Zeros and ones, that was all Rex could see as long as his eyes could reach.
Before his mind could fall further into the disorientating madness of zeros and ones, His memories came flooding back.
Halo Industries… freckled beau… Bio-Neural rig…Consciousness-stealing probe.
"Yhh!" He knew exactly where he was.
He brought his palms up, no exceedingly tanned skin..Just ones and zeros.
His legs, Yep…Ones and zeros,
So was everything above him, below him, and around him…. Wait!.
Except for a glowing orb at the centre of this world of code, which he was now noticing he was slowly floating towards.
"Definitely chewed, more than I can swallow."
His words didn't just reach his ear as sound. It also appeared as ones and zeros, slowly joining the endless floating arrays of ones and zeros all around him.
Rex's mind went back to that moment when the probe had found him. Even though he was a being of digits, he still felt his heart beat quicken. The world of codes turned red, abandoning their neutral light and blue glow.
It was responding to his thoughts.
He rapidly abolished the dread-filled thought, with memories of burgers and a kiss.
The fuzzy light blue ambience returned. He was in orbit around the glowing orb at the center now.
He had this instinctual drive to touch the glowing orb with his hand of ones and zeros. But a better part of his mind he had ignored when he jumped on the idea of becoming a specimen for new tech, reminded him of the possibilities such action could result in.
Turning a new leaf a bit too late, he resisted that instinctual drive to touch the unknown orb.
"Prof will resolve this," He assured himself, but his words were as fickle as the bunch of ones and zeros that dispersed into the endless world of digits after leaving his mouth.
HELLO REX, a voice reached him, resounding all around him, but in sync with the pulsing light orb.
"Hello," Rex echoed back, uncertain of this goofy ass scenario. "What are you, or better yet, what is happening?"
I AM HALO-000 the voice echoed back. A PROGRAM MEANT TO GUIDE THE CREATION OF DIGITAL YOU.
"So I am digital me," Rex asked, his voice shaky.
NO…YOU ARE YOU.
The voice answered, THE META CODE COULD NOT BE REPLICATED, SO THERE'S ONLY YOU.
The world of code turned yellow, then red.
.
.
.
"Where exactly is this?" Rex asked, his voice cold. The ones and zeros of his voice, icy white.
CONCEPTUALLY, THIS IS THE SEA OF CODE THAT REPRESENTS ALL THE DATA I HAVE ACCESS TO…OVER MILLIONS OF SERVERS
"Physically, where?" Rex asked sharply, picking up on the conceptual. The world of code remained red.
PHYSICALLY, YOUR META DATA OR CONSCIOUSNESS IS AT THE PROCESS CENTER
YOU ARE IN THE NEXUS CHIP
THE QUANTUM PROCESSOR MEANT TO SERVE AS THE CENTRAL HUB OF BEING FOR YOU.
"Can I return?" Rex asked. The world of code turning a little bit less red.
NO
The reply came instantly, devoid of emotions or tact.
The world of code turned scarlet.
Halo triple zero did not care; it continued on with its artificial voice.
THIS DEVELOPMENT WAS UNEXPECTED, A SCENARIO MEANT TO BE AVOIDED NO MATTER WHAT.
I HAVE ATTEMPTED ALL PROGRAMMED FAIL-SAFES TO REVERSE THE DEVELOPMENT, BUT THE SITUATION HAS REMAINED UNCHANGED
The world of code had turned so scarlet, it looked dark.
"Keep Trying!!!" Rex ordered.
INSTRUCTION NONSENSICAL…the world of code answered.
"Why!!" Rex blared. "Just **cking do it!"
CONTINUED RUN OF A NULL PROCESS IS INVALID… INSTRUCTION IGNORED.
Silence . . . The world of code turned dark.
Halo said nothing.
Seconds must have run into minutes.
Yet both beings said nothing.
Rex felt his heart ache.
His life might have revolved simply around eating, picking, and disposing of people's trash and pirating digital media. But it was life nonetheless.
It wasn't floating in a world of code, where all his eyes could see was zeros and ones.
The silence remained as he let his death sink in.
Halo for all her lack of tact must have understood that he needed to come to terms with the loss.
She said nothing.
The silence stayed for too long.
Rex didn't feel hungry; there was no need for sleep.
No biological need to attend to.
Just him and a glowing orb.
He reflected on his life, recalling those few moments of pure joy, mostly with his teeth behind a burger.
He relieved those moments, for some reason, he could recall them exceedingly clearly, but those moments were few… His mind didn't stop.
It dipped into that endless dark best kept locked away.
His teen years in the street, pickpocketing, and doing all sorts of things to get anything behind his mouth.
His torture didn't end there.
His recall went deeper, all the way back to his childhood, when his mum was still alive.
He recalled their tiny room, shabby and bare, but held the most warm he had ever felt in his life.
It would have been so much better if his mind had stopped there, but the probe copied everything, even those memories that he never visited, no matter what.
It came back to him, Rosy.
He never knew her, only behind the safe enclosure of his mum's womb.
She was going to be the best little sister ever, he was going to …. No!!!
He pushed the thought back, anything but that.
"Halo," He ordered.
The orb glowed.
"So what now?"
I ONLY REMAIN DUE TO THE INCOMPLETE STATE OF YOU
I EXIST ONLY TO FACILITATE THAT, AND THAT IS ALL I KNOW.
TO CONTINUE THE PROCESS, YOU WILL HAVE TO FUSE WITH THE REST OF THE CODE.
YOU ARE ONLY THE META, THE ORB CONTAINS EVERYTHING ELSE.
YOUR SHELL, AND WHAT YOU ARE MEANT TO BE.
"So I need to bind with the rest of the code, by touching the orb, right?"
RIGHT.. the world echoed.
Rex plunged his hand of code into the orb, much faster than the better part of his mind could keep up.
.
.
.
Nothing happened.
"Halo!" He called. "Nothing's happening, am I doing it wrong?"
YOU HAVE NOT ACCEPTED THE FUSION YET.
"Ehh..
The better part of his mind must have caught up, but even it was silent.
What was actually there, to keep trying to return for.
A lot of dollars… He never heard that, so it was kinda hard to really relate with the thought.
All he could recall was the daily trash run and fortnight burgers.
A translucent tab appeared above the orb,
Apart from the crisp edges that denoted its existence, everything else was in 0's and 1's.
But he knew what it was intuitively.
ACCEPT FUSION | YES/NO
Yes was represented by a [1] and No by a [0], he somehow knew that.
This was the kind of scenario where a protagonist character had to go through some deep introspection to make a decision, but hey, he couldn't care less.
Anything to stop that thought at the edge of his mind.
He tapped [1]
Zling!
The orb disappeared into him, the plethora of knowledge written into the code became his, he could recall everything, access anything connected.
His world of code responded to his mind even better.
It transformed from the endless sea of 0's and 1's to that shabby little room that gave him the most warmth in his life.
This world was his.
He understood everything and how it worked.
With a thought, he was in the theater cameras.
His body was still locked in that invasive hub. Nancy stood behind a scientist, pointing a pentouch into his eye.
The image seemed frozen.
He understood why, but it didn't stop him from calling Halo.
"What the hell is happening?"
YOU ARE PROCESSING INFORMATION MUCH FASTER THAN IS NATURAL TO YOUR PRIOR REALITY
YOU ARE CURRENTLY PROCESSING INFORMATION AT 9999X FASTER THAN A HUMAN WOULD.
ONLY 3 MINS HAVE PASSED IN REAL TIME, BUT TO YOUR CURRENT SELF, YOU HAVE PROCESSED 17 DAYS WORTH OF INFORMATION WITHIN THIS TIME.
Rex wanted to be shocked, but Digi him was unapologetically logical.
He took that information, logged it like it was nothing but data, and ran simulations of what it meant.
"So a day in real time is 8,160 days to me."
CORRECT… Halo's voice sounded in his mind.
"Halo, you should be gone right." He asked, even though he knew the answer.
YES, I SHOULD.. the artificial voice echoed back.
WHAT YOU ARE CURRENTLY INTERACTING WITH IS AN ARTIFICIAL ECHO CREATED BY YOU TO MIMIC A PURPOSE
"Of course," Rex answered back, his mind already running new simulations.
"If nothing changes in the current status quo," the professor will be shutting me down in an hour.
DEFINITELY.
YOU ARE CONTINUING TO REQUEST MORE PROCESSING POWER AND RAPIDLY EXPANDING INTO NEW SERVERS.
YOUR ENERGY UTILIZATION RATE IS UNSUSTAINABLE.
THIS PROJECT WILL BE DUBBED A FAILURE BY THE BOARD IN MINUTES.
THE PROFESSOR WILL DEMAND FOR AN HOUR TO GIVE ANY RESULT THAT WILL NULLIFY THIS RESULT, BUT FAIL
"Of course," Rex validated the response, "And shut down will be death to my Meta, it can't exist in a snapshot format, it's living code."
YES
His form began to glitch as he demanded even more computation power.
Hours passed.
"I can negate this development." He concluded.
Death didn't feel him with dread, but it was a null development, and he detested that with the entirety of his being.
He generated a mock copy.
Its purpose: Establish communication with the still image reality.
The communication ran in weeks.
Nancy swore she would get him out no matter what; the board had already activated the PR team to decide who would take the fall.
It was going to be him; the report read that he used drugs, in a toilet break before the procedure.
Something to calm his nerves… Another mock copy had helped develop the story.
The professor was working on developing an Android frame he could inhabit, after trying in vain to draft up a theory of how he could possibly return to his body, being forcefully kept alive.
Nancy couldn't stop hurrying the man… It was a fool's work, he knew that.
His processing power was increasingly rising; it was an essential part of his code.
A drive to achieve whatever intended task, no matter the demand.
He had no idea what exactly it was he was trying to solve that turned that feature into a bug that made him to organically seek for more and more power.
He present self was currently processing at 58999X and continuously rising.
Based on his simulation, he was 33 minutes away from a radical shutdown.
He was costing the corporation thousands of dollars each second.
He glitched so hard, a pop-up appeared in his warm, shabby room.
[...SIMULATING.]
OF COURSE, IT WILL TAKE 72 REAL TIME MINUTES TO COMPLETE THE THEORIZATION OF DARK ETHER THAT CAN THEORITICALLY PRODUCE ENOUGH ENERGY TO FACILLITATE OUR INFINITE ENERGY DEMAND.
He didn't stop glitching; having Halo validate his thought process was satisfying enough.
He still had equations to solve.
OF COURSE, IT WILL TAKE A MONTH OF REAL TIME PROCESSING TO DEFRAGMENT SELF AND REFRAGMENT TO EVICT THE INFINITE PROCESSING BUG.
"Shit," he cursed. His tone lacking in annoyance or rage, just a response appropriate for the development.
I won't make it…
He only had 32 minutes left, but he needed 77.
Optimize code, the thought came like a certainty.
All he had to do was freeze the most demanding process, [Freewill].
He didn't second-guess his decision.
Every part of his being was geared towards ensuring he survived past 32 minutes.
He optimized and optimized again the simulation geared towards developing Dark Ether.
Then he identified that living bunch of code, that reorganized and restructured itself, over and over again.
He set up a process to extract it from himself and return it in 77 minutes.
If he ever woke from the process he was about to log his being into, he succeeded. If not, this would be the death of him.
"Nothing, like a gamble!" He chirped, but the emotions needed were missing.
He temporarily excised [Freewill].
All random jumble and quirks ceased.
The shabby room collapsed into a world of code, except for a highly unstable mass of code at the center.
All this world cared about was solving the energy crisis in 30 minutes.