Chapter 21: Chapter 21: Closer to Humanity

"It's Dad! Quick, Hide!" Lawrence and Sophia quickly scattered from the room, trying to find a hiding spot. Carlo only saw his daughter, who was randomly staring at one of the monitors while lightly tapping one of her foot.

"Lemma? What are you doing here?"

"I...uhh..." She sits on the upgrade chair and slaps her thigh.

"I-I WANT TO FEEL TIRED!"

"Uh-huh..." he said in a very confused tone.

"It's because... let's see..." She awkwardly stands up and runs laps around the chair while explaining, "See! I don't get tired. And I don't even sweat! It's super suspicious, Dad!

"I see. You want to be more human-" He goes to one of the body cabinets and opens one of them, revealing Sophia, "-and what is she doing here? Isn't it cold there?"

"*achoo*" 

"Those are cryogenically-frozen to preserve as much information as possible. I'm surprised you even survived this long." He, then, goes to where several wires are stored and found Lawrence wrapped around on such wires, unable to move on his own, "-and you, I'm surprised you can even go to this place, isn't this off-limits to rich folks like you?"

The three were caught. With crossed arms, Carlo was staring down at the three children, looking for answers to the very obvious question, "Why are you all here?"

"Dad! I just wanted to show them this room! I wanted them to learn more about me!" Lemma said with rolling eyes.

"Why are you nervous? Don't worry, I'm not going to get angry, but you're not being honest."

"Didn't we come here to learn more about robots?"

"Dunno. I thought it was to learn about how to improve Lemma's specs."

"I!" She grabbed both Lawrence and Sophia's hands, "I just wanted to hang out with my best friends!" 

With a grin, Carlo pets both Lawrence and Sophia. "I see, hahahahaha!" He kneels near them and with a voice where Lemma couldn't hear, he says to them, "Both of you, please take care of my daughter, okay?"

"What are you whispering to them, Dad?! -and I wasn't lying about what I said! I really want... to grow." referring to her small stature.

"Lemma, Fatass, and I want to be like you, Mr. Pumping! We wanna learn more about Lemma and help her grow! Isn't that right, Fatass?!"

"...tch. That's true. At first I was just interested in her because she's a robot... then..." 

"...then?" Carlo stared down at the sweating Lawrence.

"...then I wanted her to become a super android! Predict every move! Super strength! Hyper intelligence! Please help us learn more about Lemma!" Lawrence said with full enthusiasm, making superhero poses with each power he mentioned.

"Thank God, you mean that..." said Carlo with a sigh of relief. "I know Lemma can, but can you two keep up with my lessons?"

"YES!"

"Then, watch me implement a new system on Lemma. I'll call it the fatigue system."

Carlo demonstrated his prowess to the children. Lines of code were written each second, incomprehensible to anyone but him.

class Nervous:
def __init__(self, central, peripheral):
self.central= central
self.peripheral= peripheral

"Both of you understand object classes, right? I modelled it after biology, so it would be simple if we created a near one-by-one correspondence for each system in the human body. After that, each classes would have their own-" Carlo was lost on his own world explaining his program.

"Do you understand?"

"My Dad always gets enthusiastic talking about his programs..."

"This is a mistake."

"-with the algorithm. Now, it's time to show how to use these." He gathered his trusty needle-wires. Being used to it, Lemma instinctively sat on the upgrade chair.

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"EEEEP! Don't kill us, Mr. Pumping!" said a scared Sophia on the sight of the huge needles.

"Don't worry. These are like USB cords for Lemma." He carefully places it to very specific parts of Lemma's head. "You place them to the coordinates displayed there on the monitor, because those are the parts where we insert the code," explains Carlo as he finishes up the final needles to insert to Lemma, "This code is actually simple to make, since I just reused some of her circadian rhythm code used for her sleeping patterns." Lawrence and Sophia shook their heads.

"And you just run this code here."

shutdown(lemmaVariant3);

Lemma's eyes started to drop and any signs of human-like movements were gone.

"Is... is she dead?"

"Just think of it as sleeping. Her data is copied on the memory drives. If you're talking in a philosophical sense, I haven't really thought about it."

"Philosophical sense?"

"Never mind. I forgot I was talking to children."

....

....

....

*Upload Complete*

"...and it's done."

In an instant, Lemma was awake. They tested her new system by running around in laps around the computer room. Lemma was visibly getting tired, breathing heavier and posture like her legs were giving up.

"Hah... phew... that was tiring... but it was a great feeling! I haven't felt like this in a long time! Only thing missing is sweat!" 

"I modelled it after the exercise-dopamine reward system. It was easy to implement."

Lawrence and Sophia were in awe, and were extremely inspired. 

"DID YOU SEE THAT, SOPHIA? LEMMA GOT TIRED! A ROBOT! GETTING TIRED!"

"I only knew about her a while ago! I expected her to get tired like any human would! Anyways..."

Both of them wondered about what exactly their family is.

"With his talents... he should be working for the government."

"Or even for our family-" Lawrence remembered his first encounter with Carlo and his bloodshot eyes, "...on second thought, maybe there's a reason."

They thought about the reasons while they were watching Carlo and Lemma bond like a normal father and daughter.

"Oh, yeah. Did you two understand the process? Maybe next time I could show you my entire undergraduate thesis."

"Ahh... thank you for the hospitality, Mr. Pumping."

"My dad might get suspicious with me being out this long. Thank you, Mr. Pumping."

"I see... well, take care, you two. Lemma, we'll talk later."

"*gulp* Well, I'll accompany them out."

With Lemma with them, they left from their first visit to Lemma's home.

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