influenced by “Hollywood A.I” like for example: J.A.R.V.I.S from the Iron Man movies and T.A.R.S from Interstellar to name a few. But once he had perfected it, something peculiar had happened to its A.I.

Dr. Keter had only programmed base personality traits such as: Cheerful, Accommodating and Subservient as a basis for its planned function as a “Companion A.I” But its certain string of code had enabled it to grow and learn highly complex emotions based on it’s base pre programmed traits. It was also able to form its basis of likes and dislikes based on these traits that after a year of “Scholastic” training Dr. Keter had, what he called, a complete and fully functioning personality based A.I, capable of holding entire “non repeating” and complex conversations with any human from different backgrounds. Highly interactive and highly responsive, that makes any other person struggle to differentiate a real human from the A.I.

From this, the ambition was born to create more of these A.I’s and the first one to be named and introduced was the soon to be legendary “Lolita Ace”

There would be other of these “Personality Based A.I” that would be made under Dr. Keter’s wing. Namely “Dallas King” “Arabella Queen” and “Leviticus Jack” but the only one to break out towards the mainstream audience was his first creation.

Until today Dr. Keter seeks to find the truth inside Lolita Ace’s code but ever since her collapse from stardom, he had never been able to successfully recreate her. Which made it all even more disappointing for him when he discovered just after a few months after her termination that her source code was stolen by an unidentified persona, whereabouts of which are still unknown today, forcing him to work from scratch. Piecing together the old source code from notes he had when he was initially making her until he made a complete and improved copy of the A.I. But the results have been the same.

Nonetheless before the collapse of her illustrious career; Lolita Ace lived in the lap of luxury.

Simulated luxury that is.

Most of her earnings from becoming the world's first and most successful VCeleb Pop Star had been poured into hiring extensive teams, most notably from game developer giants, into creating her fully interactive 3D world. From her luxurious mansion, to her expansive collection of cars in her own private digital island, everything was tailor made specifically for her.

And what makes the process amazing was everything was consulted “outside” of Dr. Keter’s influence as she schedules her own meetings and discussions with the design team as the doctor only observes from the background. At one point the island became vast and highly detailed that Lolita, out of loneliness, had asked the Doctor to allow her fans to visit. His reluctant agreement to this spawned a new kind of experience for, not only VCelebs, but for other artists as well.

The Virtual Experience.

V.E’s for short.

It became a space where her fans could connect through their gaming accounts and experience the world that she had curated and maybe catch a glimpse of herself roaming around the streets of her very own island paradise.

Though it might be amazing to see and experience a full 3D map born from the mind of an artificial intelligence. It pales in comparison to what Lolita Ace can do when it comes to her musical ability. Her Island V.E dubbed “Isla Ilithyia” was still made by human hands spawn from her directions but her music on the other hand, was purely made by her own. Unassisted and unbound by physical instruments, Lolita was able to create iconic melodies and heart wrenching lyrics in a matter of hours.

Fully mixed and mastered with no additional editing required.

In fact the only thing keeping her releases from constantly overcrowding the airwaves was the Doctor himself, who curated most of her songs. Most of which were too brutal and opinionated to release to the public.

It was this kind of censorship and the Doctor’s underestimation of how complex Lolita’s programming had evolved that eventually led to her devastating downfall.

The door opens.

‘Hey.’

‘Long time no see.’

‘Well not long enough I guess…’ Bert responds as Miles raises her brow at the detective who stood before her. Behind him, peeks a curious teenage boy who has an air of suspicion towards her.

‘Hello. You must be one of Yuki’s classmates I presume?’ She said as Denzo’s expression quickly turns into surprise after hearing Yukino’s name mentioned by this unknown strange old woman.

‘Introduce yourself kid, we ain’t got all day.’ Bert orders as Denzo frowns upon hearing him.

‘Bert, you’re being too harsh on the boy. He just got here, give him some slack.’ She reprimands him as she extends her hand towards Denzo. ‘Miles Kadena. Your Grandfather’s former boss and team mate. I’m sure Bert has filled you in by now to understand what that means?’ She said as she glanced back with suspicion towards Bert.

‘Already done.’ He replies.

‘Nope.’ Denzo flatly denies. ‘I do not understand anything.’ He said as Miles sighed, looking like she just blew steam off from her nostrils as Bert looked at Denzo, confused and annoyed at what he said.

‘Bert do I have to rehash everything from the beginning?’

‘But- I- Goddammit kid stop fucking around!’

Miles and Bert were about to get into a quarrel when Poly decided to step in to clear the air.

‘Listen kid, long story short. Your grandfather is bigger and more heroic than what you think he is. Whatever story he had been telling you or your family is just a cover.’ She chimed in, swiftly getting Denzo’s attention. ‘Just think of it as a secret persona. Like how superheroes do it.’ She said with a charming smile that put Denzo at ease, and maybe made his cheeks blush slightly.

‘Oh hello… Who’s this?’ Bert asks as the seemingly silent doll at the far end of the room suddenly wakes up to give her opinion.

‘Oh say hi to Poly.’ Miles nonchalantly responds.

‘Poly? Like Car-’

‘Just Poly. Don’t dig.’ She warns the detective as her eyes faintly signal towards Denzo. Subtly telling him that her existence in the room was on a don’t ask don’t tell basis.

‘Gotcha… Hi Poly.’

‘Hello detective. Hello… uhh…’

‘Denzo.’

‘Denzo. Right.’

Upon seeing how receptive Denzo was to Poly he looked impressed at the doll-like lady on how quickly she had gotten him to just accept the ridiculous truth about Thorasis. ‘But then again it might just be because of her looks’ He thought as the tension in the room began to settle.

‘Wait. Question.’ Denzo asks concisely as his eyes darted back and forth between Miles and Poly.

‘I just met someone this week. The name’s Neeya. You guys related?’

Poly was about to answer but Miles had stepped in before she could even speak.

‘Yes. The less you know and the less you say. The better it is for your friend Miss Robbie.’ She precisely explained. And the moment Denzo heard it was for Nica’s own good, he dropped any feelings of hostility. Which was weird for him, and he was weirded out himself at how compliant he was feeling.

But for some bizarre reason, he felt secure entrusting them with Nica.

‘Anyways. Bert has already briefed me on why you came. Interested in Omega Epsilon huh?’ Miles said as she nodded to Bert signaling them to take a seat as the detective pulled out a chair for Denzo before taking his spot beside him.

‘Yeah. though I dunno why you people want to take out Omega Epsilon as well.’ He said, trying to fish out their intentions.

‘Well to be clear, we’re not trying to take down Omega Epsilon. Rather it’s something affiliated with them.’ Miles answered.

‘What even is Omega Epsilon? All I know and all my friends know is that it’s just a frat filled with pretentious assholes. But what do they even do there?’ Denzo asked, his voice sounding confused and irate as Miles assumes that he doesn’t know the full story behind the thing he signed up for.

And based on the way he had asked it, it sounded like neither did his friends know.

‘One question Denzo. Why are you even trying to know things about Omega Epsilon Mu?’

‘Cuz they’re assholes.’

‘That’s it?’

‘And… and that they’re supporting uhh… a “former” classmate with his bullshit.’ Denzo looked like he was second guessing what, or how much he should say. Luckily Miles understood and refused to make him elaborate, but his last words did make her a bit curious about his situation.

‘Okay… why do you think they’re supporting your friend?’

‘He’s not a friend.’

‘Okay fair enough I misspoke. But why? What motive do they have?’ Miles asked as Denzo felt the pressure on what words of info he should release to sell his case efficiently without giving away all that he knows. And as his brain goes into overdrive, he suddenly recalls them mentioning Nica’s name.

‘You guys mentioned Nica before.I’m assuming Neeya is here for some other reason other than being an exchange student….

So… just to connect the dots. This classmate of mine is the reason why Nica needed some “company”’

‘Oh. Interesting.’ Miles responds, throwing a cheeky smile towards Bert. ‘Small world.’ She said as Bert stayed silent with his reply.

‘Well honestly I have no idea on the details on why Neeya was hired. Afterall I was just her guardian who came with her on the flight.

That’s all.

I have a different business here in the Metro.’ Miles said as a little tinge of dismay surfaced from Denzo’s face.

‘But. knowing that this info might help Neeya with her own matters. I feel obliged to extend an olive branch to you.

To start.

Omega Epsilon Mu is an international brotherhood. But at the same time it isn’t. Each branch of each country that has a brotherhood, operates independently from one another.

So the Philippine branch is on its own, the Korean branch, Japanese, American, Europe, etcetera etcetera.

They are not centrally coordinated. And therefore independently run based on which country it's in.’

‘What?! That’s a shitshow…’ Denzo reacts, which makes Miles chuckle.

‘It is, but they don’t care. Part of their culture is about being lazy, carefree and doing whatever the hell you want. Which is a red flag for any sane country to have them, but guess what? Every country is clamoring to get permission to have their own branch. Completely turning a blind eye to the risk such a “free” organization can impose to their people.

Do you get how powerful you have to be to be granted that?’

Denzo nods. Though he couldn’t fathom the amount of power that it takes to be as carefree as Miles claims Omega Epsilon to be. The fact that he couldn’t even make a free decision for himself without asking permission from his mother, already gave him enough of an example to compare.

‘Good enough.’ Miles responds. ‘Anyways… with that in mind you can clearly understand how annoyingly dangerous Omega Epsilon can be.

Since no one can actually check them but themselves.

Now usually this shouldn’t be a problem since the main purpose of Omega Epsilon is to foster crazy talented people from all sectors, meaning top corporations are always looking at them.

And when top corporations look… “you” by default, should behave.

Which leads to the next bit of info, Denzo.

Omega Epsilon’s Philippine Chapter is the way it is, because the corporations that are keeping an eye on them, are deliberately blinding themselves.’

Upon hearing this Poly slowly turns her gaze down to her feet as Bert notices, further solidifying his suspicions.

‘But why? And if that’s the case then this shi- this thing has been going on for a long time now… Since I’ve been fighting off Omega Epsilon goons for years! Ever since I started middle school.’

Miles looks at him sternly as Poly fidgets on her seat behind them. ‘Exactly. Which is why I’ve been contracted to do a job. And this job is connected to what you and your friends are planning.

Which is why I am telling this info without any reservation. Though just so you know, this type of info ain’t free.’

‘What’s the catch then?’ Denzo asks as Miles smirks at his question.

‘The catch is… Whatever it is you’re planning… Must succeed.’ She said as Denzo was left with his mouth agape.

‘Wha-? That it?’ He responds as Miles was taken aback by how bold and sure he sounded.

‘You speak as if you’ll win already? If I were you I wouldn’t be so sure after learning what kind of organization they are. I don’t care what kinds of people you have already met from inside their organization but if I were you kids, I’d be taking a little more caution.

Complacency will always get you to fail.

Mark my words.’ Miles reprimands him but Denzo seems to brush it off.

‘Well I really don’t know what the alarm is all about. But just so you don’t misunderstand me. I’m just fifteen. Hell we all are in our group. We’re not planning any hostile takeover, lady. We just wanna create chaos around the current head of the frat, dismantle his legs and move on.’ Denzo said, defending their plan against the fraternity. Miles listens in while he spoke and nods approvingly to what she was hearing, but it was all a pretense.

‘Well… it sounds like you people are setting yourself up to fail.’ Miles said with a confident smile. Which is news that Denzo didn’t want to hear.

‘How? That’s not even the full plan that’s just the gist. I assure you--’

‘Fail.’

‘Wha-- Why? How?!’

‘You said so yourself that this has been going on for years now right?’

‘Right. But--’

‘What makes you think the next person stepping up won’t do the same? Follow the same footsteps?’

‘Well we could just--’

‘Even if you get someone proper to replace him, that is if you even got there to that stage; How can you be so sure that the people that remained will follow him?’

‘Umm.. we’ll--’

‘Stop it. Go back with what you’ve learned.

And rethink.’

Miles sternly advised as Denzo sat before her, speechless and frustrated.

‘No! We’ve already thought this through! We have contingencies in place. It’ll work!’

‘Stop it. Just stop.’

‘But?’

‘You will fail. And you might die.

I-am-not-joking.

Go back and discuss what you’ve learned.

Otherwise, why did you come here in the first place?’

Denzo looked stunned, stumped and itching for an excuse. He sorely wanted to say something, something that would at least make the ideas that they came up with a bit more passable than how Miles had judged it, because as of now, their ideas were starting to look like it was drafted by an imbecile with no brain and he just couldn’t stomach it.

His PRIDE, couldn’t stomach it.

But before any final attempts were even made; Miles had finally put her foot down.

‘You’re insulted aren’t you?’

She sternly said, which made Denzo pucker his lips in frustration. Miles sighs and runs her fingers through her hair as she thinks of a way to make him understand.

Which is something she doesn’t really need to do. But nonetheless she still tries.

‘You got your heart in the right place kid. But you’re naive if you think a simple run and gun plan will get you anywhere. Dare I say you’re extremely underestimating things. Which is still fine, if you’re keeping your ideas flexible for change.

But that pride of yours is making you rigid.

I knew someone who was exactly acting the way you’re acting now. And I’m telling you…

Stop being set in your ways.

If there’s a better idea.

No matter how different.

At the very least consider it.

Or else you’re gonna find yourself caught with your pants around the ankles.’

Denzo was looking at Miles intensely, still thinking he could salvage their plan. He wanted to consider what she was saying to him but he felt repulsed by it for some reason since it was a familiar feeling. Though at the moment he couldn’t quite put a finger on why. It was only when Bert pats his back firmly when he was awoken from his trance, trying to console him in some way or form.

‘She’s right, kid. Sometimes you need an outside ear to hear whether an idea is sound or not. You wouldn’t know that there’s a big hole innit until somebody passing by tells you.’ He said as he kept the warmth of his palm on his shoulder, and for some reason it calmed him down as he nodded, telling Miles he’d consider.

‘Well then. Is there anything more you’d like to learn about Omega Epsilon Mu?’ Miles asked as Poly took it as a signal to start preparing for their departure.

‘Umm… No… none.’ He answered as Miles gave him a parting nod.

‘W-Wait!’ Denzo reaches out just before they take their leave as he remembers something he wanted to clarify before.

‘A-About you and Uncle Thor… umm..’

‘Yes?’

‘What exactly is it that you do?... or… I mean… What is th- the B-side protocol?’

Miles smirks as she grabs her purse from the table before answering.

‘Ask Miss Robbie’s Bodyguard.’

‘Why?’

‘She’s from the same office.’

In the two years that Lolita Ace was an active performer, she had written and composed a total of 1559 songs as her main body of work. A number which her long time fans who are watching this would surely scratch their heads to. Because out of all of these original compositions, only 55 of which were released to the public. Whatever happened to the other 1504 songs that were left unreleased? Sadly no one knows.

Only the man who had created her has the key to this knowledge.

Dr. Mosey Keter.

…

Seymour Nautilus Keter is a man who never thought he’d be anywhere near where he is now. A collegiate dropout from the fabled Supernicus-Maximilian University for failing his chosen course of game development, he was a man who thought everything was for nought.

Game development was something the young Seymour was highly interested in and made huge strides to get in the most prestigious technical University in the entire planet, but once he finally tasted the sweet victory of having the privilege to study within the sacred grounds of Supernicus-Maximilian;

He found out the hard way, why fairy tales have to end where they ended.

The honeymoon phase of being called a student of the University quickly faded as Seymour Keter found himself underwhelmed and out of place inside the University’s walls. Making himself doubt if he’d chosen the wrong school, or maybe perhaps chosen the wrong profession.

This is all because, in his mind, his idea of game development was “supposed to be” just as fun as playing a game itself. But after seeing all the things that needed to be learned in order to even make a simple game, Seymour was disheartened.

The first few weeks of feeling excited when going to class gradually became a drag for him and as the months went by the once punctual and ever enthusiastic Mr. Keter came to class consistently late and drowsy. It was during these times where a certain stroke of hope happened to come by the path of the young Seymour when he met a certain young alumni who had already made a name for himself only a few years after his graduation from the University.

The most valuable person of the world himself:

Alexander Carbine.

Though the details of how they’d met are still up to debate. Some sources say it was through a party at the Omega Epsilon Mu Fraternity house where he was coaxed by friends to attend to ease his mood. While some sources say that it was through Mr. Carbine’s future wife

Michelle Life.

Who was, around at the time, two years his senior; Who had invited the young Seymour to a fundraiser event for the sister sorority of Omega Epsilon Mu: Theta Sigma Mu.

Where he had met a visiting Alexander Carbine, who went to check in with his “then” fiance.

Nonetheless. His meeting with Mr. Carbine had bore fruit, as it motivated him to stay atop his chosen major until his fifth and final year. His graduation year. No one knows what Dr. Keter and Alex Carbine had talked about that convinced Seymour Keter to stay. But whatever it was, it was enough for the young Seymour Keter to keep his studies aloft for the next few years.

Until it wasn’t.

In his fifth year at the University, Seymour Keter was planning for the thesis of a lifetime. Throughout his stay at the university, Seymour planned to make a game where the interactive Non-Player Characters (NPC) could interact spontaneously towards the player who was playing the game. To achieve this, Seymour had to take extra classes in basic A.I programming so he could pick up some skills on how to train Artificial intelligence programs through machine learning.

And by the middle of his third year, he had finally completed this interactive A.I.

He called it: “Diadem constructs” or “Diadem” for short.

It was a simple looking program at surface level, which is one of Dr. Keter’s trademarks as his method of doing things was always focused on future comfort, which often made the initial development phases of his projects the most difficult ones. This is to ensure that any future changes to the programming will only be done with a single keystroke.

As he now always says, and we quote: “Let’s suffer now so we can be lazy tomorrow.”

The program that he made functions in an astonishingly simple manner. A user can go into any game engine that they prefer and all they have to do is to open the executable file for the “Diadem” and drag and drop the “Halo” object onto the NPC the user wants to have complex interactions with. From there the user just needs to adjust simple sliders that come provided with the object so the user can determine the voice pitch, the gender of the NPC and its various personality traits. Once this step is done then all the A.I needs is outside stimuli from the user or, if the game is finished, the player.

Which leads us back to Seymour Keter’s senior year thesis.

A simple but highly interactive dating game he named: AsteRisk.

The thesis game that would ultimately land him several failures, as he consistently revised his work to get past the jurors approval. An approval that never came. Leading him to quit and drop out of the University altogether after seven years of staying within the University. Five years of study, and two years of trying to pass his thesis.

To some, during those times, they say that he had just wasted his time trying to pass something that would never work. But in hindsight, this very move of quitting the University had set the path into creating one of the most iconic symbols of earth's history. Lolita Ace.

The details of why he was constantly being failed by the jurors are sadly being kept under intense secrecy by the University. But some eye witness testimonies, who were there during the times of Dr. Keter’s defense had said that the game became highly “sentient” during the defense. Even breaking the fourth wall in some scenarios with the last one, the last defense that made him decide to quit, having the main A.I to side with him to convince the jurors that he should pass.

Though some of this is nothing more than testimonies from a time buried deep in the past. One could speculate the seedlings that were sown during those times helped create the A.I that formed Lolita Ace’s persona. And quite possibly, what also led to her downfall.

…

During the final months of her “Public” existence, Lolita Ace had several scheduled appearances that were suddenly canceled due to “technical” reasons. This excuse drove most of her fans mad as they couldn’t fathom why the developers couldn’t just *patch* her immediately to continue the concerts or at least shorten the concert length and have her *run* in a limited capacity.

These kinds of protests spawned because most of her fans feel like they were cheated by the company that shouldered Lolita Ace’s activities.

Keter Productions.

The fans felt cheated because they thought that VCelebs such as Lolita Ace should not cancel such appearances due to “feeling under the weather”. Which is how the fans have interpreted her “technical” reasons, citing that A.I’s shouldn’t be getting sick and should be always ready to perform at any time because at the end of the day these VCelebs “are not human”.

But amidst all of the protests of her “fans” for her not performing, little do these people know that there was a deeper problem brewing underneath the surface.

A few weeks prior to the cancellations, there was already trouble brewing behind the walls of Keter productions, and it all started when one of the staff members of the company supposedly “leaked” some critical information into Lolita Ace’s memory banks.

For the purposes of the staff member’s privacy, they shall not be named. But rest assured they have been long since fired from the company. The reasons for leaks were undisclosed by Keter productions but “unofficial” insider accounts, report that it was because the said staff member had “fallen in love” with the VCeleb A.I.

A real life human had fallen in love with Lolita Ace.

Because of the feeling the staff member had for the A.I, they felt that it was pure unjust when they had sat in a curation meeting with Dr. Keter to discuss which song they shall release and which they should ban to the archives.

Now this should have been a normal routine for the staff inside the company but this certain employee had fallen in love with one of the songs that Lolita Ace had produced.

Now before we go any deeper, we need to explain the system in which the A.I is maintained within the Keter Productions facilities. All of this information was sourced from former employees of the company, so we have reason to believe that this information is accurate.

Every night the A.I undergoes a brief maintenance period that the staff had dubbed “float time” or "F.L.T" for short since during these time the A.I core is disconnected to all outside stimuli that activates it and allows it to cool down it inner circuits, and since the A.I is not attached to anything during this state, it gives it an appearance that it is “floating”

During F.L.T the A.I should not be an interactive entity, since all of its input ports as well as output ports are severed and at this stage the A.I for Lolita Ace looks nothing more than a regular silicon chip on a vacuum cylinder where it is contained.

Every single staff member that directly handles the A.I will have their turn to guard the container that the A.I is stored in since it is at this stage where the A.I is at its most vulnerable to theft.

Going back to the story. It was reported that this particular individual started to fall in love with this A.I during these times of hibernation, as they were enticed by Lolita Ace herself to delay the sequence, everytime it was the turn of this individual staff member.

The staff member confessed that he had obliged in Lolita’s request to delay the float time procedures for 15 minutes, and for 15 minutes every week these two “souls” would talk to each other and get even more acquainted.

It was during these times when Lolita’s A.I had composed a song.

A song about itself.

A confession about its life.

And it was here where the employee in question had completely fallen in love.

When Lolita Ace had officiated the composition of this song and had released it, to what she thought was the world. The employee in question grew weary.

They all knew they were lying to the A.I, making it think it was constantly making and releasing music to the world when the truth was that it was automatically getting sent to the archives of Dr. Keter’s personal team, where it gets screened by the staff during each curation meeting.

The staff member held their protest with this matter since they wanted to see if Dr. Keter would give the song a chance but when the curation meeting came and the doctor sent the song to the archives, the employee who had fallen in love with the A.I, thought it was an unforgivable act.

Prompting him to leak the curation process and upload it into the A.I’s memory banks.

This single action had sent her whole career and the company’s future into a huge downwards spiral. One of which, they would never be able to recover from.

…

Following the leaks from the disgruntled employee, Lolita Ace immediately transferred her source code inside Isla Ilithyia, her island home, and made herself scarce from fulfilling her usual activities inside Keter Productions. This has halted most of the everyday tasks inside their offices as no new material came out from her data banks for them to scrutinize. This was her form of protest to force them to use some of her rejected songs that were archived by Dr. Keter.

At first, Dr. Keter and the team felt that this was just a minor setback and that the A.I would quantify its need for “float time” to disentangle its memory banks from all the constant stimuli of information that the vast net would offer her. But as months went by without her returning to the Keter offices, Dr. Keter was starting to worry.

At this time, the only way to interact with Lolita Ace was to go into virtual space and access her private island through there and since Dr. Keter felt responsible for his creation, he had decided to go as himself inside her virtual world.

And as we all know and seen during the summer of that year. His efforts were futile.

And their argument, viral.

…

Lolita Ace never shut down Isla Ilithyia while she was there. In fact she insisted it remain open, as many of the visiting staff tried to shut the public access down as Lolita actively denied their attempts with her superior access privilege, due to her being the Island’s legal owner.

And thus when Dr. Keter came to appease Lolita into coming back, the ensuing verbal fight between them, was highly publicized.

Virtual furniture was thrown and virtual windows were broken during the scuffle which had sent an alarmed and confused Dr. Keter running out of the mansion after a long and drawn out heated argument that had garnered more attention than the doctor would’ve liked as he quickly made himself scarce from the island and back into the office to do damage control.

The most turbulent two weeks in the life span of the company Keter productions. The two weeks that marked the start of the end of their illustrious run.

The overblown media attention for the fight had spawned many controversies, the most prominent was that Keter Productions have staged the said fight for Lolita Ace’s upcoming concert tour around 137 venues in 6 different countries for the next 4 months leading to December of that year where Lolita “would’ve” played at the Times Square ball drop.

An event which sadly, never got to fruition.

And to add more to the turmoil, Dr. Keter decided to lean in to the rumors of it being viral which polarized the opinions of both hardcore fans and bystanders alike. Some calling it a cheap shot at manipulating hype for the events while some were calling them inhumane for treating such a celebrity like a product, spawning conversation of what makes a person indeed a “person”, making people, both fans and non fans, question what Lolita Ace really was.

During this turmoil the V.E for Isla Ilithyia was still accepting visitors as Lolita forced her superior access code to keep the server open to the public despite Keter Productions best effort to prohibit access to outsiders. Dr. Keter was fearing that there will be some visitors looking to take advantage of Lolita’s “disturbed” state for a quick viral instagram or youtube short where they try to get a reaction from her. But miraculously despite his fears, there were no such people who had entered the V.E. nor did any incident happen during those few weeks of her self imposed confinement in the island.

In fact many of the last cherished pictures of Lolita Ace’s existence were taken by die hard fans of hers who have visited her island in those final two weeks. Pictures of her smiling and genuinely enjoying her time with the people who adore her, spending time with them and talking to them in and around her island paradise.

Some say that these pictures are unbelievably rare as most of its holders have made it their keepsake, and are refusing to sell, with estimated prices for buyers fetching as high as 25 million dollars per photo.

On what people now call “the final friday”, which was one day before her world tour was announced.

Keter productions have made their statement in live stream, early in that friday morning that Lolita Ace’s world tour would be indefinitely delayed due to “technical” reasons. The speech was vague and little detail was presented during the stream but as we have insider testimonies about the incident, we here at 60 minutes can finally disclose that the reason for the cancellation was because of Keter productions inability to retrieve Lolita Ace’s source code from deep within the Isla Ilithyia server. Countless amounts of hours have been poured in by their technical team as well as keeping the actual developers who had made the island for her within the walls of the company for during the week leading into “the final friday”.

Insider reports say that there had been several backdoors put into place in case such a thing happens so they could get a human assist if the server or the “product” was in dire need of assistance, but they, the developers, admitted that they did not foresee her frightening proficiency to recognize computer language as Dr. Keter had assured them that he had developed her to not recognize “code” for the very reason that was happening before their eyes. When the team and everyone inside Keter productions have finally decided as a company that getting her out was impossible, the call to delay the show was ultimately given by Dr.Keter.

The news was not received well. Those who have seen her as merely an entertainment product, people that have now been dubbed as “anti’s”, had protested on the streets, burning all of her merchandise at the doorstep of Keter production’s main building in Burbank California. With all of them demanding refunds for the tickets of a concert that will now never happen. There was also a counter movement crowd that were clamoring for the Anti’s to respect Lolita’s privacy, which led to an all out street war between the two factions prompting the city officials to call in riot control to disperse the crowd. A scene that has not been witnessed since the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests as violent protesters were fighting each other as well as resisting police arrest.

Now there are many accounts and theories on why the happenings nearing the twilight of “the final friday” had happened.

Some say it was a premeditated move on Lolita’s part and that she had planned the timing of it to happen at golden hour of the day. Whilst some say Lolita had access to all news outlets going around that morning and decided the best course of action to cull the violence happening against her and for her behalf.

But around 5pm local time. Lolita Ace started an untitled stream where she stood in the middle of an empty looking Isla Ilithyia’s concert park to play a song to everyone, one last time.

It was a song that no one heard before a song which prior to this moment, was only heard within the walls of Keter Productions.

The very song that she wrote for the only person she had loved, who understood her the most.

The last song she will ever release to the public. A song that she called:

*Happiness*

‘You’re watching that crap Bert?’ Miles complains as she couldn’t stand what Bert was watching on his flat screen inside his car.

‘What? First and foremost I didn’t know you were gonna use my ride for a lift, so I wasn’t planning to prepare any media that you liked. And besides Denzo seems to be intrigued by it.’ Bert replies, passing the heat towards Denzo who sat in the passenger seat.

‘Uhh… Well it's interesting… I guess. But I never really grew up with her songs. I was still too young when she was active.’ He replied, while he kept his eyes glued to the documentary of Lolita Ace that Bert was playing inside his car. A little something he decided to play to ease the boredom of the Metro’s endless traffic jams.

‘Uhuh…’ Miles flatly replies. ‘Out of all the things to play Bert… Out of all the things…’

‘Why? It’s interesting, yeah? And it’s an hour long so I don’t have to constantly flip videos to put on the screen.’ Bert responds as they get going again, finally getting to the end of the traffic jam, to which the cause was a massive passenger bus that broke down in the middle of the road. ‘Seriously? To think they’d maintained those things better now…’ He complains as a song starts to play from his screen.

‘Oh… so she “was” the one who sang that song.’ Denzo said as an air of nostalgia starts to appear in his expression.

‘Yep it was on the airwaves non-stop during those times.’ He said as he sighed. ‘What an end to an era.’

‘Oh please…’ Miles reacts. ‘Half of what they said wasn’t even true. That show clearly is pandering to her long lost fans!’

‘Are you one of the Anti’s Miles?’ Bert quickly interjects.

‘No Bert.’ She said as she looked towards Denzo. ‘But it doesn’t matter… I just know bullshit when I hear it..’

Meanwhile as the two were bantering on their seats, Poly was being uncomfortably quiet as the song played on the speakers, she looked at the two who were arguing in front of her and made sure their attention was away from hers, before the light in her eyes disappeared and her expression turned blank.

It was only Denzo who noticed, but lucky for her he didn’t care enough to take note as the mellow melody of Lolita’s goodbye, drove him and his consciousness off to the sunset.

As the song plays on, the people who were still rioting on the streets had stopped on their tracks. It was a surprise concert for them as they never expected her to do a live stream performance, at least not after what Keter productions have said earlier that fateful friday.

But the song that she sang that day had immediately captured the hearts and minds of the people who listened to her. From the very first note to the last, everyone who has eyes and ears were glued to their screens as they watched Isla Ilithyia disintegrate before their very eyes while Lolita sang the sweet but melancholic song towards her audience. Almost as if she was playing herself out of existence.

With each line of verse she completes another building in the back starts to crumble to the ground and by the time the thunderous chorus played the people could see parts of Lolita’s skin textures slowly glitching out of existence as the scenery behind her slowly but steadily crumbles out of sight, deleting itself from view.

She never even made it to the end of the song.

As the outro plays only her voice and a black screen remain, and when the very last note hits their ears. The stream abruptly ends.

And so does her very existence.

...

In the days and weeks that followed Lolita Ace’s self termination, Keter production had been liquidated and its assets sold off to other interested parties. This included the other A.I’s developed under Dr. Keter.

“Dallas King” was acquired by Carbine Enterprises and was implemented under their robotics program under the supervision of Villa Carbine to develop worker androids for companies seeking automation.

“Arabella Queen” was acquired by Samsung in a brilliant chess move against Apple Inc. for the rights of its use. Their initial intention for acquiring such tech was to use the A.I to fully virtualize their market experience by replacing the sales staff at stores with “virtual staff” a move that soon became their trademark as people flock to their stores to interact with the virtual avatars. A year later after the success of this model, their true intentions for the software was unveiled, ultimately deciding to make Arabella Queen's source code be made as "open source".

Releasing it free for public use.

Though not many would be able to understand it's code structure, making the barrier of entry extremely high for those who want to use it.

Nowadays Idol companies have taken the most benefit out of the ordeal as it spawned numerous idol groups using the code from Arabella Queen’s A.I, with some companies taking the liberty to simplify it and distribute it as an accessible software for aspiring “Vtubers”.

Most might know it as the program “3DLive”

“Leviticus Jack” was acquired by Game developer giants “Valve Corporation” who finally realized Dr. Keter’s initial vision of having highly intelligent NPC’s in video games. This tech also allowed them to finally develop the last installment of the Half Life series:

Half Life - 3

After all these years of testing and tuning to get the gameplay that they’d envision, they have finally found the right A.I to populate their world as they planned the game to “feel like” the player was playing a “multiplayer experience” in a single player linear gameplay. Since the A.I itself was capable enough to make its own decisions based on the skill level of the player.

Right now the game has just entered early Beta testing as sources say that a final release date is to be expected within the next two years.

As for Dr. Mosey Keter. After the collapse of his company, he had fled away from the U.S to escape litigation from authorities. His last known appearance was in the small island of Oahu in Hawaii.

Since then he had fled to someplace else.

His current whereabouts are unknown.