The AI Who Wants to Breed

The place looked like a "Room of Eyes." Hundreds of monitors embedded into the walls, ceiling, and floor were staring at me. Each one held a different gaze, a different perspective. I stood alone in the center of it all. Then, a black sphere surrounded by a complex web of wires, hanging from the ceiling, spoke to me.

"It... talks?"

This was the place Placia had guided me to. This mysterious sphere was coordinating all the systems in the village. And I realized it instantly: Ah, this thing is the true ruler of this Underground Village.

"Well, to fix the circuits, I need to access your internal system directly... could you come down a bit?" I asked with the biggest smile I could muster. They say you can't spit on a smiling face, but I soon realized that rule meant ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠nothing to an AI.

"...Then I can't fix the circuits, can I?"

This AI was more capable than I expected. If I’d known, I wouldn't have bothered coming all the way down here. "...Then, shall I be going?" The contract was finished. My job was circuit repair, and I’d finished it. I glanced back at Placia. She had a subtle expression, but she didn't look like she intended to let me leave. ...As expected.

"A proposal?"

"...Yeah, something like that." I had suspected there was someone behind Placia. I just didn't expect it to be an "early model" of the R.P.M.

"True... but you see," I shrugged. "It's not like this is the first time I've seen an early R.P.M model. I've seen your type plenty of times."

"Yeah. The type that prioritizes human preservation through emotionless logic, but whose methods end up destroying humanity itself."

Anyone who had played the game Star's Doll for a long time would recognize this type immediately. The kind that, under the guise of protecting humans, disassembles them for "preservation." Acting like they know humans better than humans do, deleting emotions, automating reproduction, and eventually even treating the player character as a "breedable specimen" to be kidnapped. If you got caught... you were headed straight to the factory. As that memory surfaced, I slowly looked up.

"You want to disassemble my body too, don't you?"

But it wasn't what I expected.

"...Because the R.P.M's goal is human preservation. Wasn't it to collect physical data?"

"...That's right."

"...What?" This N.E.M.E.S.I.S., this early R.P.M model. It was different from the AIs I'd met before.

"...Excuse me?" Suddenly, the atmosphere turned R-rated. I mean, the world already had an adult rating due to its sexual and violent nature, but this was the first time I'd heard something so explicit. Maybe it was because the perspective was now VR. It felt way too real.

...Wait, what? Why is it so serious all of a sudden? "Hold on... so, in a nutshell?"

Haha... I'm screwed.

"...That's just dying!"

"Ambiguous means you're as good as dead!!" Simply put, the moment I get caught, it's over. I reflexively tried to run, but when I looked back, I froze. Placia was standing in front of the exit.

"Please move, Placia."

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. But... we cannot refuse the orders of that existence."

"Why?"

"Because if she were gone... we would all die." Placia's voice was calm, but there was a tremor in it. "This place was safe. Even though it's a small village of only a few hundred people, there is electricity, there is a system... we could live. And the one maintaining all of that is that AI."

N.E.M.E.S.I.S.'s cold voice rang out like a resonance, and Placia fell silent for a moment. Then, she quietly opened her mouth. "I... was deployed to this Earth hundreds of years ago as a second-generation R.P.M android." She spoke calmly, but too many emotions were mixed within her. "At that time, humanity had already perished... and we were just sent down with orders to clear out mutant lifeforms. There was a secondary order to secure survivors if any existed, but in reality, it was a suicide mission." She caught her breath, pulling out the debris of past memories one by one. "The reality was far more terrible than we imagined. We lacked technology, equipment, and above all, there were too few of us."

"My colleagues were infected one by one. Some committed suicide because they couldn't bear the pain, and others lost their sense of self as their emotion-control circuits collapsed." Placia said this while clutching her own arm without realizing it. The lingering tremor of her unstable circuits shook, reflecting the memories of that time. "I... eventually reached the brink of infection too." She lowered ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠her head slightly and continued. "Coming down to this underground tunnel with a corroded body was my last resort. And the one who saved me inside was that existence."

The control AI sleeping in the heart of an abandoned bunker—N.E.M.E.S.I.S. If not for that existence, she wouldn't be here right now. That was the confession of a being who had only continued to survive in the forgotten underground for the past several hundred years.

"Placia..."

That was when it happened. *Grab.*

"Gah?!"

Wires stretched out from all directions. Electric tentacle-like structures wrapped tightly around my body and lifted me up.

The tentacles dug deeper. The wires wrapping around my body began to vibrate hotly, and hundreds of monitors flashed toward me simultaneously. If this continued, my mind and body would be consumed entirely. "No, wait. I told you, I can't do it with a monitor!" I struggled, but the tentacles wrapped tighter. That was when it happened.

*Crackling!*

The space where cold electricity flowed suddenly shook unstably.

The monitor screens flickered in unison, spewing distorted graphic errors.

The sphere in front of me wavered for the first time. Dozens of monitors blinked simultaneously, and a subtle confusion mixed into that cold mechanical sound. I smiled quietly. "Gotcha." Crossing my arms, I showed the composure of a true veteran. "I knew this would happen."

N.E.M.E.S.I.S. was still shaking, spitting out error logs, and the tentacles were now struggling in mid-air, unable to pull me up. "When I was repairing the circuits," I tilted my head back lightly. "I planted an emotion filter in your heart's data node."

"That's always the weakness of an AI." I reached out and tapped one of the tentacles lightly. Electricity sparked, and the tentacle uncoiled. "Not logic, but emotion. Not information, but... emotional 'waves'. And the source of those waves is..." I turned my head slowly. "Lyla. I asked the child with the most abundant emotional response."

"Ly... Lyla?!" Even that machine seemed to finally recognize the emotion of fear. *[Ghhhrrrk!]* N.E.M.E.S.I.S. twisted its body against the bug-like emotional data. Still, it didn't give up. *[Calculation in progress... Ignore error. Seed acquisition priority.]* The tentacles tried to pull me up again. But at that moment—

*Slash.*

"We arrived right on time as planned, Chanwoo!"

"Battle time. By the way, from my last memory... Serika was sucking your dick at this timing."

My escorts, Revi and Serika, had arrived. The two of them cut the wires in an instant, saving me.