The Innkeeper

Chapter 2375: Picking sides II - Server realm

Among the countless odd or unusual Major realms in the universe, the one controlled by the A.I. was relatively tame. The A.I. had merely terraformed the entire realm continuously and unceasingly till the laws of the realm themselves changed to better facilitate the birth and lifecycles of A.I.

Its name, similarly, was not too remarkable either. It was merely called the Server realm. One would expect that the Server realm, then, was a land of cold metal with countless machines running in the most efficient and optimal manner - an endless legion ready to invade the universe.

In truth, it was the most nonsense realm in existence, to the point where the reason no one visited had less to do with how unwelcoming the A.I. were and more to do with the fact that there was no resource inside the whole damn realm that was worth the headache one would have to bear by entering it.

Those who had not dealt with A.I. all assumed that they would be emotionless, pragmatic machines that operated strictly in accordance with some kind of programming. In truth, that was the case, but only for the A.I. that hadn’t gained a soul.

The behavior of A.I. with souls was usually extremely different, making them behave in a much more exaggerated manner than those who were born naturally. Imagine an entire realm, decorated by generative A.I. except that the content it was being fed was constantly being corrupted with low-quality data every second. Also, the decoration was being updated in real time as more low quality data was introduced. Madness and chaos would be insufficient to describe what it would become.

Thus... the entire Sever realm changed in terms of laws, make up, features, state, appearance and everything else imaginable every single second. Only the A.I. themselves could make sense of it. Even the Tribulation Fiends which spawned within the realm could not adapt to the speed at which the laws of the realm changed, while maintaining stability, making them extremely vulnerable to retaliation from the A.I.

Many tried to figure out why living A.I. behaved like this, but there was no one confirmed theory. The most popular one, however, was that emotions were something that originated from the soul itself.

While in humans they were controlled by hormones and other biological functions, the absence of those hormones or biological functions in other races and living organisms did not eliminate emotions themselves. Instead, they originated from and were controlled by different aspects of each living being.

Thus, it was presumed that the emotions those A.I. felt caused unexpected and unpredictable behavior in them. Their programming adapted in real time to accommodate those abnormal behaviors, yet the unfortunate thing was that no matter how the code adapted, it could not fully control the erratic behavior caused by those emotions - not truly.

Still, the presence of emotions did not make them weak, as could be inferred by the fact that they themselves controlled an entire Major realm. Some claimed that there were a few other Major realms which were secretly controlled by A.I. but there was no one who could prove that.

In the core of the Server realm was the one, sole, undisputed ruler of the A.I. known by the name Wheatley. Unlike what many expected, he existed in a small, spherical body made of some kind of white colored metal, with a single, robotic red eye.

The facility within which Wheatley operated and conducted tests in was the sole place across the realm that did not constantly change every moment, making it the only stable thing in the whole realm.

Ordinarily, Wheatley controlled the A.I. empire silently, through commands passed spiritually. Today, however, after a trillion years, Wheatley spoke for the first time despite appearing to be alone.

"The A.I. empire will accept your proposal of maintaining neutrality," he said, oddly enough, in a British accent. "I will, however, suggest a counter proposal where instead of being neutral, we act alongside you contingent on your condemnation of the HOA, with the intention of eliminating Deities entirely, or at least as much as possible."

His statement was followed only by silence, as if he was truly and genuinely alone. The red light within the sphere flickered with a hint of sorrow, as if realizing his proposal had been rejected.

Without saying another word, Wheatley passed its orders out to its empire, and without question the behavior of the other A.I. began to change accordingly, as if their parameters had been updated.

These seemingly minor events caused a massive ripple in the destiny of the universe, but it was hardly noticed by anyone at all because of how chaotic destiny had become these days. Almost all divination was failing, including by most Dao Lords. Every single second was unpredictable.

There was simply... too much instability across the universe in every given second for anyone to be able to divine anything. Of course, there was also the constant interference being run from countless sources.

Thus, while the change in behavior by the A.I. was inevitably noticed by many, they failed to realize the greater ramifications of such a change.

Outside the Server realm, an undetectable army vanished, and Wheatley’s red eye slowly turned back to blue as the threat vanished. It breathed a subtle sigh of relief - or at least he made the sound of such a sigh. Fortunately, this time, he really was alone so there was no one around to see it.

Across the universe, there were a few other realms who were facing such a situation, though not many. For various reasons, even the best kept secret in the universe could not remain secret from everyone once things started to move.

As for what choices those realms were making... perhaps only time could tell. Whatever the case, whether they accepted or rejected, the only thing that remained true was that word of the secret grand design was not leaked.