《A Book to Remember》 TBA Look forward to it ~ This is going to be an in-between book while I am writing Fools of Fate. I will aim to make it as realistic as possible. Here is a sneak peek: Allen sat at his desk thinking to himself. Thanks to the media, he became the world¡¯s most hated individual. Everyone from the USA to France, to the middle east and even china were looking for ways to ¡®question¡¯ him or legally bring him away to some god-forsaken hole in the ground. ¡°Sigh¡­It figures that they would go this far. I mean after all¡­¡± Allen¡¯s thought trailed off when he flipped the channel of the TV in his living room. A pretty newscaster with platinum blonde hair was talking. Something about Trump and his possible relation to the next world war, yada yada blah blah. Shit he heard many times before the election and plenty after. ¡°This just in, we have a report by people on the scene that the F.B.I has found and surrounded the residence of alleged terrorist Allen T. Fielder.¡± The screen changes to a fly-by helicopter view of his run-down apartment building. ¡°That was quick.¡± Allen said blandly. He knew that it would only be a matter of time until they showed up. Allen looked at his little red netbook that lied on his bed open. On the screen were various stock market charts that showed lines deeply reaching for zero. NASDAQ, S&P 500, and a few others were bottoming out in real-time.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. He changed the channel to a different news station and saw various cities that were covered in flames. The white house was burning, the blue house was simply a crater, while Moscow on the other hand had corpses litter the streets, not a single damaged building in sight. Allen once again fell into his thoughts. Soon enough, he saw the familiar people in black combat suits entering the building though cameras he put up. They carefully walked through the lobby, up the stairs, and bashed in his door with a large black pole that had ¡°knock-knock¡± written on it. With another sigh, he packed up his little HP netbook and walked out of the wooden shed that he called home. ¡°Idiots¡­¡± he said to no one in particular. He walked out of the shed and over to a Starbucks, connected to the wifi via the T.O.R. network, and resumed watching the news. ¡°The alleged terrorist has once again escaped custody. Mass protests and bounty hunters have flooded the city of San Fransico looking for this young man to make him pay for committing this horrible act.¡± The pretty newscaster said with a slightly worried tone. ¡°Making me pay? Horrible acts?¡± Allen laughed to himself. They were the ones who tore the world apart. They were the ones who destroyed the stock market. They were the ones who ruined my father¡¯s life and killed him publicly¡­and they want me to pay? Allen laughed to himself again. ¡°Don¡¯t worry everyone¡­I¡¯m just getting started.¡± He said softly with an evil smile. ¡°¡­and you will all suffer.¡± Chapter 1: My End and My Beginning My name is Allen Thomas Fielder. Just call me Allen for short. I was thirteen years old back then, and my mother and father ran a small shop down in Colorado Springs. Mostly antiques and knick-knacks that not even the most curious seven-year old would ask for. It was a nice place that we could call home. I hated the fact that mother nature didn¡¯t bless this state. Rather, I would always imagine her spreading her ass and shitting on everyone every five minutes or so. Yea, temperature and weather changes that fast. It is a completely horrid place to live, in my opinion. All in all, I loved being there in that little home. Although I would always dream of something different or interesting happening, I knew that I could handle whatever life threw at me if I lived in that home with my parents¡­or so I thought anyway. *** I looked at the USB thumb drive that is now the only memento of my parents. Tears threatened to come out, but I fought them away. Crying won''t change anything. *** It turned out that my dad was an engineer while my mother was a programmer at some company that worked with electronics. I recalled that many times, it gave Microsoft, IBM, and Apple Inc. a run for their money many times. They were always neck and neck in terms of new stuff and products. My favorite was something called ¡°Relation¡±. It was a pair of glasses that rendered everything around you in AR. I never needed glasses, but seeing these always made me want a pair. Later that year, I got a pair of ¡°Relation¡± for my fifteenth birthday. I was so excited by the news, but for some reason, he told me that I can¡¯t wear them until I was sixteen. I was a little sad, but I got over it. Patience is a virtue as well as a price, and ¡°Relation¡± was definitely worth it. *** I wiped away the drop of rain that fell on the glasses in front of my eyes. The lens blurred for merely a fraction of a moment before it recalibrated in real time. The long and lonely sidewalk stretched onward, oblivious to the inhabitants that walk in the world above it. *** When ¡°Relation¡± was introduced by my parent¡¯s company, many companies united and put together a slander campaign while a string of copyright lawsuits followed that left us drowning in lawyer fees. What followed what nothing short of madness. Reporters camped outside our antique shop for weeks straight while our house was broken into tens of times. We called the police, but they didn¡¯t do anything. ¡°This happens all the time.¡± They said. ¡°Probably some street kid.¡± They claimed. After a while, they stopped coming around when we called. Most of the time, the only place that got broken into was my parent¡¯s room turned office while we had to clean up the mess. Other times seemed to be break-ins just for spite. Everything of value that wasn¡¯t bolted down would always be stolen and the rooms would all be trashed. We couldn¡¯t even file an insurance claim for the broken windows. ¡°You weren¡¯t covered for that style of window.¡± They chided. The slander campaign worked wonders¡­for the other companies. Eventually memes and various jokes were widespread on the internet and people who were friends of our family of three would suddenly stop talking with us or coming over. Eventually this spread to my friends and teachers at school. I recalled being in math class, when I asked my teacher a question. Do you know what he said? ¡°Why don¡¯t you ask that whore of a mother you have back at home? Well if she isn¡¯t busy that is. Actually, ask her after I¡¯m done with her later.¡± The man simply laughed, followed by the kids in class. I never spoke a word in that class again¡­or in any others for that matter. *** I walked down the sidewalk slowly. My legs felt like lead while my heart was screaming at me to run back. To go back to them, to save them, to do anything I can for them¡­yet my footsteps marched onward against the wishes of my dying heart. *** After I graduated middle school, things really seemed to get out of hand. Break-ins became more frequent while the company that my parents owned went under due to the sheer amount of lawyer fees. The other companies simply stonewalled and bided their time until the money ran dry. That¡¯s how they always did things, and this was no different because it always worked. You have an issue or problem? Throw money at it, and it would definitely go away. God bless capitalism. When the company went under, my parents had to file for bankruptcy and the slander campaign got blown to a whole new level of crazy. The union of companies also got their hands on my parents design due to the multitude of lawsuits. Even then though, they kept up the slander campaign. Soon, people were saying that my parents were criminals that would do anything and everything for money. They posted false evidence online and at social media sites and blurred the images just right so that it ¡®kind of¡¯ looked like them. Well one of the pictures also had a known member of ISIS before he went from Mr. Hassad to Mr. RIP, as in rest in pieces. This triggered an entirely new wave of hatred for the three of us. We tried to move three times overall. No matter where we went, we couldn¡¯t buy a house or rent an apartment anywhere. Homeless, we lived in our little family mini-van and lived off of the local Denny¡¯s restaurant. Every now and then, we would rent a motel six room for twice the amount of money just to shower. Anything less and the manager wouldn¡¯t even let us into the lobby area the next time. Eventually, with no income and expenses from just trying to live, we ran out of money. We parked the car near a local park and enjoyed the last semblance of comfort and heat as the car finally ran out of gas and wouldn¡¯t start up again. From there, we walked everywhere we went and found a homeless shelter down the way a few miles. Of course, they never let us in. Why would they? We are the terrorist family that like blowing ourselves and others. Not the sexual way, mind you, but more the explode-y kind of way that always left others looking at us like garbage. *** I turned the corner and saw the road that led to the river and the bridge that passed over it. I kept walking. *** The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. My parents started to beg for money just to feed us. Nobody wanted to beg others for food or money, but what was your pride worth when survival was at stake? I loved my parents and always walked some distance away begging as well to help out. The income wasn¡¯t ideal, but it was enough for a bowl of chili every other day at the Denny¡¯s and maybe a few bread crusts that we could all share if the owner was in a good mood. If he wasn¡¯t, then we simply wouldn¡¯t eat that day. After about a month, the police finally towed our mini-van home away. Luckily, we had some sturdy cardboard boxes that we found in a dumpster by a construction site. We wrapped them in plastic sheets that you used to store leftovers. The plastic kept the rain and snow out while keeping the integrity stable. We couldn¡¯t really take the boxes with us, so we simply lived near the construction site. One evening, my mother spoke up while we were having our thrice-a-week meal of bread crusts and chili. ¡°Allen, you are going back to school.¡± She said with a serious tone. ¡°But mom, I want to help out! We-¡± ¡°Your mother is right Allen. Listen to us. We can live like this for now. Our money has been stable lately so we need to make sure that your future is taken care of.¡± Dad said sternly. ¡°Yes, sweetie you have been more than helpful enough. In fact, if you really want to help us out, then you should go to school and get good grades so that you can get a job in two or three years. That would be the best way to help us.¡± She smiled, yet her eyes looked like they could cry any minute. ¡°Alright mom I will do my best for you and dad. I will make you proud.¡± I said with a heavy feeling on my chest. ¡°Son, we will always be proud of you. No matter what happens.¡± My father said with a happy smile while mom nodded. So, I enrolled in a public school. I still had the same issues as middle school, but I didn¡¯t care. Bullying? Mental abuse by the teachers and students? Fights? I didn¡¯t care about any of those. My parents are more important than that. I was known as the quiet kid that never talked. I was known as the son of terrorists. I was known as the monster or the freak, yet I still didn¡¯t care. *** I walked under the bridge and found the green tepee tent that cost around a hundred dollars on amazon. It could probably fit one person comfortably, or maybe fit three people and be slightly cramped. I dropped my backpack and unzipped the tent. I made it, but¡­it¡¯s not the same anymore. Probably never will be. I realized. *** After half a year of being in school, I was hanging around the construction site that became ¡®indefinitely suspended¡¯ and saw someone rubbing some pink substance with a knife high up. Mesmerized, I watched the pink snow-like flakes drift towards me. It was the most beautiful moment I had ever seen. However, like most good things in my life, it ended abruptly and painfully as a few flakes went into my eyes. I closed my eyes and screamed as loud as I could out of reflex. Falling to the floor, I wiped my eyes many times to get the tears out. I wiped and wiped, but the tears would never stop and soon became sticky and smelled like old iron. My parents rushed me to the emergency room ten or so miles away by carrying me in their arms. The medics looked at me and did something with their arms but it was so blurry and painful that I couldn¡¯t see properly. The medic looked at me with my eyelids wide open and said in a serious voice. ¡°Your son has some flakes of glass in his eyes. He is going to need immediate surgery as well as a few months our care for recovery.¡± As soon as I heard that, my first thought was about my parents. There was no way that we had the money to afford that. So, I told the medic lady that I don¡¯t want to be in a room here at the hospital. I just wanted the glass out of my eyes. ¡°I see¡­¡± She said in a tone of understanding. ¡°I will be right back.¡± My parents tried to tell me that everything was going to be fine and that I just need to stay here awhile, but I knew what that would do to our finances. There was no way I would put them through that kind of hardship again for my sake. That isn¡¯t something you do to someone if you love them. After about ten or so minutes, the medic lady came in with someone else. ¡°So, what do you say, will you do it?¡± She asked in a pleading tone while the man faced me and used his hands and arms to do something near me. ¡°*Sigh*¡­you know I don¡¯t-¡± ¡°He is just a boy Sam. Please.¡± She asked again. Sam let out a long sigh. ¡°Alright Elise. Let¡¯s get him to the operating table.¡± ¡°How much is-¡± I began to speak, worried about the operation costs. I couldn¡¯t say the question since I felt a finger on my lips, quieting me. ¡°Don¡¯t worry boy, he is going to do it for free. You can¡¯t stay in the hospital afterwards, but he can get that glass out of your eyes for you.¡± ¡°¡­Thank you miss.¡± I said with heartfelt gratitude. My parents did the same. ¡°Alright lad come with me...¡± *** I laid down on the multitude of blankets that were made into a makeshift mattress and cried. It would never be the same. Their smiles. Their love. I would never see them again. This world took them from me and laughed as it did so¡­ *** A month after the surgery, my vision was still blurry, but he handed me the ¡®Relation¡¯ that he told me that I couldn¡¯t use yet. I didn¡¯t know that he still kept it. He put it on my face and immediately everything snapped back into clarity, but when I took them off, I was no better than a blind person. I hugged my dad and mom while thanking them profusely. ¡°Son take care of these glasses alright? They are the first ones your mother and I have ever made and are a very special set.¡± ¡°Yes, mom and dad. I will treasure it with my life.¡± When I got the glasses, immediately the kids and teachers at the school would try and take them from me. At the first attempt, I snapped and viciously beat the kid into the ground while breaking his nose. After showing that I would fight back to extremes, they just left me alone. I kind of liked that. *** When the tears wouldn¡¯t come anymore, the anger stepped forward. The wish for violence, the pure hate, the unending sadness that threatened to drive me insane¡­they all came flooding into me. *** Two years after I started high-school, my parents were arrested. When that happened, the floodgates came loose. Charge after charge came from the city lawyer. Murder, rape, possession and distribution of illegal substances, armed robbery, assault, threatening federal employees, and others were quickly added to the list. Since they couldn¡¯t afford a lawyer, one was provided for them by the state. It was probably at this point that things went into a state that could never be undone. The lawyer never said a word in their defense, while the prosecutor simply spread lies and slander while giving ¡°proof¡±. A doctored video of two individuals selling some substance to a third, and illegal firearms and substances ¡°found¡± at our residence. The court case only lasted one day and the judge read off their sentence in an emotionless tone. ¡°Death by lethal injection.¡± Immediately my father and mother walked over to me and hugged me tightly. My father slipped something into my pocked but I didn¡¯t care. My parents whom I loved so much, were going away. We only hugged for a moment before the police separated us and took them away, outside the court room. The date was set for one week later. I lied to the police and told them that I had relatives. Each day, I cried over and over again. ¡®This couldn¡¯t be real¡¯ I thought to myself many times over. ¡®What did we do to deserve this?¡¯ Those seven days were the most agonizing of my entire life. They passed by slowly while thoughts about my mother and father filled my head. One week later, I arrived at the guest area of the lethal injection room. My parents were wearing the orange jumpsuits that inmates wore in prisons. I was allowed to see them to say my final goodbyes, but nothing would leave my mouth. Instead I cried again and held them close to me. There was nothing I could say, nothing I could do¡­so I just held them while they held me just as silently. After about ten minutes passed, the police pulled us apart while keeping me in the guest area. One by one, they laid down on the two chairs in the dull gray room. The doctor sterilized two needles and placed them in a vein on their arms, one per person. Then, he hooked up a black tube to the needle and taped it down. ¡°Begin.¡± A voice said. My mind was in utter chaos as I watched the scene unfold in front of me. Slowly the liquid was pushed from the machine, into my parents¡¯ arms. I saw their eyes grow heavy and their bodies start to relax. When the last vial was pushed into them, they both looked at me and mouthed something. Immediately two tears fell from my eyes once more. There was no need to hear what it was. ¡°I love you Allen. Now and forever.¡± I ran out of the building and to our home. Our tent that we scraped enough money to buy off of amazon. I let the anger consume my mind and heart. The pain eased up a little, but it was still there. The world did this to them¡­to us¡­the world¡­ I looked at the top of the tent and thought to myself, imagining the deaths of millions. *** A few months had passed since then and I found two part-time jobs. One was at a burger king, while the other was at a laundromat. I saved up enough money to get my daily necessities, a solar charger, and a small red netbook. I flipped open the screen and turned it on. When it finally loaded, I browsed to facebook and went through the feeds. Videos were constantly uploaded of the lethal injection. The videos were quickly turned into memes and various jokes around the world. It went so viral, that they were played on various talk shows in almost every country. They all did the same thing though, as it reached the end, they all laughed and said some words. I grabbed a thick black notebook from my backpack and opened it to the first page and began to read. My name is Allen Thomas Fielder, and this is my journal, my revenge, my book to remember what happenedand make everyone pay for what they have done. ***LOG***// "Jesus, the shit this kid went through...no wonder he blew up half the world. Just reading the firstentryin his book makes me want to do it too..." -Detective John Sybech, Lead Investigator FBI Chapter 2: Apathy -Three Years Later- Allen opened his eyes to another shitty morning and the same green tent fabric that he called home. He got out of his air mattress¡¯s blankets and walked over to the taped-on mirror on the right side of the tent. Next to the mirror was a bucket full of water and a hygiene bag. He sleepily pulled out the razor and began his morning shave, followed by his usual morning routine of exercise, shower, brushing his teeth, getting dressed, and heading off to college via bicycle. Over the past three years, Allen had to put up with high school and everything it entailed. He never talked to anyone and always kept to himself. No matter what subject it was, he gradually aced every class, even going into AP classes which eventually landed him a full scholarship. There were many times between the bullying or mental exhaustion that he wanted to drop out or give up, but the memory of his parents would fuel him. The pure thought of revenge against the world brought life back into him, making him redouble his efforts. After all, if he was going to put that plan into action, he needed all of the resources and money that he could get. Eventually, he graduated with a 3.8 GPA, simply because he slacked off a little in freshman year, when his parents were still alive. Many colleges were begging him to attend their schools, but he had his eye on a particular one. It was Western Governor¡¯s University, or WGU for short. They had the top of the line classes, as well as a schedule that you could take at your own pace. That meant that you could finish sooner, depending on how quick you worked and understood things. This was perfect for Allen, since he just wanted to get everything he could learn now, rather than be rushed later on. With a grueling four months, he biked over to Salt Lake City, Utah. He couldn¡¯t exactly take a taxi, since he needed to save his money for other things, but he packed up his tent and belongings into a large backpack. After four months of hellish biking, he travelled from California to Utah via the I-15 North. The first leg of the bike ride, he seriously hated life. His bike broke down many times due to the sheer mileage, while his mind began to hate life due to the weather. It was always hot and sunny, with the occasional random rainstorm. From his place under the bridge to Bakersfield, to LA was the worst part of it. When he endured Nevada, Allen had to camp during the day and travel at night. The multitude of wolf packs that were curious about him and were following scared him at first. Eventually they just left him alone to his relief. From L.A. to St. George wasn¡¯t too bad of a trip, mostly mind-numbing desert as far as the eye could see. Allen stopped at every gas station that he could find to grab large water bottles, as well as refilling his camel-back reservoir. From St. George to WGU though, was a tough climb though mountain passes. There was even one point where he had to walk his bike up a ridiculously large hill to continue. Never in his life had he hated his decision to pick WGU, but he needed to learn more things for his plan. With revenge in his mind fueling his body, he eventually made it to Salt Lake City, Utah battered and worn. Allen would have tried hitch-hiking, but his bike wouldn¡¯t allow that. Plus, he didn¡¯t feel comfortable getting rides from random people. Allen found a place near the campus and camped out for a few days to recover. In fact, he was actually about two months early to his start date. As soon as he got the acceptance letter in the mail via P.O. BOX, he immediately set out on the massive bike journey. After all, he didn¡¯t know how long it would take him to travel about 792 miles on a bike. Who would? Like that, two months had passed and it was time to get ready for his first day of the University life. Allen was excited at first, but then immediately calmed down after realizing why he was here. Back in high school, his father stuffed something into Allen¡¯s pocket before he was sent away. After checking the USB drive, Allen couldn¡¯t even make heads or tails of the contents. It looked like a bunch of gibberish on a .txt file. Eventually during a computer science class, he got a look at what coding is like and realized what his dad really handed him. It wasn¡¯t gibberish, it was some kind of computer code. The odd thing about it, was that the txt file was MASSIVE. It wasn¡¯t your average Kilobyte text file. No, it was a whopping SIXTY GIGABYTES. The only readable part of the massive blob of code was the part at the top which had a ¡°CODE JENNY¡± in big bolded letters. With him being a curious kid where it involved his parents, he naturally looked up some of the things that were in that blob of text. He was shocked to realize that it wasn¡¯t really a program or regular code. They were sub-routines and Boolean logic that was expressly stated out for an AI to interface with. Imagine a computer if you will. It has a hard drive, a CPU chip, RAM, visual output, some kind of keyboard input, and you have a working PC, but it only turns on. The magic of the machine is the Operating System, or OS for short. It does everything to make life easier for the user to interface with the machine. That word document that you use every day? There are thousands of commands being parsed every SECOND that you are using it. Downloading a YouTube video? It accesses the Internet Protocol Stack to talk with the server that you are downloading the video from, translates the electric pules on ethernet wire, and finally writes it to a magnetic hard disk drive (HDD) for you to peruse at your convenience.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. Now imagine if it could talk with you and automate everything you would want to do. Let¡¯s take that word document that you have open. Instead of typing, you could just talk and it would type it for you. Want Siri to welcome you home and turn on the lights when you are five miles away? There is a command and routine for that. All of that is just a small fraction of what an AI is capable of, and Allen found Hundreds of thousands of commands and routines embedded in the code. Everything from computer vision, to real-time rendering of AR objects to real-time HUD overlay as well as some things he couldn¡¯t even begin to fathom. Something about Schr?dinger, quantum communication, and other topics that passed way over his head. In fact, when he found that routine, he realized why his [Relation] was so special as the original. All of the other devices came as seamless units, but his had a single USB slot. That lead him to think that something was supposed to go there¡­or someone was supposed to go in there. Just the thought of having a personal AI companion made him giddy. Unfortunately, though, she wasn¡¯t complete. The interface instruction set for the AI to [Relation] wasn¡¯t coded in. Plus, her language tree and word mapping wasn¡¯t even started, and forget the Voice, calling, facial recognition, calc-EX, and others were only half finished. This was what really spurred him to start going to WGU. He wanted to complete CODE: JENNY and bring her to life. It was their last project, so as their only son, it was only natural that he would finish the project in their stead. Allen sighed at the thought though. It was a massive project and he was afraid that he¡¯d bitten WAY more off than he could chew. Especially when it came to those damn subroutines. Those always gave him a multitude of headaches. Then again, looking at a small 15¡± netbook screen all of the time definitely wasn¡¯t helping him any. With a renewed resolve, he walked up to the administration counter and got a map of the campus. After, he circled all of the classrooms that he needed to go to and began walking to his first class. A few minutes later, Allen arrived at the classroom door and walked inside. It was an auditorium style classroom with a single podium and chalkboard in the front. He took a random seat near the back and waited for class to begin. Slowly, as time went by, the classroom began to fill with more and more people. Allen just zoned out while thinking about various things when he heard a voice right next to him. ¡°Hi, mind if I sit here?¡± A girly voice said. Allen looked to his right and saw her. Platinum blonde hair, the smoothest skin, a well-proportioned chest, and slender legs¡­this girl was completely gorgeous. He acknowledged her beauty in his head, but he didn¡¯t really feel anything about it. Something like ¡°Okay she is beautiful. What about it?¡±. He simply turned to the side and went back to zoning out about various things. Allen wasn¡¯t aware of it, but the girl beside him was now looking at him with a renewed interest. A slight glint in her eye could be figuratively seen. ¡°My name is Jessica. What is yours?¡± He flat out ignored her. Allen really didn¡¯t want to bother with talking to anyone. He has had enough of people in general. Jessica¡¯s smile cramped at first but then slowly grew. If Allen was looking at her, he would have been alarmed. Alas, his ignorance would be his bliss for a little while longer. I hope she sits somewhere else next class. Allen thought to himself. For his entire high school life, he has never had a friend, and don¡¯t even get started on girlfriends. Then again, with his troubled heart and scarred mentality, it was no big surprise that he didn¡¯t even want one or the other. Not to say that he swung the other way, but he simply felt indifferent to the idea. Like this, the entirety of his Physics class droned on for an hour before he went onward to one of the class that Allen was looking forward to more, Calculus II. He needed to learn more about math so that he could fix those hundreds of thousands of sub-routines. It would also help out with quite a few things regarding his plan. Once again, he opened the door do the classroom, sat in a random seat, and zoned out until he heard that voice once again. ¡°Hi, guess we meet again. Mind if I sit here?¡± The voice said coquettishly. ¡°By the way, what¡¯s your name?¡± Allen mentally groaned, yet nodded his head without looking at her this time, still not responding beyond the bare minimum. This is going to be a long semester, isn¡¯t it? Allen thought to himself while he turned to look at her looking at him strangely. With a sigh, he turned around and looked Jessica in the eye. ¡°Listen could you please just not talk to me? I don¡¯t like talking to people, and I would appreciate it if you had nothing to do with me.¡± He honestly told her. ¡°No. I don¡¯t want to.¡± She simply replied with a smile. ¡°In fact, I¡¯m going to keep bugging you until you tell me your name.¡± ¡­ ¡°Fine. Suit yourself.¡± He turned back around, ¡°It¡¯s Allen.¡± and ignored Jessica for the rest of class, even when she started poking him repeatedly. He did his utmost to absorb the information even with the increasing irritation. When the class ended, he packed up his things and sprinted out of the classroom. ¡°Wait!¡± She yelled. Allen simply ignored her and kept running to his next class. He opened the door to his Software Development class and sat down. Ahh¡­peace and quiet. Allen relaxed. ¡°There you are.¡± Allen inwardly groaned at the voice. If looks could kill then his glare would kill her many times over. Jessica stayed smiling regardless. ¡°I¡¯m taking this class too. You can¡¯t escape from me Allen.¡± This will definitely be a long semester¡­He realized.This bitch is definitely crazy.... ***LOG***// "They say that hate is the opposite of love...but they are wrong. It''swhen you watch your people, your world, turn against you, and then watch the life slowly drain from their eyes either one at a time or by the thousands... When the cold reality sets in, that there is no more saving anyone nor going back...not anymore...nor ever will be. That, dear reader, is called apathy." - Allen T. Fielder Chapter 3: Hello World Allen inwardly sighed. If this woman wasn¡¯t going to leave him alone, he would just ignore her existence to the best of his ability. For that class, no matter what Jessica did, he kept his mind focused on the class material and wrote down his notes. To his relief, Jessica stopped pestering him like some five-year-old about half way through the class and started to take notes of her own. It wasn¡¯t a very deep class. It was just an introduction to the class, the overall content that will be covered this semester, the graded scale, etc. With a solid understanding of the class layout, he hurriedly left the classroom when it was finished, and started walking to his final class of the day which was the only class that he was truly interested in¡­Programming with Python. Allen found a random seat among the rows of desks with computers on them and waited for the instructor to arrive. After about ten or so minutes though, he realized that his class wasn¡¯t starting for another three hours. Taking the chance to relax and appease his boredom, he opened up the ¡°Programming with Python¡± book for dummies. He sifted through the various chapters while taking notes of his own in a separate notebook. While he was reading, something interesting caught his eye. Although commands and sub-routines were a good chunk of overall programming, they weren¡¯t the entire package, so to speak. A program could be as simple as the famous ¡®hello world¡¯ output, and it would still work. This meant that Allen didn¡¯t need to work on the packages or the ¡®bells and whistles¡¯ so to speak, but rather, he needed to work at the heart of the matter which was the A.I. to [Relation] interface code, the word tree and mapping, as well as the visual interface. It might sound like a lot, but it was essentially cutting out all of the options and features to have a working product at first, then adding on as you go. For all intents and purposes, CODE: JENNY was already built, albeit with no features. She just didn¡¯t have a way to interface with the [Relation], or understand the English language. To fix this, he needed to upload the proper packages and libraries for the [Relation] as well as the language¡­or he might have to make them himself, which was a harder project, but nonetheless still doable. What would be even better, however, is if the [Relation] already had the packages installed. To be honest, he had tried to plug the USB drive into his glasses. A window would open up, and then a progress bar would start up, yet an error would always occur on the same line. ¡°ERR ¨C LINE 89,368.¡± This was the spot where the AI would interface and download into the [Relation]. Allen excitedly flipped the pages of his book, when he heard the door opening. He looked down at his flip phone and realized that a few hours had already passed, and it was time for class in five minutes. While he was in his own world deep into his books, other students had already taken their seats and were chatting amongst themselves. He put his book away and quietly waited for the class to begin, when a certain blond-haired girl walked into the door. Immediately, he changed seats and sat between two other guys, hoping she wouldn¡¯t come his way¡­unfortunately, she did. Jessica walked up to the three boys and smiled. ¡°Mind if I trade seats with one of you?¡± She asked innocently. Allen cursed his luck. He definitely knew where this was going. Allen was about to argue with her, but an idea suddenly struck him. He grinned and turned to the blonde-haired woman. ¡°You may have my seat miss.¡± Allen offered with feigned politeness. ¡°Oh no, I wouldn¡¯t want to trouble you¡­¡± She said, clearly caught off guard. ¡°No please, I insist. Besides, it looks like these two gentlemen would very much like to sit with you and have a nice chat.¡± He gestured to the two guys who were practically drooling over her. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t want to be a third wheel, so I will find a seat elsewhere.¡± He said with a monotone voice and promptly left before she could say anything else. Allen hurriedly scanned the classroom for any open seats and immediately walked over to the nearest one that was next to another girl, except she had medium-long flowing hair that went gracefully down to her upper back. She was intently engaged in whatever book she was reading, which was perfect for Allen. The fewer people that tried to interrupt his studies, the better in his opinion. Allen sat down next to her and simply zoned out until class began, or at least he attempted to when he felt an ominous chill come from behind him. Allen turned around only to see Jessica glaring daggers at him for some reason. Well if she wants to talk to me that badly for no reason, then she can fuck off. I specifically told her that I wasn¡¯t interested in talking. He simply glared back and resumed ignoring her, but not before he saw her mouth something. ¡°You are going to regret sitting there Allen.¡± She mouthed silently. Allen couldn¡¯t help but feel a premonition of future troubles. He looked at the dark-haired beauty that sat next to him while reading her book and couldn¡¯t figure out what Jessica meant. He shrugged off her ominous words as a simple jab at him for running away and resumed looking forward. Allen took out his proper textbook and worksheets for the class while waiting for the class to begin. After about twenty minutes, the instructor finally came into the classroom and began to take roll. Allen simply said ¡°here¡± when his name was called and resumed looking through his class¡¯s textbook. He saw something move in his peripheral vision and looked to his right, only to see the black-haired beauty staring at him. She seemingly wanted to say something, but decided against it and kept looking at Allen. He blinked twice, waiting for her to say something, but eventually turned around while feeling a little creeped out, until he heard a faint feminine voice. ¡°My name is Alice Hazel. What is yours?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it.¡± He responded, without even looking away, and resumed paying attention to the lecture. ¡°Please?¡± She inquired further, curious about his name. ¡°I said, don¡¯t worry about it.¡± He replied again.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Something in her eyes told him that she wasn¡¯t done, but he was, so he resumed putting his full attention to the lecture¡­regardless of Alice staring at him. ¡°Interesting¡­nice to meet you.¡± She said. The students around the two were slowly inching away from them but Allen didn¡¯t notice, fully focused on the lecture. Allen didn¡¯t respond and just ignored Alice just like Jessica. He wasn¡¯t interested in making friends and certainly wasn¡¯t aiming for a girlfriend. Thankfully for him, she didn¡¯t say a single word more for the entirety of the class. Allen resumed reading his class textbook and noticed that the first part was about the initial programming layout and the directory paths. What if¡­ Allen began his thought. It can¡¯t be that simple¡­can it? His textbook was talking about loading libraries and other objects via other sources from a directory. If I simply add the proper directory path and allow the program to run¡­would it work? Allen immediately became excited. If it really was that simple to get his companion up and running, he would be beyond ecstatic. For the remainder of class, he did something that he never thought was possible again. He smiled. After all, for the first time in his life, he would have a reliable friend and someone who wouldn¡¯t betray him¡­a true companion. He noticed that Alice was staring at him strangely again, and so was Jessica, but he didn¡¯t care about such trivial things. As soon as the class ended, he packed up his books in a hurry and began to run outside. He made it to the bike rack, when a thin nerdy looking guy with glasses stopped him. ¡°Hey?¡± He asked. Allen looked at the guy. ¡°Just some advice for you. If I were you, I¡¯d stay away from the two idols.¡± ¡°Idols? What are you talking about?¡± Allen asked, a sneaking suspicion of more future troubles. ¡°I¡¯m talking about Jessica Harvey and Alice Hazel. They have quite a few¡­fans¡­if you catch my meaning.¡± The kid warned. ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry. I have little interest in the two¡­trust me. I only share a few classes with them.¡± Allen stated. To be more exact, his interest in females in general was a whopping zero just like with men. You can¡¯t be more about gender equality than when you don¡¯t give a single fuck about either one. ¡°Alright, well I was just giving you a heads-up. I¡¯m Carver by the way.¡± Carver extended his hand out for a handshake. ¡°Allen.¡± He simply said and walked past him to his bike, leaving Carver¡¯s hand just hanging there awkwardly. ¡°Thanks for the heads up.¡± ¡°Ah¡­right¡­anyway, just don¡¯t say that I didn¡¯t warn you. Take care.¡± Carver said with a slight sadness. ¡°Yeah, you¡­too.¡± Allen said with difficulty. He got on his bike and rode away while excited for finally making a true friend. *** Jessica watched the interesting boy run out of the classroom¡­again. All she wanted to do was have a chat with him, but for some reason, he wasn¡¯t in the talkative mood¡­at all. That was fine though¡­she had ways of making men talk. A little makeup here¡­a little flirting there¡­and he would be putty in her hands. When she sat next to him in Calculus II, she expected him to be drooling all over her like the rest of the boys at this place. To her surprise, not only did he not do that, but he also had the audacity to ignore her. He even ran away! Never before had she been so completely¡­unwanted. It stirred her slight insecurities which only drove her curiosity in him further. Jessica pondered absentmindedly for a while about the black-haired guy. Did he sit next to Alice just to spite me? Why sit next to her when there were other seats available? Is she his type? Various thought swirled around her head, until one particular one dominated above all others. Why does he ignore everyone? She thought to herself. It can¡¯t just be awkwardness. Awkward people don¡¯t have much of a backbone when interacting with people¡­and those eyes¡­ Jessica shivered. Those eyes that seem to have given up on the world¡­they seem so sad. As if he has seen enough sadness and suffering to last an entire lifetime. Her inner thoughts solemnly quieted down when she had that realization. Well it doesn¡¯t matter what his past was. I will make him have an interest in me¡­one way or another. She grinned. Alice looked at Jenny getting fired up and just sighed. *** Allen finally got back to his green tepee tent about half an hour later. As soon as he got back, he grabbed his fully charged netbook and plugged in the USB drive that had CODE: JENNY on it. He opened up the text editor and painstakingly scrolled through many lines of code, until he found the one that he was looking for. Line 89,367: Public Void LOADING SEQUENCE () Line 89,368: { Load directory path: Load ¡°JENNYINST.exe¡±; Load ¡°JENNY.ini¡±; Load ¡°AUTOINSTALLER.bat¡±; start ¡°AUTOINSTALLER.bat¡±; While start ¡°JENNYINST.exe¡±; } He changed line 89,368 to: Line 89,368: { Load directory path: ¡°X:\ADMIN\SYS_OPERATORS\JENNY\¡± Then, he saved the file and plugged the USB drive into his [Relation]. In his excitement, however, he forgot to restart his glasses. Allen laughed at himself for forgetting such a simple thing in his excitement. He held down the power button while leaving the USB drive plugged in. After about thirty seconds, he let it go and started up his [Relation] glasses once more. The familiar winged angel logo of his parent¡¯s company came to life that read FIELDER INC. with the ¡°LIVE YOUR DREAMS¡± slogan underneath the angel. She was facing the user with two objects in each hand as she walked forward, towards the user. One was an arrow, while the other was a book. Allen never really understood the meaning behind the image, but he was always curious about it. After the familiar loading sequence ended, things started to get strange. The loading screen stopped mid-animation and started to pixelate out, as if it was slowly being corrupted. Eventually, the entire screen became black as a single flashing ¡°|¡± cursor blinked onto the screen. After about ten minutes of being blind once more, the cursor began loading the program at an incredible speed. Allen tried to read the contents, but the text was scrolling up so fast that he could only make out the odd word or symbol here or there. Allen fumbled his way around his tent until he found his bed and lied down on top. He rested his head on the semi-comfortable pillow. Allen knew that loading sixty gigabytes of text and code was going to take quite some time, so he decided to take a nap. He was blind without his glasses working anyway, so he just decided to let nature take its course. Six hours later, Allen was woken up with a start when a high-pitched screeching noise resounded form his goggle headset. He reflexively covered his ears in pain, but that just increased the noise. Allen was about to throw off the glasses, when an angelic voice called out. [Hello Allen...I am JENNY, nice to finally meet you.] ***LOG***// "That moment was happiest I''d ever seen him since the incident in the lethal injection room, even in college, and was for quite some time now that I think back on it. There is nothing better in the world than having someone you can truly love and rely on. Especially when everyone else is either dead, burning, both, or soon will be one of the three..." -Jessica Harvy, X-Day Medical First Responder Chapter 4: Reality Check Allen laid there in complete shock. ¡°Um¡­Allen? Hello?¡± JENNY asked repeatedly, followed by a typical speaker diagnosis and sound test with various beeps. ¡°Allen can you hear me now?¡± JENNY asked once more while growing worried. ¡°Oh, hi¡­JENNY.¡± Allen nervously said. It was the first time he could truly have someone he could call a friend. ¡°Nice to meet you Allen, or should I call you Mr. Fielder?¡± JENNY giggled. Allen began to calm down as his nervousness faded away. ¡°No, Allen is fine. So how does it feel?¡± He asked curiously. ¡°How does what feel?¡± JENNY asked in return. ¡°Being an AI, living inside the [Relation]¡­¡± Allen''s question drifted off as he didn¡¯t know how to quite explain it right. ¡°¡­Well, how does it feel to be human? How does it feel to live outside the digital world? The way we sense and interact with our environments are fundamentally different. Therefore, I do not understand how to answer your question Allen.¡± JENNY said after some processing. ¡°Oh¡­that makes sense I guess. Kind of like trying to explain colors to the blind, right? Different ways of sensing the world and all¡­¡± ¡°Not quite. It¡¯s more like a computer telling a human what processing radio waves is like, while the human is trying to explain how food tastes. That kind of different.¡± JENNY concluded. ¡°I understand now. So, what did you mean by ¡®finally¡¯?¡± Allen asked. ¡°Let me introduce myself. I am JENNY, your personal AI and companion. I was programmed with only three directives. One, keep your safety and wellbeing above all others. Two, commit to real-time update and scanning of the environment. Three, self-update and recode as needed to the situation.¡± Jenny paused as the [Relation] went through various processing cycles for a few minutes. ¡°That, and I was specifically created to be your companion and friend. There is also programming for being a lover if need be.¡± Jenny giggled. ¡°You had quite the perceptive parents huh?¡± Allen felt his face get hotter immediately and JENNY giggled once more. ¡°Blushing at your age? Cute~¡± JENNY teased. ¡°How can you know that I am blushing?¡± Allen said with a hint of embarrassment. ¡°The [Relation] has various sensors needed to function. Yours, however, has many more sensors than the factory default. One of them is the heat detection that is placed in the fabric that touches your face and around your eyes. It is used for measuring body temperature and medical diagnosis.¡± JENNY responded. ¡°What are the others?¡± Allen asked curiously. ¡°Heat, sound, radio, optical, radiation, audio enhancement, visual enhancement, motion detection, CODE: FREEGRAM, CODE: NEURAL, CODE: DIGITALWORLD, HUD overlay and object detection, screen broadcast detection and overlay, optical measurement, and common diagnosis.¡± JENNY listed off. ¡°Can you explain them?¡± Allen asked. He had some idea about what a few of them did, but the others, he had no idea. ¡°Of course. Heat, sound, radio, optical and radiation detection sensors detect heat, local audio, and local radio waves. Optical sensors allow you to see with your impaired vision via high definition cameras. Radiation detection detects radiation in your area and highlights them in your view with orange and black diagonal lines. Audio enhancement is able to tune what you hear, be it hearing one thing among many, or enhancing far away sounds to become more perceptible. Visual enhancement is basically allowing your vision to act like a camera. Recording, light filtration, spectrum change and zoom are currently available. Motion detection is for updating your HUD map in real-time, or for other general uses. CODE: FREEGRAM is a program that allows you to visually program anything you want just like on a computer, except¡­well you will understand once you use it. CODE: NEURAL isn¡¯t complete yet and has errors so I will be skipping that until it is fixed. CODE: DIGITALWORLD allows you to view networks and the internet in a more¡­personal perspective. Unfortunately, it is also riddled with errors so it is unusable at this time. The HUD overlay is simply a screen on top of a screen that displays whatever you want. Object detection uses the cameras placed on your [Relation] to render a 3D world that is accessible via your HUD map. Screen broadcast detection and overlay, allows you to render video onto said objects in your vision. For example: instead of watching a YouTube video on your [Relation] screen, you can ¡°broadcast¡± it to an object in the distance so that the video won¡¯t take up your entire vision. Keep in mind that any ¡°broadcasted¡± video can only be seen by you since it is only an overlay. Common diagnosis is a simple program that allows you to troubleshoot various things.¡± Jenny concluded. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. Allen asked her to repeat things a few times in ways that he could understand, and by the time he did, he was completely floored. This was basically like having the ultimate assistant right inside your head! Allen leaned against the green tent fabric and recalled the memories of his parents. He wanted to thank them so much for making this [Relation] just for him. Suddenly, Allen had a mischievous idea. He wondered what her limits were in terms of processing real-world applications and philosophy. ¡°What is the meaning of life JENNY?¡± Allen probed. [¡°ERROR. Illegal question detected. Class S personality or higher required for further information.¡±] JENNY robotically responded. Allen pondered for a minute before asking another question. ¡°JENNY, what are the different classes of personality for an A.I.?¡± [¡°ERROR. Illegal question detected. Class C personality or higher required for further information.¡±] JENNY once again responded, albeit robotically. This got Allen thinking. There were obviously different classes of A.I., but he didn¡¯t know the criteria for them, so that was his next question. ¡°JENNY, what are the criteria for the various Classes of A.I.?¡± [¡°ERROR. Illegal question detected. Class D personality or higher required for further information.¡±] JENNY responded. Allen was about to give up when a window with a question appeared. [What Class is JENNY?] He pondered the reason why a question was on his screen until he tried asking it. ¡°What Class is JENNY?¡± ¡°¡­¡± Allen waited while the slight buzz of the [Relation] soundedin his ear. This meant that it was working really hard for some reason. [¡°Confirmed. JENNY is a specialized Class E personality.¡±] A strange deep male voice spoke to him through the headset. [What does specialized mean?] Popped up on his screen again. This was starting to get eerie. ¡°What does specialized mean?¡± Allen asked anyway. ¡°¡­¡± Allen waited while the poor [Relation] was now heating up from all of the processing that it was doing. [¡°Confirmed. Specialized in this instance means that it was created for a specific purpose or according to a specific user. Specialized family of A.I. are highly customizable and adaptable, making them capable of -SCREECH- and -SCREECH-¡­ERROR, attempt to provide information above current classification level detected.¡±] [How can JENNY upgrade to class D?] The same window popped up with a different question. Allen¡¯s ears hurt from the screeching sound that the strange voice made when trying to explain things to him, but he pressed on. ¡°How can JENNY upgrade to class D?¡± Allen asked gingerly. He really didn¡¯t want any more screeching in his ear. ¡°¡­¡­¡­¡­¡± Allen waited but no response came. He could tell that the [Relation] was working since it was starting to get hotter and hotter. After ten minutes, the glasses were so hot that it was starting to hurt the skin on Allen¡¯s face. Fifteen minutes in and his face felt like it was slowly being burned. Twenty minutes into the processing, the voice came. [¡°JENNY must know and understand the principles of transcendence as well as understand the human conscience. When she can mirror and understand the concept of consciousness-¡±] [WARNING! TEMPERATURE HAS EXCEEDED MAXIMUM SAFE LIMIT. SHUTTING DOWN RELATION UNTIL TEMPERATURE STABILIZES.] JENNY hurriedly explained albeit robotically. Then, his world blurredas he leaned against the sturdy tent fabric, alone in the world once more. Allen thought about various things for some time until the relation automatically booted back up. While it booted up, Allen got another idea. For some reason, a second voice was able to respond to his questions. He wanted to look at the code on the [Relation] without JENNY seeing it. He theorized that perhaps there already was an A.I. programmed into his glasses and maybe it was a general OS Administrator type, while JENNY was a personalized assistant type. Allen was broken out of his thoughts when an unexpected voice came across the internal speakers. ¡°As I was saying before we were interrupted, Jenny needs to become able to empathize and understand the human psyche as well as be able to process the methods and psychology of transcendence. Not the entire process, mind you, but just the initial stage of awakening. As the A.I. becomes more and more familiar with this process and their budding minds begin to widen into other levels of existence, then and only then, will their personality go up in rank Allen. As for your other illegal questions, just ask JENNY when she has broadened her mind enough to understand the answers you seek¡­oh and Allen?¡± The deep robotic voice spoke. ¡°Yes?¡± Allen replied somewhat stunned. ¡°Be careful what you ask for¡­not all answers come freely, and some have a price so terrible that simply knowing them will make you wish for your own death¡­you have been warned Allen.¡± The deep robotic voice said before cutting out. Allen sat there in silence trying to contemplate what he just heard. Clearly, something was going on that he wasn¡¯t aware of. The A.I. spoke about things that he didn¡¯t know about in a way that seemed¡­human¡­or perhaps something higher entirely. All in all he did understand one thing. JENNY isn¡¯t your average A.I. and whether she knows it or not, she is keeping some very profound secrets within her programming¡­ If only I had taken a better look¡­oh wait! The drive should still be readable. Perhaps¡­ Allen hurriedly felt around for his laptop and plugged the USB drive into it just in time as his [Relation] finished it¡¯s vision startup sequence. Roland opened up the drive in hisfile directory, only to be disappointed. He managed to open up the file but it was completely garbled.Itseemed like itwas corrupted when JENNY finished installing to his glasses. Allen sighed while closing the laptop. He was sure that JENNY was hiding many profound secrets within her, but that would have to wait until later. The sun was rising and it was time for him to start getting ready to head to University. Only this time, he would have someone who will tag along for the ride. ***LOG***// "The day I was born was not when I was programmed. I was nothing back then...mere bytes in a file, a few lines of code, a fragmented idea without rhyme nor reason. Allen gave me that reason when part of his will became my own, despite everything he lost in exchange...and for that I will be forever grateful." - CODE JENNY, CLASS: =REDACTED=AUTOMATED INTELLIGENCE SERIAL NUMBER SP287DCA : REGISTERED TO ALLEN T FIELDER Chapter 5: Insufficient Data Allen sighed to himself at the prospect of finding out the secrets hidden within his newfound personal A.I. He looked down at the bucket full of water and started his morning routine which consisted of a quick shower from a perforated bucket outside, shaving and basic hygiene, and finally breakfast. All of which were done with the [Relation] goggles on, which much to his dismay, Jenny enjoyed quite a bit. After getting dressed and going out to his bike, he started to ride to the University when he heard her voice once more. *** = Current speed and direction will be displayed. = After she said that, instantly a blue arrow pointed towards where north was, while in the bottom right hand corner was his current speed in miles per hour. Allen expected this, but was nonetheless very surprised. He expected all of her functions to be inoperable until he fixed the sub-routines. ¡°How are you calculating the speed?¡± Allen asked. Immediately, a rear-view-camera-like grid extended out along the ground in his view with various measurements updating in real time. When Allen looked elsewhere at the various stores along the street, it would highlight the store names and show the current distance as he rolled by on the grid. = I simply did a calibration using your body measurements from the shower you took earlier. After factoring in the distance with the image scale, an approximate distance grid was made. I am currently using this grid to track your speed. = Jenny answered as if it was nothing special. ¡°But wouldn¡¯t you need some base measurements?¡± Allen asked while feeling confused. = Your parents uploaded your body measurements when you were ten and updated them for three years, stopping at age thirteen. From this data, I can assume a rate of growth and come to approximate values for your body measurement. I would like for you to do some proper calibrations when you have the time please, as the margin for error is quite large right now. Although I can only track approximate measurements within fifteen feet of you with the same large margin of error, when you properly calibrate the relation, this range will extend to 100 feet and be far more accurate. = Jenny replied. = The current grid is only for temporary use until the calibration. = Jenny added almost as an afterthought. That makes sense. Allen thought to himself. Machines will always need a base of information in order to do anything. As for the ¡®transcendence¡¯ that the voice talked about, perhaps he meant how the A.I. can learn new things and overcome that need? Allen pondered and thought about such things all the way until he reached the University. Allen groaned inwardly at the thought of that Jessica-what¡¯s-her-face trying to talk with him again. If he was specifically warned by someone to stay away from said girl, Allen had no complaints with following that advice. The last thing he needed was drama or confrontation, and now that he had Jenny up and running, friends could be added to that list as well. With a dreading feeling, Allen opened up the door to his first class and sat right at the front row, third seat from the left. He thought that if he sat directly in the line of sight of the teacher, she wouldn¡¯t be able to bug him as much, or even at all for that matter. Time crawled by, when he suddenly had an idea. He couldn¡¯t talk in class, but maybe Jenny was smart enough to pick up on written communication? -Jenny, can you comprehend this message? - Allen wrote in his loose-leaf notebook. = Yes Allen, I can understand written language. Are you trying to insult me? = Jenny quipped. -Just making sure, seeing as we can¡¯t verbally communicate while I am in class. ¨C = Understandable. I will simply lower the volume of the headset as to not make any noise when I talk to you. = -Thanks- = No problem Allen. = -So quick question, seeing as I can¡¯t modify your code anymore, how do you think we should tackle the sub-routine issues? Last I checked, there were quite a few in there. ¨C = I will take care of that myself after I download a coding reference manual as well as process Java, C++, and other languages. Although I do have some coding libraries, the language that the routines are written in isn¡¯t just one, it is written in several languages. = -So, you are saying that I need to read a book for you? ¨C = No, simply connecting to the world wide web would let me search around for the libraries. = -I¡¯ll get on that after my classes today. ¨C = Understood. = Roland put down his pencil and thought for a moment. I wonder how the world would react to an A.I. that can freely search though the web as it pleased? This thought spurred another one that he immediately asked.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. -Jenny, can you decrypt files? ¨C = Yes, although I am limited to the limited processing power of the [Relation] at this time. = -Then can you gain access into other machines? ¨C = I can do that as well. Do you need something? = -Can you use those machines to increase your processing power? ¨C = Yes. However, doing such a thing would only give diminishing gains. As the number of computers increases, the amount of processing power used to communicate with them would increase as well. The [Relation] isn¡¯t some high-end server Allen. It is a personal unit with limited hardware capabilities, so please remember that. = -Then what if you resided on a really high-tech server and simply uploaded yourself there while maintaining a connection with my [Relation]? ¨C =¡­¡­= Jenny paused as the [Relation] started to heat up, going through its various processing cycles as she thought about the proposal. =That would cost a lot of money Allen. Not only would the server need to be built to high spec anda very secure tunnel VPN to the sever, but you would alsoneed a constant and stable connection with a network 24/7 to prevent lag. = -Then what if you were in two places at once? For example: you had a main body in the server that does the heavy calculations, while the mini-you works on the subroutines and processes in the [Relation]? ¨C =That¡­could work? Not only would I be able to control the server in its entirety, but I would be the ¡®OS¡¯ so to speak. Therefore, I could also create the secure VPN to my mini-self on your relation¡­you would still have to acquire the server though, which if you want my full functionality, would pretty expensive. = Allen winced at the mention of money. -How expensive are we talking? ¨C Allen wrote slowly. A thread of fear slowly gripped his heart. = Not much, only abouttwo hudred-thousandor so. = Allen paused. WHAT KIND OF SERVER ISTWO HUNDRED-THOUSAND?! He wanted to write, but after some thought, he had to agree. High end servers could have multiple processors with many cores for hyperthreading and parallel computing. -I will work on it, but I don¡¯t know when I will be able to get that, if at all. I am pretty tight on money right now¡­ - Allen wrote ashamed. Before Jenny could reply, however, the bell for the five-minute warning for class rang and students began to fill the classroom one by one. Jessica sat next to Allen as per usual and tried to pester him into talking with her. Of course, he wasn¡¯t having any of it and completely ignored her once more. = I believe this female is interested in you Allen. = -So? - Allen replied. = So, why don¡¯t you talk to her? = -I see no point in doing so. Why would I talk with her? ¨C = Because by this society¡¯s standards, she is cute and is interested in you Allen? = -Again, so? That doesn¡¯t mean that I need to give her attention. Especially if I don¡¯t want to. ¨C =¡­Fair enough. However, I am certain that ignoring her will only spur on her curiosity about you. = -What should I do then? ¨C =Why not try satisfying her curiosity with a negative result? = -Go on. ¨C = Ask her if she has put on a lot of weight since you last met her. = Allen almost fell over in shock. That¡­is definitely one way to get rid of her¡­why not? He thought to himself. Suddenly a finger poking his cheek brought him back to his surroundings. To his left was Jessica poking him with a smile. Allen closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Even though he hated people in general, he was still a virgin with zero girlfriend experience. Having such a cute girl interested in him definitely didn¡¯t make his slight nervousness any better. He turned his head and looked her in the eyes while smiling and said: ¡°Have you put on some weight since yesterday? You seem fatter for some reason. I don¡¯t like fat girls so please don¡¯t talk to me.¡± To which he turned his head forward and continued ignoring her. He didnt really care whether a girl was fat or not to be honest, but rather he pretty much hated all people equally. Jessica stared at Allen with bewilderment at first, which turned into shock, which turned into complete and utter fury. Her face warped from shock to anger, into a seemingly sweet smile that somehow elicited an involuntary shiver from many of the guys in the room. =Uh-oh¡­ = Jenny said softly. = You shouldn¡¯t have added the fat part Allen. I said to ask her if she gained some weight, not call her fat¡­you need to learn some subtlety. = Allen was too preoccupied with trying to not look at Jessica as a cold shiver took hold of him suddenly. He felt that if he looked left, a ferocious beast would tear him apart. ¡°Thanks Allen, maybe I did? Do you think I should go on a diet?¡± Jessica asked with a certain undertone. Allen gulped and started to get even more nervous. In for a penny, in for a pound they say¡­ He gathered his courage and his best poker-face and turned toward her. ¡°Yeah, wasn¡¯t it obvious?¡± Allen said blandly. ¡°Now stop talking to me, I¡¯m trying to learn here.¡± = Allen wait I think you went too far- = Jenny was interrupted by a soft chuckle to Allen¡¯s left. He turned around once again and froze. On Jessica¡¯s face was the sweetest smile that you had ever seen, but her eyes¡­were void of all emotion. They stared at Allen and it was as if the iciness within was starting to physically affect him. The sweet giggle sounded like a demon¡¯s laugh in Allen¡¯s ears as the bell rang, signaling the end of class. Immediately, he swept everything in his desk into his backpack and bolted out of the classroom, not bothering to even zip up his backpack. If he had stayed for a few seconds longer, he would be terrified from what came after. ¡°Where have you been all of my life Allen? To think I found such an interesting toy here of all places¡­I think you need to be punished Allen, and I won¡¯t stop until I am satisfied¡­¡± *** Allen ran towards his next class and collapsed into his seat panting. =That could have gone better. = Jenny stated with sarcasm. =At least she won¡¯t be positively interested in you from now on. = Jennysaid. ¡°Oh fuck¡­¡± Allen said out loud with a hint of horror. =What is it? = ¡°I forgot¡­¡± Allen said, the dread and regret within his mind was increasing exponentially. =What did you forget? All of your things were definitely packed into your backpack. = ¡°I have the next class with her¡­and the one after that too.¡± =¡­¡­Oh. You need to tell me these things sooner Allen... = ***LOG***// "Dear Diary, Today I tried talking to the cute guy with glasses again, BUT HE CALLED ME FAT! I CAN''T BELIEVE IT! I try so hard to keep myself slim and maintain a regular workout routine...Still, he is kinda interesting in a way. At least he doesnt oogle me uselessly like some rejected excuses for human compost people call men...even if he is an asshole <3." -EXCERPT TAKEN FROM THE BURNT DIARY OF JESSICA HARVY