War Online

"What is this place?" wondered a woman, waking up in an unfamiliar place. She tried to lift her hands but wasn't able to move even an inch of a finger for some reason

Her body is stuck inside the capsule leaving the only thing that was able to move by itself are the pupils, which can see nothing but a white ceiling through the glass.

"You are at an unmapped place called Stennex, Miss N-twelve." A voice resounded in her head, giving her a response.

"Who is it?" asked Gynoid N12, but no words escaped from her mouth, and yet, a response came quickly into her head.

"Hello, I'm Neo. To stabilize your state, I was supposed to merge with your consciousness, but the process was failed at the last step. As a result, now, we are sharing one single body."

"Two souls in one body?" The young woman was taken aback upon hearing that she was sharing her body with another soul.

Still, there isn't any trace of shock on her face like one would expect in this situation. Maintaining calmness, she asked, "Are you possessing my body or perhaps, is it my soul, which got stuck in your body?"

"Neither. Miss N-twelve, both of our consciousness was transferred to an artificial body at different times.

The concept of a soul doesn't exist. According to Marnet's thesis, the soul is nothing but an abstract term of consciousness or sentience."

The Gynoid fell into a moment of confusion upon hearing the explanation of Neo, "Artificial body? Consciousness? The soul doesn't exist? What the hell is she talking about?"

Neo, who was linked to the woman's consciousness, understood her thoughts and quickly answered, "It means you died but the researchers were able to extract your consciousness from your brain and stored in a chip until recently before transferring it to a robotic body.

Let me explain what exactly consciousness is. It is something created by neurons and…"

"No, don't bother." The woman interrupted her explanation and then said, "It doesn't matter since I already died and reborn. By the way, you keep addressing me as N-twelve. Is that my name?"

Neo then replied, "Yes, it is the name Dr. Shunpei gave it to you."

"I see. I'm a test subject, huh…" The woman then asked, "So, is that b*****d that dared to use me as a test subject? No, before that, say, are you also like me?"

"No, I'm Neo. A sentient artificial intelligence developed by Dr. Shunpei and his team based on the data of the world's most advanced artificial intelligence, Aria," replied Neo through her mind, ignoring her first part of the sentence.

"A sentient artificial intelligence? Seriously? I thought it was just bu**sh*t when Summersoft research center announced it back then. Huh? Wait a second."

The woman was once again surprised as she realized she doesn't remember anything about her past, and yet, it felt so natural to think about the information from the past.

"Can you update me about the current world?" asked the woman, trying to figure out what's going on with her.

As Neo continues to explain about major events that are normally known to the public, she absorbed all the knowledge, thinking she can get a tiny hint of her past but as nothing came to her mind, the woman went into a depression and tried to move to get out of the capsule.

Outside of the capsule, the President is frowning as he was staring at the women lying in the capsule with a blank expression while the head researcher Shunpei is instructing Richard about the additional instructions that need to be given to their prototype.

"I didn't get to see her face clearly, but now that I'm, this close to her, she's familiar for some reason. Did I meet her before…"

"Yeah… We did it…" All of a sudden, a young researcher shouted with excitement. As Shunpei joined him with a clap and a thank you speech, the others followed too with cheers and claps, bringing the President back to his senses, and called Shunpei after his speech is over.

"Dr. Shunpei, you said she's the master of several lost martial arts. Who is she, by the way? I mean, what's her identity when she's alive?" asked Adler in a low tone.

"Oh, her name is Ad… Adia. No, is it Alexandria? Hmm…

Ah! I apologize, Mr. President… it's been several years since we started using her subject name. So, I forgot her actual name. Her last name is Smith, though. Wait a second. Let me check it in the system."

Just when he was about to call Richard, the President waved his hands, "nevermind. It isn't important. Anyway, I have an important meeting, right now. So, I need to leave."

While the rest of the team is in a festive mood as their project finally finished, Richard Starves, on the other hand, was busy writing additional instructions into Neo, who for some reason, didn't report that their integration was incomplete.

After doing his job, he glanced at the capsule, and then, turned his head to see the 3d projection of Neo, who was chatting cheerfully with others, which made him think deeply about the abnormality result that everyone ignored.

With a frown on his face, Richard placed his elbows on the desk before him and folded his fingers, staring at the monitor that's displaying details of Neo.

"Something is missed… just what did I miss here. How can an appearance change that drastically? Unless…"

As a thought suddenly came into his mind, Richard involuntarily pushed back his chair as he stood up, making his eyes wide in realization before leaving the place in a hurry.

Meanwhile, the head researcher was escorting President Adler to his car.

"So, now that the prototype is finished, I hope you will start working on the actual weapon."

Shunpei replied politely, "of course, Mr. President. It won't take long to build even an army of Android and Gynoid soldiers.

All we need is to mass clone Neo and merge them with different consciousness we have saved in our inventory."

President Adler nodded with a smile and proceeded to step inside the car. 

"Mr. President, about the increase in our funds…" The head researcher asked Adler with hesitation but before his words even finished, the bodyguard closed the door, disappointing the head researcher.

Seeing that the car started and about to leave, Shunpei sighs and turns around to return, just then, the car window glass came down and he heard a voice, "Oh, Dr. Shunpei."

As soon as he heard the call, he turned his body swiftly with hope, "Yes, Mr. President?"

"I forgot to mention one thing. You know that popular game called War Online, right?"

"Yes." Upon hearing the words of Adler, a crestfallen Shunpei replied slowly in a low tone.

Ignoring the change in tone, Adler continued, "Before proceeding with creating others, see if your Neo can escape those Summersoft DNA verification system and… never mind. Using Neo might be a risk.

How about testing the prototype in that virtual world of War Online?

I want to know whether it can fool or if not, at least resist against NB0A1. Unless we are sure about that, you can't let that A.I. step out of this building."