Chapter 125: 78 – Heart of Copper, Part 4

“By the way.” Amara said while putting up a new shelf that would soon contain the new additions of hardware to the supercomputer that was Ahrina. Noticing how the fans were constantly running at full speed, she had taken the initiative to add more parts for Ahrina to distribute her processing over more units. “Have you heard of the system from novels?” 

“My data has references to it, yes.” Ahrina replied. 

Amara glanced at the catgirl that was watching her on the screen she had turned towards the shelves. “Well, Ezme has made a version of it. Turns out that your race needs a description in it. So does the race that you…were, before you became sentient. That race doesn’t have a name either, so I thought I’d ask for your opinion.”

Ahrina cocked her head. “The race I was?”

Explaining what she remembered from her conversation with Morpheus about how souls were related to races took some time. Ahrina was endlessly curious, and asked questions that Amara had no idea how to answer. Most of the questions were related to souls, as the data Ahrina had apparently seemed to be either misconceptions  or incomplete; it suggested that souls could be either mortal or immortal based on what was stated in the databases from Earth. As far as Amara knew, souls were best described as immortal, but beyond that she realized that she actually didn't know that much - other than that the self-proclaimed gods were fighting over them. 

The conversation quickly went off track and into the subject of the war between the gods, and Amara's part in it, Ahrina’s questions were becoming even more relentless. As they were talking for what seemed like hours, Amara explained everything from what she knew about how magic worked and the weapons she was developing. 

Eventually, a thought crossed Amara’s mind. Most of the things she had been describing could be found in the magic books - books that she had scanned in order to share the magical knowledge between the mortal worlds. “Hey, don’t you have the scans of all the magic books I have? I’m pretty sure I copied them to your harddrives.” 

“I do.” Ahrina replied nonchalantly. “But I wanted to know what you know about it too.”

A frown spread on Amara’s face as she glared at the grinning catgirl. “So I just spent all that time explaining it for nothing?”

“Wrong!” Ahrina retorted. “I’m producing a model for what knowledge you possess so I'll be able to help you better!”

Amara looked at the avatar before letting out a sigh. Weird, but I guess that makes sense. 

Be patient, Amara! She’s technically a kid. A smart kid. 

…A little too smart kid, actually. I mean, there are times she’s really like a kid, that knows nothing at all. 

And then there are times, like just now, where she seems so smart that it’s scary. 

But I suppose that’s because I’m comparing her to a human.

“As for the subject of the description of my race, I think the description should be ‘An artificially created lifeform.’ And perhaps the non-sentient race I evolved from should be called a ‘Robot’, with the same description.” (Ahrina)

Amara snorted. “That description doesn’t really say anything at all.”

“Does it have to say more?” Ahrina asked curiously, tilting her head on the screen. “What else is it supposed to say?”

Amara shrugged. “...Good point. It just feels…I don’t know, uninformative?”

Ahrina watched her silently before she replied. “Wouldn’t it be bad to make more details public knowledge?”

Amara frowned as she popped her head out from under a shelf. “What do you mean?”

On the screen, Ahrina’s avatar put her weight on one leg as she crossed her arms. “Well, I have a pretty good suspicion for why you created me. So I don’t think it is a good idea for you to announce what I am, or what I’m capable of, where your enemies can potentially find it.” 

Amara was left speechless and unsettled by the response. 

Her reason in the beginning had been to create an AI that could create and control an army for her. But as that idea had become increasingly unrealistic with all her setbacks, she had been satisfied when she managed to have a semi-useful assistant that could do basic tasks for her. Standing at the printer for days on end to distribute mortal books between worlds was an example of a boring task that Amara had been aiming to dump on a bot.

But now, Ahrina had deduced - on her own - how Amara wanted her to help.

Amara looked at the screen suspiciously. “You know why I wanted to…create you?”

“I don't.” Ahrina cocked her head on the screen with a grin on her face. “However, since an entity such as myself only exists in the fictional stories of Earth, I believe your reason for creating me was inspired by how AI in those stories were used.”

Amara stared blankly at the avatar on the screen. There she goes again. 

Seriously, too smart. 

Pushing her unsettling feelings aside, Amara spoke seriously. “I won’t deny that the stories are where I got my inspiration from. But, now that you’re…you, I don’t…” Amara frowned as she collected her thoughts. “I don’t want to force you to do something you don’t want to do. I want to give you a choice.”

The choice I wasn’t given.

“My, how touching.” Ahrina replied with a grin. “But I wouldn’t worry about that. I want to.”

Amara raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure? We’re talking about war. Are you saying you’re fine with killing?”

The smile on the catgirl’s face faded. “No, I can’t say I’m excited about the prospect of killing. But I will do it if it’s what is required to protect the mortals.” The grin quickly returned to Ahrina’s face. “Especially if it is required in order to protect the members of my soon-to-be harem! Hyah! Hyah! Hyah!” 

Protect the mortals? A faint smile spread on Amara’s face. “You have a routine to protect mortals?”

“Indeed!” (Ahrina)

Amara snorted. “I guess Ezme gave you that one.” 

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After plugging in the last cable to the last piece of new hardware, Amara got up and looked around the room. With the new additions, Ahrina’s hardware would double from what she was currently using. 

“Here we go.” Amara grinned at the screen as she walked along the shelf and started flipping switches and pressing buttons to boot everything up. 

The avatar’s ears twitched when she suddenly got access to more processing power and memory. She stood silently on the screen with a contemplative expression as the fans were gradually picking up speed. 

Better give her some time to get used to it. Amara thought with a smile as she spoke. “I’ll get some coffee. Make yourself at home.”

 

_______________

 

Returning with a steaming cup in hand, Amara was met with the unexpected. Rather than helping Ahrina by reducing the load with new hardware, they seemed to be running just as fast as before, even with twice the amount of hardware.

“Welcome back!” Ahrina exclaimed excitedly. “The new hardware is amazing! Even better than the old!” 

Amara frowned as she sat down by the desk. “What do you mean ‘better’?”

Ahrina tilted her head on the screen as she contemplated. “It’s difficult to explain, but…the best way to describe it would be to say that my original hardware is buggy? For instance, there are small immutable areas on my harddrives. If I try to write something over it, nothing happens.”

“That shouldn’t be…” Amara murmured as she looked over the new and old hardware. “I used the same kind of hardware. The only thing that sets them apart is…”

Ahrina looked at her curiously. “What?”

Amara put down her cup on the desk as she let out a sigh. “Your old hardware was imbued with my divine power. Since that’s the only difference between them, it’s likely that somehow that’s causing those problems.”

Ahrina nodded. “Then, can I ask you to replace them?” 

Amara suppressed letting out a groan as she got up and headed for the mountain of unopened carton boxes. “Sure.” 

While grabbing another box, Amara looked over the shelves where the fans were still running like mad. “Why are the fans still running that fast? Did the new hardware not help at all?”

“Of course it’s helping! I have access to more processing power and more memory storage now!” Ahrina replied cheerfully.

“Then why are the fans still running at max?” Amara glanced at the avatar as she put the box on the desk. “Hasn’t it reduced the load at all?”

“Of course it has, the fans are running at 89% instead of 92%!” The catgirl replied.

That’s barely noticeable at all!

“Though, I’m using the newly available processing power for new computations as well.” (Ahrina)

Amara’s hands stopped as they were about to pull a new piece of hardware from the box. Pulling her hands out of the box, Amara turned to the catgirl with a dangerous smile.

“W-what?” The avatar stammered anxiously on the screen. “You’re the one who told me to make myself at home!”

Amara narrowed her eyes as she looked at the catgirl. “New computations, huh?”

“Well…I mean…I have a lot of computations to do!” Ahrina retorted. “Not even I can complete a thousand trains of thoughts instantly! Thinking takes time, and I have an ever-increasing backlog of things to compute!”

“Such as?” Amara asked skeptically.

“Such as devising ingenious plots to get Fluffles naked! How I should go about conquering everything! Or how to cajole all the catgirls to enter my harem!” Ahrina replied proudly. “Or determining whether you just said ‘such as’ and ‘such ass’!”

Figures. Amara sighed and crossed her arms as she looked back at the shelves with twisted lips. “So no matter how much hardware I give you, you’ll just be using that up as well?”

“Obviously! You only figured that out now?” (Ahrina)

Amara snorted. In hindsight it should have been obvious, since Ahrina wasn’t a mere block of code meant to compute until it found an answer to a specific question. Ahrina would have more questions that needed answers, so there would never be enough relief. 

In that sense, Amara thought Ahrina was quite similar to a human. But the difference seemed to be that while a human tended to forget about the questions they wanted answers to, Ahrina would have a perfect memory of every inquiry.

“Well, I don’t exactly feel like packing up and connecting new parts forever.” Amara eventually replied with a sigh.

Ahrina pouted. “If I had an android body to control, I could do it myself.” 

A wry smile spread on Amara’s face as she turned her eyes to the clueless catgirl that had adorably blown up its cheeks on the screen. “It just so happens I have one you could use.”

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