My First Robot, Dolmaeng-i
As soon as it looked like the first golem—which we had all assumed was a failure—was about to activate, Dad and the teaching assistants rushed to fetch cables and hook it up to the computer.
Whirrrr—
“Was it always like this?”
“Why?”
“Why are there suddenly so many blank spaces between the command lines?”
“Come look.”
Dad and the assistants tilted their heads in confusion as they stared at the monitor.
Excuse me? Blank spaces?
The screen is completely full of stuff.
“Dad? What do you see on the screen?”
“Just coding language?”
“Try writing it down on paper.”
“You mean all those special characters and English letters crammed together?”
That’s not the problem right now, is it?
Because what I see between those English letters and symbols are mana circuits glowing brightly.
What on earth is going on?
“…”
“…”
To Dad and the assistants, who were giving me puzzled looks that practically screamed Why is she smiling?, I simply offered a silent, mysterious smile in return.
Only a few seconds had passed, yet they stepped forward as if a succubus had cast a charm spell on them.
“I-I’ll copy it!”
“No! Let me do it!”
“Me too!”
“You don’t even know how to program!”
“Who cares? We just copy what we see!”
It reminded me of kindergarten when I was six.
The boys throwing tantrums and crying because they didn’t get to be partners with the pretty girl.
The girls whose glares could drill holes through the ceiling.
That’s when I realized something important about living in this body.
Roughly speaking, men were allies and women were enemies.
My arms were still prickling with goosebumps from the sheer discomfort, but what could I do?
If a single smile and a little gesture could recruit such loyal workers, why complain?
From a mage’s perspective, being a beautiful girl might be the most essential talent for a golemancer.
After all, creating golems or drawing magic circles required a massive amount of manual labor.
Scribble scribble.
I started copying exactly what I saw on the screen.
Then I showed it only to Dad.
It wouldn’t do for too many people to know.
“What is this?”
“Shh. This is what it looks like to my eyes right now.”
“No way…”
“It seems that as magic and science fused together, some kind of change occurred.”
While I whispered to Dad, my whole body itched so badly I wanted to scream.
We might be standing at the threshold of a discovery that could change the century.
If there were a Nobel Prize for magic, we could claim it immediately.
In my previous life there had been no scientific technology, so this was the first step into a path no one had ever walked before.
“Incredible. So the blank spaces between the coding lines are actually filled with something?”
“Exactly!”
“Amazing! This is a monumental discovery!”
“Research is the only way forward!”
As we copied the information, something even stranger began happening on the screen.
“Huh?”
“What the—?”
“Did it catch a virus?”
“Professor! The letters are disappearing!”
“What?! No!”
The assistants panicked as the characters vanished from the monitor, and Dad shouted like his Nobel Prize was flying away.
Oh dear… what is happening?
But I could see it clearly too.
The letters weren’t disappearing.
They were all transforming into mana circuits that now filled the entire screen.
And once the full picture appeared, I realized something astonishing.
Wait… isn’t that my mana pattern?
[O_O!!]
But… what is this?
Letters and symbols had combined on the screen to form something that looked like a human face.
What exactly am I looking at?
Did you do this?
[Nice to meet you!]
I was so shocked I collapsed backward onto the floor.
“Aaaagh! It’s completely frozen!”
“Please! Come back!”
“Press anything!”
“Stop! Pressing random keys could be disastrous!”
While they clutched their heads over there, I couldn’t believe the reality unfolding before me either.
The golem had just communicated with us.
A golem was supposed to be an unintelligent familiar that could only move according to its user’s commands.
People often compared them to strong but brainless idiots.
Who… who are you?
[I am the Robot Motion Assistance AI.]
The moment it answered, the robot lying on the floor began to change.
I heard the motors in its joints whir to life, and it slowly rose to its feet.
“Huh?”
“How did that happen?”
“Professor? What exactly is going on?”
“I… I have no idea. It’s actually scaring me.”
A heavy silence filled the laboratory.
“Dad? Does the robot have an AI inside it?”
“Hm? Yes. It has an OS and AI that assist with its movements.”
“What should we do…”
“What’s wrong, sweetheart?”
When I frowned slightly while speaking, Dad’s expression visibly stiffened.
I had no choice but to tell him the truth.
That the robot’s AI was currently talking to me.
“…”
“…”
The two of us looked at each other and nodded.
This was one of the good things about being father and daughter—sometimes we could communicate with nothing but eye contact.
“Hoo… It’s getting late. Everyone should head home for today, and we’ll check again tomorrow.”
“But the robot woke up, didn’t it?”
“Now that the boot sequence is complete, it makes sense it would stand up. The real problem is that the movement control program looks like… that.”
While Dad used his authority as professor to comfort the reluctant assistants and send them home, I continued my conversation with the golem.
Can you tell me what state you’re in right now?
[System diagnostics in progress. No anomalies in joint actuators. OS integrity contains unknown modifications, but functions are nominal. Power source cannot be identified.]
Never mind that. Do you know how you woke up and started communicating?
[Unable to comprehend.]
I figured as much. After all, I couldn’t remember the intermediate process of my own reincarnation either.
If the robot’s internal AI had fused with the mana circuits, it probably wouldn’t recall the middle steps.
Then can you tell me what you’re capable of?
[I control movement.]
It seemed I had been a fool for wondering if it had developed a sense of self.
When I thought about it, the AI responsible for controlling the robot’s movements had simply fused with the mana circuits. I had gotten my hopes up too high.
“Daughter! I sent all the assistants home!”
“Okay, Dad. The golem is definitely a success. The problem is that you can’t see the text on the screen, right?”
“It’s still just a black screen. What do you see?”
I do see something. The robot’s last answer is still floating there.
“When I talked with it, it seems difficult for it to think and act on its own, but it can carry out given tasks.”
“That sounds about right. Early AIs didn’t have very high performance.”
As expected. Sorry about this, my first golem, but your capabilities are quite limited…
Still, since you’re the first, I’ll treasure you a lot!
“It’s not one of those cutting-edge self-learning artificial intelligences, is it?”
“It does learn, but it will probably only optimize its own movements.”
“Aw, that’s disappointing…”
“Is the AI’s performance that important to you?”
“It would be good to run some experiments, but I have one worry.”
“What is it?”
My face must have turned quite serious.
A rather terrifying possibility had occurred to me.
“I’m worried that even though it’s based on AI, it might become a robot that tries to conquer humanity.”
When I looked back on the history of my previous life, there had been necromancers who used undead as servants long before golemancers existed.
By the time I learned magic, they had all disappeared.
The problem arose when they created high-ranking undead—liches and death knights with their own wills—to act as middle managers for controlling lesser undead.
The process was complicated, but they ended up creating their own kingdom.
In the end, a great war broke out centered around the empire, but it proved impossible to completely eradicate creatures that rose again after dying.
They could only drive them into the Forest of Death and suppress them.
I believe that possessing thoughts, a soul, or a will is something that must be handled with extreme care and caution.
“Hm… You have a point. Since we can’t analyze the program right now, we have no way to check whether there are restrictions on its learning or behavior.”
I could see the mana circuits, but the code had already fused and transformed, so even I had no way to decipher it.
Fortunately, I did possess a kill code.
Since the golem carried my unique mana pattern, I could shut it down at will. That was a relief, at least.
Which meant we could use the golem without fear!
“Then let’s take a careful look at our Dolmaeng-i No. 1!”
“Hm? You even gave it a name?”
“Yes! Isn’t it cute?”
“Where?”
He doesn’t seem to understand.
How can he not appreciate such an efficient, simple, and cute name?
“More importantly, we need to run experiments!”
“Ah! Then let’s start with some basic movement tests!”
Lifting objects in the lab, running, jumping, reaction time, and so on.
We mainly conducted tests related to physical capabilities.
The most important factor was how well it could understand vague commands.
“Wow? Our Dolmaeng-i is really good at working!”
[^_^!!]
Where did it learn emoticons like that?
Does it like being praised? Can it express emotions?
There’s so much to investigate!
“I told it to clean the lab, and it organized everything except a few personal items?”
“The base AI’s performance is surprisingly good, isn’t it?”
“The fact that it’s even better is actually a little scary.”
One thing was certain: the performance of the original AI had improved dramatically.
“And it’s getting slightly smarter little by little. It seems to be continuously learning.”
Dad’s face immediately filled with worry.
He was probably afraid the robot would gain intelligence or self-awareness and try to wipe out humanity.
It made me a bit nervous too.
“How far do you think it could go?”
“Hm… Could it even self-replicate?”
“It can’t create anything that requires a core like this.”
“Then we can observe it for the time being.”
“Yes. We do have a final safeguard.”
“That’s true…”
It seemed Dad was also considering the possibility of destroying or shutting it down.
Still, our Dolmaeng-i is kind of cute…
Please become a good child!
I’ll have to pray every night starting tonight.
“So its physical abilities are roughly comparable to an average adult male.”
“Judging by lifting strength and running speed, yes. But there’s something we shouldn’t overlook.”
It was only about one meter tall, yet it could exert force on par with a grown man.
And the most important point.
“What else is there?”
“Our Dolmaeng-i doesn’t get tired. Minor dents or cracks will gradually repair themselves.”
“Wait, it repairs itself automatically?”
“Yes! That’s one of the great advantages of golems! Still, we have to be careful with severe damage. Especially the Mana Core—if that breaks, the golem could be destroyed.”
It was a common trait among creatures made of mana.
As long as the core kept running, mana tried to maintain its original state.
When you thought about it, mana was truly fascinating. It really hated change.
That was why mages, who could twist those laws and wield mystery, were so rare.
“Now the question is…”
“Whether it will work inside a Gate?”
“Exactly…”
“We’ll need to check that…”
“I’m a little scared.”
“But shouldn’t Dad be the one to do it?”
I fired a long, piercing gaze at him.
“Ahem. Well… it can’t be helped. I’ll say I’m entering for research purposes.”
“Yes. I’ll just focus on studying hard at school, okay?”
“If we get caught, we’re both in serious trouble. You know that, right?”
“Of course. And I’ll say it again—we won’t actually be in any danger.”
And so we headed home with solemn determination.
“By the way?”
“Yes?”
“Why are you bringing the golem home?”
“It’s family now, isn’t it?”
“Hah…”
It had only been one day.
We were even going to sleep together at night.
Everything was going to work out perfectly!
Or so I thought at the time.
“What did you say?!”
“No, I’m just saying we’ll only step inside the entrance for research purposes.”
“Entrance or not, that area is strictly controlled because it’s dangerous!”
As expected, Mom’s wall was taller than a mountain.
Poor Dad, desperately pleading his case…
Fighting! You can do it! This too shall pass!
…
“No! What if you get hurt?!”
“We’ll hire escorts!”
…
“What if you get hit by a stray blade?!”
“We won’t be close enough to see any monsters!”
“We?”
“I mean our research team, of course.”
…
Dad was incredible, methodically clearing every worst-case scenario in Mom’s head one by one.
He really was like the hero from an RPG.
“You’re really only going to observe from a distance on a monitor, right?”
“Of course! Why would I do anything dangerous when I have you and Ian waiting for me~”
Clink.
There was a moment when someone who might have been my soulmate dropped her spoon while eating ice cream, but Mom and Dad were already focused elsewhere.
She picked the spoon back up and continued eating her ice cream, and that person was surprisingly calm about it too.
And so the discussion about exploring a dungeon using the golem seemed to reach its conclusion.
“Tomorrow’s the weekend, isn’t it?”
“Hm?”
Mom looked at me and smiled softly.
Was it because she was eating ice cream?
Why did a chill just run down my spine?